Seeing Lillard running over to respond, he hurriedly passed the ball, but in panic, the pass was too high. Even though Lillard jumped hard, he failed to catch the basketball.
Instead, Jeremy Lin caught him steadily as he was falling.
Jeremy Lin counterattacked, with an unobstructed view of the front, and Brother Hao dunked with one hand to add two more points.
10:2.
In the first two minutes, the Rockets beat them to a 10:2 climax. The atmosphere at home was a bit stagnant, and the noisy cheering gradually died down.
Stotts was helpless and called a timeout.
How is this the same script as the last game against the Rockets?
"Ade should not post up in the low post, play pick-and-roll with Lillard, or go deeper and play high, don't drop the ball."
Stotts is indeed an excellent head coach. He quickly saw the problem and made timely responses.
After the timeout, the Blazers' offense was initiated by Lillard this time.
Lillard directed his teammates to move, and Aldridge put on the screen.
Jeremy Lin was very afraid of Lillard's outside shooting and chose to "go over" (squeeze through the screen from the top line), which gave Lillard the opportunity to break through inside.
Facing Ariza who came to defend him, Lillard made a very realistic little prayer to Buddha. Ariza jumped up to block the ball, and only in the air did he realize that he had been tricked.
Lillard passed Ariza, faced Asik who was protecting the frame inside, chose a throw, and easily scored the ball, helping the team stop the decline.
10:4.
Jeremy Lin responded by initiating a pick-and-roll at positions 1 and 5. Lillard's pick-and-roll defense strategy was exactly the opposite of Jeremy Lin's.
He chose to let Jeremy Lin's shot go to prevent breakthroughs, so he used "go under" (bypass from the bottom line).
This is how he defended the Rockets' first offense, and Jeremy Lin made the shot.
But compared to shooting, Jeremy Lin's breakthrough is more lethal.
Sure enough, this time Jeremy Lin missed the shot and Hickson protected the defensive rebound.
After Lillard received the ball, he was ready to start the transition attack.
Looking up, he found that the four members of the Rockets team, except Asik, had already retreated and were ready to defend.
Seeing this, Lillard slowed down his tempo and was a little helpless. The Rockets' lineup without a traditional power forward was surprisingly effective defensively.
Xu Xin watched all this in the private room. He was not surprised. He was beaten by "Thick Eyebrow" in the last game. The main reason was that "Thick Eyebrow"'s movement speed and athletic ability were far superior to Aldridge.
Coupled with Parsons' lack of defensive experience in defending the interior, McHale did not specifically arrange double-team tactics.
But the Rockets are fully prepared for this game. It is not easy for Aldridge to score easily.
On the court, Lillard continued to play pick-and-roll with Ade this time, but failed to get past Ariza who was defending.
Facing Ariza in front of him and Jeremy Lin in pursuit, Lillard still chose to go it alone and shoot a drifting fadeaway jumper.
"Bang!"
The basketball missed the frame without any surprise.
This is where Lillard is immature. His personal offensive ability is one of the best among this rookie class, but as a point guard, his passing ability and overall view still have a lot of room for improvement.
Harden collected the rebound and looked for a chance to counterattack again.
Among the crowd, one could see Rockets No. 7 running in front at a glance. He made a long pass from the quarterback and accurately found Jeremy Lin who was about to leave.
Jeremy Lin caught the ball very comfortably and without any adjustments, he layup with his right hand and put the ball in.
12:4.
The Rockets once again launched a quick counterattack.
After the trade, the Rockets' style of play also changed a lot. Their counterattack speed gave the Blazers a headache.
Subsequently, Lillard missed another strong attack, and the Rockets counterattacked again with a fast break. This time, Parsons completed the dunk with both hands.
14:4.
Off the court, Stotts finally realized that he had just fallen into McHale's trap.
I originally wanted to take advantage of Aldridge's absolute strength at the beginning.
But I didn't expect that Ade's move of using his height and weight to hit the inside was well predicted by the Rockets. He quickly double-teamed Aldridge on the strong side after dropping the ball, forcing Aldridge to make two mistakes.
This move of the Rockets not only calculated Aldridge, but also calculated Stotts.
After all, the Trail Blazers have two offensive strengths. Ade's offense is not going well. It is conventional thinking to try another offensive strength-Lillard.
But the great thing about the Rockets is the ability of the forward players to switch defenses. Ariza can defend from position 1 to position 4. Although he was teased by Lillard once, his subsequent defense was very successful.
Lillard's offense also encountered great obstacles, and the Trail Blazers once again fell into a scoring drought. The Rockets seized the opportunity to counterattack twice, and the point difference reached double digits.
But the truth is that even if Aldridge can't score through a back attack, he is still the strongest point of the Blazers' offense.
His behind-the-back jumper and mid-range shot after the pick-and-roll are impossible for the Rockets to defend.
After thinking about this, Stotts quickly called timeout again and rearranged the arrangement.
After the timeout, the Trail Blazers handed the ball to Aldridge again, and Aldridge lived up to expectations, using his signature mid-range jumper to break the team's scoring drought.
But on the defensive end, Aldridge's weakness of slow speed was once again seized upon by the Rockets.
Although Ariza missed a three-pointer this time, the rebound bounced very far. Jeremy Lin collected the offensive rebound and once again gave it to Ariza who was left open.
This time Ariza seized the opportunity and hit a three-pointer.
17:6.
The Trail Blazers can still only open up the situation through Aldridge's singles, which is also impossible. In his rookie season, Lillard still struggled to single out the top players.
As for Matthews and Batum, their ability to attack independently is relatively weak, and they don't have much to do when facing Harden and Parsons.
Several opportunities were seized through reverse runs and air cuts, but Hickson inside had no shooting ability, which allowed Asik to sit firmly inside and protect the frame.
The few times Matthews and Batum cut in, they missed half of their close-range shots due to Asik's interference.
There are not many offensive methods, and the defensive end is even worse than the position, and the point difference gradually widens.
When it came to the transition period, the Blazers' weak bench continued to lose points without any surprise.
The offense was completely unstructured. Butler was active on the court, completing steals, counterattacks and dunks in succession.
At the end of the first quarter, the score had reached 36:21, and the Trail Blazers were 15 points behind.
In the second quarter, the situation on the court suddenly changed.
Coach Stotts went to great lengths to shorten Lillard's rest time and put him back on the court at the beginning of the second quarter.
Lillard, who had no organizational pressure, faced Harden's defense and attacked very resolutely.
He fired continuously from the outside and his shots were very decisive.
Teammate Button did not make too much concessions, and his condition improved significantly compared with the first quarter.
In the first three minutes, the two took over all the team's scoring and launched a 16:5 climax, 41:37, instantly closing the point difference to 4 points.
