The era of point forwards in the NBA

Chapter 261 The Demon Sword of Prosperity (please subscribe, ask for a monthly pass)

After Kevin Ollie played against the main point guards of other teams in the first few games, he became more and more aware of the gap between himself and the stars.

In a one-on-one situation, Tony Parker casually rushed him. The "French sports car" is not good at speed.

Not only layups, Parker's mid-range also gave the Thunder a lot of threats, a speed-type point guard combined with sudden shots.

In the past, Thunder fans were still criticizing Curry's defensive problems. Now after Curry was injured and changed a point guard, they discovered that Curry's defense was at the upper-middle level among point guards.

It's just that the Thunder's point guard Lin Yue and small forward Durant are tall and long, so they are not the first choice for strong play.

The opponent's breakthrough naturally turned to Curry, relying on physical force to create damage. This is also very distressing for Curry, who consumes a lot of energy in defense and offense.

Barkley and Kenny Smith, who were commentating, couldn't have imagined such a big point difference.

If it was the beginning of the season, people would think it was normal to see such a point difference, but if it is now, it is hard to imagine that the Oklahoma City Thunder, which has been fighting as a dark horse all the way to the present, would lose miserably in the first quarter.

They just lost the offensive point of Curry.

"Perhaps the performance of the Thunder was so good during this period that we forgot that this is just a youth team." Barkley said it right, and people realized that the Thunder were last in the West last season.

"The Spurs are also missing Duncan today. It can only be said that the Thunder have not yet found their offensive status." Kenny Smith explained.

Judging from the situation in the first quarter, the Thunder couldn't limit Parker who was running around.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Lin Yue came on the field with a substitute lineup. Since the team has no backup point guard, Lin Yue is willing to return to the point guard position. His favorite position is point guard.

In this way, his physical advantages can be brought into play.

Popovich is also aware of the Thunder's style of play. They have used this routine for a whole season. Whenever a team faces the Thunder, the coach will let the team's best single-defense player face Lin Yue.

Popovich chose to let George Hill defend Lin Yue. He is only 1.88m tall and has a long wingspan, which is enough to match a shooting guard like Lin Yue.

After playing, Lin Yue did not choose to play individual singles first, but continued to connect the team's offense. The first quarter was played like that, a large part of the reason was that the cooperation between the players was not found, and the teammates needed to enter the game state first.

Ibaka received a pass from his teammate under the basket, and under the defense of Antonio McDyess, he forced the ball and scored, giving the Thunder a head start.

Antonio McDyess has also been in the best team and All-Star, but that was nearly 10 years ago. Now Antonio McDyess, who was born in 74, is 35 years old and can make limited contributions to the team.

35 to 20, such a point difference still made the fans feel dull.

In the bench lineup, Manu Ginobili, one of the three chariots of the Spurs, as the team's best sixth man, has always been the key to the desperate situation.

However, when it turned into a tailwind, Yaodao didn't know how to play. He ran out of the open space with the help of a screen, and shot a three-pointer wide of the basket after catching the ball.

Etan Thomas picked up a defensive rebound. Fortunately, Duncan took a rest today, otherwise it would be difficult to guard him with Etan Thomas' size and height.

The Thunder lost the flexibility of the lineup, and the fast break did not play.

Positional warfare is what the Spurs are good at. Well-trained, well-organized defensive positions and switching defenses did not give the Thunder any chance. After 20 seconds, the ball was passed back to Lin Yue.

There was not much time to attack, so Lin Yue could only choose to forcefully pull out his hand.

Fortunately, luck finally came to the Thunder's side, and the frame of this team is good.

The basketball bounced off the rim a few times and eventually fell into the net. Antonio McDyess was all set for the rebound and it went in.

35 to 22, now the fans seem to see the hope of winning, cheer up the home team.

George Hill wanted to try to single Lin Yue for a goal, but unfortunately, Lin Yue was able to keep up with the slow defensive player's lateral movement, forcing Hill to turn around in a difficult posture and make a layup.

The Spurs' offense missed again. Duncan sat on the bench talking and laughing with Parker, discussing the situation on the court, and seemed not worried about being overtaken by the Thunder.

This time, Lin Yue made a straight pass to Ibaka, who made an empty cut. The latter's layup was defended by DeJuan Blair and missed the board.

DeJuan Blair is the rookie selected by the Spurs with the 37th overall pick today. As Duncan's substitute, he is only 2.01m tall and belongs to the stocky insider.

But don't be deceived by his appearance. In fact, he is a flexible fat man who is good at confrontation. He has a good short-range shot and lacks long-range sights.

The Thunder missed the opportunity to keep the score close, and the Spurs reorganized their offense under the leadership of George Hill.

George Hill's talent is not bad, his golf quotient is very high, Popovich likes this student very much, and he intends to let George Hill play the second quarter of this game.

Ginobili and George Hill came up with an outside screen. Lin Yue was stopped by Ginobili, and he knocked him down as he was trying to defend. At this time, the referee whistled.

Lin Yue was drawn a defensive foul.

Although Ginobili pulled Lin Yue up with a friendly smile, Lin Yue still felt the danger hidden under the smile. This man was a difficult guy to deal with.

Ginobili has always been a player who plays with his brain and has a very high golf quotient. In 2004, he led Argentina to defeat the American Dream Team and win the Olympic gold medal.

As an international player, Lin Yue doesn't think he can lead the Chinese team to defeat the dream team. He has already tried it in the 08 Olympic Games. Brother Yao Ming was still on the court, but after holding on for halftime, the third quarter collapsed.

Defeating the dream team is like a fantasy, a dream that cannot be realized in novels.

"Lin Yue still suffers from being young. From his expression, you can see that he is very unwilling. This is the first time in the NBA that he has seen Lin being deflated, and he can be used to laugh at him in the future." Barkley laughed.

"This is the experience that a rookie should have. It needs to be honed and grown. Those who are slaughtered as soon as they come are cheating." Kenny Smith said convincingly, what he hates most are those geniuses with extraordinary talents, especially those who don't cherish their talents.

Fortunately, Shunjing's Yaodao lost its previous strength. After receiving Hill's serve, the three-pointer shot went out of the frame again.

Ginobili clapped his hands regretfully, why did he feel so bad today.

Lin Yue judged the landing point and got the ball before Hill took off. Then he was unlucky to throw off the defender and rushed towards the Spurs' half court.

Ginobili also failed to catch up with Lin Yue, and ran behind him, watching the opponent dunk the ball into the basket with one hand.

35 to 24, the Spurs failed to score for several consecutive rounds.

(End of this chapter)