I'm king in the basket

Chapter 398 Are You Reasoning With Monsters?
Harden's combination of footwork, shifting ability and shooting skills is so perfect that it is a nightmare for any player in the league to play against Harden.

DeRozan just made a little movement in the low post, and he was unambiguous.

The varied crotch dribble once again passed DeRozan, Harden found the rhythm under his feet, jumped up suddenly, and hit the shot.

When there is a gap in the skills of the two sides, a one-on-one duel will fully expose the gap between the two.

DeRozan tried hard to do what he called the right thing, and the result couldn't limit Harden.

"Larch, you hit you."

DeRozan did not continue to ask for the ball to attack, but silently came to the other side of the court.

His choice was surprising, Li Xing originally thought he would continue to ask for the ball.

After all, he just hit a beautiful shot over Harden's head.

DeRozan gave up the ball, and Li Xing officially entered the role-the role Snyder arranged for him.

Li Xing took the ball from the free throw line, and the man who defended him was Perkins, who was as calm as a mountain.

However, his strength is far from those of these superstars.

No one sees Perkins as a star, nor does he himself.

Defending Li Xing is the homework he must do, even if it is difficult to complete, he will try to do it.

Seeing Perkins' defensive action, Li Xing already had a countermeasure in mind.

After a moment of movement, Li Xing patted the ball and snatched Perkins' position, and moved forward. The basketball had been lifted above his head.

At this point, there wasn't much Perkins could do.

He could raise his hands straight up, which would have almost zero impact on Li Xing's offense.

Between defending in place and interfering with risks, Perkins chose the latter. This is their home court. He believes that the referee will sell him a thin face.

The question is, will the refs sell to a guy with a serious "You owe me millions makes me so unhappy" face all the time?
The answer is of course no.

As soon as Perkins made a move, the referee's whistle blew louder than a rooster at 04:30 in the morning.

Perkins simply could not accept the penalty.

He just touched Li Xing's wrist, gently, as if stroking his daughter's face, is this considered a foul?
The referee is unreasonable, a foul is a foul, and Perkins can only be angry that he didn't commit it hard enough or fierce enough.

Li Xing floated in the air, and he was relieved when he heard the referee's whistle.

Referees still love him.

Although he contradicted the referee before, the opponent did not target him because of it. It seems that it is still beneficial to curry favor with these people on weekdays.

It is true that Li Xing is a newcomer favored by the league. If the referee favors him, the league will gladly accept it.

However, the league will not take the initiative to convey such a message to the referee camp.

Nor will the referee camp be nice to a guy for no reason.

Although Li Xing usually acted like a jerk, for this group of referees, he followed the principle of trying to please the referees as much as he could, and he would not provoke them if he died. Through the channel of the private team, he formed a very good relationship with the big guys in the referee camp.

At the moment, this relationship helped him get the star whistle on the road.

Perkins didn't understand until his death, why is this considered a foul?

Even in an away game, this level of contact will not call a foul, right?
Li Xing finally made the goal and hit an extra penalty by the way.

Perkins was sweating profusely for his fourth foul.

He is the best defensive center in the Thunder team. If Collison is allowed to match up with Li Xing, among other things, tragedy will definitely happen inside.

Brooks went back and forth, wanting to keep Perkins and worrying about getting his fifth foul.

When the team lacks a defensive core inside, a basketball leader like Perkins is very critical.

Ibaka is a helper defense machine, a shot-blocking idiot, but he can't match up with Li Xing, and his block-blocking ability is useless against this monster.

To confront the Raptors, the Thunder need to find another way.

They couldn't find a first-class center to compete with Li Xing, so they could only consume him as much as possible through the diligent Perkins.

Now, he's guilty of four.

Just a few minutes into the third quarter, he committed four fouls.

This is bad news.

"Don't worry, leave it to me." Harden walked to Perkins' side and said softly.

Despite his beard, Harden is the most approachable of the Thunder's three young men.

Durant is like a person outside the clouds. Although he has successfully portrayed himself as a sunny boy in the past few years, everyone knows that he is an arrogant person who is not easy to approach; Westbrook is a more extreme Kobe, is Kobe easy to get along with?The answer is obvious; Harden is different. Although he often has a poker face, his personality is still easy-going, approachable, and sympathetic to his teammates.

"Be careful, Lakey's help defense is not blocked."

Perkins said in front of Harden.

"I know."

After Harden said, he patted the ball and found DeRozan again.

Harden entered the "slow motion" mode. He dribbled the ball slowly, took advantage of DeRozan's brilliant effort, made a false breakthrough with a tentative step, and then ended the offense with a beautiful step-back three-pointer.

This ball wiped out Li Xing's offense.

Several commentators exclaimed that they were addicted.

