Zhou Xuan scored 7 points and 6 assists in 8 minutes, and he was in a brave state, but D'Antoni replaced him, which was a little incomprehensible.

Barkley thought of the Knicks' intentions and said with a smile: "Zhou Xuan is obviously not injured, and when he rests at this time, I am afraid that he wants to bring a substitute in the second quarter." ”

Smith agreed. "I think so, Gallinari and Chandler are also off the court, replaced by Jamison and Anderson, and if they block and dismantle Miller, the Knicks still have people with the ball in the positional battle. The attack power of this lineup is definitely not weak, and it can run and bomb and position. ”

The Thunder didn't replace Durant and Westbrook, they had no way back, and saw this as a good opportunity to get back the score, forming a trident with Harden and starting to attack.

The Knicks guard line directly started to press the frontcourt, and once the Thunder missed the offensive shot, they immediately counterattacked. Harden's template was Ginobili, and he immediately came to his senses after the two sides fought each other, scoring on the counters twice and hitting a three-pointer in front of Miller.

The Knicks led by three points at 36-33 in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Zhou Xuan came on the court again, and his teammates were Matthews, Battier, Jamison, and Anderson, five people who could shoot. The Thunder is facing an embarrassing situation at this time, should they go to the bench?

Brooks knows that the Thunder bench can't beat the Knicks, but if they don't make substitutions, can they use the seven-man rotation to play the whole game? Even the best players can play more than 40 minutes to reduce their efficiency.

Brooks decided to bench for a few minutes anyway, and the point guard was replaced by Fisher. Lao Yu, who joined the Thunder on a free transfer, has always had high hopes that he can use his experience to help the team, especially when scoring in key moments. The other four are Harden, Cook, Durant, and Collisson.

The Thunder quickly paid the price for the substitution. The players all pulled away, Zhou Xuan singled out Fisher, a "killer crossover" passed successfully, and the 60-degree emergency stop jump shot on the right side scored.

The Thunder changed Harden's main defense, and Zhou Xuan used a "worship Buddha" feint on the left side to shake off Harden and scored a 60-degree jumper.

In the third round, Zhou Xuan continued to dribble under his crotch and changed direction to the left, Harden could only use fouls to prevent him from breaking through, and when Zhou Xuan was pulled, he threw the ball with his left hand and was sent to the free throw line, and he hit both free throws.

After scoring six points in a row, Brooks realized that Zhou Xuan had to be an expert, so he sent Sephorosa to replace Fisher, and let Harden take the No. 1 position to be responsible for ball control.

Harden's pass is at the level of Ellis, rough, and the assist-to-turnover ratio is close to 1 to 1, and after a block, he gave it to Collison in the middle and passed it directly to Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan single-handedly fast-break, easy layup to score.

After only three minutes of play, the Thunder replaced Cook and Westbrook, and Sephorosa moved to the small forward position.

Yu Jia said: "The Knicks staged a field horse race in the finals, replaced Zhou Xuan early to rest, and the following three horses against the Thunder's top three horses. Although some scores were recovered, Zhou Xuan came out with a substitute in the second quarter, and the offense was unstoppable. ”

Zhang said excitedly; "If the Knicks win again today, they will definitely win the championship. Zhou Xuan will set a new record. At the age of 23, he won the championship with two different teams and won the MVP. ”

Durant didn't rest for a minute, and he didn't feel good today, relying more on free throws to score. He made 12 free throws in the first half alone, all of them, more than the Knicks as a team, and he scored 17 points in the half.

Leonard, Gallinari and Matthews all had three fouls, and Battier had two. The Knicks led by just four points at 61-57.

Zhou Xuan performed well, scoring 12 points and 1 assist in a single quarter.

Zhang Li sighed: "The Thunder made too many free throws, and they fouled Durant as soon as they touched it, hoping to prevent it in the second half." ”

Yu Jia said: "It is estimated that the league does not want to see another sweep in the finals, and today's home whistle is a little obvious. ”

As early as 2010, Lakers coach "Zen Master" Jackson was fined $35,000 by the NBA for criticizing the referee for letting Durant get a free throw opportunity too easily.

This season, Marion also hinted that the referees favored Durant, believing that his defense was very good, but the referees gave Durant too many free throws, which made him unable to defend at all. Durant missed 12 of those 17 shots that game. At the end of the game, Durant scored 26 points, more than half of which came from the free throw line, and he made 14 of 16 free throws.

In fact, this is really not the referee's favoritism, but Durant's main practice is to make fouls, either to shake people up to shoot, or to directly take the ball and hit people's arms...... The only controversy was the physical contact that the Knicks player followed sideways when Durant broke through, and both strong spurts were awarded fouls.

In the dressing room, D'Antoni said: "Zhou, in the second half I want you to play all the time, without resting. Keep the number of fouls under control. Lance (Stephenson) plays the No. 2 position, and if it's against Harden, you can attack with the ball. ”

Stephenson finally got his chance and was ready to make a difference. Let him play at this time, not only because of the fouls of Matthews and others, but also because D'Antoni found that Harden's defense was below the standard.

Although Stephenson is a substitute for the Knicks, he has a good offensive ability with the ball, he is a wild man who has practiced on the street court, and his defense is also very fierce. It's more appropriate for him to deal with Harden, the type with strong breakthrough power. And he also has a trick, which is provocation. No matter who his opponent is, he dares to spew trash talk. Harden's poor performance in the finals seems to be a matter of mentality, and if Stephenson, a madman, is allowed to spray a few words, it may work wonders.

