Chapter 352: Difficult to Pick Up
Durant's sending the ball to the basket so easily made the Trail Blazers' players look ugly, and Ye Feng, who was opposite him, was thoughtful on the sidelines. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
Ye Feng firmly believed that his defensive strategy was right, just now because the opponent's action of breaking through with the ball was too sudden, and he couldn't react for a while. But now it's time to get back on the offensive end, and Ye Feng's trust in his offensive level far exceeds that of defense.
Miller, who has been in the league for many years, saw Ye Feng's eagerness to try, and decisively gave the ball to Ye Feng, who was outside the three-point line at a 45-degree angle on the left side, just after halftime, hoping that he could score an answer ball for the team. Ye Feng was very cautious and slowly controlled the ball outside the three-point line, and while he signaled his teammates to run, he was observing Durant's defensive movements, trying to find loopholes that could be exploited.
Durant isn't technically one of the top defenders, as he doesn't have the same experience on the defensive end as his previous opponent, Tony Allen. But he is indeed an excellent defender, thanks to his great talent, although he looks thin, but he has long hands and feet like a spider-man, and he is quite fast, which is very ideal for a star embryo who can defend five positions, but unfortunately his offensive talent is better.
Durant's one-on-one defense is not without flaws, on the contrary, there are many flaws, Ye Feng can see that this is not a trap, so he is full of confidence in his offense. The combination of changing hands under the crotch, changing direction in front of the body, and continuous tentative steps and backward steps, although not strong enough to shake Durant down, also shook his center of gravity. Ye Feng saw the opportunity, and at the moment when Durant's center of gravity just changed, he directly dribbled and rushed over from the other side.
Just when he was satisfied with his series of breakthrough moves, the right hand of the dribble instantly felt empty - begging to lose!
Ye Feng braked the car and turned around a little dazedly, all he saw was a flying Thunder No. 35 jersey. After Durant completed the steal, he went straight to the fast break alone, and his elegant but violent tomahawk dunk suffocated the entire Rose Garden Arena.
It was a brilliant counter-attack, but it was built on the goals conceded by the Trail Blazers. Ye Feng was fascinated, but the people on the sidelines saw it clearly, although he was shaken by Ye Feng's series of actions just now and lost his defensive position, Durant stubbornly relied on his extraordinary arm span to steal the ball the moment Ye Feng rushed with the ball, and then completed his fast-break counterattack dunk. Ye Feng was not careless, but Durant was too incomprehensible.
Ye Feng pursed his lips, he didn't expect Durant to become such a sharp knife after two rounds of polishing in the series, it is obvious that it is a brainless thing to compete with him now, you must know that this year is the second consecutive year that Durant has been crowned the league's regular season scoring champion, and judging from his performance in the first two rounds, this guy's firepower in the playoffs is also not lost in the regular season. Then, you can only play to your strengths and avoid weaknesses and rely on the strength of your teammates to defeat the Thunder!
But until then, it is still necessary to guard against Durant, who is the biggest threat to the Trail Blazers, and even Westbrook is not as good as him.
After most of the entangled quarters, Ye Feng and Durant both raised the importance of each other to a notch in their hearts, Durant felt that Ye Feng could fully mobilize the firepower of his teammates instead of fighting alone, while Ye Feng was helpless against Durant's strong offensive ability. He did interfere with Durant's shooting with a certain degree of physical confrontation, but he was helpless to find that Durant was not affected much, and his shooting percentage remained at a relatively high level.
The only good news for the Trail Blazers is that Westbrook, as the Thunder's No. 2 man, hasn't played at his level, thanks to Matthews' misplaced defense against him, and the Thunder's starting point guard Sefolosha is a 3-and-D player who doesn't have a good chance of marking Matthews, who is not the focus of the offense.
The two sides tied the game at 32 in the first quarter, for the simple reason that after switching to a rotational lineup in the final minutes, Batum suppressed the Thunder's sixth man, Harden. This was actually expected by McMillan, Batum can defend three positions at the same time with the height of a small forward, coupled with Mills' interference on the side, Harden has a very difficult time scoring every time, and he can't prevent Batum, who is a head taller than him, which allows the Trail Blazers to tie the score.
But this also shows that the Thunder's starting lineup is strong, no, it can't be said to be the starting lineup, but to say that Durant is strong. Under Ye Feng's desperate defense, Durant scored 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting in the first quarter, and his 50% shooting rate made McMillan frown. It's rare to let the opponent's small forward score 12 points in a single quarter this season, Ye Feng is already the strongest outside defensive gate of the Trail Blazers, and even he can't help Durant?
Ye Feng is not a good-looking person, he told the coach about his difficulties one by one. In his opinion, those who want to save face are all brains, and if you say it, you can also let everyone work together to help solve the problem, but if you don't say it, you must be the one who suffers in the end, what is the use of winning or losing the game? So after being substituted, Ye Feng communicated with the head coach as soon as possible.
In fact, there are very few small forwards in the league who can compare to Durant, and it is not a strange thing to be blown up, not to mention that Ye Feng is just difficult to limit Durant, he also contributed 7 points and 3 assists in the first quarter, and his contribution to their respective teams is not below Durant. McMillan knew this very well, so he didn't blame Ye Feng for not being able to prevent Durant, but was actively thinking about the countermeasures for the next three quarters.
McMillan knows that his love will care more about the outcome of the game than his personal data, so his idea is simple and effective, that is, to continue to let Ye Feng interfere with Durant, and the others will do their best to prevent the other four players of the Thunder, forcing Durant to keep holding the ball and playing alone, so that the Trail Blazers will have a much higher chance of winning the game. But there is only one problem with this idea, Durant can completely defeat a team by himself, and he must be guarded against.
Then the best thing to do is to go to the double bag, if Brooks continues to play with Sefolosha and Durant. McMillan is wary of Harden, the Thunder's de facto best point back, but the Swiss is not the player who can decide the outcome of the game.