warrior godfather

Chapter 641 Dream Team

After the start of the second quarter, Durant sat on the bench and looked at the field with a little haze in his eyes.

He couldn't figure it out, even though he was playing so well, how could the Thunder still fall behind in the score?
It's just that it's just behind. After he left the field, the score was immediately opened by the Warriors to 10 points, and there was even a tendency to continue to expand.

In the Thunder's rotation, Kanter is a very important scoring point. His cooperation with Westbrook is the most important scoring method for the Thunder in the transition period, not even one of them.

Donovan attaches great importance to Kanter's scoring ability and specially arranged tactics for him. After he came on the court, he immediately played his role, and he succeeded consecutively on the offensive end with high efficiency.

But Kanter has a fatal flaw, that is, his defense is too poor.

His skill points seem to be all on offense, his ability to protect the frame is almost zero, and he can't switch defenses. It can be said that he is useless on the defensive end.

Clay, who had been silent for a long time in the first quarter, finally had a place to play.

He continued to look for Kanter through the screen. Kanter's footsteps are very slow, and his defensive awareness is not good.

Zhang Yu also arranged tactics for Antetokounmpo. Dinwiddie held the ball outside, and Antetokounmpo first made a screen for Olynyk inside. Since the Thunder defended unlimited defenses, Kanter would switch to Antetokounmpo. In front of Bo, Dinwiddie passed the ball to Antetokounmpo, and Antetokounmpo singled out Kanter. Whether it was a face-up or a back-up, the success rate was very high.

In short, Zhang Yu's tactics are very targeted, that is, to chase after Kanter.

If Donovan wants to use Kanter's offense, he must pay a heavier price on the defensive end. Zhang Yu will not let Kanter idle on the court for a second.

This is the cruelty of the Western Conference Finals. Matchup is the most important thing. As long as there is a weakness in a position, the opponent will target it to death.

In turn, Donovan wanted to target the Warriors' weaknesses.

However, the weakness is not something that can be targeted, the Thunder must have the corresponding ability.

Unfortunately, Thunder does not have such ability.

The weakness of the Warriors' rotation on the defensive end is also the center. Olynyk's strengths are three-pointers and support, and the protection of the frame is relatively average. It stands to reason that he is the type of center that Westbrook likes to encounter most.

However, under Zhang Yu's arrangement, Antetokounmpo and Wiggins both strengthened their efforts to shrink and protect the frame. Westbrook lacked shooters around him, and it was very difficult to rush into the penalty area to score.

Donovan has no choice. The Thunder's lineup has a lot of flaws, the space is too crowded, and they can only rely on the personal ability of the two players to force points.

Durant's main scoring method is the mid-range shot, which has a high tolerance for space, but Westbrook's own shooting is not good, and his wide-open offensive style needs a wide offensive space, but the team does not have this configuration. It makes him have to punch hard for every ball, and the scoring efficiency will naturally not be high.

In the final analysis, this is a team centered around Durant, and the lineup is built around Durant without considering Westbrook's needs.

And Westbrook is a player who must be established as the absolute core. The whole team plays around him, and only by giving him the space to charge can he play the greatest role. Ineffective offense.

Today, Westbrook is restricted.

The Warriors still can't stop his impact, but every time he scores, he has to pay a lot of consumption and the efficiency is very low.

Westbrook is like a lone hero, hitting the Warriors' iron-walled defense time and time again, moving forward indomitable and full of momentum, but the score is gradually pulled apart.

At 7 minutes and 45 seconds into the second quarter, in just over 4 minutes, the point difference was widened to 10 points.

The pace of the game was pushed very fast. Westbrook made 6 of 2 shots and 4 of 3 free throws, scoring 7 points. Kanter scored 6 points, but the two accounted for all the Thunder's shots, and no one else scored.

The Warriors scored 16 points on Kanter, Clay 7 points, Antetokounmpo 7 points, Olynik scored a 3-pointer, plus Wiggins' mid-range singles made two long points, The Warriors led the Thunder by 48 points in 38:10.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Donovan switched back to the main force and replaced Kanter, and the Thunder stopped the decline.

