At the end of the first quarter, at 23:26, the Trail Blazers were 3 points behind.
The Trail Blazers' shooting percentage was 48%, lower than the Thunder's 52%, but they got 14 rebounds to the Thunder's only 9.
The main reason is that when Wang Zelin came off the court, the substitute inside combination of Garnett and Yi Jianlian could not withstand the impact of Westbrook. In the last 5 minutes of the first quarter, Westbrook made 2 of 3 shots, plus 2 of 3 free throws, which was a personal victory. 5 points.
After a single quarter, Westbrook made 5 of 6 shots and 3 of 5 free throws, scoring a game-high 13 points, plus 2 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
It’s really exciting!
"As the Kings entered the rest period, the Trail Blazers' interior defensive problems gradually emerged. When facing ordinary teams, Garnett can still rely on experience to defend, but facing the Thunder, facing Westbrook, He seems to be out of his depth when it comes to being one of the top rim-rushers in the league."
Yu Jiadao.
"I think this is a good thing for the Trail Blazers," Zhang Liang expressed his opinion: "The Thunder's lineup with half the starting lineup did not open up much of a score, only leading by 3 points. If this is viewed as a battle between a middle-class horse and a low-class horse, the Thunder’s strategy will undoubtedly fail.”
He didn't know that Thunder coach Scott Brooks was frowning at this time. He was not very satisfied with the performance of his players in the second half of the second quarter.
The Thunder's offense was very good, but they also failed to guard against the opposing Trail Blazers and the offense of the rotation players.
After the second quarter, the Trail Blazers first set up a half-rotation and half-starting lineup, and after the official timeout ended, they put on all the main players, while the Thunder took turns playing several main players for a few minutes.
However, even though Durant and Westbrook played the entire second quarter, they failed to completely change the Thunder's passive situation. At 51:48, the Trail Blazers led by 3 points.
In the home dressing room, the atmosphere in the team was a bit dull.
Strictly speaking, the Thunder is a typical team in the league that mainly relies on stars to lead the team to victory. The overall style of the team relies more on the individual abilities of the players.
Facing ordinary teams and even ordinary regular-season teams, the Thunder can win by relying on Durant and Westbrook to take the ball and mess around. It is a typical "one trick, one trick, everything!"
However, when facing teams of the same level as them, this move pales in comparison to their opponents.
To be precise, they scored fewer points than their opponents.
Take the Trail Blazers team in front of us, for example.
The five starting players are all averaging double figures this season. Mo Williams and Garnett are also on the bench, averaging 10+ points per game. If the Thunder wants to limit the Blazers, they need more than the latter. It’s harder to limit the former.
During halftime, the Trail Blazers' defensive strategy was very obvious: focus on guarding Dewey. As for the other three Thunder players on the court at the same time, as long as they are not in their best scoring hot spots, it doesn't matter if they are released appropriately.
Scott Brooks thought again and then said: "Russell, you have to hit the basket more and try to knock down the Blazers' main inside line as soon as possible."
"I get it," Westbrook replied.
He looked at Durant again and said: "Kevin, you know, we cannot lose this game and we cannot afford to lose."
Durant remained silent, of course he understood the coach's hidden meaning.
For the team, tonight is bound to wash away the humiliation of being swept in the playoffs last season. If they can't beat the Trail Blazers in the regular season, the Thunder players will have a huge burden when they meet them in the playoffs, which is not conducive to the true display of the players' strength.
For Durant personally, whether he accepts it or not, there is now a wave of heated discussion of "35VS36" in the outside world, and it has even risen to the final status of the regular season MVP competition this season.
That's the regular season MVP trophy!
It is the supreme personal honor in the heart of every NBA player. Even after retirement in the future, having a regular season MVP on the field can greatly improve the player's ranking in NBA history.
There is a saying circulating in the league: Stars who have not won the regular season MVP are not worthy of being called true superstars!
After a long time, seeing Durant didn't reply, Scott Brooks patted the former's shoulder: "Next, be prepared to play the entire second half."
"Sir, I will do a good job." Durant looked up and replied firmly.
"In the second half, on the offensive end, we handed the ball to Kevin and Russell, focusing on outside shooting and breakthrough passes. Others must be ready to receive the ball at any time, and they must be decisive in taking action after running out of space. There is no need to use those Throw the damn basketball in the hoop!”
Scott Brooks stood up, looked around the players, and shouted loudly.
"Roger that, sir!"
