start with scouting

Chapter 153 The Threesome Must Have My Teacher
On the 26th, the Thunder played against the Lakers at home.

ESPN is responsible for the national live broadcast. Before the game, it vigorously promoted that the game would be a preview of the Western Conference Finals, which attracted a lot of attention.

Su Yang got the scouting report and found that Bynum was absent due to injury. He immediately discussed with Snyder and others to adjust the goal of the game, mainly to arrange for Westbrook to attack Fisher. Potentially good performance.

If Westbrook blows up Fisher and affects the Lakers' defensive strategy when they meet the Thunder in the playoffs, then the Thunder will take the lead in the series. Although it is a bit far-fetched, Phil Jackson is doing tricks in advance Put pressure on the referee.

After making up his mind, the training ended at [-] pm, and Su Yang publicly challenged Westbrook in the locker room.

Westbrook accepted the challenge calmly, and Su Yang then adjusted the focus of offense and defense, allowing the whole team to focus on less running tactics.

The game started at seven o'clock, and Westbrook played a pick-and-roll with Ibaka at the beginning of the game, assisting Ibaka to score two points.

Easy side Lakers attack, Fisher ran a floppy tactic, made an emergency stop, caught the ball, turned over and made a hit.

Westbrook immediately assisted Durant to score and then put pressure on. Fisher received a pass from Kobe for a layup.

Seeing the two confronting each other, the audience cheered Westbrook and booed Fisher to interfere.

Perhaps because of interference, Fisher took the ball for the third time and ended it with a strike, but turned around, Westbrook forced a foul on Fisher and scored two people, and then stole the ball passed by Kobe to Fisher. Assisted by Sefolosha for dunk…

整个第一节比赛，威少联手塞弗罗萨完全压制湖人后场，交出9投6中1罚球，13分3助攻3抢断2篮板1失误1犯规的豪华数据单，帮助雷霆27比15领先湖人。

In the second quarter, Kobe seemed to have very low desire to attack. He played more than eight minutes and only made 4 shots and made 3 turnovers.

The Lakers were unable to catch up, and the tone of the game was established like that. After three quarters, the Thunder led by as many as 33 points.

Only 2 minutes into the fourth quarter, Phil Jackson replaced Artest and arranged for the full bench to play.

Su Yang intends to let the players have a normal mind facing the Lakers. Except for the withdrawal of Westbrook, Durant, and Chandler, the other players who remain on the field will still be the main rotation, and Harden will lead the team to play normally. Defeated the Lakers 119 to 75.

At the moment when the final whistle sounded, Su Yang sighed in his heart: It is really difficult to win by 58 points. How do you do it?

The Lakers lost 44 points to the Thunder. After the game, there was a lot of discussion among fans. Various opinions emerged one after another. Some people said that it was nothing surprising. lose.

Su Yang participated in the press conference after the game and decided to fight against Phil Jackson. He took the initiative to talk about the Lakers' 24 free throws: "I think the Lakers get too much preferential treatment. That's not what the game should be like. This league needs more. ..."

回到更衣室，他专门拿着数据表夸奖威少：“拉塞尔今晚出战28分钟，13投10中拿到23分6助攻5篮板4抢断，我认为他今年应该获得进步最快球员奖…”

All the Thunder generals agreed, and Durant joked: "Russell, who grabs fewer rebounds, is the strongest point guard on the planet."

After beating the Lakers, the Thunder's total record reached 59 wins and 12 losses, three wins behind the league's second Cavaliers.

With the idea of ​​keeping the league's first throne, the team played against the Trail Blazers at home on the 28th.

Su Yang found that the Blazers were on the verge of the playoffs before, and thought about whether to play a game, but after the Thunder beat the Rockets, the Blazers can enter the playoffs anyway, but the ranking may be between [-], [-], and [-] , is difficult to determine.

The situation in the West is too complicated, with the sudden emergence of the Thunder, the sharp decline of the Spurs, and the serious injuries of the Trail Blazers. The combination of the Jazz, Spurs, and Trail Blazers may have to wait until the last game day to determine the rankings of the three teams.

During the warm-up before the game, Su Yang chatted with McMillan and Monty on the sidelines, discussing the possibility of meeting in the playoffs.

Su Yang sincerely praised the Blazers for their good defense. The main reason is that Roy and Oden are injured and absent. The Blazers are still the third-lowest in the league in points per game this season. .

