Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 911 Taking the Lead
After the opening game tonight, Richmond, just like Adu in "Thunderbolt 2012", was suddenly robbed of his touch and couldn't make any shots.

And this also caused Richmond to play extremely hard when facing Drexler. A sense of powerlessness spread in his body.

In this case, it is natural for someone to stand up.

This time the Warriors attacked, Richmond did not take the initiative to ask for the ball, and he was a little ashamed to miss several consecutive attacks.

No way, Richmond has never been a selfish or particularly strong player. In comparison, he is more Buddhist. Of course, it is precisely because of this character that he can always be the third master in the Warriors , Do not fight or grab.

In fact, in terms of his ability, it is definitely more than enough to be the boss of any weak team or even a marginal team in the playoffs.

But Richmond is very Buddhist and willing to stay in the Warriors. Not only is he less than Li Weisi and Mullin in terms of ball possession, he is even inferior to Divac in terms of tactical status, but Richmond has no complaints at all. Do your job conscientiously.

This also made many other team leaders envy Li Weisi very much. After all, everyone wants their team to have such a strong third leader who does not fight or grab.

As far as Richmond is concerned, being able to hold a big contract, win with the team, and win the championship is happier than anything else.

As a human being, the most important thing is to be happy!

In this case, Richmond had realized that his singles might affect the team, so he voluntarily gave up the ball and decided to let Li Weisi handle it first.

Li Weisi was naturally not polite. Seeing that Richmond had no intention of asking for the ball, he decisively chose to come by himself.

With the help of Divac's pick-and-roll, Li Weisi chose to force a breakthrough in the face of Olajuwon who switched defenses.

No way, Olajuwon already has a lot of experience in Li Weisi's defense. In order to avoid being directly in your face by Li Weisi, he naturally has to raise his defensive position upwards. Teammates defend together.

The Rockets' defensive tactics were executed very well. When Li Weisi passed Olajuwon, Smith had already bypassed Divac and stood in front of Li Weisi.

However, this kind of defense has a big drawback, that is, it ignores Divac after the pick-and-roll.

Seeing that Divac immediately went down, Li Weisi immediately took the ball and handed the ball to Divac. After getting the ball, Divac took three steps and put the ball into the basket. 8: 2. After the Warriors opened, they finally scored for the first time.

Afterwards, it was the Rockets' turn to attack. After Richmond gave up the offense, he focused all his attention on defense, and successfully forced Drexler to split the ball with Rodman. After Barkley got the ball, he missed the shot. In the middle, Rodman grabbed the rebound, and the Warriors finally completed a successful defense.

Afterwards, the Warriors immediately launched a fast break. Three seconds later, the Warriors' Li Weisi, Richmond and Finley had already appeared in the Rockets' frontcourt.

Although Li Weisi was at the end, the Rockets defenders never took their attention away from Li Weisi, but even so, Li Weisi still chose to chase the body for a three-pointer. Before Smith pounced to complete the block, he completed A three-pointer was shot, and the ball was hit again, 5:8, and the point difference was further narrowed.

Then, the Rockets' Olajuwon missed a hook at the basket, and the Warriors grabbed the rebound and launched another counterattack.

This time it was Finley who scored for the Warriors. After receiving a pass from Li Weisi, he went straight to the basket and scored a layup. At the same time, he caused a foul by Brown and scored "2+1". After making a free throw, the Warriors, who were 8 points behind at the start, immediately recovered the point difference.

However, the Rockets will not always take advantage of the opportunity, and soon Drexler made an emergency stop and hit a jumper, scoring two more points for the Rockets.

Then the offense of the two teams took the lead alternately. The Rockets' strong start, just like that, was easily resolved by the Warriors.

The offensive efficiency of the two teams after the start tonight was not high, and the scoring was also intermittent, so the score was not high. Until Li Weisi left the field, the score of the two teams was only 18:17, and the Warriors only led by 1 point.

Although this is a life-and-death battle for the Rockets, they still replaced Drexler and Barkley who performed well in the first quarter step by step, allowing Olajuwon, who performed poorly tonight, to continue to lead the team.

Because this is the distribution on weekdays, the Rockets didn't have any objections at first, but as the game progressed, the Rockets found that Olajuwon's effect on the court was not as good as expected.

Brown, the backup center of the Warriors, is not as good as Divac on the offensive end, but he is enough to beat Divac on defense. Tonight, he turned into an iron gate, and he actually defended against Olajuwon twice in a row. , making Olajuwon's two attacks return without success.

The Warriors also took the opportunity to expand the point difference to 5 points.

At this moment, Mario Elli stepped forward and scored 5 points with a sudden shot, successfully smoothing the point difference, and the two teams returned to the same starting line again.

No one thought that the person who could lead the Rockets to chase points at this time was not the team boss Olajuwon, but the unknown team substitute Mario Elie.

Unlike other proud people, Mario Eli is a model of inspiration.

Elie, who was born in 63, was the 85st pick in the seventh round of 7. He was selected with this pick. It is conceivable how difficult his career journey will be.

The fact is indeed the case. He was selected and did not get the contract of the NBA team. Instead, he went to other countries to discuss life in Ireland, Portugal, Argentina and other countries. He did not return to the NBA until 90.

However, even though he returned to the NBA, his journey was still not smooth. He changed three teams in the first four seasons. It was not until the 93-94 season, when he was 30 years old, that he finally gained a firm foothold in the Rockets.

At the age of 32 this season, he actually stood up when the strength of the Rockets' lineup rotation declined. The season's scoring average reached 11.1 points per game, becoming the only Rockets substitute who scored in double figures.

But at this critical moment tonight, when Olajuwon was not working well, he suddenly stepped forward and helped the team even the score.
However, the Warriors who held the last attack did not let this little man continue to shine. At the last second before the end of the game, Cassel made a key goal. The Warriors successfully ended the first game with 23:21. festival game.

Although the process of the first quarter was tortuous, the result was not bad, and the team still took the lead.

(End of this chapter)