In the face of Durant's dribbling single, Butler lowered his center of gravity.

Durant is very disdainful, his dry pull is an unsolvable point with a high shot, and he dares to lower his center of gravity in the face of him.

After Butler lowered his center of gravity, Durant was directly a dry pull.

But when Durant took off, he felt a familiar feeling again.

That is, his lower set was topped again, the confrontation in mid-air was at a disadvantage, and the whole shooting rhythm was disrupted again.

Then Butler directly sealed his face and defended in the same style as Iguodala.

Durant, who was full of confidence, didn't expect Butler to do this at all, and he didn't adapt to this ball.

actually voted directly for a three-no-stick.

The score remained, and the Timberwolves 8:2 Thunder.

This is simply outrageous.

Westbrook looked at Durant with a puzzled expression, what is going on with this guy tonight, can he fight?

However, Su Chen on the sidelines was smiling.

Looking at this alignment on the field, this is the effect that Su Chen wants.

It was also the second meaning of his letting Butler defend against Gobert.

That is, after Durant found a block, Butler was the second, the second person who could replace Iguodala to defend Durant.

Butler is often said to be untalented, and many people are also in the same vein, and Butler's low rank also follows Butler's lack of talent.

But Butler was able to play in the league, and even created a Black Eight miracle against the Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was almost the first person in the league at the time.

It's not just about hard work.

You must know that the black eighth version of Butler is already a Butler who has removed his meniscus.

The current Butler can be said to be a Butler whose physical talent has not been weakened in any way.

The alleged lack of talent in Butler is actually a problem with Butler's static talent.

To put it bluntly, Butler's hands are relatively small in the NBA, and his arm span is not long.

His height looks like he is 2.01 meters, which seems to be a good height in the front line, but his arms are not thick and his shoulders are not broad.

The reason why Gobert's core strength is so poor, but the quality of the pick-and-roll cover is the top or even the top in the league, is because his shoulders are wide and his arms are thick.

The most obvious contrast to this shortcoming is his comparison with Leonard, Leonard's shoulders are wide and his hands are long and his palms are large, and Butler's arms and palms are smaller than Leonard's.

The difference in the effectiveness of this practice is that Leonard can grasp the ball with one hand, and his control of the ball can be a one-handed layup or a steady control of the ball under interference and then a mid-range shot.

And Butler wanted to go to the basket, but the one-handed layup was not stable at all, and the ball shook and couldn't score at the slightest interference.

As for dunks, Butler couldn't complete a one-handed dunk.

This is also why Butler was angry when he saw Wiggins and Towns wasting their talent after arriving at the Timberwolves, and brought a third team to blow up their starting lineups.

If Butler had Wiggins' talent, he would have taken his entire career to the next level.

Of course, Butler is also talented himself.

His power, speed, and bounce are all top notch.

It's not good to let him defend Durant in a conventional way, but if he were to use the same way Iguodala just now, he would be up to the task.

Although his strength is still not as good as Iguodala, Butler is more desperate than Iguodala on the defensive end.

Iguodala can't say he's paddling, he's going to be able to bend when he needs it.

In normal times, Iguodala is not very aggressive, and his desire to win ordinary games is not as serious as Butler's.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have appeared, and the Grizzlies asked Iguodala to come back to play, and Iguodala didn't want to pay attention to it.

Directly refused to play for the Grizzlies.

But no matter what, when Iguodala wants to fight, his strength is still on the line.

Just like after being traded to the Heat by the Grizzlies, he went from not wanting to play to helping the Heat reach the Finals.

Scott Brooks was very irritable on the sidelines.

Durant has always been an inexplicable presence on the offensive end, but the Timberwolves are first Iguodala and then Butler.

The two did a great job defending Durant.

However, the next positional battle of the Timberwolves did not succeed.

The Thunder won the ball again.

Scott Brooks was on the sidelines and shouted at Durant to make Durant change his ways.

Durant understood.

This time, Durant still called Gobert's pick-and-roll.

At the same time, before calling for blocking, he gave Gobert a gesture, and Gobert also understood.

Durant is going to give the ball to Gobert, but Gobert can't go too deep, and at least it's more stable to catch the ball in a high position.

Then, making it look like Gobert cut in and played, Durant would actually run another hand to catch the ball to finish.

The tactics are like this.

But as soon as the actual battle was played, Su Chen shouted on the sidelines, and the Timberwolves' defensive strategy suddenly changed.

