NBA: Starting with Jokic template

Chapter 195: A career night, but 49 points and the sin of losing the game? !
"Fuck! What's wrong with the Spurs!"

Durant didn't understand why his team was still behind the Spurs even though he scored so many points in the first half.

You know, the 32 points he scored in the first half today was his highest score in the first half of the four times he entered the playoffs with the Thunder, and it was very close to his previous playoff high score of 41 points. It can be said that in this game, at least in the first half, he had given it his all! He put all the damn basketballs he could into the basket!

But the team is still behind in the score!
Even behind by 16 points!
damn it!
Even though he played badly in the last game, the team has never been behind by so many points!
What is this! Does it mean that the better he plays, the harder it is to play against the Spurs? Is he an undercover agent for that team?
You know, Scarlett came to watch his game in person, just to see him perform extremely well and lead the team to defeat the Spurs!

But now we are so far behind, isn’t this a slap in our own face?

Such a contrasting performance made him feel angry and confused at the same time.

Has he become isolated from the team? Is he hurting the team the more he takes action?
In the locker room, Durant couldn't help but punch the door of his closet with such force that a small dent was made in the iron door panel.

The loud noise also startled everyone present.

The players also remained silent, watching Durant vent.

In the second half of the second quarter, even though the Spurs' shooting rate dropped, they were still in complete control of the situation and devoured the Thunder.

In this half, everyone gradually lost their fighting spirit after being beaten by the Spurs.

Apart from Durant and Lin Chuan, the performances of other players on the team were also terrible. Lin Chuan finally passed them a few open shots, but they basically missed all of them.

On the defensive end, they were completely outplayed by the Spurs, and Lin Chuan even had to clean up their messes.

Even though this heavy center didn't take many shots, the frequent filling in on the defensive end made him feel tired.

If his endurance had not increased by 3 points to 86, reaching a new level, Lin Chuan would definitely not have had the energy to do more things in the second half.

Seeing Durant venting his emotions, Lin Chuan stepped forward to break the depressing atmosphere.

"Kevin, don't be angry. You played so well in this game. The reason we are behind now is entirely because our opponent played too well."

"Yes."

Brooks then tried to calm his disciple down by admonishing him.

"With a 90% hit rate in a single quarter and a 70% hit rate in the half, even if you put O'Neal and Jordan together as a team, the Spurs will definitely fall behind in this state."

"It's my fault. I didn't think about it so much before and didn't put too many restrictions on the Spurs' tactics, which made them go crazy."

Brooks felt deeply guilty when he spoke of this.

It is his job as a head coach to counter the opponent's tactics.

However, everything has been going so smoothly this season that he has become complacent and no longer has the same awe of his opponents as before.

Even though he was dragged into a critical moment by an opponent with far fewer wins than himself when facing the Rockets, he always relied on the fact that he had two superstars, Lin Chuan and Durant, who were capable of solving tough problems at critical moments, and did not take his opponent lightly.

You know, the opponent in this series is the terrifying Spurs.

The team of the four-time champion team, coach Popovich is also a master of tactics and one of the top coaches in NBA history.

You know, everyone can play in the NBA, and no one is worse than anyone else. Every player who can stand on this court was once Jordan in his own story.

Once it breaks out, no one is weak.

Under Popovich's coaching, making those simple shots is a piece of cake.

This has led to the current situation.

Even though Durant played the best half-time performance of his career so far in the playoffs, the team was still far behind their opponent and was about to enter garbage time.

"It's not your fault, coach. The whole team played such an explosive performance. It's not something that can be dealt with by adjustments before the game. After all, the ball was played by our players on the court. Falling behind by such a big margin only means that we didn't play well on the court."

Lin Chuan stood up and took the responsibility.

As the defensive and organizational core of the team, he allows the opponents to achieve such a high shooting percentage. It is definitely impossible to say that there is no problem at all.

This also made him feel angry.

If they continue to play like this, their DPOY title will become a joke.

Thinking of Duncan's confident and steady victory declaration before the game, Lin Chuan couldn't help but clench his fists.

