Reborn NBA's Strongest Talent

Chapter 152 152. The Day of Pulling the Thorn
On March 11, the Thunder challenged the Spurs away.

Leonard was injured by ... accidentally stepping on Pachunia's foot in the Western Conference finals last season, and he has not recovered.

But Popovich's Spurs have never relied on a superstar to make the playoffs. Of course, they need a superstar to go further in the playoffs.

Facing such a Spurs, the Thunder can do their best to win as long as they show their suppression.

Richard is gearing up, and scored a lot of high hits in the last game against the Bulls. Similarly, Richard feels very excited today, and his hands are still shaking slightly. I hope this is a good performance.

Apart from the Celtics, this is the second strong team the Thunder has encountered so far. Donovan still made preparations very seriously before the game. Playing against a stable team like the Spurs is more likely to find his team's problems.

The current Spurs are stronger on the inside, and Aldridge is as stable as Duncan at the power forward position. It seems that Duncan has not lost his experience in the past few years.

In addition, Gasol will play an important role whether he is a substitute or starting partner Aldridge. His support ability is top-notch. As he gets older, I believe he will strengthen his support.

In response to these two points, Donovan has arranged a lot of defensive strategies. The most important thing is to prevent the linkage of the two towers and use the advantage of young insiders to disrupt the opponent's rhythm.

Grant continued to start, Allen also mentioned being a center substitute in the rotation, and Kanter will play the role of power forward from time to time.

Kanter's characteristics are also very suitable for playing power forward. Anyway, he doesn't like to guard the basket and protect the basket.

Regarding the Spurs' outside line, Donovan did not specifically target it. Although Murray is the point guard that the Spurs are currently focusing on training, he has not yet reached the level of a stable starter. Danny Green's 3D style of play only needs to be in place, and Patrick Mills is not a qualified starting point guard.

Ginobili is still on the bench, Parker is also injured, and the Spurs have a huge guard group, but none of them can play.

But as long as Leonard is there, with the increasingly important development of the modern basketball center line, the Spurs' competitiveness will not be weaker than that of Duncan's era.

As long as Leonard is around.

The situation on the court is very favorable for the guards, and the Thunder happens to be a strong team on the perimeter.

"Okay, that's the tactic. Everyone execute it well and strive for victory." Donovan made the final pre-match mobilization.

Under the winning streak, the team's momentum is like a rainbow.

Before this battle, the Spurs had 9 wins and 6 losses, and the Thunder had 9 wins and 5 losses. The difference was only 0.5 games. The result of this battle is directly related to the ranking of the two teams. Although the season has just finished one sixth of the season, any game will affect the final ranking. Both teams take it seriously.

At the start of the game, the Spurs Fu really went to the twin towers, and Gasol came to the center position.

The pressure on the inside defense doubled.

But it also aroused the team's passion for the game.

The Spurs grabbed the jump ball, Green hit a jumper and scored first.

The Thunder attacked, Adams grabbed an offensive rebound and made a point.Gasol no longer has the dominance at the basket that he used to have. A strong man like Adams can completely suppress Gasol to grab offensive rebounds.

Thinking back to the tiebreaker with the Celtics back then, when Gasol dunked the wolf king Garnett, I can only lament that time is not forgiving.

Next, Westbrook took over the rhythm, Mills hit jumpers in consecutive singles, and the Thunder hit a wave of 6:0.

Aldridge stepped forward to respond, grabbed the offensive rebound, used his footsteps to avoid the defense at the basket, and scored a layup.

Gasol also hit a hook, crushing Adams from experience.

How could the two former power forwards in the league be bullied by juniors like you.

Also young, the Thunder's outside line is much stronger and more aggressive than the Spurs' outside line. They grabbed offensive rebounds in a row, and the Thunder scored two goals many times.

Richard also rushed to an offensive rebound, dunked directly into the net, and received a pass from Westbrook for a jumper.

Danny Green didn't defend himself closely, and he really felt like his state was exploding.

Everyone is in very good condition. Except for George who didn't try too many shots, they have already scored.

George still doesn't have straps on his shoulders today, isn't it still uncomfortable.

In 6 minutes, the Spurs started the rotation. Except for Adelaide, all the players were changed over and over again.

The Spurs' bench lineup is not weaker than the starting lineup, and even stronger, Rudy Gay, Ginobili, Murray.

But the first quarter has always been Thunderclap's strongest quarter, and today is no exception. Thunderclap is all soldiers.Adams used his strong body to turn the world upside down, Westbrook was extremely efficient, and Richard's mid-range shot was a bit confusing.

George was not in good condition, so Donovan let George rest for a while, let Westbrook and Richard lead the team, leading the Spurs by 31 points at 15:16 in a single quarter!
This is the Spurs. Although there is no Leonard, the Spurs are not a team that can be ravaged at will, and there are three All-Star players. They only scored 15 points in a single quarter. It can only be said that the Thunder played very well in the first quarter.

