Chapter 305: Thunder is a paper tiger
Most of the games that followed were battles between Lian Dao and Durant!
I have to say that Durant's mid-range shooting talent is really amazing. He has made many shots against Lian Dao's interference, but most of them are made.
Of course, Lian Dao will not let anyone decide. No matter how many shots Durant makes, he can always retaliate in the same way, and his shooting percentage is much higher than Durant.
Reggie Miller was also excited by the confrontation between the two at this time: "It's great, Sickle and Kevin Durant are fighting, let's see, who is the best in today's game player!"
Barkley thought for a while, and then said: "I'm still optimistic about Sickle!"
"Is it because you're a big Sickle fan?"
"Hahaha, there is this reason, but it is not the most important thing, you will know it in the second quarter!"
The fans are also very excited, they watched the game directly!
"Oh, I didn't expect Durant's mid-range shots to be so accurate. It's really not easy to make so many shots on Sickle's head, but he is still incomparable to Sickle!"
"Durant is still very good among the new generation of players!"
"This is the most exciting matchup I've ever seen. It's so exciting. It reminds me of the soaring points battle between Sickle and Anthony when the Knicks played against the Nuggets!"
Madison Square Garden, the score on the scoring machine clearly appeared 24:36!
The visiting team is in front and the home team is behind. The Knicks lead the Thunder by 12 points!
Although Durant wants to bite the score, but in terms of shooting percentage and stability, Durant is almost meaningless at this time, and the point difference between the Thunder and the Knicks is also constantly expanding.
There are only 29 seconds left before the end of the first quarter, nearly half a minute, and now the Thunder have the ball. Durant is holding the ball from the outside. This time, he is not in a hurry to attack. You can run out the Thunder's attack time this time and try to shorten the Knicks' attack time for the last attack.
In this way, they can narrow the score gap to single digits at the end of the first quarter.
Durant then came to Lian Dao. He kept slapping the ball rhythmically on the perimeter, wasting time, and when there were only three seconds left in the attack time, he quickly changed his rhythm. After a change of direction, he suddenly He jumped up and made a direct outside jumper.
In order to prevent this shot from being blocked, Durant's shot has a very high arc, and with a wingspan longer than Lian Dao's, it is really difficult to defend.
"brush!"
Durant hit this 24-second three-pointer, which made him shake his fist excitedly!
When returning to defense, he shouted loudly: "Defend, defend, defend!"
This three-point shot also inspired the defensive enthusiasm of the Thunder players, and the Thunder players on the field were very excited.
For the last goal, the Thunder is bound to carry out a full-court press.
There are only 5 seconds left for the Knicks!
This time it is clear that the Thunder team is much better defensively than last season. After all, last season Lian Dao hit the Thunder team's basket from within the Thunder team's three-point line, and hit a creative three-pointer that almost ran through the entire game. That goal was also included in the best goal of the year by espn, and the Thunder was also nailed to the background board for a whole year.
This season, Durant will never let history repeat itself.
However, everyone in the Knicks was covering for Lian Dao without the ball. In the end, Lian Dao still had a gap in his active running position. It happened to be in the hands of Lian Dao.
After catching the ball, Lian Dao didn't pause at all. He dribbled the ball with his right hand and turned around to pass Durant, who was like brown sugar.
Then rushed forward quickly.
Westbrook and Jeff Green didn't care about their defenders at all at this time. They knew clearly that the end point of the Knicks' last goal would only fall on Lian Dao's body, so they quickly moved towards Lian Dao. rushed over.
However, Lian Dao didn't continue to rush forward, and it was too late in time.
After crossing the center line, there were still three seconds left. After accelerating for two steps again, he made an emergency stop, took a step back, found space, raised his hands, completed the shooting action, and threw the ball out at the last second!
While the basketball is falling, time stops and the red light turns on.
However, at this time the basketball just fell into the basket!
"brush!"
Super long three-pointer at the buzzer!
The Knicks still controlled the lead at 12 points.
Although the Thunder had made a lot of preparations to prevent Lian Dao from making the last shot, they still failed to stop Lian Dao. After a year, Lian Dao hit again in the same way in the first quarter and at the last moment. The same three-pointer at the buzzer.
The only difference is that in terms of distance, he scored a lot, but this was a three-pointer at the buzzer under the Thunder's layers of defense!
The Knicks players ran over and gave Lian Dao a high-five.
Durant seemed to have returned to last season all of a sudden, standing in the middle of the court, panting heavily, shaking his head silently, watching Lian Dao's back on the bench!
"Why, why did we defend to such an extent that he can still make shots, why do we have to be the background board again?"
This is the question in Durant's mind, but no one can give him an answer now!
The first quarter is over.
Durant said to Scott Brooks: "Kevin, you did a great job in the first quarter, and then you take a break!"
Then he said to Westbrook, who is always full of passion: "Russell, you and James lead the bench lineup in the second quarter, be careful of the opponent's bench lineup!"
"Coach, I'm fine, I feel very good, I can still fight!" Durant stood up and said firmly at this time.
Scott Brooks is hesitant. Durant's physical fitness is his biggest flaw at the moment. The Thunder often crash in the fourth quarter. He wants Durant to put his physical fitness into the final decisive moment, but looking at Durant With a very firm gaze, he was finally defeated and agreed to Durant's request.
For the Knicks, D'Antoni was also worried that Lian Dao would consume too much energy in such a high-point battle, and worried that the physical crisis in the later period would cause the game to collapse.
"sickle, how do you feel, is there no problem with your physical fitness?"
"No problem, coach, don't worry, I know it well!" Lian Dao shook his head and said, the previous rotation and the few days of rest in the middle also allowed Lian Dao to recover all the physical energy he had consumed before, plus his 96 physical energy , As long as overtime is not played, basically playing 48 minutes is no problem.
"In the second quarter, why don't you take a rest first, anyway, we still lead by 12 points!"
"No need for a coach I don't want to give the opponent any chance to breathe. This time, I will definitely convince the opponent so that Durant will never dare to speak out again!" Lian Dao still shook his head and said, And Lian Dao's words were also murderous. It can be seen that Durant's speech in front of the media still made Lian Dao very angry.
When other players heard what Lian Dao said, they all said that they wanted to teach Durant a lesson, not just any cat or dog can bully the Knicks casually.
Seeing the excitement of all the players, Lian Dao also comforted him: "Durant is not a bad person, but this guy was too arrogant before. He said in front of the media that the Knicks are a paper tiger. I also let him know. The Thunder are the real paper tigers in front of the Knicks!"
Lian Dao's calm tone revealed self-confidence and unparalleled domineering!
Everyone was also screaming excitedly from Lian Dao's words, wishing they could play now and fight Thunder for another 300 rounds.
The second quarter started quickly, and the Knicks replaced players in rotation except for Lian Dao and Tony Allen.
Tony Allen, Danny Green, Lian Dao, David Lee, Rasheed Wallace!
The lineup for the Thunder is: Westbrook, James Harden, Durant, Jeff Green, Nick Collison.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Thunder had possession of the ball. As soon as it came up, Durant raised his hand for the ball.
In the first quarter, he was at a disadvantage in the confrontation with Lian Dao. In the second quarter, Durant needed to find his place again.
On the first ball, Durant continued the feel of the game in the first quarter and hit a mid-range shot, but then Lian Dao responded offensively.
The confrontation after the opening of the second quarter, just when all the fans thought that the battle between the two would continue, the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.