start with scouting

Chapter 246 Can't Lose a Game

NO.18, Thunder vs. Bobcats at home.

After the pre-match ceremony, Su Yang deliberately ran to the Bobcats bench to shake hands with Bobcats interim head coach Paul Silas.

The main thing is to express gratitude, because after Paul Silas temporarily replaced Larry Brown, he developed Sean Livingston's defensive advantages in the Bobcats, and Su Yang won many praises for his free prostitution in advance, so he felt that it was necessary to express his gratitude.

But how did Paul Silas know what he was thinking, thinking that he was respecting his character and qualifications, he put his arm on his shoulders on the spot, and said earnestly: "Young man, you have a strong coaching ability, but as an NBA coach, it doesn't depend entirely on you. Coaching ability, I recently heard that you have some disagreements with the boss, if you are willing to listen to my advice, then when the time is right, you have to satisfy them..."

Su Yang was very confused when he heard it, and he didn't argue because of the occasion. He just nodded and said that he remembered it. There is no need to think about whether there is any disagreement. , making it a bit of an overreaction.

The game then started, and the Thunder lined up as usual.

The Bobcats sent away the team's top scorer 'Elvis' Gerald Wallace because of the trade, and also sent away the defensive gate Nazr Muhammad. Fat Dior can fight.

The Thunder kept suppressing the whole game, and finally won 99 to 82, taking another solid step towards tying 72 wins.

After a day off, the Thunder ushered in the challenge of the Raptors.

After playing 68 games, the Raptors only won 19 games in total, and their strength is really weak.During the pre-match video conference, the generals of the Thunder were a little absent-minded, intentionally or unintentionally revealing a state of winning. Su Yang felt that it was not appropriate, but he did not struggle.

The main reason is to remind the players of underestimating the enemy, which will make the atmosphere in the team more depressing. After all, they are all adults, and no one is willing to listen to others' training, and the smarter way is too lazy to think about it. Anyway, the hard power is ahead, let's see the situation first Besides.

With that in mind, the game between the Thunder and the Raptors started.

Unexpectedly, Chandler and Ibaka were troubled by fouls in the first half, which led to a decrease in the quality of the Thunder's inside protection and screens. Durant was a little uncomfortable by James Johnson's super aggressive defense, and Bargnani was also thrown away. The champion of parallel imports, he has three-pointers at the basket. On the bench, Barbosa also took advantage of Harden's off-ball defensive deviation, frequently making air cuts to the basket to steal chickens and score.

During the intermission, Su Yang reminded the Thunder generals to put aside their contempt, because the Raptors had obviously found their form.

The Thunder generals returned to the court with orders and strictly implemented the offensive and defensive strategies, but the Raptors went crazy.

DeRozan seems to be the peak Kobe, Barbosa is back to the lightning state, Calderon is as flexible as a loach, James Johnson is possessed by the boxing champion, and Amir Johnson is like a flash skill with a 0-second cooldown, everywhere in the audience .

The Raptors played superbly, resisting the Thunder Five's strong attack, and let Durant make a final shot.

When the final whistle sounded, the Raptors narrowly won 113 to 112, and the Thunder lost convincingly.

At the post-match press conference, a reporter asked why the team lost to the Raptors twice this season, but the last time it was a big defeat.

Su Yang didn't mention underestimating the enemy, but just smiled and said: "They are an NBA team. They played well. It's normal for us to lose, just like the Bulls lost to the Pacers twice in the 72-win season. No team can last forever. to win..."

Losing to the Raptors, the Thunder lost 8 games, and the probability of tying 72 wins plummeted. Public opinions from all walks of life were pessimistic, mainly because they did not expect the Thunder to lose to the Raptors, which is the third-worst in the league. Fans criticized Su Yang for being too slow on the spot.

After three days of rest, the Thunder played against the Jazz at home.

Because coach Sloan left in the middle of the season and sent Deron away after the All-Star break, the Jazz needed to re-run. The Thunder established an 3-point lead in the first 8 minutes, and easily maintained it until the end of the game, and finally won with a 12-point lead.

On the 25th, the Thunder played against the Timberwolves at home. Seven players from the team scored in double figures and won a total of 16 steals

On the 27th, the Thunder continued to play at home against the Trail Blazers, who had only 8 players after the big deal, with a small victory of 9 points.

On the 29th, the last home game of the Thunder's sixth consecutive game against the Golden State Warriors, the battle went to overtime, and Westbrook made a free throw lore.

With four consecutive victories, the whole team flew to Phoenix overnight to challenge back-to-back the Suns who still had a theoretical hope of making the playoffs.

