Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 184 KD didn't understand how strong the Grizzlies were

Durant ran from the weak side to the strong side, and jumped up with his back to the basket in the low post on the strong side to catch the ball.

Hansen tried to cut the ball when Durant received it, but failed.

But he followed suit and maintained his defensive position.

Although Durant has not developed his passing ability, his ability to play one-on-one with the ball, especially in the low post, has improved greatly compared to last season.

Durant turned around and made a triple threat, and Hansen attacked the lower three routes to put pressure on him, but Durant went to the left, protected the ball sideways and quickly passed the ball, directly crossing Hansen's baseline and making a quick breakthrough.

When he was in rampage state, his speed became much faster.

Han Sen was passed by at this time, but he was not in a hurry. Instead, he blocked Durant's passing angle and drove him to the basket.

In the past, when Hansen was defending, he wanted to rely on his personal ability to solve the problem, but after playing with the Lakers, he preferred to cooperate with Gasol Jr.

That will not only improve the success rate of defense, but more importantly, it will greatly reduce physical energy consumption.

Of course, this defensive method is only aimed at players with poor or average passing ability.

Durant falls squarely into this category.

Durant broke through to the basket, but due to his limited acceleration distance and facing Gasol, who is 2 meters tall and has a wingspan of 16 meters, he was unable to finish attacking the basket.

After turning around and seeing that Hansen had blocked his passing route, he forced a pull-up shot against Gasol Jr.

Unfortunately, he is not Kobe, and his excessive height became a disadvantage at this time. His slightly funny shot finally hit the basket frame and was called out of bounds.

Durant looked very upset.

The feeling of getting ready only to end up chopping the air with your sword is too depressing.

What made him even more annoyed was that after seeing the referee's gesture, Han Sen actually clapped in front of him!

Is this how your family treats your good brothers?

The Grizzlies continued to play high and low post, Gasol Jr. turned around and broke through and passed the ball to Gay.

After receiving the ball, Gay successfully shook off Durant with a fake three-point shot, dribbled forward one step and made a quick stop and shot from mid-range.

At this time, the difference in defense between the two sides was also reflected.

The Thunder is still at the stage of relying on the individual defensive abilities of role players to support the team's defense, and does not have a mature defensive system.

After being given more offensive roles, Westbrook and Durant's defense has declined significantly this season.

Once they are passed, the subsequent defense can easily fail to keep up.

Looking back, Durant continued to position himself against Hansen in the low post.

After losing ground on both offense and defense, he wanted to get it back.

But he didn't get that opportunity, because after being chased by points continuously, Westbrook said he wanted to stand up on his own!
He made another zombie pull-up shot after the strong-side pick-and-roll.

But this time, goddess luck was not on his side, and the ball was obviously too short.

He was also aware of the situation. After judging where the basketball would land, he quickly jumped up to grab the frontcourt rebound and proceed with a second attack.

Although his shooting accuracy is not very good, you can always believe in his passion for the game.

However, his sideways layup was blocked directly on the backboard by Gasol Jr.

It's not easy to score in the Grizzlies' paint.

Gasol Jr. took the defensive rebound and passed it to Conley.

Conley's shot suddenly accelerated the pace of the game and quickly moved the game forward.

Although the lineup is the same, the Grizzlies' current playing style is obviously different from the Hollins era's dead-pressure style.

This change in rhythm caught the Thunder off guard.

After reaching the frontcourt, Gasol Jr. took advantage of the Thunder's unstable defense and set up a pick-and-roll wall for Conley.

Conley quickly accelerated and broke through the basket. After attracting Ibaka's help defense, he jumped up and passed the ball to Randolph who was already in the frontcourt. Randolph easily made two points in the unguarded basket.

6 is better than 5!

After the Thunder got off to a perfect start, the Grizzlies immediately returned the favor with a 6-0 run!

During this climax, the Grizzlies scored all the goals in running games and all of them had assists.

What’s more worth mentioning is that Han Sen hasn’t scored yet!
Team basketball may not necessarily be superior to talent-based basketball, but highly talented team basketball is very scary.

The Grizzlies don't have any S-level talent except Hansen, but they have an S with 4A, and such talent is scary enough.

At this time, Joerger stood up and went to the sidelines. At his signal, Gasol Jr. prepared to double-team Durant.

He keenly captured the fact that the Thunder's touch had declined.

Westbrook reacted quickly at this time and passed the ball to Ibaka, who made a mid-range jump shot.

It was a good opportunity, but unfortunately it missed the basket due to the interference of Gasol Jr.'s return defense.

