Chapter 285 284. Dribbling over McGrady and scoring the crucial goal!

The Rockets sent out a combination of Jeff McGinnis, McGrady, Battier, Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes.

The Bobcats did not make any substitutions. They only played four rounds and played three positional attacks very beautifully. Carlisle would definitely not make any substitutions, but he had a strange expression on his face when he saw the opponent's replacement lineup.

After the timeout, the Rockets attacked first.

Veteran McGinnis held the ball and played against Felton, then he broke into close range and attracted Millsap's defense, then he made a ground pass, and Landry went into the three-second zone and made a layup!
11 to 12, the Rockets stopped bleeding. With McGinnis on the court, McGrady's pressure in attacking with the ball was much less.

This season, McGrady can play 39 minutes per game, which is inseparable from the fact that he has several decent teammates on the back line. McGinnis is a very effective low-cost signing for the Rockets this summer.

McGinnis is a member of the 96 golden generation. He is a technically proficient player with good strength. He once averaged 14 points and 6 assists per game in a season, and got a 5-year, $1800 million contract. He also maintained an excellent performance after the age of 30. In the 03-04 and 04-05 seasons, he passed the ball to James on the Cavaliers, averaging 11 points and 6 assists per game in two years... But the bad habits he developed in the slums since he was a child, where he could not survive without stealing, ruined his career.

In the 04-05 season, McGinnis stole a laptop computer worth 1500 US dollars from his teammate and was caught. James showed his "magnanimity as a star player" and gave each player in the team a top-of-the-line computer. KING, who was only a sophomore at the time, was praised for his broad vision... Then in the summer of 05, McGinnis was given away to the Nets by the Cavaliers for free. He still couldn't change his bad habits after arriving at the Nets. Kidd was not going to do anything to save face, so he led the team to isolate him, and his playing time was halved, his performance plummeted, and he only got 40 appearances in two years.

After his five-year contract expired this summer, the Rockets signed him with a partially guaranteed minimum salary of only $5. He can decide whether to convert it into a guaranteed contract before January. After having stable playing opportunities in the Rockets, McGinnis averaged 22 points and 1 assists in 11 minutes per game, making him a good choice for the third point guard or third shooting guard.

Attack and defense changed, just when Thibodeau was looking forward to blocking the opponent's outside pass tactics, Okafor went straight to the low post, received Felton's lob and played against Hayes, turned around and hit a hook shot...

Thibodeau: ??? Why don’t you play team offense? ? ?
Carlisle: Our Jack has a really good eye!

Just now, when the players returned to the bench to drink water during the timeout, Carlisle asked Zhang Yang how he thought the other side would adjust.

This is the basic practice of being a head coach, actively communicating with the star players or tactical core. Of course, except for a few teams, the head coaches of most teams will not blindly adopt the opinions of the players. The opinions of the players are for reference only.

Zhang Yang usually doesn't give clear opinions, he just helps analyze the situation, but this time he gave a direct guess - the opponent will replace the mobile inside players and tall outside players.

Carlisle felt it was ridiculous to hear this speculation. Rim protection + outside rotation defense are the basis for the Rockets to maintain their Western Conference playoff level this season. Diop averaged 23 minutes per game, 15 minutes of which were concentrated in the first half, and David Wesley averaged 27 minutes per game, two-thirds of which were concentrated in the first half. They stretched the defense to the limit and consumed the opponent's physical strength and touch. The two only played in the last crucial moment in the second half... How could the opponent give up the foundation of their existence?

Based on his understanding of Xiao Fan’s coaching style, the opponent should continue to consume energy and persevere.

Carlisle has a high opinion of Thibodeau. In his opinion, as long as the Rockets can make the playoffs, Thibodeau will definitely be the best coach.

When Carlyle raised the question, Zhang Yang replied: "Some doctors have good medical skills, but they can only treat headaches and foot pains."

This sentence prompted Carlisle to mention when emphasizing the tactical details later, "If the opponent replaces Wesley and Diop, Raymond and Emeka will play alone."

Although Carlisle felt that Zhang Yang's words made sense, he only mentioned it to be on the safe side. He didn't expect that Zhang Yang was right!

...

Before the official timeout, the Bobcats relied on team offense to score 7 to 2. After the official timeout, relying on Felton's singles against McGinnis and Okafor's singles against Hayes or Landry, the Bobcats scored another 4 points in more than 9 minutes.

