The offense was contained by the Hornets, and the defense didn't have anything to do with the Hornets' interior twin towers, and the Thunder showed a decline from the beginning and were kept being pressed by the Hornets.

But when Harden led the Thunder off the bench, the situation on the court suddenly changed.

Substitution, a topic that has always been taken seriously, was once again put on the table. No way, the Hornets' bench line is just too bad.

The current Hornets are very good in any position, with Wang Meng, who is the core and point guard on the outside, Tony Allen, a scoring guard with strong defensive ability, Wallace, a rare player in the athletic league, Gasol who can shoot and have the ability to respond, and Oden, who has a good defensive ability. It can be said that the Hornets are now close to a complete starting lineup, not weaker than any team in the league, but looking at the Hornets' bench, it is simply miserable.

Any strong team, while the starter is strong, the bench can not be left behind, like when the Spurs won the championship, there was the sixth man Ginobili, the Celtics Big Three won the championship in 08, and the bench bandits such as Nate Robinson, Tony Allen and Glen Davis when they won the championship, and the Lakers won the championship in 091011, and there were best sixth man Odom, Barnes and Shannon Brown on the bench.

It can be said that a group of suitable substitutes is an important component of a team to win the championship.

Now, the Hornets don't have that factor.

Harden led a group of benches to gallop across the court, the Hornets players did not have a single enemy, and the only passable Thorton was also turned into an invisible man by Harden himself.

In just a few minutes, the Thunder caught up with the score difference of the previous main players, and also overtook by two points.

In this regard, Monty frowned tightly on the sidelines, but there was nothing he could do. At this time, the best way is to let Wang Meng and others play, but Wang Meng is just a person, not a god, he played the whole quarter last time he played with the Nuggets, and finally almost lost his strength, although Kobe Bryant also had the experience of losing glucose immediately after the game, but Wang Meng is not Kobe, and Monty doesn't want Wang Meng to take this risk.

Therefore, Wang Meng could only watch the substitutes on the court being abused by the thunder on the court.

"Next season, I must improve the depth of the Hornets bench, otherwise my physical strength will be increased by a notch!" Wang Meng, who was sitting on the sidelines, thought fiercely in his heart.

20:8, this is the two sides of the bench after half of the score, the Thunder side of the bench Harden alone cut 13 points, but also a variety of assists, led by the Thunder bench directly crushed the Hornets.

Wang Meng and others finally couldn't sit still after the Thunder led the Hornets by more than ten points, but at this time the Thunder had already played smoothly, leaving Westbrook + Harden + Durant on the court The super backcourt combination started to bombard wildly.

"Damn it!" Wang Meng no longer has the ease of the beginning at this time, the premise of stabilizing the rhythm is to take the lead in the score, the Hornets now have a gap of more than a dozen points with the Thunder, and it is impossible to catch up with this point difference in the steady and steady inside, only to find opportunities from the outside.

Wang Meng beckoned on the outside to block and dismantle, and after Gasol came to block and dismantle, Wang Meng took advantage of the gap at the three-point line to shoot three points.

It's a pity that the poor feel seems to be contagious, and it is only limited to internal infection, Wang Meng threw two three-pointers on the outside, but none of them entered, and he finally threw one when he made a resolute shot for the third time.

Wang Meng's hand is gone, Wallace's hand is even worse, and Tony Allen is not good at outside shooting, and the Hornets' offense has come to a standstill for a while.

Fortunately, Wang Meng saw that the situation was not good, and decisively opened the instant explosion to impact the inside line, and scored and assisted his teammates, so he barely kept the difference between the two sides from widening.

At halftime, the Thunder and Hornets were 56-42, with the Hornets trailing the Thunder by 14 points. If this score is only calculated from the starters, the Hornets should still not be weaker than the Thunder, but the Thunder's benches scored 20 points, while the Hornets only scored 8 points, which opened the gap between the two sides.

After the third quarter came up, Wang Meng's feeling recovered slightly, and he scored two three-pointers on the outside in a row, and then opened an instant burst into the inside dunk, otherwise the dunk was successful, and it also caused a defensive foul on Ibaka who was waiting for the opportunity to block his dunk, and the three-point shot was successful. After scoring nine points in a row, he barely dragged the score gap back to within 10 points.

Wang Meng is powerful, and the Thunder's Westbrook is not to be outdone, Westbrook has been very uncomfortable being targeted by Wang Meng in the first half, even if Wang Meng rushes into the interior, he is often supplemented by Oden or Gasol, and the offensive efficiency is very low. This will support Wang Meng's main focus on offense, Westbrook finally freed up, fully exerted his firepower, and constantly broke into the interior line to pose a very big threat to the Hornets.

If it's just Westbrook, it's not enough, but in the Thunder, there is still a Durant who has been steadily outputting firepower, don't look at him rarely thinks about Wang Meng or Westbrook like this, but his continuous offensive efficiency is very high, scoring 7 points in the first quarter, 8 points in the second quarter, and 4 points in the third quarter, and Durant has scored 19 points in the third quarter of the game, which is still the result of Tony Allen and Wallace taking turns to mark.

Fortunately, the offensive firepower on the Thunder's side is large, and the Hornets are not weak at all, Gasol and Oden have completely blown up the Thunder's interior line, and scoring on the inside line is like a leisurely stroll. With this advantage, the offense of the Hornets and Thunder can be described as coming and going, and until the fourth quarter, the scores of the two sides have been constantly fluctuating in single digits.

It's a pity that this has come and gone, only limited to the main force, and when the substitute came on the field, the situation was immediately blinded.

Wallace, the best player in the starters, wanted to hold on to the court for a while, but Monty pressed him to the bench on the grounds that he had to save his strength to keep an eye on Durant for a while.

This time the Thunder's bench did not have Harden, Harden is not the sixth man, and his playing time is not much less than Westbrook or Durant, especially at the end of the fourth quarter, he must be on the court with Westbrook and Durant, so he is also resting off the court during this time.

Even so, the Hornets' bench still can't beat the Thunder, the Thunder's backup point guard is Wang Meng's old teammate Fisher, although his competitive form is now plummeting, but his rich playoff experience and super big heart make him the main player on the Thunder's bench.

In the minutes that came off the bench, the Hornets managed to chase back to single digits, and the score was once again stretched to more than 10 points.

Monty looked at the Hornets substitute line on the court with Thorton as the main player, and shook his head helplessly, Thorton's performance today was a big failure, he didn't seem to have a scope in the whole game, and he didn't shoot all kinds of shots, which not only took up a lot of bench opportunities, but also became the key point for the opponent to break through on the defensive end.

"Find a chance to send him out next season!" Monty said to himself.

With six minutes remaining, Monty called a timeout and replaced all the main players. Brooks on the Thunder's side also concocted the same method, returning the best lineup that the Thunder could release.