The way of the center

Chapter 100 Malicious foul? (510)

"Even Tim was deceived. It seems that the biggest threat to the Thunder is not the two outsiders, but the center!" Popovich did not expect that Anjie and Duncan would score the first goal after the matchup. Most of Anjie's previous games were assisting Durant and Westbrook, and rarely scored more than 20 points, but this does not mean that Anjie's offensive ability is inferior to those two!

After hitting Duncan, the expressionless No. 21 player finally leaned against Anjie and received a pass from Tony Parker in the penalty area, ready to fight back!

An Jie immediately supported Duncan's back vigorously, but Duncan had no intention of winning by brute force at all.Duncan skillfully turned around and raised his hand to throw the ball.Anjie tried his best to block, but still failed to prevent Duncan from shooting the basketball.

Seeing this action, all the fans cheered in advance.

"Duncan's 45-degree angle is still so efficient." Kenny Smith shook his head. The Thunder's No. 16 center has already defended very well. Unfortunately, he is facing a desperately stable player. Duncan.

There are no fancy moves, no impenetrable feints, and no absolute power collisions. Duncan used such an unpretentious method to score simply.This is how Tim Duncan plays, and this is how the San Antonio Spurs play.

This seemingly simple and basic scoring method requires solid basic basketball skills to reach Duncan's level.However, in the current league, few people can do this.

After the goal, Duncan still had no expression and no provocation. He quickly turned around and ran back to his own half, without wasting a second of time to return to defense.He is like a robot, completing his task, and then ready to complete his next task.

This game did make many viewers choose to switch channels. In addition to the Spurs playing a slow-paced offensive, the young Thunder led by Jeff Van Gundy also played a defensive offensive.Repeated pick-and-rolls, splits, inside cuts, tireless patient conduct, the Thunder are not Thunder at all, and the slow pace they created with the Spurs has nothing to do with the word Thunder.

"Angie handed the ball to Joe Smith, and Smith handed the ball to Westbrook who cut inside. Westbrook retreated outside the three-point line when he saw no chance. He called a pick-and-roll, Anjie's screen quality is very high, and Westbrook's mid-range shot! Good shot." Even Kenny Smith, who was commentating the game off the court, was also made more and more mechanical by this rhythm.

"Oh! Come on! Run! You fucking speed up!" Suddenly!Charles Barkley's yell startled the drowsy audience.

"What are you doing Charles?" Kenny Smith couldn't understand what Barkley's words had to do with the game on the court.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm so excited, the football game over there is so exciting. Why, you are still watching the Spurs and Thunder? You are so boring." Barkley's words made everyone very excited. I'm ashamed, but I have to admit that at least the audience was lifted up by his nonsensical yelling.

The dull game of these two teams may only be comparable to the game video that existed in black and white film in the 50s.Although the Thunder also focus on positional offense, their pace is not that slow.But now with the Spurs' iron barrel defense, the Thunder's one-stroke attack has decreased a lot, and the patient's conduction and pick-and-rolls have increased a lot.

Durant and Anjie are okay, but Westbrook is tortured to death by this rhythm.If he can't rush, Westbrook will lose one of his favorite offensive methods.

Taking a position near the three-second zone, Duncan repeated his offensive style.This time Duncan wanted a deeper position, so Duncan didn't shoot again after receiving the ball, but chose to hook directly.It's still an ordinary offense, but the efficiency is still very high.

Back-to-back with the young and victorious An Jie?Duncan is not stupid. Young people have many shortcomings, but they do not lack strength.

Even though both sides deployed the second team, the tempo still didn't increase much.Charles Barkley hadn't said a word for several minutes, and maybe only San Antonio could stand a game like this.

The two sides are consuming each other with positional warfare. Jeff Van Gundy is not in a hurry, and Popovich is even more calm.When the first quarter ended, no one was able to widen the point difference. 28 to 25, the Spurs have a slight three-point lead.

As soon as the second quarter came up, the three young men of the Thunder were full of energy, while Duncan and Parker of the Spurs had to rest off the court.Ginobili led the second team to attack the Thunder's hinterland, but without the advantage of the inside line, the Spurs' offensive efficiency dropped significantly.

After entangled with Duncan for a quarter, Anjie was handy in the face of the Spurs' backup center Kurt Thomas.

Young point guard George Hill, who is at the same level as Anjie, is still unable to organize the Spurs' exquisite offense. Defensive giant Bruce Bowen has almost no ability to attack one-on-one. Apart from open three-pointers, Bonner can also There is almost no second way to score, and when Kurt Thomas faced Anjie's defense, he couldn't even do a good job of positioning.

There is no way, Ginobili began to change the rhythm of the ball, he wants to single Westbrook!

weird!Here's Westbrook's assessment of Ginobili's pace with the ball.Otherwise, can this guy be called a "demon knife"?Cunning, irrational, Ginobili handles the ball, either turnovers or points, high risk, but also very rich rewards.

Suddenly to the left!Westbrook followed immediately, but before he took a step, Ginobili changed hands behind his back and rushed to the right.