看起来似乎不是很高效，但对手是每场比赛只让对手拿到90分出头的火箭队！最关键的是这4分多钟时间火箭队只拿到6分，打到首节11分05秒，比分来到21比15，山猫队领先优势扩大到6分！
In the last 50 seconds, McGrady made a three-pointer from the outside to narrow the gap to 3 points, but Rondo then took advantage of Diop, who came on the court again at the end of the quarter, and made a layup to widen the gap to 5 points again.

On the Rockets' final attack, Mike James, who came on as a substitute, wasted time and passed the ball to McGrady with 8 seconds left. His intention was too obvious and Rondo caught the ball!
The ball escaped the control of Rondo and Mike James, and both of them rushed towards the ball...the other one was one step faster!
The moment Rondo reached out to grab the ball, Zhang Yang rushed forward, grabbed the ball, and launched a counterattack!
Zhang Yang rushed to the opposite free throw line, grabbed the ball, took two steps, jumped, raised the ball with both hands, and pulled it to the left side of the basket when dunking, avoiding the block of McGrady who was chasing him, and slammed the ball into the basket with both hands!
With McGrady missing three-pointers throughout the game, the Bobcats led the Rockets 25-18 at the end of the first quarter!
Entering the intermission, Carlisle looked at the 7-point difference...

He knew before the game that this would be a difficult one. He executed the tactics effectively and scored 7 to 2 to reverse the score. Even into the official timeout, he did not relax and was ready for a tug of war.

This tactic of using high positions to assist and pass the ball from both wings to create opportunities in the middle is effective, but it is based on long-range shots. As the game progresses, the accuracy will definitely decline due to the consumption of confrontation and physical strength.

The Rockets' rim protection + outside rotation defense this season is extremely strong. As long as they stick to that kind of defense, Carlisle really has no good solution. After all, the new tactics have just begun to be officially played, and there are only so many routines and arrangements, and most of the changes come from the players' autonomous responses on the court.

I didn’t expect the opponent to make a few random adjustments... In any case, Carlisle’s pressure dropped suddenly.

Carlisle couldn't suppress the smile on his face, while Thibodeau's was about to crack as he made another mistake in his on-the-spot response!

Thibodeau has worked in the NBA for 15 years. He first worked as an editor for the Knicks in 92. In 94, his professional ability was noticed by the fortune teller, who promoted him to be an intern assistant coach. He was considered to be a student of the fortune teller, but he only worked as an assistant coach under the fortune teller for one year. In 1, the fortune teller jumped to the Heat. The person who actually coached him was his senior brother Jeff Van Gundy.

His coaching style can be said to be exactly the same as Jeff Van Gundy's.

For example, relying on mature players. David Wesley played very well in the Rockets in the 05-06 season. He was accurate in three-pointers, had strong defense, and was a steady passer. He averaged 9.9 points per game and had the best three-point performance on the team. He averaged 36.5 three-pointers per game with a hit rate of 1.4%. However, in the summer of 06, the Rockets were unwilling to pay even a one-year base salary in order to avoid taxes. In the end, David Wesley could only go to the Cavaliers for a year with almost no opportunity to perform. This summer, he returned to his hometown of San Antonio to prepare for retirement.

After Thibodeau became the head coach, he personally went to San Antonio to bring back the veteran because he was easy to use... David Wesley did not disappoint his expectations. After a year of rest, at the age of 37, he averaged 27 minutes per game, scored 7 points, 4.5 assists and 1.5 steals, with a 35% three-point shooting percentage and 1.2 three-pointers per game, and he is still strong as he gets older.

But Thibodeau's coaching philosophy is very different from that of his senior, Davis. Davis is well-known for "loving" his star players and is willing to reduce the playing time of players with poor physical fitness and potential injuries. For example, last season McGrady's playing time dropped sharply to a new low since he started, averaging 35 minutes per game; Yao Ming has never had a season with an average playing time of 35 minutes under Davis.

Thibodeau is different. As soon as he came on, McGrady averaged 39 minutes per game, returning to the playing time during his time with the Magic. This is not like his senior, but more like his teacher Pat Riley, who only coached him for one year.

