The Way of the Center

"This ball is not without Varejao's suspicion of flopping, but Anjie did forcefully bump Varejao from behind to make a tip-up. The referee must be under a lot of pressure now, because this judgment will determine the direction of the game and is related to The final outcome." Kenny Smith was watching the referee on the screen closely in the studio, where is the referee? He also nervously looked back at the video sent by the playback center near the technical platform.

"No, no, Varejao did it himself. We will definitely make it to overtime." Everyone on the Thunder's bench surrounded Anjie. But An Jie, as the client, was very confident.

Although Varejao's diving is very secretive, for An Jie who is also good at diving, he can see through Varejao's tricks at a glance.

But the referee is not An Jie, not to mention that An Jie himself has a huge inertia in backboarding.

The fans in the Quicken Loans Arena kept putting pressure on the referee, and O'Neal was also whispering in the ear of the referee. He didn't want his hard work to be wasted.

22 points and 6 rebounds, this data is not worth mentioning in O'Neal's career, but for him now, the data of this game is already very amazing.

O'Neal was really fighting with the 20-year-old Anjie to keep the Cavaliers from falling inside. Due to physical reasons at the last moment, the Brazilian replaced O'Neill to continue to confront Anjie. If he worked hard for a whole game and finally died in the hands of the Brazilian, O'Neal would definitely be pissed off.

"What do you think?" Several referees began to discuss.

"No problem, I think so too." After a while, they reached an agreement.

The referee walked to the center circle and announced the result of the game for more than 20,000 fans. However, the moment the referee made the gesture, An Jie yelled violently at the referee in the middle.

The goal was invalid, and Anjie fouled for the rebound. This is the final verdict of the referees.

97 to 99, the score still hasn't changed, and the Thunder are still two points behind. But now, the 48-minute game is over.

"Fuck it! Damn it!" Angie wasn't going to complain about Varejao's flopping, because he often did it himself. It's just that he was unlucky, and today he met a guy who was more rogue than himself.

"It's over, I didn't expect that this wonderful battle would end in such a dramatic way. It's hard for you to tell whether Varejao flopped or not, but the penalty has been made, and this is the end." Reggie. Miller let out a long breath, and the wonderful 48-minute game almost suffocated him.

"The Thunder's strength has been fully demonstrated,

Playing inextricably with the No. 1 Cavaliers in the East, there are not many teams in the league that can do this. If possible, I really want to see how the two sides will play in overtime. "Don't talk about Anjie himself, even many commentators feel sorry for the Thunder.

"Ann! Ann! Wait! Do you agree with the referee's final penalty!? Do you think Varejao is suspected of diving!?" After the game, An Jie, who was in a bad mood, walked directly to the player tunnel. Behind him was a group of reporters who were in urgent need of news materials.

An Jie now wants to turn around and tell everyone, fuck the punishment! But he can't do this kind of thing, he knows he should keep calm now.

"Fuck the damn penalty! We should have continued to fight! The league just likes to favor teams with higher commercial value." At this moment, a voice came from Anjie's ear, telling his heart come out.

Turning around, it turned out to be Morris, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the result of the game in front of the reporter. In an instant, the reporters around An Jie all gathered towards Morris. The expressions of the reporters were as if they had discovered a gold mine.

"Ah, damn it." Moslav, who was watching TV, held his forehead. He knew what Morris said, and he had to make himself busy again.

"Morris!" Listening to Morris uttering those words starting with "F" and pointing at the referee around the reporter, An Jie had to remind his good brother not to get burned.

"Why, are they afraid of being talked about by others?" The hot-headed Morris didn't think that much at all. If An Jie didn't force Morris to drag him away, God knows what else Morris could say. .

"You're in big trouble buddy, do you know what you just said?"

"What are you afraid of? Isn't the most serious fine a 25,000-dollar fine? I can afford it!" Morris disagrees. If it weren't for Anjie's integration with Morris in the Thunder locker room, maybe Morris would have changed. It's a thorn in the side.

An Jie shook his head helplessly, he knew that talking to Morris at this time would be a waste of effort. Why are you Americans so obsessed, An Jie sometimes really can't figure it out.

"Okay, Morris, let them win by chance. Next time we are at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, let's make them look good again." An Jie found that only this method could calm Morris down. .

"You're right! Next time I play against the Cavaliers, I'm going to let that boy Varejao go around." Morris waved his fist in the air, aggrieved, as if he played cleanly …

Durant scored 35 points, Anjie had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Westbrook had 16 points. All three of the Thunder played well. However, facing James, who scored 37 points and sent 11 assists, he played for 45 minutes. The "little emperor" who hardly rested still had the last laugh.

Neither James nor O'Neal greeted anyone in the Thunder after the game, including Ainger. Because they also know that their win is very controversial, at this time, it is better for the two parties not to meet.

