start with scouting

Chapter 245 Long live the coach
In the last game in February, the Thunder sat at the Ford Center at home to face their old rivals the Lakers.

The Lakers played fiercely at the beginning. Gasol repeatedly punished Ibaka for mid-range shots or layups through his height and footwork.

And Kobe frequently gave up Sefolosha and assisted defense on Westbrook's breakthrough route to prevent Fisher from staring blankly.But with Su Yang's encouragement, Sefolosha was very resolute every time he took a wide-open shot. He made 4 of 3 shots in the first quarter, including 2 three-pointers.

The Thunder entered the second quarter with a 6-point lead. Harden had the advantage against Brown, and Livingston also defended Blake well. The two guards teamed up with Jeff Green and made a total of 9 of 7 shots. Directly let the lead become 18 points.

The Lakers were unable to parry and failed to reverse the situation in the second half. After the game was over, the Thunder won by 20 points.

After the game, ESPN data analysis expert John Hollinger tweeted: "Throughout the regular season, the Thunder and the Lakers have played all three games. The Thunder can always suddenly expand their lead at some point, thanks to their bench lineup. ..."

A picture was sent out along with the tweet, which was the score statistics of the bench lineups of the [-] teams in the league. The score gap between the Thunder's bench and the starting lineup was the lowest in the league, and some games even surpassed that of weak teams like the Cavaliers and Wizards. .

A reporter soon interviewed Presti and asked him how he built such a strong bench lineup.

Presti replied: "Coach Su Yang has helped us a lot. For example, he suggested that we sign Sean Livingston for three consecutive summer leagues. In the first season, he insisted on letting Germany Andre Jordan has been the starter for a long time, and he can also design a completely different tactic than the starter around James Harden and Jeff Green..."

Throughout the interview, Presti elaborated on the specific contributions that Su Yang made to the Thunder. There were so many related times that it seemed that Su Yang was everywhere, and even participated in how to purchase training equipment, except that he did not personally control the ball. team operations.

The report went online the next day and sparked heated discussions. Barkley and others were discussing what would happen if Su Yang owned a team. The final conclusion was that the team would definitely remain competitive for a long time like the Spurs, and could also be like the Lakers. Stay attractive for a long time.

"Su Yang is so good at playing, he knows how to use exaggerated topics to attract media reports, he knows how to stimulate players through psychological games, and he can figure out how to lead the Thunder to win the championship a season in advance..." During the hot discussion, Su Yang seemed to become the ultimate representative of the Thunder.

The Thunder team started the March schedule with the atmosphere of "Long live the coach". The first game was against the Pacers after the coaching change. A total of 12 players played, and six of them scored in double figures. A small victory by seven points.

With a seven-game winning streak, the Thunder returned to the home court, beat the Suns by four points, and then went to Memphis overnight to challenge the Grizzlies back to back. In the end, they lost by three points and came to Philadelphia with another day off.

The Thunder flew back to Oklahoma, McGrady started against the Pistons, with 9 points, 5 assists, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks to help win.

Afterwards, the Thunder started a three-game away schedule. In the first round, they beat the completely bad Cavaliers with 20 points, and in the second round, they beat the serious Wizards with 27 points. Durant played both games in a very short time and with high efficiency. Get 30+ points.

On the team’s flight to Miami, Su Yang jokingly said according to the data table: “KD, your style of play is not good for you to compete for MVP, too easy will make others, especially those who only look at statistics and key games, Reporters and commentators with voting rights take it for granted, and the impact is not as good as that of a certain player who played a 40-minute lore to win..."

Su Yang is not purely joking. Competitive sports, especially NBA games, focus on a sense of real-time impact, causing you to catch up with each other. Lose the suspense.

Durant shrugged: "They can shoot as they like. There is no dispute that I am the strongest in the league..."

The Thunder generals burst into laughter upon hearing this, and Su Yang gave a thumbs up to show his praise, knowing that Durant had become extremely confident.

