start with scouting

Chapter 250

After the meeting, the coaching staff assigned the offensive and defensive strategies to the generals of the Thunder, and the two-day special pick-and-roll training kicked off.

Regarding Su Yang’s claim that the Grizzlies’ strength is close to that of the Lakers, the Thunder generals did not question it. Durant and Westbrook took the lead in demonstrations, and the whole team worked hard on defensive communication training. They really treated the Grizzlies as a strong enemy. , ready to fight to the death.

While the Thunder was training hotly, ESPN gave 21 experts their predictions on the results of the first quarter match between the Thunder and the Grizzlies. All experts believed that the Thunder would eventually advance, but none of them thought it would be a 4-0 sweep, or at least 4-2.

The experts who participated in the voting gave various explanations. They mainly believed that since the middle of March, the Grizzlies have performed better on both ends of the offense and defense. strong team.

The fans also think that the Grizzlies have a chance to play. The key Grizzlies coach Hollins revealed in advance that when they fight the Thunder in the first round of the playoffs, they will boldly remove Rudy Gay from the starting small forward position. Use strange tricks to fight the Thunder with all their strength.

A reporter later interviewed Su Yang about how he would respond. Su Yang replied that he would learn from the Spurs, but the details should not be disclosed.

On the 17th, the first playoff game between the Thunder and the Grizzlies started at the Ford Center, and TNT was responsible for the national live broadcast.

In the locker room of the home team, Su Yang wrote the number 16 on the whiteboard as usual, and said: "Tonight, we start our journey to the playoffs. We will encounter many challenges. We will complete those challenges again and again until we finally win the Olympic Games." The Brian Trophy…”

The pre-match ceremony was held immediately, and more than 9000 fans in the audience stood up grandly to welcome the Thunder team to play. Su Yang was the last to be introduced by the live announcer. The audience cheered up to the level of Durant's appearance and gave him the highest regards.

"Coach, are we going to win?"

"Coach, tell me we're going to win!"

"Coach, we will always believe in you!"

A group of old men and old lady fans on the sidelines shouted at Su Yang one after another, and they even wore support T-shirts with Su Yang's cartoon face printed on them, making them look like those crazy fans chasing stars at the airport, all kinds of holding cameras. Fierce, the screams continued.

Then the long whistle sounded, and the whole Thunder team surrounded the bench, clasping hands and fists, shouting 123OKC in unison.

The referee Scott Foster stood on the technical platform, gestured towards the two teams with both hands, and the starting players entered the field one after another.

The central big screen simultaneously shows the matchup situation, point guard Westbrook vs. Conley, shooting guard Sefoloza vs. Tony Allen, small forward Durant vs. Sam Young, power forward Ibaka vs. Lando, Center Chandler vs. Marc Gasol.

The passionate BGM played, and the two teams entered the jump ball session. Chandler and Gasol stared closely at the basketball.

Snapped!The moment the basketball flew out of the referee's hands, Gasol jumped up simultaneously, touched the ball first and moved it back.

That reaction speed was almost at the level of Bolt starting when he heard the starting gun, and Chandler was more than half a hand behind.

The basketball flew into the Grizzlies' half court. Randolph stepped on to grab the basketball, pouted his buttocks for protection, and handed it to Conley very carefully.

"Defense!" The shouts erupted from the Ford Center, and many fans behind the ball rack raised their yellow stripes and slapped them frequently to make noise.

Conley dribbled the ball to the right wing, trying to pass the ball to Sam Young, who wanted it again, but Sam Young didn't have the singles ability, and Su Yang had already arranged it. Durant completely ignored it, and the rest of the Thunder didn't try to cover it. The overall defensive formation is very stable.

Seeing that Sam Young couldn't play a role in the right waist, he immediately turned around and lifted it up. With the help of Randolph's cover, he strode towards the top of the arc, while Randolph shifted to the right waist, backed up and pushed his hips to withstand it. Ibaka, raised his left hand to signal for Conley to pass the ball.

It's a pity that Ibaka was in place early, not only removing Randolph's power sideways, but also raising his left hand to interfere with the pass.

Conley subconsciously turned to face the top of the arc, raised his hand to pass the ball, and Gasol simultaneously ran from his left elbow to the top of the arc.

The moment Sam Young received the ball, Gasol Jr. arrived, and the pick-and-roll formed along the way. The former broke through to the left, and the latter opened and went down.

Chandler strode laterally, first helping Durant set a screen, and then quickly returned to the defense, blocking Gasol Jr. who received the pass again.

Unexpectedly, Gasol raised his hand to make a fake shot, moved Chandler's center of gravity slightly, immediately gave up and forced a breakthrough, and rushed to the basket with two big strides, facing Ibaka's defense, like Like a defender, he stopped and leaned back 45 degrees to wipe the board.

