start with scouting

Chapter 229 Wrap It Up With Me

The situation of the Thunder Lake duo competing for hegemony has sparked heated discussions.

Fans generally believe that the Thunder's winning streak is normal, while the Lakers' winning streak is because Kobe is not convinced and wants to come back.

There are also fans who believe that the Thunder were lucky in the Western Conference Finals before, and they could always hit those shots that the Lakers deliberately let go, otherwise the results of several games would be rewritten, so the Lakers are not much worse than the Thunder, and they are definitely qualified to destroy the defense.

Su Yang didn't know what the Lakers thought. He didn't care too much about it, thinking it was just a coincidence.

Of course, he doesn't want to end the winning streak before the Lakers, after all, that's a good way to boost the morale of the team's defending title.

Just imagine the state of mind of a rare opponent in the world, and you will be more calm when encountering big scenes and adversities in the future.

On the evening of NO.19, the entire Thunder team arrived at the North Shore Garden to challenge the Celtics away to fulfill Pierce's invitation.

The game was broadcast live by ESPN across the United States. Two days before the start of the game, Pierce's words "see you in Boston" left by Pierce when the Thunder lost at Ford Center, highlighting that Pierce and the Celtics cannot lose, filled the game with gunpowder ahead of time.

The game started at [-] o'clock, and the Celtics fans on the scene wore green jerseys to express their support. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and other local celebrities in Boston came to support and reminded Pierce and the Celtics again that they could not lose, just like the finals.

Perhaps because of the miraculous effect, the Celtics arranged for O'Neal, who joined in the summer, to serve as the starting center, making it clear that they wanted to attack the inside.

Su Yang knew that O'Neal was about to retire, but it was no problem to attack for a few minutes, so he arranged the defense normally.

I once thought that even if Chandler was arranged to interfere with the front and cooperate with the outside line to block the pass, O'Neal still used Rondo's precise lob and his huge body to successfully get the ball in the low post many times. The first quarter of the game was 5 strong He scored 5 points on 11-for-[-] shooting.

Fortunately, O'Neal allocates most of his physical strength on the offensive end. When encountering pick-and-rolls on the defensive end, he can almost only stay in the paint.

Su Yang saw O'Neal's pick-and-roll dilemma in his eyes, and decisively ordered Durant to cooperate with Chandler more on the spot. After the first quarter, Durant easily scored 4 points on 3 of 8 shots. At least he scored 3 points on 2 of 6 shots.

In addition, the Celtics mainly played around O'Neal, the entire offensive system was destroyed, and Ray Allen and others failed to perform normally.

After the start of the second quarter, the Thunder fell into foul trouble in just one minute, but Livingston and Green played well, so that the Thunder not only did not lose points before the main lineup returned, but instead established a 1-point lead, a perfect transition.

The two teams switched back to the main lineup and continued the battle. O'Neal was exhausted and turned into a paper tiger. His forced appearance was only used as a bait to attract defensive attention, but Su Yang knew it too well, so he just arranged for the players to defend normally, and he could even let it go depending on the situation.

I used to think that O'Neal couldn't score goals by himself, but he took the initiative to run to the top of the arc to cover, working as hard as a blue-collar player.

That large body caused a lot of trouble for Westbrook, even if he planned to go around in advance, Rondo would throw him away.

Facing the Thunder's shooting strategy, Rondo also changed his normal shooting strategy, and the key was 4 of 3 shots.

In that way, although Durant played well, the Thunder failed to expand their lead at the end of the half.

Returning to the locker room at halftime, Su Yang finished his summary, and Green reported some pain in his left knee.

Reminiscent of Green's previous sprained foot, Su Yang dared not be careless, and directly arranged for a truce in the second half and went to the hospital for examination first.

In the blink of an eye, when the second half of the game started, Su Yang guessed that O'Neal's physical strength must have recovered, so he decided to act first and arrange Harden to play in advance, so that the Thunder generals would attack the inside line more, consume O'Neal's physical strength, or shoot penalties, or create fouls.

