Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 108

"Oh, another three-pointer! The Wizards seem to be in good shape at the beginning of the game today, and the three-pointer went straight away!"

The game was broadcast on CCTV again, at [-]:[-] a.m., which happened to be the weekend, and most fans had time to watch the game at this time.

The commentators were still Yogi and Yang Jian. Yogi sighed and began to prepare for Li Sheng in advance: "The Wizards have not been in a good state since the start of the game and suffered a wave of three-game losing streak. The main reason is that their players have fluctuated greatly.

"However, their winning streak has been pretty good recently, especially the team leader John Wall, who averaged nearly 20+10 perfect data per game. This is obviously something that the Thunder must guard against. Originally, if Westbrook was there, it might be different..."

Everyone now agrees that the Thunder are not in their best form, and they will definitely be stronger when Westbrook returns.

Of course, Westbrook is indispensable for playing a strong team. After all, Durant is the only star player in the team. Ibaka is almost a single-core player.

The Wizards this season must be regarded as a strong team, it can only be said that the start rhythm is relatively slow.

However, Durant also had a good start today, responding with a mid-range shot and biting the score.

Then there was another defensive round. Li Sheng made adjustments on the sidelines, allowing the team's defensive lineup to shrink slightly in the middle, which can compress Wall's breakthrough space.

Wall tasted the sweetness, and recruited Nene to do the pick-and-roll for him, followed the same pattern, and used the cover to get to the basket. Seeing that the Thunder's side shrank in time, and there was no room for breakthrough.

Nene has a certain ability to attack independently. When Wall still attracted the attention of the Thunder's inside defense, he missed a layup by relying on Perkins who had just turned around and was too late to top him, but caused a foul.

Walked to the free throw line, made two free throws and made one, 4:7.

Looking back, Durant singled Ariza again. Ariza was a bit anxious to press this time and was fouled. Durant also walked to the free throw line and made two free throws.

Next, the two sides hit each other. Ariza protected the rebound and then passed it to Wall. Wall quickly pushed forward with his legs.

There were also additional penalties, and the score between the two sides came to 6:10.

Whitman smiled, Li Sheng was expressionless and said nothing.

Yoga said: "Coach Li looked serious on the sidelines today. Judging from the pre-match interviews, he had a premonition that today's game would not be easy."

Yang Jian said with a smile: "However, Durant is still in a good state today. He has hit all three shots so far. I think it is impossible for the Wizards not to take some measures in the future."

Of course, if a superstar is in good condition, he has the ability to play a team alone, not to mention the rest of the Thunder are not bad.

In fact, Li Sheng also wanted to see if Whitman was really so stubborn and insisted on defending against Durant alone.

If things go on like this, Ariza is afraid that he will be beaten to lose confidence, and the Wizards have no other people who can limit him better. If Durant scores a high score in this game, the players on the opposite side will definitely be very dissatisfied.

Players also need to save face. If it is okay to win the game, but if you lose the game and let the opponent get a high score, it will really explode. Even if he is a qualified coach, he has to appease the players.

Or to say that the NBA head coach is not so easy to be, this is not playing games, and not all of them are NPCs. They have ups and downs and emotions, and they must consider not only on-court but also off-court factors.

Moreover, Li Sheng's requirements for the starting lineup are actually very simple. He can hold the score to prevent the gap from widening, and wait until the rotation stage to chase points.

If the rotation cannot gain an advantage, then this game will be really difficult.

The Wizards can achieve results this season. Of course, not only the main players are strong, but their role players are also good. Booker, Webster, Seraphim, Harrington and other powerful players are all there.

They did not get good results at the beginning of the game, which has something to do with the slowness of the players to enter the state. Some players just need the game to slowly regain their state, so their state slowly improved later, and their record also caught up.

Of course, here, because the previous deal with the Suns fell through for some reason, Okafor stayed in the Wizards, and Gortat did not come to the Wizards, so the Wizards' starting insider is still the combination of Nene and Okafor.

This is a good thing for Okafor. He is not injured now, but because of his characteristics, Nene needs to cooperate with him, which makes the Wizards mostly functional players on the bench.

Whitman's choice is that Bill will leave the field 2 minutes earlier in the first quarter, and start the second quarter early with a substitute, but such a rotation will affect both the starting lineup and the substitute lineup.

However, Bill is in really good form today. He hit two three-pointers in the first quarter and scored 8 points personally. When he left the game, the Wizards still led the Thunder by 5 points.

The score on the court was 19:24. The Wizards felt good today, but the Thunder's three-pointers were not good. Only Durant and Ennis made two three-pointers.

With 3 minutes left in the first quarter, it was another offensive opportunity for the Thunder. At this time, Antetokounmpo came to advance with the ball, and both Ibaka and Perkins were replaced for a rest.

Whitman stared at Antetokounmpo with great interest from the sidelines. He also felt that the young player of the Thunder was very special. Although the nickname was advertised outside as "Little Durant", anyone who had watched him play would not think that he was the same type of player as Durant.

Obviously, he has the talent to become a big core with the ball, and the Thunder is currently training him in this way.

Whitman even wondered if it was because of Westbrook's injury that the Thunder deliberately wanted someone to replace him.

Antetokounmpo is actually playing the point guard position when attacking, but it is impossible for the Wizards to really use the point guard to face him, but to use Harrington to face him.

Harrington is also a swingman on the forward line. He can play the third and fourth positions and can open up space with a three-pointer.

Especially when Antetokounmpo used the classic top of the arc to cooperate with Gobert's pick-and-roll, after Harrington and Seraphim switched defenses, Seraphim kept up with Antetokounmpo, but Antetokounmpo directly lobbed the ball up.

Gobert, tall and long, completely overwhelmed Harrington and put the ball in the basket.

Because Durant, Ennis, and Robertson all opened up space outside the three-point line, other players couldn't and didn't dare to come over to defend. The inside defense was equal to a half-empty state. Antetokounmpo and Gobert's small-scale cooperation can be played. There are many ways to play defense and put the ball into the basket.

Whitman finally frowned. He was very confident in the team's rotation, but the Thunder's four-position tactic, which can directly attack from outside the three-point line, is really hard to guard against.

Especially when Antetokounmpo and Gobert can handle the ball, others dare not come over to help defend at will, but if there are only two matchups inside, they are likely to be played by them like this.

Fortunately, the Wizards' own offense was very smooth, and Wall continued to lead the team. After a pick-and-roll swayed out of space, he made a mid-range shot from the free throw line.

Like Westbrook, Wall actually has a mid-range shot, which is not so accurate but is enough except for the open space.

Going back to the Thunder’s offensive round, Antetokounmpo repeated his old tricks. This time Webster couldn’t help but step forward to interfere with Antetokounmpo. He chose the right timing. Antetokounmpo was forced to a dead ball and couldn’t make a pass to Robertson, who was emptied in the bottom corner. Suddenly, a high toss was thrown to Gobert, who raised his hands high.

Gobert understood it almost instantly. A volleyball-style pass slapped the ball into the air, and then a figure flew out of a diagonal stab, catching the ball in the air and slamming it hard.

It's Robertson!

When Antetokounmpo was wrapped, he was actually ready to come over to meet him. After seeing Gobert catch the ball, he immediately bypassed the three people making dumplings over there, and then took off at the moment Gobert passed the ball.

Gobert passed deftly, and Roberson was comfortable receiving the ball.

　I checked the information again, and the Wizards did not perform well at the beginning of the season, so I revised it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)