Chapter 9: The Tragic Bear Thunder Battle
The 2010-2011 season of the Oklahoma City Thunder, at this time is the period when Wang Chao first appeared, the team after years of operation, especially in the draft vision, the team has selected Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Harden and many other high-quality players, especially Durant, this season is the season that began to collect honors, this year, the fourth-year Durant was selected as an All-Star for two consecutive years, selected for the best team for two consecutive years, and won the league scoring championship for two consecutive years, Durant is averaging 30.1 points per game this season.
This year, the third-year Westbrook averaged more than 20 points per game for the first time, was selected as an All-Star for the first time, was selected to the All-Star team for the first time (2 teams), averaged 21.9 points and 8.2 assists per game in the regular season, and his violent and arrogant style of play gained a large number of fans around the world.
The sophomore, Serge Ibaka, who averaged 10 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game in the regular season, has begun to emerge as a block king, while James Harden, who was just a mustache at the time, is in his second season and is the team's bench killer, averaging 12.2 points in 26 minutes per game.
In terms of other players, the team's starting center is Kendrick Perkins, nicknamed Erfat, (when he was in the Celtics, only Glenn Davis was fatter than Perkins in the whole team, so fans called Davis Big Fat and Perkins Second Fat), Perkins has almost no offensive ability, but excellent defensive ability, although he is not tall and only 208 cm, but his body is strong and strong, and he is alive and clear from the role of a blue-collar worker, the team's second position is Saab Saflosa, he is nicknamed the Swiss Army Knife, and he is 201 cm tall, Very physical, with very good defensive players.
The Thunder's starters have offense, defense, and are still young and full of physical strength, this set of starters can be called one of the strongest starters in the league, but they also have obvious shortcomings, that is, the bench.
Among the substitutes, although there is James Harden, but the ability of others is too poor, center Collison, whose physical condition is average, technical flow, but the defense is too scummy, Eric Maynor, a short guard with a height of 191 cm, with average physical fitness, mediocre offense and defense, and Daquin Cook, a three-point shooter with mediocre ability.
The Thunder easily eliminated the Nuggets 4:1 in the first round, and some strong teams generally do not use the tactics of pressing the bottom of the box in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and only when it comes to life and death will they win by surprise, but the Grizzlies do not eat this set, their tactics are simple and rude, the offensive end is strong inside, and the outside line blocks the opponent's outside shooter group, on May 1, 2011, the Grizzlies defeated the Thunder 114-101 away.
Randolph faced the joint strangulation of Ibaka and Pa Erfat, and still scored 34 points, setting a new high for Randolph's playoff scores, facing the strong Perkins, Randolph has the range and technology, facing Ibaka, Randolph is a direct strong attack, although Ibaka has excellent defensive ability, but with his height and size, he really can't defend against Randolph alone.
Gasol scored 20 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks on 9-of-11 shooting, and the Grizzlies still won the game by relying on the bombardment of the inside double bears. Durant scored 33 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-21 shooting, Westbrook didn't take much advantage of Conley, scoring 29 points and 6 assists on 9-of-23 and having 7 turnovers, while the solid Conley scored 15 points and 7 assists on 5-of-13 shooting, without a single turnover.
Memphis's lethal black and white double bear, not only the Spurs can't solve it, but the Thunder want to solve it, that is, give up the peripheral projection, desperately break through inward to create damage, and the Thunder has received unexpected results!
In the second game, the Grizzlies lost to the Thunder 102-111, in this game, Durant and Harden, the two masters of foul making, combined to make 21 free throws, hitting 19 of them, Durant scored 26 points, Westbrook scored 24 points in 9 of 20, Harden scored 21 points, Meno shot 3 three-pointers and scored 15 points, and Grizzlies Conley scored 24 points and 8 assists in 10 of 15, and the proud black and white bears were struggling to cope with defensive breakthroughs, and they scored 28 points and 19 rebounds on 5-of-22 shooting, OJ Mayo played a good performance, scoring 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, which could only be below average for Mayo two years ago, but for Mayo now, it is already commendable.
In the third game, returning to the home court of Memphis, Durant and Ibaka combined for 24 points in the first half, leading the Thunder to lead the Grizzlies by 8 points at 51:43, and in the third quarter, Westbrook scored 13 points in a single quarter, and at the end of the third quarter, the Thunder had led the Grizzlies by as many as 13 points.
But over the years, the Grizzlies have not only a tough style of play, but also an extremely tough heart, and the two armies are fighting, even if they are defeated, they must have the courage to show their swords! This is the tenacity that the grizzly bear has inherited over the years!
In the fourth quarter, Conley played, accurate mid-range shots continued to hit the morale of the Thunder, and Tony Allen and Sam Young teamed up to desperately block Durant, Arthur picked up 2 points under the basket at the beginning, and then Mayo blocked Durant, and assisted Conley to score points, and the Thunder, it was Cook, Meno, Durant, Westbrook continued to hit iron, did not score a point in the first 3 minutes of the game, knowing that Harden broke through and scored 2 points to break the scoring drought, Mayo returned the shot, Durant broke through twice in a row to score points, Mayo returned the three-point tribute, Conley hit the iron with three points, Tony Allen desperately grabbed the rebound in the front court and made a rebound, Westbrook didn't shoot in the middle, and then Tony Allen broke through in the subsequent offense, Xiaojia grabbed the rebound in the front court and assisted Conley to hit three points, and in the last 6 minutes of the game, the Grizzlies chased the score to 79:82!
Then Westbrook broke through and scored 2 points, Randolph forced the inside to score 2 points, and blocked Durant's breakthrough, Conley blocked Westbrook again, and scored 2 points on the offensive breakaway, and in the last 3 and a half minutes of the game, the Grizzlies were only 1 point behind the Thunder! Then Tony Allen broke through and caused a foul on Ibaka, and Tony Allen hit one of two free throws, and the two teams were tied!
