NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 230 40 Sweeping the Thunder, Revenge with One Shot!
In the Western Conference finals last season, Wang Chao was the main defender against Durant, and Wang Chao's defensive effect was quite good. Although he failed to completely prevent Durant, he managed to slightly curb his offensive efficiency and shooting. Rate.

After a year, Wang Chao defended Durant again. The latter immediately noticed the difference, and he became even more difficult!

Originally, Durant's advantage in facing Wang Chaoshi was smaller than that of other small forwards. After all, Wang Chao is 2 meters tall, and the gap with Durant, who is actually 06 meters tall, is relatively small among small forwards. The vast majority of strikers in their early 2 meters are much stronger.

In terms of static talent, Wang Chao himself is at the top level of the league, and now his dynamic talent has also reached the top level through acquired training efforts. In a sense, Wang Chao is currently the best in the league to defend against Durant's height and long arms. The player who shoots the ball.

Durant, who was defended by Wang Chao, made four consecutive offensive shots and only hit one goal. Before halfway through the game, the point difference between the two teams has gone straight to 12 points, just like the Mavericks and Nuggets in the previous two rounds.

The Thunder called two timeouts in an attempt to stabilize the situation, but once the team started to lose, they couldn't stop at all.

Durant's mentality of being defended by Wang Chao exploded. The offense in the second half of the game was the same as Westbrook's. He was already holding the ball and going to Wang Chao to single-handedly. Regardless of whether the game wins or loses, he must score on your head. up.

Wang Chao is naturally so happy, he has no intention of competing with Durant, because now he is already the top superstar in the league, standing above all players, Durant is just a challenger to him It’s just about my identity. Of course I can challenge me if I want to, but let’s talk after winning the game.

In the second quarter of the game, Durant made 13 of 5 shots and 6 of 5 free throws in a single quarter. He scored 15 points and 4 rebounds in a single quarter. The Thunder team scored 26 points in the second quarter, while the Rockets scored 33 points. point.

At the end of the halftime game, the score between the two teams was 67:48, and the Rockets entered the second half with a score advantage of 19 points.

In the third quarter of the second half, the devil that the Thunder were afraid of, Dayao, came again.

Throughout the second quarter, Dayao only played for less than 5 minutes, and did not attack with the ball as frequently as in the first quarter.

And when Dayao, who was rejuvenated and full of energy, started to show lethality at the basket again, the Thunder couldn't stand the Rockets' indiscriminate bombing.

Halfway through the three quarters, the point difference between the two teams has gone straight to 10 minutes. Durant is the only one on the Thunder team who is still trying to restore the decline in vain.

The main players such as Wang Chao and Dayao didn't even play for a minute in the final fourth quarter. Even though the Thunder, unwilling to fail, did not replace the main lineup, they still sent a substitute lineup first. The two young main players with Butler continued to stay on the court to hone their game experience.

Then something happened that made the entire Thunder team feel desperate.

When the Rockets sent Thomas Jr., Butler, Leonard, Chandler Parsons and Whiteside at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a young lineup with an average age of only 23 years old, the Thunder's main lineup unexpectedly In 3 minutes, only 4 points were caught up.

There is a big problem with this young lineup's defense. Although Chandler Parsons has the height of an inside player, he does not have the tonnage of an inside player. Strictly speaking, he can only play the outside position of a small forward.

After this season of training, Whiteside has made some progress, but the progress is very limited, because Wang Chao did not raise his relationship with Whiteside to above 60 through various methods such as treats and gifts until the middle of the season, making him You can enjoy the bonus effect of sparring potion.

Wang Chao can be regarded as convincing, perhaps because Whiteside has played in the league for two seasons, and has only won 19 appearances in the two seasons. It also led to the fact that Whiteside is not the same as he was two years later. He can only be used as a backup blue-collar center, appearing in garbage time, and he is still very immature in both rebounding and defense.

Not to mention Isaiah Thomas, who is 1 meters tall, no matter how hard he defends, he is like a defensive black hole on the field, not to mention that he doesn't put too much energy on the defensive end at all.

After these three substitute players came on the field, the Rockets' defensive efficiency plummeted. Whether it was Durant, Westbrook or even Ibaka, they could ask for anything on the offensive end.

