With three points at the start, Nash begged for a maximum salary to renew his contract

Chapter 279 40!Sweep the Thunder!
Dayao's outburst was like a big move that needs to be read. After the first game, in the second game of the series on May 5, he only played for about 3 minutes and made 14 of 6 shots. , Only 2 points were recorded, the shooting sight was not good, and more importantly, he struggled in the back and forth running.

Seeing this situation, the Rockets decisively replaced Dayao and began to increase the playing time of the death five small lineup.

Due to the addition of one more guard, the Rockets' death five small lineup is no longer appropriate to describe it as a super five frontman, but the average height of the lineup has not been greatly affected.

The Thunder are not a team that is good at attacking inside. Adams is a good player in rebounding, and his offensive ability with the ball is about zero, and his best rebounding is not superior to Wang Chao, who has the talent of a rebounding idiot.

Switching to the ultra-fast offensive and defensive state, the two teams staged an extreme confrontation.

Reasonably speaking, the Thunder are not afraid of small-ball tactics. Westbrook is a master of chaos, and Durant and Ibaka are two big players with good mobility.

In the future, in the 15-16 season, the Warriors, who were invincible in the regular season and won 73 victories, almost overturned in the gutter on the stage of the Western Conference Finals. Breaking the Jordan Bulls' record of 4 wins in the regular season, the Warriors fans who are already in the sky poured a pot of cold water on their heads.

They didn't even realize why the team they were so proud of was beaten by the Thunder with a big score of 3:1?

But Cole saw it, because of the five small lineups of death.

The Warriors' invincible tactics in the regular season are completely ineffective against the Thunder.

You can run, and the Thunder can run better than you. In the fast transition between offense and defense, no one in the Warriors can keep up with Westbrook.

在赢下的三场比赛中，威斯布鲁克分别砍下27分12助攻，33分和36分11篮板11助攻的大号三双。

Fortunately, the Warriors fans didn't understand, but the team's head coach Steve Kerr did.

The Thunder are not afraid of the Warriors' death five small lineup. Westbrook and Durant are both players who are very suitable for small ball offense.

Therefore, in the fifth game of life and death, Cole decisively gave up the death five small lineup and reused Bogut. Bogut, who averaged less than 15 minutes per game in the previous four games, played 30 minutes in this game. Guarding the basket, Westbrook immediately became ineffective.

Westbrook's personal ability is indeed at the top level among defenders in the league, but he has always had a fatal weakness, that is, his lack of three-point shooting ability.

As a guard, especially a guard in the small ball era, not being able to shoot three-pointers is a very fatal weakness, because when the opponent has a heavy center under the basket, Westbrook, who can't make long-range shots, can only play hard. Scalply choose to punch the basket small and fight big.

Bogut's defensive ability at that time was quite strong, and he was selected to the second team of the best defense.

The result was that Westbrook made 28 of 11 shots in the fifth game. Although he still had 31 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, his shooting percentage was less than 40% and he had 7 turnovers. In the next few games, Westbrook There was no shooting percentage of more than 40% in a game, and the performance can only be regarded as mixed.

Then the Thunder was defeated by the Warriors in three consecutive cities, from a 3:1 lead to a 3:4 reversal, which broke the mentality of the Thunder fans and Durant's mentality.

After the end of this season, Durant decisively left the Thunder, chose to embark on an extremely "difficult" path, and joined the Golden State Warriors, which he had witnessed with his own eyes.

Later, many people excused Durant, saying that it was Westbrook's fault that Durant gave up on himself and joined the Warriors. Durant will not necessarily run to the Warriors.

But in Wang Chao's view, this statement is a bit unreasonable.

To be honest, Westbrook's performance in the last three games of the Western Conference Finals was a bit hip, but did you perform well in Durant?

G5: 31 of 12 shots, 38.7% shooting.

G6: 31 of 10 shots, 32.3% shooting.

G7：19投10中，命中率52.6%，倒是终于回归正常发挥了，但全场也不过27分7篮板3助攻。

If Fan Fan, like the bald man in the East, can score 1+ points in two consecutive games in G3 and G5 in the finals 6:40 in the finals, and the shooting percentage can still be maintained at about 55%, then the Warriors Are you going home early?
The result is good. The Curry fans behind discuss the strongest argument when Curry is better than James. The topic of winning James 3 times in the finals is the result of arguing with Durant fans. 17, 18 Warriors It is a question of who the boss is.

For the Warriors at that time, whether it was signing any All-Star player at the small forward position, such as Paul George, Jimmy Butler, or even renewing Harrison Barnes, the Cavaliers may not be the opponent. After all, 16 The 1:3 comeback in the finals in 19 took advantage of the right time, place and people. If it were to start again, it would be difficult for the Cavaliers to reproduce that comeback. The two consecutive championships still belong to the Warriors, even if Durant was not injured in [-] years Affected by the incident, it is not impossible for the Warriors to win three consecutive championships.

As for the Houston Rockets, the winner of the Best Fighting Bravery Award in those two years, it might not be impossible to win without Durant. It was a win with a score of more than two digits. On the contrary, the Rockets won 4 games, and 3 games were within 3 points. Therefore, the two teams seem to be evenly matched, but in fact there is still a big gap in strength. Even if Durant is replaced by an All-Star small forward who averages 2+ points per game, he is very likely to beat the Rockets.

Off topic.

Back in the game, with the small ball lineup facing each other, Westbrook and Durant both scored 30+ points for the Thunder, and their shooting percentages were also very high.

