Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 124 Strong Confrontation
Li Sheng is of course seeking stability, but he feels that Rivers must be different from himself. If there is no accident, he will not change easily.

Everyone's biggest impression of Rivers, apart from being overturned, is his chicken soup, and the comparison between the performance of leading the Big Three Green Army and the civilian Clippers, which actually has a lot to do with his inability to respond on the spot.

What is the use of light chicken soup?

Occasionally, it can stimulate ordinary players to perform well, or take advantage of the arrogance of the opponent to steal a game or two, but the upper limit is there.

In fact, there are not many NBA head coaches who can be called good on the spot, including Popovich who was also criticized on the spot.

But Rivers is particularly prominent here because he has been turned over a lot.

Of course, the current lineup of the Clippers has basically stabilized. It is already a well-adjusted lineup, and there will be no major changes in normal play without accidents.

After all, the staffing is just like this, and it's hard to play well.

The players in the Clippers lineup have the same impression as Li Sheng. Their current offense relies on Paul to sort out the organization, and then there are two jumpers with excellent jumping ability on the inside, and Redick is a sharp shooter on the outside.

Then the substitute will let Ke Liu come up to score points, as long as he can last for a while and buy time for the main players to rest.

Because of the contract of the main force, there is no way to squeeze out much money for other role players. Naturally, it is difficult to ask the role players to play well.

Therefore, the Clippers are one of the rare teams that rely entirely on the main force to come to C. Often only Ke Liu can score as a substitute.

And the defense is not very good. Barnes, who used to be a defensive champion, is getting old and doesn't have many chances to play.

This also has a certain relationship with the Clippers' tactical play. Paul is best at the pick-and-roll and inside cooperation. Coupled with the outstanding jumping ability of Griffin and Jordan, the Clippers have become a city of lobs. The style of play is still quite popular.

But the style of play is good-looking, but the entire organization is entrusted to Paul alone, which makes the Clippers' offensive methods easier to figure out.

Although you can figure it out in many cases, it is difficult to guard against it, because there are many routines, and Paul's golf quotient can make changes on the spot at any time, which is why they are relatively stable in the regular season.

But when Paul left the field, the other players on the field seemed to not know how to play. At least the offensive power dropped a lot. This is why Ke Liu was chosen as a substitute.

Of course, this also means that it is not stable enough, so the Clippers often have crashes and overturns. After all, it is impossible for the main force to fill in the pits every game, and even if they are dug too many pits, their mentality is easy to collapse.

The most typical one is the overturning of the playoffs with Texas Xiaoqiang, which has a lot to do with the changes in psychology and momentum.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the game officially started, the Clippers' home players appeared on the field, and then began to jump the ball.

As the capital of entertainment, although the popularity of the Clippers in Los Angeles is suppressed by the Lakers, there are also players and stars who come to join in the fun. You can often see many familiar faces on the sidelines. Li Sheng saw two familiar faces in the front row today.

The other two are sisters Kohler and Kendou from the Internet celebrity family closely related to the NBA. Li Sheng was thinking about the love history between that little girl and Griffin, and wondered when they started. Could it be that he just bumped into each other?
Regardless of these courtside entertainment, there is no doubt that the Clippers got the jump ball this time. After Jordan became the starting center, the success rate of the jump ball has always been very high.

The Clippers got their first shot, and Paul waited for the ball to roll past half court before grabbing it, a clever way to increase the shot clock.

Of course, some people learned from him without learning the essence, and the result was a joke.

Then the master began to command his teammates to move. The first ball was probably because he was at home. He chose to play with momentum and tricks, so he recruited Jordan to play a pick-and-roll with him, and then tricked Sefolosha with a fake move, throwing the ball to assist Griffin on the other side to take off.

BANG!

"Griffin!"

Griffin is known as the "White Monster" because of his physical fitness.

Like Warcraft Howard, he was born as the No. 10 pick in the draft, but he was reimbursed for a year due to injury after being selected, and he played a strong performance in the second year when he came back and won the best rookie of the decade.

