Chapter 66: All eyes on you
The Oklahoma City fans sent a message to the Thunder players with their enthusiasm: You have a very strong backing!
From the moment the Thunder everyone stepped onto the court, the cheers of the fans never stopped. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info experienced the snub of fans in the preseason, but the Thunder were unexpectedly popular in the regular season.
Even the preseason games between the Celtics and Lakers didn't attract too many people's attention. After all, there are two kinds of preseason games, either commercial games purely for monetary gain, such as the NBA China game that has been in full swing in recent years. Either it is a practice game played by the team in order to run in the lineup, this kind of game generally the team will not send its main lineup, and the two sides will not compete with real guns, and the Thunder's four preseason games undoubtedly belong to the second type. But now it's different, now every score a player scores on the court, every rebound grabs will be recorded in the NBA's huge database, this is a real NBA regular season competition!
The fans have a clear priority, and in such an important game, the fans will not let the players on the field fight alone.
The starting line-up sent by P.J. Calesimo is still a little different from last season. Russell Westbrook, who made his debut for the first time, became the starting point guard of the Thunder in this game, which was also a helpless move by Calesimo, and the Thunder's current guard line really can't choose anyone. The starting shooting guard was played by the mediocre Earl Watson.
On the small forward side, Kevin Durant will continue to start, and the power forward will be continued by Chris Wilcox last season. But in the center forward position, Chinese fans did not see An Jie's name, and the experienced Nick Collison stood in the center circle. Originally, it was very unusual for a rookie player to start his first game, so after Westbrook started, Anjie could only be placed on the bench by Callesimo.
Chinese fans can understand this, as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian have already taken to play on the other pitch, and now they can't wait to see the third Chinese athlete in action.
As the referee's whistle blew, he threw the orange basketball high into the air. In the scrum, Nick Collison was completely inferior when facing Bogut, Bogut easily won the ball, Michael Reed caught the ball steadily, and the game began!
"Hello spectators, spectators, and welcome to the Oklahoma City Thunder's first NBA game!" the ESPN commentator was also a little impatient, could this new face of the NBA league surprise them?
Against a strong Westbrook, Michael Reed felt that he was struggling with this kind of defense, considering that he is an All-Star caliber player!
Through Bogut's pick-and-roll, Reed quickly rounded the wall, thinking that he must have gotten rid of the damn rookie this time. However, he really underestimated Westbrook's speed, and the opportunity only appeared for a few tenths of a second, and the gap after the block was blocked by the fast-moving Westbrook again!
"This!" Reid couldn't believe that his first attack was actually killed by this kid, but it didn't matter, Andrew Bogut had already gone down after the block, and Michael Reed moved his wrist and passed the ball to Bogut.
In the face of Nick Collisson's defense, Bogut had no worries at all. He was about to dunk in three steps, and sure enough, this move caught the attention of all members of the Thunder team, and they all shrank to the basket, ready to stop Bogut's attack.
As soon as the lineup shrank, the Bucks' starting power forward Villanueva was leaked, and Bogut passed the ball again at the moment of jumping, and he did not forget what his interior partner was good at.
Villanueva, who received a pass from beyond the three-point line, was surrounded by a Thunder player and was not going to waste this opening opportunity.
Jump, lift, soft shot. The basketball crossed the box high above the box, as if mocking the Thunder players in the air who were being teased. In the end, it flew into the basket with precision under the eyes of everyone in the audience.
"Three-point shot! This big shooter is very hot as soon as he comes up, but the Thunder's defense is too loose, and it only takes two passes for the Bucks to easily score three points. The ESPN narrator couldn't help but shake his head, as the saying goes, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
After being scored, fans were hoping that the Thunder would pull one back on the offensive end. Speaking of offense, all eyes are on Kevin Durant, last year's rookie of the year. Westbrook took the ball past half-court and handed it over, after all, he was still a rookie and didn't have many opportunities to attack on his own.
Earl Watson is a true point guard on the court, and he controls the tempo unhurriedly, hoping to find a gap in passing.
However, after the ball was passed a few times, the Thunder didn't get any decent chances. Finally, after a low-quality off-ball block from Nick Collisson, Durant ran to the bottom corner and raised his hand for the ball.
Even if Durant is a rookie, Watson does not dare to slack off. When he saw Durant asking for the ball, he immediately responded and fed the basketball to Durant.
Catch the ball and shoot, but what Durant didn't expect was that the old flyer Richard Jefferson followed him so quickly, and completely blocked his shooting sight with his palm!
"Durant three-point shot! Can the Thunder tie the score!? Oops, it's short!" The mainland commentator screamed regretfully, one defense and one offense were played, and the Thunder team made no achievements.
Durant missed a three-pointer, and Bogut easily grabbed a defensive rebound. Judging from today's back-and-forth confrontation, he is bound to play well in this game.
It turned out to be exactly what Bogut expected, as the Bucks hit Collison with the ball on his back on the second offense, and then hit an easy hook shot near the box to score his first point in an NBA game of the season.
A missed shot is nothing, and fans still have expectations for Durant, but when Durant missed the three-point line for the second time, the hearts of Oklahoma City fans suddenly cooled.
This lad who shone last season, but this game has been slow to find a feeling.
The first quarter played four minutes, and the Thunder also fell behind under Durant's slump. P.J. Calesimo had to take a timeout and he had to make some changes to the lineup.
He first replaced the in-form Durant with Desmond Mason, a move that made Durant very depressed, and he only missed three shots before being ruthlessly replaced by the head coach.
Later, Quincy Dubie, who was traded by the Kings to the Thunder with Anjie, replaced Earl Watson, who also had a bad hand.
Finally, under the shouts of the fans in the stadium, P.J. Carlesimo called Anjie's name.
"Ann, you replace Nick Collison, you have only one mission, to limit Bogut's play for me!"
An Jie immediately stood up and took off the training jacket that made him sweat all over. Suddenly all the cameras turned to the Thunder's bench, and the much-talked-about yellow-skinned big man was finally ready to play!
"Oh! we see that An Jie is ready to appear on another court! I look forward to him giving us all a good performance!" CCTV was originally broadcasting the Rockets vs. Grizzlies game live, but after An Jie appeared on the court, they used a picture-in-picture in the lower right corner of the screen to show An Jie getting up and undressing.
Chinese fans can't watch it, and some watch the live broadcast of CCTV while watching the live broadcast, in order not to miss the game of the three Chinese players. Stern really had to wake up laughing when he fell asleep, the market behind these three people is simply immeasurable!
Wearing a white Thunder home jersey and carrying his brand new number 16. The guy with a simple two-letter name behind this jersey is finally on the field!
Aside from the preseason game that is like a chicken help, this is Anjie's debut in the true sense!
After high-fives with Westbrook and other teammates, Anjie's playing time was officially recorded in the NBA's database.
Let's wait for a long time, and now, the Eastern Tower has officially landed!
(Three more presents, the pace of these chapters is a little slower, and I hope you can bear with me.) Book Friends Group: 426042887, welcome to join. )