After Durant came back, he immediately turned on the attack mode and led the Thunder to narrow the point difference to 4 points.

With the score leading, Zhang Yu was as steady as Mount Tai, and it was not until 6 minutes and 12 seconds of the second quarter that Curry was replaced on the court.

The offensive and defensive momentum changed immediately. Curry hit the big army and trained Gobert for two goals, and the Warriors regained the initiative.

The game is like this, a team's offensive momentum is like a tide, with ups and downs.

Durant comes on, the Thunder go up; Curry goes on, the Warriors go up.

When both are on the court, it depends on whose teammates are better.

In this regard, Curry is obviously more dominant.

At the end of the second quarter, the score came to 60:51, and the Warriors led the Thunder by 9 points.

Although the Warriors had the upper hand, Durant was in a hot state. He scored another 12 points in the second quarter and 28 points in the first half, helping the Thunder to cling to the score.

But this is not without cost. Durant took 20 crazy shots in the first half, which has already caught up with the number of shots in a game.

And every time he takes a shot, there are defenders in front of him, and there is never an easy open shot, which consumes a lot of money.

When the red light came on at halftime, Durant walked into the tunnel, sweating profusely, breathing heavily, and a look of obvious fatigue on his face.

He was originally a player with weak stamina, but in the first half, in order to attack, he played singles recklessly and made wild shots. Most of his stamina had been consumed.

At this time, Durant has come out of the excited mental state and felt the tiredness transmitted from the body.

He was walking back to the locker room, looking at Westbrook in front of him, his face darkened.

In the first half, Westbrook had 11 points and 5 assists. The data seemed good, but he took 13 shots and 3 turnovers. The defensive end was chased by Leonard and Antetokounmpo. He passed a few good passes to Durant in the opening game, and the rest of the time he was either on the head or sleepwalking.

It was a typical Westbrook-style halfcourt game, with bright numbers, poor efficiency and a messy defense.

But Durant has never been a person who can speak his mind, he will not quarrel with Westbrook face to face, he can only keep his opinions on Westbrook in his heart.

After all, he still lacks leadership. He can only shine on the court as a sharp blade, but he cannot deliver an impassioned speech in the locker room.

On the contrary, although Westbrook's performance in the first half was mediocre, he was full of passion both on and off the court. After returning to the locker room, he immediately gave a speech to boost the morale of the whole team:

"Hey guys, we played hard in the first half, the Warriors just took a little lead, it's nothing, run in the second half, hit a few more counterattacks, we can catch up, come on, we can definitely win! "

His words were simple, but after a fierce half-time game, this kind of confident roar could easily inspire the fighting spirit in the hearts of the Thunder players and make them shout along.

"Kill the warrior!"

"They can only shoot three-pointers, and they can't be accurate all the time. We will fight back and rush to the inside. It will be no problem!"

"Listen to me, when everyone is defending, make a few hard shots, let them make free throws, and not let them layup, they must be scared!"

Everyone was discussing in full swing, and they had already forgotten about the first half of being behind, and Donovan was also happy to see the result. After they had almost discussed, they began to arrange tactics.

Only Durant, who listened quietly from beginning to end, did not participate, as if he was outside the team.

……

After the start of the second half, the passionate Westbrook continued his typical Westbrook-style game.

Originally, in G1 of this round of the series, the Thunder chased the score back in the third quarter. Westbrook made 10 free throws in a single quarter and broke the Warriors' penalty area.

But at that time, the inside combination of the Warriors' five minors was Green + Iguodala, and their defense was top in the league, but their height was limited and their frame protection was weak.

Now, the inside combination of the Warriors' five minors is Green + Antetokounmpo, and Leonard is the best defensive player on the front line. The three of them can help defend, defend alone, and protect the frame. Together, there is no Weaknesses have created the most suffocating copper and iron wall in the league.

