Chapter 42: Piercing the Thunder
With the play of Qin Yan and Duncan, the Spurs gradually got rid of the decline and relied on the cooperation of the whole team to play a wave of 8-0 small climax. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
On the Thunder side, despite Durant's preparation, he is ready to incarnate Thor and kill, and he is invincible. But he has no choice but to beat four hands with two fists, and every time he attacks, he is either attacked by Qin Yan and Duncan, one inside and one outside, or is directly locked by Qin Yan and Leonard on the outside with long arms and big formations, it is difficult to even catch the ball well, how can he attack and score?
Therefore, under the defense of the Spurs and the three people in turn, Durant is like Thor who has lost his hammer, and he can't show his skills, so he can only watch his team fall behind and be anxious.
Isn't there still Westbrook, one might ask? The Spurs' defensive focus has gone to Durant, shouldn't Westbrook be liberated? Shouldn't he take the opportunity to get good results?
yes, that's what Westbrook thinks too, so as soon as he gets the ball, he'll do everything he can to attack the Spurs' basket.
However, since the audience can think of it, and Westbrook himself can think of it, do you think the Spurs' old man Zhuge Vic can't think of it?
Popovich's tactics made it clear to everyone during the previous timeout, guarding against Durant, letting Westbrook go, and harassing Westbrook only at the moment of his shot.
Westbrook in '12 is not a super turtle after being injured in '15, nor is it a data machine that averaged a triple-double per game on his own because of Durant's departure in '16.
He's only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1.0 now, and there are still too many features that haven't been developed, and he's not strong enough to become a qualified leader. Now he is still more suitable to be a second-in-command next to Durant.
Popovich saw this, so he was relieved and bold to let his three defensive masters take turns to take care of Durant, and only slightly interfere with Westbrook.
After all, Westbrook is still an easy-to-get young man, and when he is hot-headed, he doesn't care about anything, he only rushes to the basket with the ball, and he can't see where his teammates are.
That's the way it was in the first few rounds, Parker half-let Westbrook burst inside his line, and then he followed him to put pressure on him, and when Westbrook was about to make a move, Dior or Duncan came over and reached out to interfere.
It stands to reason that the Thunder will definitely have players open at this time, and Westbrook has a good chance of assisting his teammates to score as long as they can pass the ball.
However, we know that Westbrook's style of play has always been to carry the opponent to play, so when the Spurs' people come up to help Westbrook when they are about to attack, Westbrook will only have one thought in his heart, and that is to kill these people in front of him!
Therefore, he did not choose to pass the ball in these rounds, but forced a layup himself. After all, Westbrook thinks that the basketball is still closer to the basket and has a high shooting percentage, and forcing a layup is still a foul even if it doesn't score, right?
It's a pity, Popovich just wants you to play like this, how can he let his men give you the chance to foul? Westbrook is still a young man, how can he have a chance to make a foul when the Spurs' old disrespectful players have a calculating and unintentional situation? You must know that even the shooting opportunities are specially created by the Spurs.
In this way, the result is obvious, Wei Shao missed four consecutive shots, and the Spurs took the opportunity to launch an 8-0 attack wave, further widening the difference.
And in these four rounds, Durant needless to say that he was entangled, and the other three members of the Thunder team were just running back and running with Westbrook, and they had no chance to shoot at all on the offensive end, so they could only make some effort on the defensive end. In this way, the original 5vs5 game seems to have unknowingly become 5vs2, and the Thunder seem to rely on the double less against the entire Spurs team. Oh no, it should be the Thunder who rely on Westbrook to single-handedly take on the entire Spurs.
Coach Brooks of the Thunder finally couldn't sit still and quickly asked for a timeout.
The Thunder's players all returned to the bench with a depressed face. Durant is depressed because he is entangled and unable to exert his strength, the team is behind, Westbrook is depressed about his own bad hand these times (he hasn't found a trap until now, he just thinks that his hand is not good), and others are depressed because they don't have a sense of presence on the court.
"Russell, I need you to calm down." Coach Brooks pondered the language: "Sometimes there is more than one way to attack......
"Yes coach, give me a few more chances, I've found a way to score against those guys." Before Coach Brooks could finish, Westbrook interrupted him while wiping his sweat. 'I know I didn't score those goals because I didn't get used to it at the beginning. I'm getting used to their defence now and they can't stop me anymore. ”
"Russell, I'm not talking about that." Coach Brooks really can't do anything about his beloved apprentice: "Russell, you have to trust your teammates, and in this difficult situation, you have to trust that they can help you. ”
Westbrook's eyes widened, he thought for a moment, and suddenly asked happily, "Do you want Sergi (Ibaka) to help me with the pick-and-roll?" ”
Thunder Others: ......