But the Rockets are not the Warriors, and their small ball tactics are fundamentally different from the Warriors. The biggest difference is the existence of the main core offensive player Wang Chao.

While the three-pointer is more accurate than Curry, Wang Chao is taller and stronger than Curry. His ability to break through and hit the basket with the ball surpasses Curry, and he is even faster than Curry in terms of speed!
When the Thunder faced the Warriors, they could ask Westbrook to mark Curry, but facing the Rockets' Wang Chao, they had no choice but to watch Wang Chao scoring like cutting melons and vegetables.

继首场比赛象征性的砍下29分后，第二场比赛王超强势爆发，全场31投18中，砍下46分14篮板10助攻的超级大号三双，率领火箭127：119击败雷霆，总比分2:0领先。

On May 5th, the third game of the series, the Thunder, who are at their home court, really wanted to win the next game at home. They did come close to winning this game, but it was a pity that they missed So a little bit.

In this game, not only Durant and Westbrook played normally, but the Thunder's backup shooting guard Jeremy Lamb also had a divine help, scoring 6 points on 5 of 25 three-pointers.

But even so, the Thunder still struggled to win. They were always in the lead in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, the situation took a turn for the worse. Wang Chao scored consecutively at the last moment, and the Thunder needed Durant to stand. When he came out to score, the latter missed key shots again and again.

With 37 seconds left before the end of the game, Wang Chao made a three-pointer from outside the three-point line with the help of his teammate's pick-and-roll cover, officially helping the team lead by one point.

Then Durant's mid-range jumper was interfered by Leonard and missed the frame. Wang Chao protected the rebound. With less than 1 seconds left in the game when he was behind by 20 point, the Thunder had no choice but to choose a tactical foul to send Wang Chao up. free throw line.

Wang Chao, who made 2 free throws, made the difference to 3 points.

The Thunder struggled a bit over who would make the final shot, and finally chose to believe in Durant, the strongest scorer in the team, instead of handing it over to Lamb, who was the most accurate three-pointer in the entire game.

As a result, Durant missed a difficult three-pointer outside the three-point line, ruining the team's last chance to comeback.

113:116, the Rockets won another game, the total score came to 3:0, and the Thunder were swept away.

In fact, at the last moment of the third game, Durant cannot be completely blamed for his repeated misses.

Originally, Durant has always had the problem of lack of physical fitness. He played very well in this game. He scored 32 points in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, the fatigue accumulated in front began to make his shots hit. The rate began to decline, after all, Durant's opponent was Leonard.

Wang Chao has never faced Durant directly in this round of the series, even if he can be regarded as the player who is most "familiar" with Durant and has the best defensive effect on him, there is not even one of them.

But the Thunder itself is not the opponent of the Rockets, not even a "strong rival". It is just right to train other players, and the current score of 3:0 also proves the gap between the two teams.

With the game already 3:0, in fact, Wang Chao is not too persistent about whether he can win the Thunder in the fourth game. Even if the game is tactically let go, it is not a bad idea to return to his home court and beat the opponent.

It's just that Wang Chao thinks so, Dayao doesn't think so.

On the one hand, he doesn't want to cause trouble, on the other hand, Perkins' revenge is not over yet!
On May 5th, the CD of the big move was transferred to two games. Yao, who had finished the cooldown reading, opened up again. He scored 9 points, 27 rebounds and 10 blocks in the game, helping the Rockets beat the Thunder 3:108 to complete Thunder's 101:4 sweep.

The Thunder became the second team to be swept by the Rockets this season.

This series can be called an offensive battle between the two teams, and the players on both sides scored very high.

王超场均34.3分11.6篮板10.3助攻的场均三双数据十分豪华且夸张，而雷霆队那边杜兰特也不遑多让，4场比赛场均31.7分8篮板3.3助攻，单方面打爆了与他对位的伦纳德。

Facts have proved that although Leonard is unique in the league with one trick of death entanglement, he is better than him in height and wingspan. Durant, whose main offensive method is mid-range shooting, the effect is still greatly weakened.

威斯布鲁克的效率也不算低，虽然有1场比赛投篮命中率稍显拉胯，但4场比赛场均26分7篮板11助攻已经有了连续三个赛季场均三双王的影子。

In the final analysis, the Thunder's lineup structure is too thin, lacking a sufficiently rigorous core of the tactical system, and only frequent singles around Durant and Westbrook have become the main reason for limiting the team's upper limit.

Originally, the Thunder had an optimal solution to this problem, and that was Harden, the best sixth man on the bench.

When Durant and Westbrook's ball-holding singles can't solve the problem, Harden, who comes off the bench, can often control the game with his personal ability, organize and connect the team, and help the team win many games.

It's a pity that the Thunder sent away this optimal solution in vain. It can only be said that time is fate.

With the current salary space of the Thunder, it is unlikely that the No.3 star will be introduced next season to expand the team lineup. After that, it can only be driven by the dual-core of Durant and Westbrook, and the playoffs may still be difficult. As a matter of fact, there is a high probability that Durant will still run away with a bucket, but it is hard to say whether he will take the most "difficult" road this time.

After all, when Wang Chao was born, the two players who suffered the most were James and Durant.

What should have been four MVPs and two championships has now become one MVP and one championship.

Another four scoring champions plus an MVP should have nothing now.

Durant is empty-handed. Apart from a few best teams and an All-Star MVP, Durant has no hard honors. Wang Chao is really not sure whether his pursuit of the championship is still the same as before.

(End of this chapter)