In just 2 minutes, Westbrook made a three-step layup, and Harden made another European layup, causing O'Neal to foul one after another.

But in the face of two fouls, the stubborn Rivers chose to force the ball to O'Neal on the court.

Ibaka followed closely and caused O'Neal to foul with a one-handed dunk. Rivers still chose not to replace O'Neal, but yelled and put pressure on the referee. As a result, Durant stepped on O'Neal for a layup. He sprained his right foot on the spot.

Su Yang witnessed the whole process and was [-]% sure that O'Neill did not do it on purpose, so he could only feel deeply confused.

Durant was forced to take a rest to observe temporarily, the Thunder's flank threat was greatly reduced, and the Celtics took advantage of the situation to strengthen their defense in the middle.

Facing Durant and Green's truce at the same time, Su Yang called Harden to the sidelines while taking advantage of the free throw, and said seriously: "James, next we need you to drive the whole team, you have to play all the remaining time, I believe you can Do it, go for it!"

Harden was a little confused and led the order, and then broke through and caused O'Neal to foul, stabilizing the situation of the Thunder.

At the end of the three quarters, the Thunder struggled to lead the Celtics by 8 points, and Harden and the others were visibly tired.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Su Yang reused Livingston and Barnes in the substitute match stage, and asked them to do a good job of defense.

Unexpectedly, the two not only completed the defensive task, but also withstood the Celtics' offensive attack, and counterattacked, helping the Thunder extend their lead to 9 points, allowing Harden and Westbrook to gain valuable nearly 5 minutes rest time.

Su Yang thought for a long time, and decided to keep Livingston on the court as a small forward, adding an extra ball handler for the team.

That kind of operation quickly received positive feedback. Livingston defended Pierce quite uncomfortable, and he has not made any mistakes yet.

But the referee referee Joe Crawford insisted on stealing the show, calling fouls frantically with 5 minutes left in the game.

Su Yang simply followed his tactics and asked the Thunder generals to use extremely lethal moves such as 'clapping vigorously and cutting the ball'. Anyway, they would also get fouled. It would be better to make the Celtics more uncomfortable, and by the way, reduce the pace of the game and let Harden and the others more to rest.

Joe Crawford blew his whistle and called a foul, the game time passed quietly, and finally counted in the free throw tactical stage.

The Celtics had no choice but to foul Westbrook, and Westbrook made all 6 free throws in a row without giving him a chance.

In the end, the Thunder defeated Celtic Ren 99-94, and the winning streak extended to 12 games. Unfortunately, two generals were injured.

The whole team flew to Milwaukee overnight and checked Durant and Green at the local hospital. The former sprained his right ankle and is expected to need to rest for at least two games. Green has a sprained left knee and is expected to be absent for at least a week. The return date is uncertain.

After waking up at noon the next day, Su Yang read the news first as usual, and found that the Lakers continued their winning streak by defeating the Timberwolves.

The fans discussed more enthusiastically the topic of who would lose first, the Thunder or the Lakers.

Many casinos in Las Vegas placed bets at the beginning of the game, and analyzed and studied the opponents of the Thunder and the Lakers in the next few games to see who had a higher probability of breaking the winning streak. It was soon revealed that Durant and Green would Will miss at least two games due to injury.

Immediately afterwards, another fan mentioned that the Thunder played back-to-back against the Bucks at night, and the Celtics were extremely weak just after beating the Celtics.

For a while, the talk that the Thunder was about to lose spread rapidly on Twitter and other social networks.

Su Yang invited Harden to have dinner in the hotel restaurant, and took out his mobile phone to show the Twitter interface: "James, I don't allow these guys to look down on us, let alone ignore your existence, you have to lead the team to win tonight's game .”

Harden responded calmly: "OK, Leave it to me! (Okay, leave it on me)"

(End of this chapter)