The Way of the Center

"The game is over! 109 to 107, the Thunder team in the away game has finally confirmed the victory of the game!" When the game ended, it was already 1:30 noon Beijing time. Yu Jia came to the studio early to prepare for the live broadcast. The whole morning till now, not a drop of water has entered. But now, he didn't feel relieved, on the contrary, he was still unsatisfied.

The Thunder still won, and the result was exactly as predicted before the game. However, this process is full of variables. Seeing the news that the Timberwolves lost to the Thunder, many fans would not be surprised, but after looking at the score and the process, most fans couldn't believe it.

"Phew, it's finally over!" Van Gundy heaved a sigh of relief, and now he admires old men like **vich and Jerry Sloan even more. At such an old age, he can still withstand the test of the heart of the NBA game. Van Gundy is afraid that one day his blood pressure will suddenly soar and he will faint.

In the game just now, his heart was like riding a roller coaster, with ups and downs. But fortunately, the Thunder finally "landed smoothly" without any danger.

Kevin Love stared at the big screen unwillingly, the group of people who looked down on them still succeeded. Even though they made a desperate resistance, the Thunder still took the victory away from the center of the target. He felt a little numb in his heart, and losing has almost become the main theme of his life in the past two years.

"Hey, don't be discouraged, you almost made it." Westbrook didn't forget his former teammates. Before Angie, it was Love who was watching behind him.

Le Fu smiled bitterly and wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say it. He just gave Westbrook a high-five and hurried down the tunnel.

On the way, no reporter stopped him. Love scored 25 points and 11 rebounds today, but no one will remember his name. Only the winner has the right to enjoy praise.

Looking at Le Fu's declining back, An Jie even felt a little sorry for him. He got offensive rebounds in the interior twice by Love today, and at the same time let Love make a lot of shots from the outside. I have to admit that Le Fu's performance today is no worse than his own. If An Jie is entitled to honor, then Love also has this ability.

It's just that behind the victor, there must be an equally outstanding guy who accepts the punishment brought by his failure. And Le Fu has become the shadow of Thunder Thunder's three young masters.

"Bang!" There was a muffled sound in the locker room of the home team at the Target Center. Now, only Kevin Love is still in the locker room.

At this moment, Le Fu was supporting a fist on the locker room cabinet, and the cabinet was dented a few centimeters.

Le Fu concentrated all the unwillingness in his heart on this punch. The poor cabinet unfortunately became Love's punching bag.

With 20 points and 14 rebounds, Anjie's data can only be said to be on par with Love. But as the winner and the one who made the key goal, Anjie received more attention than Love could.

It may be a little cruel, but this is the NBA, this is an alliance where the weak prey on the strong and the winner is king. Only victory is the hard indicator to measure everything.

Regardless of the Thunder's success today, it only needs a loss in one game. Most people who still praise them now will immediately turn their guns and criticize the Thunder.

Only two days later, this phenomenon was fulfilled.

On February 23, the Thunder once again met their old enemy, the Suns. But this time, Nash, the true core of the Suns, missed the game due to injury. This is undoubtedly a great opportunity for the Thunder to achieve another ten-game winning streak.

Chesapeake Energy Arena is full of seats. After all, what can be more refreshing than defeating a deadly enemy at home? However, with Durant's missed shot and Anjie's missed tip-up in the last five seconds, the Suns, lacking a core, won the victory at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Stoudemire celebrated recklessly at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. For him, defeating Anjie and the Thunder was the most exciting moment.

Having performed well this season, he had already "reserved" the starting center position in the Western Conference, but An Jie, an old acquaintance who was only in the second grade, forced him to the bench. At that time, Stoudemire vowed in his heart that he must save face with Anjie.

30 points and 9 rebounds, 12 of 20 shots. In the current league, there are not many insiders who can get this kind of data on An Jie's head. However, Stoudemire, who was affected by emotions and exploded, did this.

The aging Grant Hill also taught the young scoring champion Durant a good lesson. As the former successor of Jordan, although Hill lost most of his athletic ability due to serious injuries, the foundation is still there. Not only did he score 21 points, he also shot 72 percent from the field. Durant's contempt for the veteran made him a big mistake.

If there are only these two people showing their power, then the Suns without Nash may not be able to retreat in the Chesapeake Energy Arena. It's a pity that Jason Richardson and last year's little-known second-round pick Glenn Dragic also scored 20 points and 16 points respectively, completely crushing the Thunder, which had won nine consecutive victories.

