start with scouting

Chapter 247 Just Turned Over a Mountain
Regarding the concerns of the eight bosses, Su Yang quite understands that 72 wins are too rare, and it is really rare.

For example, when the Celtics formed the Big Three in 08, they had a record of 22 wins and 3 losses before the Christmas game. They even won all four consecutive games in Texas. To the last 72 wins.

Su Yang also wanted to tie the record, and he didn't lose on purpose, and he didn't force himself to compete, but just played according to the normal rhythm.

And the stigmatized referee Donaghy revealed on Twitter a long time ago that because of the recent surge in the ratings of the Thunder games, the referee association hopes to be stricter on the Thunder, and wants to avoid leaving it to the outside world to "help the Thunder tie the record" of the image.

Other teams don't want to be the backdrop for the Thunder's record, so naturally they have to use 120% of their energy to fight.

In addition, the schedule is relatively nonsense, which makes it difficult for the Thunder to play in recent games, losing some games that they would not lose in the past.

The plane landed in Denver, and the next day the whole team practiced together. Su Yang told the Thunder that they still had a chance to win 72 games.

Westbrook and others said that it is best to achieve it by the way. Anyway, with the Bulls losing, the Thunder has locked in the league's first place. They originally wanted to help Durant hit the MVP, but the Twitter incident made Durant completely lose the possibility of competition. Just play normally.

On the fifth, the Thunder challenged the Nuggets away.

In the first quarter, Durant made 9 of 6 shots and made 0 free throws. He scored 12 points and beat Wilson Chandler, helping the Thunder lead by 11 points. However, in the second quarter, Harden and Green were troubled by fouls. Returning to 10 points made Durant busy.

On the Nuggets side, Ty Lawson played well. With his super fast speed, he induced Westbrook to gamble and steal many times, and then easily broke through Westbrook. He made 7 of 5 two-pointers in the second quarter, and three of them also caused additional penalties. , Hao took 15 points.

In the third quarter of the game, Su Yang adjusted his strategy and tried his best to defend and counterattack. In order to help Westbrook defend, Sefolosha got 3 fouls in a short period of time, but Su Yang insisted not to replace Sefolosha, abruptly Strangling the Nuggets offense, leading by 12 points in a single quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Thunder's strong defense destroyed the Nuggets' fighting spirit and finally beat the Nuggets by 28 points.

The whole team flew back to Oklahoma overnight, rested for one night, and played back-to-back against the Los Angeles Clippers, which lost last time.

Perhaps it was because the league wanted to create stars around the newly promoted slam dunk king Griffin, or maybe it was because the Referees Association was strictly targeting the Thunder. Ibba got fouled twice in the first quarter, but it didn't affect Durant's 10 of 6 shots. Among them, 0 free throws scored 13 points.

In the second quarter of the game, Su Yang instructed the whole team to defend the zone defense, and try not to attack the inside line on the offensive end. Still relying on the super high shooting percentage of 14 of 9 shots from Green, Harden and Livingston, the Thunder helped the Thunder to win at halftime. Leading the Clippers by as many as 15 points.

During the intermission, TNT commentator Miller complained: "I saw the referee hold the whistle several times in advance, but the Thunder did not make physical contact. They did a good job of positioning screens in advance and running without the ball. Fouls occurred. The probability is extremely low."

The host Ma Wen said with a smile: "At the beginning, Su Yang challenged the referee system, intending to defeat the referee system. After a year of deliberation, the league office has given a reply recently, and will start the first meeting in the off-season. If the suspension... "

The intermission ended, and the game between the Thunder and the Clippers continued.

Su Yang continued to instruct the use of zone defense, and Sefolosha received three more fouls in a single quarter, but still stayed on the field to fight.

Clippers head coach Vinidnagro's offensive ability is considered the lowest among head coaches in the league. In addition, the Clippers sent Davis away in exchange for Xiaomo to play point guard. If you don't touch porcelain and find a foul, you don't have to fight.

At the end of the three quarters, the Thunder led by 22 points, and it was useless for the Clippers to go slanted forward and send all the main players in advance.

At the end of the game, the Thunder won 122 to 104. Durant scored 45 points and continued to have the hope of hitting the record.

Su Yang participated in the press conference after the game and talked about whether he was worried that he would be deliberately targeted by the referees because he challenged the referee system at the beginning, just like the Suns boss Savor criticized the referees, which led to the decision of the Referee Association to strictly whistle the Suns every game .

"If you think I should do more charitable activities, you don't have to ask this kind of fine question..."

Su Yang said with a smile: "But to be honest, I don't think so, otherwise we couldn't have gone so smoothly last season."

On the eighth, the Thunder played against the Nuggets at home.

Perhaps because he didn't want to see Su Yang become the coach of 72 wins, Kenyon Martin was extremely devoted at the beginning, but his efficiency was low.After Su Yang's observation and confirmation, he deliberately let the Thunder generals induce the Nuggets to pass the ball to Martin. As a result, Martin only made 9 of 3 shots in the first quarter.

After returning to the court in the second quarter, Martin stopped taking shots so aggressively, but the Nuggets had gotten used to looking for him, which made the Nuggets' offense not smooth for several rounds. After finally switching back, the Thunder had established an 18-point advantage .

Seeing that he was leading so much, Su Yang thought that the second half of the game could be played normally, so he didn't specially arrange tactics.

Who would have thought that Westbrook, Ibaka, and Chandler received a total of 8 fouls in the third quarter, resulting in only 8 points for the three on the approach end. Fortunately, Durant was superb Generally scored 16 points, helping the Thunder still lead the Nuggets by 5 points in a single quarter.

The Thunder team entered the fourth quarter with a 23-point advantage. Jordan was fouled twice as soon as the game started, and he almost ran away in anger.

Su Yang calmly replaced Jordan, emphasizing that the referee was just showing off, and the more he fought, the harder he would blow, which was unnecessary.

Just like his referee, after Jordan went off the court, the referee became normal for the Thunder to whistle, but instead strictly whistled for the Nuggets.

After the whole game, the Thunder won 114 to 89, only the last three games away from tying with 72 wins, which sparked a lot of discussion.

ESPN, TNT and other media launched special programs one after another, and sent a large number of people to follow Thunder's various games and daily routines, so that Su Yang, apart from going to the bathroom, would always have someone with a camera to record and record whenever he was on Thunder-related occasions.

The whole team took a day off and flew to Indiana to challenge the Pacers. With 31 fouls, they won 115 to 91.

Ibaka received 5 fouls, but his competitive state was not affected. It was a blessing in disguise. He experienced a big scene in advance and the ability to play stably even in a frustrated state, especially the 7 blocked shots in the game, which was a stable one.

The whole team flew to Sacramento overnight and challenged the Kings back to back. The two of Dewey scored 62 points and won a stable victory.

After the game, the Thunder had a record of 71 wins and 10 losses, only one game away from the record, which once again aroused heated discussions.

The final game of the Thunder's regular season is against the Bucks at home. The game was originally not scheduled to be broadcast live across the United States, but TNT temporarily decided to broadcast it live, while the Lakers and Mavericks competed for the third and fourth games in the Western Conference, which was broadcast live by ESPN.

On the way back to Oklahoma City, the players were excitedly discussing the upcoming match against the Bucks, which was on par with the great Bulls, while Su Yang was more concerned about the Grizzlies, who had already confirmed their first-round opponent in the playoffs. cause great trouble.

(End of this chapter)