The Way of the Center

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"Let's look at the West again. The current situation of the Western Conference playoff qualification is not good for the Suns. Not only did they fail to approach the Jazz, but they were even tied by the youth army Thunder behind them. Al When coach Wen Gentry first took office, there was indeed a momentum to revive the Suns, but judging from the current losing streak, coach Gentry seems to be a bit of a feeling of driving high and low.”

The "Open Court" column hosted by Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith once again met the audience on T.NT as scheduled. Naturally, their topics could not avoid the fierce battle for the playoffs in the Western Conference.

"Coach Gentry must be a romanticist. Let the 36-year-old Shaq and the 34-year-old Nash bombard him. Fortunately, he can figure it out. Running and bombing is like Phil Jackson's triangle offense. It is not a rote A system that will succeed." Barkley has never been shy about criticizing others. His big mouth is the guarantee of T.NT's high ratings.

"What about the Thunder? Do you think they can make it to the playoffs?" Kenny Smith knew that Barkley didn't like the Thunder, so he deliberately asked this question. In fact, although Barkley has been swearing at the Thunder, he doesn't really hate them so much, he just wants to catch people's attention.

"When the Suns and the Thunder were battling for the ninth place, the Jazz had quietly achieved 12 consecutive victories! I'm not wrong, 12 consecutive victories!" Barkley specifically emphasized the word 12 .

"From the victory over the Lakers on February 11th to the victory over the Pacers on March 10th yesterday, the Jazz have not lost a game for a whole month! As for the Thunder, they struggled to achieve a five-game winning streak. What compares to the Jazz who has won 12 consecutive victories? There are still seven wins between the Thunder and the Jazz. I don’t think Jerry Sloan will overturn the team in Salt Lake City. Although the regular season is still more than a month away It’s over, but Van Gundy’s rookies want to recover seven wins from the Jazz, which is almost impossible.” Barkley’s serious performance annoyed many Thunder fans who were watching TV.

"This fat man, who doesn't know anything, just cheated T.NT's salary by talking about it."

"This damn big ass guy is talking nonsense!"

The audience scolded and scolded, but only a very small number of people chose to change the channel.

"So you think the Thunder are just trying to do something useless?"

"Strictly speaking, it is like this. The main force of this team is almost all rookies, five starters, four rookies, and three freshmen. What are you kidding!? Such a lineup can make it to the playoffs. It’s really hell!” Barkley’s words are not unreasonable, as a team whose main purpose is to cultivate rookies, it is already very good to achieve such results.

It seems that in order to fulfill the remarks of "Big Mouth" Barkley, after defeating the Kings, the Thunder team challenged the Nuggets in back-to-back away games and immediately lost!

The unexpectedly tough battle with the Kings took a toll on the Thunder's generals. After that game, they went to the plateau to face the "Denver Athletics" directly, which was a great test of Anjie's physical reserves.

Physical exhaustion may not be affected too much on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, the Thunder's shooting percentage is enough to show how tired the players are.

Except for the two inside players, Anjie and Robert Swift, none of the other players on the Thunder team could shoot more than 50%. To be exact, except for one Nick Collison, the rest Everyone's hit rate is below 40%!

The Thunder had no problem with offense and execution, and they got a ton of chances. The only problem is, the Thunder generals just can't make the ball. Except for Angie and Swift, who had the majority of inside offenses, everyone's shots were collectively inaccurate.

Towards the end of the season, back-to-backs can become more grueling than ever. What Van Gundy hates the most is the back-to-back competition system, which not only fails to allow players to perform at their best, but also increases the probability of players being injured.

Complaints are complaints, and the Thunder must play in such a way. Already exhausted, it was expected that the Thunder would lose when they met the highlands of Denver and the opponent was a strong Nuggets.

99 to 112, the Thunder lost again by a big score. Anjie scored 18 points and 9 rebounds in this campaign. This data still looks very beautiful, but careful fans found that since March, Anjie has not scored more than 20 in any game!

Although he scored double-doubles frequently, but the score cannot exceed 20, it will definitely attract doubts from all parties. As a rookie, Anjie's scoring data is not low, but aren't the critics born to criticize?

