Chapter 157: Ranking Chase
"You can rest assured that you will lie here, Kevin, when you return to the team, we will all surpass the sun. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. biqUgE。 info" Westbrook patted Durant on the chest.
Durant is no longer on bed rest now, he is home alone, but he has to use crutches to move. With only 11 days left before the tentative return time, Durant has decided to take a look at the bench in tomorrow's game.
"I've seen it, and the game I came back to was the game against the Suns!" Durant was already eager to try, and as a young man, in a dynamic group, the atmosphere made him unable to sit idle.
"Russell and I keep working hard to make your comeback fight a crucial battle for us to move up the rankings!"
Durant patted An Jie on the back, with these two guys, they can't really create a thunder brilliance of their own.
"Russell, Ann, you say...... Is it possible for the three of us to win a championship in the future?" Durant looked at the sky through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the sun, which had begun to shine in March, looked as bright as the O'Brien Cup.
"Hey, as long as you two don't leave, we'll have that day. Russell looked at Durant and Angel, and as long as they were both around, he was confident of victory.
Three young people who have just set foot in the NBA have already started the idea of winning a championship. I don't know if it's to say that they don't know the sky, or if they have big ambitions......
But youth and time are indeed their capital.
The three gathered at Durant's house for dinner together, but after the meal, An Jie left early alone. There's no doubt that both Durant and Westbrook know that this guy would go anywhere else but the training court?
As long as you don't work blindly, you're bound to reap the rewards. On March 4, the Thunder hosted the Washington Wizards, and An Jie once again proved the correctness of this sentence with an excellent performance.
"Ann has revitalized the team! The Thunder starters all scored in double figures, and the scoring margin was not too big. It is an indisputable fact that the Thunder team has limited abilities except for the three less, but in this game, you can't see this at all. ”
The Wizards, who lost the "big general" Arenas, gave up this season early, but many players in the development stage of the Wizards are unwilling to let go of any opportunity to perform.
But the Wizards, who were on their own, couldn't match the tight-knit Thunder, with Wizards all-around forward Antoine Jamison scoring a game-high 29 points, but that didn't allow the scattered Wizards to win.
Westbrook had 18 points and Anjie had 15 points and 10 rebounds. The data of the two of them can only be described as mediocre, but it is these two "mediocre" stars who have driven the entire Thunder team.
In the final moments of the last game against the Mavericks, the Thunder played a lot of flowering performances. Therefore, in this game, the others continued to be in good form from the beginning and fully integrated into the attack.
Kyle Weville, Nick Collison, Saab Seforosa, they all have 12 points each. In the face of the Thunder, whose shots were evenly distributed, the Wizards simply failed to grasp the defensive focus, which naturally made Jamison's 29 points an inflated statistic.
83-88, the Thunder won their second opponent in March. On the same day, Wade led the Heat to defeat the incoming Phoenix Suns with a 35-point performance, and with this opportunity, the victory gap between the Thunder and the Suns was only two games!
Since Durant's injury, the Thunder have not only not been able to shake up, but have played a wave of four consecutive wins under the leadership of An Jie.
Yes, another four-game winning streak, a winning streak that is hard to break for the Thunder.
With the exception of Van Gundy's first five-game winning streak since he took over, the Thunder have never had a five-game winning streak.
Four wins in a row, which indicates that the Thunder will lose in the next game. It's like God has issued a curse, so that the Thunder can't break this embarrassment no matter what.
It is precisely because of this dramatic record that the NBA game becomes exciting. On March 7, the Thunder traveled to New Orleans in hopes of shattering the curse of a four-game winning streak on the road.
The Thunder have won four games in a row this season, but on just one of those occasions, the Thunder seized the opportunity to make it five in a row. The Warriors, Heat, and Lakers are the three teams that have each prevented the Thunder from winning five in a row three times. Will the New Orleans Hornets be able to stop the in-form Thunder today and join the pack?"
The suspense created by various media has whetted the appetite of fans, and even many neutral fans have been attracted by the Thunder's embarrassing record.
It turns out that the Thunder really don't have a five-game winning streak, and the Hornets played extremely well in this game, and when it comes to the ability to control the tempo of the whole game, Chris Paul is undoubtedly much better than Anjie as a center.
The Hornets were playing with the Thunder throughout the game, and the Hornets were even more bold on the defensive end to use a bag clip on Anjie.
The first time he saw the Hornets wrapping Anjie, Van Gundy wasn't worried. Because Kostic is on the court, he can always solve the problem with shooting when Anjie is caught in the bag.
It's just a pity that the Serbian center forward felt really bad today. Anjie repeatedly sent out clever passes when he was trapped, but Kostic couldn't capitalize on his chances.
Seeing that Kostic didn't feel good, the Hornets were even more resolute.
Faced with the double attack of Tyson Chandler and David West, Angel really didn't have much to do.
In the first two games, the Thunder's multi-point offense allowed everyone to gradually increase their chances, but it also turned out that not everyone who got the right to fire could convert it into a score.
Veterans Chaki Atkins and Marik Rose hit as badly as Kostic. The two of them can still be selected by Presti because of their rich experience, but I didn't expect these two veterans to really prove with practical actions that they don't have much to dig in addition to experience and exploitation.
Kostic shot 3-of-12 from the field, a 25 percent shooting percentage. Atkins shot 2-of-8 from the field and shot 25 percent from the field, while Malik Rose shot 2-of-9 from the field with a minimum of 22 percent.
