The Warriors left Salt Lake City.

It was a tough game, and the Warriors won the game 106-98.

After the game, Sloan praised the team's resilience.

'The lads are doing really well, I can see their iron quality and in the playoffs it will be a big difference to keep that kind of leaning forward."

At the same time, coach Sloan also spoke about Boozer's injury, "He may have had some muscle contusions, but he's a veteran in the league for many years and I know he can take this situation in stride, we need him to score, we need him to lead the team to victory." ”

The Utah Sentinel, the San Francisco Herald, and a number of local newspapers covered the game, all of which praised the Jazz, who have turned the Energy Solutions arena into a real devil's home this season.

The situation in the West is uncertain, with the Jazz holding at least one spot in the top four, and the competition for third, fifth and sixth places is fierce.

The Warriors are temporarily ahead, followed by the Spurs and Rockets.

…….

Houston, Toyota Center.

In the general manager's office, newly appointed general manager Darrell Morey sat at his computer desk and held his first team uniform group meeting since he took office as general manager.

The meeting was attended by the entire coaching staff, including coach Jeff van Gundy.

Darrell Morey, a 32-year-old graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded a sports information consultancy in Chicago that specializes in providing operational data analytics for a variety of professional teams. That continued until 2002, when the Celtics hired him as vice president.

Alexander hired him as the team's assistant general manager in April last year, and 10 days ago, Morey replaced Carl Dawson as the team's general manager.

In previous reports, I didn't understand why the team would hire such a data expert who had never played basketball before.

Of course, the Rockets are interested in Morey not only because of his role as vice president of the Celtics, but also because of his education and research work in MIT's "sports analysis management." In fact, despite previously being the Celtics' senior vice president of operational information, Morey's job is the same as that of Celtics general manager Danny Murphy. Angie has no connections, and his responsibilities include venue operations, risk management, basketball analytics, ticket sales strategy, pricing, and the underlying technical structure. And this actually sends a signal: the Rockets will enter an era of "careful calculation".

Darrell Morey convened the meeting, but he was not actually the presiding officer, and the team's head coach, Jeff Van Gundy, was the real protagonist.

A room full of managers in suits, Jeff Van Gundy cleared his throat, then walked over to the computer, opened the Western Conference standings, the projector projected onto the wall, and everyone raised their heads and looked at Van Gundy.

"Regarding the ranking of the playoffs, I think everyone has heard of it, after all, a large part of the outside reports are about the Rockets ranking."

"I'd like to hear from everyone." Jeff Van Gundy cleverly threw the ball back again.

Van Gundy swept across the room, then fixed his gaze on a round-faced, chubby white man, "Tom, what do you think?" ”

Tom Thibodeau, the Rockets' number one assistant coach and Jeff Van Gundy's most effective assistant.

Thibodeau has been an assistant coach of the Rockets since '04, digging out Lucas, Hayes and others, and he is also Yao Ming's shooting coach.

Dean Cooper, Jack Sigma and others looked at Thibodeau.

Thibodeau nodded and said calmly: "That's right, as the outside world says, once we meet the Warriors in the playoffs, we will lose more and win less." ”

"The Warriors' lineup is more restrained than ours." Thibodeau walked to the front, then clicked on the Warriors' formation, and the avatars representing the starters Yang Di, Chandler and others appeared on the big screen.

"Everyone, Yang Di has averaged nearly 30 points per game this season, and the focus of the offensive range has been expanded from the bottom corner to near the free throw line.

"Secondly, in terms of team style."

Thibodeau paused and continued: "The Warriors are also similar to the style of running and shooting, what they are best at is defensive counterattacks, Yang Di protects the backcourt rebounds and then pushes forward, and it is almost impossible to defend him during the march, and we lack mobility, once we fall behind to the transition between offense and defense, we will be more passive. ”

"Defensively, Derrick Fisher, Danny Granger and Tyson Chandler are the Warriors' defensive strengths."

Dean Cooper asked, "Just seeing the Warriors, we just didn't have hope?" ”

"The probability is very low, and it is not even as good as playing the Spurs when analyzed." Tom Thibodeau said, "If we meet the Jazz, it's the best of all teams. ”

"What about the sun and the calf?" Jack Sigma asked.

"These two teams are too fierce to attack, the Suns are relatively more difficult, it is better to play the Mavericks, although the Mavericks have an amazing record this season, but after all, they are a single-core team, and the Mavericks' tactics are positional battles, and the joint defense of the defense will not be too good for Yao Ming."

"In short, the current situation, against the Warriors, there is basically no hope of qualifying for the first round of the playoffs."

Thibodeau sighed, and there was still a sentence in his heart that he didn't say, "The Rocket still lacks a traditional organizational guard, and when Yao Ming's offensive ability skyrockets, with a good organizational guard, just like the Mavericks do, the Rockets will greatly improve their combat power, and the combination of Maddie and Yao Ming may not be as good as imagined, far less than the original OK." ”

"The Spurs are one and a half wins ahead of us, the Warriors are three wins ahead of us, and if we can finally surpass the Spurs or the Warriors, the situation will develop in the best direction, otherwise, the situation is still very bad."

Van Gundy spoke: "The playoffs are a process of selection, if we can't lead the Spurs, we will fall into a very embarrassing situation, I hope everyone will make a playoff strategy as soon as possible, the Warriors, Suns, Mavericks, Spurs, Jazz are our imaginary enemies, we strive to break through the first round this year and reach the Western Conference finals." ”

What championship is the slogan that the players themselves use to encourage themselves, the real team management, in the end, are rational analysis, scientific planning, if they finally reach the finals, there will still be time to arrange the finals tactics, the main opponent of the rocket in the early stage, or the division of tigers and wolves in the west.