This kind of player with the best style of play is already more pleasing, and the league also favors him, almost giving him the title of slam dunk king by default.

The arrival of Paul has liberated Griffin's style of play to a certain extent, but it may also limit his upper limit to some extent.

It's a pity that his flying and violent style of play will be greatly affected after his physical fitness declines. His face-to-frame skills are not as good as Stoudemire's, who is also a brutal power forward, so he soon fell.

The current Griffin is very vigorous, and the button is a common occurrence. Of course, his button is more suspected of elbowing, and it is more obvious than the average person. If it is not for the alliance, he will have been targeted.

Of course, those who can become league superstars have more or less won the support of some leagues, even if it is Curry.

The ball happened to be dunked in against Perkins. If it were placed on the Thunder's home court, the fans would have been excited. The shouts of "OKC" were loud, but here they only received some sparse shouts.

It seems that the home fans are not in the mood, but in fact, most of the audience on the sidelines watch the game with an entertainment mentality, and not many have a sense of belonging.

On the contrary, looking back, the Thunder seemed to be stimulated by this alley-oop. Reggie quickly crossed the half court with the ball, and seemed to want to return one directly.

However, when Ibaka was about to receive an alley, Griffin jumped up and broke out of bounds. The Thunder fans let out a sigh of regret, which seemed to be more obvious than the cheers just now.

After serving the ball in the frontcourt, Durant caught the ball and withdrew and made a mid-range shot for the team to score two points.

The Clippers attacked again, and Paul seemed to want to do the same, but he didn't expect that this time it was a fake fax shot, and he used the pick-and-roll to move laterally and hit a mid-range jumper steadily.

It is said that Paul is a representative of traditional point guards, but it is actually because of his various "classical" styles of play.

The name point guard itself, as the name implies, can be divided into two parts: air control and defense, and the offensive shooting is also dominated by turnaround jump shots and half-block baskets.

In this regard, he and Curry are two typical examples. In fact, both of them often use a trick to cover the space and then shoot, but one is near the free throw line and the other is outside the three-point line.

From the perspective of modern basketball development, this kind of offensive efficiency certainly does not seem so high, but if it is placed in the playoffs, this offensive method is a strong guarantee.

Later, Paul joined Houston, and Harden's magic ball seemed to be very suitable. Although the two of them seemed to be playing singles, on the one hand, the offensive areas of the two did not overlap or even complement each other.

Even if one person leaves the field, another person can lead the team. If they hadn't separated due to reasons such as philosophy, it would be impossible for them to make a comeback after the disintegration of Universe Yong.

It can only be said that time is fate, and both of them may have missed the best chance for themselves to win the championship.

On the Thunder's side, there is actually one similar to him, but Durant relies on his height, and sometimes it is an opportunity to directly pull.

But Reggie didn't know what was going on at the beginning of the game. It seemed that he was going to compete with Paul. Before Durant settled in the elbow zone, he suddenly accelerated and prepared to pass Paul, but he didn't expect that Paul stepped aside.

Dudley next to him came over to grab the basketball, and quickly threw it to Paul, who was going down quickly. It would be a little difficult for the Thunder to chase back, so he made an easy layup.

6:2, the Thunder fell behind again at the start.

Li Sheng couldn't sit still anymore. When he was serving again, he immediately stood on the sidelines and shouted to Reggie who advanced halfway: "Steady, slow down, don't fall into their rhythm!"

There is no need to speed up the game against the Clippers. Although Griffin and Jordan's inside combination is good at defending the penalty area, they still have natural defects in the inside after all, and they are not good at defending outside and pick-and-roll.

The biggest weakness of the Clippers, of course, is their forward defense. At present, the Clippers' starting No. [-] is Dudley, and there is not even a serious and fixed No. [-] substitute.

Facing Durant, Dudley's offensive and defensive ends were not quite right. Durant played this game more easily than he played.

