The way of the center

Chapter 309 Attack and Defense at Halftime
The game between the Thunder and the Trail Blazers was very intense from the very beginning. After Anjie won the ball for the Trail Blazers, the offensive and defensive scenes of the two sides were very exciting and dizzying.During this period, the scores of the two teams also took the lead alternately, and no one had a real upper hand.

Anjie's desire to attack is extremely strong today, and his voice of yelling at his teammates for the ball has become the main theme on the field.It has been a long time since Morris and Ibaka have met a decent opponent, but today, neither of them dared to relax.

After Westbrook scored another goal with an emergency stop jumper after a breakthrough, the Blazers' offense also followed.

Angie set up a few pick-and-rolls for Felton and Gerald Wallace, but the effect was not ideal.You know, the Thunder team relied on their tough defense to become a strong team back then. Even without Anjie, the Thunder team will still not change this point.

Only now did An Jie know that the Thunder's defense was so annoying.

Originally, Anjie and the team's running-in was not perfect, but now they encountered the Thunder's impregnable defense, which caused the Trail Blazers to fail to play several tactics in a row.Seeing that there was not much time left for this attack, An Jie gave up the pick-and-roll and went inside.

"Is it coming again!?" Morris set up his position. In the past few years, he and Anjie had fought against Anjie countless times on the training ground. He knew Anjie, and Anjie also knew him.There are no secrets between the two parties, only a head-to-head duel of strength.

Anjie took a step inside the free throw line to secure his position. Felton couldn't pass the ball calmly in such a small space, so he passed a lob that only Anjie could catch.

Sefoloza leaps high in the middle of the passing lane, but falls short of the basketball.When the basketball started to fall, An Jie's big hands were like suction cups, and he firmly grasped the ball in his hands.

Morris immediately supported the power point of An Jie's waist with both hands, and kicked his legs on the ground for support.Holding the ball one step inside the free throw line, Anjie will definitely choose to advance!

Unexpectedly, when Morris made all the preparations, he did not feel the impact from An Jie.An Jie glanced at the rim and Morris's low center of gravity defensive stance, so he turned around and made a big hook. The basketball hit the front of the rim, but finally climbed in.

"Ann's touch is still so soft, Morris has no way to deal with this big hook!" Soon, An Jie was praised by Reggie Miller.

With An Jie scoring the ball, the scores of the two sides were even again.This is the fifth time the two sides have tied the score, but now only 8 minutes have been played in the first quarter.

Yes, Anjie played 8 minutes today and has not been replaced by Ricard. This is also the main reason why the Trail Blazers can hold the score.

Wesley Matthews didn't feel good on the outside in the first quarter, and all two three-pointers missed the target.Aldridge was still able to make a few shots, but not as consistently as he usually does.It can be said that the Trail Blazers' state in the first quarter was very average, but they were able to tie with the Western Conference Finals team again and again, relying on Anjie's scoring inside.

After the goal was scored just now, An Jie has already scored 8 points today, and his shooting percentage is a clean 4 of 4.Facing the defense of Morris and Ibaka, Anjie was not afraid.He can always find the weakness of the two defenses and hit them.

It wasn't until the end of the first quarter with 3 minutes left that Anjie was replaced by Ricard.That is, in the three minutes when the substitute players on both sides played, the Thunder team was finally able to slightly open the score.

Jamal Crawford's performance is still outstanding, but it is still no match for the double impact of Batum and Bledsoe on the Thunder's bench.

21 to 26, the Trail Blazers showed no sign of weakness at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, ending their first quarter with just five points.

"Shrink the formation!" During the intermission, when the players had just sat down, Ricard yelled out this tactical term.

"The Thunder's shooting percentage today is actually not high, but their impact on the inside is too easy! How many mid-range and short-range shots did Westbrook get today? In the second quarter, we will shrink the formation and make shots. Let go!" After finishing speaking, Ricard rubbed the tactical board a few times with a marker pen to emphasize.

"Is it really okay to let them shoot? The shooting of the two guys KD and Bledsoe is not a joke." Anjie knows the Thunder, so he also questioned Ricard's tactics.

"Ann, against a team like the Thunder, it is impossible for us to do everything defensively. We can only focus on the key points and kill a little bit to weaken the opponent's offensive firepower. After that, we will use our own offense to make up for the points. Poor. Sometimes in order to achieve better tactical effects, we have to make compromises in some aspects.” Ricard was very happy that Anjie could ask himself questions, at least it shows that Anjie is thinking about the game, not the coach telling him to do it. Why is he so stupid.At least in this regard, this guy has what it takes to be a leader.

"Understood boss, don't worry, as long as Thunder players step into my territory, I promise not to let them score!"

Just as An Jie finished speaking, the short inter-section break was over.An Jie stood up and stretched out his palm among everyone.

The Trail Blazers players looked at each other in blank dismay, and then put their hands on An Jie's palm one by one.

"1! 2! 3!" After everyone put up their hands, An Jie shouted out three numbers.

"Blazers!" No one knew why An Jie, who had only played less than ten games with the Blazers, would do this. Everyone only knew that he was following this Chinese, and he was right!

At the beginning of the second quarter, Westbrook, who had tasted the sweetness before, held the ball again, ready to use his good breakthrough to score.

