The Way of the Center

Even though An Jie hoped that such a beautiful night would never pass, it was just a wish. [No Pop-up Novel Network] Time, it will never show mercy.

After Christmas Day, the festive atmosphere in the whole of the United States is still very grand. The streets are full of Christmas trees, and people are crazy about shopping in shopping malls taking advantage of Christmas discounts.

However, there are also some professions that cannot enjoy too long holidays during such festivals, and professional players are undoubtedly one of the professions that cannot take a break.

The fatigue of the Thunder team has been fully exposed before. The reason why the team lost two games in a row before Christmas has a lot to do with the players' exhausted spirit and body. But after getting a few days off, the young Thunder seem to have regained their vitality. Jeff Van Gundy can see this from the enthusiasm of adaptive training alone.

Even though today is a game day, Van Gundy has arranged adaptive training early. He knows that such training will not make the players exhausted at night, but will help them quickly regain their competitive state.

For the Thunder, which has not played or trained for two consecutive days, the opponent they will face tonight will definitely be the best choice to test their state. Detroit Pistons, a team that used to be feared, the Bad Boys, the group that made Jordan fear three-pointers.

If you think that period of history is too long, since entering the 21st century, the Pistons have also had glorious moments.

Pistons Five Tigers, this seemingly grassroots team, has five starting players but all are All-Star players. In the finals of the 03-04 season, Larry Brown led the Pistons with iron-blooded defense to eliminate the Los Angeles Lakers with a luxurious F4 lineup with a total score of 4 to 1. This team seems to have been born specifically to fight against the powerful.

This season, although the Pistons are currently only ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference, their room for improvement is still very large. In addition to members Hamilton, Prince and Rasheed Wallace during the 2004 championship period, Allen Iverson's joining midway undoubtedly gave the people of the Motor City a shot in the arm.

Westbrook had never been so focused when he was warming up. After all, the little No. 3 man in the blue jersey was one of Westbrook's most admired idols.

"Wow, it's really big." Catherine opened her mouth in surprise as she looked at the huge player posters outside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. On the poster is a group photo of all Thunder players. Against the white background, the Thunder players stood in a row. Durant, as the core of the team, stood in the middle holding the ball with both hands, while Anjie and Westbrook folded their hands around their chests. Under the players' feet, big black letters strung together into a short but powerful sentence. "Defend your home field!"

Since the holiday came to the second day, Catherine and Beard continued to stay in Oklahoma City,

But today, they got free tickets from An Jie without a doubt. Of course, the people who watched the game with them were the parents of Anjie and Westbrook.

Defend your home court. After the game started, Anjie interpreted the meaning of this slogan with practical actions.

"Rasheed Wallace's two consecutive shots were blocked by Anjie! Maybe three years ago he could easily deal with this rookie, but now, Roaring Tianzun has to give up!"

In order to deal with Iverson's fast-paced characteristics, the Pistons formed a small lineup to adapt to Iverson's rhythm. But in the face of Jeff Van Gundy's defense, they did not achieve miraculous results. It was very difficult for Rasheed Wallace to go to the fifth position to confront An Jie.

Basketball is not a simple game of 1+1=2, sometimes with improper match, 1+1 may even be less than zero. In order to adapt to Iverson, the Pistons have changed their previous style of play, which is not necessarily a good thing.

On the defensive end, the Pistons also failed to inherit the previous iron-blooded defense.

"Little Prince" Tyshawn Prince was once a blue-collar star of the Pistons. His solid offensive skills can usually attack the Pistons when they can't start the situation. And the defense of the little prince is the treasure of the team.

However, as he grows older, although Prince retains his offensive ability, his defense becomes weaker, and it is easy to suffer in one-on-one situations.

Facing ordinary small forwards, he may be able to barely support him, but facing the extremely strong offensive Kevin Durant, Prince's defense is more than enough.

But if you want to say that the most eye-catching person in this game, it has to be Westbrook who is facing his idol.

Iverson was the diminutive Westbrook's imitation when he used to play in the street courts in South Los Angeles. This rebellious little man had a great influence on Westbrook's playing style.

Facing Iverson himself today, Westbrook showed off his super offensive talent to his heart's content. But a rookie is still a rookie, and Allen Iverson will not allow himself to be defeated by a rookie.

"Westbrook's dribbling rhythm is very fast! But Iverson is unmoved! In Iverson's eyes, these movements of Westbrook are simply pediatrics!" The commentator was right. Iverson When the NBA passed Jordan, Westbrook didn't know where he was abused.

Westbrook suddenly started, even Iverson had to admire the little guy's explosive first step. But basketball is not track and field, and explosive power alone is far from enough.

Seeing the right time, Iverson rushed forward, reached out and took away Westbrook's ball.

"Clean steal! Iverson grabbed the ball the moment Westbrook broke through! No one can understand those swaying moves better than Iverson. Westbrook paid the price for his immaturity!"

Iverson is advancing at full speed. Although the past few seasons have been wandering around and life has been unsatisfactory, Iverson's scoring ability has not declined because of these.

Even Westbrook couldn't keep up with the lightning-quick Pistons No. 3 short. Facing the basket, Iverson made an easy layup and completed the Pistons' last shot in the first quarter.

19 to 17, relying on Iverson's defensive counterattack at the last moment, the Pistons temporarily lead the Thunder by two points!