Dudley's defense is not bad, but he is not young after all, and his pace is much slower. In fact, he mainly plays on the floor, and his physical fitness is not outstanding.

Not to mention Durant, Antetokounmpo may have a matchup advantage, and he can still pass the ball if he can't play singles.

But apart from him, the Clippers' remaining lineup doesn't have a serious defender at the [-]rd position.

As for the defensive system, the Clippers rely more on the defensive threat that spreads from the penalty area. Basically, it can be said that Jordan is the defensive core of this team. From this point of view, it is actually quite traditional.

At his peak, Jordan was also a player close to the DPOY level. His defensive range was very large, which naturally benefited from his super running and jumping talent.

In his early years, he was a jumper, and he was also the kind who took off in a flash on the defensive end, but under the slow training of Rivers and Paul, he gradually got rid of those stinky problems, and he will be selected for the first defense in a row in the future.

Since the third season, his defense has actually improved, which can actually be reflected in the data of rebounds and blocks.

This season, he has averaged 35 minutes per game to get a double-double and two blocked shots. He ranks among the top three in the league in terms of rebounds and blocked shots, and his average of 4 offensive rebounds per game is even more amazing.

In addition, Griffin has fulfilled his talent. Although he was not as amazing as his rookie season in the first two seasons, his improvement after the start of this season is still obvious.

Although everyone's impression of him is mostly dunks and dunks and occasional dribbles, but he is not weak on the defensive end, and he can even complement Jordan to a certain extent.

And the inside combination of him and Jordan averaged 6 offensive rebounds and 3 blocks per game is also quite vigorous, and it is also something that makes all opponents afraid.

It’s just that the team with the inside line as the core of defense, before the outside defense rules changed at the beginning of the century, could still sit on the inside line and wait for the opponent to rush in and then make up for the defense.

This is like a hemostatic agent, at least it can relieve the situation in the first place and avoid accidents.

If you only talk about perimeter defense, this is actually the Clippers' weakness.

Paul's defense is indeed very good, but he also has a natural flaw, that is, lack of height.

183 is of course not bad for ordinary people, but it looks short in the NBA. Paul's good defense is also based on his experience and various small actions that can be seen and cannot be seen.

This is actually another "classic" feature of him. After all, those old players have done this. Stockton, the historical assist king, is even more famous as a black-handed player.

But in fact, competitive sports are not a place for gentlemen. It is not a big problem to use any means to win. As long as you don’t make moves while marketing yourself as clean and clean, you will be fine.

The team's second position offense is no problem. The starting Redick is a strong shooter. From the ridicule of Curry's nickname "System Redick", it can be seen that he is not bad, but the defense is indeed flawed.

And if Redick can at least defend for a while, but the effect is generally not very good, then Crawford, who is replacing the sixth man, is a colander.

In fact, many of the NBA's Super Six have the attributes of a defensive colander, such as Lu-Left Hug Right Hug-Wei.

In this case, it is obviously unrealistic to expect them to be able to block the Thunder's outside attack.

In particular, the Thunder still focused on outside three-pointers today. Ibaka stepped up to cover Sefolosha without the ball, but then both of them stood outside the three-point line at the same time. Durant attracted the defense and passed out.

It may also be that additional training has an effect, so the two teamed up to hit five three-pointers in the first half of the first quarter, leading the Clippers by 22 points at 16:8.

In terms of the offensive effect and hit rate in more than six minutes, the Clippers' offense is actually not bad. They have also implemented their own tactics. They can hit the inside as much as possible, and they can basically win.

The Thunder's inside combination was overwhelmed by Griffin and Jordan Jr. today, mainly because Perkins was too slow to keep up with them.

Both were very efficient, scored 9 points and 6 points respectively, almost didn't miss, and added 4 assists to Paul.

But the Clippers' performance outside the three-point line was in stark contrast to their own performance on the inside and the Thunder's outside performance. Paul, Redick and Dudley made 5 three-pointers, and only Redick scored a three-pointer.

(End of this chapter)