On April 25, the first game of the first round of the Timberwolves and the Rockets playoffs will officially start at the Target Center Arena today.

Before the game started, the Timberwolves' home court was completely full. When the players were still warming up on the court, the atmosphere of the entire home court was already lively.

For the city of Minnesota, fans have already experienced the pleasure of becoming the leader of the regular season last season, but after entering the playoffs, the Timberwolves still cannot make it out of the West.

So far, Timberwolves fans have never felt the atmosphere of the finals.

This year, under the leadership of the new head coach Luke, the Timberwolves achieved a historical record of 67 wins and 15 losses. This dominant power has made Timberwolves fans full of confidence and are more excited about this year's playoffs.

So fans will naturally not miss this first matchup in the playoffs. Of course, as long as the Timberwolves are not unexpectedly eliminated in the playoffs, it is absolutely unquestionable that the home court will be full.

After all, this year's Timberwolves are the closest year since their team was established. I believe no fan is willing to miss such a playoff showdown.

Before the game, Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy called Yao and Mai aside alone, and it seemed that he was asking them something.

Although the Rockets' lineup depth this season looks pretty good, they are actually relying on Yao and Mai.

These two people directly built the Rockets' offensive system, one inside and one outside, especially McGrady's comprehensive offensive end, which saved Jeff Van Gundy, who was not good at attacking.

During the regular season, McGrady averaged 25.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

Among them, he averaged 25.7 points per game and ranked sixth in the league, second only to Iverson, Kobe, James, Nowitzki, and Stoudemire.

Although McGrady's offensive efficiency is average, and her real shooting rate on the court is far lower than that of the league's first-tier stars, McGrady's strength lies in her balanced offense and defense, and she can use her personal abilities to help her teammates open up the situation on the offensive end.

This is very important for the Rockets with average character players. If McGrady does not attract double-teams on the offensive end, it is definitely a delusion to take advantage of the overall level of the Rockets character player, and it is absolutely delusional to make a difference under the defensive pressure of the playoffs.

However, McGrady's average playing time this season is as high as 40.6 minutes, which is still McGrady's time in the regular season. After entering the playoffs, McGrady's average playing time will definitely increase further.

Otherwise, it will be difficult for Jeff Van Gundy to help the team stabilize the situation with the offensive system.

After all, defensive coaches like Jeff Van Gundy have all this virtue. Whether it is Larry Brown who is at its peak or Chuck Daly who retires successfully, these guys who focus on defense have the ability of the main force of the grass.

That is, Yao Ming consumes physical strength after gaining weight, otherwise Yao Ming may have faced scrapping just as soon as he entered the league!

"Yao, this game is a bit fierce in the inside, and strive to take the position deeper. The Timberwolves' player in the center position is Carl, who is only 2.06 meters tall."

"You just need to raise and hit him. Unless the Timberwolves attack you, it will be difficult for Carl to limit you in one-on-one."

"You just need to be careful about his ball and iron elbows. Whether we can advance to the upset in this round of the series will be very important."

Looking up at the Chinese giant who was nearly two meters tall, Jeff Van Gundy said with a serious expression.

When Yao Ming heard the reminder of head coach Jeff Van Gundy, he just nodded slightly, indicating that he had heard Van Gundy's arrangement.

"Jeff, you're too cautious. Although the Timberwolves have excellent regular season record, they don't get any advantage in the fight with us."

"No one can defend me on the outside, and no one can defend Yao in the inside. This is something that has been confirmed in the regular season."

"So we're going to be a black eight in this round of the series, with 67 wins, which sounds very impressive, but soon they can't laugh."

He looked at the Timberwolves who were warming up shooting with a sour look on his face. McGrady revealed a sense of confidence in his words.

He was even a little drowsy when talking, looking like he hadn't had a good rest.

"Don't underestimate the enemy, Tracy, this is the stage of the playoffs, any underestimation of the enemy will pay the price." Jeff Van Gundy frowned.

He waved his hand impatiently. McGrady didn't want to listen to Van Gundy talking, so he turned around and returned to the stadium to warm up.

