Chapter 422: Van Gundy's Dangerous Move
"An's big hook! After entering, Morris still didn't respond. He thought An was going to shake his shoulders!"
"An broke through! Stop and turn and jump shot again! Oh my God, have you seen any inside player who can score like this on Morris' head!?"
"Dunk! Anjie easily walked to the basket this time. Morris was already fooled by his good buddy. This guy with a strong defense can no longer defend!" Morris didn't dare to make any moves at all. As long as he reacted, Anjie would use another way to avoid the defense and attack the basket. Since college, Morris knew that Anjie was very comprehensive. But he didn't expect that this guy had reached this level of comprehensiveness.
Footsteps, shoulders, head, and Anjie's whole body are all fake! Breakthrough, hook, jump shot, dunk, Anjie can score in all ways.
At the beginning, Wesley Matthews' strong offense made Thunder players think that the Trail Blazers were going to give up the inside offense. But now, they would rather deal with two Matthews than let Anger's crazy performance continue!
After seven minutes of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers led the powerful Thunder by 8 points at home! If it had been longer, the score difference would have been widened to double digits long ago.
However, the temporary victory did not make Ricard's mind angry. Although Anjie's dominant performance made the Thunder unable to cope with it, he still replaced Anjie on time.
Anjie has proved his condition in just a few minutes, so Calder can rest assured to put Anjie at a critical moment before playing.
"Don't use the experience of the previous game to defend, defend based on your own judgment." Morris and Anjie, who were tortured, ended at the same time. Jeff Van Gundy said that to him, which proves that the arrangement he made for Anjie has been completely invalid!
Anjie didn't play "offensive habits" at all today. This guy proved that as long as you are versatile enough, you don't need any damn offensive habits. He can score in any way, but Morris can't guess all his movements.
When Angel got out of the field, the Trail Blazers' offensive banner naturally fell on Aldridge's shoulders. Aldridge, who scored over Angel's two consecutive games, today was slightly less efficient by Ibaka's defense.
Originally, after Anjie got out, the Trail Blazers' offensive points were very rare. Now that Aldridge was silent, the Trail Blazers' original strong offense instantly stagnated.
So Ricard had to take Contney Lee and Crawford up in advance. It turned out that Ricard's choice was correct. The Thunder then bombarded the basket guarded by the Trail Blazers. Durant and Westbrook's shooting percentage today were not high, but these two guys continued to score with unreasonable and crazy moves.
Fortunately, Jamal Crawford and Contney Lee were able to win the offensive end, otherwise the advantages that Anger had finally established would be exhausted.
2o to 26, at the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers still had a 6-point advantage. This break between the quarters is definitely not easy for Jeff Van Gundy, because he must find a way to curb Anjie's attack.
Retracting and forcing Angel to pass. This is the only solution that Jeff Van Gundy can take. Aldridge's shooting today was not very good, so Jeff Van Gundy dared to use such a defensive strategy. Now, neither Crawford nor Aldridge are in danger of Angel!
The start of the second quarter was calm. The second team of the two teams was difficult to solve, with both back and forth. However, Bledsoe and Batum further narrowed the gap to 4 points with their better offensive ability.
During an attack, Bledsoe was deceived by Crawford's Byver to jump block. And then, Crawford leaned against Bledsoe, causing a foul outside the three-point line.
At the same time, An Jie, who was sitting on the ground in front of the technical table, suddenly stood up. He quickly took off his training suit and prepared to go on stage!
"Brush." The first free throw was that Crawford was able to throw the ball in a quiet environment with the cooperation of the fans. Angel walked onto the court and slapped the breathless Marcus Camby. Everyone's eyes fell on him. Even though Crawford had just completed a beautiful foul from outside the three-point line, he could only become a supporting role now.
After the next two free throws, Crawford steadily shot him. Bledsoe, who received the bottom line, felt less excited and more nervous. What he had to face now is Anjie's defense!
Bledsoe's breakthrough was still very fast, and the thin Crawford was directly pushed away by Bledsoe. Facing Angel, Bledsoe planned to pass the ball to the outside in the air. However, Anger's defense range was so large that he didn't even have room to pass the ball.
He barely shot the ball from Angel's armpit. This was not a good pass but was intercepted by Gerald Wallace, who was good at ambushing. The shortcomings of this guy Bledsoe's frequent mistakes at critical moments began to appear so early in the second quarter.
Transfer attacks, experienced Gerald Wallace staged a textbook-like breakthrough pass in front of Bledsoe. He made Bledsoe realize how immature he is!
This time the attack was Contney Lee and Crawford quickly pulled to two bottom corners, and Gerald Wallace, who was pushing the ball with the ball, made the attack frame, but in fact, a pass made Contney Lee easily hit a three-pointer in the open position. Unconsciously, the difference between the two teams reached 10 points!
In less than two minutes after Anjie played, he forced Jeff Van Gundy to use a timeout. This guy is already one of the most dominant players in the league, but Jeff Van Gundy, who has seen countless storms, has found something different from the strength of the Trail Blazers.
"Morris, when he was playing in college, An always scored the most, right?" Unexpectedly, Van Gundy did not immediately arrange the tactics, but asked Morris a nonsensical question.
"Ah? Of course! We were not considered a wealthy team at that time, unlike other universities, which were filled with talented players. There were only a few players in the entire team who could score, among which An was the most confident person on the offensive end, so his score was often the highest. Boss, I know An was very powerful, so you don't need to remind me." Thinking of the time when he fought side by side with An Jie in college, Morris missed it very much, but now is not the time to remember the past.
