Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 47 Two Organizational Points

There are still quite a few spectators present today, and most of them really came to watch the game. The Thunder Summer League performed well overall. Even in the three games where Antetokounmpo did not perform well, this group of jumpers also contributed a lot of dunks.

In particular, they played a lot of counterattacks relying on defense, and of course they also got many chances to perform dunks.

Ennis prefers to play tricks, running at the front every time, dunking the basketball into the basket in various ways.

At this time, a wonderful cooperation was seen at the beginning of the game, and many people immediately shouted and applauded.

Looking back, the opponent also hit one, and in the Thunder's offensive round, the old trick was repeated.

This time, under the reminder of the coach on the sidelines, I finally remembered to chase Antetokounmpo, but on the other side, Robertson and Gomez cross-screened, and Ennis jumped out in the middle, and got a shot from outside the three-point line.

Shot——

brush!
A three-pointer was hit and the game started 5:2.

However, in the eyes of many people, this is just an accident, let alone now, in the long history of the NBA for more than 60 years, there are not many centers with the ability to cope.

Of course, those who have the ability to attack independently can more or less earn some assists by attracting defense by themselves, but this cannot be completely called support.

And there are very few teams that focus on center support tactics. This is because the limitations are too great. After all, most centers are still honestly receiving the ball inside. If they support at a high position, they have high requirements for shooting.

However, no matter how strong the shooting ability is, it is difficult for the center to shoot from the outside compared with the guards. In this way, the ability to attract double teams will be relatively weakened, and it will not be easy to create easy scoring opportunities.

Just like Gobert, when he mentions a high position, the opponent's center dares to let him go a step away, let alone double-team.

But the other four players of the Thunder kept interspersing and running, and played more off-ball screens. All Gobert had to do was dribble a little, or simply stand still, as long as someone arrived and sent the ball.

This requires both vision and passing. After all, opportunities on the court are often fleeting. No matter how bad the defense is, it is impossible to give open opportunities again and again.

As a result, Gobert easily penetrated the opponent's defense line in the opening two minutes by passing the ball abruptly, and scored four assists.

This is unbearable, so the opponent immediately called a timeout.

Everyone applauded Gobert when the Thunder left the court, and Antetokounmpo was still touching his hand and staring at him, which seemed very strange.

Gobert also grinned grinningly. To be honest, when he got Li Sheng's order before, he thought he had made a mistake and mistook himself for Gasol?
He's French and not Spanish...

Of course, he also undertook some supporting work in the previous games, but it was usually a simple setter pass, which means that Antetokounmpo saw the opportunity and then passed it out through his transfer station, posing a threat.

But now he is really relying on his own eyes to find opportunities, and he finds that his handwork of passing the ball has also improved.

To be able to enter the NBA to play, or not to mention the NBA, the basic skills to be able to play professionally must have been basically mastered, dribbling, passing, shooting, these abilities are not without Gobert, but they are not stable enough, and it is difficult to display them freely in the game.

He had never discovered before that he actually had such passing ability.

In fact, it depends on a player's passing ability, whether the ball he passes can pose a threat, and whether the receiver can easily receive the ball will be known.

Some people pass the ball more steadily, making the receiver comfortable, and can also directly pose a threat and generate assists, such as CP3, which has an amazing assist-to-turnover ratio and is considered to only pass safety balls, but in fact his passing ability is of course beyond doubt.

There are also some people who like to spread the word, even in the tiebreaker of the finals, they dared to make a mistake in the back pass, and then passed the O'Brien Cup, so I won't name them.

These are things that have been formed since playing, almost engraved in the genes, and will not change even if the strength increases in the future.

Gobert found that his current passing seemed to suddenly become "creative". For example, the first alley-oop, if he had put it in the past, he might have sent it to Antetokounmpo with a single hit. This is safer, but obviously the level of excitement is reduced.

