NBA: Starting with Jokic template

Chapter 201: Eight blocks in a single game, see you at home!

Seeing that he was about to play, Ibaka was still daydreaming. Lin Chuan had no choice but to suppress his disgust and turned around to elbow Ibaka lightly.
"It's time to go on stage, buddy, stop daydreaming."

Ibaka was in a daze and only came to his senses when he heard the word "play".

He made a bitter face, feeling miserable.

The feeling just now was almost like eating shit. If it hadn't happened before the game, he would have quit if it was a training session, but now he had to play.

"Fuck, I'm still kind of devastated right now, man."

"I know, but wait until after the game to break down. I don't have time now."

Everyone stood on the field again.

The boos from the fans on the sidelines no longer meant much to them. Instead, Lin Chuan could use their noise to get himself into the game faster.

For this game, TNT started broadcasting live without a doubt.

The guests of this game were Lin Chuan's old acquaintance, Charles Barkley, and his old partner, Kenny Smith.

"Hey, audience friends, long time no see. This time, Barkley and I will commentate on this game for you. As the first game after the Thunder lost, we are very curious about how the Thunder will perform in this game."

Kenny Smith smiled and said,

"I don't know if the Thunder knew shame and then became brave, and after losing the next game, they woke up in this game and showed their true strength to defeat the Spurs, or if it was like their Achilles' heel was discovered, and after their weakness was discovered, they started losing frequently and were eliminated when we least expected it."

Barkley also nodded.
"Yes, but in the past few games, the Spurs have indeed shown us their unique temperament. They are not afraid even when facing the strongest team in the league. At present, only they can force the Thunder to this point. Even if they lost the first two games, they fought until the last minute. In the last game, they directly defeated their opponents. This combination of the elderly GDP and Popovich is really scary. After dominating the league for so many years, they still have the momentum to pull them down and ascend the throne again when facing the new king."

Kenny Smith replied,

"Yes, although most of the responsibility for the last game lies with Durant, who played badly, even in the second game, he gave his all and scored 49 points in a single game, but he still almost lost to the opponent. I can only say that the strength of the Spurs may be beyond our imagination. They also proved that although this Thunder team is very strong, their strength has been weakened a lot after losing Westbrook. At least they are not an invincible team."

Buckley laughed.
"Look at what you said. The more you talk about it, the more I look forward to this game. But I'm more curious about how Durant will perform in this game after the loss in the last game, and whether Lin Chuan, who has always been the core of the team, can contribute another 40+ game to us."

"Then let's wait and see!"

While the two were talking, the game had already begun.

In the jump ball session, Duncan won again and passed the ball to his own backcourt.

In the frontcourt, the Thunder's familiar but headache-inducing conduction strikes again.

After a few passes, Dio began to move away, but Ibaka did not follow him closely. Instead, he stood on the edge of the penalty area, wondering what he was thinking.

Seeing the opportunity, his teammates immediately passed the ball to Dio.

With no one in front of him, he broke through with the ball, ready to launch an attack.

Rushing into the three-point line, Dio ran recklessly and made a layup directly.

The defender under the basket was Ibaka, and Dio jumped up to prepare for a layup under the confrontation.

But who would have thought that Ibaka had no urge to jump at all.

The league's former block leader stood still, with his legs slightly bent, not even preparing to jump, and watched Dio move up so easily.

Even Dio himself was a little confused and didn't know what was going on with Ibaka.

But since he is so slow, the Spurs decided to take advantage of him and kill him.

In the following attacks, they also took the initiative to find this player who can be called a defensive stalwart.

Go call on Ibaka to attack.

It sounds very humorous, choosing the opponent's defensive elite to play against, but the result is unexpectedly good.

In the first quarter, they relied on this tactic to establish a 10-point advantage over the Thunder.

"Eh? Following Durant in the last game, Ibaka also seemed to be in a trance in this game. Look, the guy is right in front of his face, but he doesn't even bother to intervene. I don't know what he's thinking."

