The Rockets twin towers shined, the Pelicans were powerless, and the Udoka King bomb tactics worked again
On December 23, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Rockets challenged the Pelicans away, which was the second meeting between the two teams this season. Last time the Rockets narrowly beat the Pelicans 108-105 at home, this time the Rockets won 106-104 thrillingly, getting two straight winsThe Pelicans, on the other hand, suffered a two-game losing streak.
The key to the outcome of this game was the Rockets' twin towers Shenjing and Smith Jr., who played well in the final quarter to lead the Rockets to complete the comeback, while the Pelicans' Zion and Ingram were inaccurate at key moments and could not save the team's decline. Rockets coach Udoka also showed his king bomb tactics again, that is, not to let Jalen Green play in the final quarter, and let Eason and Van Jordan come off the bench, this trick really worked, and the Rockets played a 9-0 attack wave in the final quarter to overtake the scoreAnd in the end, the victory was saved.
At the beginning of the game, the Pelicans took the initiative, Zion and Wallan played hard inside, Ingram and McCollum shot from the outside, and the Pelicans played a 10-2 start. The Rockets relied on Smith Jr.'s personal performance, he hit consecutive air-cut dunks and three-point shots in the first quarter, and once singled the Pelicans by 10 points, and Shin Jing also showed his skills under the basket, and the Rockets quickly tied the scoreand overtook the Pelicans 26-24 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Rockets' substitute Jalen Green made free throws, and Smith Jr. and Van Jordan also hit three more three-pointers, and the Rockets once took a seven-point advantage. But the Pelicans didn't give up, they relied on Zion's strong breakaway, he scored 16 points in the half, and Ingram also found touch in the middle rangeThe Pelicans outscored the Rockets 51-47 at halftime.
In the second half, the two sides launched a fierce attack, the Pelicans mainly relied on the inside impact of Wallan and Zion, as well as Ingram's mid-range shot, the Rockets relied on three-point rain, Van Jordan, Dillon and Smith 4 three-pointers, and the Rockets once narrowed the gap to 1 point. But the Pelicans' Murphy also found his groove on the outside, hitting two three-pointers in a row to help the Pelicans stabilize the situation, and at the end of the third quarterThe Pelicans led the Rockets by five points at 84-79.
It is worth mentioning that in order to win the Pelicans, Udoka once again sacrificed the king bomb tactic, that is, in the middle of the third quarter, Jalen Green was not allowed to play. Jalen Green played only 22 minutes in the game, shooting 2-of-8 and scoring 9 points from the free throw line, but made 6 turnovers, accounting for more than half of the Rockets' turnoversHis performance disappointed Rockets fans.
In the final quarter, the Rockets' Eason came on the court, and he and Van Jordan, Dillon, Smith and Shin Jing formed the Rockets' final quarter lineup, which played the Rockets' best performance of the game, they played a 9-0 attack wave to overtake the Pelicans. Although the Pelicans' Murphy quickly returned to color, scoring 9 points in a row to help the Pelicans regain a 3-point lead, but the Rockets' Van Jordan was not to be outdone, he hit two three-pointers from the outside, and Shin Jing also made 4 of 4 free throws inside, and dunked in the air, and finally made a layupThe Rockets outscored the Pelicans 106-104 in the final minute or so.
At the critical moment, the Rockets showed a suffocating defense, Smith Jr. and Shin Jing completed a perfect duo, they blocked Zion and Ingram's layups in the last 37 seconds, leaving the Pelicans powerless, and finally the Rockets won 106-104 thrillingly, winning two in a row, while the Pelicans suffered two straight losses. In the whole game, Zion on the Pelicans still performed well, he scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals on 11-of-16 shooting, Ingram also scored 19 points, and Varland got a double-double of 10 points and 11 reboundsMcCollum and Murphy contributed 13 and 14 points, respectively.
But the twin stars on the Rockets' side shine even more, Smith and Shen Jing hit an amazing stat of 63 points, 22 rebounds and 8 assists, Shen Jing (21 years old) and Smith Jr. (20 years old) are the second youngest combination in history to score 25+ points in the same game, second only to Durant and Jeff Green during the Thunder period. Shen Jing had 37 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists, and Smith had 26 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, both of whom shot 10 of 14The hit rate is as high as 714%。
The rest of the Rockets also played an important role, with Van Jordan scoring 10 points, Eason having eight points, four rebounds and two steals, and Dillon having five points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal. For Udoka, he gave Jalen Green plenty of chancesBut Jalen Green didn't get it.