Naturally, Westbrook cannot be passed so easily. Although Ginobili's change of direction was very sudden and fast, Westbrook still did not lose his defensive position.

But the Spurs are not the kind of team that will pull out the singles for the star. Westbrook was so attracted by Ginobili's dribbling that he didn't realize that Bonner's pick-and-roll was in place.

"Bang!" Westbrook followed and suddenly hit the wall, Ginobili took the opportunity to start and plunged into the inside line!

Facing An Jie who opened his hands, Ginobili did not slow down.He holds the ball with both hands, ready to take three steps and layup!
Ginobili held the ball to the left, and Anjie immediately moved his feet to block it. Unexpectedly, in the next step, Ginobili pulled the ball to the right by a large margin, a European step with perfect rhythm and range basket!An Jie, who was shaken away, failed to block the ball, and the demon knife exuded its own sharpness!
"Manu played the ball beautifully. He taught the two freshmen of the Thunder a good lesson. With a unique sense of space, he may be the most entertaining person in the Spurs!" Finally, Ken Ni. Smith can use the word "spectacular" to this game.

Although Ginobili came off the bench, his explosion is definitely the key to the Spurs' victory. His performance will directly determine how far the Spurs can go.

Although Bowen's playing made Durant very uncomfortable, George Hill and Kurt Thomas allowed Anjie and Westbrook to score a lot of points.

"This kid." Off the court, Duncan felt that Anjie had exceeded his expectations. Not only did he have rich offensive methods, but his ability to read the game was not in line with his age and position. This also caused Anjie to rarely Make mistakes on the court.Seeing this, Duncan couldn't help but twitched his lips, there was another powerful opponent.However, in the eyes of outsiders, Duncan's expression is more like a sudden facial cramp.
With Tony Parker and the rest of the starters on the floor, Duncan remained on the bench.Like Jeff Van Gundy, Popovich is very strict about the team's rotation time.Appropriate rotation and smart rotation are also the basis for this group of old guys to maintain a high appearance rate.

Although the guard combination of Parker and Ginobili improved the Spurs' offense a lot, but when they were completely at a disadvantage inside, the Spurs not only failed to widen the point difference, but were overtaken by the Thunder by four points.

The Spurs' offense remained the same. Parker used Thomas' pick-and-roll to break through. Westbrook's ability to defend the pick-and-roll obviously needs to be improved. This time, the French sports car easily wiped him out.

Tony Parker didn't throw the shot this time because he didn't adjust his own rhythm, and he never did anything he wasn't sure about.

An Jie saw that Parker was getting closer and closer to him. Could it be that he wanted to layup directly?
Parker jumped up. Although there was a huge difference in height, Anjie didn't dare to neglect, and tried his best to take off and block the shot.

Parker's shot was very smart. He deliberately leaned on An Jie when he was laying up, but he obviously miscalculated An Jie's strength and strength.And An Jie exerted too much force because of blocking with all his strength.Tony Parker lost his center of gravity in the collision, and threw the basketball up indiscriminately when it was almost parallel to the ground.At the same time, the referee blew his whistle in time to indicate that Anjie had fouled.

For this kind of shot, An Jie never thought that Parker could score him.But beyond everyone's expectations, Parker's basketball, which he lost all balance and shot randomly, fell into the net with precision.

Tony Parker got up and limped to the free throw line. Popovich's eyes immediately changed!
"Not good!" Popovich stood up suddenly, and sure enough, Parker's penalty did not hit, Popovich quickly called Thomas to intentionally foul, creating a dead ball opportunity to replace Parker.

"We saw Parker limping off the field. Did he get injured in the confrontation with Anjie just now?" Kenny Smith naturally noticed something strange, and the director also gave Parker and Anjie just now based on Kenny's explanation. A replay of Jay's confrontation.

After Parker was knocked into the air by An Jie's sudden force, he lost his center of gravity and landed on his foot first, and this foot became the only supporting point for Parker, who was stumbling around.Due to having to bear the weight of his entire body, Parker's ankle was bent at a terrible angle, which was quite a twist!

After a brief inquiry, Popovich immediately asked two staff members to help Parker walk to the player tunnel.Immediately, the fans in the ATT Center exploded, frantically booing An Jie who caused Parker's injury.

"You dirty bastard!"

"This is a flagrant foul! Are you blind, the referee!?"

"This kind of person should be sent off!"

It is true that An Jie defended the ball very toughly, but if he wanted to intentionally injure his opponent, that was something An Jie would never do.

What's more, Parker couldn't stabilize the ball when it landed on the ground, and An Jie didn't put his own feet on it.But in the hearts of the Spurs fans, that fierce collision was already very outrageous!At this moment, they seemed to have forgotten how Bowen in his team defended others.

Tony Parker was injured, and Popovich had to bring Duncan up. If Ginobili was alone, it would be difficult to stabilize the situation.This variable completely disrupted his plan.

The Spurs, short of major generals, and their unbreakable system seemed to make Jeff Van Gundy see a gap.

(End of this chapter)