………

In the studio of TNT, Charles Barkley, a former famous NBA star who was responsible for commenting on this game, said with a chuckling: "Kenny, you are more optimistic about which team can take the lead in this game. I personally hope that the Timberwolves can defend their home court. I don't know if you plan to support the Rockets."

Barkley's words made Kenny Smith extremely disgusted. The two were already old partners. Smith retorted without restraint at all: "Charles, I think you're asking nonsense. You know, I'm standing firmly on the Timberwolves this season."

"At present, the outside world has been rumored that the Rockets may complete the Black Eight against the Timberwolves, but I really can't see where the Rockets have a chance to win."

"If I were to say something, the Timberwolves' four games would be enough to solve the Rockets!"

"Of course, as your old club, I want to keep your face. At most five games, I really can't get more!"

The words of his partner Kenny Smith made Barkley laugh. As the studio's golden partner, Barkley naturally knew that Kenny Smith was standing on the Timberwolves unconditionally this season.

But Barkley obviously disagrees with Smith's words just now, "The Timberwolves are indeed very strong, but it is completely nonsense to say that you have solved the Rockets in five games."

"Since you still support the Timberwolves as always, I support the Rockets in this game."

"I predict that the Rockets will win the Timberwolves five to ten away. I just hope that your face will not be swollen by yourself after the Timberwolves loses, haha!"

………

As the game is about to begin, both sides announced their starting lineups respectively.

Rockets: David Wesley, Bob Sulla, McGrady, Juwan Howard, and Yao Ming.

Timberwolves: Kassel, Madman, Szebiak, Garnett, and Divac.

In this game, Luke chose veteran Divac in the center position, rather than Karl Malone, who has been using the regular season.

There is no way, Yao Ming's height is really a headache. No matter how strong Carl Malone is, he is only 2.06 meters tall. When facing Yao Ming, the height difference between the two is 20 cm.

This gap can no longer be made up with strength alone. Even if Luke had made a series of plans for Yao Ming before the game, Karl Malone's height is still not suitable for starting in this round of series.

Even if the Timberwolves want to attack Yao Ming, the person behind him who is responsible for defending Yao Ming must defend the penalty area as soon as possible, rather than being easily scored by Yao Ming when he turned around.

Divac is 2.16 meters tall. Although it is still a little different from Yao Ming's height of nearly 2.3 meters, Divac is already the highest center player in the Timberwolves.

The reason why Luke rarely uses Divac during the regular season is that Divac moves slowly and is easily targeted by a strongly mobile inside line on the defensive end.

However, Luke doesn't have to worry about this problem at all in this round of series. After all, Yao Ming has no mobility after gaining weight. In addition to some fancy offensive skills, moving speed has become a major drawback for Yao Ming.

Just talking about the speed of foot movement, Divac, 37 years old this year, will not be at a disadvantage, and Divac's height of 2.16 meters is definitely more suitable to defend Yao Ming than Carl Malone.

Even though it is difficult for Divac to limit Yao Ming when defending one-on-one, Luke has long made some plans for this. As long as Divac can use his height to hold Yao Ming under the basket, Luke will be confident that he will beat Yao Ming to a collapse!

After the game started, Divac and Yao Ming stood in the middle circle and jumped the ball, and the ball was the first to be obtained by the Rockets.

This season, the Rockets' offensive styles are nothing more than two types of play, either McGrady, Zhu Wan and Howard's high pick-and-roll, or they handed the ball to Yao Ming to play for a low post.

Then Zhu Wan Howard helped Yao Ming to support him at the middle distance, so that Yao Ming could go out the ball as soon as possible after being hit by a pincer attack.

Even though Uncle Huo Er, who joined the Rockets, has been used as a useless person by head coach Jeff Van Gundy, from an economic perspective, Uncle Huo Er, who can contribute 9.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in the season, is still worthy of his $5.5 million salary.