Seeing Ibaka's abnormal behavior, Kenny Smith was also a little confused.
"Have these players lost their ability to play basketball since arriving in San Antonio? And is this inability to play basketball contagious? One game at a time?"

Barkley was also confused. In his mind, even if Ibaka could not win the DPOY award, he was still a leader in defense at the power forward position. He was often sent to defend the opponent's inside and forward offensive core. However, his performance in this game was too abnormal. He looked at Ibaka, who was replaced by Brooks who couldn't bear it anymore, and expressed his guess.

"There was even a shot where Dio was back-to-back against Ibaka. He just moved backwards and Ibaka quickly backed away as if something dirty had touched him. He almost backed out of bounds, allowing Dio to turn around and dunk. Did something happen to this guy?"

"You mean... like Durant in the last game, he was upset by the Spurs' tricks, so he started to play wrong in this game?"

"That's right!"

Seeing that Kenny Smith understood what he meant, Barkley snapped his fingers.

"Maybe he's not a venomous snake, but he's probably been hurt, and it's probably caused him psychological trauma. Otherwise, it's impossible to explain how this guy went from a defensive stalwart to a defensive mysophobia wimp overnight."

"That makes sense. I'm looking forward to seeing if Ibaka will reveal something after the game. I'm even more excited than seeing which team can win the next game."

Kenny Smith nodded thoughtfully. After hearing what Barkley said, and combining it with what he just said about Ibaka's move in the defensive round where he dodged Dio's backward collision, could it be related to the butt?
That is too miserable!!!

Thinking of this, he almost laughed out loud.

It was fun for everyone else, but it was really disgusting for Ibaka.

He was pressed on the bench, watching his teammates' game on the field, covering his face with a worried look.

"Sorry, coach. It's not that I don't want to defend against his back-to-back attack, but when he does it from behind, I think of the bathroom just now..."

"Stop!"

Brooks waved his hand to interrupt Ibaka's complaint and said to him calmly,

"I don't blame you. After all, it's hard for anyone to feel good when something like this happens. After this game, when you return to Oklahoma, you can find a psychiatrist to see."

"Thank you coach!"

Ibaka's tone was full of gratitude.

Seeing Ibaka calm down, Brooks finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Part of the reason I interrupted him to admit his mistake and listened to his complaints and explanation was that I felt it was unnecessary. It was already very difficult for him to insist on playing in the game after being beaten up before the game, so it was reasonable that he couldn't perform well.

But more importantly, he was worried that after hearing Ibaka's vivid description, he would be reminded of the scenes he saw when he rushed into the bathroom. Thinking of those things, he couldn't help but want to vomit. "Yue!"

Before he finished his thought, Brooks dry-heaved, causing the assistant coach next to him to think that he had a stomachache. He waved his hands to indicate that he was fine.

On the court, after replacing Ibaka, the inside player who partnered with Lin Chuan became the old Thunder player Collison.

With this substitution, the Thunder's inside defense became much more empty.

Previously, Lin Chuan and Ibaka divided the work and cooperated to handle the defensive tasks, which was not too stressful for Lin Chuan.

But with Collison in charge, almost all the inside defensive tasks fell on Lin Chuan.

He couldn't count on Collison to defend against Dio or Split, or even Duncan.

He alone is responsible for defending all the opponent's inside attacks.

This also forced him to reduce his role on the offensive end and forced him to use more energy on defense.

"what!!!!"

Lin Chuan blocked the shot and sent the ball flying.

"Don't think you can come in and challenge just because one of your inner pillars is missing!"

Lin Chuan yelled at Dio who was blocked by him, which scared his opponent as well.

"It seems that Lin Chuan is a little exhausted."

Kenny Smith looked at the scene on the field and couldn't help but comment.

"Yeah, after all, the Thunder can't expect Collison, a 33-year-old veteran, to replace Ibaka and achieve similar results. If Ibaka is sluggish, they can only bear the consequences. But Lin Chuan is really fighting hard. This is his third block! And it's not even the end of the first half!"

