Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 183 The second ten-game winning streak
In Sunday's game, the Thunder ushered in the challenge of the Orlando Magic at home. This is another Eastern Conference, and the Thunder won another victory without breaking a sweat.

The Magic are still in a bad season this season, and they selected Oladipo with the second pick, but as the second pick in the young year, it is obviously not enough for the team to place too many expectations on him.

Anyway, there is not much hope for this season itself, so let's continue to perform badly while training troops.

But maybe for the Magic, before the next super center appears, they don't know who to build the team around.

They really don't have much experience in training guards. Players like Oladipo have to be given the right to play. But he is not the only one on the team who can play. Vucevic, Afflalo, Harris, O'Quinn, etc. are all good.

It's just that none of them can be the core, and Audi, as a first-year student, can't hold anyone back.

Anyway, until Li Sheng was reborn, they were still sinking, and it was only mediocre to squeeze into the playoffs.

In this game, Westbrook missed another three-pointer and shot 16 of 5. The efficiency was very low, but Durant scored 60 points on 30% shooting, Antetokounmpo and Gobert both scored 10+10, which saved him.

Because the lead has not been much, so there is no three-quarter check-in, but Li Sheng directly pushed Westbrook off the court in the last period, which also allowed him to calm down and watch how his teammates played.

Although judging from his performance on the court, he can't say that he played well, it's just that he didn't grasp some opportunities, but if he didn't play well, he didn't play well.

This kind of game is fine, if it really happens in the key games of the playoffs, the impact will be not small.

In fact, the combination of the magic team's inside big baby and weapons does not cause him any trouble on the defensive end. In this case, even if the state is not so good, he should be able to have a smarter way to deal with it, or to be more restrained.

Li Sheng just wants to see when he can take the initiative to control the number of shots to less than 10 without special requirements from himself-of course, when he is in a bad state, there is nothing wrong with taking a lot of shots.

Westbrook didn't talk to Li Sheng after the game, and went straight back to the locker room, Li Sheng ignored him.

It would be best if he could think clearly on his own. If he really couldn't figure it out, Li Sheng would not go to him easily unless he came to him. The meaning of active and passive is quite different.

The next schedule is still relatively tight, because it was loose before, but now it naturally has to be tight. These two weeks are four games a week, and there are back-to-back games.

On the 17th, they rushed to the Denver Plateau to start a second battle with the Nuggets.

The Nuggets' home court can also be regarded as a devil's home court, which has a certain relationship with the geographical environment, because it is located on a plateau, and this climate environment may be more suitable for the Nuggets players who often play here, but it may not be a good thing for away players.

However, the Nuggets are now losing troops, and relying on Lawson's leadership is not enough to cause trouble for the Thunder.

The Thunder beat the Nuggets 105:96 and won their second ten-game winning streak this season.

In this game, Westbrook's state has recovered. He scored 16 points in 9 of 24. Durant scored 30+ again, Ibaka double-doubled, and other players scored in single digits.

Before Durant or Fisher paired with them, but when it was replaced by Westbrook, it was another style of play.

The pick-and-roll between Westbrook and Antetokounmpo is now the most common cooperation between the two when they are on the court. As the tacit understanding deepens, the effect gradually increases, because there are many choices after the pick-and-roll.

At this time, the two may find better opportunities for other teammates to attack.

Of course, both of them are in good form today. If they are not in good form, it will be easier to defend against the two players who are not good at shooting and are better at breakthroughs.

In fact, there are also reasons why the Nuggets' defense is not good, and it is difficult to put pressure on them.

Due to injury reduction, the strength has been weakened, and there have been many defeats. There are defensive colanders like Lawson and Robinson in the team. The core point guard takes the lead in "not defending".

Sometimes the atmosphere of the whole team slowly deteriorates like this. The head coach can't control the field, and without a veteran and defensive champion like Brother Yi to take the lead, it can only slowly rot.

However, whether the Nuggets are bad or not has nothing to do with the Thunder, and they are even happy to see their success. After all, in the West, any team is a potential opponent, and there is no hesitation if they have the opportunity to weaken the opponent. It seems that Li Sheng is already thinking about how to dig into the gold corner in the draft next year...

And for such a relatively ordinary regular season, the meaning to the Thunder and the outside world is quite different.

Because in the same season, a team can play 10+ games twice in a row, and after only losing one game, they can immediately switch to another wave of victories. Naturally, the shock that the Thunder brought to the outside world needless to say.

The doubts about a pseudo-strong team disappear in the face of the real record. The Thunder is now a strong team, and it is one of the best teams in the NBA.

Although they have not yet experienced the test of the playoffs, especially the performance of the outstanding rookies in the second half of the season remains to be seen, but the media will always praise the highs and trample the lows. At this time, it is natural to blow the thunder to death and praise them to the sky first.

So TV, print media, and the Internet are all shouting, if this continues, the Thunder may really win the championship this season.

I talked about Durant before, but now I start talking about the power of the double-young combination, and the coaching ability of the coach Li Sheng.

In fact, Li Sheng really wanted to say that he was not the one who deserved the most credit for this, because the Thunder itself was very strong this season. Yuan Shikong's final record was also second in the Western Conference during the regular season, and they lost to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals in the playoffs.

And the Spurs are also considered to play better and better, "the first round is the hardest", and they are already close to their best form in the Western Conference Finals.

In fact, with the strength of the Thunder at the time, the only team they would lose was probably the Spurs. Moreover, the styles of the two teams restrained each other. When the Spurs were in good condition, it was indeed difficult for the Thunder to win.

If they reached the finals and faced the Heat, which was already at the end of their strength at the time, they might not be unable to win.

Of course, when the Spurs have guaranteed physical strength, they have actually been able to restrain most teams in the league in the past two years, and the battle may not be so stable, so someone in the previous life said that the Mavericks were actually the "true runner-up" in 14, because a group of "old, weak, sick and disabled" fought against the Spurs until the tiebreaker before losing.

But now, the Spurs don't have the spirit of making a comeback like the original time and space. Duncan is now more concerned with inheritance, and his strength may not be so strong. The Heat who lost in the finals do not have the pressure of three consecutive championships. On the contrary, they may be able to perform better.

The current situation is actually different. Of course, the Thunder is also a completely different team. It is unknown what kind of energy they will be able to exert in the end.

(End of this chapter)