At the beginning of the game, the Thunder's home court is always so noisy that it will put a lot of pressure on the away team.

However, for the Clippers, this pressure forged their superior concentration, so the Clippers quickly took the lead at the beginning of the game.

Curry said that "MVP is natural", but in fact, he is aggressive at heart, and of course he understands the importance of this game, so he showed a very strong aggression at the beginning.

Curry used his dribbling to get rid of it without blocking and pick-and-roll, and hit the interior line in a row, scoring two layups, and then receiving a pass from George on the counterattack and hitting a direct three-point shot.

This is the way of play adopted by Curry after Min Congda fine-tuned Curry, reducing blocking and pick-and-roll, adding off-ball and direct singles, making it more difficult for the opponent's defense to target Curry with bags.

And Curry's singles are not the same as the singles of many stars, most of the outside singles masters are static singles, do not move before receiving the ball, and after receiving the ball, they begin to use dribbling and speed to attack the opponent, and directly tear the defense line to attack the basket.

And Curry belongs to dynamic singles, or fans have given him a name "off-ball singles", before receiving the ball, he begins to use running and footwork to mobilize the opponent's defense, once he gets rid of the opponent, it is a no-ball offense, catching and shooting or receiving the ball and making a layup under the empty cut basket.

If you can't get rid of the opponent, at least you can mobilize the opponent's defense, and then start the ball at this time, the attack effect is more efficient than the knight's heads-up after getting the ball, and it saves more physical strength.

These changes have freed Curry from the black hole problem of ball ownership at the beginning of the season, allowing him to play his own unique tactical role both within and above the system.

The remaining four people on the court can better display their offensive means under the attraction of Curry's defense, Gasol Jr.'s strategy, Leonard, Paul George, Randolph's singles, Dragic, Harden's comprehensive selection, etc., are all perfectly fit.

However, in Mike Malone's view, there is still room and room for the Clippers to continue to improve and excavate.

After the Clippers took a 9-0 lead in the opening game, the Thunder did not call a timeout, but immediately responded with an 11-0 to turn the situation around.

Kevin Durant hit consecutive jumpers in the face of Leonard, followed Westbrook to grab the backcourt rebound and launch a counterattack, and forced a layup under the basket.

The Thunder's tactical system has not changed substantially in recent years, and it is still a defensive counterattack based on Durant Westbrook's personal ability.

High-intensity defense, energetic running, rotation, unstoppable top attackers, and strong, tall, powerful interior shots to grab rebounds.

In short, the Thunder's routine highlights a ferocious and tough, they are not without tactics, and any team in the NBA has a tactical start on the offensive end.

It's just that the Thunder's offensive tactical system has a lot of freedom, completely serving Durant and Westbrook, and the routine is relatively simple, basically three passes and two leads, shooting when you have the opportunity, no chance to solve the problem for Sanshao himself, can't shoot and grab frontcourt rebounds, strong pressure on the defensive end, has a lot of long-arm talents, and has the most blocks per game in the league.

This determines that the Thunder's style of play has always been wide open and close, when it is strong, it is like a rainbow, and when it is weak, it feels like a headless fly, and there is nothing to do.

Especially as a point guard, Westbrook, the brains of the team, often makes some bizarre choices at critical moments, which makes the Thunder's fans and viewers angry, but there is nothing they can do.

Of course, as Durant and Westbrook continue to mature, this flaw is constantly decreasing, and the Thunder have made great progress under Durant's leadership this year.

was beaten 0:9 without panic at all, after 11:0, the situation reversed, the Clippers needed to score, Leonard received the ball with his back in the corner position, forced Durant in the basket, and went to the middle to the basket.

After a stay in the air, he threw a one-handed shot, causing Durant's foul, and at the same time hit a board, and he had to add a free throw, 2+1 to win, and the Clippers regained the lead.

Theoretically speaking, the Clippers have a Leonard and a Curry, such a static and moving two ball-handling attackers, with the two as the core and some role players, to build an offensive system, which can already be called a strong team in the West.

But Leonard, Curry, the Clippers have several, and they can't fit a starting lineup.

Then, George switched defenses to cut Westbrook's ball in defense, the Clippers counterattacked, and the Thunder's defense was very fast, and they quickly returned to the basket and formed a defensive formation.

