start with scouting

Chapter 230 The King of Fouls

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the entire Thunder team took a bus to the Bradley Center, home of the Bucks, to conduct pre-match training as usual.

Su Yang compared the main shortcomings of the Bucks on the defensive end, simply arranged a few strategies, and then sat on the sidelines to watch.

Assistant coach Brian and others were also sitting next to them. While chatting, they unknowingly began to complain that the Bradley Center was too dilapidated, and then mentioned the visiting team's locker room remodeled from the toilet. The entire coaching staff was very upset and complained one after another. The Bucks quickly change the boss.

In the blink of an eye, it was time to prepare for the game. The Thunder generals hurriedly changed their clothes and walked out of the locker room, not wanting to stay any longer.

Su Yang left with the players, thinking that it was not because of the beautiful daughter of the Arab League and the future Bucks owner. It would be difficult for domestic fans to pay attention to a team with a very low presence like the Bucks. It is no wonder that the Bradley Center has always been difficult to find. Title sponsor.

Leaving the locker room, Su Yang rushed to the media room, talked about the absence of the two generals, and replied: "We will not let KD and Jeff come back early because of the pursuit of records. Even if it is 72 wins, the regular season record will have little impact. Health should come first.”

When the reporter asked why Harden was arranged to start, Su Yang replied: "James' statistics are average, but his real level is much higher. He can fully assume the responsibility of starting for a long time. His long-term substitute is just to help the team better."

The reporter continued to ask various questions, and Su Yang emphasized one sentence: In my heart, Harden will be the MVP.

In his view, the members of the Harden team, especially his agent Robert Pelinka, will definitely see the content of the interview. Right now, Durant and Green are taking advantage of the opportunity to recover from their injuries to express their personal attitudes, so as to avoid any moths later.

The pre-match ceremony followed closely.

When playing the American national anthem, Su Yang casually looked around the arena and found that only half of the seats were filled.

The low attendance rate of local fans is mainly due to the fact that the Bucks have stretched their records in recent seasons and the arena fees are not reasonable enough.

With the final treble falling and the lights turned on, Su Yang walked to the Bucks bench, shook hands with Earl Boykins, whom he hadn't met in the past three seasons, chatted a few words of respect, and asked the staff for help Take pictures.

Su Yang admires Earl Boykins very much. With a body size of 165CM/61KG, he can play in the NBA for as many as twelve seasons, and after leaving the league to play in Italy, he can sign with the Wizards again as a non-water dispenser substitute. He has averaged 15.2 points and 4.5 assists per game in a single season in his career, and it will be difficult for players of the same type to appear in the future.

The long whistle sounded, and the starting players of the two teams entered and took their positions. There was only a little perfunctory cheers at the scene.

For the Bucks, "The Only LeBron" Jennings, "Comprehensively Weakened Captain Jack" Salmons, "African Prince" Mbah a Moute, "After the end of his rookie contract, he finally got a contract of more than one year" Drew Gooden, 'Big Mouth' Bogut.

On the Thunder's side, Westbrook, Harden, Barnes, Ibaka, and Chandler have greatly reduced their strength compared to before.

The Bucks won the opening jump ball. After shifting from the strong side to the weak side, Gooden and Jennings made a pick-and-roll with their right elbows. , giving great interference, shooting like iron,

The reason why Jennings is ignored is because Jennings is only good at long-range shots around screens, and the convenience of breaking through and attacking the basket is very average. Last season, the overall shooting percentage was only 37.1%, and the layup percentage was only 42.5%. A second-year rookie and lean point guard, Curry shot 46.2 percent overall and 59.9 percent on layups.

To defend against Jennings' pick and roll, it is enough for Westbrook to squeeze through the arc to catch up and keep interference, and there is no need to worry about the rest.

It's a pity that the Thunder got the rebound and failed to score. The Bucks changed sides and attacked again, and Jennings hit the iron confidently.

The two teams pecked at each other for 3 minutes, the Bucks scored 4 points from a mid-range shot by Gooden, and the Thunder scored 2 points from free throws by Chandler.

Looking at the whole process, Su Yang felt that Harden deliberately passed the ball too much, so he immediately reminded him to play more simply, and there is no need to be so stable.

Harden immediately hit a one-on-one three-pointer, then assisted Westbrook to attack the basket successfully, and then received a breakthrough from Westbrook and hit a fixed-point three-pointer. He teamed up with Westbrook to help the Thunder play a wave of 12 to 2, leading the Bucks strongly. 8 points.

Bucks coach Skiles hurriedly asked for a timeout, and there were a lot of crackling, and the Bucks were all confused.