The Cavaliers got away with it, but the Thunder ended their winning streak unfortunately.

The next day, the league immediately issued a penalty for Morris. After a morning of discussions between Moslav and league officials, the league decided to fine Morris $25,000 for his inappropriate remarks after the game. Originally they wanted to suspend Morris for one game, but under Muslav's dealings, the league still dealt with it lightly.

Morris also issued a public apology statement under "forced" by Muslav, and this is the condition that the league promised Muslav not to suspend Morris.

"Morris, you can make any small moves and bad moves on the court, but on the stage, you still have to restrain yourself." This is the second time this season that Moslav has gone to the league executives for these messy things about Morris." There's a meeting."

"Hey, be careful next time." Morris nodded and bowed to Muslav. His current attitude makes you unable to lose your temper with him.

The focus battle at the end of January has come to an end. Although the ending is not perfect, at least the Cavaliers have forced out the true strength of the Thunder. This also refreshed the entire league's understanding of the Thunder. If this kind of team entered the playoffs, it might really cause some trouble.

The first person to worry about this was the "Zen Master" Phil Jackson. The final ranking of the Lakers this season should be between the third and the first in the Western Conference, while the Thunder just happens to be the most likely to be the eighth to the sixth in the Western Conference. If the Lakers meet the Thunder in the first round, then the Zijin Army's road to defending the title will be very difficult from the beginning.

However, three days after the narrow loss to the Cavaliers, in the game between the Thunder and the Bulls, Jackson wondered if he was a little nervous.

The Thunder, who were only two points away from the Cavaliers, lost a full ten points against the Bulls, who were only ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference and had a not-so-great winning percentage!

Rose's performance in this game was so good, it was unbelievably good. In the absence of free throws, Rose hit 13 goals in 23 shots and scored a full 26 points! You must know that Rose did not make free throws throughout the game, not a single free throw!

In addition, the Bulls' main small forward Luol Deng's three-pointer made Durant suffer a lot, 17 points, not too much, but not too little.

Secondly, Joakim Noah, Brad Miller and Tyrus Thomas teamed up to score 30 points inside the Thunder, not because of Anjie and Morris' poor defense, but because of the state of these three It's too hot.

The Thunder played normally and the Bulls played exceptionally well. In the end, Derrick Rose, the former No. 1 pick, became the final winner. He also had a rare taste of victory over the Thunder.

96 to 86, after playing an excellent performance against the Cavaliers, the Thunder immediately had a "big rebound". The team shot only 38%, helping them usher in a two-game losing streak.

If you don't lose, you are done, and if you lose, you will lose in a row. The only thing to be thankful for may be that the Thunder's starting center, An Jie, is still performing steadily. Scored 27 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. If it weren't for Anjie's outstanding performance, the Thunder might lose even worse.

But maybe it was God's arrangement. When the Thunder lost another losing streak, they met the Nuggets who Anthony missed due to injury. Such a Nuggets team is definitely a good opponent that can be eaten by the Thunder.

The Thunder's three young men lived up to expectations. Although Billups was working hard to make up for the vacancy caused by Anthony's absence, he was already old and he still couldn't compete with the young Thunder's three young men.

Without Anthony's obstruction, Durant scored 30 points. Anjie also scored 22 points and 15 rebounds on the head of the Brazilian, who is also a Brazilian. After this game, Anjie also officially surpassed Camby and ranked second in the league's rebounding list with an average of 11.9 rebounds per game. .

The Nuggets rank quite well this season, but they are short of major generals, and they still cannot escape death when they meet the Thunder.

84 to 101, the Thunder's three young masters took all the anger of the two losses on the Nuggets. And the Nuggets, who lack a backbone, can only swallow their anger.

After that, the morale-boosting Thunder gave the Warriors a five-game losing streak at home. Although the old Nelson is still coaching, although the Warriors have completely entered the reconstruction, although they have potential newcomers like Stephen Curry. But in front of the relatively mature Thunder, the Warriors can still only do their best.

Durant scored 45 points under the Warriors' dispensable defense! This is why Durant can become the league's scoring leader. And Westbrook also exploded without warning. Facing Curry, who was thin and lacking in confrontation, he scored 28 points, and he didn't take a three-pointer, which means that most of the points were scored by Westbrook. Won by breaking through.

Although Anjie only scored 14 points, his 11 rebounds and 7 assists still made him not to be ignored.

104 to 112, the combination of Curry and Ellis in the backcourt must undergo more training.

30 wins and 16 losses, with a record of 30 wins heading into February, Van Gundy has nothing more to ask for. Only lost 3 games in 15 games, and the only regret is that they lost to the Cavaliers. The playoffs are no longer a fantasy for the Thunder.

Now the entire league knows that the Oklahoma City Thunder is a dark horse, and a dark horse that can bite.

When you see the Thunder can lose anyone, don't forget, they can also win anyone! (To be continued.)