"Yeah..." Van Gundy thought about it, and then looked at Westbrook. Westbrook's ucLa's lineup was more than one level better than Iowa State University, which lacked Morris. Similarly, the Thunder's lineup depth is not comparable to that of the Trail Blazers. Instead of focusing on Anger, it's better to...
"Listen, man, we're fighting like this..." Van Gundy began to draw a tactical board, but the expressions of the Thunder players were not right.
After making his debut again, Ricard has taken all his five tigers. Correspondingly, Jeff Van Gundy did not keep it anymore.
However, the first attack after the Thunder came back from the timeout made the fans of Rose Garden feel particularly cheerful.
Westbrook gave up possession this time. As soon as he passed half the court, he handed the basketball over to scoring king Kevin Durant.
Seeing Gerald Wallace rushing towards him with his teeth and claws, Durant just calmly protected the ball and observed the opportunity around him.
Morris brought the pick-and-roll and Ibakara to the middle distance. The inside line has already made room for Durant, and people want to see what kind of sparks the scoring champion will make against the best defensive player.
Although Durant plays more without the ball in the Thunder, this does not mean that Durant's ball-holding offense will be very poor.
He drove the ball to the left, but suddenly used his amazingly long arm to catch it back.
Gerald Wallace could not slow down such a large-scale change of direction. With Morris' pick-and-roll, Durant cleaned up Gerald Wallace with just one move!
Decisively holding the ball to the basket, Anjie also struggled to make up for the penalty area, hoping to curb the attack of Durant, his former teammate.
Durant first stared at the basket, then glanced at Westbrook's position. Although Durant averaged a terrible score per game, this does not mean that he only knew how to rush after taking the ball like Westbrook. This guy's calmness and team consciousness are much better than people imagine.
Durant did not take off, but suddenly stopped urgently! The emergency stop jump shot in the breakthrough is Durant's most commonly used and most efficient offensive method!
Just when Angel and the Trail Blazers were all focusing on Durant, he suddenly turned into a pass. Only then did people realize that Westbrook was unattended outside the three-point line!
Without hesitation, Westbrook pulled up and shot after receiving the ball. Felton covered his head with annoyance, but Anjie did not give up. He was approaching the basket, hoping to protect the rebound!
The ball's flying arc is very flat, and Westbrook's pitching power is used very much, but it seems that the wrist pressing action is not done properly.
"Clang!" With a crisp sound, Westbrook's shot hit the basket's neck and failed to hit it!
"Hey!" Van Gundy gritted his teeth. There would not be a few such opportunities in this game. However, Westbrook was not sure.
Because Westbrook's shooting power is very strong in this ball, Morris, who was stuck at the basket, lost the advantageous position to compete for rebounds. Durant is preparing to compete with Anger, but in terms of his ability to compete for rebounds, how can the scoring champion compete with Anger?
He jumped high and took the rebound, and Anjie handed the ball to Raymond Felton. The Trail Blazers' offense was very simple. Felton handed the basketball to him after Anjie got in the position. Anjie held the ball and observed the Thunder's defense, and always felt it was strange.
Without thinking too much, An Jie turned around and planned to break through. However, Morris's response was also not slow. He quickly blocked An Jie's breakthrough route. An Jie wanted to pass the ball, but found that he had no place to pass!
With a tough head, An Jie shot from the bottom line with the defense. However, the orange-red basketball fell into the net!
"Anjie's condition today is simply unstoppable. That just now can be said to be Morris' best defense in this game. However, Anjie still successfully scored the ball, and the score difference has become 12 points!" In the studio of ccTV5, Yu Jia also praised Anjie's goal.
Everyone thought that what Anjie had just completed was a wonderful attack, but few people found something wrong.
On the second attack, Anjie hit a hook shot. There was still no pass, and it was still Anjie's singles.
The third time, Anjie forced Morris to make a foul at the basket, without passing or cooperation.
The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time. Anjie did not pass the ball in a row! It was not because he was alone, but because the Thunder watched the rest of the Trail Blazers tightly, Anjie had no room to pass the ball at all!
However, it was this sixth attack that Anjie missed. He held the ball and fought with Morris head-on, and Anjie's physical strength was exhausted too quickly.
An Jie felt that everything he was facing seemed familiar. He remembered his experience when facing ucLa in college. Ben Holland's trick to defeat the Tornado team was the other person who seemed to be not strong in the Tornado team, allowing An Jie to swing freely. Finally, he used ucLa's stronger lineup to drag down An Jie alone!
Now, Jeff Van Gundy uses this trick!
If Durant and Westbrook hadn't had the offenses of poor strength, Anger might have been dragged down long ago!
Ricard naturally saw Van Gundy's strategy, but Anger can continue to score now, so he has not made any adjustments for the time being.
Thanks to the tireless ironwork of Durant and Westbrook, the exhausted Anjie still retained the lead when the second quarter ended. 45 to 55, the Trail Blazers ended the first half with a double-digit score difference.
The fans in the Rose Garden shouted wildly, and the bearded man happily slapped the oil tycoon sitting beside him. However, Angel and Ricard knew that they could lead simply because of Westbrook and Durant's inaction.
In the second half, who can guarantee that these two guys will continue to be in a downturn?
Chapter completed!