Chapter 419: The weakness of the all-around center
The Chesapeake Energy Arena has been crowded these days, and now the Western Conference Finals are being held here, so even if there are no competitions, there will always be people here to train and visit.
"Sorry, please give in." A middle-aged white man with strong body and strong body hair hurriedly shuttled through the player passage. In order to maintain the wooden floors of the stadium and ensure that the Thunder and the Blazers players can play in the top-notch environment, there were many staff members who disassembled and installed floors in the Chesapeake Energy Arena today. Therefore, the already busy player passage seemed even more crowded today.
The white man quickly pushed open a closed door. Behind the door was the home team training ground for the Thunder. But now, there was no one here. Yesterday's game just ended, and Van Gundy didn't want his players to arrange early training at the risk of injury. What was Van Gundy going to do in the morning? What he was going to do was inseparable from the current hurrying white man.
"Jeff, the video is here." The white man did not knock on the door, but walked directly into Van Gundy's office.
"Thank you, Mogan, call Carl too, we have to study and study together." Jeff Van Gundy brought a bench to greet the white man named Mogan. This guy is one of the Thunder's assistant coach, one of Jeff Van Gundy's right-hand men. His duty is to specialize in the Thunder's defense.
"Hey? Carl, come to the office. Yes, yes, right now, okay." Mogan hung up the phone, and inserted the USB drive he brought into Van Gundy's laptop. It was really convenient to say that this era was really convenient. When Jeff Van Gundy wanted to record videos, it had to go through multiple channels, and it might not be possible. Now, with just a small USB drive, Van Gundy can absorb everything he wanted.
"The Grizzlies vs. Trail Blazers, Magic vs. Trail Blazers, Knicks vs. Trail Blazers... Jeff, why do you have to watch the video of these games?" Mogan asked in confusion.
"Why? Gasol Jr., Howard and Stoudemire, these guys are the four most difficult people An has ever encountered this season. The fourth one is Morris! I want to see how An deals with strong enemies. He must have his own method, and our job is to completely kill this method!" As he said that, Van Gundy clicked the video of the game between Gasol Jr. and Anger and looked at it carefully.
"But Jeff, the Trail Blazers scored the most points in the last game was Aldridge." Mogan had to remind his partner that Morris' defense in the last game was actually very good.
"You have to know that if you don't have An, Aldridge wouldn't have been able to get such a high score. Look, we'll get the answer." Jeff Van Gundy took a sip of coffee. In fact, he was already immune to coffee, but it had become his habit of living.
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"Listen, you don't have to participate in the confrontational training later today." In the afternoon, Ricard issued an ultimatum to Angel before the daily "reserve program" confrontational training in the Chesapeake Energy Stadium.
"I know, I know, I go to the treatment room to cooperate with Laspain's massage. Hey Cambi, you can have a good night's sleep today!" As he said that, Anjie joked with Marcus Cambi on the other side of the court. Anjie did not participate in confrontational training, which was really great news for Cambi. At least today, he would not have to be tortured by the little devil who was always energetic.
The reason why Anjie agreed to Ricard's request so quickly was because all Anjie's protests ended in failure throughout the morning. Anjie knew that if he said anything now, Ricard would not change his mind. Instead of wasting his tongue to fight against the stubborn Ricard, it would be better to enjoy a massage meal. Anyway, after Anjie fought with Morris, many parts of his body were indeed very sore.
Just like **Victz is about GDP, Ricard is always full of confidence in Anjie's condition. Anjie will also have abnormalities, but the probability is very small. Now, only by adjusting Anjie's body to the best state can Anjie continue his excellent performance.
At first, An Jie wanted to play on the court and compete with his teammates, but he was really tired and fell asleep peacefully after being massaged for less than fifteen minutes...
No matter what method is used, the Trail Blazers and the Thunder are carefully preparing for their next game. Van Gundy's good intentions, Ricard's caution, Morris' double training, and Anger's physical recovery. Although today is a day to rest for both teams, no one will really go to rest today.
What is the effect of the two teams after adjustment on this day? The outcome of the next game will be revealed.
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Angel pushed Morris hard, but found that Morris was unmoved at all.
"Since that's the case..." Anjie stuck out his tongue. Morris was so desperate. I guess the center of gravity must be very forward. So Anjie suddenly leaned against Morris and turned around and broke through, intending to kill the basket.
When dealing with most opponents, Anjie can usually use this trick to help him get out of trouble. But today, before he finished his turn, Morris took a step and stuck Anjie's turn space!
Angel was pushed by Morris, and he stumbled to the bottom line, and the basketball almost lost control. Morris breathed a sigh of nervousness. He thought Anjie was going to succeed just now!
An Jie wanted to pass, but it was revealed that the Thunder's pressing defense did not leave him any space for passing. In this situation, the Thunder clearly wanted An Jie to attack!
