"Uh-huh!"
Three-point hit, 3:6.
"What a good shot. It was a very reasonable shot. Why do I say that? The Heat's defense is extremely oppressive, the rotation speed is extremely fast, and the defense rate is extremely high.
If you use regular passing coordination to find the most suitable shot opportunity, it will be difficult to work. Instead, it will give the Heat more opportunities to steal and counterattack.
With the state of James, Wade and others, switching offenses is almost equal to giving away points. "
"In this case, it is better to simplify the offense and use Harden's personal ability to solve the problem. Only if Harden opens up this point, can other Rockets players have a chance."
Zhang Weiping commented.
The Heat had the ball and still chose to clear one side for James to hit in the back.
Morris Jr. gave enough resistance this time. James hit twice with his back but didn't push it away. He lowered his center of gravity and turned to the baseline.
Morris Jr. failed to block the baseline. Seeing that James was about to complete a layup, his arms suddenly exerted force, grabbed James' layup hand, and pulled him out of the air.
The referee's whistle sounded and there was a defensive foul.
After landing, James shook off his right arm that was being pulled, shook his head at little Morris, and was a little angry:
"Play dirty, right? You will be sent off before halftime, and I will let you watch from the sidelines how your team is defeated miserably."
Morris is also a ruthless person, not afraid of James' harsh words at all, and counterattacked:
"Really? You make the free throw first and then talk about it."
Sure enough, James made one of two free throws and the score came to 3:7.
When the Rockets attacked, Harden used the same method, facing Battier after taking advantage of the screen, and continued to shoot three-pointers. This time, Battier predicted it.
The speed of stepping forward to interfere was faster, and his right hand was firmly blocked in front of Harden's eyes.
"Bang", striking iron.
Bosh and Asik were entangled under the basket, and James wanted to collect the rebound and push for a counterattack.
Unexpectedly, Morris suddenly burst out from the side, leaped high to grab the offensive rebound, pulled a green onion from the dry land, and succeeded in a dunk.
5:7.
When retreating, he glanced at James intentionally or unintentionally, his eyes full of disdain.
This succeeded in irritating James, who beat Morris one-on-one for three consecutive rounds, and caused Morris a foul in the fourth round.
Not even halfway through the first quarter, Morris received two fouls and was forced to leave the game.
"Little Morris plays with great passion, but sometimes he makes some small moves to provoke opponents, which is undoubtedly a double-edged sword for the team."
"More than half of the Heat's mini-climax was caused by Morris. What kind of strength is James? Why did you say you had nothing to do to mess with him?"
Zhang Weiping said helplessly.
The Rockets relied on Harden's personal ability and the team's active scramble for offensive rebounds to hold on to the score. However, with Morris off the court, the team's defensive arrangement was disrupted.
Parsons' physical confrontation is not at the same level as James's. In addition, James was on full fire in the first quarter of the game. The Rockets could only restrict James through a lot of help defense.
This gives the Heat many opportunities for outside shooters.
The defense was unable to guard against it, and the offense was mainly driven by Harden alone. Harden was a little out of breath on the court, and his consumption was too great.
Almost every ball requires him to defuse the bomb. Wade, Battier, and James take turns to defend him. Until now, he has not had an easy chance to score.
As Harden's physical strength declined, the rest of the Rockets failed to step up, and the score gradually widened.
At the end of the first quarter, the Rockets trailed by 13 points at 19:32.
Even if Harden played the entire first quarter, it would be useless for the entire Rockets team to use their lives. The pick-and-roll tactics they are proud of were useless under the Heat's strategy of switching defenses whenever they were on the screen.
In the box, Xu Xin was quite helpless about this. The reason was that the team lacked stable scoring points other than Harden when fighting tough battles.
Jeremy Lin is good, but his level is not yet up to the point where he can forcefully solve the game when facing an opponent of the Heat's caliber.
He is more suitable to serve as the second-in-command of a mid-tier team in the league, or to play the role of a super sixth man on a championship team.
In addition, the current Harden is not qualified to play the role of the boss of the championship team, and he is far from reaching his peak.
Last season, he was not skilled enough in controlling movement, nor did he develop the skill package for step-back shooting, and his offensive methods were still very monotonous.
There are only three tricks, a counterattack European step layup, a three-pointer or a sudden-stop mid-range shot after going outside the three-point line, and a breakthrough to draw a foul.
In addition, Harden has almost no stable scoring methods in positional battles.
Although Xu Xin communicated with McHale, the latter arranged a lot of pick-and-roll tactics for Harden.
Harden has a strong learning ability and has incorporated positional pick-and-roll offense into his arsenal this season. This move is very effective when facing slow-moving big players.
But when facing a team with strong forward defensive resources like the Heat, Harden's lack of one-on-one hard-hit ability is undoubtedly revealed.
He still needs more time to hone his offense.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Heat lined up Wade, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis and Haslem.
In the first quarter of the game, Wade left the game early with 5 minutes left, just to dominate the game in the second quarter.
This is also the Heat's consistent style, ensuring that the team has at least one super offensive core within 48 minutes.
Of course, this is under the premise that the opponent can resist the beating and last the entire game.
On the Rockets' side, McHale also responded.
Jeremy Lin, Delfino, Parsons, Morris Jr. and Patterson.
The Rockets this season lack a third ball-handling point. Apart from Harden and Jeremy Lin, no one else on the team is qualified for this role.
Therefore, McHale also chose to stagger the playing time of the two players to ensure that at least one person is present and the Rockets' offense will not suddenly lose power.
The Rockets took the lead in attacking, and Jeremy Lin advanced to the frontcourt to Patterson, who was desperately demanding inside.
After Patterson got the ball, he pushed twice with his back, turned over and made a jump shot, 21:32.
This ball made Haslem, who was guarding him, stunned for a moment. He was in a trance, feeling like he was back in the team training and James was hitting him.
What's going on? Why would the young man across from me act like this? Didn't the scouting report say that he can only shoot three-pointers?
Haslem muttered in his mind.
In the Heat's offense, Wade chose to play Jeremy Lin in isolation at the top of the arc. After several attempts to break through, he found that Jeremy Lin's lateral speed was faster than he thought, and he was unable to pass Jeremy Lin.
There was not much offensive time left, and there was no time to call a pick-and-roll, so Wade chose a pull-up three-pointer.
"Bang!"
The basketball hit the basket, Patterson grabbed the rebound, and Jeremy Lin pushed for a counterattack.
Jeremy Lin came to the frontcourt at lightning speed and was surprised to find that all five players from the Heat retreated. Such a retreat speed was something he had never encountered in the past six games.
He could only slow down and wait for his teammates to fall into position.
Patterson ran from the backcourt, went straight into the paint, pushed Haslem away and continued to ask for the ball. After receiving the pass from Shu Hao, he repeated the action in the previous round, turned over and made a jumper.
23:32.
Haslem spread his hands helplessly. He tried his best to defend the ball, but there was a copycat version of James on the opposite side.
Wade came over and comforted his good brother:
"There's nothing wrong with the defense. If you continue to defend like this, he won't be able to score all the time."
Wade held the ball and asked Haslem to come up to cover. This time he did not choose to play alone.
It's not that he can't handle Jeremy Lin's defense, it's just that playing like this requires too much physical energy and is unwise.
