Chapter 63: A Hasty Ending
The 76ers players walked out of the locker room with ease, and this game was really a warm-up game, and they didn't even play at full strength before they had already beaten the Thunder to the ground. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info
After seeing the opponent's starting lineup in the second half, the 76ers players were even more relaxed. The Thunder actually sent three rookie players at once, except for Kevin Brown, who has proven himself. In addition to Durant's extenuating circumstances, it is a bit unreasonable for the other two people to follow and play the main force. However, the opponent gave such a big gift, and the players of the 76ers could only laugh.
Playing with the main lineups of both sides, An Jie felt the huge pressure brought by NBA fast-paced basketball to interior players. Whenever he was running behind after the baseline shot, Westbrook and his teammates had already pushed forward and started to prepare for the attack.
As soon as Anjie ran to the opponent's half, he immediately made a block for Westbrook. You know, when he was on the Whirlwind team, he usually had to get to the position first, and then he brought it up to block it. Fortunately, the fast pace of the attack allowed him to skip a lot of steps.
Westbrook borrowed a pick-and-roll and easily got past Louis. Williams, Williams was also angry today, and was frequently broken through by this first-year rookie. The most important thing is that he still has no way to take this rookie!
Seeing the impactful child burst in again, Dareham Potter was a little undecided. Is it with Fang Anjie? Or leave this kid to Thaddeus. What about Yang?
Without time to think about it, Durham Potter withdrew from the box and followed Angela out.
Iguodala has been staring at the guy with amazing arm span in front of him, he believes that Westbrick will definitely break through the ball in the end, and the biggest threat to the Thunder is the sophomore named Durant in front of him!
Sure enough! When Westbrook was about to jump off the frame, Durant suddenly started! He's going to answer it!
"Don't take the NBA too simply!" Iguodala meditated in his heart, and without the slightest hesitation, he immediately moved with Durant.
"Bang!" It's the wall again! Iguodala bumped into Anjie for the second time today! Anjie made a beautiful off-ball block to help Durant get rid of the defense.
Westbrook's breakaway once again caught the attention of the 76ers defenders, while Durant, who was waiting in the corner, was left unattended.
As Iguodala expected, Westbrook didn't hesitate to split the ball after seeing Durant in the open spot. It was only at this time that people found out that Iguodala had been greatly slowed down by Anjie.
The slightly shy big man caught the ball and threw it, and Iguodala interfered with it with all his might, but Durant showed the calmness and maturity that he should not have at his age.
The basketball hollowed into the net, and An Jie's two consecutive blocks and dismantlings contributed to it.
"It's them again!" Iguodala gritted her teeth, and the two '08 rookies always seemed to be able to surprise the game.
Once again, the three of them cooperated very happily. Although An Jie did all the dirty work, he was not unhappy. You only deserve to have it if you give it first.
Not only the offense, but the simultaneous appearance of these three people also made the Thunder's defense different.
The first is that Westbrook completely blocked Louis on the back line. Williams' firepower, judging by the performance on the court, Louis. Williams is more of an inexperienced rookie, while Westbrook is a veteran who completely locks opponents off the three-point line.
Seeing that Williams couldn't attack on his own, Dareham Porter, who was in a good position, raised his hand to ask for the ball. Today, he hasn't officially faced off with this Chinese kid, how many pounds and taels does An Jie have, and Daim Potter is also full of curiosity.
Adam Porter isn't a star center, but his double-double averages of 10.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last season kept him at a high level. After all, there are only a few star centers in the league now, and among the rest, Delham Porter doesn't think he's worse than anyone else.
Back-to-back play doesn't work, he knows his ability in the low post is poor. So Damham Porter turned around with the ball, but when he faced the basket, he realized that he had been blocked by this Chinese with his hands raised so that he couldn't see anything!
"Don't you give it a chance!?" Potter seems to have overestimated his quality a bit, and now he can only try to protect the ball, and Anjie has narrowed his chances of hitting the rim to near none.
After barely getting the ball to Iguodala, Daim Potter was sweating profusely. The Thunder may really rise from here! Look at the punch and speed of that Zero defender! Take a look at the defensive awareness and height of this Chinese center! If these two guys grow up with Durant, the consequences are unimaginable!
After playing smoothly on the offensive end, Durant was much more active on the defensive end than he had just been. Now Iguodala wants to get rid of this gibbon's entanglement, and it is not as easy as it was just now.
The helpless Iguodala could only rely on his strong body to force a breakthrough, who knew that just after taking the first step, he hit his head against the "wall" again.
Anjie gained a firm foothold on Iguodala's breakthrough route early, and thanks to Durant's efforts to slow down Iguodala's breakthrough, Anjie had time to be in place.
An Jie leaned back exaggeratedly after being impacted, and even Durant was startled by this force. Only Iguodala himself knew that he didn't rush at all, where could he possibly exert such a force.
"Doot, hit people with the ball, offensive fouls!" The referee couldn't see how Iguodala bumped into him, he only knew that the big man fell to the ground hard, and he must have suffered a lot of impact.
"Humph! Shameless guy! Iguodala just cursed silently in his heart, he has seen this kind of thing a lot in the NBA, and he will no longer be angry because of this.
"It's okay!" Durant hurriedly went to pull up this yellow-skinned teammate, and it seems that Augustin is right, he is really a very good guy.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's our offense, come on!" An Jie just pretended to cover his chest, and Divac forcibly held back in the box so that he didn't laugh, this acting is really a learned home!
