Superstar Athletes’ Black Tech Systems

Before the results of the Lakers and Rockets come out, another set of matchups in the Western Conference semifinals has been released ahead of schedule.

After losing the first game and losing home court advantage, the Spurs eliminated the Clippers with a total score of 4:2.

The reason for the Clippers' loss is simple. Paul injured his elbow in the fifth game and directly withdrew from the game, announcing his reimbursement for the season.

Without Chris Paul, the Clippers have no hope of winning.

Although Austin Rivers replaced Paul in the first place and desperately resisted, he couldn't prevent the Spurs from taking the series at the Staples Center.

And just one day later, the Lakers won the promotion at Staples. The fate of these two teams always staggers each other like this.

But for the Thunder and Warriors, whether it is the Spurs, Clippers, Lakers, or Rockets, they are just a passer-by in the playoffs.

The two sides only have each other in their eyes, and they are all waiting to meet in the Western Conference Finals early to determine the championship of this season.

As for the east?

The east is just a knight.

For the Warriors, the Cavaliers are still very worthy of attention.

For the Thunder, Durant and Westbrook must both want revenge on James.

But for Li Liang, beating James is basically equivalent to winning the championship.

After all, the three championships were won by stepping on James' corpse.

James is indeed the strongest opponent Li Liang has ever encountered.

But when encountering the strongest, Li Liang himself can always become the strongest (open cheating).

The time suddenly arrived in May, on May 1st, the Western Conference semifinals, the first game between the Thunder and the Lakers was played in Oklahoma City.

At this time, just one day has passed since the end of the Lakers' first-round series, and the Thunder have been rested for a week.

The Lakers are a little tired, but the players are in a tight game state.

The Thunder players have plenty of physical fitness, but the problem is that their bodies may not be in the game.

The game started at 7 o'clock in the evening, and the first quarter proved that a long rest is not necessarily a good thing for players.

The Lakers beat the Thunder 7:0 at the start, leading the Thunder by 5 points at 25:20 in the first quarter.

Li Liang came off the bench in the middle of the first quarter, but he couldn't completely turn the situation around, because his own state was so-so.

He missed two three-pointers from the outside and made two pass errors.

The Lakers team is in good shape, and Leonard is in good shape after the first round of fierce battle.

Scored 11 points in the first quarter, shooting 100 percent.

One of the important reasons is that Scott no longer allows Leonard to defend Li Liang, and Li Liang's main defense has become another person-Kobe.

That's right, Scott also had the heart to ask Kobe, who was about to retire, to guard Li Liang, who was one size bigger than himself.

Of course, Kobe did not defend alone, but the whole team defended Li Liang together, and Leonard was required to match up with Robertson in the defense-then basically he would have no pressure to defend alone.

Then Kobe faced Li Liang and asked Love to defend Durant, and Leonard was asked to help defend Durant or Li Liang.

This trick really played a certain role in the first quarter.

Kobe can indeed defend against strikers who are one size bigger than himself. For example, defending James is what Kobe often does.

In the case of concentration, his positioning and prediction are top-notch.

As long as Li Liang gets the ball, Kobe will entangle him, and then Leonard and Hibbert will wait for the opportunity.

Throughout the first half, Scott's defensive matchup really worked. In addition, the team felt good. The Lakers also led the Thunder by 4 points in the first half, and the two sides reached 49:45.

This score is also low enough.

At halftime, Donovan knew an adjustment had to be made.

The Lakers' defensive style of play is really something, giving full play to Leonard's defensive advantages and making up for Hibbert's bulkiness to a certain extent. And let Leonard have more energy to handle the ball on the offensive end.

The disadvantage of this defense is also obvious, that is, if Li Liang and Durant start unlimited singles, and the two connect, Leonard will be at a loss.

For the Thunder, the top priority is to get Durant and Li Liang back to shooting form.

Both shot badly in the first half. Li Liang made 1 of 4 three-pointers and Durant made 0 of 3 shots.

I rested at home for a week, not knowing why I went every day.

Whether it is Kobe defending Li Liang or Love defending Durant, they are all misplaced.

