After two consecutive losses, the Timberwolves won eleven consecutive victories in the following period.

Although the Timberwolves were not a big victory over their opponents in these eleven games, they won easily, especially the offensive and defensive cooperation between Iverson and other players, which made the Timberwolves team basically have no flaws.

With Iverson joining, the Timberwolves have not lost even a single game.

The Timberwolves still looked unstoppable throughout December. After defeating the Memphis Grizzlies, the Timberwolves had already won 15 consecutive wins in the season, improving the team's record to 25 wins and 4 losses.

It was not until the Timberwolves lost to the Rockets away on December 21 that Iverson's first loss after joining the team.

In this game against the Rockets, Luke took the "glove" Payton to rest, but the real reason for the team's loss was that Yao Ming beat the former best defensive player Ben Wallace in the inside.

Da Ben is definitely the most outstanding center in the league's penalty area defense, and there is no need to add one after that.

Even Howard, who is in full swing, will find it difficult to compete with Ben Wallace during this period of time.

But as a technical center with extremely rich offensive skills, Yao Ming, who is nearly 2.3 meters tall, dominated the penalty area in this game, pressing Ben Wallace under his body and ravaging him wildly.

In the whole game, Yao Ming scored 36 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks in 37 minutes of the game, and his shooting percentage was as high as 64.2%.

It took only a little more than three quarters to beat Ben Wallace until the six fouls left the court, and had to sit on the bench with a confused look on his face.

The main reason for Daben's strong defense in the penalty area is not only the strength advantage, but the main reason is that he is very active on the defensive end and is willing to do some dirty and tiring work that others are unwilling to do.

However, unlike the "Big Shark" O'Neal, Yao Ming can not only complete killing in the penalty area, but also increase the range to the middle distance position on both sides.

Facing Ben Wallace's defense, Yao Ming showed a wealth of offensive methods in this game.

Whether it is a back-on-single shot from low post, a jump shot from a backward jump shot, or a mid-range hike after raising his hand and shooting, Wallace has no temper at all.

In addition, it is hard to imagine that Yao Ming, who is nearly 2.3 meters tall, also has flexible "dream footsteps", playing with Ben Wallace many times at the low post and using his footsteps to complete his score.

The height gap between Da Ben and Yao Ming reached about 25 cm. If Garnett and others did not double-team Yao Ming, no matter how strong Da Ben's defense is, he could only sigh.

Unfortunately, when the Timberwolves double-teamed Yao Ming in the second half, the Rockets' outside line suddenly opened up.

Especially Luther Hyde, who threw seven three-pointers and scored 23 points and 4 rebounds in the game, became an important contributor to the Rockets' winning goal.

Luther Hyde's defensive ability is extremely poor, but this season with former Warriors head coach Montgomery taking office to become the Rockets' new coach, a group of outside shooters led by Luther Hyde finally ushered in spring.

So far, Hyde can be regarded as one of the best outside pitchers in the active league this season, with a three-point shooting percentage of up to 45.3% allowing Luther Hyde to average a career-high 12.7 points per game.

Using Yao Ming and McGrady's personal ability to attract double-teams, Hyde was ambushed outside and could get a lot of opportunities to get out of the mobile phone.

Especially Yao Ming is often double-teamed by the opponent. When Yao Ming has excellent double-teaming ability and meets Montgomery, a basketball coach who is good at playing outside, the most benefit is shooters like Hyde.

In addition to Luther Hyde, Bathir, Alstom and others also provided a large amount of firepower output outside the three-point line in this game.

It was precisely because the Rockets' shooters made a large number of three-pointers from the outside that the Timberwolves' defense line began to collapse at one point, and Yao Ming was in the inside that the Timberwolves lost the game regretfully.

After a month, I realized the feeling of losing again.

After the game, Luke stood on the sidelines and had a great chat with Montgomery.

From the smile on Luke's face, we can see that this conversation was not like everyone else, but Luke really admired the guy Montgomery.

Originally, Luke planned to win over Montgomery to his assistant coaching team during the offseason, but the Rockets took the lead.

But this is also good. For Yao Ming, Montgomery's appointment can reduce Yao Ming's frequency of singles at low positions, thereby reducing Yao Ming's chance of injury in another way.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Zhizhi made two three-pointers in this game. Although the data of 6 points and 3 rebounds in the game cannot be compared with Yao Ming, it also added a different color to this Chinese derby.

This season, the Timberwolves have made many powerful punches in and out of get off work in three quarters, so Wang Zhizhi has obtained good playing time.

The average average of 5.3 points, rebounds, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game is not eye-catching, and his three-point shooting percentage is close to 42% makes him roughly one of the best shooting skills in the league today.

In addition, Wang Zhizhi under Luke's focus on taking care of him a lot of muscle exercises. Although the general body lines in the new season are still not comparable to the top inside line, they are already much stronger than last season.

If Millsap had not received a lot of training opportunities in the new season, Wang Zhizhi's stadium role would have been better.

At least Montgomery half-jokingly asked Luke after the game, asking if Luke had any plans to trade Wang Zhizhi, and expressed his willingness to give high-quality chips to serve as the big shot.

After all, everyone knows the Timberwolves' vision in trading. They will definitely suffer from the loss in trading with Timberwolves. Montgomery knows very well that he will definitely not be able to beat Luke in this regard.

It seems that Montgomery has a deep affection for Wang Zhizhi. Even if he does a loss-making deal, he still wants to get the player Wang Zhizhi.

Montgomery is a typical outside projection coach. Compared with most old antiques of this era, Montgomery prefers to hit the ball further and further than to try to hit the basket.

During his coaching at the Warriors, Montgomery liked Murphy very much. Murphy was a famous soft-boy player in the NBA league.

Even though Murphy averaged double rebounds per game for two consecutive seasons, Murphy's outside style is still nicknamed "soft egg" by fans.

In today's era, inside players are unwilling to fight physically, and they only like to float on the outside and shoot soft balls.

No matter how efficient this player is, he will not be praised by fans. Even Nowitzki is no exception. When talking about the league's number one power forward, Duncan and Garnett's names will always be above Nowitzki.

Therefore, Murphy was not valued by the coach when he first entered the league, but with Montgomery taking office, Murphy ushered in a turning point in his career, and averaged 1,510 per game for two consecutive seasons.

Moreover, his three-point shooting percentage has remained at around 35% all year round, and is loved by Montgomery.

Now the Rockets have a center attack weapon like Yao Ming, but there is no high-level turret in the team that can be used by Montgomery.

The only big shooter, Novak, is just a rookie, and his poor defensive ability is even Montgomery, who never pays attention to defense, cannot bear to look at it.

Wang Zhizhi's playing style is very suitable for Montgomery's tactical system, and Wang Zhizhi is not an indispensable main player in the Timberwolves, so Montgomery made his mind to Wang Zhizhi.

The entire league knows that although McHale is the nominal general manager of the Timberwolves, the Timberwolves' real talk is Luke in terms of personnel changes.

As long as Luke nodded and agreed to a deal, McHale would never refuse.

"It's easy to say, if you want the king, I can even give it to you for free." Luke said with a smile.
Chapter completed!