Legendary star

Chapter 832 Change
As the game progressed, after Durant failed in consecutive singles against Meng Xu, even though Durant was unwilling, Durant still suppressed the idea of ​​continuing to single against Meng Xu, and started playing off the ball instead. up.

Since he has played as a shooting guard for nearly two seasons, Durant's off-the-ball running ability is still very good. Coupled with his standard power forward-like height, this makes Durant's off-the-ball running ability In terms of catching and shooting, it is very difficult to defend, and more importantly, if Durant plays without the ball, it will inevitably reduce the time of holding the ball, so Durant can also reduce the number of mistakes when dribbling or breaking through. In this game, only halfway through the first quarter, Durant has already made two turnovers.

Since Durant failed to hit Meng Xu in consecutive singles in the opening stage, this made the Thunder dug a big hole by the Spurs and themselves at the beginning of the game. It got better, but the Spurs are still firmly in the lead, and as the head coach of the Thunder, Scott Brooks, after seeing that the Thunder still can't get close to the score, he gradually became a little anxious.

Originally, before the start of this game, Scott Brooks was still thinking about taking advantage of the home field advantage. After the start of the game, he caught the Spurs by surprise and took the opportunity to open the score. But now the situation is that the Spurs played against the Thunder after the start. One was caught off guard, the first quarter was not over yet, the Spurs had already led by nearly 10 points, and no matter how hard the Thunder tried, they couldn't narrow the gap between the two sides.

And to the surprise of Scott Brooks, Meng Xu, who showed great power in the series against the Warriors, was willing to be a green leaf in the game against the Thunder. There were no shots, and the data was also very wonderful: 2 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. Instead, it was Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard who scored in the first quarter. Crazy shots, the two have now teamed up to score 20 points.

Although Scott Brooks believes that the reason for this situation is his targeted defense against Meng Xu, but Scott Brooks also has some doubts that this is the conspiracy of that old fox Popovich, so that Meng Xu Attract double-teams and create opportunities for other Spurs players, but Scott Brooks did not dare to relax his defense against Meng Xu. The Warriors’ tragic ending is a lesson for the Thunder. In this way, the Thunder double-teamed Meng Xu time and time again. , and then watched the other Spurs players who were open because of double-teaming Meng Xu again and again, making one shot after another.

With 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Scott Brooks, unable to withstand the pressure, called a long timeout. Under Meng Xu's defense, Kevin Durant had no choice but to give up attacking with the ball Changed to playing off the ball, and the situation of Russell Westbrook, another core of the Thunder, is slightly better than Durant, but it is also limited. Shooting has always been Westbrook's shortcoming, especially three-pointers The ball, so when Durant started playing off the ball, the Spurs relaxed their defense against Westbrook, trying to prevent the linkage between him and Durant, while Westbrook was slightly looser in defense, but the breakthrough was limited Under the circumstances, he also began to increase his number of shots, but the result was that Westbrook made 2 of 4 shots in the 1 minutes just now, and the Spurs took advantage of the opportunity to expand their lead to 11 points.

The first quarter of the game is not over yet, and the Thunder are already 11 points behind at home. Such a point difference and this situation are undoubtedly unacceptable to the Thunder and Scott Brooks, so Scott- Brooks had no choice but to call a timeout at the end of the first quarter to adjust the Thunder's tactics. By the way, he also calmed down the Thunder players on the court and let them know the situation on the court. There is no way to continue. .

"I didn't expect the Thunder to play against the Spurs like this at home. You must know that Meng Xu hasn't started to exert his strength yet."
"Whether it is on the offensive end or on the defensive end, the current situation of the Thunder is very bad. It is obvious that they underestimated the strength of the Spurs and today's style of play. Perhaps in their view, this Spurs and last season's That Spurs were no different."

"Reggie, are you saying that the Thunder will deal with the current Spurs according to the strategy they used against the Spurs last season? If this is the case, then Scott Brooks' heart is too big."

"No, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that the Spurs this season and the Spurs last season are completely different concepts. Therefore, the Thunder will have to show stronger strength and work harder than they did in the season before they can win. Spurs, otherwise what awaits them is failure."

While the Thunder and the Spurs were taking advantage of the timeout to arrange tactics and strategies, several commentators on the sidelines also began to express their views on the game. The Thunder's performance today was a bit bad, but Compared with the Warriors series, the performance of the Spurs seems to have improved a lot. When Meng Xu didn't make much effort, he just stunned the Thunder. Of course, this must be the same as the Thunder in Meng Xu Xu put too much energy into it.

After some adjustments, Scott Brooks not only changed the strategy on the field, but also adjusted the lineup. Scott Brooks replaced Kendrick Perkins with Kevin Martin, allowing the Serge Ibaka served as the center and pushed Durant to the power forward position. Scott Brooks wanted to strengthen the Thunder's offense and change the situation on the court by adding a scoring point.

After Kevin Martin came on the court, the Thunder's offense has indeed improved. Kevin Martin is also a catch-and-shoot player. In addition, the Spurs' defensive energy is really limited, which mainly limits Durant and Westbrook. At the same time, there is no extra energy to focus on taking care of Kevin Martin.

Through a wave of counterattacks after Kevin Martin came on the field, the Thunder successfully narrowed the point difference by 7 points at the end of the first quarter. The point difference of 7 points and the point difference of 11 points are definitely two concepts, so When the first quarter ended, the expression on the face of Scott Brooks standing on the sidelines was a lot easier, but Scott Brooks also knew that the more difficult test had just begun.

(End of this chapter)