Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 142 Ibaka

And in fact, Thompson's phone call just now can be regarded as being led by Curry. The sudden score is not the key. What Li Sheng thought was that it is precisely because the Thunder did not implement the idea of ​​​​continuing to beat him, and there is not so much consumption, then he will always find an opportunity to regain the field on the offensive end.

So when he was serving, he immediately came to the sidelines and asked Durant to hand over Reggie's next attack.

Reggie's ability is still there, and today's state is not bad compared to others, and Durant and Sefolosha are like putting up two forts on the outside, and even Ibaka can be pulled out, which creates room for him to break through.

What he was going to face happened to be Curry. Who knows how Mark Jackson arranged it. On the defensive end, Thompson went to defend Sefolosha, and let Curry stare at Reggie.

It may be because Reggie has never been the main attacker before. If he just runs without the ball, Curry has more experience in defense and will not let go of too many opportunities.

But to be honest, Curry itself is not a speed type. His breakthroughs rely on rhythm and the threat of shooting, so that he may easily shake the defender away with a false move.

And on the defensive end, he couldn't stand Reggie's explosive speed.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a one-step pass, even if it is half a body behind, it will be very difficult to catch up.

Reggie said he was the poor man's version of Westbrook, but he didn't lose much in terms of speed. When he played against the Wizards before, Wall, who was known as the fastest in the league, could keep up.

And as long as he relies on Curry to kill the inside line, the rest of the Warriors will pass the ball to help him defend, and if he doesn't help defend him, he will go directly.

Of course, he actually wanted to go forward and solve the problem by himself regardless of the "mountain of swords and sea of ​​fire", but Li Sheng's constant reminders during training and competitions in the past half month were still effective.

Especially now that he deprives the ball without doing anything, he dare not think about what Li Sheng will do if he messes up.

"Beautiful! Reggie passed Curry and scored a layup. Curry didn't dare to foul. He had already committed two fouls. Although halftime will end soon, the Warriors still have an offensive round, and he needs to organize it."

The main thing is that three fouls in the first half will be dangerous in the third quarter. If the Thunder intentionally commits fouls, he may have to commit four fouls as soon as he enters the court, which will directly affect the team's second half arrangement.

Anyway, they were left with 20 seconds of attack time, and they could run out of time to form a team. As long as they can tie again and enter the second half, the back-to-back Thunder may have physical problems, and that is their best chance.

In the last 17 seconds, Curry used Iguodala's pick-and-roll to advance halftime, holding the ball at the top of the arc to press time.

Sefolosha continued to harass, and Curry leaned against him, counting the time silently while observing the running positions of his teammates.

In 10 seconds, Thompson came out around the screen. This time Reggie chased him in time. Curry passed the ball.

Durant faced the first brother, with one hand close to his face and the other open, his eyes fixed on the movements of his hands.

The first brother grabbed the ball with one hand, watched Curry and Thompson still running, and suddenly gave it to David Lee.

In 5 seconds, David Lee caught the ball in the paint. At this time, Ibaka and Reggie's attention was attracted by Thompson. Sefolosha dared not let go of Curry who was in the bottom corner. Gobert could only step forward to interfere, and Ibaka quickly sank.

David Lee bypassed Gobert and passed the ball to Bogou. Bogou turned around and wanted to dunk. Ibaka suddenly shot out from a diagonal stab, and a big cap flew the racket in his hand directly.

The timer stopped in time, leaving only the last 1.3 seconds.

During the dead ball gap, there was no substitution on both sides, and the referee watched the replay specifically to confirm that there was no need to return the second, and the frontcourt re-served.

Iguodala stood on the sideline to serve. Curry and Thompson ran to catch the ball at the same time, but there were people around them closely following. At this time, the first brother suddenly threw a high throw to the basket. David Lee was about to take off for a lob, but Ibaka broke the pass one step ahead of time.

But the ball hit Curry's hand directly, and he took the ball without adjusting it and shot it. Unfortunately, the timer has stopped, even if the ball is scored, it is invalid.

At halftime, the Thunder temporarily led the Warriors by two points at 63:61 away.

This situation is not a pity for the Warriors, it is an acceptable result, so the expressions on their faces are relatively calm.

On the Thunder's side, Durant and the others went forward to pat Ibaka on the head. In the end, his two successful defenses were exciting. After all, leading and drawing into the second half felt different, even if it was only a two-point gap.

Ibaka himself also smiled happily. His defense actually relies on his physical talent, but the awareness of assisting defense and complementing defense is also very rare.

In fact, Li Sheng has always felt that Robertson and Ibaka belong to the outside world in the Thunder. Although the Thunder's defensive statistics are very good, they have been ranked at the forefront of the league all year round, but who are they defending?

After all, the Thunder does not have a mature defensive system, but relies more on elite defensive players, and even has to check for gaps in the core.

The core of other teams is either offensive and defensive, or at least has a defensive attitude.

Like Dirk Nowitzki, Curry, Nash, etc., even if it is "Na can not defend", it is said that he does not defend, but it seems that he has not heard of anyone who completely blows him up, not to mention that the core philosophy of the Suns is "You can win with more points than you."

And like the core of the Thunder, whether it is Westbrook or Durant, although they have never had anything to do with the defense, many people still have the impression that their defense should be good, at least single defense is not bad.

But when Westbrook and Durant went to other teams, others would find that their defensive weaknesses were so thoroughly exposed.

Durant was okay when he was in the Warriors. When the Nets later had no one to help him out, everyone knew that there was a reason why he couldn't enter the defense.

Of course, he is not enough to hold back. Westbrook is the one who is really regarded as a defensive weakness, and one of the two outstanding weaknesses is that they are used to only looking at the ball and not people, so they can't defend well without the ball.

Durant couldn't notice that Tatum behind him made him turn around for a layup. Westbrook could even stare at the ball until the ball passed to his opponent before reacting, and then ran to the basket just to grab the rebound.

Although Li Sheng likes Shuang Shao, he doesn't shy away from their weaknesses. It is indeed a bad habit left by the Thunder, including Harden.

Even people like Reggie and others are just like that, on the contrary, people like Ibaka and Robertson are considered outliers, so the Thunder may not be unable to cultivate defense, but just like to indulge core players.

Westbrook's MVP season said that it is okay for the whole team to help him collect statistics, at least to a certain extent.

Perhaps the boss, the management and the uniform team are acquiescing. After all, after Durant left, no one of them has the confidence that Westbrook can lead the team to the championship with a single core.

That being the case, it's good to have a good stat to make the fans happy.

Then Westbrook took the MVP and gave them the illusion, and then recruited pickled peppers and melons, trying to form a "big three", but of course it failed.

However, the Thunder has always been worthy of Westbrook. Later, Westbrook's departure was actually not a good thing for both sides. Afterwards, the Thunder planned to make a mess. It can only be said that Paul led the team to the playoffs.

Since the new season, the Thunder's rotation has obviously been much smoother than in the past. It's a bit like the Thunder that killed the 16-win Spurs and pushed the 67-win Warriors into desperation in 73.

And at that time, Donovan could only rely on a rotation of six or seven players to consume the main players. Now the Thunder's rotation is very abundant, everyone can defend and everyone can play.

Even Durant and Lamb seem to have made some progress in this defensive system. Of course, it just looks like this. In fact, they just did what they should do.

But this can at least help Ibaka's defensive core share a lot of pressure. Many people think that Ibaka is not that important. Just look at his injury and the Thunder was directly swept by the Spurs gentleman.

(End of this chapter)