In the first quarter, the Suns fought hard, but the Thunder blossomed and established a 5-point lead. In the second quarter, the Harden + Green duo made 9 of 8 shots, helping the Thunder lead the Suns by as much as 17 at halftime. point.

After halftime, Su Yang specially reminded that the Thunder will continue to suppress the Sun until the final victory.

After a day off, the Thunder challenged the Trail Blazers away.

Durant played normally in the first quarter, scoring 7 points on 5 of 14 shots and free throws, helping the Thunder build a 10-point lead. In the second quarter, Harden scored 7 points with 4 assists on 15 shots and free throws, helping the Thunder Leading by 6 points at halftime.

In the third quarter, Chandler got 46 fouls in just 2 seconds of playing, one of which was due to a moving screen.

Su Yang thought over and over again, and chose to let Chandler stay on the field and continue to play. He thought that he would be called to move the screen again soon.

He had to replace Chandler, but he didn't expect that Jordan would soon get fouled, and Durant was even called a foul.

The referee operated like that, and the Thunder's offensive and defensive ends were greatly affected. They only scored 11 points in the third quarter and were overtaken.

In the fourth quarter, the situation remained unchanged. Harden, Westbrook, and Ibaka got 6 fouls in total, and the whole team misfired.

In the end, the Thunder lost to the Trail Blazers 91 to 98, and their record became 66 wins and 9 losses. If they want to tie the record of 72 wins, there is only one room for error. If they want to break the record of 1 wins, they can't lose any more games. The latter must be victorious.

The game was a bit wronged, but the media and fans didn't care about the reason for the loss, and they just went crazy when they caught Su Yang.

Those taunts were unreasonable, Su Yang ignored them, and led the team to fly to Los Angeles overnight to challenge the Clippers back to back.

When he woke up at noon, he received a call from Presti, who was hinted that the board of directors hoped not to reduce the playing time of the players because of back-to-back games. It was not to force him to change his will, but he really felt that the Thunder generals were young and could play more. .

Su Yang did not reply directly, but first consulted with the players. Westbrook and others said that they would listen to the arrangement, and Durant wanted to play more.

Just like that, at 15:[-] p.m., the game between the Thunder and the Clippers began. In the first quarter, the Thunder dominated the rebounds, allowing the Clippers to score only [-] points.

But because of the rush, Ibaka got 2 fouls in the first quarter and 1 foul in the second quarter, which was a bit troublesome.

In addition to Ibaka, Westbrook and Harden also received 2 fouls each at the end of the half, but fortunately they led by a lot.

When the third quarter started, Su Yang deliberately arranged more outside tactics, but he didn't expect that Westbrook was called for two fouls. The referee adopted a completely different whistle-off standard, and Harden, who came off the bench, did not escape, leading to three quarters. After the game, Ibaka, Westbrook, and Harden made 4 fouls and Green made 3 fouls. The Thunder's firepower was greatly reduced, and the Clippers were only 3 points behind.

After the start of the fourth quarter, Su Yang could only use Dai Quinn Cook, Livingston, and Collison to lead the bench lineup, and prepared to use five small lineups to beat the Clippers violently in the decisive stage. Unexpectedly, the Clippers did not talk about martial arts It's a strange move, and all of them are directly on the starting lineup.

In just 3 minutes, Griffin, Eric Gordon, Mo Williams, and Jamario Moon led the Clippers to a 12-4 offensive, but Su Yang only replaced Durant in advance. On the field, the other main players will not change until the time comes.

After all the Thunder's main players returned to their positions, they quickly played a 10-0 offensive, but the referee suddenly began to grab the show and whistled Westbrook and Harden consecutively, causing the two to leave the field with 6 fouls in advance. In the end, Durant made a lore and the Thunder It is a pity to lose to the Clippers by two points.

After the game, Twitter and other social platforms were hotly discussing that Le Thunder had lost 10 games, and the probability of tying 72 wins was extremely low.

Many fans ignored the Thunder's foul troubles and blamed Su Yang not because he didn't want to win, but because he deliberately gave up 72 wins to set off his uniqueness. After all, there is a chance of 72 wins or 73 wins, which is more personal than forced pursuit.

There are also fans who think that Su Yang is blindly confident, because the five small lineups are invincible and have never considered unexpected situations.

Anyway, either Su Yang likes to pretend, or if Su Yang is not good enough, he looks a bit like he was beaten when he first moved into Thunder.

Su Yang asked himself that he didn't remind the players not to underestimate the enemy before the game, and he didn't make any mistakes, so he didn't bother to respond.

On the bus to the hotel, he got a call from Presti and was told that the owners still believed he could tie the record, but it would be understandable if he didn't. After all, he needed to win six games in a row, and those teams must have tried their best. Stop Thunder.

　Thanks for the reward of "Co-management office ah ah".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)