start with scouting

Chapter 271

According to Karlan, Chandler's toe injury is an old injury and a new injury is added. The situation is relatively serious. It will affect the power of the right foot, which will reduce the speed of movement and the overall confrontation ability. Back then, the Hornets chose to trade away Chandler. Le, it was because of the toe injury in the same position that the Thunder almost returned the product at that time, and it was only because of Su Yang that he kept Chandler.

According to the injury estimate and the league's latest schedule, Chandler will miss at least four games.

If necessary, you can play with injuries after four games, but that would be risky and not very effective.

In other words, Chandler's greatest help to the Thunder in the rest of the finals is spiritual encouragement. After all, Chandler likes to be active on and off the court, and he is an optimist. As for other aspects, he just waved the towel and shouted .

"That's it for now, we'll deal with it tomorrow."

Su Yang decided to let the players enjoy the joy of victory first, relax their nervous nerves temporarily, and avoid causing the players to panic because of rushing to deal with it. As the head coach of the team, he must keep calm and let the management not be too nervous. Excited.

After hastily attending the press conference, Su Yang drove back to the apartment and found that WOJ had already revealed that Chandler would have a truce for at least 4 games. There were a lot of discussions, and ESPN even temporarily added a group of discussions to interview opinions from all walks of life on the phone. .

Fans, the media, and even Durant and other players have sent many inquiries to Su Yang through Twitter private messages or text messages.

Unread messages accumulated to 999+ in half an hour.

Su Yang didn't respond and didn't think too much. He calmly watched the newly updated "Game of Thrones" for about ten minutes. Take a shower and sleep as usual.

But some fans were not so calm, and they complained that he was still in the mood to see beautiful women when the main player was injured.

Arriving at the training base early the next morning, Su Yang held a meeting with the scouting department and trainer team as usual to prepare for the second game.

Before the staff arrived, he took a quick look at the unread messages and popular tweets to appease the fans and players.

"The latest news is that the MGM Casino in Las Vegas has increased the odds for the Thunder to win the championship. A young royal user from the United Arab Emirates bet millions of dollars on the Thunder's failure to defend the title. If it finally comes true, he can get up to 3000 million dollars in rewards!"

"ESPN held a round table meeting, and 21 of the 10 experts changed their choice to support the Heat to finally win the championship. They believed that LeBron and Wade would be unstoppable in the future, and Bosh and other players would also benefit. The Heat form is very good. "

"Thunder fans think that Chandler's injury has early signs, mainly because the average playing time in the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs series is too long, and the toe injury is considered lucky. If Su Yang was coaching at the time, such a thing would not have happened at all. The details. !"

Various media turned to support the Heat to win the championship in large numbers, and also used pictures, texts and data to highlight the few games that Chandler missed due to the stomach virus in the middle of the season, strongly emphasizing how ordinary the Thunder were when Chandler was absent, suggesting that the Thunder would lose finals.

Jordan was brought out for discussion by the way, probably because Jordan is about to serve as the starting center. Many fans and the media believe that Jordan can provide defense, but it is much worse than Chandler, and it will drag down other starting offensive efficiency.

In Su Yang's opinion, Jordan's overall physical fitness is even a little better than Chandler's, but his positioning awareness and defense experience are too far behind. With a physical condition of nearly nine points, he can only exert six points of actual effect. It still takes a long time to hone.

While thinking about it, all the people participating in the meeting arrived.

Team doctor and trainer O'Malley first reported that Chandler would miss at least four games due to injury, and the specific return date could not be determined.

After O'Malley finished speaking, the already gloomy atmosphere in the conference room became a bit dignified. Everyone present understood the importance of Chandler to the team, especially on the defensive end. Chandler is to the Thunder just like Kevin Gardner. Nate to the Celtics.

"Very lucky, we have sufficient personnel reserves, DeAndre and Collison can be rotated, and Cole Aldridge can even be arranged to play. I like Cole. He has a high IQ and one-on-one defense. Shoot, even three-pointers."

Su Yang made a joke casually. Seeing that everyone was slightly relaxed, he continued: "To be honest, we had a [-]% chance of winning before, and now it's [-]%. position…"

Between words, Su Yang emphasized that he should let Jordan do his best job of squatting and protecting the frame. As for the delay of the ball holder when defending the pick-and-roll, he can avoid it. Anyway, LeBron and Wade are not good at long-distance shooting. What really needs to be worried about is that there is no When the ball is defending, how to make Jordan take care of the delay and intercept the air cut route, that is, take care of both the man and the ball. If you want to pursue a guarantee, you have to make Jordan squat.

Anyway, after a comprehensive deduction, letting Jordan defend in the pit is the best choice for the Thunder, and it is easier to win the game safely.

In addition to skills, it is a matter of mentality. Substitute players who start suddenly in the finals may not be able to bear the pressure of heavier tasks.