"The core that can't be reused! Anjie was strictly guarded, and the team lost to Denver."

"Scored less than 20 points in six consecutive games. Is An Jie the next overrated rookie?"

Various article titles emerged one after another. In fact, most of An Jie's scores in these few games hovered between 15 and 19 points. As long as he wanted to, it would be no problem to score 20 points. Unexpectedly, this group of critics is already bored enough to attract readers with this kind of thing. No wonder Ricard has been sneering at this group of people, and it's not without reason.

...................................

An Jie got up at 6:30 as usual, and every day when he got up and went to the living room, he could have a glimpse of most of Oklahoma City, which made him feel very comfortable after getting up every day.

"Good morning, dear." As usual, he sent a text message to Catherine. After An Jie washed up, he walked to the garage, ready to start his new day's work.

With rap music from the west coast of the United States playing on the radio, Anjie drove through the quiet business district of Alvent. In this country with a small population density, the streets are sparsely populated in the early morning, so quiet that only the unique roar of the R-7 rotary engine can be heard.

The sun has already outlined the framework of the entire Oklahoma City, and huge posters of Thunder players can be seen everywhere in the city. The closer you get to the Chesapeake Energy Arena, the more posters of Thunder players.

There was no traffic jam in the morning, and Anjie arrived at the underground parking lot of the Chesapeake Energy Arena in just 20 minutes. After hastily eating two eggs and a bottle of milk, Anjie's new day of training began.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..." Before An Jie arrived at the training ground, he heard the sound of slapping the ball and tumbling of the net.

"Who's here?" An Jie curiously pushed open the door of the training ground. Usually, he was the first to arrive. Even Westbrook came later than himself for more than a month.

When An Jie stepped into the training field, there was only one thin figure like himself on the field. Anjie knew it without looking at his face, it was Durant!

"Kevin." An Jie yelled, and the empty training ground was full of echoes.

"So early? Come on Ann, play two balls with me." Durant threw the basketball in his hand to An Jie and took a defensive posture.

"No problem?" An Jie pointed to Durant's injured foot.

"No, I need you to test me." Durant clapped his hands and signaled An Jie to attack quickly.

Angie dribbled the ball in jeans and a hoodie before changing clothes. Durant would have had no trouble picking it up, but he wouldn't. own state.

An Jie made a decent change of direction in front of his body, and squeezed Durant away with his strength to walk in.

Durant is 2.11 meters tall, playing a center in the current league is no problem at all. Although he was thin, he weighed 106 kilograms, only four kilograms lighter than Anjie. As An Jie expected, although Durant is in the third position, it is not a disadvantage to defend him in the fifth position.

Strength, perhaps the only place where Anjie has an advantage over Durant.

After squeezing Durant away to gain a little space, Anjie took a step, intending to end the offense with a master layup.

Durant tried his best to take off and interfere. Durant is tall and strong, but why isn't Anjie?

After failing to block the shot, he landed and stretched his ankle. Durant smiled with satisfaction.

"Am I qualified as a training partner?" An Jie knew that Durant didn't defend himself with all his strength, otherwise Durant would have taken the ball away before he broke through.

"No problem at all! I don't have the slightest discomfort!" Durant became excited. He was a little timid when he shot the ball at first, but now, he completely let go!

One day after the Thunder lost, the competition between the Suns and the Cavaliers also came to an end. 119 to 111, "Little Emperor" James' 34 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists made the Suns swallow a four-game losing streak! Maybe this time God finally took care of the young Thunder team. When they lost, the Suns failed to open up the number of wins again.

Durant's return was endorsed by Jeff Van Gundy. "The next game against the Suns, you will continue to be the starter!"

Durant was also worried that Van Gundy would let him sit on the bench after he had just recovered from his injury, but Van Gundy waved his hand and prepared to bring his strongest lineup to Phoenix.

On March 14, the Thunder will go to Phoenix again to challenge the Suns, who have played back-to-back games and are in a bad situation.

Durant's comeback just happened to catch up with the crucial ranking battle. God knows what kind of performance the reorganized Thunder will show.

The first step in a series of key battles, no mistakes! (To be continued.)