Versatile Point Forward

Chapter 418
But to be honest, facing Thunder Ye Feng was still very nerve-wracking.

Although the Thunder is not a hob team like the Grizzlies, they have talent, and the tempering of the past few seasons has allowed them to gradually turn their talent into combat power. The third place in the Western Conference this season is a good proof.The Thunder's three juniors, Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, who have been heavily hyped by the media, have all become or are becoming top stars in their respective positions in the league. The pressure on the Blazers is not small. The difference is completely negligible.

But in fact, the pressure is not too great. Harden plays as the sixth man of the team most of the time. Batum and Hickson in the substitute lineup will not be much weaker than him. It can be a tie, and the only worry is the point guard.Felton is very reluctant to guard Lawson. Westbrook is a higher-level point guard than Lawson. Felton has nothing to do with him in several games in the regular season, let alone Miller. .

McMillan was a little sad about this, and after thinking twice, he continued to let Felton start. After seeing the effect, if it doesn't work, he can use rookie Nolan Smith to consume Westbrook's energy. No matter how you say it, the young man still has momentum. Yes, defense is all about attitude.

Ye Feng didn't give any suggestion, because in his opinion it was completely unnecessary.He knows his good friend Ye Feng very well. Westbrook is the kind of point guard with a strong desire to attack. It can be said that he has the heart of a shooting guard. If possible, he would rather score goals by himself.

In this way, the easiest way for the Blazers is to strangle Durant. If the three young players are on the court at the same time, Harden should also take care of it.As long as other people's defenses are done well, the Thunder can win one or two games with Westbrook's extraordinary performance, but they will never win the entire series unless Durant and Harden can become active again.

Although Ibaka, who participated in the draft in the same year as Ye Feng and Westbrook, is considered to be the Thunder's fourth-youngest player, the Spanish Congolese big man is still just a potential stock. He averaged 9.1 points and 7.5 points per game in the regular season. There is a rebound, the potential is there, but the strength is still a little bit worse.So McMillan didn't target too much deliberately, so what if he was put on the outside?Can you really kill the Blazers?In this case, McMillan would readily admit it.

Therefore, before the first game, he told Felton that he only needs to do his best on the defensive end. With Westbrook's current level, as long as he doesn't kill himself, there is no point guard in the league who dares to say 100 points. If he can guard against him, Felton will be even worse.

Fortunately, Felton is not the kind of arrogant character, he is very self-aware, it is almost an impossible task for him to guard against Westbrook, so he also readily agreed to the coach's request. Arrangement, as long as you try your best to interfere with Westbrook's ball.

In contrast, McMillan was full of confidence in Ye Feng.Although Durant is now the top small forward in the league, in McMillan's opinion, Ye Feng is definitely not bad. The ankle sprain in the finals of last season did not greatly reduce his strength. On the contrary, judging from his performance this season Look, Ye Feng has also entered a period of explosive growth. A quasi triple-double with an average of 30+ per game is not something that can be achieved casually.

At the very beginning of the first game, McMillan was sitting on the Diaoyutai with a smile on the sidelines. Basically, Ye Feng had met his requirements, and it was obvious that Durant was very uncomfortable when he faced Durant head-on.Leaving Durant's shooting percentage aside, most of the shots he chose against Ye Feng were difficult shots, which meant that Ye Feng's existence caused him a lot of interference, forcing him to use some other shots. way to compensate for their own firepower.

But more importantly, Durant's several offenses were all singles with the ball, and Westbrook had nothing to do with it.Maybe Westbrook's only job is to dribble the ball across the half court, then hand it over to Durant, watching his partner and Ye Feng fight.

This kind of situation is also expected by McMillan, because after all, Durant is currently the number one star of the Thunder. It is impossible to completely prevent him from holding the ball. As long as Ye Feng can continue to maintain this defensive strength, there will be no problem. .In fact, it doesn't matter whether it is Durant's singles or Westbrook's singles. The former only needs to let Ye Feng defend, while the latter only needs to guard the point of the ball. It is not very difficult for the Blazers.

Compared with Ye Feng's ease, Durant seemed to be stuck in a quagmire. He didn't expect Ye Feng's improvement to be so great.When facing him last season, Ye Feng still had to rely on the help of his teammates and the team's tactical system, but now one-on-one is no longer a disadvantage.

Originally, in the middle of the season, some media said that Durant was already the strongest small forward in the league after James, and they were very optimistic that he would replace James as No. 1 in the league in the near future. At that time, Durant was still a little complacent.But this match with Ye Feng's real knife and real gun made him realize that he was far from the time when he was the only one out there, and Ye Feng was also a formidable competitor at the small forward position.

After the starting lineup was suppressed, the Thunder did not find a place on the bench.Although Batum and Harden are strictly speaking different positions, both of them are the leaders of their respective teams' bench lineups, and it is normal for them to trade each other.But Brooks ignored Hickson. It is precisely because of this powerful power forward that the Blazers can continue to gain the upper hand when Batum is replaced by Harden.

Hickson scored a double-double of 22 points and 18 rebounds in 12 minutes of playing time throughout the game, becoming the Blazers' leading rebounder in this game.Harden and Batum have almost the same score. Harden has 21 points and Batum has 17 points. The gap is not very big, but the existence of Hickson makes the Thunder's bench lineup blown to nothing. , The Thunder lost 15 points in total points from the bench lineup, which is completely crushed in terms of strength.

Although Durant scored 24 points in the starting lineup, Ye Feng allowed him to use a full 27 shots and didn't give him many free throws.Westbrook scored 28 points and his shooting percentage was good, but he only sent 3 assists in the game, which did not connect the team's offense at all.Basically, the Thunder were powerless to fight back, 112 to 89, and the Blazers successfully won a good start at their home court.

(End of this chapter)