However, this ball was a long rebound and was grabbed by Ibaka again, who turned around and passed it back to Westbrook.

Westbrook confidently backed down Conley, then turned around and made another zombie pull-up shot.

"when!"

Three Yangs turn into two irons.

Kobe once said that Westbrook is the most like him in the league. It can be said that he is very accurate in judging people.

Gasol Jr. got another defensive rebound.

And the Grizzlies played fast again. This time, Hansen ran out from the outside, received a long pass from Gasol Jr. in the backcourt, accelerated to get rid of Sefolosha, and scored the first point of the night with a gliding dunk in a fast break.

8:5.

The Grizzlies' counterattack continues.

Brooks stood up and called a timeout.

"How did they make it to the Western Conference Finals?" Barkley started to get angry in the commentary booth.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. From the opening, the pressure this Thunder team put on the Grizzlies was obviously less than that of the Lakers, no, even less than that of the Mavericks.

"They eliminated the Clippers 4-1 and then defeated the Spurs." As one of the Big Three, Kenny Smith is not as capable as Barkley and O'Neal, but fortunately he is versatile.

"That kid who can only dunk? And the Spurs who I played with when I was playing with the Lakers?" O'Neal also started.

Although this statement sounds annoying, compared to the opponents the Grizzlies faced in the first two rounds, the Thunder's journey to the Western Conference Finals was indeed much easier.

After the timeout, Durant continued to receive the ball in the low post.

He turned around to face Hansen and made a pull-up jump shot after a triple threat.

His choice of this ball was much more correct than the previous ones. Instead of going in and being double-teamed, it was better to just shoot on the spot.

After all, in terms of talent, Han Sen is not as good as him.

Han Sen failed to cut the ball, so he jumped up and tried to interfere.

But this kind of ball allowed Durant to pull it up, and the rest depends on Durant's touch.

"when!"

Durant's shot also ended in failure.

He hasn't touched the ball in so long.

Gasol got another rebound. Judging from the situation tonight, he is going to get 20+ rebounds!
However, Brooks should have emphasized retreating, as the Thunder did not allow the Grizzlies to launch another fast break.

After Conley arrived at the frontcourt, he played pick-and-roll with Gasol. After breaking through to the high post, he wanted to pass the ball to Gay in the corner, but the ball was touched by Ibaka's long arms and finally grabbed by Sefolosha. The Thunder played a defensive counterattack for the first time tonight, two against one in the frontcourt. Durant received the pass from Sefolosha, jumped high and sent the ball into the basket against Hansen's defense.

After scoring the goal, Durant waved his fist and looked extremely excited.

This was his first score of the night, but more importantly, he scored it over Han Sen's head!
Conley then indicated to Hansen that it was his problem.

Han Sen nodded to indicate that he was fine. When he turned around and was running to receive the ball, he found that his defender had become Durant.

Durant clapped his hands and excitedly shouted to him, "Come on!"

That ball just now really made him climax.

Han Sen couldn't hold it back.

When playing against the Lakers, he had to think about how to wear down Kobe in the first three quarters, but when playing against the Thunder, he really only needed one sentence to Durant, and any more would be redundant.

To be honest, the Thunder's dependence on Durant is even greater than the Lakers' dependence on Kobe.

Hansen changed directions continuously, and then with a Buddha bow, he made Durant jump up.

Durant's defense now has the flavor of Rockets' McGrady.

After Hansen broke in, he encountered Ibaka's help defense. He passed the ball to Marc Gasol at the free throw line without looking at him, and Gasol made an open mid-range shot.

10 to 7, the Grizzlies continue to lead.

Although Barkley and O'Neal's predictions are indeed for show, it cannot be said that there is little hope of defeating the Grizzlies by singles, but it can only be said that it is impossible.

Brooks realized this belatedly.

After a dead ball occurred on the court, a short whistle sounded on the sidelines and Harden came on to replace Westbrook.

After Harden came up, he organized the offense. Durant took advantage of Ibaka's screen to receive the ball. After receiving the ball, he made a jump shot facing Gasol who was assisting in defense.

Although Durant has strengthened his ball-handling offense this season, this type of off-ball tactic of catching the ball and shooting directly is his basic strategy and is basically undefended.

Of course, it can also be seen that compared to Westbrook, Harden is the one who can help Durant to output steadily in positional battles.

Brook's substitution can be said to be quite appropriate, because if Westbrook cannot launch a defensive counterattack, his role on the court will not be obvious.

Gasol Jr. assisted from the high position and assisted Gay to score a layup.

12 to 9, the Grizzlies still maintain the lead.

