Lu Yao let go of the ball and high-fived Westbrook who came up to celebrate.
After the game was suspended, the score was fixed at 63:55. The Thunder ended the first half with an 8-point advantage.
In the second quarter, the Thunder team felt hot. The team's shooting percentage reached 60%, and the three-point shooting percentage was as high as 70%. It can be said that the Eagles shot poorly.
On the defensive end, the Thunder also did a good job, directly limiting the Hawks' team's shooting percentage to 40%, and their three-point shooting percentage was only a dismal 20%.
It was enough to prove that throughout the second quarter, the Thunder almost crushed the Hawks.
Although the Hawks' condition improved a little later and they barely managed to catch up with some points, the current advantage is still with the Thunder.
There was an atmosphere of joy on the Thunder bench. At this moment, everyone in the Thunder was working together to face the second half of the game.
Some of the Eagles' players have begun to get nervous, which is completely different from the Thunder.
This also paved the way for the Eagles' next performance.
Time flies by, halftime ends, and the game begins again.
In the third quarter, the ball was handed to the Eagles.
In the third quarter, the Thunder chose to replace some of the main players, allowing Westbrook to lead the team alone against the entire Hawks lineup.
Lu Yao, on the other hand, is sitting off the court, giving Lu Yao enough buffer time to adapt to the impact of the injury.
Even if Lu Yao is not on the court, Westbrook does not disappoint.
Westbrook, who had already scored 26 points in the first half, continued his invincible attitude in the third quarter, destroying the Eagles' defense with ferocious breakthroughs.
With every layup and unfathomable zombie jump shot, Westbrook played to the extreme in Lu Yao's absence.
Even though the Hawks team's condition improved and their shooting percentage began to rise, Westbrook managed to maintain the Thunder's lead by relying on his own efforts and withstanding the pressure from the Hawks team.
There were seven minutes remaining in the third quarter.
At this moment, the score on the scoreboard was fixed at 78:74, with the Thunder leading by 4 points.
Although the advantage is smaller than before, this is the result of Westbrook facing the Hawks' full lineup alone.
Now, Westbrook's personal score has reached 34 points, plus 7 assists and 6 rebounds, with only 1 turnover.
Westbrook in this game is destined to become a hero in Oklahoma.
Looking at Westbrook's state, he is completely sprinting towards fifty plus.
But at this moment, Westbrook was a little unable to hold on. He hit a tendon during the breakthrough, and he had not yet recovered from the pain.
Donovan also called a timeout at the right time, replaced Westbrook, who had played for two and a half consecutive quarters, and replaced him with the long-awaited Lu Yao.
Lu Yao stood up from the chair and stretched his muscles. He looked relaxed, as if the injury was a trivial matter to him.
When Lu Yao passed by Westbrook, he patted Westbrook on the shoulder and said.
"Russell, I'm here to take over. Leave the rest of the third quarter to me."
Wei Sha wanted to say something after hearing this, but looking at Lu Yao's sincere eyes, what he originally wanted to say turned into a trusting smile.
The Hawks still had a full lineup. The four main players, except Korver, played almost the entire two-and-a-half quarters.
At the same time, these four main players all scored in double figures, trying to use the strength of the team to defeat the Thunder supported by Lu Yao and Westbrook alone.
But Lu Yao didn't intend to give them this opportunity.
At this moment, the pain in his foot has turned into motivation for him to move forward.
He will spend the rest of the third quarter expanding the Thunder's winning advantage step by step.
Horford served from the sideline and handed the ball to Teague for organization. The Eagles team slowly advanced towards the frontcourt.
Because all four players on the field played for more than 25 minutes continuously, their physical strength was naturally a little hard to recover, so the overall offensive pace slowed down a lot.
For Lu Yao, this is a good thing and makes him feel better.
At the top of the arc, Teague looked a little nervous facing the Thunder's defensive front led by Lu Yao.
After all, this was the first time he faced Lu Yao one-on-one.
If it were another big man of Lu Yao's height to defend Teague from the outside, Teague would naturally not panic.
But Lu Yao is different. After so many games, it is obvious to all that Lu Yao has restricted many defenders on the outside.
Even a breakthrough player like Wade is restricted by Lu Yao.
Therefore, Teague should be vigilant.
Teague kept trying to break through, but Lu Yao was as motionless as a mountain. Teague had no choice but to pass the ball.
The ball was handed to Horford. Seeing that there was no one in front of him, Horford hesitated for a moment and was about to take a three-point shot, but Lu Yao had already taken advantage of Horford's moment of hesitation and pounced over.
The super long wingspan of 2m31 makes it possible to hit the ball that was originally impossible.
Lu Yao's hand touched the ball, and it was this move that caused the ball that was flying towards the basket to stop in the air.
The ball fell to the left side, and Ibaka was waiting for a long time on the left side. Ibaka naturally collected the ball.
Lu Yao successfully destroyed the Eagles' offense with his abnormal physical talent.
Horford licked his lips and couldn't help but think to himself.
Are you telling me this is a wounded person?
Lu Yao said: I have no objection.
On the offensive end, Lu Yao seemed to have escaped into no one's land. Even though the Eagles kept double-teaming, they did not stop Lu Yao from scoring goals.
At the bottom of the basket, Lu Yao faced the defense of Horford and Millsap and forced a throw.
Millsap stretched out his hand to block the shot, but was still short of it, but it was this point that made Millsap regret it.
The ball fell on the basket, bounced a few times, and fell into the net.
The way Lu Yao forced his way in against the two men didn't look like he was injured at all.
This can't help but make the audience present wonder, is he faking his injury?
Just when the audience was thinking this, Lu Yao did not stop scoring goals.
From the outside, Lu Yao hit two consecutive three-pointers, plus the previous floater he scored against two people, and he already scored 8 points in a row.
The Thunder's lead has expanded to 8 points.
Lu Yao has completed his task. Naturally, Donovan will not ask Lu Yao for anything. After achieving the goal, he only needs to stabilize the score.
In this way, the Thunder entered the fourth quarter with a 9-point advantage with a score of 89:80, relying on Lu Yao's perfect performance on both ends of the offense and defense, and a hot bench.
In the fourth quarter, Lu Yao and Westbrook scored 24 points together. At the same time, Westbrook's personal score reached 38 points and Lu Yao reached 31 points.
This pair of twins are burning everything to save the Oklahoma City Thunder.
