Of course, Li Ze couldn't bear Chris Paul's behavior of running after pretending to be X, and took advantage of the break to directly ask Coach Brooks to switch defenses.

"Coach, I'll defend Paul for the rest of the time and let Russell take some pressure off the defensive end."

Coach Brooks thought about Li Ze's change of defense against Paul, and there was really no problem for Turtle Turtle to defend Devin Brown, although there was a gap between Turtle and the opponent's height, he hoped that Li Ze could limit Paul's shot.

"No problem, but it's going to be in the third quarter, and in the second quarter we're going to have some rotation, guys, cheer up, come up and make a decisive shot, the opponent is putting us in the middle range, we're going to respond!"

Coach Brooks no longer emphasizes tactical requirements, but encourages everyone to make decisive shots, and the offensive space on the court is getting smaller and smaller, which is not what the coaching staff wants to see.

The Hornets rotated heavily in the second quarter, with Marcus Thorton replacing Chris Paul, James Posey and Darius Sanqueira on the front, and center Okafor continuing to play.

Although interim head coach Ball is average, the coaching staff of the Hornets are still reliable, always maintaining an interior advantage, and the tactical intention is very obvious, which is to target the Thunder's weak interior rim protection ability.

On the Thunder side, Li Ze played the No. 3 position, Meno and Soflosa partnered in the backcourt, Ibaka temporarily topped the No. 5 position, and Etang Thomas played the No. 4 position after coming on the court.

After the start of the second quarter, the Thunder attacked, It was still Ibaka's back cover, When Li Ze played outside, the Hornets' attention was all on Li Ze, Ibaka went down, and after receiving Meno's pass, he easily split with one hand!

"Bang..."

"What a ball! The Thunder team has played this tactic many times, and in most cases, it is Li Ze who catches the ball with an external bounce, but this time after the Hornets' defensive attention was all focused on Li Ze, Ibaka's side had a chance, and this cooperation can be played, thanks to Li Ze! ”

The host Ke Xiaofan saw that Yang Yi next to him could blow out tricks with a simple tactical cooperation, and he was immediately deeply admired, no wonder the guests took more money than him, and people blew it out with their strength...

The Hornets attacked, and after Marcus Thorton dribbled through the halfcourt, he first passed the ball continuously with his teammates on the outside to attract the attention of the Thunder defense, and waited until Okafor and Sangeira crossed the cover under the basket, and immediately gave the ball to Okafor, who was successfully stuck.

The latter, facing the defense of Etang Thomas, took a big step on the line with the ball in his right hand, turned directly and shot confidently with his left hand.

"Whew...", a two-point shot from the basket.

Li Ze saw that Okafor's defensive center began to show off his low-post offense, and he knew that the opponent must have played smoothly, and various technical moves could be used.

After Meno dribbled through the half, the Thunder's two interior lines all went to the elbow area to cover, Li Ze cut from the right side to the left side of the three-point line 45 degrees, after receiving the pass, he faced Sangella, who switched defense.

After the three threats, the left hand quickly released the ball, pretended to break through, felt the shift of the opponent's defensive center of gravity, twisted his body, stepped down to change direction, accelerated the breakthrough with the ball in his right hand, saw that Okafor had been recycled to the basket, and shot a mid-range emergency stop-and-jump shot.

The two-pointer hit the ball steadily.

Although the goal was scored, Li Ze felt more and more bad in his heart, the other party was betting that Ibaka's mid-distance would be inaccurate, and he directly put this point, and all the defense was piled up in the paint area to prevent the breakthrough of the Thunder team, and it was also convenient to protect the backcourt rebound.

In the next few minutes, the Hornets stepped on the three-point line from the outside, Okafor and Sanguela fully retracted to protect the rebound, and although Ibaka and Etang Thomas scored a few mid-ranges, it still couldn't change the opposing team's defensive strategy.

Li Ze made all 3 shots and handed out 3 assists, but he did not narrow the difference, because the Hornets continued to attack inside, and the shooting rate was also extremely high, and even caused Ibaka's third foul.

With 6:16 left in the second quarter, Coach Brooks called a timeout, and he had to let Li Ze and Ibaka go off the court, with the third quarter being the decisive moment.

By the time Durant and Turtle got on the court, the Hornets' defense changed again, and they began to flank Durant at the right time.

If the Thunder's record is stretched, many teams may not be able to put it down, after all, it is indeed a bit too much to pack rookies, but now everyone will not consider these, first in the West? That has to bring you down.

Because the Thunder team currently only has a turtle on the court to dominate the ball, but he also entered the sewer in this game, a batch of iron, so pinching Durant to let him play the ball sometimes has a good effect, after all, Durant is not Li Ze, and it is difficult to get the ball out of the bag.

In the second half of the second quarter, the Thunder's offense became more and more inefficient, and at halftime, 50-44, the Hornets entered the second half with a six-point lead.