He played very well on both ends of the offense and defense.

威斯布鲁克首节6投3中拿到10分，亚当斯4投3中得到8分，乔治和李察德也分别得到4分、8分。全队还拿下了14个篮板比马刺的8个多了足足6个。

Trailing by 16 points in a single quarter, the opponent still has the dual-core Thunder. In this situation, half of the teams in the league may choose to surrender, and 80% of the other half will choose to fight desperately to regain points from the offense, and most of this method may fail.

Popovich is the most stable 10%. You can do whatever you want. If you are strong in four quarters, I will admit defeat, or I will wait to be slowly worn to death by me.

In the second quarter, the Spurs first entered the rotation time. In the first quarter, they replaced the starter in 6 minutes. In the second quarter, they returned to the court before the Thunder.

This kind of rotation method is difficult for any team to play this kind of rotation except that the Warriors have too many stars and the Spurs Popovich speaks for themselves.

After returning from the starting lineup, the Spurs seemed to be a different team. I don't know what Popovich did. The Spurs' defensive strength has risen by more than one level.

The offense has also gotten tougher.

When Gasol beat Allen, it was as simple as an adult bullying a child.

Don't look at you jumping high and running fast, you are a monkey being played in front of experience.

Not only did Gasol score consecutive goals, but Allen also paid for two fouls and went off to rest.

Gasol played and led the Spurs to stabilize the situation.

If George can stand up at this time, the Thunder will not fall into a passive position, but George will grit his teeth desperately when shooting, so he loses his usual elegant shooting posture, and his shooting percentage also drops a lot.

The Spurs quickly regained 6 points, and Donovan had to replace Richard and Westbrook in advance.

"Russell, control the rhythm." Donovan told Westbrook before playing.

Kanter came to the center position and finally did not lose the wind, but the Spurs started another tactic.

Attack from the outside and shrink the defense.

Danny Green opened the three-point skill package, Mills also made a three-pointer, and Ginobili and Rudy Gay both scored three-pointers, and the 10-point difference quickly narrowed.

Is this Popovich who hates three-pointers the most?The Spurs rank first in the league in three-point shooting!

Dumb old fox!
Westbrook will get ahead when encountering inside contraction and opponents chasing points, and wants to turn the tide on his own.

As a result, they missed twice in a row, and the point difference between the two teams seemed to be evened out.

"Russell!" Richard's eyes were not looking good, and he shouted for the ball.

Westbrook was not the only one who heard the shouting, Danny Green also saw the timing and wanted to steal.

Fortunately, Westbrook paid attention to the outside when passing the ball, and just avoided Danny Green's rush.

This was considered a defensive error. Richard took the ball almost open, seized the opportunity, raised his hand and dropped it, and regained the 3-point advantage.

Popovich covered his forehead. This kind of gambling steal is not allowed. If Danny Green is not feeling hot now, he may be replaced immediately.

But Popovich stood up and scolded him severely.

The old man in his 70s is still so hot-tempered.

The Thunder stabilized the score and also stabilized morale, reorganizing the offense and defense.

The role of the star is that the morale impact of the actual action is often greater than the coach's timeout.

The timeout is just to deploy a more reasonable style of play, but on the field, reasonableness can represent the lower limit, and on-the-spot performance represents the upper limit.

The motivation of many fairy balls and passion balls to the team can reverse the situation.

The Thunder stood firm on the defense, and George also made another three-pointer on the offensive end. The effect of the Spurs' shrinking defense was no longer obvious.

The first half is almost over.

George, who didn't have a high shooting percentage, played for almost 20 minutes on the court.

In the last few rounds, both sides scored and made mistakes. The Spurs finally got back 31 points at 24:7 in the single quarter.

The point difference came to single digits.

"Paul, you should adjust and rest." Westbrook is very concerned about George's shoulder problem.

An injury that has not recovered for more than a week is already a relatively serious injury.

"You're right, Russell! But the team needs me more at this time. I still have defense!" George's role on the court is indeed more important.

Especially when Aldridge and Gasol are on the court at the same time, neither Grant nor Adams has enough experience to play games with each other. Without George's help, the inside line is easy to be blown up.

Not to mention Kanter and Allen.

"Don't worry, Russell, I don't feel good about shooting, and I will try to reduce my shots." George's statement was very firm, and he also attached great importance to the team's victory.

But will this sentence embarrass Westbrook?
In terms of the number of irons, Westbrook is still above George.

It's just that Westbrook didn't feel bad about his shot.

　The first two chapters are running the plot, so the writing style is even worse. Please forgive me. I will work hard to adjust and strive to write better.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)