After a wonderful performance by An Jie, the Thunder also got the ball as they wished. This is the first time that An Jie has brought his acting talent to the NBA arena, of course, if you think that An Jie has only relied on fake falls to get to where he is today, then you are very wrong.
After several excellent performances, Anjie has also completely won the trust of his teammates on the Thunder team. Therefore, in this offense, Westbrook originally handed the ball to Durant, but Durant saw that Anjie was going to get into a good position, so he hoisted the ball into the restricted area again.
"An Jie has the ball with his back! It was the second time he had the ball today! "All the basketball fans in China are focused, and An Jie's first goal is an open shot, and the audience can't judge An Jie's offensive ability from this. But now, Angel is firmly attached to Durham Potter!
"The defense is good, the offense won't be good." Damham Porter didn't have time to follow the NCAA game, so he didn't know Anjie's level. What kind of opponent is the most terrifying? Of course, the unknown opponent is the most terrifying.
After holding the ball, An Jie decided to use a low-post attack to achieve the goal of scoring, he took a deep breath and prepared to exert his strength!
Slap the ball! Recoil! Hard! Anjie's powerful first blow made the ill-prepared Daim Potter take a big step back!
"This! How many pounds is he! "Durham Potter, like everyone who has fought with Anjie, can't believe that this emaciated body can burst out with so much power. What kind of vision is this of the Thunder team, the weirdos are all chosen by them!
The second time Daimpoter was fully prepared, but he was still pushed back a little by Anjie's strong impact. You must know that since Ricard asked Anjie to gain weight last year, strength training has never stopped following Anjie. If such a long time of training can't make An Jie grow, then it's really a bit too much.
There is still a small step away from the three-second zone, but it doesn't matter, An Jie has already thought of a way to deal with it.
I saw An Jie holding the ball with both hands, and suddenly turned around and took three steps in the direction of the three-second zone.
"This is!?" Daelhambo tried his best to block Anjie's way with his chest, but Anjie didn't plan to go to the basket at all, he just wanted to walk to the three-second zone from the side.
After taking two big steps, An Jie jumped on one foot and raised the basketball high with his right hand. With his body facing the basket sideways, An Jie made a very stretched hook.
Daim Porter miscalculated the direction of An Jie's breakthrough, and by the time he reacted and jumped to block, An Jie had already shot the basketball.
This kind of big hook action that is often used by traditional center forwards has not been seen by the fans and even some players in the stadium for some days. The ball was very smooth and showed the beauty that belonged to the center of the 90s.
"Anjie! Nice big hook hand! Score again! After seeing the goal scored, most of the Chinese fans waved their fists and applauded. The lad didn't have any bad hands, and he didn't show any discomfort with the NBA rhythm. He scored two flawless goals, both in the attacking selection and in the final touch, beautifully.
"Hey! Well passed! An Jie didn't forget to praise Durant, and Durant also patted An Jie's ass happily, he hadn't experienced the thrill of team combat for a long time.
With the excellent performance of this rookie trio, the 76ers gradually lost complete control of the game, and the Thunder gradually narrowed the point difference. But when P.J. Calesimo was about to take Anjie and Durant down, the Thunder were beaten back to square one. Westbrook, who lacked support, really acted like a rookie at this time, and he was overwhelmed by frequent mistakes on the field. Later, when An Jie came to the court, Durant and Westbrook rested, the same situation happened to An Jie.
On the defensive end, An Jie can still behave decently, but on the offensive end, An Jie has not even played a tacit blocking and dismantling cooperation. The rest of the Thunder players are just too disorganized, and P.J. Calesimo doesn't draw detailed runs and pick-and-rolls like Rickard.
Presti can see that only when these three people are on the field at the same time can they complement each other and achieve excellent results. And to take them out and lead the team alone, they are not enough. But it can't be helped, these three people are too young, and it's a fool's dream to want them to be able to be on their own now. Although the three of them are awe-inspiring, the tuition fees they have to pay are still indispensable.
In this way, the 76ers opened up some points in the second half of the third quarter, and by the end of the third quarter, the score became 80-69, and the defensive intensity of both sides in the preseason was not large, so the score was also a little high.
In the fourth quarter, P.J. Calesimo directly pressed all three young men to the bench, and it was up to the rest of the Thunder to fight, in order to see someone outside of the three rookies step up. However, neither he nor Presti saw the surprises as they wished, and the fourth quarter of the game was nothing short of a 12-minute slaughter! The rest of the Thunder couldn't withstand the 76ers' onslaught on the court, and they didn't have a good comeback ability.
Puzzle players are also an indispensable part of a team, and it's clear that there is a shortage of such players on the current Thunder team. Presti knows that if they don't make some worthwhile trades quickly, they will probably be at the bottom of the table this season.
When the whistle blew for the end of the game, the rest of the Thunder players breathed a sigh of relief as if they had heard the sound of heaven, and the trip to hell was finally over.
110-96, the rest of the Thunder's players allowed the 76ers to cut 30 points in the fourth quarter! Originally, this section was a chance for P.J. Calesimo to prove themselves, but they didn't expect them to all play badly.
Anjie and Westbrook performed well, with Anjie scoring 8 points and 6 rebounds on 4-of-5 shooting in their limited playing time, while Westbrook had 12 points and 4 assists. The most dazzling person in the Thunder's stats is Kevin. Durant, with 22 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, allowed him to further solidify his leadership position on the Thunder.
Angel and Westbrook's first professional basketball game ended in such a bleak ending. In the eyes of outsiders, the statistics of these two little guys are not very impressive, only Presti in the box knows that this team now really has a clear future!