The Way of the Center

Why is the Thunder still just a potential stock in everyone's impression, not a real strong team. Even if they have defeated the Lakers and Spurs, even if they are now ranked seventh in the Western Conference, no one will treat the Thunder as a real strong team.

In addition to the insufficient thickness of the bench, the extremely unstable performance of Durant and Westbrook is the biggest reason for people to hold this view.

Durant has already ranked third in the scoring list this season, and has frequently scored more than 40 points in a game. But this kind of performance is difficult to continue. Although he shines in the audience more often, sometimes Durant can barely score 20 points with free throws, which is extremely inefficient.

And Westbrook, another young outsider of the Thunder, is even less stable. He is often unstoppable and can even overtake Durant in scoring. His impact is terrible, and the level of outside shooting has also grown a lot compared to college.

But sometimes this very immature guard's shooting rate is appallingly low, and unlike Durant, Westbrook will still make tireless shots even if his shooting rate is very low. Maybe Anjie and Durant have wiped his ass all the time, so he didn't realize the importance of this matter.

However, today, when the Thunder team played aggressively in the first quarter, Durant and Westbrook, the two young men, committed the old problem of not being stable enough at the same time!

At the beginning of the second quarter, Westbrook first used a highly ornamental acceleration breakthrough to penetrate the inside line beautifully. However, under the interference of Hayes, Westbrook's forced layup failed to hit. .

Just when Thunder fans were expecting team leader Durant to stand up and lead by example at this moment, he wasted an open three-pointer.

Both of them just missed the first shot, and even Van Gundy didn't think it would have any impact.

But in the next few offenses, Westbrook and Durant still hit the iron continuously. If it weren't for Anjie and Sefolosha hitting a few goals, the score might have been opened by the Rockets long ago. You must know that Ariza's state is still hot in the second quarter. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, he has now scored another 7 points! And the second quarter is far from over!

"What's going on!? Can't you be more patient?" Van Gundy arranged a lot of tactics against Westbrook and Durant during the timeout, hoping that they would get an absolute chance to shoot again. He suddenly remembered that the reason why he didn't like to use rookies was not because of this reason?

Although Durant and Westbrook are much better than other rookies, they are still rookies and they are not mature enough.

Even An Jie, who has always been calm, didn't fluctuate in the last game?

But even so, Van Gundy only had Anjie as his choice.

"I want you to do your best to create gaps for Kevin and Russell, but if they don't have a chance or get a chance but miss shots repeatedly, then give the ball to Andy for singles!" At the last moment, Van Gundy put Anjie Singles were communicated to their own players as a backup.

It is an indisputable fact that outside players' three-pointers, kills and consecutive hits can help the team quickly establish an advantage. Compared with the two-point and time-consuming attack of the inside players, the scoring rate of the outside players is indeed faster, which is also a trend caused by the faster and faster rhythm of the league.

If it was placed ten years ago, Van Gundy would definitely make Anjie the core of the offense, and he would grind the opponent ball by ball throughout the game until he won.

But now, even if he is conservative, he relies more on outside players, which is why Van Gundy still wants Westbrook and Durant to try, and inside singles are just a backup plan.

But this timeout didn't seem to have any effect. As Ariza got better and better on the offensive end, Durant was more eager to respond.

This anxiety caused his hit rate to plummet.

Ariza's defense can't be said to be tight, but Durant himself wasted too many opportunities.

Although Westbrook defended Brooks very uncomfortable, it was also difficult for him to make achievements on the offensive end.

The game lasted for three minutes between the Thunder's two strikes from outside and Ariza's goal alone. It's fine if Ariza can score. The most terrifying thing is that he still scored three points.

So far, Ariza has made 2 of 3 three-pointers, and the Thunder are therefore 10 points behind the Rockets!

From a strong lead in the first quarter to a sudden fall behind in the second quarter, the players and fans of the Thunder are like riding a roller coaster. It only takes a moment to go from top to underestimation.

"What did I say, Kenny? Why can't the Thunder play the momentum of the first quarter in the second quarter? This is the Thunder, they have always been overrated!" Barkley originally thought that the Thunder would take advantage of the victory in the second quarter. Unexpectedly, their two sharpest blades were both frustrated. The only thing to worry about now is that An Jie's performance in the last game was not good.

Although Anjie played very actively in the first quarter, he still had to give way to Durant and Westbrook in the second quarter. Moreover, he has been following the tactics today, and he didn't ask for the ball to play singles like before.

It can be said that, except for the dunk at the beginning of the game, Anjie is almost invisible on the offensive end.

But now, Van Gundy had to put his tactics on Anjie. Perhaps, he should have done so earlier.

10 points, pause, redeploy. Adelman on the Rockets can vaguely foresee the changes that the Thunder will make later, but looking at the players around him, if the Thunder really do that, he doesn't have much to do.

After the timeout, Krstic was replaced by Ibaka, which means that the inside will be pulled very empty, and Adelman was also a little uneasy.

In the Thunder's offense, Westbrook was still the one who was in possession of the ball, and Anjie was still standing at a high position. Could it be that Adelman was wrong?

As soon as his foot stepped on the three-point line, Westbrook passed the ball without hesitation, and An Jie, who was standing in the middle distance on the backboard slope, got the ball.

At the same time, the other four of the Thunder began to run, and everything looked the same as before.