In just over 7 minutes of the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies smoothed out a 13-point deficit!
In the last two and a half minutes of the game, Tony Allen broke through again and caused Ibaka to foul, and once again hit two free throws, the Grizzlies led by one, and then Durant missed three points, Conley broke through and caused Perkins to foul, and after two free throws, the Grizzlies led the Thunder by two points! Westbrook broke through in the last minute of the game and caused a foul on Mayo, and after hitting both free throws, the score came to 86:86 and the two teams were tied! In the ensuing game, Mayo hit the iron, Durant hit the iron, and Randolph hit the iron, and the Grizzlies, who trailed by a full 13 points in the third quarter, forced the Thunder into overtime.
In overtime, the Grizzlies gave up the three-point offense, completely dominated by the breakthrough and interior offense, Randolph scored 5 points, Gasol and Jr. scored 4 points each, and Durant missed all three shots in the Thunder, Harden scored 3 points, Ibaka scored 2 points, Nick Collison scored 2 points, this is all the Thunder scores, and in the end, the Grizzlies won this reversal with their tenacious style.
Randolph scored 21 points and a playoff high of 21 rebounds and 8 frontcourt rebounds in the whole game, Conley scored 18 points and 4 assists, Jr. scored 16 points, Mayo scored 18 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists on 6-of-18 shooting, while Westbrook scored 23 points, 12 assists and 7 turnovers on 7-of-22 shooting, Durant scored 22 points on 10-of-24 shooting, and Westbrook and Perkins all fought to graduate with six fouls.
Do you think the third scene is the most tragic? You're wrong, because there's a fourth! There is no secret at all for the two teams to play so far, in terms of overall strength, there is no doubt that the Thunder is higher than the Grizzlies, the Thunder does not lack honor, does not lack stars, does not lack substitutes, does not lack defensive players, and the average age is younger than the Grizzlies, and the physical strength is better, and the Grizzlies are even simpler.
In the first quarter of the game, Xiaojia burst the Thunder inside, 4 of 4, and scored 12 points on 4 of 5 free throws, leading the Grizzlies to lead the Thunder by as many as 12 points at 28:16 in the first quarter, and in the second quarter, Westbrook, Durant and Harden rushed to the inside, and the three of them combined to make 17 free throws, hitting 15 of them, Sam Young, Mayo, and Vasquith, the three main rotation players, all had 3 fouls on their backs and were forced to rest, while the Grizzlies relied on Randolph to support them, and the first half ended, the Grizzlies 53: 49 only lead the Thunder by 4 points.
In the third quarter, Vasquith was fouled twice by Safluosha and Durant, the Thunder's Westbrook's Durant desperately broke through the Grizzlies' defense and scored 14 points together, while the Grizzlies relied on the 12 points of the black and white bears to confront it, and Xiaojia grabbed 10 rebounds in a single quarter, including 5 frontcourt rebounds, the Grizzlies relied on a strong interior line to maneuver with the Thunder, and the Thunder also changed their strategy, Perkins defended two bears, the back top, and Ibaka defended two bears, around the front.
In the last minute and a half of the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies trailed the Thunder 91-96, Westbrook made a pull-up jumper, Conley held the ball to counterattack and the fast break was hit by Ibaka's big hat, Mayo got the ball outside the left three-point line, and the three-point shot was missed, Lan Fat jumped up on the head of Pa Erfat, grabbed this valuable frontcourt rebound, and caused the latter's foul, hit both free throws, the Grizzlies trailed by 3 points, and the Thunder called a timeout, at this time, the fans held up the bear head and "We believe" THE YELLOW POLO SHIRT CHEERED UP THE GRIZZLY BEARS, AND THE GAME ENTERED THE WHITE HEAT!
With one minute left in the game, Westbrook controlled the tempo and pressed the clock to 10 seconds before attacking, and then he gave the ball to Dawn Cook in the bottom right corner, who missed a three-point shot! Perkins faced Xiao Jia, with his strong body and up to three centimeters of bounce, desperately put the rebound in his hand, Xiao Jia stepped forward in small steps, knocked Perkins to the ground, fouled! Perkins makes two free throws! Perkins, who was lying on the ground, yelled excitedly at Westbrook, who had come to pull him,
"Lao Tzu's 9.5 million this year is not taken for nothing!"
Subsequently, Perkins missed one of the two free throws......
Then the Grizzlies paused, came back from the timeout, Mayo took the ball on the left side, and the left rib was Gasol Jr., who was struggling with Perkins, Mayo hesitated, took a step forward, and did not pass, directly shot two points long, the ball was short, and smashed directly to the edge of the basket, popping out of bounds!
At this time, the Grizzlies still trailed the Thunder by 3 points at 93:96, and there were 37 seconds left in the game, and the Thunder had the ball!
After serving, Westbrook dribbled while pressing the time, until there were 8 seconds left in the offensive time to face Conley's defense, Westbrook got rid of Conley with a left-handed yellow and right-hand feint, and stepped to the free throw line to make a stop-and-go jump shot, at this time, a big white man rushed over and slapped Wei Shao's shot, which was Xiaojia! Conley took the ball, dribbled to the frontcourt, and played a block at the top of the arc with Xiaojia, but did not return the ball, and in the face of Perkins' defense, Conley shot three points directly one step outside the three-point line!
"Brush!"
Flat!
Conley in this game, before throwing this three-point shot, he shot 5 three-pointers, and one did not score, no matter what kind of big vacancy, he couldn't score, but this ball allowed Conley to complete self-redemption!
Overtime, you thought that was the end of it? Even more tragic is yet to come!