Chapter 191: Filling and Digging Pits
Yi Feng broke through Robertson and dunked, and Westbrook immediately returned a more exciting full-court run + flying dunk!
At the beginning of the game, the two sides collided with fierce fireworks!
The players put on such a great performance that the crowd naturally bought in and cheered. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info
And these two dunks from both sides are like the epitome of the fierce competition between the two teams in the first quarter.
The Thunder and Thunder have been powerful from time to time, and occasionally teamed up against the enemy, making the Lakers, who were already weak defensively, exhausted. Whether it's a long-distance three-point shot, or a bloodless accurate shot, or a violent dunk like a heavy cannon, even a free throw that stands on the free throw line and understates it, it also has the power of seeing blood and sealing the throat.
The Thunder rank second in the offensive firepower league with 109.1 points per game, second only to the Warriors, who are averaging 115.2 points per game. And the earthlings are all here, and most of the Thunder's ferocious offensive firepower can be played by Durant and Westbrook.
The unfortunate Lakers met Dewey in the first quarter.
If the defensive end can't block the Thunder's hot gunhole, then the Lakers must go all out on the offensive end, otherwise the suspense of the game will be killed soon.
Kobe Bryant was out of action tonight, so Yi Feng incarnated as James, both a father and a mother, not only to go all out to attack, but also to organize the team's offense, and by the way, also grab guns and rebounds.
But even if he plays big and goes all out, after all, it is difficult to beat four hands with two fists, the Thunder have always controlled the situation on the court, and the Lakers have been very reluctant to maintain the point difference.
The first quarter ended with the Lakers trailing by eight points at 27:35.
With the firepower of the Thunder, scoring 30+ points in a quarter of the game is not a problem at all, and Durant and Westbrook are in good shape, and it is normal to score 35 points in the first quarter.
In fact, the Thunder should not have scored only 35 points in the first quarter, at the end of the first quarter, when Durant and Westbrook both went off the break, the Thunder had scored 34 points, and at this time, there was 1 minute and 47 seconds left before the end of the game.
If the Thunder's rotation can give a little strength, it won't score only one point in the last minute or so of the first quarter......
On the Lakers' side, in terms of the play of the bench lineup, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. At the time of the break, the Lakers scored 22 points, which means that in the last minute or so of the first quarter, the Lakers' bench group scored five points, which was five times more than the Thunder's bench group.
Although the play of the bench can make Scott breathe a little relieved, but thinking about the comparison between his main lineup and the main lineup of the Thunder, he can't be happy anyway.
34 to 22, this is the score comparison of the main lineups of the two sides. You don't need to go into too much detail to understand the gap.
It's impossible for a team to let the main team dig a hole and then fill it with a substitute. Otherwise, the main force should be the main force, so it is better to sit on the cold bench directly. Bench playing time is limited, and the team's game is not as impactful as the main players, otherwise Scott would not be so bothered.
If it had been this time last year, he would definitely not have such troubles. At that time, the team didn't have much pursuit of winning the game, and he was naturally happy to take it easy, and he could win the game if he could, and he didn't win it.
But now it's different, although the team doesn't seem to be strong on paper, but it has magically overcome strong opponents, and now it is among the top eight in the West, and is eligible to compete for the playoffs.
The reconstruction of a team needs to break up the original lineup and system, and the team will become unrecognizable. And as the pace of rebuilding progresses, the results will slowly recover, and eventually enter the top eight and even the top four in the division.
Generally speaking, if it can become a playoff-caliber team, the rebuild can be considered preliminarily completed. That said, just one year later, the Lakers' rebuild is almost complete!
Human adaptability to the environment is very strong. Scott has long been accustomed to the Lakers' transformation from a fish-belly team to a playoff team, and his mentality has adjusted quickly, from cultivating newcomers and playing casually at the beginning, to paying more and more attention to records and not giving newcomers a chance - except, of course, Yi Feng, a newcomer.