This is exactly the blessing of the soul at that moment, because his eyes saw the opportunity at that moment and made a judgment. This is the change brought about by the ability of "vision".

Of course, there will be such an effect. The opponent's lack of defensive strength is also a very important reason. Sometimes wonderful goals and cooperation depend not only on the tacit understanding of one's own side, but also on the cooperation of the opponent.

Xialian's defense is just like that. On the one hand, the players' ability is not good, and on the other hand, there is no system.

Many people ignore the role of the defensive system, and blindly think that a team composed of players with strong personal defensive ability must be strong in defense. In this regard, the future Gemini Clippers are a clear example, but DPOY+ first defense has produced a poor overall defensive effect.

There must be defensive masters in a strong defensive team, but defensive masters may not be able to form a strong defensive team, because defense is a matter of five people.

On the offensive end, you can still play four players alone, but on the defensive end, if there is one player who can't do it, it may be for nothing, because the opponent will attack your defensive weakness.

If there is a defensive system, it doesn't matter if there are defensive weaknesses in it, it can "hide" you in the system.

For example, in the future Warriors, the head star Curry is easy to be targeted because of his weak defensive ability, but he is well protected by the Warriors' defensive system.

The timeout was not long. Li Sheng counted the time and called the players up in advance. First, he made substitution adjustments, replacing Robertson, and added an outside shooting point. Then he said: "You did a good job just now, and we will continue to play like this."

There is a saying in the NBA that if the winner does not change first, the one who changes first is a fool.

Here is a name to criticize a certain boss surnamed Ku who immediately dismantled the lineup after winning the championship in 11...

Of course, this is mainly because Li Sheng is sure that the opponent will not or cannot effectively change his strategy, because Li Sheng's strategy is equivalent to a brand-name style of play.

The fifth and fourth positions are pulled out and directly evacuated the inside line, and the opponent's fourth and fifth positions are uncomfortable no matter whether they are defended or not.

Then there was even a scene where Gobert helped Ennis block the defender, Ennis got an open shot, and the opponent's center was watching near the free throw line, without even a little interference.

In fact, at this time, it may be better if the formation is changed to a 3-2 zone defense, because the Thunder is currently focusing on high-post support and then shooting from outside shooters, so that it can be suppressed in a targeted manner.

Especially when Gobert is pulled out, the Thunder will be restrained in time by the retracted center if they want to turn to the basket to attack.

But let alone whether they can defend, whether they can arrange their defensive positions clearly is a problem. After all, this kind of defense has a relatively high degree of concentration and tacit understanding for the defender when the opponent frequently covers and moves.

The Thunder's offense can always easily get good opportunities, and Gobert even started to play back passes, which surprised the audience and the benches on both sides.

And at the beginning, Gobert didn't have a clear understanding of his abilities, and he seemed a little conservative, but slowly he also began to respond to the opponent's defensive changes, began to move his position constantly, and even began to cooperate more with the shooters around the screen.

At this time, Antetokounmpo became a supporting role on the field, so Li Sheng replaced Antetokounmpo who was standing on the field after 3 minutes, and then replaced Gobert after 2 minutes, and then replaced Antetokounmpo, playing back to regular play.

The opponent who thought he could breathe a sigh of relief did not expect the pressure to be even greater. After all, Antetokounmpo's core style of play with the ball is more proficient, and Gobert's passing has not yet reached the top.

Although Gobert has the ability, after all, he has no habits and has not developed through his own training. Naturally, he is not as good as Antetokounmpo.

So by the end of halftime, the score on the field had become 61:44, and the Thunder's lead came to 17 points.

The main reason is that their three-pointers are too accurate. Ennis made 3 shots, Gomez made 4 shots, Antetokounmpo made one, Robertson ate dumplings this time and made two shots, and the others added up to four.

14 three-pointers in the half, an astonishing 66.7% shooting rate, if you don't lead by double digits, what a poor defense.

(End of this chapter)