The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 73 Silky Turn Around
The Pepsi Center in Denver is arguably the highest altitude stadium in the NBA.

The thin air on the plateau, the crazy fans at home, and the high-decibel boos all made this place the famous home of the devil.

It is obviously not good news for the Thunder to come here for an important game like the Christmas game, which is broadcast live across the United States.

Sure enough, at the very beginning of the game, the Thunder fell into a disadvantage.

Tonight, the Thunder's lineup has not changed much. Ibaka returned to the bench again, with Green as the starting power forward.

Starting lineup: Westbrook, Sefolosha, Durant, Green and Lip.

For the Nuggets, the starting lineup is: Chauncey Billups, JR Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Nene Hilario.

At the beginning of the game, it was not Anthony who led the Nuggets to attack first, but Billups.

He was obviously a point guard, but he scored consecutive points as soon as he came up, and the Nuggets were also led by him, taking the initiative from the very beginning.

This time, the Nuggets attacked again. After the pick-and-roll, Billups was on the move, and after attracting the defense, he distributed the ball to JR on the outside. JR pulled up and shot. middle!

But the rebound was dialed out by Nene.

Although the Thunder has Li Pu inside, Li Pu is not a god after all. Facing the two-man duo of Martin and Nene, Li Pu is very difficult to fight.

No matter whether it was Li Pu or Green, the weight of the two of them could not be compared with the two of them. At least Li Pu still had height. What about Green?nothing!

Therefore, it is very difficult to play inside.

After the rebound was dialed out by Nene, it fell into the hands of Anthony.

Anthony feinted a shot, and after flying Durant, he took a step forward, and then hit a mid-range jumper.

At the beginning of the game tonight, Anthony was not in very good condition, making two shots and making zero shots, which is why it was Billups who provoked the main offense after the opening game.

But for a star of Anthony's level, who can be sure that he will not be in a good state overnight?
And with Anthony hitting the shot, it was clear to everyone that the offensive kaleidoscope was back.

At this time, the score on the court had reached 24:16, and the Thunder fell behind by 8 points.

It was the Thunder's turn to attack again.

Durant was extremely excited to face Anthony.

Many people don't know that Durant faced Anthony in his first game in the NBA.

In that game, Anthony almost beat Durant to the ground.

So much so that when Durant finished the game and got on the plane, he was still very confused, and even had a question in his heart: Is this like this every night in the NBA?

It is yes to beat the children out of the psychological shadow.

Therefore, in the following games, whenever he meets Anthony, Durant will go all out to try to get out of this shadow.

After getting the ball, Durant first used his most proficient drag step to change direction, and then took a double crossover. With his excellent body and ball-handling skills, he usually either has shooting space after using this trick. Either have breakthrough space.

And right now, he has them all!
So, I saw Durant directly chose a dry jumper.

With a height of 211cm (Durant: I said, I am 206cm!), Durant's outside jumper is generally difficult to be blocked, and Anthony is naturally not good.

"Shua!" Durant hit a jumper and helped the Thunder score 2 points.

Anthony has never been a player known for his defense. Facing Durant, who is himself a top scorer, it is indeed difficult for him to completely defend the opponent.

However, when it comes to the offensive end, Anthony's performance is worthy of his superstar title.

Facing Durant's defense, after Anthony received the ball, he made continuous small changes of direction. Compared with Durant's large changes of direction, Anthony's performance seemed more arbitrary.

It has to be said that Durant's footsteps move very quickly. Even in the face of Anthony's continuous changes of direction, he can still follow Anthony closely without giving the opponent any breakthrough space.

However, if Anthony can be defended just like this, then he is not called an offensive kaleidoscope.

I saw that after Anthony changed direction continuously, he suddenly took a quick turn and dribble, as if he had passed Durant's defense all at once.

Seeing this, Durant quickly took a step back, but Anthony quickly took a step back, and he finally created a shooting space for him.

It was too late to say it, and after Anthony got a little space, he immediately chose a mid-range jumper.

Durant also reacted quickly, using his long arm to interfere immediately.

But unfortunately, Anthony completed the shot before he arrived, and the basketball went into the net hollowly, and Anthony's touch has begun to heat up.

The Thunder attacked, and this time they still handed the ball to Durant.

Durant wanted to return an answer ball, but unfortunately, the basketball went out of the basket and missed!
At 26:18, the Thunder were still 8 points behind.

It was the turn of the Nuggets to attack again.

This time the Thunder defended Anthony very tightly and did not give him the slightest chance to catch the ball.

However, it's hard to get Billups.

I saw that after he called the pick-and-roll, he let Anthony go down, easily allowing Anthony to get a chance to catch the ball in the low post, and because the Thunder changed defenses, this time, Anthony's defender was replaced by Li Pu.

Under normal circumstances, playing small and big is to pull the ball out and use the speed to eat it raw.

But Anthony didn't this time.

After he gets the ball 10 feet to the left of the face frame, he bends over in his classic triple-threat stance.

It can be said that in this place, no one in the league has a more lethal triple threat than him.

Li Pu also knew this, so he defended very carefully, lowered his center of gravity, and constantly confronted Anthony.

Anthony used his head to open the way, and at the same time made tentative steps from a small angle, which was very confusing.

Just when the two seemed to be still fighting, Anthony suddenly moved.

He made a sudden inward cut near the left corner and successfully attracted Li Pu's defense. Then, Anthony turned around suddenly and easily left Li Pu behind.

I have to say that Anthony's turn is very smooth, and it is a pleasure to watch his breakthrough.

After successfully throwing Li Pu behind, Anthony took two steps at a time and directly chose a layup.

There is no difficulty in this kind of layup that is close at hand.

However, when Anthony threw the ball and watched the basketball climb up bit by bit, suddenly a big hand appeared in the air, and slapped the basketball away without mercy.

The person who came was Li Pu who had been left behind by Anthony.

This speed, this bounce, and this wingspan amazed Anthony.

Li Pu's horizontal cap, the basketball fell into the hands of Durant.

Durant sprinted with the ball, rushed towards the frontcourt, then faced JR's defense, and easily dunked!

At 26:20, the Thunder will also start to exert their strength.

(End of this chapter)