Westbrook rushed inside as always, grabbed rebounds, pushed speed, and made free throws. He wanted to use his best method to turn the game into a fast-paced hand-to-hand battle and win in chaos.

However, under the tight defense of the Warriors, Westbrook's impact on the penalty area did not achieve the desired effect, and he rarely had the opportunity to get to the free throw line. Instead, the possession of the ball changed more frequently.

This is the Warriors' favorite rhythm of the game, pushing speed and counterattacking. No team in the league can match the Warriors.

The original Warriors team relied heavily on splash three-pointers, lacking impact and single-point blasting capabilities, and even fast breaks were dominated by chasing three-pointers, which was not strong enough for insiders.

Antetokounmpo and Leonard just made up for these two shortcomings, making the Warriors' fast-break counterattack more three-dimensional and more varied.

In the third quarter, the Warriors either grabbed rebounds and pushed the fast break, or Curry advanced with the ball and directly shot a three-pointer, or Green advanced with the ball and passed it to Leonard for a layup, or Curry advanced with the ball and passed it to Clay for a three-pointer.

All five of the Warriors can be used as the starting point and ending point of the counterattack, with tacit cooperation and exquisite passing.

The Thunder's defensive speed is no longer slow. Gobert and Ibaka are both fast-paced insiders, but in the fast-paced offensive and defensive transitions, they gradually revealed their flaws, unable to keep up with the Warriors' speed, and the score was stretched further and further. big.

Donovan insisted on using a large lineup, but did not achieve the expected effect.

His idea is to compete with the Warriors on the inside and front, and gain an advantage in the penalty area. This is what he can think of, the only weakness of the Warriors' five small lineups.

Originally in this round of the series, his strategy has achieved good results.

Adams, Ibaka, and Kanter are the league's leading interior combination. The key is that they are fast enough. It is rare in the league to keep up with the Warriors' five small interiors, making the Thunder overwhelmed in terms of frame protection, rebounding, and scoring in the penalty area. The Warriors are also the key to the Thunder being able to lead the Warriors 3:1 and push the Warriors into desperation.

But now, the Warriors' lineup has been upgraded. Antetokounmpo and Leonard are far from what Barnes and Iguodala can match on both ends of the offense and defense.

Moreover, Gobert's defense is better than Adams, but he is not as good in offensive rebounds and inside finishing. The conversion of the ball in the live ball state promotes the counterattack.

In Zhang Yu's "new version" of the Death Five, Antetokounmpo's fast break ability can be called the top in the league, combining speed, size and strength, like a battering ram. Leonard is also a heavy battle axe. Coupled with the two longbows of the Splash Brothers, Green also steals two chickens from time to time. With a multi-level, all-round, and three-dimensional defensive counterattack system, no team can parry it.

Originally, the Thunder relied on the inside advantage of the big lineup, as well as Curry's two injuries in the first round, the hasty comeback in the second round, and the favorable conditions for the deterioration of his small play and big ability, which pushed the Warriors into a desperate situation, and was completed by Curry who was 80% in shape. In a comeback, this time, the Thunder didn't even have the strength to push the Warriors into a corner.

In Zhang Yu's carefully crafted lineup, the five positions are all current and future stars. Only Leonard is slightly inferior to Durant in offense, but his defense is better, at least on par with him.

The comprehensive suppression of the lineup prevented the Warriors from repeating their retreats. The Thunder's inside scrambling and unlimited defenses all did not work.

The Thunder are facing a dream team.

Only Durant and Westbrook can score stably, but with more and more indiscriminate singles by Durant, his physical fitness continues to decline, and his success rate is getting lower and lower. Westbrook can only exchange points with the number of shots. Not efficient.

After the third quarter, the Warriors led the Thunder by 94 points 81:13, and the point difference further widened.

……

In the fourth quarter, Donovan gritted his teeth, kept Durant and Westbrook on the court, replaced Gobert, pushed Ibaka to the center position, and changed to a small lineup.