In the second half, if we don’t win the game, we really have to let him pretend, and that won’t do.

"Everyone, we have to use all our strength in the second half to defeat them."

Lin Chuan's words were filled with a firmness that could not be ignored. His eyes swept across the faces of each of his teammates, finally fixing his gaze on Durant.

Durant took a deep breath, and his fighting spirit was rekindled by Lin Chuan's words.

He nodded vigorously, responding to Lin Chuan's gaze.

"Yes, we have to show our real skills."

Durant said in a deep voice.

In the second half, he needs to show even more firepower than before to defeat the Spurs!

The atmosphere in the locker room gradually became tense during the conversation between the two, and every player felt the impending battle.

Everyone knew in their hearts that the game had reached the point where they had to go all out.

If they don’t close the gap, they will suffer their first defeat in the playoffs!
Brooks looked at the clock on the wall, stood up,
"Let's go, it's time."

As the referee's whistle sounded, the second half of the game officially began.

Standing on the court again, Lin Chuan looked at the lagging score on the scoreboard and took a deep breath.

Listening to the unwavering support of the fans on the sidelines, he secretly decided in his heart that he would use this quarter to catch up with the score.

Then in the fourth quarter, they killed the game and brought a comeback victory to the home fans!

Durant was also moving his body and adjusting his condition.

At this moment, he also felt a different kind of gaze staring at him.

Turning around and looking in the direction he was being gazed, Durant saw the woman he had always dreamed of, Scarlett Johansson.

From her eyes, Durant received encouragement and concern.

He would smile, then turn around and quickly get into the game.

At this moment, with the support of his sweetheart, his fighting spirit increased again!
The first offensive round was still started by the Thunder.

The Thunder still chose to let Durant hold the ball and attack.

Even though the Spurs did not have any effective means to limit this simple one-on-one tactic in the first half, it can even be said that Durant was able to hit every target with just one shot.

But the Spurs did not choose to change their defensive strategy at this time, but still chose to let Leonard defend him alone on the outside and let Duncan provide backup defense in the interior.

This tactic of defending Durant seemed very stubborn, but Popovich seemed to be in control of the situation, sitting on the bench with a calm and composed look.

Because even so, they were still leading in the first half, so there was no reason to adjust. Moreover, allowing Durant to continue attacking could also make him run out of energy until the end, until he could not attack.

At that time, we can restrict the connection between Durant and other teammates, making it impossible for the Thunder to score and win the game easily.

That's what Popovich is aiming for.

After recovering a lot of physical strength during the halftime break, Leonard's one-on-one defense in front of Durant was useless, allowing Durant to easily make a mid-range shot again.

Back to the Spurs, they followed the plan and continued passing the ball to Necedio, who was ready to finish facing an empty basket.

The moment he made the move, he was blocked by Lin Chuan who appeared out of nowhere.

Dio's eyes widened. He clearly remembered that Lin Chuan had been taken away by Duncan who cut inside and pulled away the first time, so how come he came back and blocked him again?

Lin Chuan breathed slightly after landing. He had indeed been taken out of the restricted area, but seeing the Spurs passing the ball in again to play a simple ball, his pride as a DPOY prevented him from allowing them to score so easily.

His sudden burst of power finally allowed him to catch up and forcibly snuff out the Spurs' close scoring opportunity.

The Spurs were not too surprised when their offense was blocked. After all, it is impossible to score every shot on a basketball court, and it is almost impossible to replicate the outrageous shooting percentage in the first half.

After Durant scored another goal, the Spurs continued to play as before.

This time, Leonard's open mid-range shot was once again interfered by the overwhelming Lin Chuan. Although he failed to block the shot, he was forced to miss.

Seeing that both attacks were blocked by Lin Chuan, Popovich became serious.

What he cared about was not that Durant's three goals narrowed the gap to within 10 points, but that Lin Chuan's continuous defense made their smooth offense seem to lose its effectiveness.

