warrior godfather

Chapter 763

Until the end of the game, the Thunder still failed to complete the reversal and lost to the Warriors 102:119.

In addition to scoring 21 points in the first quarter, Westbrook only scored 13 points in the remaining three quarters. The stats of 34 points are very impressive, but the actual effect is not as great as George's 31 points.

Westbrook's 21 points were entirely given by the Warriors. They did not change the Warriors' defense and had little impact on the situation.

Unless he can shoot the Warriors directly for the entire game, it is a pity that Westbrook's shooting depends entirely on the sky.

When the Warriors made an effort to open the score, Westbrook suddenly misfired. If George hadn't supported the Thunder's offense and kept the point difference below 15 points, he would have been taken away by the Warriors.

But George is alone. The Thunder is known as the Big Four team, but in fact it lacks a real superstar. Gobert can only defend. Anthony is famous. This is a very obvious flaw.

It's easy for the Big Four to abuse food, but it's beyond what they can do when they meet a strong team.

Before the Thunder could beat the Warriors, it was due to the Warriors' weak defense inside. Only Antetokounmpo supported the defense alone, and Looney didn't have a three-pointer. Gobert could rest assured to guard the basket and curb the Warriors' impact on the penalty area.

But this time, as soon as Lopez joined the Warriors, he became the mainstay of the inside line. The Warriors' defense in the penalty area was impenetrable. Gobert only scored 4 points. Below, there is no way to get in.

On the offensive end, Lopez can also open up space, transfer Gobert away, and create opportunities for teammates to break through. The Thunder can only shrink their defense.

But the Warriors' shooting is much better than that of the Thunder, with four outside shooters, they have a lot of openness.

Both sides shrink, the Warriors can punish the short, but the Thunder cannot.

Gobert's pure blue collar didn't shoot. Westbrook and Anthony are not stable shooters. Young strikers such as Huestis and Ferguson are tall and have long arms and excellent athletic ability, but they are not good at shooting.

Except for George who can score and shoot with the ball, the others can only bite the bullet and kill in with the ball.

And George, like Westbrook, can't change the Warriors' defense. No matter how many points he scores, the Warriors will stay in the pit. Unless the Thunder explodes from the outside, the Warriors will not be afraid of one person's shooting alone.

Zhang Yu copied Budenholzer's homework, sticking to the basket and setting the three-point line, just betting that the opponent will not make a three-pointer. Maximize the role of Lopez.

Lopez didn't even need to adapt, he integrated into the team, played 31 minutes, made 13 of 7 shots, 9 of 4 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, scored 20 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 blocks, and many times Successfully interfered with Thunder's attack frame.

In the post-match interview, Lopez praised the internal atmosphere of the Warriors. He praised Zhang Yu and the Warriors players, and the smile on his face never stopped.

In the Warriors, he only needs to shoot three-pointers, protect the frame and protect rebounds. He doesn't have to do other things. He rarely even enters the penalty area.

Lopez is a center forward in name, but Zhang Yu actually uses him as a 3D striker, but the responsibility of the defensive end becomes the frame protection.

This is a waste of Lopez's offensive talent, but it is the most suitable tactic for Antetokounmpo.

If Zhang Yu lets Lopez play low post, he can also play, and even the efficiency will not be bad, but it is far less than Antetokounmpo's threat to the basket.

With Lopez withdrawing from the inside, Antetokounmpo can flex his muscles and no longer have to worry about Looney staying in the penalty area to drag space.

As a result, Donovan adjusted his tactics several times. Gobert sometimes contracted and sometimes expanded. Antetokounmpo seized the opportunity and scored 26 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal, 15 of which were for Gobert. Acquired by Bell when defending outside.

When Gobert stayed at the basket to protect the frame and the Thunder's striker shrunk to help defend, it was difficult for Antetokounmpo to attack and could only choose to pass the ball.

This is the disadvantage of not shooting. When the opponent puts a bunch of people under the basket and completely blocks the penalty area, Antetokounmpo can't attack. Even O'Neal can't break this situation.

Antetokounmpo's scoring is stable, his impact is extremely strong, and he can pass the ball, but when it comes to critical moments, his sense of presence will seriously decline, and only Curry can make a final decision.