After some discussion among the crowd, Su Yang finally made a decision, treating it as just a normal operation to arrange for Jordan to start. Don't make it seem like a major change, adding pressure to Jordan in vain, and emphasize that there is no need to worry about sufficient personnel.

After all, Collison can play center too.

Even in the worst case, rookie Cole Aldridge can be used as a meat shield and foul tactics for the Heat.

During the conversation, everyone discussed a few more issues, the meeting ended immediately, and Su Yang rushed to the stadium to assign training tasks.

While training and chatting, Durant and others felt a little sorry for Chandler's absence, but they were not too worried.Su Yang wandered around and found that Westbrook's 44 points in the first game made the whole team full of confidence, and the bonus of "Second brother is invincible" is too great.

However, Su Yang was not arrogant. Instead, he specifically found McGrady and said in advance that the second round might be scheduled to play at regular time.

Because Chandler is injured, the team may need a veteran like McGrady to help control the rhythm of the game.

After training in the afternoon, Su Yang was interviewed by an ESPN reporter on the sidelines, talking about how to deal with Chandler's absence, and replied: "We have encountered this situation several times, how to deal with it before, how to deal with it now, please pay attention to tomorrow night's game ..."

In the twinkling of an eye, on June [-]nd, the second game of the Finals between the Thunder and the Heat continued at the Ford Center.

The Thunder won the jump ball, and Westbrook still played first on the first attack, and the Heat still relaxed the restrictions, but it was a pity that the mid-range shot was a hit.

Turning to the Heat's offense, LeBron continued to use the third quarter mode of the first game, directly entering the strongest form, without testing.

Su Yang arranged for Durant to defend LeBron, not to block the breakthrough, but to use his height and long arms to interfere with the passing space, and by the way, guide LeBron to break through more areas of the Thunder. The same trick was used against Wade, deliberately guiding into the trap.

At that time, the Heat seemed to have expected that kind of arrangement. LeBron and Wade repeatedly scored the ball early, while Miller and Bibby shot faster and harder than in the first game. The Thunder's defense has become rather comical.

Moreover, the Heat are on the defensive end. When encountering a pick-and-roll breakthrough with the ball, they resolutely double-team, and when they run without the ball to cover, they decisively switch defenses.

The quality of Jordan's pick-and-roll and off-ball screens is slightly worse than Chandler's, and the Heat's execution is fierce, making it quite uncomfortable.

At the end of the first quarter, the Thunder trailed 22 to 29, and Twitter and other social platforms were pessimistic.

Su Yang didn't panic at all, and sent out the second team according to the rotation as usual, but Jordan was replaced by Collison.

As a result, Harden played a little impatiently against Wade, who was not resting. Not only did he not lead the team to chase points, but he even lost points.

Seeing that the Thunder fell behind by 13 points, Su Yang asked for a short timeout and sent McGrady, who played very little in the regular season, to play point guard. While using the mentality of a veteran to control the rhythm, he also took advantage of his height and hardware to force Chalmers in the low post.

For a while, the average height of the Thunder Five, McGrady, Harden, Durant, Green, and Collison, exploded.

The offensive rhythm slowed down, and the Thunder's scoring efficiency increased, which in turn led to a reduction in the Heat's rapid counterattacks, allowing the Heat to fall into more positional warfare, and then use their height and wingspan advantage to interfere with passing, forcing LeBron and Wade to fall into a mode of taking turns.

In just a few rounds, the Thunder quickly narrowed the point difference, the Heat hurriedly requested a timeout, and Su Yang simultaneously removed McGrady.

Back from the timeout, the Heat with the task against McGrady were at a loss, and the Thunder took the opportunity to narrow the point difference again.

After halftime, the Thunder took the lead by 1 point.

The game entered the third quarter, and the Thunder team found their status. Although Miller, Bibby and others stole three-pointers on the weak side because they tried their best to limit James' breakthrough, the rate of conceding points was greatly reduced compared with the first quarter. The offensive end is bogged down.

After the Heat struggled several times, LeBron decided to take over the game. Relying on Jordan's general positional awareness, various bold breakthrough layups, and various one-armed tomahawk dunks, he used his personal superpower to forcefully stabilize the game.

The game entered the fourth quarter, and Su Yang made adjustments to let Sefolosha defend LeBron and let Durant take over the Thunder's offense.

On the Heat's side, LeBron didn't continue to defend Durant because he played too long in the first three quarters and played too hard.

Without the Heat's strongest defensive restrictions, Durant is like diving into the sea, eating Miller, Wade, Bosh alone...

However, LeBron and Wade tenaciously attacked the inside of the Thunder, and the game has not collapsed, but they have not been able to tie.

In the end, with Durant's efficient 17 points in the fourth quarter, the Thunder beat the Heat 105 to 99 and took a 2-0 lead.

The final bell rang and Ford Center cheered.

Su Yang also applauded and shouted, but he knew very well in his heart that the outcome of the game was on the line, and it would be difficult to wait for the Heat to go home.

(End of this chapter)