Chapter 334: The Battle of the Strongest Scorers
The tall and strong back-to-back offensive success successfully aroused Durant's desire to attack, and he received the ball at the top of the three-point line, and it was the Nets' Gerard Wallace who defended him.
Facing Wallace, the Nets' strongest single defense ability on the outside, Durant's first offense was particularly simple and practical, and it only took a simple probe + step back to open up the shooting space.
With a "brush", Durant hit a long-range two-pointer in the high post.
4:2
Durant has unparalleled physical talent, with a 210cm height in shoes and a 228cm reach, which would be a nightmare for any defender.
"Tsk, the three-time scoring champion is not a fake," Gao Dazhuang grinned and whispered.
"I can only stop him to the best of my ability, the rest is up to you" It was Gerard Wallace who spoke, and although he was hit by Durant with a shot over his head, he still looked confident at the moment.
"Good" Tall and Strong and Wallace came to a high-five "agreement".
The Nets attacked, and in the face of Westbrook's pressing defense, Nets point guard Brooks "difficult" completed the task of advancing the ball to the frontcourt, and then passed the ball to the tall man who received on the side.
The ball is in the hands of the tall and strong, and the aura of the Nets is completely different, and the defensive tall and strong Rosa does not dare to make a steal easily, or even dare to get too close to the tall and strong, and is more focused on putting on a defensive posture.
At this time, Gao Dazhuang calmly observed the situation on the court, and after a few seconds, Gao Dazhuang started.
"Peng" was tall and strong near the free throw line and played a pick-and-roll match with Wallace, who was pulled high up. And in this way, after escaping Sefrosa's defense, he cut to the basket.
After stepping into the restricted area, the tall man suddenly made a sudden stop, leaned back, pulled up from the ground, and made a negotiated shot in front of Durant's long arms who flew over to make up for the defense.
With a "brush", the tall and strong step-back jumper hit again.
6:2
Tall and strong single-handedly took charge of the Nets' first three goals, and all three of them were scored in front of the Thunder's star Durant, which is really rare in previous games, Durant's height and long arms doomed him to not be weak defensively. For this reason, even the fans at the Thunder's home court began to whisper.
Face the challenge of being tall and strong "aggressive". Durant hadn't had such a strong desire to score for a long time, and just after halftime, Durant began to take the initiative to ask his teammates for the ball.
Durant got the ball on the sideline, dribbled it to the top of the arc of the three-point line and began to hit Wallace, the defender in front of him.
After a few successive shaky shakes. Durant suddenly changed direction. A sharp stride broke through Wallace's defense in an instant. Then he forced his hand to jump in front of Humphries's help.
With a "brush", Durant's straight-arm throw hit the hoop.
6:4
"Oh" Durant's quick return shot also made the fans throughout the Chesapeake Energy Arena cheer, and many fans even began to shout "MVP, MVP, MVP".
Just this goal. A large part of it is due to Durant's breakthrough, in fact, Durant's ball-handling ability is rare at this height, and he can currently become second only to James, not only by his outstanding physical talent, but also by his solid basic skills and hard work in basketball from childhood to adulthood, which has created a three-time scoring champion.
"Avery, Tall and Durant seem to be on the same page," Nets assistant coach PJ Callesimo whispered to head coach Johnson.
"Well" Coach Johnson nodded and said: "This is exactly what we want to see, on paper, we are obviously weaker than our opponents, since we can't beat the whole, singles are actually not bad, although Durant is the top player in the league, but for tall and strong, I always think he is not inferior to anyone in the league"
Despite knowing that Coach Johnson valued Tall and Strong, Assistant Coach PJ Callesimo did not expect Coach Johnson to give such a high evaluation of Tall and Strong.
The next game turned into a one-man show between Durant and Tall Strong.
Durant landed at the free throw line, relying on Perkins' off-ball cover, Durant came to the right side to receive the ball at 45 degrees and hit a three-point jumper.
But the Nets immediately responded with a tall and strong shot at the right free throw line, around the three-point line, and used the cover set by Wallace to run to the left free throw line to catch the ball and shoot a jumper, hitting a board to pull one back.
A minute later, Durant held the ball outside the three-point line to face Wallace's defense, and without warning, he suddenly rose to the ground and flicked his long whip.
"Brush", the ball hits.
Wallace shook his head at the sight of Durant scoring with ease, in fact, Durant's ball-holding singles accounted for 20% of all his shots, and singles were the most important of all his offensive options.
Durant is one of the league's top 1v1 specialists, scoring 0.95 points per game, which ranks ninth in the league, and his career highs are shooting 45.7% from the field and 37.5% from three-point range this season.
However, throughout the first half, Durant proved that his scoring ability was still tall and strong, especially in the first second before the end of the first half, Durant hit a whistle shot.
Durant shot 10-of-23 from the field last season, and in the league's nearly 12 years, no one has hit more life-and-death shots than him, and the closest thing to him was LeBron James's 9-of-19 shooting in the 2007-08 season.