This time, after Durant went to block and dismantle, it was not that he changed the defense after the block, but that Butler and Iguodala rushed towards Durant at the same time.

Both of these men knew that Durant was inconsistent, Butler was responsible for going to Durant's lower set to make Durant unable to start, and Iguodala was trying to grab the ball from Durant's hand.

Durant was sandwiched into a hamburger by the two of them, and he couldn't move.

But fortunately, Durant is tall and has a long arm span, and he still passes in the direction of Gobert.

At this time, Ibaka and Giannis Antetokounmpo were both in charge of this inside sweeping mission, and the two had already rushed in frantically the moment Gobert entered.

Gobert received the ball near the free-throw line, where he was unsure of his shot and needed to take a few more steps.

But before he could get the ball in, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ibaka both arrived.

One left and one right, the two sandwiched Goebel into hamburgers again.

At this time, the Thunder's outside line is empty.

But there is a difference in the open space, Reggie Jackson is open but Butler is already running in his direction, Soflosa is open but Lore Deng is guarding the pass to Soflosa.

Only Westbrook is truly empty.

Westbrook is not completely without three points, his three points are declining year by year, and now Westbrook also has three points.

But in Su Chen's eyes, Westbrook's three-point release is also acceptable.

After all, this is forcing Gobert to make mistakes.

Gobert was already struggling to handle the ball with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Serge Ibaka, and Lorkon was still moving towards him.

It's equivalent to the fact that the three of them are wrapping Gobert in the bag.

At his peak, Gobert can't handle this kind of scene calmly, let alone the current rookie Gobert.

Honk!

In a hurry, Gobert actually walked and was whistled by the referee.

Goebel had a very annoyed expression.

After giving Gobert a mistake on the offensive end, he went on the next defensive end.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's single against Gobert caused Gobert to pay for another foul.

This Giannis Antetokounmpo is aiming to knock Gobert out, and letting Gobert defend Giannis Antetokounmpo is simply a mistake, and the sensitivity can't be matched.

Even if Gobert raised his hand and did nothing, Giannis Antetokounmpo could take the ball and go to Gobert for a foul.

This is also Goebel's biggest problem.

As an offensive butter player, he relies on defense to gain a foothold, but his defense will often be targeted as a weakness.

Being scoped by a top-notch projection guard, being knocked out by the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, and even later by a back-to-back skill stream like Jokic.

Gobert is really a very embarrassing player.

However, Giannis Antetokounmpo's free throws are now a no-brainer, walking to the free throw line and hitting one of two free throws.

Timberwolves 9:2 Thunder.

Honk!

Scott Brooks couldn't stand it and called a timeout.

After a short run of the first quarter, he was already calling a timeout.

It can be seen that Scott Brooks really can't do anything right now.

But Scott Brooks wasn't in too much of a hurry, and even if he couldn't win this game, it would be an ordinary regular season game for the Thunder.

It looks like it's the second-best tie-up in the West.

But the Timberwolves are a rebuilding team, and it's still quite difficult to really make it to the top half of the West.

As for this match, Scott Brooks already feels that winning or losing is not too important.

It can be seen that Su Chen is prepared!

Whether it is targeting Durant or Gobert, Su Chen has done a lot of research.

Goebel's targeting is still understandable.

After all, Gobert was traded by him, and he must be aware of Gobert's weaknesses, and it is normal to grasp Gobert's weaknesses.

But Durant has been in the league for so many years, and there is no way to really limit Durant effectively.

This Su Chen actually put so much effort into Durant's research.

The key is that these are still valid studies, and those against Thunder are effective.

Scott Brooks complained in his heart, this Su Chen has this kung fu, is it not good to study the opponent in the card position match in the lower half.

The overall strength of the Thunder is clearly in the upper half.

However, this timeout, Scott Brooks did not change his new tactics.

For one thing, he's not good at adjusting, and he can hardly make much tactical changes.

Second, there is a way, and he will not use it in this game.

As far as Su Chen's research on Thunder is concerned, he may not know how deep he has studied.

When the time comes, the main opponents of the Thunder will learn how to target the Thunder, and it will not be cost-effective.

Su Chen is not joking, he really has studied how to fight the thunder.

After the pause returns.

The Thunder's offense is more routine.

Even Gobert was replaced with Adams.

Durant didn't play alone, and Scott Brooks didn't want Durant to be studied anymore, so he simply cut a certain amount of Durant's ball possession.

Give the ball more to Westbrook, and then Durant plays more off-ball play.

