start with scouting

Chapter 710 The Sky Is Blue
According to the schedule, NO.14 will start the first game of the playoffs, the king will have a day off, and NO.13 will resume joint training.

Assemble at the training base in the morning, the whole team first practices shooting for a while as a warm-up, and then conducts a pre-match video conference.

Curry and Brogdon also came to participate. According to team doctor Kaufman, the two have recovered from their injuries and may return early.Su Yang felt a little relieved when he heard the words. As long as Curry can run on the court, even if he stands in the bottom corner and smokes, someone will hand him an ashtray.

In short, the library has gravity, and it is by no means a false name.

Cousins ​​continued to serve as the video coordinator, and excitedly introduced to the king: I edited half of the film.

Su Yang took advantage of the situation to give a few compliments, and then turned to speak in a high-profile manner.

"It's not that I look down on the Thunder, but it's really easy to play against the Thunder. All of their offensive routines are very basic, and we can easily predict them. As long as we do a good job of defense, I'm conservative and say that within six games Take it!"

In the first round of previous years, Su Yang has never been so high-profile. This year, the main three main players were injured. It is necessary to let the players go crazy.

Anyway, it is to minimize the psychological impact of the main player being absent due to injury, and don't have the idea that the main player can lose because of an injury.

During the conversation, assistant coach Mike Brown continued to speak.

"Westbrook's three-point shooting percentage this season is only 29.8%, and his average playing time has risen from 34.5 minutes to 36.7 minutes. The Thunder relies too much on Westbrook, so our defensive strategy focuses on preventing Westbrook from breaking through. Although his shooting percentage at the basket is mediocre, we must insist on encircling and intercepting, so that it is difficult for him to shoot or pass the ball easily..."

Westbrook is still averaging a triple-double this season.
But the degree of shock brought to the fans has been greatly reduced. The main record and efficiency are very average. The overall shooting rate is 42.5%, which is really not in line with the status of the new MVP. The key free throw shooting rate is only 73.7%, and he can even be cut at critical moments.

Assistant coach Di Brown continued to speak.

"From the observation of the entire regular season, the Thunder's performance in defending the pick-and-roll is relatively poor. After entering April, they began to use a large number of strategies to switch defenses from positions 1-5, especially testing the breakthrough and passing ability of the ball holder. , we are not afraid of that, but we need to run up, let him pay the price for the defense strategy, and when there is room to shoot, we must be decisive!"

Su Yang nodded while listening.

Part of the reason why the Thunder adopted a defensive strategy when facing pick-and-rolls is that Westbrook’s defense against pick-and-rolls is relatively poor. According to the statistics of SportsVU data company, Westbrook ranks 32nd in the efficiency of defending pick-and-rolls in the league, which is the worst. .

Why is it so bad?

First of all, he doesn't like to move, the offensive task is too heavy, his physical strength is quite exhausted, his consciousness is also lazy, and it is very troublesome to cross the wall.

Second, he likes to shrink inside early and wants to rush to the basket to grab rebounds. Coach Donovan is used to him and instead arranges for delays in switching defenses.

As for off-ball defense, let alone talk about it.

"Westbrook is our breakthrough point. We must focus on him for offense and defense. I hope he will stay on the court!"

After Su Yang's voice fell, the king's generals burst into laughter. The atmosphere was not like a video analysis meeting, but more like a talk show performance.

Hope an MVP player stays on the court all the time.

What a crap that is.

The offensive and defensive strategies are established, and the corresponding training will be carried out accordingly. Payton Jr. plays the role of Westbrook, the top iron, and has been making breakthroughs.

While the training was going on, the major media and fans from all walks of life made predictions about the matchup between the Kings and the Thunder.

What's more embarrassing is that ESPN collected 24-hour votes, and the participating users were overwhelmingly optimistic about the Kings. Even with the Kings' three main players injured and absent, most of them believed that the Kings would end the battle within six games and advance easily.

Among ESPN's 21 experts, except for Kevin Arnolds from Oklahoma, the other 20 are optimistic about the Kings.

