On December 13, outside the Federal Express Arena, huge posters of Link and Harden looking at each other were hung.

This type of poster usually only appears in boxing or other fighting sports competitions.

But today, NBA officials used such posters in basketball games.

The original picture is very simple. In addition to the strong dialogue between the Rockets and the Grizzlies, this game is also a direct showdown between the first and second in the MVP prediction rankings!

So far this season, Link naturally returned to the top of the MVP rankings with his outstanding personal performance and unparalleled team record.

Harden occupied a place in the top five of the MVP rankings last season. After the data explosion this season, he surpassed Curry and Durant and directly ranked second in the MVP rankings!

Harden's performance this season is obvious to everyone. It can be said that in his personal performance, he is indeed better than the Warriors players!

Some people even believe that if the Grizzlies had not won 24 consecutive victories, even Link would have been behind Harden!

To put it bluntly, they think that Link can occupy the first place in the MVP rankings because of the team's record.

If it is only compared to personal performance, Harden is more outstanding than Link!

Therefore, this direct showdown between Harden and Link has also become the biggest highlight today.

Even the question of which Harden or Link is stronger is more talked about than the winning streak at the start.

"This season, James Harden has undoubtedly ushered in the first peak of his career, second in the MVP rankings, and Harden deserves it! This season, his destructive power no longer needs to be explained too much. I also really want to know whether Harden's explosive data can be continued in the Federal Express Arena!"

Before the game started, Kevin Harlan followed today's theme to warm up the fans.

Speaking of which, the Grizzlies' December game is really exciting.

First there were Warriors, now there were Rockets. There were Cavaliers on Christmas, and there were Thunder after Christmas.

For the Grizzlies, this is really a hurdle to test their true strength during this period.

Of course, if the Grizzlies can defeat all four opponents, they will become the only team so far this season that can kill the "four major devils" of the Cavaliers, Warriors, Rockets and Thunder!

Against the background of this season, this is a very important honor.

In other words, if the Grizzlies win these four teams, it will be equivalent to cleaning up the biggest disruptors on their championship road!

Of course, that's just the ideal state. The game against the Rockets means that the Grizzlies' challenge this month has just begun. With four strong opponents, they just met the second one.

When James Harden and his teammates stepped into the court, Link and the Grizzlies were already warming up.

Harden looked at Link's back, and scenes of past events surged into his heart again.

Among them, what impressed Harden the most was November 8, 2014.

That day, Link scored his career-high 63 points on the Rockets!

At the Toyota Center, Harden had tried his best to force the Grizzlies into desperate situation. As a result, Link played like a god descending to earth, cutting off the Rockets that were about to take off in half.

In that game, every shot and every goal of Link seemed to hit Harden's heart.

That was the worst game he lost in his career!

What about the Rockets' memory of winning on the Grizzlies? Harden found that he couldn't find it at all!

But today, Harden believes that such memory will be born.

If he can stop the Grizzlies from winning 25 straight games at the start, he believes that Link will remember it for life.

Before the game began, Mike D'Antoni seriously arranged the tactics. He hoped that the team would have the advantage as soon as it came out and hoped to be the first to crack the threat of the Grizzlies' double towers.

Jokic and Gasol are indeed great, but both of them move slowly.

Rockets center Clint Capela is different. That guy's extremely fast movement speed makes him called "Bai King" in the "Bai Eating World".

He has no independent offensive ability, but he has scored high scores many times this season, relying on one move to cut inward after pick-and-roll.

When it comes to eating cakes, Jordan Jordan has to be half a shorter in front of Capela.

D'Antoni's plan is to ask Harden to find Capela first and force the Grizzlies to remove the two towers with powerful impact. As long as the two towers go down, the difficulty of the game will be reduced by half in an instant!

At that time, Harden will be much more relaxed whether it is a sudden or a pass, and he can master the game as he pleases.

Why did Harden have so many assists this season? Most of them are fed with cakes like this.

Capela is more obedient than Howard before. Of course, her ability to eat cake is stronger than Howard after her condition declines.

D'Antoni confidently sent the players on the court. He believed that he could control the entire trend from the first minute of the game!

However, when D'Antoni saw the Grizzlies' starting five Tigers, he was stunned.

From the beginning, this game was different from what he expected!

"Oh? The Grizzlies suddenly changed their team today! Coach Jogger did not go to the double towers, nor did he let Tobias Harris return to the starting lineup. He sent Monterres Harrell, which is Harrell's first start this season!"

Hubby Brown thought about it with interest. He knew that Joggel was not a coach who liked to change the formation.

Once upon a time, he was ridiculed by fans as "a lineup that is used to death."

But this season, this is already the third starting lineup by Jogel!

Facts have proved that every time Jogel adjusts the starting lineup, it will have an immediate effect. If it is not particularly necessary, Jogel will not change the lineup at will.

Harrell's starter made Grizzlies fans look forward to it.

But after being shocked, D'Antoni quickly recovered from calmness and did not take it seriously.

