Being able to take the lead so easily is due to Westbrook, the star of the Thunder team.

While not to the extent of the 2021-22 season with the Lakers, Westbrook's technical characteristics have led to a sharp drop in the threat level once he enters the playoffs with a higher defensive intensity, and the breakaway lethality decreases.

Lack of stable mid-to-long-range shooting ability, as a point guard in the new small-ball era is a very fatal thing, especially the point guard's personality is still quite paranoid, belonging to the kind of character traits that know that there are tigers in the mountains and prefer tigers.

Throughout the first quarter of the game, Westbrook shot 2-of-7 and scored 5 points on free throws, seriously disrupting the Thunder's offensive rhythm.

And because of Westbrook, George and Anthony each took just four shots.

Under Wang Feng's defense, George shot 2 of 4 and scored 4 points, obviously, although before the start of the game, George put down his cruel words to compete with Wang Feng in the game, and if he wins, he can go to the Lakers to be the boss, but when he came to the court, he did not continue to compete with Wang Feng, and several offenses were also run without the ball and cut into the basket or with the help of teammates to block and attack the frame.

This kind of scene made Wang Feng's eyes flicker slightly.

It seems that George has no idea of going to the Lakers.

In the summer of '17, George, who was still with the Pacers, preferred the Lakers, but the two teams disagreed on the details of the trade, and finally bid Oladipo + Sabonis's Thunder team to steal George halfway.

But in another time and space, at the end of the 17-18 season, George chose to complete a contract extension with the Thunder in the summer, and did not even meet with Lakers management at all.

Now it seems that with the addition of Wang Feng as the No. 1 forward in this time and space, and the Lakers' record has also risen, it seems that George is still not particularly attractive.

Of course, what exactly George plans to do will not be known until the playoffs are over and the free agency market opens.

The focus now is on how to win the game.

Wang Feng made 11 shots in the first quarter against George, hitting 5 shots, including 2 three-pointers, and scored a total of 15 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal including free throws.

In addition to Wang Feng, Ingram and Lopes also scored and played well.

The Lakers scored 29 points in the first quarter, six points ahead of the Thunder.

"Although the young players of the Lakers were a little nervous at the beginning, Wang Feng immediately took over the offensive end of the ball, covering all the points of the Lakers in the first few minutes, and also made his teammates quickly calm down."

"On the contrary, on the Thunder's side, Westbrook played very badly, and failed to hit many open opportunities on the outside, which greatly slowed down the offensive rhythm of the Thunder, if it wasn't for Adams grabbing 3 offensive rebounds in the first quarter, I'm afraid the score difference in the first quarter of the game would go straight to double digits."

"Now it's up to the Thunder to adjust in time for the second quarter."

……

Thunder head coach Donovan apparently spotted the problem and used the break to reschedule his tactics after the first quarter.

As the game came out in the second quarter, the Thunder's offensive focus changed significantly, and George and Anthony began to take more shots.

George, in particular, frequently used the off-ball blocking and dismantling cover to separate Wang Feng from cutting inside the basket, forming a heads-up situation with Lakers center Lopez, and successfully played singles one after another.

But in terms of offensive ability, George may not be ranked at all in the league, and many scoring masters that Wang Feng has faced, including Harden and others, are far better than George.

But George can play without the ball, or he can call his teammates to block and cover to separate Wang Feng.

This point is more troublesome, Wang Feng's main defensive badge, defensive shock and death entanglement are all badges for one-on-one defensive ball carriers, George runs without the ball and then cuts inside the basket, Wang Feng, who is separated by the Thunder players' blocking and dismantling cover, can only watch.

"Hey, Paul, aren't you going to have a good fight with me? That's how you compete? Running away from me? ”

A few rounds later, Wang Feng said to George.

The latter shook his head and said: "This is a game, not a 1-on-1 heads-up, as long as you can score points and help the team win, then the one who wins is me." ”

That's the truth, but that's definitely not the case in front of the players who are directly opposite and even the reporters who watched the whole game.

They will say that George did not dare to directly oppose Wang Feng throughout the game, and was avoiding Wang Feng throughout the whole game.

However, he is not the first core leader of the Thunder team, that is Westbrook, as the second leader of the team, George's psychological burden is much smaller, and he does not need to compete with Wang Feng.

George, who let go of his hands, scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including two three-pointers and two free throws, in the second quarter, while Anthony scored 8 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

Relying on the play of the two, the Thunder scored 28 points in the second quarter, but even so, the margin was not shortened.

Because although Wang Feng can be avoided on the offensive end, on the defensive end, Wang Feng's problem is still unsolved.

In order to ensure George's firepower on the offensive end, after the second quarter of the game, the Thunder simply did not do anything, and let Corey . Brewer defended Wang Feng, and George was on one side ready to cover the pack.

Corey. Brewer is a standard defensive player, with a height of 2.06 meters to play the shooting guard and small forward positions, his height and long arms, agility, outstanding footwork and excellent jumping, making him a high-quality forward defender in the league.

But even so, his and George's outside defensive ability is only to the extent of imitation, of course, it is impossible to defend against Wang Feng, even if George is on the flank at any time to help defend.

In the second quarter of the game, Wang Feng's shots intensified, directly increasing from 11 in the first quarter to 15 times, and hit 8 balls, scoring 22 points in a single quarter, and single-handedly breaking the entire Thunder team's defense.

At the end of the half, Wang Feng had scored 37 points, and his efficiency was amazing.

Relying on Wang Feng's super play, the Lakers still had a 4-point lead at 55:51 at halftime.

In the third quarter of the second half, Wang Feng did not play.

92's physical fitness made him destined to not be able to play the whole game like James, and the large number of shots in the first half also made his physical energy consume a lot in advance.

Without Wang Feng's third quarter, the Thunder finally comprehensively suppressed the Lakers, 29:21 in a single quarter, with a net win of 8 points, and entered the fourth quarter with a 4-point advantage.

But in the fourth quarter, Wang Feng, who had rested for a whole quarter, reappeared, and only 2 minutes into the game opened the game with two consecutive outside three-point shots to catch up and overtake the score.

In the entire fourth quarter of the game, Wang Feng scored 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting, scoring 51 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in the whole game, helping the Lakers defeat the Thunder 116-112 in the first game and win a good start.