After the victory over the Spurs, the Kings were given four days off, but no one from a rookie like Mason to a veteran like Carter chose to rest. Early the next morning, even Papayannis, Yakar Sampson, and Jack Cooley, who were not on the activation list, showed up at the door of the King's new training base on time.

The Kings' closed practice continued, with staff refusing to be covered by the media, players handing over their phones, and the entire coaching staff standing on the sidelines to watch the tactical runs.

After practicing for about half an hour, David signaled for a pause to rest, and he gathered the king's men to lay out the tactics.

"Against the Thunder, we need a whole new set of defensive tactics, but don't be afraid, four days is enough time for us to practice," David stressed.

"The strategy developed by the coaching staff is a zone defense, because they must have a lot of individual tactics, and the Thunder relied on this move in the first big win over us, after all, George and Anthony are not bad with the ball."

One of the roles of regional joint defense is to deal with the situation that the opponent's individual breakthrough ability is strong but his own single defense ability is insufficient, and it happens that the Kings frontline Justin, Love, Giles, and Skar have relatively weak individual defense capabilities, and it is best to use this trick.

"Coach, how do we stand?" Justin, who is defending George, is most concerned about this issue.

"Don't worry. Judging from the Thunder's offensive statistics this season, George likes to receive the ball from two 45-degree positions outside the three-point line, and he also has the highest shooting percentage in these two positions. In addition, Westbrook is very good at breaking through, in addition to Zhang Feng's marking, there must be someone watching him, all things considered, we use 131 position."

The 131 position is a deformation of the 212 position in the regional joint defense, which is mainly used to suppress the opponent's outside offensive firepower, as long as Wei Shao and George play abnormally, it is not a problem to defeat the Thunder.

"Zach, you are in charge of the basket, Justin, Love, Bogdan, the three of you are in charge of the free throw line area, the basket is handed over to Randolph, and Zhang Feng walks around the outside line depending on the situation"

"Then let's start practicing now, I'll play Westbrook, you will defend me" Zhang Feng patted Mason on the shoulder.

"Why should I defend it? Shouldn't it be Big Brother Rose? Mason was dazed.

"Haven't you experienced the feeling of being in the opposite position with Zhang Feng? You're a young man, and the opportunity is for you," Rose laughed.

"Okay then! Today is the time to show what I'm really capable of," Mason joked.

Unexpectedly, after the training began, it lasted less than 5 minutes, and Mason half-crouched down and stretched out his hand to shout to stop.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Feng asked with a wicked smile.

"You're imitating Westbrook like this, where does he keep breaking through like you? The 3 people continue to rush, it's too uncool! It's so unreasonable, you should pass the ball! Mason said breathlessly.

"Huh? Haven't you seen Westbrook play? That's how he went crazy," Zhang Feng spread his hands.

"......" Mason was at a loss for words for a while.

"Okay, you let him point, otherwise we won't be able to practice our defensive tactics, and if you are sudden, our defense will be the same," Randolph said.

"Huh? What do you mean by letting me order? I just don't think he imitates Westbrook very much......" Mason was eager to defend himself, and the king laughed.

In this closed training, the king practiced the regional joint defense 50 times a day, and each time Zhang Feng led the second team to imitate the Thunder offense, at the beginning the starting lineup could not prevent Zhang Feng's breakthrough pass at all, and it was not until the third day that he gradually found a way to limit Zhang Feng.

By the time it was four days, Zhang Feng's breakthrough lethality had dropped greatly. Of course, this has something to do with him leading the second lineup, after all, the overall shooting percentage of the second lineup is not high, and the starting lineup is a bit unscrupulous.

Just when the Kings team was training hard at the new base, the Thunder team had arrived in Sacramento, they flew directly from Minnesota after eliminating the Timberwolves, and the Rockets had eliminated the Jazz 4-0, and the Western Conference semifinals were about to start.

On the day of the game against the Thunder, bars and restaurants around Sacramento opened early, and Kings fans from Nevada and around the world began to wait in line outside Gold One after an early dinner.

In the venue, various TV stations also broadcast live in advance, and the discussion in the live broadcast area of TNT TV was particularly lively.

"Honestly, I don't think the Kings' road to the playoffs will be easy, and I don't know why fans despise the Kings so much" O'Neal grinned.

"It should be that the first-round opponent Spurs is too weak, whether it is Murray or Parker, they did not interfere enough with Zhang Feng at all, he almost got a big triple-double with an average of 32 points per game, I definitely don't believe you when you say that the strength is equal," Barkley explained.

"So what do you think of the showdown between Zhang Feng and Westbrook tonight?" Kenny asked.

"Do you need to ask? It's definitely comparable, maybe Zhang Feng's personal data will be a little better, but ......" Barkley stopped talking.

"But what? You don't seem to be optimistic about the king in this tone? O'Neill glanced over.

"Didn't you also say that it was possible to lose to the Thunder? Why can't I say that? Barkley slapped the table and was not convinced.

"That was before the playoffs started, after the matchup with the Spurs, and I took back what I said!" O'Neill also slapped the table.

"Okay, okay, if you really have a temper, you can fight, and every time you want me to finish it for you, it's just a panic" Kenny was full of disdain for the argument between the two.

"Fight and fight, who is afraid of whom!" O'Neill got up.

"Come on, I'm not going to believe it yet," Barkley snapped his fingers.

"Come here!"

"You do it!"

An hour later, the two still didn't fight, but the game officially began, with Adams winning the jump ball and the Thunder attacking first.

Wei Shao brought the ball to the top of the arc, and Zhang Feng defended closely. According to his previous habits, Wei Shao should have pulled the ball directly at this time to change direction and break through, but this time he unexpectedly leaned sideways on Zhang Feng, and at the same time bent his legs slightly to control the ball behind him.

With textbook ball protection, Zhang Feng has no way to make a steal. Fortunately, Wei Shao didn't break through, but just kept holding the ball and waiting for other Thunder players to run.

In the blink of an eye, George took advantage of Adams' off-ball cover, slipped from the left 45 degrees to the basket, and with the help of Anthony's human wall, moved from the basket to the right low post, and then received a pass from Willis.

George received the ball and immediately played Lefu with his back to change the defense, but then he was caught by Zhang Feng and could only pass the ball back to Wei Shao.

At this time, Wei Shao was unguarded, and it was said that he should have come to pull out three points, but after he glanced at Zhang Feng, he actually rushed to the basket, he first pretended to go to the basket to deceive Randolph, and then gave the ball to Adams.

Adams caught the ball and jumped, violently turning his back to Randolph, and the sound of falling coins could be heard quietly throughout the Golden One Center, but the Thunder bench was jubilant.

"It's a little wrong, why is Westbrook suddenly so calm, and he didn't make a three-point shot just now" O'Neal shook his head and said he couldn't understand it.

"The Thunder played the Timberwolves before, and he changed his previous habit of violently breaking through and pulling out three points, and turned into an assist master, could it be that the legendary calm turtle appeared?" Bucklito pondered.

In the mouths of fans, there has always been a discussion about how the stars are the most powerful, among which the ones that are often mentioned are "two meters of love, peak wheat, reasonable science, full Zhan, diligent shark, serious melon, no waste, calm turtle".

Now, the legendary calm turtle (Wei Shao) has appeared, and I don't know how Zhang Feng will respond.