NBA: Duncan feels uneasy coaching Warriors

Chapter 136 McCollum is here!
Facing Durant's dribble singles, Butler lowered his center of gravity.

Durant is very disdainful, his dry pull is an unsolvable point with a high shot point, and he dares to lower his center of gravity when facing him.

After Butler lowered his center of gravity, Durant was a direct pull.

But when Durant took off, he felt a familiar feeling again.

That is, his lower plate was pushed again, he was at a disadvantage in the mid-air confrontation, and the entire shooting rhythm was disrupted again.

Then Butler directly blocked his face and defended the same style as Iguodala.

Durant, who was full of confidence, never thought that Butler would do this move, and he didn't adapt to the situation.

He actually voted for a three-pointer.

The score is still maintained, Timberwolves 8:2 Thunder.

This is simply outrageous.

Westbrook looked at Durant with a puzzled expression. What's going on with this guy tonight? Can he fight?

But Su Chen on the sidelines had a smile on his face.

Looking at the matchup on the court, this is the effect Su Chen wants.

It is also the second meaning of his asking Butler to defend Gobert.

That is, after Durant finds a pick-and-roll, Butler is the second, the second person who can replace Iguodala to defend Durant.

Butler is often said to be insufficiently talented, and many people also echo what others say. Seeing that Butler is low in the draft, they also say that Butler is insufficiently talented.

But Butler was able to play in the league, and even created a black eight miracle against the Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was almost on the No.1 throne in the active league at the time.

It's not just hard work.

You know, the black eight version of Butler is already a Butler who has had his meniscus removed.

The current Butler can be said to be a Butler whose physical talent has not been weakened in any way.

People's so-called lack of talent for Butler is actually a problem with Butler's static talent.

To put it bluntly, Butler's hands are relatively small in the NBA, and his wingspan is not long.

His height seems to be 2 meters, which seems to be a good height among strikers, but his arms are not thick and his shoulders are not broad.

The reason why Gobert's core strength is so poor, but the quality of pick-and-roll coverage is first-class or even top-notch in the league is because his shoulders are wide and his arms are thick.

The most obvious comparison of this shortcoming is the comparison between him and Leonard. Leonard's shoulders are broad and his hands are long and his palms are big. Butler's arms and palms are a circle smaller than Leonard's.

The difference in this actual combat effect is that Leonard can grab the ball with one hand, he can control the ball with one hand for a layup, or he can control the ball steadily under interference and then score a mid-range shot.

And Butler wanted to make a layup, but the one-handed layup was not stable at all, and a small interference ball would shake and fail to score.

As for the dunk, Butler was unable to complete a one-handed dunk.

This is why Butler was very angry when he saw Wiggins and Downs wasting their talents after arriving in the Timberwolves, and he brought the third team to blow up their starting lineups.

If Butler had the talent of Wiggins, his entire career would be better.

Of course, Butler is actually talented himself.

His strength, speed, jumping are top notch.

Asking him to defend Durant in a conventional way is not very good, but asking him to use the same method as Iguodala just now, he will also be up to the task.

Although his strength is still not as good as Iguodala, Butler is more aggressive than Iguodala on the defensive end.

Although Iguodala can't say that he is paddling, when he needs a support, he will support it.

In normal times, Iguodala's fighting spirit is actually not too strong, and his desire to win or lose ordinary games is not as serious as Butler.

Otherwise, it wouldn't appear. The Grizzlies called Iguodala back to play the game, and Iguodala didn't want to bother.

Directly refused to play for the Grizzlies.

But no matter what, when Iguodala wants to play, his strength is still online.

Just like after being traded to the Heat by the Grizzlies, he never wanted to play the game and helped the Heat reach the finals.

Scott Brooks was very irritable on the sidelines.

Durant has always been an unsolvable presence on the offensive end, but the Timberwolves have Iguodala first and then Butler.

The two did a good job defending Durant.

But the next positional battle of the Timberwolves did not succeed.

The Thunder got the ball again.

Scott Brooks was on the sidelines, yelling at Durant to change his approach.

Durant understood.

This time, Durant still called Gobert's pick-and-roll.

At the same time, before calling the pick-and-roll, he gave Gobert a gesture, and Gobert understood.

Durant intends to give the ball to Gobert, but Gobert can't be too deep. It is at least more stable to use a high position to catch the ball.

Then, making the ball look like Gobert cuts in, Durant will actually run another hand-off to catch the ball and finish it off.

The tactics are like this.

But in actual combat, Su Chen yelled from the sidelines, and the Timberwolves' defensive strategy suddenly changed.