The Thunder continued to play positional defense in the frontcourt. This time, taking advantage of Durant's opportunity to distract the defense, Harden suddenly accelerated to the basket, made a layup with a European step over Randolph, and caused Gasol to commit a foul in the rebound.

Harden's performance was crucial to the Thunder's victory over the Spurs. It would not be an exaggeration to say that without Harden's performance, the Grizzlies would be facing the Spurs now.

Harden's free throw, Durant stood at the free throw line and said to Han Sen on the opposite side: "Is this all you can do? Or do you only rely on your teammates?"

Durant browses social media every day, so he can easily use Kobe fans' rhetoric.

"I'm disappointed. What you said just now has lowered your status in my heart." Han Sen's answer stunned Durant.

"I thought you were much better than those Kobe fans." Hansen's second sentence made Durant feel like he was being spied on.

What Durant didn't know was that even though he had 58 small accounts and earned a lot of black fans on social media, Hansen only regarded himself as a vice goat on social media.

After all, he greatly admired Durant's spirit of typing away on the keyboard until late at night.

Harden made the free throw and the score was tied at 12.

The cheers of Oklahoma City fans began to ring out again.

Han Sen started holding the ball.

Gasol mentioned the high-post pick-and-roll, and Hansen was mismatched against Ibaka and then made a big change of direction and passed through.

Ibaka's defensive strength lies in assisting and blocking shots, and his one-on-one defense ability is actually not that strong.

Then, before Perkins turned around, Hansen made a quick stop and shot.

Although he didn't attack much in the opening, his touch was not bad tonight.

The Grizzlies took the lead again.

And Durant's trash talk also made the Grizzlies start to increase their defensive intensity.

Conley tried his best to stop Harden's breakthrough, and Hansen also closely guarded Durant to limit his receiving the ball.

Harden barely broke through and passed the ball to Sefolosha, but Gay flew back to defend and interfered, and Sefolosha's next three-point attempt missed the basket.

Gasol continued to collect rebounds, and Hansen continued to hold the ball in the frontcourt.

It was still the same pick-and-roll tactic, and Sefolosha made a beautiful move this time. The "Swiss Army Knife" not only achieved a career-high three-point shooting percentage this season, but was also selected to the All-Defensive Second Team.

However, Han Sen accelerated and broke through in advance. Although he went around quickly, he was still too late.

Seeing this, Durant came over to help defend.

Han Sen saw that Durant seemed to be going head-on, so when the two got close, he raised his hand and passed the ball to the bottom corner without even looking at him. Gay received the ball and shot a three-pointer.

The score difference has reached 5 points in a blink of an eye.

When Durant saw that the momentum was not right, he ran directly to the top of the arc to receive the ball.

Han Sen defended closely, and the two of them were one on one.

Durant chose to take a quick stop jump shot from the left.

Hansen was very focused on defense at this time, and Durant was unable to completely shake him off.

Moreover, when Durant shot, Gasol Jr. also rushed out to assist in defense, and Durant missed the shot under the double-team.

This time it was Randolph who grabbed the rebound.

The Grizzlies advanced to the frontcourt, and Hansen and Randolph played pick-and-roll.

It’s just that after breaking the ball, he didn’t go inside, but went outside.

Randolph used his size advantage to block Sefolosha, and Perkins obviously didn't have time to get out.

Han Sen had a moment of open space, and he certainly would not miss such an opportunity.

"Shh!"

Han Sen's three-pointer from the outside was swift and effective.

20:12.

In just a few rounds, the Grizzlies widened the gap to 8 points!
Compared to the team play of other players on the Grizzlies, Hansen's team play with the ball is the strongest form of the Grizzlies.

Brooks could only call another timeout.

The camera turned to Durant, who looked up at the score with a confused expression.

At this moment, he had a feeling of "What the hell just happened?"

"KD said we don't know how strong the Thunder are this season, but what I want to say is that he doesn't understand how strong the Grizzlies are this season!" Barkley exclaimed in the commentary booth at this time.

Durant really doesn't understand the current strength of the Grizzlies, or his impression of the Grizzlies is still stuck in last season's playoffs, with the addition of Gay at most.

But since Randolph was injured in the regular season, the Grizzlies have begun to evolve.

Randolph's injury is like "one whale falls and everything comes to life", which has improved the core strength of the Grizzlies to varying degrees.

When Randolph returns, even if he is not in his best condition, the Grizzlies will be one of the best teams in the league.

After building up confidence in the first round of the playoffs against the Mavericks and being tempered by adversity in the game against the Lakers, the Grizzlies are now confident and calm. They are completely different from the team that relied on courage to charge forward last season.

(End of this chapter)