In such a situation, it is indeed difficult for Su Chen to catch Durant.

It's all made Durant an off-ball shooter, what else?

Do you have to beat Durant down?

However, without Durant's large number of ball-handling singles, the Thunder is equivalent to playing with a relatively unfamiliar tactical system.

In this case, the Timberwolves have a big advantage.

Iguodala, Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo's bull corner were also playing very well.

There is almost no need to change too many tactics.

End of the first session.

Timberwolves 28:18 Thunder.

In the first quarter, the Timberwolves directly took a 10-point lead.

The attention of this game is still quite high, after all, it is a national live broadcast.

Everyone thinks that this game is either a crushing game of the Thunder or a close confrontation.

Even a small number of viewers who support the Timberwolves believe that in a close situation, the Timberwolves seize the key opportunity to turn the tables.

But now that the Timberwolves are pressing the Thunder, it makes people a little nervous.

If the Timberwolves feel too good about three-point shooting, that's understandable.

After all, the three points of the weak team can also beat the strong team, and the defensive intensity in the regular season is not as good as in the playoffs.

However, the Timberwolves rarely shot three-pointers in the first quarter, and most of the goals were made inside and from mid-range.

The Timberwolves are purely fighting for efficiency, and they beat the Thunder like this.

Durant, the Thunder's number one star, scored an embarrassing 5 points in the first quarter.

One runs without the ball to catch a three-pointer, an inside cut in for a foul, and a free throw for two points.

This data is very embarrassing.

You know, Durant is still far ahead of the MVP list this season.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this season is Durant's peak season.

Of course, this also has something to do with coach Scott Brooks' strategy, he didn't let Durant play a lot of ball-handling offense after Durant lost back-to-back offenses at the beginning of this game.

The reason why the Thunder is a strong team is because this season, Durant's performance averaged more than 30 points per game.

High scores can explode at every turn.

When Durant is limited, the Thunder's firepower is much worse.

And on the commentary stage, it was already very lively.

"What's going on in this game, and why isn't Durant offensive?"

Johnson said with some confusion.

"Hey buddy, you're the biggest favorite on the MVP list this season, you can't just become a role player running just because the offense is being defended."

Barkley gestured, shaking his head.

Although Barkley has not won a championship, he is also an MVP.

In his MVP season, he was almost unstoppable, and as long as he wanted to play the opposite side, he needed two opponents to defend him.

"That's a single defense, Kevin, how can you just stop fighting?"

"Role players can't play and hide in the corners of the team, so they can't compete for MVP."

At this time, O'Neill also looked puzzled.

It can be seen that even O'Neill is a little dissatisfied, originally he is a character who likes to be funny.

But now O'Neill's tone is also very serious.

Both he and Barkley have won MVPs, and in their star-studded era, it wasn't easy to grab one.

None of them can still resolutely attack and score points even if they are not carrying two or three people.

MVP is the biggest difference between a superstar and an ordinary star, and the gold content is very high.

This means that in a given season, you are the best basketball superstar in the league and on the planet.

And when a superstar encounters obstacles, he actually chooses to run away?

"Hey, did the role players mess with you, one role player at a time."

But at this time, Kenny Smith said dissatisfied.

Kenny Smith hasn't even made an All-Star in his career, except for a rookie and two championships with Big Dream.

He's a pretty standard role player.

Kenny Smith's joke lightened the mood a bit.

And at this time, the second quarter of the game began.

Both sides are on the pitch.

Timberwolves lineup: Mike Muscala (C), Josh Smith (PF), Robert Covington (SF), Chris Middleton (SG), Patrick Beverley (PG).

Thunder lineup: Rudy Gobert (C), Reggie Williams (PF), Caron Butler (SF), CJ McCollum (SG), Derrick Fisher (PG).

The Timberwolves went straight up and down five, and this one was directly pulled into a ten-man rotation.

The Thunder, on the other hand, brought Gobert back.

The Thunder's bench lineup is also obvious, which is to beat McCollum and Gobert.

When they were with the Timberwolves before, they were regular partners.

Obviously, the Thunder wanted to give it a try, and let these two recombine to see if it would have a good effect.

After all, their performance in the Timberwolves at the beginning impressed the Thunder management, and they planned to trade Ibaka for them.

At the same time, the audience was in high spirits.

After all, after McCollum was traded, he said more than once that he wanted to kick the Timberwolves out of the playoffs.

This grievance game is also quite interesting.

(End of chapter)