The Thunder, led by Kevin Durant and Westbrook, played very well from the start of the game and have maintained that momentum ever since, tying the Knicks several times in the past games in the first quarter.

It was also in this Christmas game against the New York Knicks that some New York fans who usually don't pay attention to the Thunder team understood why the Thunder team would be the current No. 1 team in the West, leading the way with the New York Knicks.

However, as time passed, the New York Knicks also adapted to the Thunder's style of play, and they had a total of two sets of tactics, either Westbrook or Kevin Durant to attack, and few others could attack except them.

This also made the New York Knicks' next defense mostly go to these two guys.

After encountering a stronger defense, Kevin Durant was fine, but Westbrook's instability showed up again, and the Thunder gradually showed a disadvantage in his instability.

In the end, the Thunder trailed by five points at the end of the first quarter.

The Knicks completely overwhelmed the Thunder in the next few minutes.

"The impact of James Harden's departure is highlighted, why the Thunder will be the Thunder's three less, to be more honest, the newcomers they selected in those years are very good, such as Jeff Green, and then Ibaka, now, from the Thunder's first quarter of the game, it can be seen that when Kevin Durant and Westbrook can't stand up, the Thunder has no one else to stand up......"

At the break, Bill Wharton commented on the Thunder, and in his opinion, the impact of the Thunder's loss of James Harden began to show in the second half of the first quarter, when the team faced stronger opponents, when Kevin Durant and Westbrook were limited on the team, no one could step up.

But the previous James Harden was okay!

That's the impact of trading Harden.

However, the Thunder obviously didn't throw in the towel so easily, and they made history before last season's Finals, but they were still one step away from the championship.

It's none other than the New York Knicks in front of them, whether it's Kevin Durant or Westbrook, who trained hard in the summer because they want to give the Knicks a head-on shot in the new season.

Especially after they learned that James Harden had been traded to New York, they doubled down on their training because they knew the team was going to get tougher.

That's why these two guys are growing so much this year!

This is also the reason why this Thunder team will still win the first place in the West after taking James Harden!

It's not because James Harden isn't important, it's that the advancement of Kevin Durant and Westbrook makes him seem less important.

It's just that what they didn't expect was that, despite this, they still couldn't beat their opponents.

Yi Jianlian's return to the No. 4 position this season is something that many team managers did not expect.

Brooks is also one of them.

The Thunder lost to this team in the finals last season, putting Yi Jianlian in the No. 4 position.

At that time, he felt that Yi Jianlian was suitable for the current No. 4 position in the league.

It's just that what he didn't expect was that he found out about it himself.

Back in the number four position......

This time, the Knicks have James Harden on the outside and Yi Jianlian on the inside, and this lineup has directly transitioned from Yi Jianlian's single core to the inner and outer dual core.

And Yi Jianlian also fully showed his defensive strength this season and became the top defender in the league, which made the New York Knicks almost no weakness.

If it weren't for Kevin Durant and Westbrook playing enough ferocious firepower at the beginning, they would undoubtedly have lost more.

This New York Knicks is even better than they thought.

However, if you want them to just throw in the towel, this is absolutely impossible!

It's still the same sentence, the Knicks eliminated them last season, and they must get revenge for this revenge!

So in this game, they didn't admit defeat so easily!

This is also reflected on the court, as soon as the second quarter came up, Kevin Durant's offense was still ferocious, and Westbrook also adjusted very quickly, and he struggled a little in the second half of the previous quarter, but he was calm again after returning to the court.

This season's Westbrook, his ability to adjust is not ordinarily strong.

In addition, one of the big changes they made on the offensive end was that they started to attack James Harden frequently.

James Harden's defensive attitude is really bad, which is something that the Thunder also know, even if you know that you have this weakness, then you naturally have to take advantage of it, after all, everyone is now fighting on their own.

One thing to say, after James Harden came to the Knicks, because of the presence of Yi Jianlian, he defended a lot less casually last season, but his poor defensive attitude can not be changed in the past month or two.

This also makes the Thunder's tactics successful, led by Kevin Durant and Westbrook, and whoever walks in front of James Harden will have the entire offense revolving around him.

It can be seen that James Harden wants to defend well and work hard to defend, but his defensive habits are really poor, and good defensive awareness has not yet been cultivated, plus Westbrook and Kevin Durant are already top league scorers, such guys, those guys who rely on defense can't defend themselves, let alone James Harden.

James Harden keeps falling, which also makes his mentality gradually become urgent.

As a supplementary defensive player, Yi Jianlian's defensive quality largely depends on the entire defensive quality of the opposing player, and if the opposing player makes it too easy for his defensive player to get rid of, his defensive quality will not be better.

Especially now they are facing two super scorers.

The Thunder's tactics are paying off.

From the second quarter, I played back and forth with the Knicks.

More than 8 minutes to more than 10 minutes in the second quarter, they overtook the score several times, if it wasn't for Yi Jianlian standing up at this time and forcibly hitting two key goals, at the end of the second quarter, the leading side should have been the Thunder.

The halftime whistle blew and James Harden left the tunnel in frustration.

The New York Knicks are still leading by 2 points at this time!

But although he was leading by two points, if he hadn't been out of position, the New York Knicks could have led by more points!