Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 233

Until the time entered the last 2 minutes, first the Thunder missed another shot, and then Ginobili made a false shot when facing Sefolosha from the outside, and made an extremely strange snake-shaped breakthrough layup from the basket, which also caused a foul by Perkins.

It's also a Eurostep, but Ginobili's Eurostep is different from others, and it's more difficult to defend. It's impossible for the Thunder not to make inside substitutions. Ibaka and Gobert will have to rest after all. Perkins' seasoned experience at the center position can still play a role.

If it was Alton and Thabeet, it would be even worse, but at this time, the old fat man's slow-moving weakness was directly caught.

But if it was someone else, the ball would be impossible to defend, at most it would not be a foul.

And when the Thunder served the ball in the backcourt, the Spurs actually started a full-court press.

Popovich's intentions are also obvious. He wants to chase the score to single digits as much as possible before the end of the third quarter.

In this way, after the rotation stage in the fourth quarter, as long as they can hold on to the stalemate, their pressure will be reduced a lot, and they will also retain hope for the final decisive victory.

Of course, there are risks in doing so, but since he has already stood on the edge of the cliff, with Popovich's character, it is impossible to sit still.

You have to try it, what if it works?

However, Li Sheng also greeted the players on the sidelines, signaling them to slow down a bit. The Spurs should be anxious now, and they asked for stability.

If it was not their style for the Thunder to seek stability in the past, a hasty change may increase mistakes, but now they can still stabilize.

"At the end of the third quarter, the two teams seemed to have suddenly switched styles. The Spurs began to press crazily, completely ignoring their physical strength. On the contrary, the Thunder wanted to play slowly..."

"This is also determined by the current situation of the two teams. However, Li Sheng also signaled to the Thunder players to slow down and play steadily. Now they have the advantage. As long as they continue to delay, it will be more beneficial to them."

"That's right," Yoga nodded and said, "And the Spurs are actually still not able to defend against the Thunder's attack. They can only rely on the sudden attack and flank defense to see if they can cause the Thunder's mistakes."

However, after the Thunder stabilized during this period, they also reduced their passing and chose to use more secure singles to solve the problem.

In fact, the basketball game is nothing more than putting the ball into the basket, so although it is a team sport, if heads-up can play a role, then there is no need to avoid this simplest and most direct way.

Let’s just talk about the two three-peat championships of Gang Leader Qiao back then. Isn’t the triangle offense played by the superstar’s weak side heads-up?
This kind of tactic requires the cooperation of teammates, but it also depends more on the quality of the star. For example, if Zen master went to the Knicks later, if he wanted to play this game, he would not be able to play it, and he almost ruined himself by playing it.

The Thunder naturally have such a one-on-one weapon. With Durant's physical strength well preserved, he is not afraid of any opponent's one-on-one defense, whether it is Green or Leonard.

Those two were able to play a defensive effect before, either because he didn't feel good, or because he had the cooperation of other Spurs, which made Durant uncomfortable playing.

However, Li Sheng specially chose a lineup that can fully stretch the formation to cooperate with Durant, so that he can face the defender freely in the weak-side elbow area, attract the defense and immediately pass open opportunities, and the Spurs are in a dilemma of whether to double-team.

And this actually puts all the bets on Durant, it depends on whether he can bear the pressure.

However, after a season of training, even though he is the only main player in the team that Li Sheng did not secretly give any bonuses to, his current stability and even his passing vision, which he was not very good at originally, have become more and more practiced.

So in the third quarter, although the Spurs relied on the players' three-pointers to break out tenaciously, and even Parker hit a three-pointer, chasing the score to 8 points, but leaving the Thunder with the last chance to attack, Durant, who stayed on the court, scored a mid-range shot at the buzzer, fixing the score at 10 points.

Even though it’s only a two-point difference, it feels completely different. This is why a timeout is often called when the game leads to 8 points all of a sudden, or when there is a small climax. At this time, the most important thing is the psychological difference in morale.

During the break between festivals, Li Sheng patted the players, all of them praised "well played", and then turned around and told them not to rush to celebrate.

Although this kind of mother-like exhortation is sometimes annoying, the players also know the importance of the matter at this time and dare not be careless.

When a person who travels a hundred miles is half to ninety, and is only one step away from victory, it is the most important thing to not relax your vigilance.

What's more, in terms of the score in this quarter alone in the third quarter, they actually lost by 5 points.

That's not even. If the rhythm of facing each other comes up in the fourth quarter, or if they don't have a good rhythm on their side, it is still possible to capsize in the gutter.

The 130 seconds passed quickly, and when the two teams played again, Li Sheng couldn't help raising his eyebrows when he saw the Spurs' lineup.

To be honest, he originally thought that Popovich would bring back the main force at the beginning and go all out. From the pressing tactics at the end of the third quarter, he could feel a little bit of his thoughts, but now that he is like this, he doesn’t know whether he should give up or believe in his persistence.

In short, the two teams are competing for rotation players, but the Spurs have replaced Parker and Leonard with the bench, while the Thunder have Westbrook and Antetokounmpo at this time.

They didn't play for long in the third quarter, and they played against Durant's vacancy for a while in the middle, and then replaced them with Durant.

Westbrook still has plenty of physical strength at this time, and no one on the opposite side can keep up with him.

At this time, Westbrook may not be the fastest in the league in terms of speed alone. For example, Wall of the Wizards is faster, and there are other "fastest first steps", but Westbrook's speed plus his explosive power and impact give him an extraordinary violent aesthetics in his breakthrough.

Now that he has experience facing Leonard Westbrook, he knows that this guy is not an easy guy, and he will not insist on confronting him head-on, calling a pick-and-roll and directly passing him.

Leonard chased after him, and Westbrook rushed to the railing under the basket for a layup to avoid the defense and score.

It may be true to say that Westbrook has no skills, but when he is in good physical condition, he can complete the movements he wants to do as he wants, which is not something everyone can do.

Maybe not as agile as Irving or as aesthetically pleasing as Rose, but he also has his own unique style.

"As soon as the fourth quarter came up, Westbrook scored another goal!"

Su Qun said with a smile: "Westbrook and this Durant are in good form today, and Li Sheng asked them to play separately, so both of them can play a role."

After all, there is only one basketball, and both of them are those who can perform better and play better with the ball in their hands, especially Li Sheng now let them "return to the basics" all of a sudden, and play separately as they used to.

And naturally, the Spurs on the opposite side suffered.

(End of this chapter)