super heavy artillery

Chapter 892
An Luo and Westbrook hugged in the middle of the court, and then walked towards James and others side by side.As the owner of this arena, it is natural to be hospitable to guests.

Vogel and Donovan, the two people who held pointers and lined up, also hugged and saluted like the players.These two people really have some sympathy for each other.

In fact, the roles played by the two men are actually somewhat similar.When Donovan took over the Thunder, the Thunder struggled for several seasons and were still unable to make a difference in the playoffs.Ever since, Donovan, who had achieved great success in the NCAA, was invited to Oklahoma City by Presti to replace Brooks, who was still unable to lead the team further, as the Thunder's new coach.

For a head coach with no professional league experience, it is really not easy to lead the Thunder to break through the first round of the playoffs or even go further.But Donovan did it!The Thunder easily killed the Mavericks, and then after losing the first game of the semifinals, they defeated the 67-win Spurs in one go, and joined the 73-win Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.What is even more surprising is that the Thunder under Donovan led the Warriors 3:1 in an unfavorable situation, leaving the defending champion in a daze.

Although the Thunder failed to reach the Finals again in the end, Donovan has already achieved success in Oklahoma.He brought the Thunder Bayonets into the lead with typical college basketball ferocity, but his scheduling in the long series finally exposed his weaknesses. His initially reduced rotation became unavailable later, almost watching Cole put Splash on the bench to recharge the battery, but there was nothing he could do.

Later, Durant readily and decisively left Oklahoma.Just when everyone thought that the Thunder would never recover, a series of operations by Predis gave Donovan the opportunity to continue to display his talent.

In the second season, which was the first season An Luo joined the Thunder, although the Thunder fell at the feet of the Spurs, no one thought they were a failure.

Later, it was the Thunder's two consecutive championships.

It took Donovan four years to fulfill the Thunder's expectations of him.Even, he still overfulfilled.Everyone hopes that Donovan can lead the Thunder to rise again, but in fact, no one puts the hope of winning the championship on Donovan.At least, don't expect this day to come so quickly.

That's exactly what the Lakers want Vogel to do in Los Angeles.Vogel got very good reviews in Indiana before joining the Lakers. He led the Heat during Paul George and the Big Three for several years.Although they haven't climbed that mountain, the Pacers are one of the few teams that can compete with the Heat.

Both head coaches have had a successful past, and both teams have outstanding lineup depth, but they are still far from a real rise.Even, neither the Lakers nor the Thunder need a strong head coach, but someone who can unify the strength the team already has, someone who can unite everyone for a certain goal. people who struggle.

At this point, Donovan has done a good job.He is very stable in dealing with big-name stars, especially when Paul George joined the Thunder and An Luo became stronger and stronger, the atmosphere in the Thunder's locker room has always been very harmonious.

Vogel has done well so far, too.Of course, this has an inseparable relationship with the team's core LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but I have to admit that the atmosphere in the Lakers locker room is really the envy of many teams.

At the press conference after the game, Vogel and Donovan also praised each other's players in unison.Although the words are slightly exaggerated, they are generally speaking the truth.

However, neither of these two guys is as harmless as they seem.While praising the other party, he also let out some cruel words without leaving a trace.

I believe that the next meeting between the Lakers and the Thunder will definitely be more exciting than this one.

After defeating the Lakers, the Thunder temporarily secured the No. [-] position in the Western Conference.However, this is just one of the Thunder's myriad challenges this season.The Thunder wants to defend their title again and achieve a three-peat dynasty, so there will be many, many games like this one with the Lakers tonight.

After resting for a day in Oklahoma, An Luo and others embarked on a journey to Minniferda.

This is not a match of equal strength.Neither the process nor the results surprised everyone.Even Wiggins had an explosive performance without any surprise.

It's strange to say, I don't know when it started, as long as Wiggins met Thunder, all the thermos cups, goji berries, and health preservation were thrown into the sky.

In the first round of the opening, Covington passed the ball to Wiggins after killing the ball. This guy directly faced Robertson's interference and directly made a three-pointer and hit the buzzer.

Throughout the game, Wiggins scored 38 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.Not only the Timberwolves' best performance, but also the player with the highest score in the game.

It is a pity that no matter how good a person's performance is, it is difficult to win the game.The other players of the Timberwolves did not provide much help to Wiggins. Whether it was Towns with 16 points or Culver with 14 points, they could only slightly help Wiggins relieve some pressure.On the contrary, Naz Reid played very well on the bench, scoring the second highest 21 points in a single game for the Timberwolves.But it is a pity that most of his playing time is in the last quarter, which is already garbage time.

An Luo and Westbrook, the two absolute cores, did not play in the fourth quarter.The first three quarters were too aggressive!At the end of the third quarter, the Thunder had led the Timberwolves by as many as 30 points.There is really no need to appear again.

After a 125-104 victory in Minniferda, the Thunder returned to Oklahoma non-stop.Next is a whole week of home games. The first game is the second-ranked Raptors in the East.

Before that, Thunder had fought against the other side.With a more stable lineup and more tacit cooperation, the Thunder had the last laugh.However, in this season, the performance of the Raptors has greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.After losing the two championship players Leonard and Danny Green, the Raptors did not recover after a setback. Instead, under the leadership of Lowry and Siakam, they made great strides all the way and firmly ranked second in the Eastern Conference.This makes the Celtics and 76ers who are behind them feel very ashamed.The King of the North still has a deep background.

