After playing against the Mavericks, the Rockets ushered in a relatively difficult schedule and they will usher in several consecutive away games.

And as soon as these two away games were "back-to-back" away games, this is a big test for the Rockets' physical fitness - the schedule has reached this stage, and when everyone is a little tired, playing "back-to-back" is really a very torture.

In order to win these two victories, Thibodeau deliberately changed the lineup and disrupted the original main lineup. He used Eddie Griffin and Jim Jackson as the starting lineup of the first game and the starting lineup of the Rockets in the second position and the third position. Then in the second game, Mutombo replaced Kevin Cato with the original starting lineup.

He wanted to use this method to ensure that several players in the starting lineup could have sufficient physical fitness.

This idea is good, and the opponents are the New York Knicks and the Warriors, and they are not strong enough, so it can be said that they are very feasible, but in the end the Rockets ended this "back-to-back" with "one win and one loss".

The reason is physical fitness problems.

At this time of the schedule, it is useless to just rely on lineup replacement to make up for physical fitness problems. When playing against the Warriors in the second game, Mobri and Battier, who didn't play much in the first game, should have physical fitness problems, but there are physical fitness problems.

Fortunately, after playing this "back-to-back", the Rockets can take a day off at least one day.

This is good news.

The only good news is also.

The bad news is...they'll play the Denver Nuggets next game!

The strength of this team is even weaker than that of the Warriors and the Knicks. The current record is the same as that of the Cavaliers, ranking at the bottom of the league. But the problem is that Denver has "altitude sickness". They have just experienced the "back-to-back" physical test and are now playing on the plateau. I am afraid that one day will not be enough to rest.

Now, the Rockets, who had been resting for a day, started with an 11-3 start by the Denver Nuggets, and then they were in a passive position. In the end, the Rockets lost in Denver 91-97. In addition, the Rockets lost to the Warriors "back-to-back" game, and the Rockets suffered two consecutive losses.

However, although the Rockets lost two consecutive games, all of them were not so frustrated. Thibodeau didn't look for any reason when facing the media interviews. Because the reasons did not need to be found, it was just physical fitness issues. There was no problem with the Rockets' cooperation.

On the contrary, the head coach of the Nuggets said, "We played very well tonight, we played very team, which made us win the game. I think this is the state we should play, and I hope we can keep it!"

But his face was covered with dark clouds, and he didn't look very happy no matter how he looked.

No wonder, his task this season is to lead the team to lose. The more ruthless the team loses, the higher the completion of his task. Especially now, the team has a ten-game losing streak to prove his ability. Winning is a result that runs contrary to what the management wants. How can he be happy!

He was very unhappy, but he had to pretend that he was very pleased with the team winning tonight.

It's really too difficult.

Thousands of miles away, the Cavaliers general manager Jimmy Paxson, who had no game today, was smiling as bright as a chrysanthemum. He really wanted to call Dawson now and thank the latter. They have helped a lot this season. Not only did they win two games in a row, but they also lost one game to the Nuggets. It's inside and outside that is equivalent to helping the Cavaliers get three wins in the pursuit of the No. 1 pick. Good man, he is really a great man!

"Although there are special circumstances, we have lost two consecutive games and we must win the next game!"

The Rockets continued away games, which was their fourth away game in a row. Fortunately, they could go back to Houston home after playing away games, and the difficult schedule finally came to an end.

But Thibodeau does not want to return to Houston with a losing streak. He hopes to end their current losing streak in the last away game of four consecutive away games and return to Space City as a winner.

Moreover, the Rockets have fallen to the third place in the West due to two consecutive losses. In this position, coupled with the division reasons, their final ranking will fall to fourth or even fifth.

Therefore, they must win!

However, their last away game in four consecutive away games was not easy to play. What they had to face was the Sacramento Kings, who are currently ranked fourth in the West!

Yao Ming is going to meet Chris Webber again!

Thibodeau gave a death order to win the game, but he happened to meet Chris Webber, which made Yao Ming mutter: "It's really destined to be!"

However, he also knew that it was probably not easy to win this game. So far, the Kings have never been "double-killed" by any team!

This is certainly no coincidence.

At the same time, Golden One Arena, at 5 pm.

The Kings team, who were supposed to end the team's training at this point, were still in training. Head coach Adelman did not leave the training ground and stood on the sidelines and looked at it with a serious look on his face.

Today he added more training volume to the Kings players.

For this, it is naturally the battle with the Rockets tomorrow.

He doesn't want the Kings to be "double-killed" by the Rockets.

Especially now, the Rockets are not in good condition. If they lose again, I am afraid that meeting again will be very dangerous!

You should know that although the Kings currently ranks fourth in the West, they are the top spot in the Pacific Division. When the season is settled at the end of the season, they can rank second in the West, and the Rockets are likely to climb to third in the West. In this way, after the first round, they will meet in the second round of the playoffs...

Therefore, if you lose this game, it will cause a huge blow to the Kings and will even affect the Kings' performance this year.

So, you have to win!

However, what Adelman didn't know was that he was not the only one who took this game seriously. Chris Webber and Stojakovic also attached great importance to this game.

In the last game, Chris Webber's performance at a critical moment was very poor, especially in the last few rounds of the match against Yao Ming, who was even worse than an ordinary player.

This made him feel very embarrassing!

This time, he must wash away his shame!

For this reason, he stayed for another hour after practicing at Adelman.

As for Stojakovic's seriousness, it is naturally because of the All-Star Game...

Like Chris Webber, he also stayed for an extra hour after the team's training.
Chapter completed!