Facing such an opponent, Xu Xin had a headache.
He wants to lead the Rockets to the championship, and he is destined to face the Heat in the finals.
With the team's current configuration, they will be unable to fight back against the Heat.
Xu Xin is thinking about how to strengthen, whether to seize the Heat's Achilles' heel to strengthen the low-post ability of the inside, or try to match the Heat's forward and defensive line group and defeat the Heat in the Heat's way.
Xu Xin thought about it and decided to give priority to strengthening the front line.
The main reason is that the money is tight and there are too few valuable chips in hand.
Nowadays, the asking prices for insiders with independent offensive capabilities in the league are generally high, and the team must use Harden as the core of their tactics.
Harden is more suitable to be paired with a blue-collar insider who has excellent static talent, strong running and jumping ability, and is good at eating cakes.
Such players are not difficult to find in this day and age, and the asking price is not high.
Right now, the most important thing is to improve the team's defensive strength and shooting level on the outside. Players with both of these abilities are also difficult to find.
Xu Xin still needs time to analyze and evaluate.
But at least, the direction of strengthening has been determined.
On November 13, after the Rockets took a day off, they faced their first strong opponent this season, the defending champion Heat.
Harden and Jeremy Lin changed their usual playful smiles during pre-game warm-up training and looked very serious.
This set the tone for this game. The other Rockets players saw that the boss and the second player were so serious. They were very serious during the warm-up and did not dare to relax.
After the warm-up, the players returned to the locker room to take a short rest. Listening to McHale's passionate speech, the team united as one and vowed to defend the home court and stop the defending champion.
Domestic platforms broadcast this focus battle live.
"Good morning, viewers, welcome to watch the live broadcast of the game, the Rockets vs. the Heat at home."
"I'm Yang Jian."
"Today we also invited the famous basketball commentator, Director Zhang Weiping, to watch the game with us."
Yang Jian's oral broadcast is very professional.
"Hello, viewers, my name is Zhang Weiping."
"Director Zhang, is there anything you want to share with us about this game?"
Yang Jian was the first to ask.
“Both teams, the Rockets and Heat, are in particularly good shape this season.
The Heat are not surprising. After all, as the defending champion, the basics are there, and they have further strengthened in the offseason. Their strength on paper is there. "
“The real surprise was the Rockets, who almost no one thought of before the season started.
The core of the team is James Harden, the former Thunder three-man who has never proven his ability to lead the team on his own, and Jeremy Lin, the undrafted player who had a brief breakout in New York last season. "
"Unexpectedly, after playing hard, everyone suddenly discovered that Harden's personal ability had been buried.
Jeremy Lin also continued to improve his technical level in the summer. As the second leader of the young team, his performance is impeccable. "
Zhang Weiping talked eloquently and introduced the current situation of the two teams half a month before the start of the season.
"Yes, the Rockets' performance this season is very surprising. This team seems to be not far away from returning to the playoffs, and may even be able to complete it this season."
Yang Jian added, continuing to ask questions to start the next topic.
"Guide, for this game, do you think the Rockets can successfully stop the Heat's Big Three?"
"This is difficult, we can see that although both teams have six consecutive victories.
However, the opponents the Rockets encountered in the six games were of average strength, and three of the six games they faced were teams at the bottom of the league.
Although the opponents in the other three games are strong teams at the playoff level, they are not super strong teams.
The Rockets' style of play is also relatively restrained, and they are unable to solve Harden and Patterson's pick-and-roll. "
"But the Heat's six-game winning streak includes strong teams with top stars like the Knicks and Nets. They have won every game, and none of them left the game in suspense until the last five minutes of the game."
"Comparing the two teams, the Heat are different from the Hawks, Nuggets, and Grizzlies in that they have a very rich reserve of defensive resources on the wings.
Wade, Battier, and James can effectively limit Harden's offense, coupled with Bosh's sweeping ability in the interior.
Even if Harden breaks through the first line of defense, facing the inside guarded by Bosh, his finishing will be greatly interfered with. "
"What are the Heat most afraid of? They are most afraid of big players with large tonnage and the ability to attack independently.
After all, whether it is Bosh, Anderson, Haslem, or Joel Anthony in the Heat, they will all be unable to cope with such a level of insiders. After all, their physical conditions are here.
But there is no such insider in the Rockets lineup. "
“The team’s starting center Asik has some advantages in confrontation, but he does not have the ability to attack independently.
They can only rely on the scramble for offensive rebounds to create second offensive opportunities, as well as the feeding of Harden and Jeremy Lin. These pose no threat to the Heat. "
“On the defensive end, Asik’s ability to protect the frame is also significantly weaker than that of Hibbert and Chandler.
When James and Wade are out of action, it will be easier for them to attack the inside.
Especially this season, Heat coach Spoelstra arranged for Bosh to be pulled to the outside, clearing one side for James or Wade to post up in the low post.
Two people often have physical advantages when facing defenders in the same position. This simpler and more efficient scoring method makes the Heat's relatively weak positional offense more efficient."
"It's too difficult for the Rockets to succeed in this game."
"Okay, thanks to Director Zhang for sharing, the picture will be forwarded."
In the arena, McHale was still holding the players and talking about tactical arrangements, which was not common in previous games.
With murderous eyes in their eyes, Harden and Jeremy Lin walked to the technical stage and performed their classic pre-game moves.
The game is about to begin.
"The starting lineups for both sides are announced."
"The Heat changed their starting lineup and replaced Haslem, who had been starting in the previous few games. They chose Battier to start at the 4th position and Bosh at the 5th."
"No. 1, 2, and 3 remain unchanged, it's still Chalmers, Wade and James."
"The Rockets' starting lineup remains unchanged, Jeremy Lin, Harden, Morris, Patterson, and Asik."
Yang Jian introduced the starting five players from both sides.
"Taking Battier is to deal with the Rockets' pick-and-roll at positions 2 and 4.
Battier will not be targeted when facing Harden after the pick-and-roll switch. The Heat do not need to restrict Harden through assisting defense in each round.
This will greatly reduce the opportunities for other Rockets players to get open shots. It seems that Coach Spoelstra is well prepared. "
At the beginning of the game, Xu Xin once again used the "Hot Condition" skill card that he had prepared for a long time on Patterson.
Asik failed to compete with Bosh for the jump ball. Bosh's physical condition is at the best stage of his career.
Although his data has further declined, this is because he chose to sacrifice his offensive role in order to win for the team and instead devoted more energy to defense.
His big delay when defending pick-and-rolls, his assisting defense sweeping from the three-second zone to the three-point line, and his blocking and protection of defensive rebounds made the Heat's transition offense more smooth and efficient.