Although the pass can still be very smooth, but if the ball cannot be scored at the final moment, no matter how smooth the previous pass was, it will be of no use.

Watch another round and see if Lin Chuan has broken their offensive tactics with his personal ability.

Popovich stood on tiptoes in annoyance, watching the situation on the court.

Parker dribbled to the frontcourt and started passing.

This time, Lin Chuan went even further. He saw through the ball path and intercepted it, then passed it to Durant to carry it to the frontcourt for a counterattack.

Durant's dunk brought his score to 41 points, tying his playoff record and narrowing the gap to 7 points.

Seeing this, Popovich had to call a timeout to stop this kind of everyone-as-a-soldiers style of play.

Now, the situation has changed, and it seems that it is up to the stars to break the deadlock.

After changing to GDP as the main attacker, the Spurs once again started an efficient attack.

Parker's gyroscope layup and Ginobili's serpentine breakthrough still caused a lot of trouble for the Thunder.

The two's offense was also trying hard to pull the score closer. Once the Thunder's firepower could not continue, they would probably be left behind again.

But in this game, Durant was very stable, and he responded every time the Spurs scored.

At the end of three quarters, he had scored 44 points, breaking his own scoring record!

With the Thunder's more ferocious counterattack, the Spurs' lead began to gradually shrink.

The score difference is now 3 points! Only one goal difference!
Come to the fourth quarter!
The pace of the game became faster and faster, and every attack and defense seemed like a life-and-death battle.

The scores of the two teams rose alternately.

Entering the last minute, the game once again came to a critical moment.

The current score is 109:107, with the Spurs leading by 2 points.

Duncan received the ball with his back to the basket in the low post, preparing to play one-on-one against Lin Chuan.

"Do you choose to fight me head-on this time, Duncan?"

Feeling Duncan's collision, Lin Chuan could also understand his desire for this victory.

Yes, they were leading by 16 points at halftime, but now they were tied. How could Duncan not want to win this game!

Duncan did not say anything, but responded with action.

He kept backing down and turned around to make a layup under the basket!
Don't even think about it! Lin Chuan withstood Duncan's back collision, blocked his steps, and interfered with his layup. The basketball spun on the rim and rolled down, and was protected by Lin Chuan.

When he saw the basketball miss and returned to defense, Duncan's face did not change, but he could not help but slap the floor hard, feeling guilty for his soft hands.

The final attack began. Lin Chuan held the ball at the top of the arc and passed it to Reggie who cut inside. He broke through with the ball. He used his speed and flexibility to dribble past the Spurs' defenders, and then passed the ball to Durant who was waiting outside the three-point line.

After Durant received the ball, without any hesitation, he adjusted his breathing and then shot the ball steadily.

The basketball drew a perfect arc in the air and then fell accurately into the basket.

109: 110!

With the referee's whistle and the audience's cheers, the Thunder overtook by one point in the final moments!
With this goal, he brought his score to 49 points!
"Defend! Defend!"

On the sidelines, fans began to shout in unison.

The Spurs are getting a little impatient. Are they going to lose the victory that they have just achieved?

In this game, they were leading the Thunder for more than 40 minutes. It was too unwilling for them to lose at the last moment!

This time, Leonard stood up. With 7 seconds left, he received the basketball, broke through with the ball, and took advantage of Durant's defense in front of him to block Lin Chuan who was closer to the inside.

Instead, he chose to force a layup against Durant.

"Beep--" the referee whistle sounded, a foul!
The whole audience was in an uproar, unable to believe the decision.

But Durant knew in his heart that he had indeed fought.

He suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.

Is the game going to fail because of my failure to defend?

Leonard stood at the free throw line and maintained a steady rhythm. It was clearly a critical moment, but he also inherited the Spurs' genes and was very calm.

After adjusting his rhythm, he took his first free throw.

"Shh!"

The free throw was made steadily and the score was tied.

The fans on the sidelines immediately booed.

But he was not greatly disturbed by him and made the second free throw.

There are 6 seconds left in the game.

The Thunder trailed by one point.

(End of this chapter)