Commentator Bill Simmons tweeted and joked: "This vote did not give a subdivided reason. It is difficult for us to figure out that everyone is so unanimously optimistic about the king. Is it because they can always trust Su Yang, or because they can never trust Weiss Brooke."

It took only one minute for the tweet to be sent. Durant liked it, then quickly canceled it, and then liked it again.

Some fans speculated about its psychological motivation: For the first time, they thought that the Thunder could not win without Westbrook, but they realized that it was not appropriate to slander their former teammates, so they chose to cancel, but found that there was still an option to believe in Su Yang forever. It can be used to cover up, so I chose to like it again.Durant quickly responded: You guys really like to guess wildly.

NO.14 of the next day, the first round of the first round of the playoffs between the Kings and the Thunder started at the Gold One Center in Saskatchewan.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Su Yang rushed to the arena, arranged the training content as usual, and then went to the media center for pre-match interviews.

The team reporter Lindsay first asked: "How do you see that the fans and commentators all think that the Kings will win easily?"

Su Yang thought for a moment, then smiled: "Everyone should be optimistic about the depth of our lineup. We have Lopez and Giannis on the inside, Jeff Green and Covington on the front line, LaVine and Rose on the outside line, and Tatum and others. Very good…”

It's really not a joke, just Lopez + Antetokounmpo + LaVine is a strong lineup that can make the playoffs.With the addition of high-quality substitutes such as Rose, Covington and Grant, as well as Tatum's super-strength rookie, there is no problem playing against the Thunder.

The real challenge is the second round, against the Spurs who have a high probability of advancing, that is a healthy Leonard + Alder.

At that time, even if Curry and Brogdon could play, it would not be easy to win, and the depth of the Spurs' lineup was terrible.

At 07:30 in a blink of an eye, the game started.

The national anthem was played, the opening performance, the appearance ceremony, and the three consecutive pre-match shows were completed, and the audience stood up and shouted in unison.

Curry took the microphone and walked to the middle circle to stand still, raised his left hand and waved in greeting, "Good evening, welcome to the Golden One Center, we are about to start the playoffs after today, with your company, we are full of motivation, just like As you can see, we have encountered some troubles recently, but we have Giannis, we have coach Su Yang, and I will return to the court soon. I hope you will join us and enjoy a different rhythm of the game than in previous years. Let us Cheers to every action, we are the champions!"

"Yeah!"

Cheers resounded throughout the arena, the surrounding lights were turned on, and the whistle sounded. The two teams entered the field first, and the game was about to start.

The Thunder started with five players, namely Westbrook, Oladipo, Robertson, Taj Gibson, and Adams.

The king's starting five are Payton Jr., Tatum, Jeff Green, Antetokounmpo, and Lopez.

Su Yang clenched his fist at Payton Jr. to encourage him, and Payton Jr. nodded firmly, recalling what Su Yang told him before the game: "This time you are allowed to start, and the task is to limit Westbrook. This is your reputation. , the chance to get a big contract..."

Once Curry returns, it will be difficult for Payton Jr. to appear again. This round against the Thunder is his best stage.

A short whistle blew and the announcer yelled for a jump ball.

The referee threw the ball into the air casually, Adams jumped back and touched the ball first, then moved back with force, and the basketball flew straight into the Thunder's half court.

Westbrook raised his hand to catch the ball, jumped up with his right hand and replaced his left hand with his crotch, and walked forward bouncingly, the whole person was very excited.

Sitting on the sidelines, Chinese stars such as Jin Fu and Yi Feng, who came here to watch the game, saw Westbrook's appearance and complained one after another.

"Hey, Westbrook is looking forward to the game!"

"He's the type of player who's down 30 points and gets excited about one dunk, no depression module."

"You mean Mark Jackson, trailing by 31 points, scoring two points, yelling at the opponent that we are unstoppable!"

On the court, the Thunder started with a triangle conduction, and the basketball was given to Adams on the left waist, obviously wanting to attack from the inside.

However, Lopez's confrontation is average, but Adams' footwork and skills are also average. He relies on turning around and hooking after hitting, and strikes like iron.