In the final analysis, Antetokounmpo still relies on his body. If the opponent's body can't match, he can't defend against it. If his body can match, then he will feel uncomfortable. The lower limit is high and the upper limit is low.

The regular season is okay, you can abuse food. Most of the time, Antetokounmpo has no solution in the paint, but when he meets those strong teams, especially under the intensity of the playoffs, he will play embarrassingly. the match of.

In the previous two games, the Thunder used this method to defend against Antetokounmpo, using a bunch of excellent athletic strikers to fight against each other. Gobert strictly guarded the basket, and Antetokounmpo couldn't get up. Curry alone Score, in the end you can only lose.

Today, all of this is reversed. The only thing that remains the same is that Curry scored a double-double of 35 points and 11 assists, which is almost the same as before.

Gobert is the Thunder's defensive core, but he is just a scope in front of Curry. Curry can get anything he wants, and Anthony's footsteps are getting slower and slower, and he can't guard Curry.

The Thunder have these two defensive weaknesses, and Curry can always score stably and efficiently.

This close to 20-point victory also made those who had previously advocated Thunder beat the Warriors talk.

Westbrook and George both had 30+ points, and the Thunder still suffered a fiasco in the end. If Westbrook didn't feel so good in the first quarter, how many points the Thunder would lose in the end is really unimaginable.

Whether Lopez's deal is worthwhile or not seems to have come to a conclusion.

It's just that many commentators insist that Lopez and the Warriors are not suitable. This is just the honeymoon period when the new aid has just joined.

This is the case with many tank teams. At the beginning of the season, the young players dared to fight hard and were full of drive, and the rankings would quickly rise to the top of the division.

But when their style of play is seen through, they will lose a thousand miles, keep losing, and finally sink to the bottom.

Teams that make trades in the middle of the season also have a honeymoon period. The new players play several games, and once they are figured out, they disappear.

Commentators generally believe that this is the case with Lopez. It is easy for people with a discerning eye to see that the Warriors have changed their tactics, defending the basket, pinching the ball holder, and letting the opponent shoot three-pointers. This is not the Warriors' style.

It's okay to fight like this, but can you continue to fight like this?
These commentators are actually right. Many signings are like this. They play very well in the first few games and can win, but then there will be problems, they will be targeted by the opponent, and then they will not recover.

This is because the traded players have all kinds of shortcomings, so they will be sent away by the old club. When they arrive at the new team, the problems will not be solved. It is the tree that moves the dead and the living.

Obviously, they don't think the Warriors' environment is suitable for Lopez, because Lopez is a traditional big center, and the Warriors play small balls.

However, they ignored Lopez's change.

Just like Zhang Yu's previous life, people didn't notice Lopez's transformation, or in other words, they didn't think that a traditional big center like Lopez could transform successfully.

At that time, there was still the last year left in Lopez's big contract. He realized the change of the times and made great efforts to change his style of play and practice three-pointers hard.

In the last year of the Lakers, Lopez hardly hit the basket, he shot three-pointers from the outside, shot 35% of the three-pointers, and tried to show his shooting skills to the teams.

But no team cared about Lopez's transformation. After the big contract expired, Lopez didn't even care about it. In desperation, he could only join the Bucks with a one-year basic salary contract of 1 million US dollars. He proved himself in a strong team. Just signed a ten million long-term contract.

Even after playing a good season, Lopez was not recognized. When he joined the Warriors halfway, people became more suspicious of his level, and even felt that he would ruin the Warriors' way to defend their title.

In the face of these doubts, Lopez didn't say anything, but he was suffocating in his heart, working harder in training and trying to integrate into the team.

He has been in the Nets for so many years and has always been the core of the team. When has he been looked down upon so much?

But he is very clear about the rules of the NBA. It is useless to say too much, only the game will not lie. He will use his performance to slap those people in the face!
……

On February 2, the Warriors beat the Clippers 21:123 at home.

库里轻松砍下27分9助攻，洛佩斯也延续了出色的状态，拿到15分13篮板3封盖，投进3个三分球。

As in the last game, as long as Lopez is on the court, the defensive end will stick to the basket and the offensive end will open up space to give full play to its advantages.

The Clippers lineup is not complete, Griffin is injured and has not returned, and Tobias Harris leads the team, stabilizing around 20 points, but can't drive his teammates.

Others can't get in, can't score in the penalty area, and can only shoot outside.