In comparison, although the Thunder concedes about 3 points more per game than the Blazers, but every 100 rounds to prevent the opponent from scoring, the Thunder is about 2.5 points more than the Blazers, which means that the real defensive effect is better than the Blazers. So a little bit.

Of course, McMillan is undoubtedly an excellent defensive coach, and many defensive strategies are even very bold.

The game started at [-] o'clock, and the Blazers tried their best to suppress the rhythm, and resorted to the zone defense to stick to the inside, deliberately releasing three points.

Sefoloza and Westbrook's three-point shooting percentages were really mediocre. They could only use conventional cover routines to break the zone defense and were forced to fight hand-to-hand with the Blazers. This made the game very difficult. It was not until the last moment that the Thunder narrowly won 92-87 pioneer.

After a day off, the whole team flew to Philadelphia, and after beating the 76ers, they flew back to Oklahoma overnight.

On the last game day of March, the Thunder played against the Celtics back-to-back at home. The two-sided separation strategy successfully resolved Garnett's large-scale defensive advantage and further amplified Perkins' shortcomings of slow movement. Westbrook scored 11 points and 4 assists in the first quarter.

Su Yang also borrowed from McMillan's defensive thinking, let Ibaka and Chandler rush to grab offensive rebounds as much as possible, organize a second attack if they grab them, and use Ibaka and Chandler's flexible advantages to try their best to obstruct the rebound. The Celtics are off to a quick start.

Just like that, the Celtics, who are very good at defense and transition, only scored 47 points in the half game, and rarely scored fast breaks.

The Celtics failed to make any changes in the second half, and the Thunder won 109-94.

At the press conference after the game, the reporter asked how to defend so well, Su Yang replied: "I have to thank Nate McMillan, the Blazers came to play before, we had a conversation, I learned a lot of new ideas from him .”

The interview answers were quickly posted on social networks, and many fans were surprised, thinking that Su Yang was schizophrenic.

Bill Simmons, a well-known commentator, tweeted: "Compared to those arrogant remarks that guarantee the championship, Su Yang has been humbly learning from other coaches in the league, such as learning offensive tactics from Carlisle and learning defense from McMillan. Strategy, and his status as a 26-year-old head coach and the boss of a company valued at one billion is a wonder in the world.

Believe me, many people with his achievements almost feel that they are the son of destiny. "

After defeating the Celtics, the Thunder rested for two days and flew to Dallas on April [-] to challenge the Mavericks away.

In the first quarter, Durant and Nowitzki scored against each other, but in the second quarter, both of them were restricted.

But Nowitzki was restricted, the Mavericks' offense was misfired, Durant was restricted, Westbrook and Green took turns to stand up.

After halftime, the Thunder led by 8 points.

I thought the tone of the game would be set just like that. Who would have thought that Kidd would show his power in the third quarter, scoring 8 points on 5 of 13 shots, forcing the Mavericks to seize the situation, and continued to score and assist in the fourth quarter, dragging the game. to the last moment.

Carlisle also resorted to penalty kick tactics. Fortunately, the Thunder team did not hesitate to make free throws. In the end, they narrowly won 121 to 116.

Participating in the press conference after the game, Su Yang bluntly said that he was frightened by Kidd, and he scored 24 points in the audience!
That night, the Thunder flew back to Oklahoma overnight to host back-to-back home games against the Timberwolves.

Perhaps it was the previous Thunder triangle offense that caused a psychological shadow on the Timberwolves team. Kurt Rambis finally did not force the Timberwolves to execute the triangle offense, but played those basic pick-and-rolls and passes, how to do it comfortably.

It's a pity that the talent gap between the two teams is too great, Su Yang deliberately didn't command the whole process, and the Thunder still won easily.

In the early morning of the next day, the team did not conduct training as usual, but Su Yang still went to the base to watch the video.

Several assistant coaches including Snyder were also there, chatting about the first-round opponent. The Thunder has a great chance to designate the first-round opponent, because according to the order of the schedule, they will play against the Jazz and Trail Blazers backwards. Decide on ranking.

Assistant coach Brian laughed: "Compared to San Antonio, I think Portland will be a better choice."

Su Yang raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard the words: "I remember that the teams that chose their opponents didn't seem to have a good result..."

(End of this chapter)