Chapter 160: Rising Strong
Although it was the home court of the Suns, after the game, the victorious Thunder team was favored by reporters. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Kevin Durant, the guy who is destined to become a superstar in the first game of his comeback from injury, became the focus of the audience.
22 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, tied with Barbossa of the Suns for the highest score in the game. Jeff Van Gundy's painstaking protective measures have not been in vain, and since he is willing to let Durant start, then Durant's body will definitely be fine. Durant's performance confirms this.
Westbrook also played well, with 17 points and six assists. Today, he has a strong desire to attack, and he is unexpectedly very obedient, and more often than not, he is helping Anjie and Durant to make balls. It turns out that Anjie and Durant will not forget him after winning the ball. The three players have a reasonable distribution of the ball, and each can play a role.
And An Jie, who forced O'Neill into a corner, cut off two pairs again. 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, breaking his record of not scoring more than 20 points in March. In fact, this kind of questioning is nonsense, and the only problem that can be explained is that Anjie has received a lot of attention recently.
People who have hype value will be willing to create topics for critics.
O'Neal lowered his head and walked towards the player, a loss in one game would not make the big shark so down. The reason why he is in such a state is because Shaq, who is not convinced of old age, also realizes that his career is really coming to an end. Now it is difficult for him to compete with this group of little guys in their twenties.
"Hey, Shaq, can I disturb you for a few minutes?" a tired O'Neal was about to walk into the players' tunnel when he was surprised to hear someone calling him.
O'Neill turned his head, and an Asian man who was very small for him was standing in front of him. The guy who seemed to be a reporter didn't bring a photographer, just a pen and paper with a smile on his face.
"Stay there. O'Neill raised his hand and pointed to the center of the court, he didn't think an Asian would leave Anjie to interview him.
"The person I want to interview is you, Shaq. Of course, Wu Hua knew where An Jie was, but An Jie was not his target today.
"Interview me, an old man who has been beaten up by a newcomer?" said O'Neill, making a joke of himself, and sat on the railing of the stands with his ass. This means that he has been interviewed.
"Do you and An have anything to do with each other besides being rivals?" Wu Hua said and began to take notes with pen and paper. He doesn't like to use a voice recorder, and when he writes, he writes articles based on the looks and reactions of his interviewees. These things cannot be embodied by a voice recorder.
"Oh, of course, Anjie is my brother. We had a lot of fun at the All-Star break, but honestly, I hated him in this game. ”
"Hate him?"
"Yes, six years ago, Yao Ming stood up, I was still young at that time, and I was not afraid of the challenge of you Chinese. But I'm so old, and there are still people in your country who come to torture me. Anna stinky boy, he didn't think about my age at all, you look at how many points he scored? I bet if my opponent in this match was Yao, he would never do this to me. Wu Hua thought that he had dug up some explosive information, but it was just another indecent remark from O'Neill. However, from one side, An Jie can be regarded as recognized by O'Neill.
"Do you think he could be a great center like you?"
"Of course it can't be, I will be the greatest center in the league, and no one will be able to surpass me in the future, just write it as it is, don't change it. O'Neill also pretended to come over to see what Wu Hua had written in his notebook. In fact, those Chinese, O'Neill naturally can't understand one.
Wu Hua smiled and shook his head, the 36-year-old shark was still like a stunned young man, not serious. But that's exactly what Shaquille O'Neal is like.
"Tell that kid to work hard and not to let up. In the end, O'Neill put away the hippie smiling expression, said this to Wu Hua seriously, and disappeared around the corner of the player's tunnel......
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With an away win over the Suns, the Thunder not only delivered a seven-game losing streak, but also managed to claim their 35th win of the season and finally finished in ninth place in the West. It's just one place away from playoff qualification, but it's not easy to go from ninth to eighth.
After returning to Oklahoma City for a day of rest, the Thunder ended their three-game road trip. On March 16, after eight days, the Chesapeake Energy Arena finally waited for their owner.
