On the evening of February 23, the second stop of the Clippers' Southwest Triple Rider came to Oklahoma.

Clippers vs Thunder, a high-profile battle after the All-Star break, before this game, the Clippers had won 22 in a row.

They beat the Spurs and Grizzlies back-to-back to tie the Houston Rockets in 2008 and tie the all-time second-best winning streak behind the Los Angeles Lakers' 33-game winning streak in 1971-1972.

And this away game against the Thunder, if the Clippers win, will create a new winning streak of 23 consecutive wins, sitting on the second place in history.

At the same time, this game is also likely to decide the MVP of the regular season, which is a head-to-head matchup between Curry and Durant.

However, before the game started, there was calm in the Clippers locker room, and everyone didn't take this game very seriously, especially Curry.

In an interview with reporters, Curry simply said, "It's an important regular season game, but it's also just a regular season game, and I'm going to give it my all." The whole team didn't take the winning streak to heart, for us the championship was the ultimate goal, we just tried to win every game. ”

When asked about competing with Durant for MVP, Curry said bluntly: "Of course I want to win the MVP, it's a great achievement, but I think the team always wins first, the MVP is a natural consequence, but I'm on a great, winning team, then I'm going to be an MVP." ”

After Curry said this, he was taunted by his teammates when he returned to the locker room, you will really put gold on your face, and naturally, you said that you wanted to win the MVP at the beginning of the season, and now you say that you can't argue, what a hypocritical guy.

Near the start of the game, the players came out for pre-game preparation, and Mike Malone asked Tyronn Lue on the sidelines: "Hey Tarron, have you read that article posted by NBA-Batman on the Internet?" ”

Taryn Ludau: "Article? What article. There's a new gossip again? ”

"No, it's about tactics."

"Oh no, I never look at tactics, that's what I should see."

Tyronn Lue is very confident, and he just doesn't think much of basketball tactics.

That's how Jackson was in the beginning, most of the tactical stuff was handed over to the assistant coach, and the main responsibility of the head coach was management.

Mike Malone shook his head, thinking forget it, you can't understand it, I'd better communicate with others.

NBA coaches are also a small circle, opponents on the court, friends off the court, and they will communicate with each other.

Basketball tactics are not high-tech, there are no secrets to speak of, on the contrary, the more you communicate, the easier it is to stimulate the spark of thinking, and the easier it is to perfect the tactics.

In the case of continuous communication and improvement of tactics, the specific effect depends entirely on how the coach trains, how to achieve it, and whether he can teach according to his aptitude, so that the players can execute the tactical details.

Yesterday, Mike Malone saw the article "Pick-and-Roll, Air Cut, Switching Defenses - The Art of Misalignment and Infinity in Contemporary Basketball", and knew in his heart that this article would definitely trigger another tactical change in the league.

With the development of the times, the NBA has invested more and more capital, technology, and resources, and the version is being updated faster and faster.

However, just like the natural sciences, in many cases, the repetitive research work of ordinary people is not as good as the flash of a genius spark of inspiration, and a good inspiration can often inspire many people and point out the direction to many people.

The previous article "The Victory of Space and Ball Possession", which many people thought was unremarkable at the time, turned out to be three seasons later, and almost every team began to emphasize the issue of offensive space and the distribution of the ball.

Keywords that have always been mentioned in the past, such as low post, back, breakout, and upline pressure defense, appear less and less frequently in media pages and forum discussions.

No expert would say to a star at every turn, "You should practice your back in the summer", and the low post back attack has been reduced from the position of the tactical axis to a common offensive method, and it is becoming less and less valued.

Now that this new article has come out, it has immediately triggered the thinking of industry insiders, Mike Malone is of course one of them, and after reading it, he is keenly aware that like the previous article, this article is also based on the Clippers' lineup and tactics, and is most suitable for the Clippers' new system ideas.

Mike Malone wonders if the controller behind this NBA-Batman is a boat black, a veteran Clippers fan, or both?

At a time when coaches and experts from other teams have not fully realized the value of this article, Mike Malone believes that if the best part of it can be integrated into the Clippers' offensive system and form a new offensive thinking, then the Clippers may really be able to dominate the NBA!

The thought only flashed through Mike Malone's mind, and he was quickly pulled back to the real game by the whistle.

After the opening ceremony, the match between the two sides officially began.

As the season enters the mid-to-late stages, the All-Star break is over, the trade deadline is approaching, and the regular season begins to go into closing mode.

The playing style of each team has been almost run-in, the players' form has come out, and the injury problems have been adjusted in the early part of the season, and now it is time to enter the sprint stage.

After learning the lessons of the previous two years, the Thunder decisively abandoned Kendrick Perkins at the center position, drastically scaled back his playing time, and basically started a pass, playing a dozen in the less important transition period.

Once it's time to get the momentum, the Thunder would rather use their draft rookie Steven Adams, a 20-year-old New Zealander who has grown up quite quickly, playing dirty and hard, fast, moving flexibly, and not very well on the offensive end, but better than Perkins, who is completely incapable of attacking, at least not so much behind.

In addition to reducing Perkins' playing time, the Thunder also tapped Reggie Jackson off the bench, Westbrook was unable to play in many games at the beginning of the season due to injury, and Jackson did a good job of some of Westbrook's tasks, and some games were even highlights.

He and Eric Gordon make up the Thunder bench bandits, and after Westbrook's return, the Thunder have been exceptionally strong this year.

With the Clippers on a 22-game winning streak, the Thunder are only one win behind the Clippers and in second place in the West.

If the Thunder win tonight's game, they will overtake the Clippers in the standings and take the first place in the West.

The starters of both sides, the Thunder are Perkins, Ibaka, Durant, Sefrosha and Westbrook, who has returned from injury.

And the Clippers' starters are still very stable Gasol Jr., Randolph, Leonard, George plus Curry.

However, tonight, Thunder veteran James Harden missed the game due to injury, and he suffered a slight hip strain in practice, and the Clippers immediately put him on the injury list.

Obviously, the Clippers' backcourt tonight will rely on Curry to take the lead alone, which is a huge challenge for him, but also an opportunity to prove himself.

(End of chapter)