In this game, the Thunder lost.The result was a bit surprising, but definitely not an upset.

At the end of the game, the score of the two sides was fixed at 132:125.The visiting Raptors are in front, and the home team is behind the Thunder.

It's interesting to say that the Thunder have rarely lost at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in the past two seasons.They have achieved a record of 60+ for two consecutive seasons, and most of the games they lost were away games.But in the three months since the start of the season, most of the Thunder's losses have been at home.

Judging from the final data of the players, the Raptors' Thunder showed two different game forms.

For the Thunder, An Luo, Westbrook and Alexander on the bench played well, contributing 36 points, 21 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists and 22 points respectively.But apart from these three players, only Adams scored in double figures for the Thunder, but only 13 points.The rest of the players performed poorly, especially Gallinari in the starting lineup.

In fact, Gallinari played very well during his time in Oklahoma.As the Thunder's No. 18 man and second option on offense, he averaged 35 points per game.For a team with a 20-plus player and a [-]-plus player, Gallinari has done what the Thunder need him to do.

However, Gallinari's performance is indeed worse than when he was in the Los Angeles Clippers.But this is a natural thing, the Thunder is not the Clippers, and there is no shortage of people who can score.

In this game, Gallinari's performance was indeed a bit unbearable. The number of 13 shots is second only to An Luo, but he only made 2 of them and contributed 8 points, of which 3 points were obtained through free throws.

Of course, Gallinari cannot be blamed for losing the game.In the previous games, players like An Luo played like this and basically won.The biggest reason why they lost this game is that the Raptors players performed too well.

相比于四人得分上双的雷霆，猛龙则是更加的团队。他们7人得分上双，其中首发五人全部都得到了至少15分的得分。西亚卡姆21分4篮板4助攻，阿努洛比21分5篮板5助攻，洛瑞17分4篮板8助攻，伊巴卡15分8篮板1助攻，加索尔15分5篮板6助攻。

It can be said that the Raptors' starting five successfully outmatched the Thunder's five players.Not only that, but the fighting power on the bench is not comparable to that of the Thunder.Powell scored a Raptors-high 23 points, plus Terrence Davis' 16 points, in this case, there is no reason for the Raptors to lose the game.

After losing to the Raptors, the Thunder was neither convinced nor helpless.What is convincing is that the opponent's style of play in which everyone can stand up and make contributions makes the Thunder powerless on the defensive end.In many cases, it is blocked here, and it pops up there again.No matter what kind of defense, it is impossible to limit five people on the field at the same time.

Unconvinced, the Thunder are not without a chance to win this game.In the second half of the third quarter, An Luo and Alexander teamed up to play a wave of 11:0 attacks, tying the score in one fell swoop and successfully overtaking.However, in the fourth quarter, Powell's two unreasonable ultra-long three-pointers suddenly made An Luo's efforts come to naught.

However, the tone in my heart was vented by the Thunder on their next opponent, the Miami Heat.

Halfway through the season, the Heat's game is no longer as under-appreciated as it was in the beginning.Butler's joining has brought the toughest momentum to this revival team.Of course, hot and tough blood already flows in Heat's body.From this point of view, Butler, who has always been known as a "tough guy", chose to come to Miami this summer, which can be described as a match made in heaven.

The current Heat have secured the third place in the Eastern Conference.Moreover, they are likely to surpass the Raptors to become the team second only to the Bucks.The Bucks this season are indeed too strong.Even the Thunder, which had suppressed them for two years in a row, was not as good as their record.

But it was such a Heat, a team known throughout the league for its tough defense and desperation, that got shut out in Oklahoma.

The Thunder players feel like the Toronto people in the previous game. Many times, they can ignore the opponent's defense and hit the ball directly.With such an opponent, the Heat are powerless.

An Luo continued his outstanding performance in the previous game, and he even performed better than the previous game.Throughout the game, the Heat, whether it was Nunn who started or Hiro who came off the bench, couldn't cause too much interference for him.Especially Hiro, who is also the No. 13 pick, An Luo taught him a good lesson.It also made the opponent feel the strength that a shooting guard with the 13th overall pick should have.

Gallinari, who performed badly in the last game, finally got back to normal.Although he only scored 17 points, he made 5 three-pointers and completely liberated the Thunder's inside line.At the same time, it also relieved the defensive pressure on An Luo, who was also near the three-point line.

However, Butler is really tough.Originally, the Thunder had opened the point difference to 25 points in the second half of the third quarter.For the vast majority of games, this is already a relatively safe point difference.But under the leadership of Butler, the Heat played a strong counterattack in the fourth quarter, closing the point difference to only 3 points in one fell swoop.At this time, Donovan hurriedly let his main players reappear, and he stabilized the situation.

Throughout the game, Butler only rested for 5 minutes.This kind of playing time may not be such a special thing in the NBA ten years ago, but it is really a remarkable thing in the current NBA.You know, in the seven-game series between the Thunder and the Raptors for the second championship, An Luo only averaged 37 minutes per game, which is already the longest among players on both sides.

After the game, Westbrook found Butler immediately.As one of the few tough guys in this league, Westbrook admires this guy very much.

An Luo was interviewed by the reporters on the scene.However, he didn't get too excited, and coped with it in a few words.For him, every game after entering 2020 is relatively difficult.Including the last loss to the Raptors and this defeat to the Heat, he felt this way.

However, as a professional athlete, An Luo believes that he can adjust his state.After all, the season is still months away!
(End of this chapter)