When he came on the court, Zhou Xuan said: "You can provoke, but be calm, don't eat technical fouls, the purpose of provocation is to make the opponent messy, not yourself." Do you understand? ”

"Understood." Stephenson nodded. He is still more grateful to Zhou Xuan, when he was training in the team, Zhou Xuan singled him out and taught him how to restrain himself. Now he doesn't look so brain-dead, and his relationship with his teammates is okay.

The Thunder attacked first, Harden continued to be on the court, Seferrosa went to the small forward position, Durant played a cameo as a big forward against Gallinari, and only Ibaka remained at the center.

The Thunder decided to use small-ball tactics against the Knicks to reduce Perkins' playing time. The fact that the Knicks would keep hitting Perkins with misalignments made Brooks extremely depressed and couldn't fix it.

The Knicks didn't let Chandler play either, Anderson and Gallinari formed the inside, and forward Leonard, a typical small-ball tactic,

Durant went to the outside to receive the ball, the main defender was Leonard, and Gallinari was in the bottom corner with Seferrosa, ready to retreat. Ibakla went to the perimeter to cover and blocked Zhou Xuan, and Westbrook received a pass from Durant in the air, and relied on his speed to break through Anderson and score a layup. 61 to 59.

The Knicks attacked, Zhou Xuan took the ball in the middle, passed to Stephenson on the side, and then covered with Anderson without the ball, ran to the bottom corner of the right side, and the formation was fully stretched.

Ibaka followed Zhou Xuan to the bottom corner, and Westbrook interfered with Anderson in the middle to catch the ball. Most people regard Stephenson as a person who comes up to give Zhou Xuan a pass and other opportunities to shoot, but he didn't expect to face Harden and attack by himself, and after probing, he made an accelerated breakthrough successfully.

Harden didn't expect the opponent to go on his own, so he ate a feint and could only follow from the side. Stephenson scored on a 60-degree pullup jump shot on the right side. 63 to 59.

"You deserve to be the best sixth man just because of your scrap wood? I'm a fringe guy who blows you up, breaks your dog's legs, and pulls your dick off. Stephenson shouted. (You're sinning!) ）

"Believe it or not, I'll kill you with your beard." Harden paused for a moment and shot back. (You're getting nervous, too!) ）

The Thunder attacked, and the ball was in Harden's hands. In the face of the Knicks fringe man, Harden was ready to return one, and the ball was blocked, he immediately took the ball and retreated, dribbled under the crotch in two consecutive ways to shake out a little space, and pulled out a three-point shot, Stephenson jumped slowly and failed to interfere, but the ball bounced out of the frame.

In this series, Harden shot just 31 percent from three-point range, well below the 39 percent in the regular season. His overall shooting percentage in the first two games was only 36%, which was even more exaggerated.

Sending a rookie is also hoping to attract Harden to make more shots, which is much safer than the other two.

Ibaka struggled to grab the rebound and passed to Durant from close range, who forced a layup and forced Gallinari to score on a frontal board, but the Italian didn't dare to reach this time. 63 to 61.

The Knicks attacked, Zhou Xuan dribbled to the side, Stephenson and Anderson made off-ball covers outside the three-point line in the middle, got rid of Harden, and Gallinari made a second block.

Harden didn't chase it, and Durant didn't expect to play like this, and the change of defense was not timely. Zhou Xuan passed the ball to Stephenson, who received the ball at 45 degrees and turned around for a jumper, and the ball hollowed into the net. 65-61, Zhou Xuan's eighth personal assist.

In the next round, Westbrook broke through and fell into the bag, separated the ball from the outside, and Harden singled again. He has a good rhythm with the ball, and although he is not particularly fast, he can pass with feints. This time, he dribbled under the crotch in the middle and changed direction past Stephenson, which was bad for Leonard's block, and Stephenson also followed up from the side to form a bag. Harden hurriedly transferred the ball to Durant in the middle, and Zhou Xuan let go of Westbrook to kill and cut off the basketball.

Durant still couldn't compare the speed with Zhou Xuan, and when he turned around, he was thrown two steps away, and Zhou Xuan scored a basketball score, scoring 21st points. 67 to 61.

Westbrook was cleared but didn't receive the pass, and suddenly became a little angry, yelling at Harden twice.

In the next round, Westbrook chose to attack strongly, relying on blocking and dismantling to avoid Zhou Xuan, and made a stop-and-go jump shot under Anderson's interference, dodging the block but the ball was deflected. Leonard grabbed the backcourt rebound and immediately threw it to the frontcourt.

Stephenson received the ball and turned past Harden and passed to Zhou Xuan, who followed up on the right. Durant returned to the defense in time this time, and Zhou Xuan took a step into the three-point line and then ran out of the three-point line, shaking a little.

Westbrook had already rushed back, extremely fast, jumped up the lid but took a feint, and flew in front of Zhou Xuan. Durant also went to defend Gallinari, and Zhou Xuan adjusted it and then threw the ball in, scoring his 24th point, 70-61.

Brooks was depressed on the sidelines, and wanted Harden to play to strengthen the offense, but the team collectively turned back under the leadership of Harden, and even Wei Shao began to be impatient.

Durant didn't make a jump shot in the next round, and everyone who supported the Thunder felt bad.