Durant opened his hand for the ball, and Ariza tensed up. Angie raised the ball over his head, as if to pass a lob.

suddenly! An Jie's shoulders sank, he bowed his waist, stepped forward with his right leg, and rushed forward! Hayes, who thought that Anjie was going to pass the ball, relaxed his vigilance, but Anjie's sudden sudden attack caught him off guard!

It really is inside singles!

Hayes' speed was naturally much faster than the tall Anjie, so he hurriedly turned around and chased in front of Anjie, hoping to interrupt Anjie's breakthrough.

An Jie took two steps inside the free throw line, but suddenly stopped himself. He directly raised the ball with one hand and tossed it lightly. The 1.98 meter Hayes could only watch the basketball fly over his fingertips, followed by the sound of the net rolling.

Close throws between runs, hollows into the net. When the big man uses throwing shots, his movements look very awkward and very unprofessional. But don't care if the moves are good or not, the goal is the last word!

Adelman held his forehead, knowing that the Rockets' 10-point advantage would soon be insufficient.

"Angie's throw! The ball was too sudden. Hayes probably wondered which hand Anjie would use for a layup later. As a result, Anjie took a sudden shot and easily scored two points. If I If I remember correctly, this is the first time I have seen An Jie use throwing shots in an official game. It seems that after a summer of hard work, the MVP of the Asian Championships still has a lot of moves that he has not shown." CCTV commentary all They were very surprised, they didn't expect Anjie to score with a technical move that they had never used before.

"Finally, Coach Van Gundy is finally willing to let Ann single in the paint! He should have done so long ago! If I say that Coach Van Gundy's rigid problems still need to be corrected, if he made changes earlier, the Rockets would never be able to lead them. Ten!" ESPN's Mike Breen was more concerned about Van Gundy's decision.

No one is perfect, Van Gundy did lead the Thunder to achieve good results, but he also has many shortcomings. Now it depends on Anjie's performance, whether he can make up for Van Gundy's shortcoming.

After Anjie scored, Ariza immediately responded on the offensive end. Durant is really out of form today, and it is difficult to satisfy both offense and defense.

When the Thunder attacked again, Anjie stopped putting "smoke bombs" in the high position. He fell directly to the low position, leaned on Hayes and opened his big hand, telling you clearly that I want to play inside singles!

Anjie, who is 2.19 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.34 meters, has such a hand, and Hayes behind him is completely covered, and there is no chance of stealing at all.

Ibaka, who had just played, fished Scola out of the restricted area, and there were only Anjie and Hayes inside. This was a duel with great disparity in strength!

An Jie needs a deep position, because he doesn't want to waste energy and time. Now the team needs to score the most, so he will use the best efficiency to score for the team!

Westbrook made a lob pass, and the 1.83-meter Brooks couldn't stop the pass at all.

After An Jie received the ball, he leaned hard and stepped into the penalty area with ease.

Without fake moves, he turned around and hooked Hayes Angie, who was much shorter than himself, and the basketball hit the rebound and was reflected into the net.

An Jie scored two more points without delay. Hayes helplessly spread his hands to Adelman, he has tried his best.

"Louis, you switch positions with Chuck!" Adelman immediately made a temporary adjustment on the sidelines, hoping that Scola could resist Anjie's offensive footsteps.

They also play very smartly, and also like to tease their opponents with superb footwork. From some aspects, Scola and Anjie's playing styles are really similar.

However, as a pure traditional center, Anjie is better than Scola.

An Jie first used a turn to make himself face the frame, which also made Scola think that An Jie was going to shoot directly.

When An Jie lifted the basketball over his head, he suddenly turned around again, and at the same time sat down hard in the penalty area, forcing Scola away, and took off under the basket with both hands hanging on the frame.

Both soft and hard methods made the Argentine's defense ultimately fail.

Anjie is still scoring with high efficiency, but Ariza's shooting percentage has gradually declined due to physical exertion.

Slowly, the Thunder narrowed the score. When the second quarter was about to end with 2 minutes left, the Thunder were only 3 points behind the Rockets!

At this time, in order to preserve his strength, Van Gundy took down all the Thunder's three young masters. He believes that the defense of Ibaka and Morris in the last two minutes can ensure that the Thunder will bite the score.

However, in the face of the Rockets' weak inside defense, Morris and Ibaka also overfulfilled the task.

Not only did they do a good job defensively, but they also caused a lot of trouble for the Rockets on the offensive end. The tacit understanding between Morris and Ibaka is getting better and better. Their internal pass and internal cooperation often collapse the Rockets' internal defense.

When the halftime game ended, the Thunder team not only bit the score, but also overtook it by 2 points!

Ibaka made 3 of 3 shots and scored 6 points in just 2 minutes, and Morris also made strong plays at the basket twice, continuing Anjie's good momentum in the paint.

50 to 48, the Rockets once played an offensive climax under the leadership of Trevor Ariza. However, Anjie suppressed the momentum of the Rockets on his own.

An Jie has fully opened up, sweeping away the poor state of the previous game.

Scoring 16 points on 7 of 10 shots, Anjie scored a lot of points in one half, and most of them came from the singles in the second quarter. In this case, if Westbrook and Durant are resurrected again, then Adelman will really have nothing to do.

The Thunder, who have lost four straight, seems to be willing to give up after making a fuss at the Toyota Center! (To be continued.)

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