At the beginning of the new season, the Lakers' record was at the top of the list, and then they also experienced a low ebb and a swoop to fall to eighth. With a recent upturn in form, the team won three in a row before jumping two places to sixth.
This feeling of winning fascinated Scott, so he wanted to win even if the opponent in front of him was a strong Thunder team right now. But judging from the first quarter, the strength of the Thunder team made the Lakers extremely struggling, and Scott thought hard for a long time, and there was no good way.
At the top of many media outlets' player power lists, Durant and Westbrook are both top five superstars in the league. In other words, the strength of the top five in their alliance has been almost unanimously recognized.
Not to mention how lucky the Thunder are to have such two stars; Just talking about how painful it is to face the Thunder as their opponents, the remaining 29 teams in the league must have deeply experienced it.
In the face of such a powerful superstar, single defense is definitely not good, and the double bag is a basic package.
There are only 5 people who can play at the same time, and it is very reluctant to use two people to deal with one person, and the remaining 3 against 4; But the Thunder always field two superstars at the same time......
Stabbed to death, or hacked to death, which one do you choose?
Whichever one you choose, it's death! It's painful to choose!
If reality is a hyper-realistic game, then there will definitely be many NBA teams complaining about the Thunder to GM: this is complete cheating!
Tonight's Lakers vs. Thunder will also face the problem of how to defend Durant and Westbrook. Scott looked at it with a sad face, but time didn't wait for him, and the second quarter of the game soon began.
A few minutes before the second quarter, it was a battle between the bench players of both sides.
The Lakers fielded a rotating lineup of Marcelo Hurtas, Louis Williams, Nick Young, Blanton Buss and Larry Nance Jr.
The Thunder, on the other hand, fielded Cameron Payne, Dion West, Kyle Schindler, Nick Collison and Ines Kanter.
Many people may think that Payne, the point guard in the Thunder team's lineup, has such devastating moves as the Shinra Heavenly Expedition and the Earth Explosion Heavenly Star. However, he probably won't, otherwise he would have been a superhero with Captain America, Iron Man and others a long time ago.
This Payne, like Yi Feng, is this year's rookie, and it's also a lottery pick. Although he is the last lotto pick in the 14th place, being able to squeeze into this range also shows his potential and strength.
Although this season's Thunder team aims for a championship, they will not be stingy enough to not even give playing time to the lottery show. There are still opportunities to show a little bit in rotation time.
The bench lineup was the same as the one at the end of the first quarter. But the Thunder bench group, which looks much stronger on paper, is digging a hole for the team; And the Lakers' bench group, which looks like a weak chicken, is actually filling in the holes for the team's main players.
Inés Kanter, a Turk who was selected by the Utah Jazz with the third overall pick in the 2011 draft, entered the NBA as a scout.
As the cornerstone of the former Jazz team, Kanter is 2.10 meters tall in shoes and has an arm span of 2.16 meters, although he is not the tallest player on the court, but his strong skeleton of 260 pounds allows him to wreak havoc on the inside. His athleticism isn't stellar either, and although his explosiveness is only sporadical, his ability to use his body has reached a very high level. He's particularly good at taking advantage of his strength, waiting patiently for his chances, looking for confrontation decisively, and feeling good.
After being traded to the Thunder last season, he started all 26 games of the regular season, averaging 18.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.5 blocks and 0.5 steals in 31.1 minutes per game, while shooting 56.6% from the field.
18+11 is such a data, for an interior player, it really can't ask for more, can not only score, but also protect rebounds, Kanter, who played such data, almost ranks among the top interior players in the league.
But when people talk about the league's formidable interior players, Kanter's name is rarely recognized. Although his stats are beautiful, he can't bring victory to the team, so no matter how glamorous the stats are, they are greatly discounted.
Although his offensive ability is strong, he can be called an offensive kaleidoscope under the basket, and a series of technical actions such as back body ability, hook hand, and footwork are very solid, but his flaws are also very obvious, that is, the defensive end is not strong, almost a colander.