At halftime, in the Thunder locker room, Durant sat in his seat and scolded angrily:

"Fack! There was another bag in the regular season, did the Hornets think it was a playoff game? ”

"Maybe they just want to step on the team that is number one in the West, and the media and the pundits will love to see that happen, sorry guys, I was too iron in the first half."

Turtle had roughly guessed what the other side was thinking, and he knew that many teams were actually jealous of the Thunder.

If you have a good record, you will be exposed, if you have exposure, you will have attention, if you have attention, you will have fans, and if you have more fans, you can make money.

"Okay, don't complain, we have to make some personnel adjustments in the second half, Soflosa, you start first in the second half, five small tactics, we have to completely open up the offensive space on the field!"

"When you get your chances, you shoot decisively, you get up to the tempo of the offense, you protect the rebounds, guys, it's just a regular season, and even if we lose, we're still number one in the West because the Lakers lost too."

Coach Brooks felt that if this game continued to play like this, it would probably be cold, and he decided to boldly change the formation and lose the game as a run-in tactic.

"We're still two wins ahead, come on, guys, make a bold shot, the Russian fans are looking at us, Sergi, don't be frustrated, you're just a rookie, even if you lose, the media will definitely criticize Kevin after the game."

Li Ze also gave his teammates a beating of blood, as long as he refused to vote improperly, everything was easy to say.

"Haha, that's right, it's Kevin's fault for the bad fight."

"Whoever made him in 3rd grade, he can't spray Kayce and Russell."

"Guys, I suddenly feel a lot less stressed when I think about it."

After hearing Li Ze's words, everyone on the Thunder team thought about it carefully, it really makes sense, the third-year Durant may enter the All-Star this season, and if he loses at this time, he will be the one who bears the blame.

Durant was a little stunned when he heard the ridicule of his teammates, but he reacted immediately, he must be the back-up man if he loses, and he couldn't help laughing and scolding:

"Oh! Shet! I really don't want to see all those outrageous opinions from the shit media, we're going to win the game! ”

After the start of the second half of the game, seeing the starting 5 of the Thunder team, Ke Xiaofan and Yang Yi, the hosts in the Sina studio, were a little confused, why did they put this lineup on the court again, is it really not necessary to defend inside?

"The Thunder team has this lineup, and the interior defense basically depends on Ibaka, although Durant has height, he definitely can't prevent David West's low-post offense, this is going to fight for offense!"

After Yang Yi saw this lineup, it was a little difficult to understand the lineup changes of the Thunder team, only 6 points behind, there is no need to rush the game, there is still a lot of time.

"This lineup didn't work very well when I played the Lakers before, and I used it occasionally after that, but it was only two or three minutes in rotation time, maybe the Thunder team really didn't have anyone inside, let's look forward to the halftime performance first!"

The host Ke Xiaofan remembered that in the previous game, after the Thunder team went to five elementary schools, as long as they couldn't shoot, the game would collapse immediately...

After the start of the second half, Sofrosa immediately sank to the bottom left corner, Durant came to the bottom corner of the right side, the turtle dribbled through the half, Li Ze first made a wall-hitting cover for Ibaka, and when Ibaka raised the block, Li Ze quickly rebounded.

The Hornets were naturally prepared, and before Li Ze received the ball, David West stepped forward to interfere first, and Peja quickly moved to the bottom corner, but Li Ze did not stop the ball at all after receiving the ball, and directly hit the ground pass to find the empty Durant.

Durant suddenly cut into the air after moving to the line, this simple feint shook Peja's defense, coupled with Li Ze's timely pass, cut in and split with one hand!

"Bang..."

"Ahh Oh! ”

Huge cheers erupted in the Ford Center arena, the team played very passively, the audience was not in high spirits, and after Durant's dunk was successful, it was the real atmosphere of the home court.

"The Thunder team's passing and cutting cooperation is really beautiful, and it is smooth! As soon as Durant stood in the bottom corner, the Hornets defense had to keep up, and the offensive space on the court was completely opened, depending on how the defense was. ”

Yang Yi also praised the cooperation of the Thunder team, but he was not optimistic about the defense of the Thunder team.

After Chris Paul dribbled through the half, he found that the defender in front of him had become Li Ze, and he couldn't help frowning.

Li Ze lowered the center of his body, revealing resolute eyes, put his shorts up with both hands, and put on a posture of full defense: Let me see how many brushes you have?

Paul quickly grasped the difficulty of Li Ze's defense, squeezed through the cover very quickly, always used his height to cover him firmly, and most importantly, he found that Li Ze rarely shook.

The combination bonus of [Marking Master] + [Ankle Protector] allows Li Ze to rarely lose his defensive center of gravity, while [Perpetual Motion Defender] allows him to defend with all his strength without worrying too much about the consumption of physical energy.