In the second quarter, the two sides still played anxiously. When the hard power was not as good as their opponents, the strong will of the Thunder's three young men made the team cling to the score.

Although Anjie didn't take many shots on the offensive end, his contribution on the defensive end was huge.

The Pistons were originally weak on the inside this season. Rasheed Wallace and veteran Antonio McDyess are both power forwards. Suddenly they are asked to play a small lineup and top the center position. These two people have not yet gotten used to it. .

The Pistons' only center, Jason Maxhill, was only 2.01 meters tall, and he was very short compared to other centers, let alone facing up to the tall tower of Anjie.

Maxiel used to rely on his bullet speed to make up for his lack of height, but Anjie's positioning and defense made Maxiel unable to jump, and the advantage of bullet speed disappeared.

The inside players of the Pistons couldn't contain An Jie, so the breakthrough of the outside players was naturally interfered. It was only in the second quarter of the game, and Anjie had already blocked four shots! There are also many shots that were not made under the interference of Anjie, which cannot be shown by the data.

After the second quarter, the Pistons not only failed to open the score in the second quarter, but lost their offensive rhythm under Anjie's tough defense. 46 to 44, the Pistons only relied on Iverson's personal offense to barely maintain this weak two-point advantage.

"The defense is good! An Jie! As long as you continue to maintain this defensive performance! We will win in the second half!" Jeff Van Gundy's defense-oriented thinking made him appreciate An Jie's performance very much. Now the whole league is speeding up, everyone is lowering the height of the lineup in exchange for mobility, and Anjie uses his performance as a traditional basketball and traditional center to justify his name.

In the second half, the Pistons also improved their defensive strength and double-teamed Durant.

The effect of the change was very significant. In the second half, Durant's offensive efficiency plummeted, and all four of his three-pointers left the basket. However, thanks to Anjie's height and position at the basket, the Thunder got a considerable number of second-attack opportunities.

Durant was strictly guarded, Westbrook made frequent mistakes, and Anjie suffered from not having enough time to switch roles. After all, the Pistons' fierce offense stopped for a while, but the Thunder failed to seize the opportunity to overtake the score.

66 to 64, still a gap of two points, the people of Detroit certainly did not expect that with Allen Iverson, they would be so embarrassing by a bottom-ranked team.

However, after resting for two full days, the Thunder finally showed the advantages brought by their youth in the fourth quarter. The Thunder's three players remained active in the fourth quarter, but the Pistons' players seemed to lack stamina.

Except for Iverson, the offense of the rest of the Pistons has fallen into a quagmire. The "Masked Man" Richard Hamilton, who came up to the small forward position, failed to score a goal in the fourth quarter! And An Jie, after carefully supporting and defending for three quarters, suddenly broke out in the fourth quarter and became the core of the Thunder on the offensive end. Jeff Van Gundy's arrangement completely disrupted the Pistons' defensive deployment. After all, based on the performance of the first three quarters, the coach of the Pistons arranged all the defensive strategies against Durant and Westbrook. As for Anjie, he seemed to have expected too much from the old roaring Tianzun.

With Anjie's efforts, the Thunder took a four-point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter. After that, the two sides scored each other with one goal and one goal. No one could open the score, and neither could close the score.

It wasn't until Iverson's key three-pointer missed the basket in the last 20 seconds that Anjie grabbed the backcourt rebound, which officially declared the Thunder's victory.

Although the score was always tight, An Jie didn't feel how tired he was after the game. Even though they have been suppressed at the beginning, the Thunder have always played games at their own pace. On the other hand, the leading Pistons, because they were afraid of being caught up, they played more and more chaotically, and finally collapsed in the final quarter.

Looking up at the big screen, 92 to 88, Iverson lowered his head helplessly. As he grew older, he felt that the NBA games seemed to be getting more and more difficult to play.

22 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, that's all Iverson can do now...

Anjie didn't score much in this game. His 16 points were only one point more than Wallace, who was suppressed by him, and most of them were scored in the fourth quarter. However, 7 rebounds, 6 blocks and 9 assists let fans know that this Chinese big man is an indispensable part of winning.

The Christmas holiday is still going on, and after two consecutive losses, the Thunder's road to rebound is still going on.

After a narrow win over the Pistons, many thought the Thunder were simply lucky. But when the Thunder won the next back-to-back game against the Wizards and achieved two consecutive victories, such voices suddenly became less.

Durant scored 23 points, Westbrook scored 21 points, and Anjie scored 15 points and 11 rebounds. Although the Wizards who lost the "General" rose up to resist, they still could not escape the fate of being electrocuted by the Thunder. 104 to 95, the Wizards' record has become a poor 4 wins and 24 losses, continuing to consolidate their "throne" at the bottom of the league.

Two consecutive losses ushered in Christmas, and they sent Christmas away with a beautiful two-game winning streak. Since the December game, the Thunder have only lost 3 games, and their longest winning streak has reached 5 games. The best rookie of the month and the team's higher ranking seem to be waving towards Anjie and Westbrook!

But when December was coming to an end, looking at the games circled in red on the schedule, he became nervous again. Another five-game winning streak, it seems not so easy to get,

On December 29th, the Thunder will play against the Suns again at home, but this time, "Shark" O'Neal's sharp teeth attacked Anjie viciously! The previous two consecutive victories were nothing more than a warm-up for the Thunder and An Jie before facing the big enemy. (To be continued.)