"What a good offense, this guy can really hit!"

"Yes, he shouldn't be the sixth man, he can start any team with his strength!"

"The Sixth Man can no longer cover up his brilliance, he will definitely become a superstar!"

Harden took over the Thunder's opening offense in the third quarter, just as he did in Game 2.

The world says that the Thunder have three players, but every team focuses on Durant and Westbrook, and few people will regard Harden as a dangerous existence.

He is the best sixth man of the year, but many people still underestimate him.

The light of Durant and Westbrook covered him, and he was in the shadow of the two giants.

He is only in the third grade, but he already has extremely mature and comprehensive skills.

He has a lot of lethal weapons in his arsenal-handling, shooting, passing and very terrible foul-drawing ability.But none of the skills can match his extraordinary basketball IQ.

Harden has the ability to read the game unique to basketball geniuses. He can quickly analyze variables on the court such as teammates' configurations, habits, strengths and weaknesses, and opponents' defensive formations and matchups.

This is a talent similar to that of a commander, but unfortunately, under the influence of Durant and Westbrook, he can only hide these extraordinary talents in his body.

From Westbrook at the beginning, to Durant later, and now Harden, the three of them took over a quarter of the game respectively.

What about the last session?

Will the three of them explode at the same time?
Li Xing had no way of knowing that the only thing he could do was to block Harden like the other second young masters.

Harden hit a step-back three-pointer over DeRozan's head. In turn, Li Xing made another pick-and-roll, pulled to the three-point line, and scored another three-pointer.

Harden and DeRozan met again,

This time DeRozan is well prepared.

In this attack, Harden took another slow dribble and then swerved past DeRozan.Then he slowed down, as if he was going to pass the ball to his teammate in the corner, his eyes looked in that direction intentionally or unintentionally, but in fact, he chose to go straight to the basket, taking advantage of Li Xing being taken away, Easy on an empty basket.

Afterwards, Harden glanced at Li Xing.

"Humph."

He turned and ran.

This move has completely different meanings in the eyes of different people.

From the fans' point of view, this is a provocation, it's venting out for everyone, happy;
From the commentator's point of view, this is him challenging Li Xing. He is also a 09-level player, and he no longer wants to be overwhelmed by Li Xing.

In the eyes of his teammates, he is just doing what Durant and Westbrook have done. He wants to prove that he, like the other two, is qualified to challenge Li Xing.

In fact, in his own opinion, he was just angry at Li Xing's series of speeches.

He especially hated Li Xing's line "Those three ugly monsters from Oklahoma!"

Don't even look at what you look like, are you embarrassed to say such a thing?

"Larch, I can't bear to change me." Evans threw the ball to Li Xing.

Li Xing passed it to Stephenson again, and his answer was: "You guys just watch."

It is said that it is easier to score outside than inside, which is generally true.

However, if the inside is in a better position, their offensive efficiency is often higher than that of the inside.

Outside scoring is easy because they can dominate the ball; inside scoring is easy because they are close to the basket.

With the development of the times, the single-functional big man can no longer meet the needs of the times.

Li Xing received the ball in the low post, and before the Thunder double-teamed, he gave it to DeRozan who cut to the basket.

DeRozan soared into the sky, like a pterosaur above the sky attacking prey on the ground. He leaned his body, just like Michael Jordan back then, and he dunked, and it was done.

"Where are you looking?"

Li Xing glanced at Harden and asked mockingly.

Harden was distracted just now. He paid too much attention to Li Xing's offense, but forgot about DeRozan beside him.

There is a saying that if you pay too much attention to the stars and the moon, you may miss the flowers on the roadside.

The distraction on the defensive end, coupled with Li Xing's trash talk, has been a lesson from his previous offenses.

All the factors combined together resulted in the following result.

Harden can still break through DeRozan, and Li Xing is not far from the basket.Common sense tells him that as long as he takes the lead and strikes first, Li Xing will not be able to come back.

Common sense is also missing a crucial caveat: "If the opponent has a height of 220 cm, a wingspan of 250 cm and first-class agility, this common sense is invalid."

Harden's European step was ecstasy, and Evans' supplementary defense was passed by him.

Harden tossed the ball with his left hand, ready for a layup.

Then, he felt the shadow that enveloped him.

Looking around, he saw the hunter above his head.

How can it be?

The eyes of the bearded man were about to fall out. Li Xing landed from the sky, first slapped his ball on the backboard, and with his palms together, he grabbed the ball.

Harden felt the impact, his center of gravity was unstable, and he sat down.

Li Xing threw the ball forward to help DeRozan hit the iconic pterodactyl counterattack.

"It doesn't make sense."

DeRozan muttered.

It really doesn't make sense, what reason are you talking about with monsters?

(End of this chapter)