All the players responded in unison.
"Defensively, Serge must control the backcourt rebounds, and Kendrick, you two must be tougher, and you must be ruthless when you need to be ruthless!"
Finally, Scott Brooks handed over to Liebaka and Perkins.
With Trail Blazers No. 36 sitting under the basket, he no longer expects the two to compete for offensive rebounds. Keeping backcourt rebounds is the Thunder's bottom line.
Away locker room.
Terry Stotts' arrangement is much simpler than that of Scott Brooks. He continues to increase the bombardment of the Thunder's inside line, and outside players shoot whenever they have the opportunity.
He had the same idea as Scott Brook. Anyway, with Wang Zelin as a rebounding monster, other Blazers players took more decisive shots on the court than the Thunder.
At the beginning of the third quarter, the two sides changed sides and fought again.
The live broadcast seat of the imperial court.
"Coming to the third quarter, we saw that both sides put all their main lineups on the court, and let's look at some of the statistics of both sides in the first half. The Thunder made 12 of 17 free throws, and the Trail Blazers made 7 of 9. The Thunder won the game. The Blazers missed nearly half of their free throw attempts..."
"There is also the field goal percentage. The Thunder made 48 shots and hit 23 times, with a hit rate of 47.9%; the Trail Blazers made 25 of 50 shots, with a slightly higher hit rate of 50%..."
Zhang Lili and Yu Jia quickly introduced the data comparison of the two teams in the first half, and the camera returned to the field.
Thunder offense.
Westbrook directed traffic at the top of the arc, saw Durant running over from the left wing to receive the ball, and quickly released the ball.
The moment he caught the ball, Batum immediately followed it up, and Durant immediately acted as a triple threat.
After testing twice, and seeing that Batum was motionless, Durant immediately got up and took a shot from the outside.
In the paint area, Ibaka and Perkins immediately sandwiched Wang Zelin, and Ibaka even lost Aldridge.
"Duang!"
A three-pointer, the ball hit the frame and bounced back.
Ibaka saw the ball bounce to the left and immediately let go of Wang Zelin behind him.
At this time, there was no need to get stuck anymore. He had already seen clearly the position of the rebound. Because he and Wang Zelin were flanked, they were unable to move the block in advance, and they had lost the best opportunity to compete for the rebound.
After losing the opportunity, Wang Zelin did not choose to give up. He was about to speed up and rush for the ball, but then Perkins suddenly pulled his jersey secretly, and their arms were still entangled.
Then Wang Zelin looked at the referee and saw that the latter had no expression, so he cursed: "Fuck you!"
In the end, this rebound became a competition between Aldridge and Ibaka. It's a pity that Aldridge doesn't have the ferocity of Ibaka to fight for rebounds without risking his life.
Ibaka took a step forward, stretched out his left arm, blocked Aldridge from rushing over, and jumped to grab the offensive rebound.
As soon as the ball arrived, he turned back and handed the ball to Durant at the top of the arc at the three-point line.
Durant took the ball and scored twice from the outside.
"Uh-huh!"
The second time he took the shot, he hit.
51:51 draw!
"Grass!"
After missing a backcourt rebound and giving his opponent a three-pointer, Wang Zelin couldn't help but curse.
"I said, you should let go!"
Seeing that Perkins was still entangled with him, he remembered the referee's previous indifference...
The more Wang Zelin thought about it, the angrier he became. He secretly raised his elbow and hit Perkins in the chest behind him. Perkins was suddenly hit hard, grunted, and retreated continuously.
"Bang!"
Perkins clutched his chest and bent down. When he raised his head, his eyes were burning, and he strode over and glared at Wang Zelin angrily:
"Dongfang boy, what do you want to do?"
"TMD! Labor and management want to fuck you!"
Angry, Wang Zelin was too lazy to reply in English and directly turned on Mandarin.
"Beep~"
The whistle sounded and someone fouled.
"Asshole! What do you want to do to my brother?"
Ibaka also rushed over and glared at Wang Zelin angrily.
"Don't say I'm bullying you, you two come together and I'll give up one hand!"
Wang Zelin continued to provoke.
"What's going on? What just happened?"
Yu Jia looked at the players who quickly gathered on the field in confusion.
"this……"
Zhang Lili was speechless for a while. However, he could vaguely feel that everything on the court now should be related to Wang Zelin.
At this time, players from both sides suddenly gathered around, and even the players on the bench put down their towels and stood up, looking eager to try.