Buckley spread his hands and said.

At this time, Duncan received the ball in the high position. As Split came on, Duncan moved back to the power forward position. He launched an attack from the low post and then got to the basket in two moves.

Seeing Collison being knocked away and Duncan about to go to the blue line, Lin Chuan had no choice but to step forward to interfere.

Although he knew that once he came on the field, Duncan would most likely take the ball back and choose other offensive options.

But the basketball was about to go into the net, and he had no other choice. It would be stupid to just stand there and watch his opponent score the ball.

Just as he thought, when he jumped up to block Duncan, the wrist that was raised up suddenly changed direction and passed the basketball between Lin Chuan's arms to Split behind him.

“Boom!!!!!”

As soon as Lin Chuan landed and before he turned around, a crisp dunk sound came from behind him!
Damn, it’s true!
Lin Chuan cursed inwardly.

It would be too much of a hassle if one person defends two people inside.

With Split's dunk, the Spurs widened the gap to 14 points.

All the previous offensive pressure was on Durant. Although he regained his form in this game, he did not explode like in the second game. Instead, he maintained his normal level until now, with a hit rate of more than 10% and scored more than points in the first half.

At this time, the second quarter was about to end.

Their plan to get the score within 10 points in the first half seemed to be in vain again.

But Lin Chuan has always been a person who does not believe in fate.

Seeing that the score gap did not narrow, he simply chose to attack on his own.

After a quick serve, he immediately asked Reggie for the basketball, and then chose to fire directly from the outside!
This method of attack saves effort and is also very unexpected.

Since the Spurs had just replaced Split, he did not have the same keen sense of defense as Duncan. When he saw Lin Chuan standing outside the three-point line, he did not rush forward. He was ready to pounce only when Lin Chuan raised his hand. But it was too late. He could only pretend to do so, then turned around and prayed in his heart that the shot would not go in.

For Lin Chuan, making an open three-pointer was as easy as shooting training. The ball went into the net easily, bringing the score difference back to 11 points.

In the next attack, the Spurs repeated the same trick, but Lin Chuan was quick this time. When Duncan wanted to score again and pass the ball to Split, he put his arms together and quickly stopped the basketball in mid-air.

"You can't use the same trick on me twice!"

Lin Chuan gritted his teeth and dragged his heavy body forward. Seeing that time was running out and there were only a few seconds left before the end of the first half, he kicked the ball across half of the basketball court. The basketball passed through the arms of Parker and Leonard and went straight and accurately into Durant's hands.

Durant made a layup and the ball went in, narrowing the gap to 9 points before the end of the first half.

"Huh... at least I have accomplished a phased goal."

Lin Chuan was panting.

He had to take care of both offense and defense in the first half, which consumed a lot of his physical strength, and it was difficult for him to recover in one and a half.

Back to the second half of the game.

Lin Chuan, who obviously had physical problems, started to miss shots on the offensive end and was also a little overwhelmed on the defensive end, allowing Duncan to successfully score a few goals.

Brooks had no choice but to replace him.

But it’s better if you don’t change it, it will be even worse if you change it.

Durant was the only one left on the team, and he had no chance of fighting against this Spurs team.

In the second half of the third quarter, when he was leading the team alone, the score difference increased from 9 points to 18 points again.

While Leonard was scoring 2+1, Lin Chuan came on the court and the score difference had reached 21 points.

At this moment, he just wanted to look up to the sky and sigh, feeling powerless!

Although a few balls were blocked in the paint, it was of no avail.

Even though Lin Chuan has all kinds of abilities, the Spurs are not the Heat after all. The opponent's attention to him is far different at this time. Three minutes into the fourth quarter, seeing that the score difference was still around 3 points, Lin Chuan was also replaced by Brooks, and they declared defeat in their second game in San Antonio.

Finally, with the final whistle, the game ended.

99: 110.

(End of this chapter)