After struggling for 48 minutes, the game ended with the failure of Durant and Anjie's lore. 104 to 102, the Thunder lost at home to their sworn enemy, and also completely interrupted their hard-earned nine-game winning streak.

"The starting center of the Western All-Star team should be Amare Stoudemire!" The sports section of the Phoenix Post printed such a big headline. Little did they know that the day before yesterday, this newspaper praised An Jie's outstanding performance.

However, Anjie's 16 points and 10 rebounds are really not comparable to Stoudemire. In addition, except for the three minors, no one else in the Thunder has scored in double digits. This is also the biggest reason for the Thunder to lose. reason.

Even Anjie can't make waves inside the Suns, so Morris and Ibaka have no chance.

Losing to the Suns, at least there is a game against the Spurs tomorrow to look forward to. However, it is not a small challenge for the Thunder to play back-to-back against the Spurs after 48 minutes with the Suns.

This time, the Spurs and Thunder finally no longer follow the "tradition." The game is not dragged to the last second, and the score is no longer anxious. 87 to 95, it's a pity that the Thunder, who played back-to-back away games, scored the previous score.

In this game, the "Demon Sword" Ginobili finally started to draw. Once the Demon Sword shows its power, the opponents of the Spurs are generally in danger.

The state of the tired Thunder team is completely incomparable with the Spurs. Except for Anjie, Sefoloza and Morris, the rest of the Thunder team's shooting percentage is below 50%. Durant and Westbrook, the two biggest On the contrary, the offensive arrows are the two with the lowest shooting percentage in the team.

From a nine-game winning streak to a two-game losing streak, the Thunder have once again been on a roller coaster ride. From the darling of the media to the target of criticism, except for a few loyal media, almost everyone's reputation for the Thunder has changed drastically.

Wu Hua and the "Sports Pioneer" are naturally few loyal supporters of the Thunder and An Jie.

"The explosion of the opponent's star and the exhaustion of back-to-back games, these two factors that are very unfavorable to winning, have been met by the Thunder. The Thunder are still too young, and their system is not even particularly mature. Invincible, It is not something that the young Thunder can do. But these two consecutive losses are what the Thunder must pay for in the long regular season. No team will win smoothly, and the Thunder will have no problem. With one game, they can turn the tide." This is a paragraph in the latest "Sports Pioneer" An Jie's column, which is also Wu Hua's view on the current Thunder team.

In his eyes, it is normal for a team to lose in the regular season, and there is nothing to be surprised about. The only reason for this situation is that the Thunder's light was too dazzling. Now that it is suddenly a little darker, people will feel unaccustomed to it, and will think that the end of the world is coming. As everyone knows, this is just a necessary process for the sun to rise again.

As Wu Hua expected, the Thunder broke the deadlock before the "at most one more" game appeared, and once again added a win to themselves.

After consecutive defeats to their old opponents, the Suns and Spurs, the aggrieved Thunder took all their anger on their next opponent. It's unlucky to say that within a week, the Timberwolves met the Thunder twice. But this time when they met the Thunder, the Timberwolves failed to stage an impressive resistance again.

Durant 25 points, Anjie 24 points, Westbrook 18 points, Morris 13 points, Krstic 10 points, Sefolosha 10 points, Ibaka 14 points, Collison 10 points. The Thunder had 10 players on the field, and 8 scored in double figures. They used the gap in overall hard power to tear the Timberwolves' defense to pieces.

Love resisted desperately as always, but now he still can't save the team by himself. With 19 points and 9 rebounds, Love also got the team's highest score and the team's highest rebound. However, the lack of overall strength of the team still made him a funeral object of the Thunder's third young master.

The morale-boosting Thunder went all out and won their last opponent in February, the Toronto Raptors, ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference.

Bosh was injured, but the leaderless Raptors couldn't get up at all. The 14 points of Italy's space-based insider Andrea Bagliari is already the first high score of the Raptors.

Under the weak defense of Bagliari, Anjie scored a game-high 29 points and 10 rebounds in one fell swoop. The 119-99 victory over the invading enemy from the northern border marked a successful end to February.

On February 28, the last day of February, the Chinese New Year basically came to an end. The Thunder team used a victory to bring the regular season of the 09-10 season to an end.

In the last one and a half months, the Thunder have already stepped into the range of the playoffs. As long as the other foot is not disabled, it won't be a big problem to step in.

Van Gundy began to pray to God, even though he hadn't been to church in a long time. I hope that those dramatic things can stay away from the Thunder. In the last month and a half, I hope everything goes well.

After the experience of the regular season, the Thunder have already passed the test. (To be continued.)