Paul has been able to shake off Li Ze's defense several times in a row, but he has never been able to shake off Li Ze's defense, and Li Ze's long arms are constantly interfering with him, making it difficult for him to get a comfortable shot.

Noticing that offensive time was running out, Paul decided to use his speed to break through, and if he couldn't do it, he could make a foul and stand at the free throw line.

But he thought very well, but in practice, he found that Ibaka's defense was too fast, Paul just shot, and Ibaka, who came to help defend, immediately sent a pegboard hat, and Li Ze received the rebound in the backcourt, and passed it to the turtle.

After receiving the ball, the latter drove full horsepower, sprinted with all his might, and killed the opponent's basket, and the front court easily hit 1 to 0, and the excited turtle turtle came to a tomahawk explosion!

"Bang...", fast break dunk.

The Hornets quickly served the baseline ball, Paul dribbled the ball through the half court again, and when he saw Li Ze defending in front of him, he suddenly smiled and said;

"Good defensive skills, but the game of basketball is five people, and your cleverness is in the wrong place."

After Paul said this, he didn't wait for Li Ze to respond, and after playing with Okafor, he quickly played the ball and gave the remaining Okafor, who took the ball and turned around and hooked up.

"Hmmm...", two points from the basket.

Li Ze felt helpless when he saw Paul, who ran away after loading X, this guy was too chicken thief, and he didn't give him a chance to talk trash at all...

When the Thunder attacked, the turtle and Durant broke through the ball continuously, mobilized the defense of the Hornets, and after Li Ze received the pass outside the three-point line, he did not hesitate to make a quick shot outside the three-point line.

"Huh..."The three-pointer hit steadily.

This is the terrible thing about the Thunder's lineup, although the turtle is in the sewers tonight, but the five people on the court currently have the ability to shoot from a distance, and the offensive starting point is generally to block and dismantle high outside the three-point line first, and there is no chance to find cover and run tactics.

Li Ze constantly compares and directs traffic on the court, although he sometimes does not take the ball, he is the one who controls the offensive rhythm on the field.

What kind of tactics to play, how to run his teammates, Li Ze kept shouting loudly on the field.

"Russell, bottom corner, move, catch screen, Sabo, top of the arc."

The Thunder team's attack, Li Ze and the turtle turtle played a fake hand, while the turtle ran up, Li Ze suddenly accelerated the breakthrough with the ball in his right hand, Peja's defense did not keep up, and he could only watch Li Ze break through to the inside line, and stage a one-handed violent dunk.

The Thunder's offense became more and more free.

In the third quarter, the two teams began to fight each other, and the Thunder also tied the score, and the two teams began to alternate leads, which made the audience at the Ford Center Arena scream excitedly, this offense is indeed too good-looking, and defense is not important...

It's really hard to limit the Hornets' low-post offense with this lineup defense, and letting Durant's noodle body defend David West is basically a free gift.

Although the inside line couldn't stand it, Li Ze completely strangled Paul's point, and after continuous ironing, Paul no longer reluctantly attacked, and when he encountered Li Ze's entanglement, he immediately passed the ball and kept feeding the ball to a low position.

This also makes Li Ze a little helpless, Paul is not Kobe, although the style of play is biased towards a two-way guard, but Paul is still a traditional point guard in his bones, he has a clear understanding of the situation on the court, and he will not go easily.

Seeing Paul pass the ball again, Li Ze couldn't help but joke:

"Are you really not trying to up as a rookie? Maybe after the game, the media will say that the All-Star guards were killed by the rookies. ”

"I don't like playing against athletic forwards, the most important thing is that I know how to win and you see, David can score easily."

After saying that, Paul smiled and returned to the defense as David West easily sent the ball to the basket in the low post again.

"Shet!"

Durant was carried away by David West in the low post, and after seeing the opponent's easy pick-up, he couldn't help but curse in a low voice, he really couldn't prevent the opponent's low post attack, and he felt that his physical fitness was rapidly declining.

By the end of the third quarter, the two sides were tied at 74, and although the Thunder couldn't defend well, their offense was really sharp, and if it weren't for Paul always pressing the rhythm of the game, the Thunder would have scored more.

During the break, Durant gasped for air, and in this quarter he spent a lot of energy on both ends of the floor, and he had to rest in the fourth quarter.

"Guys, hold on, there's still a quarter to go, keep our offensive rhythm going!"

Coach Brooks continued to play chicken soup and still short the rotation, and he already saw the hope of victory, and this is the time when it comes to willpower and physical fitness.

"The Thunder's fitness is an issue, and the last game with the Bulls was almost to the end, and although we went back to the home court for almost two days to rest, this game is a short rotation and we can see that Durant is already gasping for air."

Taking advantage of the break, Yang Yi also spoke out about the problems of the Thunder team.