But even so, the Thunder still couldn't easily catch up with the point difference, because they couldn't prevent the Rockets' offense.

The main offensive tactic of this Rockets lineup is to carry out pick-and-roll breakthroughs around Thomas Jr., Whiteside helps Thomas Jr. pick-and-roll, and the latter breaks through the offensive basket with the ball to create damage.

As for the three positions of shooting guard and striker, Butler, Leonard and Chandler Parsons are all players with strong mobility and the ability to attack the ball. Under such circumstances, there is no cowardice in confronting the Thunder's main lineup.

About 5 minutes into the fourth quarter, the Thunder chose to replace all the main players.

A total of 5 points difference was caught up in 6 minutes, and there were more than 20 points difference left. Is it necessary to humiliate yourself?

At 119:97, the Rockets beat the Thunder by 22 points at home. It was still a popular three-quarter game. The Thunder did not have any difference from the opponents the Rockets encountered in the first two rounds. The difference in strength was as big as the Rockets.

This was completely expected by Wang Chao.

Compared with last season, which is the 11-12 season, the Thunder team is obviously weaker. Harden's existence is really very important to the Thunder team. It is not Kevin Martin or the current OJ. O can be compared.

Giving up Harden for a mere 500 million is definitely an unbearable loss for the Thunder, and it also makes them completely lack the capital to compete with the Rockets.

Especially in the fourth quarter, when both Westbrook and Durant were on the court, the Thunder once played inextricably with the Rockets, which can be regarded as the second team, which was hard for anyone to accept.

Throughout the game, Durant scored a game-high 33 points, but under the defense of Wang Chao,

"Facts have proved that the strength of the Rockets this season is indeed a phenomenal existence in the history of the league. Even the Bulls with 96 wins in 72 are completely comparable, and may even be even better! After all, the Rockets not only have offensive points. Wang Chao, who is not inferior to Jordan, has two top stars in the paint, Yao and Garnett, and the Rockets are invincible when their competitive level has not completely declined due to age!"

One game is enough for everyone to see the difference in strength between the two teams. On that day, a large number of media expressed their views on the first game of the Western Conference Finals, and almost all of them were optimistic about the Rockets' big score to eliminate the Thunder.

Some people also praised Wang Chao's effectiveness in man-marking Durant in the game.

"Wang Chao's selection to the best defensive team this season is definitely not because of the benefits brought by the Rockets' overall defense. His own defensive ability has indeed reached the league's top level, especially when he was guarding Durant in the second quarter. Wang Chao's defense can be called a textbook level. Although Durant scored the highest score in the game, his shooting percentage was only in the early 40% range. The efficiency was not high, and a large part of the score came from Wang Chao's absence. fourth quarter of the game."

"As the player with the most outstanding scoring ability in the league, Durant is often the best template to be compared with Wang Chao, but the facts have proved that Durant still has a way to limit it on the defensive end, but Wang Chao Chao is different, the entire league can't find any defensive player who can lock Wang Chao."
-
On May 5, the second game of the series continued at the Toyota Center, the home of the Rockets. In this game, the Thunder obviously fully learned the lessons of the previous game. Whether it was Durant or Westbrook, in the face of He remained rational and did not act impulsively against the Rockets' targeted defensive traps.

Especially Durant, when Wang Chao came to single-handedly defend him again, Durant resisted the urge to one-on-one with Wang Chao, and began to call his teammates to cover the pick-and-roll. The field goal percentage in Game [-] skyrocketed.

But even so, the Thunder still failed to win the game.

A player's high scoring efficiency does not directly affect the game, this is an obvious thing.

Although Durant scored 51 points with 31% shooting in this game, it was still not enough to help the Thunder win the game.

For the Rockets, Wang Chao scored 35 points and shot 54%, higher than Durant.

Not only that, Dayao scored another 26 points in this game, and the Thunder still have nothing to do against Dayao at the basket. Unless Perkins stepped in to destroy Dayao like last year, otherwise it would be impossible to defend against him. live.

It's a pity that this year's Dayao is different from last year. The products produced by the system must be high-quality goods. With the protection of the knee pads, it is impossible for Dayao to be injured on the court, at least not under normal basketball actions. If someone If you want to insist, try cutting off Yao's leg with a chainsaw on the court, and he didn't say anything.