The basketball slammed into the net, the Grizzlies scored 2-0, and Gay got a standing ovation from the bench.

The main Grizzlies offense was stagnated by the Thunder. The Grizzlies were able to score, all thanks to Gasol's high consumption to score the ball.

"Prevention is good, keep it up..."

Su Yang applauded the Thunder generals in the arena, and waved his hand to remind the opening tactic, which is to play a pick-and-roll.

The Grizzlies' defense is mainly strong in continuity. Using the pick-and-roll to destroy its continuity will make the offense much easier to play.

With cheers all over the court, Westbrook dribbled the ball to the left wing, took advantage of Ibaka's cover, and walked the sideline to initiate a breakthrough.

Conley struggled to catch up for a while, Randolph was forced to help with the delay, and Westbrook made a decisive stop and threw the ball to the left elbow.

Ibaka took the ball and raised it directly to aim at the basket, successfully attracting Randolph to return to the defense, and also successfully attracting Conley's attention for a few tenths of a second.

But for Westbrook, a few tenths of a second are enough. He slammed his shoulders down and lowered his center of gravity, ejected like a goblin rocket boots, crossed the temporarily unguarded bottom line in the blink of an eye, and strode close to the basket position. And Ibaka hangs the pass at the same time.

The cheers in the arena suddenly exploded, and Gasol hurriedly shrunk to defend from the short corner on the right, but Westbrook turned the ball to Chandler, who was temporarily unguarded.Seeing this, Sam Young rushed to the right corner to make up for the high defense, but Chandler also chose to score the ball.

I saw Durant receiving the ball in the wide open corner on the right, ignoring Sam Young flying back to the defense, and raising his hand was a three-pointer.

bass!The basketball is hollow into the net.

The Grizzlies counterattacked immediately. Conley dribbled the ball to the 45-degree three-point line on the left side of the frontcourt. Dele was frightened by the lateral interception in advance.

In an instant, Conley forcibly braked and only made half of the movement. The center of gravity of the whole body was out of balance, and the basketball was out of control.

Westbrook immediately bent down to grab it, grabbed it in his hand, got up and ran forward, cheers resounded throughout the arena.

Conley also staggered a position, and when he turned around to catch up, he found that Westbrook had already rushed to the center line, far away.

bang!Westbrook clasped the frame with both hands, and immediately prepared to defend against a fast break when he landed on the ground, full of awareness and details.

The Grizzlies had to slow down the rhythm. Sam Young first received the ball from the sideline and then passed it back to Conley.

Gasol took the ball in the right elbow area, stepped forward and raised his hand, trying to cooperate hand-in-hand with Conley who was rushing towards him. Unfortunately, Westbrook chased very hard and didn't give him the slightest chance. Chandler was ahead of schedule. Retreat, leaving room for Westbrook to walk through.

The hand-to-hand failed, and Xiao Jia raised his hand to aim at the basket, but Chandler had just suffered a loss, so how could he be fooled.

The Grizzlies offense stalled, and Randolph hurried to the basket without getting the ball.

Xiaojia hesitated for a while, then turned to look for Kangli again.

The two forcibly cooperated hand in hand, and Conley took the ball and rushed to the free throw line, stopped and jumped against Westbrook, and made a fallback shot.

That's obviously not the way Conley is good at scoring. The basketball rebounded with a bang, and Ibaka jumped high and caught the rebound.

The Thunder's fast-break counterattack followed, and the high-post continuous pick-and-roll attracted the Grizzlies to shrink their defense, and then quickly passed the basketball along the three-pointer. Space, resolutely rush to shoot three-pointers.

when!Basketball hits the basket and hits the iron.

Sighs broke out in the arena, but Ibaka grabbed an offensive rebound against Randolph, and then passed to Sefoloza who slipped to the basket while Tony Allen was distracted, and then saw a backhand The board scored, and the cooperation between the two was extremely smooth.

The sigh suddenly turned into cheers, and Westbrook approached Conley aggressively, but the referee's whistle suddenly sounded.

The Grizzlies requested a timeout, and only played 1 minute and 48 seconds into the game. The Thunder led 7-2, and the gap was not too exaggerated.

In the TNT commentary booth, the host Mavi Alvin shrugged and asked, "Is Memphis a little too cautious?"

Guest McHale shook his head slightly: "Although there are only two rounds of positional battles, Memphis can't defend against pick-and-rolls at all. Su Yang said he wants to learn from the Spurs, and he really learned. He didn't let Russell Westbrook directly play the role of Tony Parker." , but to design a new tactic and let Russell Westbrook be himself. From the perspective of the head coach, I want to give Su Yang full marks.

I was not convinced by him before, but now I have to admit that he is a master tactician with his own philosophy..."

(End of this chapter)