Despite Durant's strong first half, he was unable to break down the tall and strong, and in turn, too many singles disrupted the Thunder's offensive rhythm, which also caused the score of the two sides to be in a scorching state all the time.
At 51:53, the Thunder, who were playing at home at halftime, only led the Nets by 2 points.
The Nets did not show weakness on the Thunder's home court, and the tall and strong felt very well in the first half, shooting 7 of 12 in the half, 4 of 5 free throws, and getting 19 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
But Durant was even more perverted, shooting 10-of-19 from the field in the first half. He made 3 of 3 free throws and scored 26 points, 4 rebounds and 0 assists, accounting for almost half of the team's scores, but his 0 assists also showed that the Thunder's offense was not smooth.
The biggest impact of these is the Thunder's starting point guard, Westbrook.
Westbrook is the league's new first-line top point guard, he is physical, explosive, powerful, and technically talented, averaging 24.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game so far this season, making him a rare all-round point guard in the league.
But today Durant accounted for most of the Thunder's shots, and Westbrook, another "strong point" of his team, rarely had offensive opportunities.
Westbrook shot 1-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line in the half, finishing with just six points, five rebounds and three assists. It's nothing like the Westbrook fans imagined.
Although Westbrook did not have a direct dispute with Durant. But his successive roars in the second half of the second quarter still showed some dissatisfaction.
Durant is a player with a very high ball quotient, and he quickly took the initiative to adjust his style of play.
At the beginning of the second half, Durant, who was holding the ball, played a pick-and-roll with Westbrook near the free throw line.
Durant as the ball carrier and Westbrook as the screener. After the pick-and-roll, Durant draws a bag from a Nets defender. Distribute the ball to Westbrook in time.
"Brush" sound. Westbrook landed a knife and hit an open jumper.
51:55
Westbrook waved his hands excitedly after the goal of "YEAH", and it was the first time he had such an easy scoring opportunity in today's game. For this, he also made an approving gesture to Durant.
In the first two years, Durant rarely used this method to attack, but this season Durant has used this style of attack more and more.
The biggest reason for this is that Westbrook's offensive firepower is getting more and more fierce, and as Westbrook's threat gradually increases, when Durant blocks and picks him up at critical moments, opponents will have a lot of headaches.
Durant is the league's best player at scoring in this way, while Westbrook is the league's best player at scoring with pick-and-rolls.
When Durant and Westbrook play a high pick-and-roll, either one can be the final finisher, which also puts the defender in a dilemma.
At the beginning of the second half, the "Thunder Twins" played a delicate match, seeing that the Thunder team was about to get up, and the fans in the Chesapeake Energy Arena also began to look forward to a 13-game winning streak at home, but at this time, Gao Dazhuang played a role in disrupting the situation.
"Bang" Gao Dazhuang received a pass from his teammates near the 45-degree three-point line on the right side, and then made a feint to pass the ball to the bottom corner, and after completely deceiving the center of gravity of the defender Sefrosa, Gao Dazhuang changed direction and strode directly into the basket.
At this time, Durant, who was closest to Gao Dazhuang, immediately pounced on him to make up for the defense, and the two quickly became entangled together, but after Gao Dazhuang hit Durant under the basket, he completely ignored his existence and forced a layup.
As soon as the tall and strong jumped, Durant also took off into the air, his arms fully extended to try to block the offensive line of the tall and strong, but the tall and strong in the air perfectly showed his body control.
At the same time as a 180-degree sideways spin, the basketball also switched from the tall and strong right hand to the left hand, supplemented by a high parabolic pick, and the ball was shot.
With a "brush", the tall and strong layup hit.
Just when Durant was surprised by Gao Dazhuang's attack, there was a "beep", and the referee's whistle suddenly sounded, and Durant and Gao Dazhuang both looked at the referee at the same time.
I saw the referee pointing at Durant and saying: "Defensive foul, add a penalty"
"Wow" Durant didn't do it now, just now Durant and Gao Dazhuang just had a slight collision, so Durant immediately rushed up violently, close to the referee theory, and the Thunder fans at home made a deafening boo.
"Toot", "Toot"... Durant's defense did not make the referee change his mind, on the contrary, a few profanities that inadvertently came out of his mind caused the referee to show him a "technical foul" again.
"Good" At this time, Wallace on the side applauded undisciplinedly to express his "support" for the referee, and high-fived Gao Dazhuang to celebrate, and the behavior of Gao Dazhuang and Wallace also attracted Durant's "hateful" eyes.
Sure enough, after the tall and strong hit the free throw, Durant returned to his singles mode again.
Durant received the ball in the bottom corner on the left side and hit Wallace with his back, and after he slashed Wallace with back-to-back dribbles, he suddenly turned and threw a backward jumper.
However, it is obvious that this episode just now affected Durant's state of mind, and with a "dang", Durant's shot bounced out of the basket.
"Counterattack" Nets power forward Humphries grabbed a defensive rebound and threw the ball vigorously at the tall man who was running forward court. (To be continued......)