Legendary star

Chapter 837 Lost Again

"Ready to play."

After firmly suppressing the Thunder in the first half, Popovich began to be mischievous again after the start of the second half. He first put Meng Xu on the bench, and then replaced Tie with veteran Matt Bonner. Tim Duncan and switch him with Thiago Splitter to try to guard Kevin Durant.

Manu Ginobili, who replaced Meng Xu, successfully propped up the Spurs' offense with the cooperation of Tony Parker, but Matt Bonner was having a hard time. After defending Durant for the entire half, Popovich replaced Matt Bonner, who had a very different style from Tiago Splitter, and wanted to try to use Matt Bonner to defend Durant. effect, but as a defensive player who is not as tall as Durant and not as fast as Durant, Matt Bonner's defense against Durant has no suspense.

So when Matt Bonner's defense against Durant was clearly ineffective, and the Thunder closed the gap down to 4 points, Popovich left his seat and headed to the bench. With a big wave of his hand, he was ready to change players. After Popovich gave the instruction to change players, Meng Xu and Duncan stood up at the same time, ready to play.

"I didn't call you two." Meng Xu and Duncan, who had just got up, were pressed down one by one by Popovich, and then Popovich took another step forward, pointing to Boris Dior and said One sentence: "Boris, you come on and replace Matt."

"Huh?" Meng Xu and Duncan, who were pushed to their seats by Popovich, first looked at Popovich in confusion, then looked at each other, and shook their heads at each other, expressing that they didn't understand. Popovich's substitution.

If the team leads by a big score, it’s fine for Popovich to make such a substitution. The score has not been fully opened yet. It can be said that it is still in a state of anxiety, but Popovich puts both main players on the bench. Now, is this planning to use half of the main lineup to solve the Thunder?

After Popovich made a substitution, Scott Brooks also frowned. I don't know what the old fox is doing. Now is the very critical third quarter. According to the normal rhythm, the first quarter The third quarter should be a desperate battle between the main lineups of both sides, but Popovich put all the two cores of the Spurs on the bench. Is this waiting for the New Year?
"No matter what your purpose of doing this is, the victory of this game will definitely belong to us." Although he is very puzzled by Popovich's "self-destructive Great Wall" approach, Scott Brooks knows clearly The end of Meng Xu and Duncan is undoubtedly beneficial to the Thunder. As long as the Thunder seizes this opportunity to overtake the score and establish an advantage when Meng Xu and Duncan are not present, then the Thunder will have a big advantage. probability of winning the game.

Although the Spurs' defensive level and defensive strength have dropped a lot because of the absence of Meng Xu and Duncan, the Spurs' lineup led by Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard is not so easy. After being defeated by the Thunder, Kawhi Leonard was mainly responsible for limiting Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were responsible for invigorating the Spurs' offense. The Spurs led by Tony Parker and the Thunder dominated by Durant launched a fierce confrontation on the court.

However, as the third quarter progressed, Scott Brooks discovered a big problem facing the Thunder, and that was Durant's physical problems. In order to overtake the score as soon as possible and break the current deadlock, Durant There was no rest throughout the first half, and after the start of the second half, Durant continued to play the game. Although the Spurs did not double-team Durant, from the beginning of the game to the present, they have sent three The players take turns defending Durant. At the same time, as the main offensive point of the Thunder, Durant took as many as 24 shots in today's game. His continuous shots and scoring, and the opponent's wheel defense, are all accelerating and consuming Durant's stamina.

When Durant missed consecutive mid-range shots in the second half of the third quarter, Scott Brooks' face was already extremely ugly. In desperation, Scott Brooks had to trade Nick Collison for Take Durant, rest him, and get ready for the fourth quarter, and replace Kevin Martin with Derek Fisher, and put Russell Westbrook at the 2 to replace Kay. Wen Durant has attacked the core position.

"Durant performed very well today. In 32 minutes of playing time, he made 28 of 15 shots and scored 39 points in less than three quarters. With one full quarter left, Durant's scoring There's a good chance of breaking 50 points."

After Durant was replaced, Kenny Smith on the commentary seat began to milk Durant madly. Although the Spurs' tactics today are very weird, no matter how Durant behaves, they will not double-team him. , But there is one thing Kenny Smith agrees with very much, that is, Durant's performance is the foundation of the Thunder's victory over the Spurs.

When Kenny Smith was milking Durant madly, Barkley and Reggie Miller on the side didn't respond, neither agreed nor opposed, but in their hearts, they felt that Durant won. There is no hope of reporting 50 points. Although in the first three quarters, the Spurs' Durant's defensive intensity was very loose, but in the crucial fourth quarter, the Spurs will definitely strengthen their defense against Durant. The main reason for being replaced by Scott Brooks is that his physical fitness has already appeared, his physical fitness is not good, and the defensive intensity of the opposite side has increased sharply. In the fourth quarter, it is difficult for Durant to continue the previous three quarters. in the play.

Just when Kenny Smith was still looking forward to whether Durant could score 50+ in today's game, the Spurs stud directly after the start of the fourth quarter. In order to strengthen the defense against Durant, Popovich sent a weird lineup of center Tim Duncan, power forward Meng Xu, small forward Kawhi Leonard, shooting guard Danny Green, and point guard Tony Parker, but the Spurs sent this With a lineup, the signal to strengthen the defense is already very obvious.

Contrary to Durant and Westbrook's main defense in the previous three quarters, the Spurs relaxed their restrictions on Westbrook while strengthening their defense against Durant in the fourth quarter.

Meng Xu's main defense, Kawhi Leonard or Danny Green's help defense, Durant, who has killed the Quartet in the first three quarters, has difficulty even holding the ball in front of the Spurs' suddenly strengthened defense, let alone like the previous In the three quarters of the game, he scored like chopping melons and vegetables. As for Westbrook, after being taken care of by the Spurs for three quarters, facing the sudden relaxation of the defense, he also had no sense of touch. Within 3 minutes of the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Thunder Only relied on free throws to get 2 points.

"Hey, Thunder is going to lose."

After Scott Brooks called two timeouts in a row but couldn't stop the Thunder's decline, the result of this game was already doomed, so before the game was completely over, Barkley shook his head, Said a regretful face.

(End of this chapter)