"go away!"
Wang Zelin cursed angrily, pushed Ibaka away with his palm, and shouted at Perkins: "If you dare to play tricks with me, you should be prepared for this."
"You want to fight, right? Come on..."
Perkins was stunned at first. It was indeed him who had done the dirty trick just now, but now there was no room for him to admit it. Wang Zelin's sudden elbow hit made him so angry that he couldn't care so much anymore and rushed over directly.
Fortunately, teammates on both sides did not get involved. Durant and Westbrook pulled Perkins, and Aldridge quickly got in between them.
"Have you had enough arguing?"
The referee, who had little presence, said coldly.
"Come on, please! Please!"
After the referee came forward, Wang Zelin understood that the farce was about to end and replied with a playful smile.
The referee didn't do anything just now. The two linesmen relayed the details of the replay to the referee, who gave Wang Zelin a technical foul without hesitation.
"Hey! Mr. Referee, that smelly Oriental boy deserves a flagrant foul. He elbowed me. It's not fair!"
Seeing that the referee had only given a technical foul, Perkins' anger level reached full again and he roared at the referee.
Is it possible to tolerate hearing some people questioning the unfairness of their punishments?
Immediately, the referee gave Perkins a technical foul on the spot.
As a tough guy in the league, how could Perkins care about a mere technical foul? When he was about to roar at the referee again, he was pulled back by Westbrook.
"Idiot! Reckless man!"
Thunder coach Scott Brooks, who was on the sidelines, saw that Perkins wanted to take a T again, and immediately started to complain: "You were elbowed, didn't you know how to find a chance to return it? Why did you talk to the referee?"
"Ahem, it seems like it was just a farce and a false alarm."
Zhang Li Tactics coughed, but he secretly regretted that there was no fight.
Back on the field.
Aldridge and Durant each made a technical free throw. At 52:52, the two sides were still tied.
However, due to the previous episode, the smell of gunpowder on the court was obviously rising. In the latter part of the third quarter, the physical confrontation became more and more intense, and correspondingly, the number of difficult free throws also continued to rise.
After the third quarter, the Thunder made 12 of 25 shots in the quarter and scored 33 points; the Trail Blazers made 10 of 24 shots in the quarter and scored 26 points.
As the game progressed, the Thunder's home advantage gradually became apparent. The Trail Blazers made 5 fewer free throws than the Thunder in the third quarter.
After three quarters, the Thunder got 24 free throws and the Trail Blazers got 12, which was double the number.
During the timeout between sections, the players were complaining about tonight’s scale issues.
At this time, Wang Zelin had 4 fouls, Aldridge had 2 fouls, Lillard had 3 fouls, and Matthews had 2 fouls... Batum, who was mainly defending Durant, received a team-high 5 fouls. There's no telling when he'll be off the field with 6 fouls.
Terry Stotts is also looking worried now. The issue of the scale of the whistle involves the referee team in this field. Unless it comes from the top of the league, as a referee, it will be difficult for him to interfere.
Or maybe the Trail Blazers have the league's signature superstars. Only this type of player is likely to affect the referee's attitude.
But the problem is, the Trail Blazers don’t have it!
In the final analysis, Wang Zelin can only be regarded as a popular hot chicken, and there is still some way to go before he becomes the new signature of the league.
"Nicholas goes off first, Will, you go and play No. 3."
In desperation, he could only replace the team's substitute small forward to guard Durant.
Court bench.
"If this continues, the situation on the field will be very unfavorable for the king and the others!"
Yu Jia looked solemn after reading the number of fouls committed by the main players on both sides.
"There's nothing we can do about it. The home court advantage always exists. All Zelin and the others have to do is try their best to overcome these difficulties."
Zhang Lili shook his head. He couldn't think of any good countermeasures.
In fact, neither he nor Yu Jia thought that, logically speaking, since tonight is a focus battle, the referee's punishment scale will be fair accordingly, allowing the players to have more room for personal performance... After all, there are so many fans. Look, random blowing has a bad impact.
Who would have thought that the Thunder's home advantage has not diminished but increased, even better than many previous games.
Moreover, is it possible that the on-field referee dared to make such a call without the permission and acquiescence of the league?
Or is it that the new president of the league doesn't like to see this Trail Blazers team?
Beep~
At this time, the whistle sounded and the final quarter of the game began. Zhang Lili quickly suppressed his thoughts for the time being and let his mind return to the game.