But in this game, Zhang Yu did not let the Clippers' shooters empty, but the outside defenders squeezed to cover, trying not to give the Clippers a chance to take a three-pointer from the outside, and Lopez squatted inside to guard the penalty area.

In the last game, Zhang Yu let the Thunder shoot open three-pointers at will, because the Thunder's front line and backcourt were not accurate.

But the Clippers have a bunch of shooters who can shoot, Harris, Lou Williams, Gallinari, Teodosic... these people can't say how accurate they are, but they can all shoot. Zhang Yu really dare not Just put it there and give them a feel.

Therefore, the Warriors defenders squeezed through the upper line every time they screened, driving the Clippers players to the inside. At the same time, Lopez retreated to defend. At the basket, don't even think about taking a three-pointer calmly.

This is a conspiracy to bully the Clippers' masters who don't have the ball to shoot. The only one who can shoot mid-range, Louis Williams, is still a defensive colander, so there is nothing to fear.

The Clippers players couldn't get into the penalty area, and they didn't dare to shoot difficult three-pointers, so they could only take a lot of mid-range shots.

In modern basketball, the middle distance is a low point of efficiency, the income is not as good as three-pointers, and the difficulty is higher than that of the basket. The Clippers' offensive efficiency has dropped sharply, the point difference has been slowly opened, and they finally lost to the Warriors disastrously.

After the game, the outside world's doubts about Lopez finally became smaller.

……

On February 2, the Warriors beat the Suns at 24:114 in an away game.

The Suns' defense was poor, Curry clocked in three quarters, made 10 of 7 three-pointers, and easily scored 31 points.

Lopez didn't have many opportunities to perform on the offensive end. He didn't need him to open up the space at all. The Suns couldn't defend inside, but on the defensive end, he was a pillar of the sky. He scored 7 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks, breaking the season's single-game blockade. Covered the record, and successfully interfered with the Suns players' basket shots many times.

The Suns lacked discipline in offense and defense. Knowing that Lopez was guarding the penalty area, they also had no brains to attack the frame, which gave Lopez a good chance to block shots and rebounds.

For the Lakers in the first half of the season, Lopez stood at the three-point line when attacking, and had to defend when defending. His playing time was also short, and he had no chance to grab rebounds at all. He averaged only 4 rebounds per game.

After coming to the Warriors, Lopez couldn't get out of the hole when defending, which greatly strengthened the protection of rebounds. He rebounded in double figures for three consecutive games, but almost all of them were defensive rebounds.

After the Warriors defeated the Suns, the outside world doubted Lopez much less.

……

On February 2, the Warriors challenged the Thunder away, which was also the last time the two teams played against each other this season.

The Warriors reproduced the tactics they played against the Thunder, defending the penalty area and letting the Thunder shoot three-pointers.

The Thunder repeatedly missed three-pointers from outside, so they had to bite the bullet and attack the frame.

With Lopez and Antetokounmpo working together, the Warriors' defense in the penalty area is impenetrable.

威少神奇不再，15这4，三分5中1，罚球6中6，拿到15分12篮板7助攻2抢断，送出了5个失误。

If it doesn't feel good and can't rush in, Westbrook is really useless.

He is 30 years old, no longer young, and his impact is not as good as before.

George made a ghost, and it was shocking. He made 14 of 1 shots, 9 of 1 three-pointers, 3 of 2 free throws, and only scored 5 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

Anthony was invisible as always, Gobert couldn't score, the Warriors clocked in three quarters, and bloodbathed the Thunder with 104:80.

库里轻松拿到23分，洛佩斯拿到13分12篮板1助攻2封盖1抢断，投进2个三分球。

After the game, the outside world's doubts about Lopez completely disappeared.

Four games, four big victories, the Warriors' inside line is no longer a problem, but has become the biggest advantage. Antetokounmpo + Lopez teamed up, and the Warriors' restricted area is solid and unshakable.

The Thunder, which defeated the Warriors twice before, lost to the Warriors twice. Westbrook's impact was not effective at all. Lopez is a goalkeeper, a wall of sighs.

Bill Simmons said:
"I take back what I said. Lopez and the Warriors are a match made in heaven. The Warriors can now play two lineups of twin towers and small ball. I don't know who can beat the Warriors. They have no weaknesses..."

(End of this chapter)