Coach Brooks can only smile helplessly, but this can't be blamed on Westbrook, who made Brooks his own tactics have always been three-board axes: Durant singles, Westbrook singles, Harden singles.
Now that there is no Harden, this tactic has become someone else's singles, passing? It seems that after Westbrook turned on offensive mode, that option didn't have that option on his mind.
After all, Westbrook is hot-headed and attacking, and even Durant may not be able to see it, let alone the rest of the team.
Coach Brooks could only look at his eldest disciple Durant, who was sitting expressionless at this time, as if he hadn't heard anyone else's conversation, he was quite uncomfortable at this time, and this game was no less than a humiliation for him.
was first prevented by two people who he looked down on for 8 seconds, and then he was prevented by those two plus Duncan from doing anything. And the defensive style of these three people is not the same, it takes a lot of effort to get rid of it every time, and he has already begun to cut points in the rampage mode, who knew that there would be such a hand, and he would beat himself back to the normal mode from the rampage mode.
And then his second brother is a mallet again, and when his brain is hot, he will only attack, and in the case of being stared at by the opposite side, if the second brother scores a goal and bites the score, it is better to say.
But at this time, the second brother couldn't score, in the past, whenever this time came, he still had a bearded third brother, and this third brother would come up to control the rhythm of the team, but now the third brother left Houston alone, and there is no one who can reassure him.
Alas, Brooks saw that one of the two aces was absent-minded and the other was hot-headed, so he could only arrange his own tactics first, but whether this tactic could be implemented or not was really not guaranteed.
The atmosphere on the Spurs' side is much more relaxed, Popovich looked at Duncan, Qin Yan, and Leonard with great satisfaction, it is the seamless cooperation of the three of them that the Spurs can successfully lock up the rampaging Durant, and now Durant no longer has the momentum of God blocking and killing God and Buddha blocking and killing Buddha after being forced to violate the 8-second violation, but has recovered as before, and the Spurs have successfully been forced to lift the violent state.
However, these three people did make the Spurs' defense go to a higher level again, the original Spurs' starting defensive configuration was top-notch, and now the starting lineup is unparalleled after adding Qin Yan and Leonard.
The three men, one as ruthless as ice, "Death Entanglement" calmly broke the ball; One is as imposing as a fire, constantly pressing the opponent with force and destroying the opponent's movements; The last one is as majestic as the high, "he is strong, he is strong, and the breeze caresses the hills", blocking the road to the basket with his tall body.
Any star who wants to conquer the Spurs basket will have to conquer these three men this season. This is Popovich's new ace defensive lineup this season, even if you can break the ice and extinguish the fire, you have to climb over the mountain in the end, and the people who generally pass through the "Ice and Fire" duo are basically the end of the strong crossbow, and they can't wear Lu Min yet, how to climb the mountain?
Durant is the first superstar to fall under the trio, but definitely not the last.
Popovich only explained a few words about the coordination problem and did not say much. In his opinion, there is not much change in this game, unless everyone in the Thunder can go on a rampage next.
The consequences of playing again were the same as Popovich thought, Westbrook still went it alone, and the Spurs specially let him score a few goals at Popovich's behest. This moment strengthened Westbrook's determination to play singles, and he didn't even have Durant in his eyes, let alone other teammates.
And Durant, he only went on a rampage for less than 5 minutes before he was directly strangled to death by the Spurs' defensive trio, and he had nothing to do in the second half of the game.
As for the rest of the Thunder, well, the offensive end can't even touch the ball, what else is there to say, only Ibaka desperately grabbed a few frontcourt rebounds and contributed a few powerful dunks, which made people realize that the Thunder still have other people playing.
The fourth quarter was quickly garbage time, and in the second half of the third quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, the Spurs launched a wave of 22:8 attacks, directly taking away the game, and in the second half of the fourth quarter, Popovich directly waved his hand, 5 up and 5 down.
Qin Yan sat on the bench and watched Westbrook, a brainless guy, enter the Spurs' interior again and again, well, he can only silently grieve for Durant, this is the best player to defend Durant!
In the end, the Spurs defeated the visiting Thunder 112-94 at home, Qin Yan's statistics in this game have dropped a little, but he still has an all-round performance of 22 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, and in the first two games of his rookie season, he scored 20+5+5, proving his worth to everyone who questioned him!