Such a distinctive feature is most suitable for a scramble in the bench. So this season, after Billy Donovan coached the Thunder, he put Steven Adams, who was more hard-working and passionate on the defensive end, in the starting center position, rather than the attacking and powerful Kanter.
However, the playing time of both of them is in the past 20 minutes, one has a high attack and a weak defense, and the other has a fierce defense and no independent offensive ability, the characteristics are so distinct, in the question of who is better, it may also make it difficult for Donovan to choose.
It stands to reason that there is a fierce man like Kante in the Thunder bench lineup, and a physically gifted player like Vitesse, there is no reason to score 1 point in just over a minute!
But that's what happened, whether you really couldn't believe it or not.
Maybe there's a reason for the coach.
Although Donovan is a famous coach of the NCAA, the NCAA is very different from the NBA. Not every head coach in the NBA can have absolute majesty, and there are many examples of stars above the head coach. And the most unfortunate thing is that the Thunder have two top-five superstars in the league.
Although Thunder general manager Sam Presti believes Donovan has a lot of experience, he also praised Donovan when he hired him: "He has achieved a lot in his 21-year NCAA coaching career, coaching the University of Florida to win two championships. He's visionary and a good fit for the team, he's always learning and adaptable, he's creative and passionate. Billy is able to build a good relationship with the players and his core values and tactical ability suit us. ”
In the eyes of the Thunder's top management, Donovan is good at building good relationships with the team's star players and getting along with them. But Donovan had never coached an NBA team before, and the Thunder came to such an opinion, apparently summed up from Donovan's performance with his disciples in the NCAA.
But the NCAA is not an NBA, and NCAA principles cannot be applied to the NBA. The way Donovan got along with players in the NCAA doesn't fit the NBA either.
In college basketball, the head coach has absolute authority; But in the more commercial NBA, star players who can attract attention and bring benefits are everything. Durant and Westbrook, two of the league's top five superstars, can be said to be supreme in the Thunder's status.
When Donovan first arrived in the NBA, he was obviously embarrassed to challenge such a difficult hellish difficulty career mode. When he first arrived, he had exhausted all his energy just by establishing a good interpersonal relationship with Dewey and how to express his tactical ideas through these two people, and how could he have any other energy to care about others.
Therefore, the strength of the Thunder bench on paper looks very strong, but without the overall planning of the coach, it is obviously impossible to really play their original strength by relying only on solo fighting and some simple small cooperation.
The bench scored just one point late in the first quarter, and there must have been reasons for the players themselves.
Cameron Payne aside, he's just a rookie with an average of 12 minutes of playing time per game, and there aren't many opportunities to be able to completely let go of play. Although he is the team's playmaker, he obviously can't command too many people because of his lack of qualifications. In addition, his shooting is not stable, he is not too sure of his open shots, and he can't get much trust from his teammates in a short period of time.
Dion Vites' two seasons with the Cavaliers have had a remarkable performance and are expected by many. Although the height is a little embarrassing in the second position, the physical fitness is good, with strength and speed. After a season or two of good performances, Vitesse seems to have developed the personality of a superstar, and he has a conflict with the team's boss Kyrie Irving; And after James returned to the Cavaliers last season, he still did his own thing, and in the end he could only be abandoned by the Cavaliers.
After Waiters came to the Thunder, his performance was actually similar to that of the Cavaliers, but as a player who had high hopes at the beginning, how could he be satisfied without improvement. A series of questions such as low ball quotient and many brainless mistakes have come one after another. In addition, his shooting is always so scummy, and the fans are getting more and more at ease with him.
Maybe it's because he's been hacked a lot, and he's giving up on himself, his shooting options are getting worse and worse, often dribbling twice, and then making a step-back jumper against a defender. To be honest, this way of shooting is one of the lowest shooting percentages. (To be continued.) )