On May 14, the fifth game between the Clippers and the Rockets, the two teams returned to Staples. In the eyes of the outside world, this battle is likely to be the last battle of the Rockets playoffs, they have already used the backwater, facing the desperate situation of falling behind 1:3, and it is difficult to stage a miracle similar to the Lakers' last game with the strength of the Rockets.

Ji Guoyan was interviewed before the game and said with a smile: "I heard the wind, some people said that our series was played too fast, four games in the last round, and this round is likely to be five games, and our boss will let us release the water and earn more tickets." The league also wants to broadcast a few more games. The little fox spread his hands: "I don't know where this news came from, I just want to say, if we release the water and lose one game, and the next game returns to Houston, it is not our clippers who sell tickets, do we have to lose again?" If that were the case, I don't think we would have made the playoffs, which is stupid. ”

Yao Ming said before the game: "Defending is the most important thing, and we have to maintain the good in this area. Obviously, they have the best scorers in the league and Fox can score anywhere on the court, so we're going to do our best to stop the rest of their team from scoring. ”

Of course, the Rockets' defense in Game 4 was not the main reason for the team's loss, the team's offense dragged them back, and the lack of effective scoring points at key moments made the Rockets unable to recover.

Yao Ming was also helpless: "In the first two games, we defended very well, but we still lost the game because we couldn't score at critical moments, and we had to combine attack and defense effectively. Now we're in a 1-3 situation and if we lose one more game we'll be eliminated. But I think as long as we give it our all. We still have a chance to catch up. ”

The rocket has come to the edge of the cliff. The series has reached Game 5, and there will not be much adjustment on either side, what else can the Rockets rely on, the answer is Yao Ming.

The fifth battle of Tianwang Mountain, this is a battle to decide life or death, you must rely on Yao Ming, this is the way out of the rocket.

Yao Ming is one of the most underrated players in the NBA today, when faced with a life-or-death test. He's going to show his quality.

Looking back at the first 4 games of this series, you will find that Yao Ming's efficiency value is +6, when he is there, the Rockets can win the Clippers 6 points, and in rebounding, the little giant can only go around the front defense strategy with the help of Ji Guoqiu, an average of 14 rebounds per game, this is Yao Ming's best series for rebounds, don't forget that his opponent is this year's rebounding king.

Unfortunately, Yao Ming's problems are still with the bag and around the front defense. The animal brothers are excellent in height and tough defensively. This makes the little giant only play three quarters a game, not that Adelman doesn't want to be ruthless, but he really puts the bodyless Yao Ming on the court, which will not only not have an effect, but will affect the team's offensive efficiency.

The elder Dunleavy only briefly mentioned about this game: "To defend Yao Ming, we will also use the front wind, there is no doubt about it." And we have to grasp the third quarter, which is a key point, and if we can grab this key point, we will almost have a victory. ”

At 22:30 that night, the Western Conference semifinals entered the most tense and important moment, the fifth game of the "Battle of Tianwang Mountain" started at the Stamp Center in Los Angeles, and whether the Clippers can enter the Western Conference Finals for two consecutive years depends on whether they can win this game.

Ji Guoqiu won the ball, the Clippers launched their first offense, Ji Guoqiu cut into the basket to receive the ball from Billups, and threw the board to take the lead for the team.

The Rockets started today with a poor rebounding table, less than three minutes into the first quarter, the two brothers grabbed three frontcourt rebounds under the basket in succession, and all of them were converted into points, and they took advantage of the Staples frenzy to play a 9-2 mini-climax.

Billups scored on a jumper, Yao Ming grabbed a rebound in the front court and scored his first point, and then Marbury also scored on a jumper, and Ariza stole Garcia's pass and scored a layup, and the Rockets chased it to 11-8.

The game entered an official pause, the old Dunleavy implemented outside cover tactics for Ji Guoqiu, and today Brother Panda shot 10 three-pointers in a row in the pre-game shooting warm-up, and the result was 100 shots, and the old Dunleavy wanted to see how Ji Guoqiu felt in the game?

As it turns out, one of the benefits of having more stars is that it's easier to run into big bowls. Animal Brothers and Billups, plus a Crawford, these four are enough for an opposing team to drink no matter who explodes, so the Clippers' offensive strength was later ranked first in the league, which is the reason.

Ji Guoqiu used his teammates to position the cover and the weak side to block and dismantle, and hit a three-pointer with consecutive shots from the outside. Now Brother Panda can not only shoot at the top of the arc, but if he is in good shape, such as now, he can also shoot three-pointers on both wings, which makes his offensive range more and more difficult to guard.