Now that Westbrook is playing better and better, he's also spending more time with the ball than he did with Angie.A super scorer like Durant, who is a scoring champion, also has to play off the ball for him.For others, it is even more rare to receive a pass from Westbrook.

Although Raymond Felton is a model of a short and stocky defender, the movement of his feet is far less fast than Westbrook.To put it bluntly, in this league, how many guards can be faster than Westbrook?
So even if Felton is barely able to compete with Westbrook, once Westbrook speeds up, Felton is completely out of control.

With Morris' high pick-and-roll, Westbrook changed direction and broke through Felton like lightning.

"Successful!" Just when Westbrook was proud, his eyes suddenly went dark, and Aldridge had shrunk in, lying between Westbrook and the basket.

Westbrook can't slow down now. If he rushes forward, he must be a dribbler. If he wants to shoot, he may be blocked under Aldridge's interference.So Westbrook turned his shot into a pass, allowing Ibaka who went out to get the ball.

Ibaka immediately wanted to shoot after he got the ball, and he did.But when he just released the ball, he found a palm that was higher than the trajectory of the basketball suddenly stretched out.

If the ball was replaced by someone else, An Jie really didn't dare to take off to block the shot rashly, because he was afraid that the opponent was making a fake move.But Ibaka, Anjie knows him too well, regardless of Ibaka's strong body and excellent athletic ability.But when he gets an open shot, he's definitely going to shoot.

So after Anjie saw Ibaka get the ball, he immediately rushed towards his former teammate.The timing of An Jie's supplementary defense was actually a bit late, but thanks to his height and wingspan, An Jie still caught the basketball.

After the basketball was changed by An Jie, it flew straight up and down into the air. An Jie immediately took off for the second time and caught the basketball.After getting the ball, Anjie wanted to pass the ball directly from the backcourt to launch a fast break, but when he was about to pass the ball, he realized that there was no Durant or Westbrook rushing wildly in front of him, only waiting in the backcourt. Felton and Matthews are advancing with the ball.

An Jie smiled helplessly, he was really used to their existence.After that, An Jie honestly handed the ball to Felton beside him, and ran towards the frontcourt by himself.

Later, Anjie attracted the defense of Morris and Ibaka under the basket, but in this small space, Anjie passed the ball out and sent it to Aldridge.

Aldridge raised the knife and dropped the ball, and the basketball went into the net hollow.Anjie and Aldridge's combination of inside and outside, really has too many offensive methods.

Only two points were recovered, and it would not cause the Thunder to mess up.Westbrook passed the ball this time, but Durant still chose to break through.Facing Gerald Wallace, Durant has an obvious height advantage.He can calmly complete a throw or layup over Wallace's head after the breakthrough, but like Westbrook, Durant fell into the surrounding defense as soon as he plunged in.

In the end, Felton cut off Durant's basketball in the chaos.If it weren't for the Trail Blazers players on the field who really don't have the ability to counterattack, the Thunder would have lost points again because of this mistake.

But it doesn't matter if you play positional warfare, what Rickard is best at is positional offense.After some conduction, the ball finally came to An Jie's hands.An Jie advanced a few steps in. This time Ibaka didn't dare to rush to defend, so in the one-on-one with Morris, An Jie made another step-back jumper after shaking his shoulder.

"Morris in the third grade is already one of the best inside defenders in the league, but An Jie still has no pressure to score in front of him!" Yu Jia was delighted to see An Jie score again, every time An Jie scored , will be very different.Anjie's comprehensive offensive skills were fully demonstrated.

To deal with guys like Morris, An Jie had to change his approach.If he kept using the same trick, Morris would not let Anjie score as he wished.

After the goal was scored, Van Gundy immediately called a timeout.Shrinking the defense, he has seen the Blazers' defensive strategy.During this timeout, Ricard also replaced Gerald Wallace, who was not feeling well, with Jamal Crawford, which brought more possibilities for the Blazers' transition offense.

Then, while Durant and Bledsoe did make a few shots from the perimeter, Westbrook was completely choked on that.

Only 6 goal was hit in 1 shots, and no fouls have been caused by anyone, resulting in no free throw opportunities.Westbrook lost its role under the Blazers' resolute shrinking defense, and the Blazers can also use their own offense to make up for the goals of Durant and Bledsoe.

Even though Durant and Bledsoe were able to hit the shot, the Trail Blazers on the field still resolutely implemented Ricard's arrangement.Facts have proved that the change of the Trail Blazers in this quarter was successful. In this quarter, they won the Thunder by three points in a single quarter, and the total score was moved to 51 to 53.

At the end of the half, the Oklahoma City Thunder only led the Trail Blazers by a negligible two points at home.And when Westbrook is contained, the Thunder's second half will only be tougher.

The game between the two sides did not disappoint the fans, the score has been very close, and the scene is also very beautiful.

Anjie scored 14 points and 6 rebounds at halftime, and his playing time has obviously returned to normal, much more than the previous games.

His preparations for this game have paid off. Now, it depends on whether An Jie can carry the banner of leading the team and lead his teammates to completely kill the game.

The new Thunder three young masters?It doesn't matter, Anjie and Ricard have plenty of solutions!

(End of this chapter)