At the beginning of the game, Yao Ming fell directly to the low post and reached out to ask for the ball from the deepest position under the basket. Obviously, the Rockets wanted to open the situation from Yao Ming's point.

After all, Yao Ming's inside advantage is very obvious, which is the offensive focus that Van Gundy arranged before the game.

But Van Gundy didn't expect that Luke would temporarily bring Divac to the starter and switch Karl Malone to the field.

However, even this cannot change the Rockets' determination to fight high.

Everyone pulled the ball away according to the position. McGrady hung the ball to Yao Ming at a 45-degree angle on the right. However, Yao Ming had just received the pass and had not yet thought about the next attack action. Garnett, who was on the strong side, suddenly clamped Yao Ming up.

Garnett's lateral movement speed is very fast, and it can be said that no one can match the position of the active power forward. So when Garnett attacked, Yao Ming's center of gravity had not yet been adjusted, and he saw Garnett pounce at him like a hungry wolf.

Garnett's decisive defense assisted obviously made Yao Ming a little panicked. In the panic, Yao Ming raised the ball high and wanted to pass the ball from above to Zhu Wan Howard who was receiving the ball on the side.

However, Yao Ming's passing moves are really immature to Garnett, who has the best defensive ability in history.

Just as Yao Ming had just raised his hand, Garnett cut the ball down quickly.

After the steal, Garnett immediately saw the "madman" Spreville running towards the frontcourt.

Without any hesitation, Garnett directly swung his arms and threw out a quarterback long pass.

Similar to this kind of pass across the game, Garnett passed many times during the regular season, after all, this is one of the Timberwolves' counterattack tactics this season.

After catching Garnett's pass, the madman threw Bob Sula, who was chasing behind him, and facing the unguarded basket, the madman directly made a one-handed heavy slap in a force-slashing Huashan style!

With the dunk in the Madman's fast break counterattack, the entire Timberwolves instantly burst into deafening cry at home.

Even though the game has just begun, the enthusiasm in the hearts of fans is hard to hide.

In a sense, this is the unique charm of the playoffs!

The Timberwolves' fast break made Rockets coach Van Gundy look a little ugly. At the beginning, the Timberwolves made such a morale-enhancing counterattack dunk, which made Van Gundy feel a little bad.

The Rockets attacked, Yao Ming did not reach out to ask for the ball at the low post. The steal just now made Yao Ming feel a little ashamed, so Yao Ming decided to let McGrady take charge of the attack in this round.

McGrady, who was holding the ball, also had no intention of passing the ball to Yao Ming. Looking at Szebiac who was defending himself, McGrady showed a hint of contempt on her face.

"You can't defend me during the regular season. Do you think you can defend me when you enter the playoffs?" McGrady kept changing directions under her crotch, and she didn't care about Szebiak, who was defending herself.

"You closed your eyes, basketball is not a one-person sport. I really hope you can understand what this sentence means!" Without being angry at McDie's contempt, Szebiac just smiled softly.

Szebiak's words made McGrady a little awkward. It sounded like Szebiak was teaching McGrady, which made McGrady feel a little unhappy.

"Your attitude makes me unhappy. Today I will cut 40 points on your head, no! It's 50 points!"

As soon as he finished speaking, McGrady suddenly pulled up through a continuous change of direction from the three-point line, making a three-pointer.

This offensive choice is definitely the most annoying move for NBA coaches, especially for coaches like Jeff Van Gundy who already hates three-pointers. McGundy's such a thrust is simply annoying to Van Gundy.

But there is no way, this is one of McGrady's offensive methods. McGrady is the most popular player in the league to score three points, and there is no need to add one after that.

Even if you look at the entire history, McGrady is definitely the most casual player to score three points. I'm afraid that only Kevin Durant of later generations can match this.

"Bang!"

An unquestionable ironstorm echoed in the Target Center Arena.

The three-pointer tests not only the strength of the waist, but also the player's shooting feel!

"What you said makes sense. Today you have to make a thrust on my head 40 times, no! 50 times!" Szebiak's smile still looked so innocent.
To be continued...