In addition to this, Thibodeau is very different from Xiao Fan in one aspect. Xiao Fan rarely responds to situations on the spot or dares not respond, but Thibodeau is different. I don't know if it is because he has seen his senior Xiao Fan suffer a major reversal in the playoffs many times because he dared not respond, but when he encounters problems, he always actively uses his brain to make adjustments.

It's just that sometimes, it's better not to use my brain...

...

In the second quarter, Carlisle replaced Zhang Yang for rest, Felton continued to rest, Okafor was also replaced, and Rondo, Alan Anderson, Mike Miller, Hill and Muhammad were sent out.

The team offense revolved around Mike Miller's long shot, Rondo broke through and passed the ball, Hill responded, Muhammad set the screen, and Alan Anderson cut into the basket or received the shot from the sideline.

Although both offenses revolve around mid-range and three-point shots by the shooter, the playing style is completely different from the tactics centered on Zhang Yang. The core of this tactic is Rondo's breakthrough and passing.

The second lineup of Mike Miller, Rondo and Hill played for half a quarter. During this period, Felton replaced Alan Anderson and Perkins replaced Muhammad only when the second quarter was more than 3 minutes into the game to enhance wing shooting and rim protection. In this half quarter, the Bobcats played...averagely and only scored 9 points.

In the second quarter, Thibodeau switched back to his regular style of play, stopped thinking, followed his senior's route, and played hard and did a good job of defense.

But Carlisle did not rush to make adjustments just because he lost the advantage. He let the three core players rest when it was time.

Compared with the tense tug-of-war, with a lead of more than 5 points, the Bobcats not only have a great psychological advantage, but also have more room for trial and error when the coaching staff makes lineup adjustments and tactical arrangements and the players respond independently on the court.

See, by maintaining the continuity of the lineup, although the Bobcats did not play well on offense, their performance on the defensive end was acceptable, allowing the Rockets to score only 6 points in more than 12 minutes, and this was achieved when Zhang Yang and Okafor were not on the court.

Although the Bobcats lost 3 points in the first half, they still led the Rockets by 34 points at 30 to 4 when the official timeout came. After the official timeout, Zhang Yang and Okafor, who came back, completed two inside cooperations. First, Okafor faced the basket at close range to attract the defense and then passed the ball to Zhang Yang, who made a layup. Then Okafor passed the ball to Zhang Yang, who passed the ball to the outside line from the left side. Millsap received the ball and made a mid-range shot half a step outside the free throw line.

The Bobcats beat the Rockets 4-0, and the score was 38-30, with the difference widening to 8 points. The Rockets fought for half a quarter to narrow the gap to 3 points, but after the timeout, Zhang Yang and Okafor narrowed the gap with their personal abilities and widened the gap by 1 point!
In the remaining time of the first half, the Bobcats scored 10 points, while the Rockets only scored 8 points.

At the end of the first half, the score was 48 to 38. The Bobcats scored 23 to 20 in the second quarter, extending their lead to 10 points!
In the third quarter, the two teams fought back and forth in the first half...both teams were very strong.

Under the Rockets' high-intensity defense, the Bobcats felt cold after the halftime break.

But the Rockets were not much better. Thibodeau tried all of McGrady's four guard partners, David Wesley, Mike James, McGinnis and Alston, but none of them made the shot.

两队在前半节打出了6比7的比分，第三节过半，山猫队以54比45领先火箭队9分！
After the official timeout, McGrady took the lead, first making a high-post pull-up shot, which also caused the defending Hill to foul. Then David Wesley completed a steal, counterattacked and passed the ball back, McGrady followed up in the middle, received the ball and made a layup.

50 to 54, McGrady scored 5 points in a row to narrow the gap to 4 points!
The score difference was narrowed quickly, and it was the Bobcats' turn to attack. Zhang Yang attacked with the ball at the top of the arc, with Hill's screen, and after advancing to the free throw line, he was planning to make a quick stop and shoot, but when he saw the opportunity, his quick stop action of grabbing the ball turned into a European step!
Landry extended his defense too far when he came out for the double team attack!
Zhang Yang took a big step past Landry and came one step outside the reasonable collision zone. Diop had to move upwards. Zhang Yang changed direction in the second step and came to the right side of the basket, turned around and shot... and it hit!
As the ball went in, the referee blew the whistle and Landry fouled Zhang Yang's shot!