All three had a lot more shots than in their previous matches, but they failed to live up to everyone's hopes. More flowering is not something that can bloom for anyone.
On the other hand, with the Hornets, Paul's playmaking still makes it easy for his teammates. No matter how tight the Thunder's defense is, the "Queen Bee" can always find the fatal gap.
Westbrook 24 points, Anjie 18 points and 8 rebounds, this data seems to be good, but compared to the Hornets with three people scoring 20, six players scoring in double figures, and as many as 11 people in the rotation, Westbrook and Anjie's data is far from enough.
"It's over! Coach Van Gundy has taken Anjie and Westbrook down, which means the Thunder have given up the game!"
98 to 108, the Thunder, who were in the limelight, suffered a shocking defeat in New Orleans. The Hornets shot 53% from the field, while the Thunder only had a 39% shot.
Although the performance of Anjie and Westbrook in this game was not amazing, it was definitely a good game. The poor performance of the role players was a big reason why the Thunder were once again rejected from a five-game winning streak.
Role players are not good, the Thunder are a cliché, and some of them may be outstanding in a few games, but from the perspective of long-term team building, the overall strength of the Thunder's role players is clearly below the passing line. Presti's summer looks set to be very busy.
Once again, the progress came to an abrupt halt on a four-game winning streak, but the only thing the Thunder could be thankful for was that the Suns had also lost the game the day before.
In another Yao Shark battle yesterday, Yao Ming led his Houston Rockets to defend glory at home and also defended Yao Ming's title as the league's No. 1 center. The Suns have lost two in a row, so even if the Thunder lose today, the Suns still only have two more wins than the Thunder.
After the deasco in New Orleans, the Thunder didn't have much time to grief and returned home to back-to-back games against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The 76ers' opponent Anjie is no stranger, because his first professional basketball game was against the 76ers in the preseason.
For An Jie at that time, the 76ers' players were still very strong. But now, after so much training, Anjie has long been not afraid of this team that is no longer brilliant.
20 turnovers, in the Thunder's defensive posture, the 76ers made a full 20 turnovers.
Passing out of bounds, dribbling being cut off under intense physical confrontation, etc., these mistakes have become the main tone of the 76ers' game.
In addition to the turnovers, the poor shooting percentage also hastened the 76ers' own death.
Andre Iguodala didn't expect the Thunder's two rookies to improve so much, he didn't pay attention to Anjie's interior defense in the preseason, but now, Anjie's restricted area has made him miss several layups.
Saab Seforosa's combined defense with Anjie completely deprived Iguodala of his attacking sense, and this was Iguodala's 11th shot, but his score was still only nine points, unchanged. ”
He shot 3-of-11 from the field and shot only 50 percent from the free-throw line. With the core of the 76ers playing like this, do they have any capital to win?
74-89, after a big loss, the Thunder immediately won back-to-back games. The ability to lose form quickly and recover quickly is one of the pros and cons of a young team. The double-double performance of 14 points and 11 rebounds made An Jie still loved.
Also on March 8, the Suns challenged the GDP Spurs away. To the delight of all Thunder fans, the Suns lost again!
Facing the Magic, Rockets and Spurs, the Suns delivered a big gift to the Thunder with a three-game losing streak. Now the difference between the two sides is only one game! If you want to surpass the Sun, it seems that it is just around the corner!
The morale-boosting Thunder pounced on their next opponent, the Kings, who had already been killed by the Thunder this season.
Every time he played against the Thunder, the Kings general manager had to be sprayed by the fans. Naturally, the Kings players don't want to be looked down upon by the fans, and everyone played very hard in this game, so the Kings have a super level of defensive intensity.
Jeff Green and Anjie naturally became the two most high-profile guys again, and the two of them did not disappoint the audience, attacking with the ball, you come and go, and the game is not lively.
In the final 38 seconds of the game, the Thunder led 97-92. Jeff Green received a second pass from teammate Bobby Jackson and made a decisive shot from outside the three-point line, and the basketball went into the frame, chasing the score by only 2 points!
"MVP!MVP!MVP!" Jeff Green's crucial goal made the whole Sleep Train Arena boil, and he had to prove that he was not inferior to the No. 16 on the opposite side!
After that, Westbrook hit a two-point iron after receiving a pass from Anjie in the open position, allowing the Kings to seize the opportunity to play a fast break, and let the Kings fans see the hope of a kill.
Jeff Green didn't give up the final shot, and he pushed forward quickly to get to the basket before Anjie could get back into place.
But that familiar scene played out again, and Jeff Green stretched out his jump, ready to dunk. Just when he thought that An Jie had no time to defend himself, the basketball in his hand flew from behind and was pressed to the rebound.
"Ann! A key block! Jeff Green is on the inside, and he can't escape from Anjie's palm at all!"
was stopped by Anjie again, and now in Jeff Green's heart, Anjie has really become that lingering shadow.
After that, the Kings had to deliberately foul Anjie, but they all knew that it was completely ineffective.
With 19 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks, Anjie's big double-double and strong defense in the restricted area once again picked Jeff Green off the horse.
99-98, the Kings and Jeff Green still couldn't complete the final kill, they fought to the end, but lost to the Chinese's defense.
So far, the Thunder have also won 34 games, the same as the Suns! Now there is only one game before Durant returns from injury, and if the key battle related to the rise and fall of the ranking is left to Phoenix, it will undoubtedly be resisted by the Suns.
Whether it will be a blow or be pulled away again, the fierce competition for playoff tickets has reached a white-hot stage. (To be continued.) )