As a result, George paused outside the three-point line, observed, and suddenly made a three-point cold arrow shot and hit!

There weren't many of these goals last season or last season, but this season George's autonomous offensive ability has increased significantly.

When he started with Leonard last season, experts criticized him and Leonard's lack of offensive imagination as if it were James' shooting skills.

However, this year, the two are obviously much richer, and have different technical characteristics, Leonard's style is more tough and inward, George's long-range shooting is better, and the breakthrough is more silky.

As the starters of the Clippers, as long as Curry or Harden is there, the team's offense is absolutely fine, and the defense is even more terrible, so it is the right decision to let Harden be the sixth man.

And Mike Malone, who made this decision, watched George and Leonard play on the court, and thought about the article "Blocking, Cutting, and Changing Defenses - The Art of Contemporary Basketball Dislocation and Infinity", and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the content in it was simply tailored for the Clippers.

Although the Clippers' tactical system is distinct and complete, and they all play well in passing, cutting, singles, and blocking, if you look at the content of the article, there is obviously more room for improvement.

Mike Malone followed the progress of the game, but thought about other things, and when the first official timeout came, Mike Malone did not react and sat on the bench in a daze.

"Mike, Mike, Mike!" Tyronn Lue screamed several times before Malone came back to his senses.

"What? What's wrong? ”

"Pause, let's talk about defense."

"Oh, okay... I'll see..."

At this time, the score of the Clippers and Thunder was 16:17, and the Clippers trailed the Thunder by 1 point.

At the beginning of the game, the offensive efficiency of both sides was very high, basically you and I were one, and the goal was very happy, and the game was not finished in the first half of the game, and the score had already rushed to 20 points.

Last season, the league-wide consensus was that playing the Clippers required a quagmire tactic, starting with the Cavaliers, dragging the Clippers into chaos with a scorching defense, and then using one or two sharp knives to seize the opportunity to kill the Clippers.

But it turns out that this old method of the previous era no longer works, and the result of the quagmire battle is often to injure the enemy by 800, lose 1,000 by himself, the data is ugly, the players are tired, and finally lose.

At the beginning of this season, all teams have changed their strategies, and playing with the Clippers is to play against each other, and you attack me, after all, the current league rules, the return on offense is higher than that on defense, and it is getting higher and higher, and more than 60% of teams in the league have scored more than 100 points per game.

There are only a few die-hard Eastern defense left, like the Bulls, the Heat (the Heat changed their tactics after Nash retired), the Celtics, or some weak teams that really have no offensive talent, and they can't score more than 100 points and rely on tough defense to win.

But as there are more and more offensive powerhouses in the league, it won't be long before these diehards hold out, and it's only a matter of time before the league scores more than 100.

"Uh... I think... I think we defended well, there's not much to say, step up and score more points than them. "Mike Malone wasn't thinking about defense at all, so he couldn't say anything about one, two, three, four, five.

Tyronn Lue and the rest of the players looked at Mike Malone and seemed to say, "Are you telling the truth?" ”

You must know that in the previous game, if the Clippers let the opponent score 17 points in the first quarter, Mike Malone would definitely be scolded.

So, the official timeout just passed, and the Clippers players made a slight adjustment and returned to the court.

Taryn Lew asked Malone, "Mike, you're not very focused, what are you thinking?" ”

Malone told the truth and said, "I've been thinking about that article in my head, and I haven't thought about defense at all. ”

"What article? The one you said you saw on NBA-Batman? ”

"Yes, everyone is watching and discussing, why haven't you watched?"

"Okay, okay, bring a pad over here, and show me what the hell is sacred in this article that can distract you from finishing your own work!"

The assistant handed over a pad, the Clippers are the first team in the league to equip the coaching staff and players with electronic equipment, in order to let the coaches and players know their data for the first time, these basic data and high-level data will be displayed quickly on the pad's statistical software.

Tyronn Lue opened the pad, didn't care about the situation on the court, looked at the article in the NBA-Batman column, aimed at it for about ten seconds, and returned the pad to Malone.

"There's nothing to see, I'll just watch the game."

"Don't you understand?"

"Shut up, Mike."

(End of chapter)