The purpose of Zhang Yang's second step of the European step was very clear, which was to avoid Diop's attack on the frame. Landry rushed up to make up for the defense, but the speed of Zhang Yang's second step was almost the same as the first step.

When Landry rushed to Zhang Yang's side, Zhang Yang had already jumped up and raised the ball. He tried to brake, but still rubbed Zhang Yang when Zhang Yang threw the ball and was called for a foul.

Landry is better at one-on-one defense than Yi Jianlian. His draft template is "a more athletic version of Boozer", with upper arms as thick as his neck, and more courageous in defensive confrontations.

But Landry's sense of position on defense is much worse than Yi Jianlian's. He has no team awareness, and when he is helping with defense, he doesn't think about how to cooperate with his teammates, but wants to defend by himself. As for the effect, he always misses people, and because he is too aggressive in confrontation, he is always prone to fouls.

Zhang Yang scored the free throw amid the cheers of the fans.

57 to 50, the score difference was widened to 7 points again!
When the Rockets attacked, McGrady leaned over to control the ball from the outside. His expression was stern and his eyes were no longer hazy but extremely sharp. The pressure that he could only rely on at the critical moment was visible to the naked eye.

Zhang Yang, who was standing in front of McGrady, was extremely excited. When the close-up shot was given to Zhang Yang's face, the commentator of the imperial TV station described him as having "light in his eyes".

McGrady played against Zhang Yang, changed direction, started, accelerated... The first three steps were still sharp! He stopped suddenly, turned around and faced the basket, jumped, and shot a mid-range shot... Hit!
It was another out-of-rhythm pull-up jump shot that just avoided Zhang Yang's defense. If McGrady had shot with the rhythm, Zhang Yang or Hill who came up from the wing might have interfered.

McGrady scored 7 points in a row, narrowing the gap to 5 points again!
In the next few rounds, Zhang Yang and McGrady took charge of the offense for their respective teams. At this time, they were the only two players on both teams who could guarantee scoring efficiency.

In this one-on-one situation, McGrady had the upper hand. With more than a minute left in the third quarter, McGrady made a long two-pointer and led the team to catch up to 1 to 60. But just when the team was about to overtake the score, Zhang Yang faced Battier's interference and made a long two-pointer in a single play, widening the gap to 62 points.

Battier was so defensive that he wanted to curse. This guy is too good at shooting! As long as there is a little gap, he can throw the ball out, and the harder he is, the braver he is!

Zhang Yang has better physical strength than McGrady, and he had more rest time than McGrady tonight. McGrady only rested for 6 minutes in the first three quarters. Zhang Yang only played for half a quarter in the second quarter and more than 4 minutes in the third quarter, and rested for nearly 11 minutes.

It was the Rockets' turn to attack again. McGrady continued to play one-on-one against Zhang Yang. At this time, he was completely supported by his belief - if he made this shot, the point difference would be narrowed to 1 goal and he would overtake the opponent. He would rest for half a quarter in the final quarter and then come back to win the game.

McGrady faked a breakthrough and stepped back to the three-point line, but failed to fool Zhang Yang!

Zhang Yang saw that McGrady could no longer break through, so he didn't fall for it at all and stayed firmly in front of McGrady!
McGrady faced interference from Zhang Yang and took a pull-up three-point shot... it missed!
Rondo grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a counterattack... Although the counterattack was not successful, it caused a dislocation.

Zhang Yang received the ball at the top of the arc, and the one defending him was McGrady!
McGrady: Defend it! Defend this ball. The score difference is just two goals away from tying or overtaking. There is still room for the final quarter!
When McGrady was adjusting his expectations and cheering himself up, he saw Zhang Yang start to pull the ball up…

McGrady is very familiar with this move - the butterfly step of the answer!
In the early 21st century, who competed with Iverson the longest? It was not Kobe or Carter, but McGrady.

During the four years that McGrady was with the Magic, his biggest competitor was Iverson. The two of them each won the scoring title once in a row. They were the most dazzling scorers in the NBA in those years.

After Zhang Yang pulled the ball twice, he found the rhythm and took a big step to the right.

At this time, McGrady, who was extremely tired and had consumed a lot of physical strength, subconsciously tried to move to the left to block Zhang Yang's advance route... Zhang Yang quickly dribbled the ball and pulled it back to the left.

