rpbooks Chapter 834
Chapter 834
Chapter 834
In the minutes towards the end of the first half, the Thunder played very passively.
Siakam kept attacking the Thunder's inside line. When Adams was pinned down by Gasol Jr., the Thunder's defense in the penalty area seemed a bit insufficient.Robertson will not suffer too much when facing most of the four positions, but facing a player like Siakam who can shoot suddenly and has a very outstanding height and wingspan, he is still a little powerless.Although Donovan adjusted the positions of Gallinari and Robertson in time, the effect was even worse.So much so that Donovan had to adopt double-team tactics to limit Siakam.
But this guy is not so easy to hold down.He not only has a strong breakthrough ability, but also has an outstanding mid-range shooting ability, and he is also good at passing the ball.Coupled with the addition of Lowry and Van Vleet on the outside, the Thunder's defensive effect is not ideal.Fortunately, there is still a Grant who can relieve the pressure on the court, but he has been playing for a long time.Donovan is not D'Antoni. He controls the playing time of Thunder players very well.
That's not the thing that annoys Donovan the most.What annoys him the most is that Robertson, who has excellent defense, has once again become a burden for the team in the offensive round.He was indeed able to make due contributions on the defensive end and did not allow Siakam to take off completely, but on the offensive end, he became more at a loss than before the injury.It feels like he is the dream-chasing Green of these two seasons, and he is not even as good as the opponent.Not to mention the loss of COSCO's ability to shoot, the cooperation with Westbrook and others is also a bit jerky.Of course, due to injuries, Robertson has been absent for too long and has not yet returned to his best form.But the opponents on the field will not let go of such obvious shortcomings. They directly emptied Robertson in defense and concentrated their defensive strength to deal with An Luo and Gallinari.
As a result, the Thunder's offense has also been greatly affected.Although An Luo can still help the team score, every round of scoring will consume a lot of his energy.Although I can't see how much impact it has for the time being, it is really a troublesome thing for the whole game.
Donovan didn't have a great way to deal with it either.After Paul George left, they will often face such a situation.Unless, Grant's defense can go to a higher level.Or, Robertson can develop a stable scoring method, at least to have a certain deterrence on the offensive end, so that the opponent does not dare to let him go unscrupulously.
But these two points are not things that can be easily done.Unable to fundamentally solve this problem, Donovan can only place his hope on his two core stars.Of course, he didn't expect An Luo and Westbrook to be able to support the defense of the entire team, although their defensive ability is not bad.What he hopes to see is that these two guys can make a breakthrough on the offensive end, use offense to attack, and suppress each other through stronger offense.
Therefore, An Luo has been under tremendous pressure during this period of time.Donovan's thinking led him to take on more scoring tasks, and he had to face a more difficult defensive environment.Under the arrangement and deployment of Nass, the Raptors players gave An Luo superstar treatment.This is a situation that An Luo has rarely encountered since entering the NBA.In the past few seasons, he occasionally encountered such treatment, but at that time there was still Paul George in the Thunder lineup. Even if he was completely locked by the opponent, the latter could still support the Thunder's offense.But now, Paul George is replaced by Gallinari.The latter's scoring ability is not much worse, but he lacks the aura of giving up Paul George, which is the main reason why he has never been able to break through the hurdle of a quasi-All-Star player.
Gallinari can't resist a team's offensive banner.Fortunately, Westbrook can more or less share some of the pressure on An Luo.The defense he faced was not as tight as An Luo, so when he found that An Luo couldn't open the situation, he stood up.
In the past two seasons, due to Westbrook's initiative to delegate power, his role in the Thunder has become the initiator of the offense, but this does not mean that his scoring ability has become weaker.In fact, he just let An Luo and Paul George, who are better at scoring, do these things.After all, he's never been an efficient scorer.However, when he focuses on scoring, he is still quite powerful.
When An Luo attracted the double-teaming of the Raptors, Robertson had more room to move freely to help other players.His pick-and-roll coverage allowed Westbrook to catch and layup in a more open environment.More than once, everyone saw that when An Luo was double-teamed by two opposing players, he decisively passed the ball to Westbrook, who used Robertson's cover to throw off the defender.The latter received the ball and went straight to the penalty area, bypassing Gasol Jr. or Ibaka with a European step, and scored the ball.In some cases, he even carried the opponent's big man to complete the goal.
The roles of An Luo and Westbrook were switched at once.If it was the first time to watch a Thunder game, it would never have occurred to him that the scorer should be the No. [-] player who organizes the offense, and the passer should be the No. [-] player who can compete for the scoring title.
Under the impact of Westbrook, the Thunder stabilized the situation of the game.But they can only do this for the time being!The Raptors are also very happy to see the game reach such a situation. Compared with An Luo's explosive output, they hope that the Thunder's possession of the ball will be concentrated on Westbrook, who is constantly hitting the basket.Although that kind of offense will cause them trouble with fouls, Westbrook's free throws tonight are not particularly accurate, and the lethality caused is very average.
Gallinari has always maintained a deterrent force outside the three-point line, and both Powell and Anunoby followed him inseparably.However, this kind of defense can only be said to be a normal level.Therefore, although he didn't have many chances to score, he still played the most basic role in the game with an excellent three-point score.He and An Luo firmly controlled most of the Raptors' lineup and provided great help to Westbrook.
Even so, the Thunder can only stabilize the situation of the game.Not even their lead in the first quarter was running out.Siakam and Van Vleet's internal and external blossoms, coupled with the occasional flashes of inspiration from Gasol Jr. and Lowry, it is not that simple for the Thunder to get off to a good start this night.
(End of this chapter)