A big lineup doesn't work, so he decided to gamble on a small lineup to see if it worked.

Curry is in good shape today. He has scored 26 points in the first three quarters, more than half of which were scored by Gobert and Kanter during military training. Donovan can't let him continue to score so easily.

Originally, in this round of the series, Curry was troubled by a knee injury and has not found an offensive state. Even the best small hitters are struggling.

It wasn't until the second half of the series that he gradually recovered. He took turns training Adams, Ibaka, and Durant. He scored 5 points in three consecutive games in G6, G7, and G30. In the tiebreaker, he scored 7 three-pointers and scored 36 points. Durant, who scored 27 points in a complete victory, led the team to complete a major reversal from a 1:3 deficit.

But this is the effect of Curry's frequent ankle injuries in the early stage of his career. He played with injuries in the season. Now Curry has not suffered from ankle injuries. He is more flexible and faster. He often takes turns this season. He is healthy and energetic. , his strength far surpasses his own in the same period, and he has reached the realm of transformation.

Originally, Curry had to rely on his three-point sense to be able to train fast-paced insiders and strikers. If the opponent can keep up with his footsteps and cover his shooting space, then he has few options, although he can still score. , but the efficiency will drop a lot.

This is also the biggest reason why Curry began to build muscles and improve his confrontation ability after his failure in the 2016 Finals.

As a guard with a serious ankle injury, Curry's speed is not considered fast, and he relies more on the threat of projection and rhythm. Facing those forwards and insiders who are not slow at their feet, as long as the hand feels a little lower, the opponent is no longer so fast. If he is afraid of his three-pointers, it will be difficult for him to go in, and there are often situations where he goes in for a layup but is blocked.

But now, Curry's speed has always been maintained at the top level in the league. Although it is not as good as Rose, Westbrook, and Wall, it is not far behind. He can eat any insider with his speed.

If you add a little rhythm change, with the huge projection deterrence, all players who are 10 centimeters taller than Curry will only end up in military training.

No matter how good their defense is, under the limitation of height, the speed of adjusting the center of gravity must be slower than that of Curry, and they must guard against Curry's three-pointers, which can only be posted to defend.

And Curry's hand-eye coordination ability is unparalleled in the world, and his rhythm changes like lightning. After a few simple dribbles, he can shake out the space, shoot a three-pointer, or drive straight into the penalty area.

Only those guards with a height of less than 1 meters, sensitive feet, and excellent defensive awareness can barely keep up with Curry.

But Curry's three-point deterrence is too strong. No matter who defends, he has to step up half a step more than when defending an ordinary guard, and he is forced to give Curry more breakthrough space.

Fans often compare Curry and Irving together-not because the two are similar in strength, but because they have the highest level of dribbling and are the ceiling of active point guards in the league.

Many of them think that Irving's dribbling is better than Curry's, because Irving's dribbling is more gorgeous and changeable, and the visual appreciation is extremely strong.

And Curry's most used dribble method is the simple combination of changing direction dribble + back dribble, and he passed people. It seems very simple, as if anyone can do it.

But in fact, Curry can also dribble like Irving, but he doesn't need it.

The extremely strong three-point deterrence allows Curry to naturally have more room for breakthroughs, and his reaction is extremely fast. As long as he mobilizes the opponent's center of gravity through simple rhythm changes, he can complete the breakthrough, saving time and effort, and is completely unnecessary. Requires overly flamboyant dribbling.

In the first three quarters, Curry trained Gobert and Kanter in the military. They all used very simple changes of direction, crotch, and back dribbling to create space. It seemed that they scored lightly.

He is not like Durant, who stands up to the defense of the Warriors' front line and makes a jumper. With long legs, he twists his body and breaks through to the inside. .

It wasn't until the fourth quarter, when Donovan changed to a small lineup, that Curry told the world why he was the unanimous mvp, a three-time champion, and No. 1 in the league, while Durant was not.