"Indeed, as Mr. Yang said, Paul pressed the pace of the game very slowly, and the Hornets will definitely seize this opportunity to attack wildly in the fourth quarter, hoping that the Thunder can withstand the first 3 minutes!"

The host Ke Xiaofan also blessed the Thunder team.

But after the start of the fourth quarter, the Hornets first strengthened the rush for rebounds, not giving the Thunder a chance to switch offense, the first three minutes, the two sides were in a stalemate, and when Durant came on the court, the Hornets played a wave.

After hitting two irons in a row, the Hornets seized the opportunity to switch offense, Peja scored continuously outside the three-point line, and after Li Ze also hit a shot angrily, the Hornets fell to the position, and David West scored again in the low post.

This wave of 8-0 also established the victory of the game, Paul began to control the rhythm of the game steadily, and the Thunder team failed to fight back several times.

In the end, the game ran out, 100-94, and the Hornets continued their winning streak with a win over the Thunder on the road.

Despite the loss at home, the crowd at Ford Center remained enthusiastic and continued to send their best wishes to the home team after the game.

The fans of the city know that the team is affected by injuries and the outcome of the game, they don't really care, as long as they see the players playing the field, they are satisfied.

After the game, Chris Paul took the initiative to find Li Ze and amicably started the business exchange mode.

"You're better than I thought you would, Kayce, I'd love to play with you if I have a chance!"

"Wow! I'm looking forward to that day, you really taught me a lesson today, it's hard to describe how much you control the pace of the game, and I'll continue to learn from you! ”

The sedan chair is carried by everyone, and Li Ze also picked up a good one, and the one that was blown was called a happy one, and the members of the Brotherhood Alliance were +1 on the surface.

In the locker room of the Thunder team, everyone is in a good mood, after all, after losing, the team is still the first in the West, and they can really afford to lose!

Durant was a little depressed, 1 of 5 in the 4th quarter, and directly gave the game to the iron, at least three opportunities were empty, and as a result, he hit all the iron... Although he still scored 30 points in this game, he still blamed himself for the loss.

"Guys, is there any way you guys can improve your fitness quickly?"

Seeing the turtle still alive on the side, and noticing the energetic Li Ze, Duran asked pointedly.

"Kevin, excellent physical fitness is also a talent, we discussed this issue before, you are indeed inferior to Kayce and Russell."

Jeff Green didn't see Durant's face, and the big truth came straight out...

"Your fitness is already great, Kevin, losing is indeed my problem, I failed to protect the rebound in this game, Ibaka you don't have to blame yourself, you don't expect a rookie to prop up the team's interior line."

Big brother Nick Collison has taken the initiative to take responsibility, Ibaka has played well, and he won't let the rookie take the blame.

"It's normal to lose in the regular season, it's important to stay healthy, and I recommend that you watch less news after the game, you all know!"

Li Ze still maintains a normal heart, he got 24 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 turnovers in this game, playing very efficiently, the offensive core of the team in the 4th quarter is Durant, and the opponent really had a good opportunity, but he didn't shoot.

For such a way of losing, he thinks it is acceptable, and he should use it as a run-in tactic, after all, there are still many games in the regular season.

"Kayce is right, we have three days off after that, it's comfortable to play at home, Nina recently wanted to have a cake party, recently a group of them have been obsessed with making cakes, everyone will come to my house tomorrow night, I promise there will be a lot of beautiful bachelorettes!"

Turtle Turtle did go into the sewer tonight, with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 turnovers, although the statistics are good, but on the court he has been put in a big step by Paul, and the offensive end is really pulling his hips...

"I love cake parties!" "Yay, I want to bring my girlfriend along!" "Maybe we can have another late-night party after that!"

Li Ze saw that everyone no longer suffered from gains and losses after losing, and nodded secretly in his heart;

"This is the mentality of a strong team, and the Thunder team has finally slowly transformed!"

Li Ze still underestimated the influence of the first in the West, and other teams also came to the spirit after seeing the Hornets win, especially the teams with star insiders, who were eager to play against the Thunder as soon as possible and eat this wave of dividends.

For example, David Lee of the New York Knicks was extremely happy after seeing the report of the Thunder's loss:

Is this God directing me? The All-Star voting is about to end, and the team that plays the first team in the West has an injury on the inside, which is God for me Welfare Bureau! ”

David Lee is already looking forward to the road trip on the 11th.

Before David Lee looked forward to it, the Pacers' Roy Hibbert was already eager to try, and he spoke confidently before the game to canvass for himself:

"Yes, that's right, I'm the No. 1 center in the East, guys, vote for me! In the next game, we face the Thunder, who are the first team in the West, and I will show my dominance! ”

After Li Ze saw this boring report, he was a little speechless:

"Do you really think you're Hei Yao Ming? ....”