Eight days, three games, all on the road, which made Thunder fans almost crazy. Therefore, the tickets for this game on the 16th were sold out early. This is the first time in a week that Thunder fans have been able to watch a game in person, and this time the Thunder's opponent will definitely be of interest to everyone: the San Antonio Spurs!
But when fans entered the Chesapeake Energy Arena with great anticipation, the vast majority of them regretted paying for tickets to see the game.
The Thunder, the Spurs, two teams with an extremely slow pace and both positional battles come together, and the hypnotic effect can be imagined.
It is precisely because both sides have fallen into positions to play that the shooting rate of the players is also very low. One board and one eye, see the demolition. There is no smooth attack, and there are few passionate dunks. If it weren't for the tight scores, at least half of the crowd at the Chesapeake Energy Arena would have left the stadium early.
With Ginobili sidelined due to injury, Popovich's Spurs were slow to build a lead. And the young thunder can't set off any big waves on the Spurs.
In the final 20 seconds of the game, the Thunder still led by two points. Defending Duncan or Parker, three-point or two-pointer, that's the only thing the Thunder need to think about right now.
The French Tinker ran to ten seconds near the halfway line, and Westbrook was on the lookout, but didn't dare to rush into it. If he hastily reached out, Tony Parker would definitely teach Westbrook a good lesson.
Duncan and Bonner's blocking came up, and Anjie and Collison didn't dare to leave a single step. Needless to say, Duncan is definitely an object that needs to be taken care of by An Jie, and Bonner's accurate three-point score is not impossible to become the endpoint.
Bonner pulled to the bottom left corner and Duncan pulled to the right 45-degree mid-range, which created plenty of space for Parker to break through. Without Angel on the inside, Parker's confidence in his breakthrough scoring has increased greatly.
Suddenly thrown in the middle of the march, Parker's specialty. He was not able to stop the shot in front of him, but Sephorosa, who came from the flank, fanned the ball away.
The basketball went out of bounds, leaving the Spurs with just 2.9 seconds.
Van Gundy's defense still didn't collapse at the last moment! Sephorosa can not only hit the key ball himself, but also prevent the opponent's key ball! When he sent Wilcox in exchange for Sephorosa, Presti was also questioned a lot, but Wilcox is also a good offensive player on the Thunder's bench. But judging by the current performance, Seflorosa may be the best signing of the season after Anjie. Mike Brin was also impressed by the Swiss.
In the end, the Spurs' sideline ball was prevented from being released, and Popovich hurriedly used up the last timeout to give the Spurs a chance to re-serve.
On the second attempt, Parker barely got the ball and then made a hasty shot. The arc of the ball is very high, but An Jie still doesn't dare to slack off, he stuck Duncan stubbornly, for fear that this No. 21 can make up the basket.
The basketball hit the neck of the basket and bounced high, and before it could land, the game time was over. An Jie let out a sigh of relief, although outsiders looked dull, only the players on the field knew how fierce this game was.
76-78, Parker's missed last-minute shot gave the Thunder a two-game winning streak. This extremely low score has also become a very strange game in the league now.
An Jie only got 12 points and 8 rebounds in this game, after all, the total score was so much, and Duncan only scored two more points than An Jie.
In the face of a strong opponent, many people think that the Thunder will immediately lose the ninth position in the West. Unexpectedly, when the three young reunions shot down the sun, the powerful Spurs could not stop their momentum.
A day after the victory over the Spurs, Rose met again with Sanshao. Once again, the unstoppable trio stepped over the bones of the champion bull and won the race.
96-103, the Thunder won three consecutive victories! The Jazz have felt the huge pressure from behind, and this youth army is rising strongly after experiencing a large number of injuries!
Now, the task of stopping the Thunder Three Youths from continuing to soar has fallen into the hands of the Jazz themselves!
Two days later, on March 20, the Thunder will face the Suns at the Chesapeake Energy Arena for their second direct rival on the playoff track. From Salt Lake City, the low-key but powerful Utah Jazz! )