Westbrook made 14 of 6 shots, 8 of 7 free throws, 19 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. He is already the best player on the Thunder team except Durant, but the Rockets have six players. In addition to Wang Chao with 35 points and Dayao with 26 points, Butler, Leonard, Garnett and Chandler Parsons all scored in double figures. Although the process was not as easy as the first game, it was still Successfully win the game.

At the end of the two games at the Rockets' home court, the big score of the series came to 2:0. The Rockets have the advantage and will go to the Thunder's home court in Oklahoma for the third and fourth games of the series.

For the Thunder, the two games at home are already a no-holds-barred situation. No matter if they lose any of the two games, their chances of winning the series will become very slim.

In fact, with a score of 2:0 at this time, according to the evaluations of the major media, the Thunder team has less than 1% chance of winning the Western Conference Finals. The gap in strength between the two teams is visible to the naked eye. The touch can easily change the situation of the battle.

On May 5, the Thunder played at home, and the third game of the Western Conference Finals was held as scheduled.

As people think, the Thunder still can't recover from the decline when they are at home.

Although Durant and Westbrook played successively in the first quarter, both of them scored 12 points in the first quarter, leading the Thunder to score 36 points in a single quarter to take the lead.

But the Rockets didn't panic when they were behind. Around the outside core Wang Chao and the inside core Dayao, they played steadily and gradually eroded the advantage of the Thunder. By the time of the intermission, the score difference between the two teams was only 5 point.

By the second half, the Thunder's score advantage had been completely eroded away, and it gradually became unable to withstand the Rockets' indiscriminate bombing.

In the fourth quarter, the point difference between the two teams went up to double digits unknowingly.

Thunder fans at home desperately cheered for their team, but they could only watch helplessly as the team fell short and ruined the good game.

At 109:95, the Thunder team lost another game, and the total score came to 3:0. This also completely declared the Thunder team out of the Western Conference Finals. Even though the game is not over yet, there is no team in the history of the league that can win The reversal was completed after falling behind 0:3.

The only suspense at the moment is whether the Thunder will be swept out by the Rockets' ruthless 4:0, or will they be able to win the next game at home and keep the team's final dignity?

Faced with the culprit who caused them to lose the finals last season, the entire Rockets team did not have any thoughts of releasing water.

On May 5th, Game 27 of the Western Conference Finals. Facing the Thunder, which had no fighting spirit and fought back completely for the sake of not being ashamed to lose, the Rockets unceremoniously struck out with heavy blows and won in just one quarter. The Thunder were defeated, Wang Chao and other main players completed the check-in achievement, with a total score of 112:94, and the Rockets swept the Thunder with a total score of 4:0, avenging last season.

In fact, last season, the Rockets also defeated the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and entered the finals. The so-called revenge simply refers to the fact that Thunder center Patrick Perkins maliciously stepped on Yao's foot and caused Dayao to miss the finals.

In this round of the Western Conference Finals, Perkins still used the rough defense of last season, and his feet were also not very clean. He obviously wanted to repeat the old trick, but he failed.

On the one hand, it is protected by Wang Chao's knee pads. On the other hand, Dayao has gained a lot of wisdom from a fall, and he also knows that this product is not a good thing. Naturally, he will pay more attention during the game and will not give Perkins a second place. The first chance to step on your feet and hurt yourself.

With four clean victories, the Rockets ended the Western Conference Finals.

In these four games, Kevin Durant, who averaged 31.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, was the highest scorer of the two teams. Although under Wang Chao's targeted defense, Durant's shot hit The field goal percentage was only 43.7%, which was far lower than the average field goal percentage during the regular season, but his performance was still good, especially after he started to use the pick-and-roll cover to avoid Wang Chao's defense, his efficiency rose sharply, and his scoring ratio was 28.2 points per game. Wang Chao with 9.4 rebounds and 8.6 assists is even higher.

Of course, this does not mean that Durant's scoring ability has surpassed Wang Chao's. It is simply because the two teams faced off with too much garbage time, and Wang Chao didn't have enough playing time, so his personal data naturally declined.

(End of this chapter)