The Kings grabbed a rebound and counterattacked, Tatum dribbled the ball across the center line, played a pick-and-roll with Lopez on the left wing, and the Thunder switched defenses.

That kind of defensive strategy can't be said to be very similar to what the Kings said in the video conference analysis before the game, but it can only be said to be exactly the same.

Tatum immediately pulled the ball away, created space for sprinting, suddenly lowered his shoulders, and rushed to the left to the basket.

Robertson, who was in the Thunder's weak side corner, quickly shrank and intercepted. Tatum stopped suddenly and raised his hand to throw the ball to the right corner. However, Oladipo had quick eyes and quick hands, and abruptly rushed the ball in front of Jeff Green. The ball is thrown out of bounds and the referee blows his whistle.

Kings frontcourt.

Su Yang got up to set up corner kick tactics, played Stack pick-and-roll, and praised Oladipo as the best first-defense player in his heart.

The players took their positions and stood, and the referee whistled the ball to time it. Payton Jr. used the cover of Lopez from the right elbow to go straight to the left bottom corner, providing an open threat to catch the ball and distracting defenders. Big Lopez really ran to the right wing to catch the ball.

Antetokounmpo entered the court and rushed to the basket simultaneously after serving the ball, providing lobs and threats to the basket, and scattered the defenders again. At the same time, Jeff Green used Tatum to cover and went straight to the 45-point line on the left, providing a long-distance open reception. The ball threatens and distracts defenders.

In a blink of an eye, only Lopez and Tatum were left on the right side of the king. The basketball was passed to Tatum, and Lopez slipped the fake pick-and-roll and really went down.Adams thought it was a real pick-and-roll, and delayed Tatum according to his habit, invisibly missing Lopez.

The basketball flew straight to the basket, and Lopez kicked off the ground, and with a bang, he dunked alley-oops, which was not as difficult as the training game.

"Cow! This tactical bull!"

"Boss Su is a god!"

"I saw a bunch of people gathered here, and thought it was a starburst tactic. I still underestimated Boss Su's tactical guidance!"

The offensive and defensive transition on the court, Westbrook dribbled the ball across the half court, and Oladipo used the left corner to use the WIDE screen to lift up, took advantage of the opportunity to catch the ball and shot a long two-pointer, and the basketball hit the iron.The whole tactic is very simple, and Walton also likes to use it in the Lakers.

However, the simpler the tactic, the more powerful the players are, just like the short corners relying on the cover to catch the ball and rely on hitting. For so many years in the entire league, McGrady and Durant have used it more. Both of them have long arms and long arms. Legs, mid-range shots and three-pointers.

The Kings counterattacked with a rebound, and Tatum rushed to the top of the frontcourt with the ball, and directly cooperated with Antetokounmpo for a pick-and-roll screen.

However, the two didn't communicate well. Brother Antetokounmpo turned around and cut in too fast, and the cover hadn't worked yet.

Tatum was indeed just as well. Seeing Gibson retreating, he immediately took off with the ball and made a shot, but he made a three-point shot.

Unexpectedly, most players of the two teams did not expect to make this three-pointer, and only Payton rushed to the basket alone.

Seeing that the basketball was about to fly out of the baseline, Payton Jr. flew to make a save, twisted in the air and passed it to Lopez who followed up.

At that moment, Westbrook was still standing on the three-point line.

Daluo took the ball from a short corner on the left and turned around to observe. Suddenly, he raised his hand and passed a long pass to the right wing. Green caught the ball and faced Robertson, but did not dare to play.

But Payton Jr. ran back to the field and quietly slipped along the baseline to the left corner, and Westbrook didn't pay attention and was looking at Green.

Green threw the ball to the bottom corner, Payton Jr. received the ball wide open, Robertson rushed up unwillingly, and the basketball flew back to the right wing.

After all, people are not as fast as the ball.

Green raised his hand and threw a three-pointer, and the basketball went into the net hollow.

"Westbrook, ahahaha!"

"Hey, Master Wei, just hit like this!"

"On the contrary, I think it's not good. Westbrook's distracted game at the beginning will often get back on track because it's too outrageous..."

(End of this chapter)