When Anjie was forcing him to attack, the other teams were unable to pass the ball quickly to avoid unsafe in their penalty area. Only the Thunder dared to force Anjie to attack. The key to making the Thunder dared to do this was Jeff Van Gundy, who was on the sidelines, and Andrew Morris, who was standing between Anjie and the basket.
This morning, Van Gundy, who had studied videos all day, told Morris a lot of things to pay attention to when defending Anger. First, you must be tough and must withstand Anger's back attack at the beginning. If Anger's back attack fails, the rest of the Thunder team immediately put the team's defense behind and stared at the opponent in front of him. At the same time, Morris paid attention to the step forward and guarded against Anger's sudden breakthrough. Of course, this is just one of the things Van Gundy emphasized to Morris. Through the video of the confrontation between Anger and his strong opponent, Van Gundy and his coaching staff have developed the habit of Anger, the all-round center.
All of this arrangement was well executed by Morris on the court.
"Morris is simply the worm in An's stomach. He can always predict An's next move. An's offensive end is very unsatisfied today. The game has reached the last moment of the fourth quarter, but his score is still at 16." Kenny Smith looked at the scene in confusion. An Jie was rarely so depressed by any insider!
In fact, Morris was also very nervous, but unexpectedly, most of the key points Jeff Van Gundy told him were fulfilled.
Anjie is currently holding the ball at the middle distance of the baseline. He has just lost the ball and can only hold the ball with both hands and cannot be lucky anymore. Morris raised his arms and defended with his body, and the rest of the Thunder are also biting their match.
Aldridge seemed to have a little room for receiving the ball. Seeing that there were only ten seconds left in the offense, Anger quickly took the ball, hoping that Aldridge could complete the attack for him.
However, before the basketball flew into Aldridge's hands, it was intercepted by Congolese Ibaka in the middle of the way. The space left for Anjie was too small. Even if his passing skills were very exquisite, it would be difficult to complete the pass in this situation.
Grasping the opponent's defensive counterattack after making mistakes is the Thunder's best way to score points. Durant and Westbrook penetrated the penalty area from left to right, while Nicholas Batum ran outside the three-point line at the top of the arc. In just a moment, the Thunder established three very threatening offensive points in the Trail Blazers' half.
Finally, Ibaka's long pass came to Batum outside the three-point line. Batum did not adjust and threw the ball into the direction of the basket again. At the same time, Durant, who was about to cut in, rose up, caught the basketball still in the air, and pushed it into the basket hard.
"Excellent air cooperation! The Trail Blazers are helpless with the Thunder's counterattack!"
The Chesapeake Energy Arena is in a huge momentum, and today, they finally played their own pace.
81 to 9o, the Thunder have already led by 9 points. The time left for Anjie and the Trail Blazers is only 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
In the subsequent attack, Raymond Filton directly handed the ball to Aldridge. Aldridge still used an elegant turnover jump shot to score on Ibaka's head. Angel never touched basketball during the entire offense, which is very rare in the Trail Blazers' game this season.
The Thunder did almost perfectly, but if Jeff Van Gundy had guessed something wrong, it was that he had guessed Aldridge's condition wrong.
He thought that Aldridge would not be able to beat again in this game, but things went against his wishes. Today, Aldridge still beat Ibaka, a terrifying blocker, to the point where he couldn't find him.
Including the goal he just scored, Aldridge has scored 28 points. However, 28 points are not worth mentioning under the Thunder's strong offensive lineup.
Anjie was strangled to death, and Aldridge had to fight alone. Others? Others lacked Anjie's restraint in the inside, and it was difficult for them to break through the Thunder's walls with their personal abilities.
As the game time passed by minute by minute, An Jie, who was gritting his teeth, found that it was still very difficult for him to lead the team to reverse.
Angel could see that the boy Morris was not feeling well, and he gave almost everything to see him die. But most importantly, he succeeded. As long as he could successfully curb Anger, Morris didn't care how much effort he would spend.
Until the end of the game, the Thunder could not reverse the score, and Anjie's score still did not exceed 2o.
This season's playoff score is a new low, but Anjie didn't expect that he would set an embarrassing record in the Western Conference Finals.
Durant's still exaggerated 37 points and Westbrook's 27 points, plus the 21 points scored by Bledsoe and Batum, making Aldridge's 28 points look so pale and powerless.
What about Anjie? As the leading star of the Trail Blazers, he was defended by Morris today with only 19 points, and his shooting percentage was only 48%, less than half a percent.
This data is definitely not the data that An Jie should get after he normally swipes.
94-1oo, the Thunder moved the score to one-to-one at home. Equalifying is a common situation in the playoffs. According to the truth, the Trail Blazers have nothing to worry about.
But the Thunder won by strangling the strongest point of the Trail Blazers, which made Ricard pay attention to the defeat.
Morris kept waving his fists into the audience, while Van Gundy walked into the player passage amid the applause of the fans. Anjie watched all this. The two guys knew him best and found ways to limit himself. He was not surprised at all.
Chapter completed!