After Durant took the pick-and-roll this time, it wasn't that he switched defenses after the pick-and-roll, but Butler and Iguodala rushed towards Durant at the same time to press.

Both of them knew that Durant's foot was unstable. Butler was responsible for pushing Durant's foot to prevent Durant from starting, and Iguodala was trying to grab the ball in Durant's hands.

Durant was sandwiched into a hamburger by the two, and he couldn't move.

But fortunately, Durant is tall and has a long wingspan, so he still passed in the direction of Gobert.

At this time, both Ibaka and Giannis Antetokounmpo were in charge of this inside sweeping task, and the moment Gobert entered, the two rushed in frantically.

When Gobert caught the ball, he was near the free throw line. He was not sure about the mid-range shot here and needed to go in a few more steps.

But he hasn't taken the ball in yet, and both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ibaka have arrived to help defend.

One left and one right, the two sandwiched Gobert into a hamburger again.

At this time, the Thunder's outside lines are all open.

But there is also a difference in the open position. Reggie Jackson is open but Butler is already running in his direction. Sefolosha is open but Lol Deng is guarding the passing route to Sefolosha.

Only Westbrook was truly emptied.

Westbrook is not completely without three-pointers, his three-pointers are declining year by year, and now Westbrook still has three-pointers.

But in Su Chen's eyes, Westbrook's three-pointer was acceptable.

After all, this is forcing Gobert to make mistakes.

Gobert was double-teamed by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ibaka, and it was already difficult to handle the ball, and Luol Deng kept moving towards him.

It is equivalent to three people double-teaming Gobert.

The peak Gobert can't handle this kind of scene calmly, let alone the current rookie Gobert.

beep!
In a hurry, Gobert walked away and was whistled by the referee.

Gobert looked very annoyed.

After making Gobert a turnover on the offensive end, on the next defensive end.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's singles against Gobert caused Gobert to pay another foul.

This time Giannis Antetokounmpo was aimed at graduating Gobert. It was a mistake to let Gobert defend Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the sensitivity did not match.

Even if Gobert raises his hand and does nothing, Giannis Antetokounmpo can take the ball and touch Gobert for a foul.

This is also Gobert's biggest problem.

As an offensive butter player, a player who relies on defense to gain a foothold, but his defense will often be targeted as a weakness.

Being used as a scope by a first-class shooting guard, being graduated by a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo, and even later Jokic's post-up skills will be graduated.

Gobert is really an embarrassing player.

But Giannis Antetokounmpo's free throws are also a little bit now, walking to the free throw line and making one of two free throws.

Timberwolves 9:2 Thunder.

beep!
Scott Brooks couldn't take it anymore and called a timeout.

This first quarter has only been played for a while, and he has been calling timeouts continuously.

It can be seen that Scott Brooks really has nothing to do now.

But Scott Brooks wasn't in too much of a hurry. Even if the game couldn't be won, it was just an ordinary regular season for the Thunder.

Looks like a race for second place in the West.

But the Timberwolves are a reconstruction team, and it is still quite strenuous to really break into the upper half of the Western Conference.

As for this game, Scott - Brooks has felt that winning or losing is not too important.

From now on, it can be seen that Su Chen came prepared!
Whether it is targeting Durant or Gobert, Su Chen has done a lot of research.

Gobert's aim is still understandable.

After all, he was the one who traded Gobert. He must be aware of Gobert's weaknesses, and it's normal to play against Gobert's weaknesses.

But Durant has played in the league for so many years, and there is no real way to effectively limit Durant.

Su Chen actually put so much effort into researching Durant.

The key is that these are still effective researches, and all of them are effective against Thunder.

Scott Brooks complained in his heart, Su Chen has the time to study the opponents in the lower half of the game, isn't it good?

The overall strength of the Thunder is clearly in the upper half.

But this timeout, Scott - Brooks did not change the new tactics.

First of all, he is not good at adjusting himself, and he can hardly make much tactical changes.

Secondly, there is a way, and he doesn't use it in this game.

As far as Su Chen's research on Lei Ting is concerned, he may not know how deep he has studied it.

At that time, the Thunder's main opponents will learn how to deal with the Thunder, which is not worthwhile.

Su Chen wasn't joking, he really studied how Lei Ting fought.

After returning from a pause.

The Thunder's offense is more conventional.

Even Gobert was replaced by Adams.

Durant didn't play alone anymore. Scott Brooks didn't want Durant to be studied any more, so he simply cut off a certain amount of Durant's ball rights.