He thought to himself that Jogel might just want to confuse himself. That guy Harrell should be just a fake starter, just a cover!

A number four position with no range, no skills, and no height, playing as a substitute is the maximum limit.

Sending such a person to the starter will not have any practical effect at all. D'Antoni doesn't believe that the powerful Rockets will be forced into a desperate situation by a blue-collar short forward.

Link looked at Harrell beside him and patted him on the back.

This long-haired Fauvism striker, it's time to reflect his value.

"Concentrate, boy. If I can't keep up with the attack, I won't forgive you."

"Don't worry, boss, I'm ready! If I can't get your ball, I'll cut my hair." Harrell smiled and moved his arms.

"Save your hair, Monterres. If you mess up, stay here every night and practice with me for a month."

"Uh..." Harrell's smile disappeared in an instant, because he believed that Link could definitely do such a thing.

The game is about to begin, and both sides are ready for the starter of the five tigers.

On the Grizzlies, except for Harrell as the starting lineup, nothing else has changed.

On the Rockets, there is still the starting combination of Beverly, Harden, Ariza, Ryan Anderson and Capela.

The Rockets' starting lineup is excellent from defense to offense, and there are also bench bandits such as Eric Gordon and Cory Brewer sitting on the bench.

Just talking about paper lineup, although the Rockets are not a star-stunning multi-giant team, they are definitely not weak.

What's more, their real strength is stronger than on paper.

Link found that Harden was staring at him fiercely. This was completely different from the previous day when he was often hangover on the first day, his eyes were blurred the next day.

The West, where "monsters are rampant", now has a strong rival like Harden.

However, in order to let Draymond Green know how sad he is, this game will be won no matter what!

After finally passing the level between the Lakers and "Dad Lu", we can't just stop.

The more the Warriors can’t do something, the more the Grizzlies need to do it!

At the beginning of the game, Capela won the first advantage of bounce for the Rockets.

Harden slowly walked through the half with the ball. He followed D'Antoni's tactics and played a pick-and-roll with Capela.

Capela sets cover for Harden, and Harden also goes to the side of the cover honestly.

After the pick-and-roll was finished, Capela immediately cut inside and Harden immediately passed the ball.

However, Harden regretted it just as he got the ball away because he found that Link did not come to chase him after the pick-and-roll, but directly crossed the pass route.

He had long expected that this cooperation would fight like this!

Harden's average assists per game this season is very exaggerated, but it cannot be ignored that he has 5.3 turnovers per game.

Often, he gives away fourteen or five assists in a game, which seems to be very powerful. But when he looks closely, he also makes seven or eight mistakes.

This is the difference between Harden and traditional organizational defenders.

Harden's organization is driven by offense, and his passing judgment is not as accurate as a real traditional point guard.

Harden took this goal a bit too naturally. Link broke the ball from Harden's hand as soon as he came up, which undoubtedly hit the Rockets with a blow and also poured cold water on the Rockets' high morale.

Fortunately, the Rockets' retreat speed was fast enough, so Link did not easily fight back.

Link stood outside the three-point line, and Ariza was ready. But Link did not play alone by himself, but waved his hand like Harden and called for cover!

Harrell immediately got rid of Anderson who was entangled with him and mentioned setting up a pick-and-roll at a high position.

D'Antoni frowned. The Grizzlies' tactics are exactly the same as those of the Rockets?

Although Harrell is only as tall as a small forward, his strong body ensures the quality of his cover.

Link passed by Harrell, and Ariza immediately squeezed away Harrell and rushed towards Link.

But at this moment, Link hit the ground and sent the ball through between Ariza and Anderson.

Compared with passing accuracy and organizational ability, Link doesn't think he is inferior to Harden! After all, organizational ability cannot be explained by just looking at the number of assists.

On the other side, Harrell had quickly cut into the basket. Ryan Anderson could not keep up with Harrell's footsteps at all, and his movement ability was better than Capela!

Anderson was thrown behind his head with a simple pick-and-roll.

And what about Capela? This Rockets' Frame Protection Elite is being pinned outside the three-point line by Gasol!

In other words, the Rockets' basket is untouched at this time.

Harrell did not pause after receiving the ball, and immediately staged a powerful brutal dunk!

His powerful dunk and wild style made this attack full of power.

Harrell successfully eats cake!

"The beautiful pick-and-roll cooperation, Link's pass and Harrell's cut were just right! They played a tactic that was almost exactly the same as the Rockets, but one side failed, and the other side became!"

After assisting Harrell to score, Link applauded happily.

And off the court, D'Antoni was autistic.

Originally, he wanted to use the trick of eating cake to attack the Grizzlies first, but he was quite proud of this plan.

Now, the Grizzlies are eating on the Rockets!

He thought Harrell would not play a big role, but now he knew that he was very wrong!

Link's pass and Harrell's movement seem to be better than the pair of Harden and Capela.

As soon as they came up, the Grizzlies took over the Rockets' Army.

Capela's first-class cake eating ability?

No, Harrell has something to say.
Chapter completed!