Just imagine, two big men with a height of 216cm quickly pull down the two flanks, at this time the other party inside to follow or not? No, the animal brothers have an empty three-point shot, and the shooting percentage is definitely not negotiable. But if you keep up, Billups or two outside lines burst in, or even cut in at any of them, and it can kill the enemy for half of his life.

Ji Guoqiu scored 6 points in a row, once again widening the score gap, and the little fox also hit the three-point line, this is falling into the well, Ji Guoqiu likes to do this kind of thing the most.

The Clippers hit consecutive three-pointers on the offensive end, and the defensive end was not ambiguous, Ariza made a mistake, was reached out by Garcia for a steal, and Billups received the ball and made a layup, and the difference was stretched to double digits in a blink of an eye.

Adelman was scratching his head at the beginning of the game, and the Rockets players were already a little flustered at this time, and the away game plus the 1:3 deficit made the Rockets players under too much pressure. At the beginning of the game, the Clippers players were on the outside, and all kinds of qiē seemed to imply that they were here this season.

After the game restarted, the offensive end of the Rockets still did not improve, and the players became more cautious, for fear that the score would be pulled bigger after the mistake, and as a result, none of the Rocket players dared to pass the ball to Yao Ming, and they were all afraid of being stolen by Brother Panda in front of him, so Yao Ming was abolished on the court and could only grab rebounds in the front court.

The Clippers strengthened the protection of backcourt rebounds today, Ji Guoqiu was easy to lose rebounds in front of him, and the old Dunleavy asked other players to help rush and grab, which made Yao Ming only get one frontcourt rebound in the first quarter, and the rebound has not been made up.

At 5 minutes and 20 seconds in the first quarter, Ji Guoshi threw himself and grabbed himself, and immediately after winning the rebound in the front court, he dunked with both hands!

The score was 21:10, and the Rockets had not scored for several minutes.

Adelman replaced Brooks, and the little black bean hit a layup, but the Clippers' Crawford scored four points on consecutive free throws, and the margin was stretched to 13 points.

Rocket fans already feel that they are going to be finished, the animal brothers are in good shape today, Billups is not bad, and now even the sixth man Crawford seems to feel very much, the four kings of the people are working together, do you still have to play this game?

The fans were pessimistic, the players were more nervous, Barnes came on the court and wrapped Yao Ming to send a steal, the Clippers played a quick counterattack again, the fox brother received the ball and performed a violent dunk again, the Staples Arena was completely boiling, they led the Rockets by 15 points in the first quarter, and the game was so smooth that it couldn't be smoother.

Marbury broke through to make a foul and hit one of two free throws, but then, Scola and Battier's layups were blocked by the animal brothers in a row, and Ji Guoqiu turned around and hit a mid-range shot, and the Rockets were really about to collapse, and the point difference was about to run for 20 points.

Adelman called a timeout again in the second half of the first quarter, and made a bowl of chicken soup for the soul for the players, trying to save the players' broken mentality. But in the face of the influence of the Clippers' home atmosphere, this bowl of chicken soup did not work particularly well. After the game restarted, Brooks made a pass error, and the Clippers fought back again, and Crawford made an unreasonable three-pointer on a fast break, but he actually hit it, and the difference was 20.

The elder Dunleavy faced a good situation in the first quarter and did not replace the twin brothers, he wanted to take advantage of the high morale at the moment to completely defeat the rocket in one fell swoop, leaving no chance for the other party to counterattack.

This choice was the right one, Jordan Jr. and Amir. Johnson's poor performance in this round proved that the two of them couldn't beat the Rockets' bench at all, and came to the division semifinals, with their ability to help the team, in case they were replaced by the two of them and the Rockets bench stabilized the situation, then the game was not over, so the old Dunleavin would rather let the main force play the first quarter, just to completely defeat the opponent.

Before the end of the first quarter, Ji Guoqiu magically hit a whistle three-pointer, this ball was more than a meter away from the three-point line, and the panda brother actually hit 4 of 4 three-pointers in a single quarter, this table is not inferior to the Lakers' Kobe Bryant in the last game, the difference is that one of the two broke out in the first quarter, and the other broke out in the last quarter.

The score is 35:14, the Clippers led the Rockets by 21 points in the first quarter after Ji Guoqiu hit a three-point whistle, and the game almost lost suspense in the first quarter.

In the domestic post bar, at this moment, the rocket players were scolded for being wasted, Yao Hei went out en masse, provoking the dense to lick the oil everywhere, countless elementary school students made childish remarks, and a large number of posts such as "Adelman is out of class", "Yao Ming is going back to China", "Marbury is really a cancer" and other posts filled the entire page. Everyone seems to have forgotten for a moment, when the player is good, how many people come out to give birth to whom, and as long as the player loses the last game, all the credit will be erased by the fans, and become a street rat that everyone shouts and beats. (To be continued......)