On March 3, the last stop of the Thunder's three-game streak in the East was against the Heat, which was upgraded for the second time in the season.

After Bibby joined with a basic salary, the Heat first lost three consecutive games and then won three consecutive victories, which can be regarded as a complete run-in, but Bibby has not mixed into the starting position, and LeBron has not been completely liberated. On the contrary, it is a bit awkward because of occasional organization and occasional full attack .

The game started at [-] o'clock in the evening, and the Thunder still blocked the paint to force the Heat to make mid-range shots. The strategy was exactly the same as before.

Unexpectedly, LeBron and Wade hit one after another at the beginning, Bosh also quickly scored mid-range shots, and all the Big Three of the Heat quickly stretched and rotated, which did not give the Thunder too many opportunities for air cuts and breakthrough three-pointers. The Thunder took the lead alternately.

Su Yang didn't panic at all. The timeout was to insist that the Thunder generals continue to block the paint. That is the best defensive strategy.

Thunder generals led the execution, and LeBron and Wade's shooting percentage gradually dropped, hitting 5 irons in a row.

Just like that, the Thunder led 24-18 in the first quarter.

In the second quarter of the game, the Heat relied on the Big Three to make an early appearance, sacrificing the rest time, and forcibly narrowing the five-point gap.

It's a pity that the two teams rotated normally in the third quarter, and the Thunder defended the Heat to only 17 points, always controlling the situation.

In the end, the Thunder defeated the Heat 96 to 85, and the Eastern Conference's three-game streak ended perfectly, with a total record of 60 wins and 7 losses.

After the game, the discussion about whether the Thunder can match 72 wins increased a lot. Fans from all walks of life pointed out that in the remaining 15 games, among all the Thunder's opponents, only two games against the Nuggets are relatively difficult, and only three times in the schedule are back-to-back difficult.

With that calculation, the Thunder has almost 100% probability of tying 72 wins, and even breaking 72 wins to create a new record.

On the second day after Su Yang returned to Oklahoma City, Presti and his small boss McClendon visited the training base. He bluntly said that the team needs to achieve 72 wins. History adds more brilliance.

The main reason is that the Thunder moved from Seattle and failed to inherit the history of the Supersonics. Famous people like Payton didn't buy it at all.

"It was a unanimous board decision..."

The small boss McClendon clacked and elaborated, repeatedly emphasizing how important it is to tie 72 wins.

Su Yang nodded while listening, and learned about the organizational structure of the Thunder Consortium by the way, and once again understood how stingy the Thunder bosses are.

The eight bosses on the board of directors jointly founded the PBC Group. The boss who came out to do things publicly, Clayton Bennett, has a personal asset of only [-] million US dollars, which belongs to the poorest one.The other seven members of the board of directors, like McClendon, whose main business is natural gas and oil, and Tom Ward, another member of the board of directors, jointly created Chesapeake Energy Group, the second largest natural gas production company in the United States.

In short, the bosses of the Thunder are not short of money, but too picky.

"So, what are you thinking about?" The little boss McClendon finished speaking, looked directly at Su Yang and asked in a low voice.

Su Yang didn't answer in a hurry. Ordinarily, the team owner shouldn't come forward for this kind of thing, but considering that there is still the best player like Sterling of the Clippers, the Thunder bosses didn't give orders directly, but advised them in a negotiating tone. Great respect for him.

"I still say the same thing, defending the championship is the highest level goal, tying the record of 72 wins can only be ranked behind..."

Su Yang firmly said: "It is necessary to ensure the health of the players. The teams that lost the championship because of being too tired in the regular season and finally lost the championship team, from the Lakers in the 80s to the four-star Lakers in the 00s, and the Celtics in 09 ..."

The little boss McClendon smiled reluctantly: "Well, I believe you can achieve it perfectly at the same time..."

(End of this chapter)