When the game resumed, the Bucks still had difficulty scoring, but the defense needed to be strengthened, making it difficult for the Thunder to score.

After the first quarter, the Thunder led 26-19.

哈登三分球3投3中，外加2罚1中，独得10分，并且送出2次助攻。

Su Yang briefly summed up a few words. The second quarter kicked off quickly. The Thunder were led by Harden and Jordan Jr., but the power forward was no longer the familiar Green, but Collison, who had just returned from injury. The offensive and defensive coordination was a little lacking. tacit agreement.

The Thunder's scoring efficiency declined accordingly. Fortunately, Harden took the lead on the defensive end and did not give the Bucks too many scoring opportunities.

After the main players of the two teams returned to the court, the situation of the game did not change much. At the end of the half, the Thunder led by 10 points.

Returning to the locker room at halftime, Su Yang compared the data sheet and praised Harden and Westbrook for their outstanding performance.

Also praised Ibaka and Chandler for supporting the defensive system, and at the same time reminded the two insiders to pay attention to fouls. Deer attack object.

The two insiders nodded in agreement.

I once thought that just one minute into the third quarter, Ibaka got his fourth foul.

Su Yang considered that it is not appropriate to disrupt the rotation, so as to avoid the difficult scoring situation in the second quarter, so he did not change players after a few words.

Ibaka really paid attention, but he never expected that Gooden grabbed an offensive rebound and caused him to block the foul.

Su Yang could only replace him and let Collison play early, but he was worried that Collison would play for too long.

Worrying that a solution hasn't been found yet, Chandler fouls again because Jennings grabs an offensive rebound.

Su Yang thought he was not that unlucky, but even if he was unlucky, he had no choice but to keep Chandler on the field.

The result was like a slap in the face from the plot of a movie. After only 1 minute, Chandler was whistled for another foul by pushing someone while grabbing a rebound.

Su Yang replaced Chandler with Jordan without any fluctuations in his heart, and then waved his hand to signal the team's second and third defenses to strengthen the inside defense and suppress the Bucks' inside scoring. Shoot threes.

Bucks coach Skiles is not good at training offense, Jennings is not a master of organization, Bogut has no ability to take the initiative to support and command the whole team, Drew Gooden can only make mid-range shots, don't think about it Dodge cover.

Just like that, the Bucks fell into a scoring drought.

On the Thunder's side, by grabbing long rebounds, Harden and Westbrook launched consecutive fast-break counterattacks, scoring like drinking water.

After three quarters, the Thunder led by 21 points.

Bucks coach Skiles did not admit defeat, and specially sent foul-making master Maggette to try to reverse the situation.

And Maggette caused fouls by Livingston and Sefolosha respectively in 1 minute, and Kuang Bang Bang scored 4 points through free throws.

Thunder temporarily fell into a passive state and could only adjust in advance.

When the main players of the Thunder came on the court, Su Yang read a set of statistics to Harden: "Last season, Maggette still maintained an exaggerated record of getting two free throws for every three shots, averaging 7.9 free throws per game, you have confidence Beat him?"

"Noting Special!"

Harden curled his lips and said, "I heard you praise him for making fouls before, so I studied him specifically..."

Hearing that Harden was full of confidence, Su Yang applauded and cheered.

Harden turned to step onto the court to face Maggette. First, he did a big swinging arm swing learned from his elder brother Durant, and then he made a breakthrough and raised his hand to induce a chipper. With the strongest gimmick to pinch his arm, Maggette got two fouls in a row in a short period of time, so he went off to rest in despair, and told the referee that Harden was looking for a foul.

The Bucks then lost their offensive momentum, and the home fans left the field early, seeing that there was no hope of chasing points. Jennings and other main players saw it, and were so angry that they couldn't continue, so they fought indiscriminately, completely losing hope of reversal, and made early shots throw in the towel.

In the end, the Thunder defeated the Bucks 102 to 81, and the winning streak extended to 13 games, continuing to dominate the league.

Harden scored 38 points and sent 4 assists with only 2 turnovers, including 12 free throws.

Participating in the press conference after the game, Su Yang was determined to help Harden get the best sixth man award, saying: "James found me before the game and said that he would do his best to help us win this difficult back-to-back. Now it seems that he fulfilled his promise perfectly. ..."

Embarrassingly, fans are more willing to discuss how Harden makes fouls than Harden scoring high points to lead the team to victory.

Some fans even joked that this is the inheritance battle of the NBA's active foul king, and Harden took the throne ahead of schedule.

(End of this chapter)