The Godfather of Basketball

On the second day after the party ended, Tang Tian raised the issue of Westbrook's positioning at the regular meeting of the coaching staff.

Both Stevens and Walton agreed. The two young coaches are also full of interest and curiosity in transforming Westbrook.

After the regular meeting, Tang Tian called Kidd and Harden to the office, and told them about the changes together.

Both of them seemed a little excited. The possession of the ball is an affirmation of their organizational ability.

Especially Harden.

At the beginning of the season, the coaching staff used Westbrook as the core of their tactics, and now he has won this through his own efforts.

A decision is made, and then comes training.

In a basketball game, regardless of individual talents, 20% of the performance on the court is performed on the spot, and the remaining 80% is off-court training. This is the same as the exams in the student days.

It happened that after the Thunder team lost to the Spurs, they had a rare 4-day rest period, and they could take advantage of this period to train well.

The new style of play required a transition, and Westbrook could obviously feel uncomfortable during training, but Tang Tian and the coaching staff kept giving him verbal encouragement and support.

Four days later, the Thunder flew to Golden State to challenge the Warriors.

The Warriors traded Ellis away from the team last season, decided to use Stephen Curry as the core, and appointed Mark Jackson as the team's new coach. Under Landry, Barnes was selected, and his strength has improved significantly. He is currently ranked sixth in the Western Conference. After five years, he is very hopeful to return to the playoffs.

Although Oakland is not as famous as New York and Los Angeles, this city adjacent to San Francisco is one of the most economically developed areas in the United States. The basketball atmosphere here has always been very good. With the recovery of the Warriors, the ball market is also getting hotter. .

Facing the championship-winning Thunder, the Oracle Arena was packed that night.

After the warm opening ceremony, the starting lineups of both sides appeared one after another.

For the Thunder, Tang Tian sent a regular starting lineup, with Westbrook and Kidd on the perimeter, Durant and Ibaka on the front line, and Brown at the center.

On the Warriors side, Curry and Thompson are on the outside, Harrison Barnes and David Lee are on the front line, and Bogut is the center.

Amid the cheers of the fans at the scene, Bogut jumped and beat Ibaka, giving the home team the opportunity to attack first.

Curry dribbled to the frontcourt, Bogut's high pick-and-roll, Curry misplaced on Brown.

Mark Jackson's Warriors have a very good defense, but their offense is relatively simple. After creating a dislocation, the other players will all pull apart to create space for Curry to play singles.

Curry swayed continuously, took the ball and squeezed past Brown to break through the basket.

Ibaka on the weak side quickly assisted in the defense and interfered directly. Curry's layup missed the basket and Ibaka received the defensive rebound.

Ibaka turns and hands the ball to Kidd, who dribbles upfield.

At this time, the Thunder began to play the new tactics they had trained in the past.

Westbrook and Durant began to cut in from both sides, and then looked for opportunities, or borrowed Brown and Ibaka's pick-and-roll, or ran back to find open opportunities.

The players of the Warriors stared hard at their defenders, squeezed through the pick-and-roll like desperately, and froze to prevent the Thunder without the ball.

There were also bursts of cheers at the scene.

This is what Mark Jackson has built for this team, a defense that has never belonged to the Warriors before.

Seeing that it was not possible, Kidd stretched out his hand to signal Durant to go directly out of the three-point line. Durant came over, he passed the ball with one hand, and then directly blocked Barnes with his experience.

Durant seized the space and made a three-pointer from the outside.

"Shua!"

Durant went up and down, giving the Thunder a head start.

Looking back, it was still Curry holding the ball, but this time the pick-and-roll person became David Lee. This time Curry broke the ball and walked out, and then fed the ball to David Lee. Westbrook turned and sent the ball to the basket.

Curry's quickball helped the Warriors make this mismatch.

The Thunder's offense was still Kidd's organization. This time Westbrook got a chance to make an air cut. Kidd's pass was very beautiful.

"People! Follow the defenders!"

Mark Jackson was directly furious on the sidelines at this time, and the last thing he could tolerate was the performance of being scored consecutively by the opponent on the defensive end.

The Warriors' high pick-and-roll in the frontcourt had another chance, this time Thompson faced Ibaka, and he dribbled back to the three-point line.

But Ibaka's defensive deterrence is very strong, and the jumping block almost took Thompson's shot, and the ball was a direct shot.

Kidd dribbled the ball to the frontcourt again, still playing the organization of the circle top.

The Warriors players were yelled at by Mark Jackson. At this time, the defensive intensity on the field obviously came up.

Westbrook ran back from the basket, Kidd flicked the pass, but Westbrook made a mistake, turned around and ran back to the basket, and the ball went out of bounds.

When the live camera was shown to Tang Tian, ​​Tang Tian's expression didn't change much.

This is the first game of the new tactics, and this kind of mistakes due to tacit cooperation is within an acceptable range.

In the Warriors' offense, Curry used a high pick-and-roll to walk the three-point line in the frontcourt, and directly hit a three-pointer.

5 to 5, the two teams played for two minutes and tied.

In the Thunder's frontcourt offense, Westbrook ran out of the three-point line to receive the ball. After catching the ball, Curry chased him in place. He instinctively chose to rush forward. Halfway through the attack, he wanted to pass the ball, but Curry cut the ball off. , The Warriors played a fast break, and Thompson caught the ball in the frontcourt and scored the ball.

7 to 5, the Warriors overtook the score.

The scene cheered loudly.

There is a gap between the strength of the Warriors and the Thunder. In the past, they have been crushed for their talent in games. Unexpectedly, the Thunder suddenly changed their style of play. Instead, they took the initiative.

Tang Tian stood up from the sidelines at this time, reminding Westbrook to be more decisive in his offensive choices.

In the Thunder's frontcourt attack, Durant came out to catch Kidd's first pass and shot.

Westbrook still needs to adapt to this new style of play, but Durant is obviously much more comfortable playing in this system than before.

Here Curry used a high pick-and-roll to assist Lee to score a goal at the basket, and looking back there, Kidd assisted Durant to score an air cut layup.

Thompson made a three-pointer with a dislocation from the outside and Brown retreated. Kidd passed the ball back to Westbrook, who missed a three-pointer from the outside.

This Warriors team is basically built on defense, but they had a good touch tonight.

After the first quarter, the Warriors led the Thunder 30 to 21. They played the best offense of the season. On the contrary, the Thunder did not play very well on the offensive end.

Although Durant scored 11 points efficiently in 5 of 6, Westbrook struggled a bit. He took 5 shots in this quarter, only scored 1 goal, and made 2 turnovers.