Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 714 Dangerous Situation
The Warriors' usual bench lineup this season is: Matthew Leonis, Brian Shaw, Jude Buechler, Anthony Mason and Moses Malone.

At the point guard position, Nelson is more willing to use Matthew Leonis than Cole. After all, the Warriors lack people who can organize in the bench lineup.

In terms of offensive ability, this lineup is naturally not comparable to the Warriors' previous star-studded bench lineup. Especially this year, many old Warriors have entered the All-Stars, which makes people understand how strong the Warriors were back then. .

However, although the stars of this Warriors bench have dimmed a lot and their offensive ability is not strong, their defensive ability is particularly outstanding.

Especially with the exception of Matthew Leonis, the iron barrel formation made up of four people almost made it impossible for the substitutes of other teams to attack the penalty area. In terms of point guard, it is definitely a huge advantage.

After all, even if the opponent's point guard succeeds in breaking through, the opponent will face the iron barrel array behind him.

For example, McMillan right now, although he relied on his body to successfully break through the defense of Matthew Leonis, but facing the double attack of Buichler and Mason, he still distributed the ball to Eddie Johnson on the outside. Under the defense of Brian Shaw, the strike ended.

This kind of offense has been staged many times in this game. It is difficult for the supersonic team to rely on their personal ability to open up the situation for the team.

In this way, the Sonics, which led in the first quarter, were overtaken by the Warriors shortly after the start of the second quarter.

However, the Supersonics will never just let the Warriors overtake like this, and soon Payton stepped forward in this critical moment.

While Payton's defense is superb, his offense is just as good.

After breaking into the penalty area, a beautiful NO LOOK PASS gave the ball to Kemp, who had already taken off, and Kemp took the ball and smashed it into the basket.

Although Anthony Mason jumped up violently in the air to intercept Kemp, but in the face of Kemp's impact, it did not play any role after all.

It can be said that under the joint impact of Payton and Kemp, the Warriors' impregnable inside defense suddenly became jittery.

In this way, after the two sides returned to the starting lineup one after another, the Sonics had completely surpassed the score. At the end of the half, the Sonics led by 58 points at 54:4.

After entering the second half, the state of the Sonics became better and better, and the game became smoother and smoother, almost to the point of beating the Warriors.

In addition to Ricky Pierce's possession of the ball in the first quarter, in the second quarter, Payton unknowingly took the ball back and organized, while Pierce focused on attacking on the outside, allowing Payton and Kemp continued to attack the Warriors inside.

In terms of the Warriors' interior defense, the starters are not as good as the substitutes, so Camp, who can't even guard against the substitutes, played more vigorously when facing the Warriors' starters.

This time, after Kemp received a pass from Payton, he planned to attack again and bombed the Warriors' basket.

Just when Kemp got the ball and was about to take off, Rodman saw the timing and stood one step ahead of Kemp's take-off route. Kemp had no time to change the route, and even dribbled the ball and collided with Rodman. .

To be honest, Kemp's impact this time is quite strong. For ordinary people, this kind of force is comparable to being hit by a car. It flew out for more than one meter and rolled on the ground.

It has to be said that Rodman's rolling is quite aesthetic, with his back on the ground, rolling, and feet on the ground in one go.

Facing the collision between the two, the referee naturally blew the whistle immediately, and called it an offensive foul, and the Warriors had the ball.

Hearing the good news, Rodman waved his arms, shouted for victory, and kept cheering for himself. On the other hand, Camp, who was lying on the ground, was very dissatisfied after hearing the referee's penalty, and immediately got up to appeal.

It's a pity that he is not the US Olympic Organizing Committee. Faced with such a correct penalty, it is impossible for the referee to change the penalty.

In fact, Rodman's foul was quite ingenious. Kemp played very well tonight, using his physical advantage to score a lot of points, and confused the Warriors' defense.

However, after all, Kemp is just a 22-year-old young man with a very flamboyant personality, unable to control his complacent emotions at all, and Rodman seized the opportunity to slap him severely.

As early as when Kemp was playing in full swing, Rodman had already started to use his brains, and there was no way to deal with Kemp.

It has to be said that Rodman's talent in defense is really high. In just half of the game, he has found several ways to limit Kemp's scoring, and making offensive fouls is just one of them.

Sure enough, when it was the Supersonics' turn to attack again, Payton wanted to make an alley-oop with Kemp this time. Unexpectedly, Rodman came out halfway and slapped the ball out of the baseline, ruining this beautiful alley-oop.

After that, Kemp, who performed very well tonight, has a precipitous decline in his presence on the offensive end. Let alone bombing the basket at will, it has become quite difficult to move after taking the ball.

As early as when Kemp played his best, he often mocked Rodman, but at this time, he had already shut his mouth and kept silent.

The loss of Kemp's impact is undoubtedly a broken arm in the Supersonic offense, and it also reduces the aggressiveness of the Supersonic offense.

However, Payton also noticed Kemp's changes in time, adjusted his tactics with Pierce in time, and held the lead.

After that, they entered the rotation lineup again. On the court score, the Supersonics have already led the Warriors by 10 points.

After entering the bench, under the leadership of Pierce, the Supersonics' bench played a very efficient offensive efficiency, which made the Warriors' bench return without success and failed to close the score for the Warriors again.

In this way, the Sonics entered the final quarter with a 14-point lead.

At the end of the quarter, the Warriors' defense was back on the line. Whether it was a starter or a substitute, they re-restricted the Sonics' offense.

Especially Rodman completely froze Kemp, who was active in the first three quarters.

As a result of this, the Warriors once narrowed the point difference to only 2 points in the fourth quarter.

However, at this critical juncture, it was Payton who stood up again. He, who had never been a good shooter, actually hit a very crucial three-pointer and completely sealed the victory.

In this way, with Payton's outstanding performance of 24 points, 12 assists and 4 steals, no one thought that the Warriors would lose the first game of the series at home.

For a season with three wins in five games in the first round, even if they only lost one game, it would be a very dangerous situation for the Warriors.

(End of this chapter)