The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 194 It Really Works
As the largest public facility in the history of the city of Memphis, the FedEx Forum is more of an entertainment venue than a sports arena.

As the largest entertainment venue in the hometown of "Elvis Presley", it has already become the first choice for countless artists to hold personal concerts.

As a sports arena, only a professional team, the Grizzlies, rents this arena.

Therefore, the Grizzlies are happy, and they are all loved by Memphis.

Although the Grizzlies are not as buggy as the Thunder, they made the playoffs in the second year after they came to Oklahoma City, but they also successfully played nine years after they joined the NBA and moved to Memphis in the third year. Into the playoffs.

You know, the Grizzlies are not like the Oklahoma City inherited the mantle of the Sonics, they are a team that has really developed from scratch.

So Memphis fans are lucky. Although the team can't win the championship, they still can't hide their love for the team!

Looking at the hideous faces in the stands, he kept booing at himself.

However, Li Pu was as satisfied as if he heard cheers.

It's not that Li Pu has any serious illness, but the booing in the away game itself is a compliment to the players.

The reason why these fans booed themselves was because in the last game, they hit that crucial tip-up at the last moment and successfully killed the game?
In the last game, despite a cold sweat, the Thunder finally won the game 111:103, tying the series to 1:1.

You must know that the Thunder led the Grizzlies by as much as 22 points at the most, and they were still almost overturned by the Grizzlies in the end. This is really an unbeatable bear!
In the third game of the series, the two teams basically had no secrets, and it was a fiery duel.

Randolph, who performed poorly in the first two games, oh no, it should be Randolph who performed poorly this season, and broke out at the beginning of the game tonight!
Zach Randolph has always been an underrated player.

Especially in this time and space, due to being occupied by Li Pu for 10 years, Randolph has not been selected as an All-Star so far. This year, he is 31 years old, and this season suffered from a torn right inner ligament. Two and a half months, after his comeback, his already slow speed has been slowed down, and his strength on the offensive end has also been greatly reduced.

It can be said that it will be more difficult for him to be selected as an All-Star in the future.

This season Randolph's data has dropped to 11+8, which is almost the worst data except for his first two seasons as a rookie. You know, he has had many seasons and can score 20+10.

However, at the beginning of the game tonight, Randolph felt like he was dreaming of returning to the top, and he almost beat Ibaka to the point of doubting his life.

Gasol Jr. came to the weak side corner and took Li Pu away. Only Randolph and Ibaka were singled out under the basket.

Although Randolph has a black face, in fact, his running and jumping ability is seriously insufficient, which does not match his appearance at all. Instead, relying on his own tonnage, delicate skills, and soft touch, he has become a floor runner. The low position killer.

This is the case at this time. He hit Ibaka with his back, squeezed Ibaka to the basket step by step, and then used his footsteps to cooperate with fake moves to successfully shake Ibaka away.

Then Randolph not only put the ball into the basket, but also caused a foul by Ibaka!
"2+1! Randolph not only scored his 7th point tonight, but also caused Ibaka's second foul!"

In just 5 minutes of the opening, Ibaka received his second offense.

Don't look at Ibaka's dark and tough appearance, in fact, his tonnage is not top in the NBA, and he will suffer when he encounters those meat shield insiders.

And tonight's Randolph is the one who made Ibaka suffer.

"The Thunder team changed, No. 4 replaced No. 9!"

Just as Randolph was about to make a free throw, Brooks replaced Ibaka with Collison.

This is also a helpless move. Ibaka can't guard Randolph, let alone Collison.

However, after Green was injured, the Thunder's substitute inside line was really weak, especially in the playoffs, the Thunder's inside line was almost stretched.

In the previous games, the Thunder often used Li Pu and Ibaka separately during the rotation stage, playing with a lineup of one inside and four outside.

When facing the Mavericks in the first round, this kind of lineup rotation was not bad, but when facing the powerful Grizzlies inside, the Thunder's rotation lineup was a bit difficult to use.

Now that Ibaka is troubled by fouls, the Thunder's inside line is even more difficult!

Sure enough, in the following game, the Grizzlies used Randolph as an arrow to hit the Thunder's vitals at once, allowing the Grizzlies' entire team to attack.

Although Li Pu still guards the inside line, he still loses sight of the other in the face of black and white bears.

At the end of the first quarter, the Grizzlies led the Thunder by 28 points at 16:12.

Such a fantastic start made the enthusiastic Grizzlies fans even more crazy. The noise almost made Li Pu almost unable to hear Brooks' voice.

He could only barely hear something by bending down and getting close to his ears.

"There is no problem with our defense! Continue to maintain a single defense! As for that Randolph, then Russell and James, you have to play more pick-and-rolls and consume Zach on the offensive end! You didn't do enough in the first quarter!"

Yes, this is Brooks' tactics against Randolph.

Randolph is a notoriously strong offensive and defensive player.

His slow lateral movement makes him an easy target for enemies, and that's what Brooks is going to use right now.

At the beginning of the second quarter, because Randolph was not on the court, Harden had no way to implement tactics until the game played for more than three minutes, and Randolph returned to the court, and Harden immediately regained his spirits.

Ibaka returned to the court early in the second quarter, playing only five minutes in the first quarter, allowing him to be energized at this time.

After seeing Randolph come up, in the first offensive round, Ibaka played a pick-and-roll with Harden.

Sure enough, Randolph's slow lateral movement made him not expand the defense at all, but shrunk to the basket after the pick-and-roll.

So Ibaka was released.

Harden didn't look at the pass and gave the ball to Ibaka.

Ibaka, who was emptied by two meters, was not polite, he raised his hand and shot, and the basketball went into the net hollow!
It really works!

In the following games, the two teams were almost in a mutual explosion mode, and the offensive efficiency of both sides was very high, as if neither could defend the other.

This situation remained the same after Li Pu and the others returned.

Until the game entered the last 3 minutes of the second quarter, the situation gradually began to change.

Randolph once again chose to single Ibaka.

In this quarter, Ibaka protected himself very well. Although Randolph chased him to play, he only had one foul in the whole quarter.

It is still a one-stop sequence of backs, footsteps, turns, and layups, but this time, the must-go goal actually bounced off the basket and missed it!
Ibaka received the rebound and passed it to Durant. Durant made a dunk in the fast break, and the Thunder counterattacked and scored 2 points.

But what makes them most happy is not these two points, but they feel that Randolph is finally getting tired!
(End of this chapter)