Chapter 381: I Can Cover You with My Eyes Closed
Durant, who entered the NBA as a leader in 2007, was directly trained as a core player after joining the Seattle SuperSonics, and led the team to the Finals in just a few years. Although he lost to the Heat Big Three, who have become the ultimate evolutionary body, in his first trip to the Finals, his super high singles level with the ball is destined to be the second small forward in the league.
Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable, and the Thunder management has failed to go further for many years in an environment full of strong Western rivals in order to save millions of dollars in brain-dead operations, resulting in Harden leaving Houston, the Thunder three less steps, and he himself suffered a season-reimbursed injury, and the Thunder has not been able to go further for many years in an environment full of strong opponents in the West.
What's worse is that in the 2016 Western Conference Finals, the Thunder was eliminated by the Warriors in 3:1 games, and Durant chose to join the Warriors after that season.
In his own words, joining the Warriors was the hardest path he chose.
Thinking about it, the Warriors are already a championship team, and there is an absolute core like Curry in the team, it is good that he joined the Warriors to win the championship, if he fails to win the championship, it will inevitably become a joke that hugs his thighs but still can't win the championship.
Fortunately, fate always favors those who work hard, and Durant's Warriors easily defeated the Cavaliers with a score of 4:1 in the NBA2017 Finals, and he himself won the NBA's highest honor β FMVP.
In those five Finals games, he averaged 35.2 points, eight rebounds and 5.4 assists per game while shooting 55.5 percent from the field, 47.4 percent from three-point range and 92.7 percent from the free throw line. Such dazzling statistics made him the league's No. 1 small forward.
Of course, such data also shows how terrifying his ability to hold the ball alone is, Zhang Feng taunted, but he just implemented the strategy of 'tactical attention and strategic contempt', if you want to prevent him, you must go all out, otherwise the purpose of hitting the confidence of the Warriors will not be achieved, and it will make the Kings players have a cowardly mentality.
However, Durant, as a veteran of the battlefield, didn't care about Zhang Feng's verbal 'ridicule'. I saw him holding the ball in both hands and hanging on his left waist, bending over, his left leg straight, and his right leg kicking the ground, a standard three-threat position.
Zhang Feng naturally didn't dare to slack off, Durant was much taller than him, and he also suffered a slight loss in arm span, even if he had some advantages in bullet speed, he couldn't completely make up for it.
Therefore, Zhang Feng did not adopt the usual half-squat defensive posture, but leaned forward, standing with his right foot in front and his left foot behind, holding his left hand tightly while raising his right hand high, ready to interfere at any time.
Seeing that the two of them had already posed, the fans of the Golden One Arena stared with bated breath, and the whole stadium was instantly silent as if they could only hear the breathing of the players on the field.
Between the lightning and flint, Durant kicked the ground with his right foot, and the ball in both hands turned into a one-handed dribble to the left, and his straight left leg also kicked the floor hard, after a short and sharp friction sound, Durant instantly opened a distance between Zhang Feng and Zhang Feng.
Durant's choice to break through from the left is quite a wise choice, because from Zhang Feng's defensive posture, the front and rear foot positions are destined to lead to a certain side that cannot be adjusted quickly, and Zhang Feng happens to be the right foot in front, and Durant breaks through from the left, just enough to grab a time difference for Zhang Feng to adjust his footsteps.
It's a pity that he still underestimated Zhang Feng's explosive power, and at the moment when he moved sideways to the left, Zhang Feng also quickly retracted his right foot backwards, and then directly caught up with him by jumping horizontally, the difference was that the moment Zhang Feng moved sideways, there was no sharp friction sound.
The speed of the two was more terrifying than the other, and the other players on the field watched with wide eyes and almost forgot to breathe.
The players and the audience watched it well, but Durant frowned, the previous horizontal movement was almost his strongest breakthrough routine, but he didn't expect Zhang Feng to catch up in the blink of an eye, and he had to show his housekeeping skills.
I saw Durant's body leaning forward sharply, followed by a change of direction with his left hand, and after changing the ball, his right shoulder was also raised violently.
It was very difficult for a player with a long armband to change direction in front of him, and it was with this move that Iverson, who was a fledgling player, successfully singled out the basketball god Michael Bridge.
At the beginning of that round, Jordan's defensive method was to bend over and reach out to pick up the ball, but Zhang Feng couldn't learn Jordan's method, because Jordan was much taller than Iverson, and he was much shorter than Durant.
It's not easy to defend, and there is a high probability that you will break through and shoot mid-range after changing direction in advance, or deceive the defender by swinging and then pull out the shot, in short, the probability of Durant rushing into the interior is relatively small.
Why is Durant's chance of rushing inside small? Because a mature singles routine tends to form muscle memory, in such a tense moment, Durant will only make choices based on muscle memory.
But even if the odds are small, the initiative is in Durant's hands, Zhang Feng decided to desperately grab the initiative, he stepped back in small steps, leaving space for Dulatt to shoot, but his heel did not completely touch the ground when he stepped back.
Sure enough, Durant did not resist the temptation, and at the moment when Zhang Feng retreated, he jerked his waist straight, raised his head to aim for the hoop, and raised his hand to shoot an ultra-long distance of 2 points.
"Cover him!" Randolph clenched his fists and shouted in warning.
"He's going to vote!" Willie also spoke at the same time.
Almost all Kings players knew that Durant was going to shoot, but Zhang Feng still didn't make a shot, he stared at Durant, waiting for Durant to raise the ball above his head with both hands.
It's not customary for him to be so patient, but if Durant doesn't hold the ball with both hands, he still has the opportunity to choose to break through with the 'Bye-Buddha' action, even if Durant holds the ball with both hands, he may pass the ball.
Only when Durant lifts the ball above his head with both hands will the basketball be fully exposed to the unprotected environment, and he will be able to achieve the best defensive effect when he intervenes.
But that opportunity is fleeting, and it is very easy to be disturbed by visual recognition, Zhang Feng chose to close his eyes and judge only his ears and face to judge which step Durant's actions have achieved.
In an instant, Zhang Feng felt a gust of wind blowing on his face, and he could feel the wind on his face, which meant that Durant had lifted the ball above his head, and he chose to open his eyes, and at the same time he jumped on tiptoe, and stretched out his right hand to the basketball in Durant's hand.
βPangοΌβ , the crisp sound of the cap sounded, and then the Golden No. 1 Arena applauded.
Zhang Feng's block was so perfect that Durant didn't react at all, he stood there for a second, as if thinking about an ultimate question: "Where is my basketball?" βγ
On the contrary, Zhang Feng ran non-stop to the court, bent down after catching up with the basketball, took three steps and made two steps, smoothly brought the ball to the free throw line, jumped high in the air like an eagle strike, and scored a violent dunk.
"Will you play? I can cover you with my eyes closed."