McGrady quickly braked and moved back to the right... His upper body moved back, but his waist was still moving to the left... "Bang"... McGrady fell sideways to the ground!
Zhang Yang returned to the top of the arc, glanced at McGrady, jumped, and shot a three-pointer from the top of the arc... and it went in!
The continuous long pulls have found the rhythm of force and the shooting rhythm is also very good. The "large gap" shooting is complete with force!
The fans at the scene cheered wildly at the top of their lungs. Seeing Zhang Yang being suppressed by McGrady for several minutes, they were very upset... But the ups and downs of life are so exciting. At the last moment of the third quarter, Zhang Yang gave McGrady a fierce response!
This goal is not only one of the top five goals of the day or the top ten goals of the week, it will definitely be on the list of the best goals of the season! It may even become one of Zhang Yang's classic goals in his career!

McGrady slapped his teammates' hands away, got up, and looked at Zhang Yang who was celebrating excitedly with his teammates after retreating. He ran to the frontcourt to receive the ball, faced Zhang Yang's defense, and directly took a three-point shot... but missed.

Thibodeau saw McGrady getting too excited and covering his head in pain. There were only ten seconds left. He wanted to call a timeout to arrange a tactical coordination to see if he could reduce the gap to within 5 points. But when he saw McGrady running to the frontcourt with a ferocious look on his face, he thought McGrady would retaliate against Zhang Yang fiercely, but he didn't expect McGrady to shit a big shit!
In the last 8 seconds, the Bobcats failed to score. Zhang Yang broke through and was double-teamed and passed the ball to Hill. Hill missed the long -pointer and the third quarter ended.

麦迪第三节单节13分2助攻，官方暂停后的5分多钟时间拿到10分2助攻，以一己之力一度将分差缩小到两分。

But in the final moments, McGrady missed two three-pointers!
而前面8投3中只拿到8分的张杨，最后时刻连砍5分，单节10投5中、其中三分球4中2、加上3中3的罚球，单节得分也提升到了13分！
After three quarters, the Bobcats regained a 67-point lead with 60 to 7 and entered the intermission!
...

In the final quarter, the Rockets players showed tenacious resilience, fighting hard and trying to turn the game around.

The Rockets played quite well, relying on strong defense and active offense to continuously take the initiative, but no matter how hard they tried to defend or shoot, they were always just a little bit short. Whenever they narrowed the gap to 1 goal and could tie or surpass the score, Zhang Yang, Felton and Mike Miller would always step up and score a goal.

Zhang Yang's last three-pointer in the third quarter played a crucial role!
It was that one shot that gave the Bobcats some buffer space. For the Rockets, whose only strong scorer was McGrady, that shot was impossible to catch up with.

Then there is the way Thibodeau uses McGrady.

The other players of the Rockets not only played well on defense in the final quarter, but also played well on offense, scoring 18 points in a single quarter.

But McGrady, who scored 11 points in three quarters, including 8 points in the first quarter, 13 points in the second quarter, and 32 points in the third quarter, had a poor performance in the final quarter...

McGrady played for 30 minutes in the first three quarters, but because the score difference was as high as 7 points, he was unable to get a rest in the first half of the final quarter as he wished. He continued to play the entire final quarter. His teammates created opportunities for him to shoot key shots, but he only made 5 of 1 shots and scored 2 points...

For the Bobcats, Zhang Yang scored 6 points in the final quarter, Felton scored 4 points, Alan Anderson made a catch-and-shoot three-pointer, Hill made a layup, and Okafor made a tip-in...

At 11:21 p.m., Alston tried to make a four-point shot but failed to fool Felton, and missed all three shots... Okafor secured the defensive rebound, and the final whistle sounded as the last 3 seconds were used up.

张杨首节10分、第二节6分、第三节13分、末节6分……出场35分钟，30投12中，其中三分球11中4，加上9中7的罚球，拿到全场最高的35分！
McGrady scored 19 points in the first half, 3 points more than Zhang Yang. Although he started high and ended low in the third quarter, he ended up in a tie, but was hammered in the final quarter. He played for 42 minutes, made 29 of 12 shots, including 14 of 6 three-pointers, plus 6 of 4 free throws, and scored 34 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. He was not as good as Zhang Yang in scoring, iron level, and game... He was not as good as Zhang Yang!

84比80，山猫队4分险胜火箭队，以14胜1负结束首个比赛月！

(End of this chapter)