Li Liang has advantages in height and strength over Kobe, and Durant has advantages in speed and flexibility over Love.

Neither of them used these two advantages well in the first half, but they played not very smartly.

Donovan severely criticized the two in the locker room and asked them to play more flexibly in the second half.

Li Liang didn't refute anything this time. He knew that Donovan was right. He did play a little rigidly in the first half. This was not his style, but Kobe's.

Could it be that because of being defended by him, he was pulled to the same level?

Probably.

After the start of the second half, Li Liang started directly.

This pseudo-sub is no longer disguised.

To be honest, the Thunder don't have any special tactics and routines in offense.

When you have Li Liang and Durant at the same time, just let them handle the ball.

As for Westbrook, he's absolutely at his best when he's there as a supplement and not making him the CPU.

Before serving, Li Liang and Durant discussed the tactics, and after deciding, they both nodded and devoted themselves to the third quarter.

The routine discussed by the two is also very simple-pick and roll.

No team in the league can handle Durant-Li Liang's pick-and-roll.

To crack their pick-and-roll style of play requires the joint efforts of the strikers.

Only the Warriors have reached the standard in the league, and the Cavaliers have barely reached the standard.

As soon as the second half came up, Durant held the ball, and Li Liang made a pick-and-roll and cut outside.

Love was directly blocked, and it was impossible for Kobe to switch to Durant.

The middle is wide open, Leonard comes to help defend, and Durant passes the ball to Robertson in the bottom corner-this may be the biggest offensive weakness of the Thunder.

But Robertson made a decisive shot in front of the huge open space and hit a three-pointer!

When Robertson began to hit three-pointers, the Thunder's offense showed recovery.

Then on the defensive end, the Thunder began to increase their intensity.

If the Thunder's offense does not need to be tuned, then their defense is built by Donovan and Mike Brown, which is the foundation of their championship.

The key to the Thunder's defense is Li Liang, Durant and Robertson.

All three are tall forwards, with tall arms and long arms, excellent mobility, assist defense, single defense, and blocking positions. Each has its own strengths and has no obvious shortcomings.

Adams and Westbrook only need to concentrate on doing their own thing well, and these three can almost help solve the remaining defensive problems.

Of course, Westbrook always wants to help with rebounding or something.

In the playoffs, Li Liang did not allow Westbrook to rush to the three-second zone to grab rebounds, and let him concentrate on interfering with the opponent's backcourt from the outside.

The Thunder's defensive line as a whole is in a 1-3-1 form. Adams sits at the basket and can't get out of the hole easily. Westbrook guarded the three-point line, instead of rushing to the basket to grab rebounds to give loopholes.

Then Durant, Robertson, and Li Liang wandered between the three-point zone and the three-point line, constantly interfering and pinching the ball holder.

A large number of pincers, delays, steals, and high-intensity physical confrontation are the foundation of the Thunder's 73 wins.

The biggest flaw on the Thunder's defensive end comes from Adams' poor mobility and defensive choices after pick-and-rolls.

If the Thunder's center is not Adams, but an insider with a stronger mobile defense ability, their defense will be even more terrifying.

With such a defensive intensity, the Lakers quickly couldn't hold it anymore.

If Kobe was thirty years old, he had the ability and wisdom to deal with a defense like the Thunder.

Now he only has wisdom and consciousness, and his body can't keep up at all.

As soon as the intensity came up, Kobe's main control began to make continuous mistakes.

The Thunder took the opportunity to launch a 12:2 offensive shock wave, which knocked the Lakers down in one fell swoop.

Li Liang scored 2 consecutive three-pointers from the outside, and a fast-break counterattack dunk at the basket caused Leonard's foul and made an additional penalty.

One person scored 9 points in a row.

Then in the positional battle, Durant pulled up after the pick-and-roll and directly hit a three-pointer.

In the third quarter, the Lakers stopped the Lakers with four three-pointers.

Scott looked at Thunderbolt's swift and violent offensive, and his mind became a little dizzy for a while.

How to deal with this?