Give the ball more to Westbrook, and then Durant plays more off-ball tactics.

Under such circumstances, it was really difficult for Su Chen to catch Durant.

Durant has been turned into an off-ball shooter, so what else?
Do you have to beat Durant down?
But without Durant's large number of singles with the ball, the Thunder is equivalent to playing with a relatively unfamiliar tactical system.

Under such circumstances, the Timberwolves have a great advantage.

Iguodala, Butler, and Giannis Antetokounmpo also played very well at the corner position.

There is almost no need to change too many tactics.

The first quarter is over.

Timberwolves 28:18 Thunder.

The Timberwolves directly took a 10-point lead in the first quarter.

The attention of this game is still quite high, after all, it is broadcast live across the United States.

Everyone felt that this match was either a crushing game for the Thunder, or a close confrontation.

Even a small number of viewers who support the Timberwolves believe that in a close situation, the Timberwolves seized the key opportunity to come back.

But now that the Timberwolves are suppressing the Thunder, it's a bit overwhelming.

It's understandable if the Timberwolves feel too good about three-pointers.

After all, a weak team can defeat a strong team even if the three are separated. The defensive strength in the regular season is not as strong as in the playoffs.

However, the Timberwolves rarely took three-pointers in the first quarter. Most of the goals were made from the inside and mid-range.

The Timberwolves are purely fighting for efficiency, and beat the Thunder like this.

The Thunder's number one star, Durant, only scored an embarrassing 5 points in the first quarter.

A three-pointer who ran off the ball to catch the ball, a cut-in caused a foul, and a free throw scored two points.

This data is very embarrassing.

You know, Durant is still far ahead in the MVP list this season.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this season is Durant's peak season.

Of course, this is also related to the strategy of coach Scott Brooks. After Durant lost a series of offenses at the beginning of the game, he did not allow Durant to carry out a large number of offenses with the ball.

The reason why the Thunder is a strong team is because Durant averaged more than 30 points per game this season.

You can explode high scores at every turn.

When Durant is restricted, the Thunder's firepower is much worse.

And on the commentary stage, it was already very lively.

"What is playing in this game, why is Durant not attacking?"

Johnson said a little puzzled.

"Hey buddy, you are the biggest favorite on the MVP list this season. You can't become a role player running around just because the offense is blocked."

Barkley gestured, shook his head and said.

Although Barkley has never won a championship, he is also an MVP.

In his MVP season, he was almost unstoppable. As long as he wanted to fight the opponent, the opponent needed two people to defend him.

"That's a single defense, Kevin, how could you just stop fighting?"

"Role players will be unable to play and hide in the corner of the team, so they will not be able to compete for MVP."

At this time, O'Neal also looked puzzled.

It can be seen that even O'Neill is a little dissatisfied. Originally, he is a character who likes to be funny.

But now O'Neill's tone is also very serious.

Both he and Barkley have won MVPs. In their star-studded era, it was not easy to grab an MVP.

Which of them can still resolutely attack and score points without carrying two or three people on their backs.

MVP is the biggest difference between superstars and ordinary stars, and the gold content is very high.

This means that in a certain season, you are the strongest basketball superstar in this league and on this planet.

And when a superstar encounters obstacles, would he choose to run away?

"Hey, did the role players mess with you, one role player at a time."

But at this time, Kenny Smith said dissatisfied.

Kenny Smith hasn't even made an All-Star in his career, except for being a rookie first team, he won two championships with Big Dream.

He's a pretty standard role player.

Kenny Smith's joke made the atmosphere a little easier.

At this time, the second quarter of the game began.

Both lineups played.

Minnesota lineup: Mike Muscala (C), Josh Smith (PF), Robert Covington (SF), Khris Middleton (SG), Patrick Beverley (PG).

Thunder lineup: Rudy Gobert (C), Reggie Williams (PF), Caron Butler (SF), CJ McCollum (SG), Derek Fisher (PG) ).

The Timberwolves went straight up and down, and this time they directly pulled ten people into rotation.

As for the Thunder, they took Gobert back again.

The Thunder's bench lineup is also very obvious, which is to play the two points of McCollum and Gobert.

When they were in the Timberwolves before, they were regular partners.

Apparently Thunder wants to give it a try and see if the combination of these two will have a good effect.

After all, their performance in the Timberwolves impressed the Thunder management and they planned to trade them with Ibaka.

At the same time, the audience also cheered up.

After all, after McCollum was traded, he said more than once that he would kick the Timberwolves out of the playoffs.

This game of grievances is also quite interesting.

(End of this chapter)