I was determined to be bad, but I went straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Chapter 375 A New Situation (Second Update)
The Thunder are also surprised by the major adjustments to the Clippers' starting lineup.

It's rare to make such a big starting change in the playoffs.

Seeing that James Harden started, Kevin Durant stepped forward and joked: "James! They let you start? Is it as compensation for the last game?"

The referee's whistle in the final stage of the third game made the Thunder extremely dissatisfied.

Thunder general manager Presti protested to the league, criticizing the referee for unfairness.

As a result, he was fined 2 US dollars by the league, which made Min Congda envious.

It made him want to stand up and speak out for the Thunder.

Faced with the provocations of the boss in the past, Harden did not fight back.

Harden is not a player who is good at talking trash.

But his heart also ignited anger.

Just because he doesn't want to talk trash doesn't mean he's not competitive.

In this regard, Harden and Curry are quite similar. Both of them are gentle people.

They will hide their competitiveness in their hearts and express it with actions.

Instead of cursing or provoking others at every turn.

They are better at responding to provocations from others.

Harden knew that Min Congda personally put him in the starting position.

As for the reason, it is very simple, it must be that Harden can break the demons and build self-confidence!
Harden does have some inner demons. In the Thunder, he is the third child behind Durant and Westbrook.

As a substitute and as a support, he knows his position very well, so he is naturally a head shorter psychologically.

And he not only feels short of Durant and Westbrook, but also feels inferior when compared with Ibaka.

After all, that guy Ibaka is really tall, and he would shy away from anyone else.

After coming to the Clippers, Harden found that no one seemed to be the real boss here.

Curry is the No. [-] pick, but he is very humble. You can see that when he was asked to be a substitute in this game, he sat on the bench.

Baron Davis used to be considered the boss, but his ability is no longer the absolute core.

Randolph and Gasol Jr. are both powerful factions, but they don't have the heart and temperament to be the boss.

If you have to say who is the boss, it is the general manager Smart, he is the real big brother.

In the Clippers, it can be said that he can cover the sky with one hand, and the boss must listen to him.

The general manager asked the coaching staff to change the starting lineup, which is a matter of one sentence.

Harden didn't say a word, but Baron Davis stood up and spoke for Harden.

"Keep your mouth shut, today you will know exactly how you lost, and I won't give you any more excuses."

After all, Baron is a well-known star in the league, and his behavior has always been aggressive.

Although Durant is a little handsome, he is still a young man after all, so he temporarily restrains himself from facing the big brother.

After the start of the game, Durant did not restrain himself, and made consecutive mid-range jumpers against Tucker at the beginning of the game.

It can be seen that Durant has a strong desire to attack. He was unwilling to lose in the last game, and the whole team will rebound in this game.

The Clippers' starting lineup seems unconventional, but in fact Harden has started in the regular season.

During Curry's absence, Dunleavy tried a variety of lineups.

These include starting Harden and partnering with Baron Davis to form a bearded combination.

The disadvantage is that they are slow. These two guys are not as light as Curry.

Harden's off-ball running position is obviously inferior, and C&S is not what he is good at.

The advantage is that the impact is strong, and the two battering rams can rush in. The two of them hold the ball and take turns to hit the opponent in a pick-and-roll, which is called a simple and rude one.

Harden is only in the second grade, and his physical strength has surpassed many league second positions.

In the future, he will become stronger and stronger, and his offensive power with the ball will become stronger and stronger.

At the beginning, Baron Davis took the ball and went in, not afraid of Perkins and Ibaka.

Both Gasol Jr. and Randolph have mid-range capabilities, opening up space for the two sledgehammers to rush in.

PJ-Tucker sits in the corner, or rushes to grab offensive rebounds with Randolph.

The entire style of the Clippers, who played with pass and cut before and took a light route, has changed.

It suddenly became thick and brave.

Harden made consecutive kills to the basket in the first quarter, causing defensive fouls by Ibaka and Perkins respectively.

During a driving layup, Harden's headband was blown away, but he still tried hard to make a shot, causing a foul and scoring a free throw line.

The Thunder gradually felt that the Clippers were a bit different from the previous three games.

The intensity of the game has kept up, the offense is extremely fierce, and the defensive viscosity has been greatly enhanced.

Especially Durant, after hitting two mid-range shots at the beginning, his scoring began to become difficult.

PJ Tucker has a very different defensive style than Ricky Davis.

Ricky Davis is a 3D player who just started transitioning last season.

He chose to take a strategic route, defending opponents reasonably through good positioning and early prediction.

Davis himself is an attacking master, and knows how to defend against offensive arrows after transitioning to 3D.

But this defensive strategy is of no use to Durant. His height and wingspan determine that even if you have a good defense, it is still the same as no defense.

So what if you close your eyes, I raise my arm and you can't reach it at all.

Ricky Davis really troubled Durant late in Game [-].

Upper body, aggressive Durant with foul edge action, causing Durant to make a mistake and break the rhythm.

Of course, this trick depends on whether the referee gives face or not. Obviously, at the Staples Center, the referee does.

PJ-Tucker is different. He can survive in the league mainly because of Min Congda's face.

He felt that no team wanted him, and he must be a parallel importer, so he signed it.

I didn't expect that Kong Wu's short striker played very hard, he was like a desperate Saburo.

He was also the core of the team in high school and college, and played the role of MVP in Europe.

When I got to the Clippers, I just squatted in the bottom corner looking for three-pointers, grabbed offensive rebounds, and defended desperately.

His defense clings to Durant like candy.

Tucker is only 198 tall, much shorter than Durant.

So he doesn't try to reach out to block and interfere with him at all.

It's useless, for a shooter of Durant's level, it doesn't affect their shots at all whether there is someone reaching out to interfere.

Tucker's defensive method is to top the plate, preventing Durant from catching the ball easily and preventing him from making easy moves.

Even if Durant doesn't have the ball, Tucker still keeps a close eye on him, never giving Durant a chance to catch the ball easily.

In the first quarter of the game, Durant made 6 of 2 shots, made two mid-range shots in the opening game, added two free throws, and scored 6 points.

At 27:25 on both sides, the Clippers led by 2 points in the first quarter.

James Harden scored 8 points with shots and penalties in the first quarter.

In the first quarter, the Clippers played unexpectedly well and brought the game into a new situation compared to before.

The Thunder are in trouble, they have a new situation.

Cole couldn't help but said to Dunleavy: "Mike, Mr. Smart's adjustments are effective, but we still have to watch the second quarter."

Dunleavy nodded, and in the second quarter, he replaced Baron Davis with Curry and let Harden and Curry partner.

Then, a major inside substitution, with Matt Bonner replacing Marc Gasol instead of Milicic.

(End of this chapter)