……

The Thunder still kept their main players on the field during the transitional period. Against the Warriors' rotation, they quickly narrowed the point difference to only 6 points.

At this time, the fourth quarter lasted 8 minutes and 04 seconds, and the score was 100:94. Zhang Yu no longer held back, called a timeout, and replaced the dead five.

The Warriors attacked, Curry and Antetokounmpo picked and rolled, Ibaka switched defenses, and Bigobel stepped back a little to guard against Curry's breakthrough.

The last time he single-handedly defended Curry was in the playoffs of last season. When the two teams played against each other in the regular season, Zhang Yu did not arrange targeted tactics, and the Thunder did not play a small lineup. Ibaka had already forgotten to single-handedly defend Curry. feeling.

After Curry took the ball, he was stunned for a moment, and then made a tentative step. Ibaka stepped back half a step. Curry pulled up and shot.

"Yeah!!"

Amid the cheers of the audience, Curry, with his braces in his mouth, looked at Ibaka suspiciously before running back to the backcourt.

He didn't expect that Ibaka would give him so much shooting space.

In the next round, Westbrook hit the Warriors' penalty area. Green, who had just played, had plenty of physical energy and was in place in time to help defend, which interfered with Westbrook's shooting and protected the rebound.

Looking back, Curry and Antetokounmpo picked and rolled, chasing Ibaka to play.

Ibaka didn't dare to let Curry shoot again, and the memories of the past swept over him, making him dare not be negligent.

Curry took a look at Ibaka's position. First, he changed direction in front of his body, then dribbled the ball under his crotch, took a step back, dribbled the ball in a levitation, and looked up at the frame.

Afraid of Curry's shot, Ibaka took a small step forward to block Curry's shooting space. Curry took a step forward to the right and dribbled the ball behind his back. The ball was passed to his right hand and wiped from Ibaka's left side. past.

Ibaka hurriedly turned around and chased after him, but the distance between him and Curry was too close, he turned around in a hurry, staggered, and fell behind Curry by a body, and could only watch Curry rush into the inside line from behind, fake fax Shot, shook Gobert away, picked the basket successfully, 105:94.

"Beautiful! Curry's combo is really smooth and smooth. Ibaka defended Curry for two consecutive rounds, and Curry scored easily. If the small lineup has no effect, the Thunder will almost explain it." Ke Fan loudly Praise.

He is a well-known Warriors fan, but due to his status as a commentator, he cannot obviously favor the Warriors, but the joy in his voice is very obvious.

In the next round, Durant singled Leonard, hit the iron with a mid-range shot, and Antetokounmpo grabbed a rebound.

During the transition period, Durant faced Wiggins and scored in consecutive singles, but it also aggravated the physical exertion. It was replaced by Leonard, who had rested for nearly 10 minutes, and couldn't move anymore.

Antetokounmpo passed the pass to Curry, and Curry pushed for a fast break. The Thunder's small lineup retreated in time, and they could only fight on the ground.

Coincidentally, Durant was facing Curry, and Antetokounmpo wanted to come up to cover Curry, but Curry waved him down.

Facing Durant, he stepped on small steps, changed directions in front of his body, handed the ball to his right hand, and made a gesture to break through on the right. Durant took a small step back, Curry suddenly retreated to collect the ball, raised his hand and threw it A three-pointer.

Durant pounced, but was a little slower. He didn't cover Curry's shot. The basketball crossed a high arc and fell into the net, 108:94.

The difference is a thousand miles away. Durant's defense has no problems, but because of his high center of gravity, his reaction is a few tenths of a second slower than Curry's, and this few tenths of a second gap is enough for Curry to complete a three-point shot .

"Good shot! Curry scored 2 points in a row in 8 minutes, and the point difference was pulled away. The explosive power of this score is really terrifying!" Yang Yi said.

Ke Fan's laughter could no longer be concealed:

"Haha, it was Durant's indiscriminate singles before, and now it's Curry's indiscriminate singles. Curry is in Durant's best field, beating Durant!"

(End of this chapter)