Chapter 388: The second place on the Wannian Parallel Import List broke out?
"Oh! Yes!"
Not long after the second half started, the Thunder attacked and Durant caught the ball in the frontcourt and scored a three-pointer, which made the whole audience exclaim.
It was like a shot in the arm, punching into the heart of every Thunder player, causing their morale to soar. They were all screaming, and they no longer had the confusion caused by Wang Zelin's superb defense in the second quarter.
Obviously, Thunder coach Scott Brooks must have fed him several bowls of chicken soup for the soul during the break. Of course, it was also inseparable from Durant's tough performance from the beginning, which once again proved his determination to win.
The Trail Blazers attacked, Lillard received the ball and advanced quickly.
It's enough for Lillard, and Westbrook now also has some defensive experience. He has been following Lillard, and the first thing he wants to do is disturb his offensive rhythm, not steals or anything.
Sometimes Westbrook always feels that the second-year rookie in front of him controls his emotions better than himself.
After the opponent gained experience, Lillard failed to overtake, and the Trail Blazers failed to make a fast break and turned into a positional battle.
Wang Zelin moved forward at full speed, leaving behind Thunder backup center Hasheem Thabeet, and ran towards the basket, constantly compressing the Thunder's defense and forcing him to help defend him.
In an instant, the Blazers formed a 5-on-4 frontcourt.
This time, Connet Lee, who came on as a substitute, got an open space, pulled directly to the right three-point line, and received Wang Zelin's pass from the inside.
"Whoosh!"
A steady open three-pointer was scored.
From the past to the present, and to the future that Wang Zelin knows well, Connet Lee is not a player with outstanding scoring explosiveness, but he is definitely a qualified team player.
His "team" attribute has won the love of all head coaches and the appreciation of many stars, and many people have expressed their willingness to be his teammates.
Because Connet Lee has good protection whether he is a fixed-point shooter or an outside blue-collar player. As a walk-on player, being able to do these two things is enough for him to survive in the NBA.
Under the basket, as soon as Connett Lee took the shot, Thabeet and Ibaka frantically flanked Wang Zelin, and the three of them were all stuck in position.
To be honest, Thabeet, who is 2.20 meters tall, should be one of the few players who can surpass Wang Zelin in height since he has been playing in the NBA.
After all, he himself is 2.16 meters tall. There are very few players in the league who can exceed this height, and there are even fewer players who are famous and well-known.
It seems that there is only one Gao Yuanyuan of the Pacers.
As for Thabeet, he still has a certain reputation in the league. He is recognized as the second best parallel import! He also briefly played for the Trail Blazers for half a season.
However, Connet Lee finally hit the open ball, and the fierce battle for position under the basket came to an abrupt end.
After the three separated, Wang Zelin yelled at Thabeet: "Man, isn't it just a regular season game, why do you need to work so hard?"
However, the latter ignored him and quickly bent down to pick up the ball and walked towards the baseline.
Seeing this scene, Wang Zelin shook his head: It seems that this guy is useless!
Yes, it has been almost five years since he entered the league in 2009, and Thabeet's progress is still not significant enough. On the offensive end, he relies solely on eating cakes and secondary offenses, and on the defensive end, he only relies on his body.
After the short interlude, the game continued.
In the Trail Blazers' frontcourt, Wang Zelin stood firm at the basket like a rock and directly let Thabeet go several meters away. Anyway, this guy didn't have much basket.
Durant caught the ball at the three-point line on the left wing. He frowned when he saw Durant under the basket, but still chose to break through.
But Batum followed closely, and Durant couldn't pick up the speed.
At this time, Ibaka took the initiative to pull from the low left wing to his waist, near the free throw line, and formed a pick-and-roll posture.
Durant used the wall to get rid of Batum, but Aldridge switched defenses again. He immediately passed back to Jeremy Lamb at the top of the key, and then rushed into the penalty area without the ball, trying to take Aldridge away.
Derich.
It is worth mentioning that Jeremy Lamb was also a player in the 2012 draft. He was in the same draft as Wang Zelin and Lillard. This guy's pick was further back, with the 12th pick in the first round.
He was drafted by the Mosaics and immediately traded to the Thunder.
As a relatively pure functional player, he is not good at taking over the game. He is responsible for throwing the ball after catching the ball.
?The first time after receiving the ball, Jerry Clem quickly adjusted and took action decisively.
"Duang~"
Unfortunately, this three-pointer, which had a little room to shoot, missed and the ball bounced high to the right side of the basket.
At this time, Thabeet also came to the basket, flanking Wang Zelin with Durant, and the three of them competed for the rebound.
Wang Zelin jumped up desperately under the double team and touched the ball first. Then when he took off a second time and was about to grab the ball, he found a black arm one step ahead of him and slapped the ball down the outside line.
The first time he landed, Wang Zelin rushed in the direction where the basketball flew.
Westbrook suddenly rushed in from the right three-point line, received the ball from Thabeet, and immediately made a zombie jumper.
"Whoosh!"
A long two-pointer hit and the two sides tied at 61.
"Well done, Hashem! Keep up the good work."
After scoring the 17th point of the game, Westbrook attacked Thabeet's butt hard while returning to defense.
Faced with the praise from the team boss, Thabeet was obviously flattered and scratched his head naively: "I know!"
Thabeet, who is used to living around and being ignored by others, rarely hears a word of praise from others. Westbrook's move made him more determined to seize the precious playing time.
On the Trail Blazers side, Wang Zelin didn't expect that the duck that was about to reach his mouth would be intercepted halfway. He couldn't help but sigh: Thabeet was ranked second in the rankings because he still had two brushes.
At least in terms of physical talent, Thabeet is top-notch, otherwise he wouldn't have caught Wang Zelin off guard just now.
Trail Blazers offense.
The Thunder replayed very quickly, especially Thabeet, who sprinted at full speed to avoid being overtaken by Wang Zelin again. At the same time, other Thunder players also intentionally created some obstacles in front of Wang Zelin. Therefore, this time the Blazers did not form a 5-on-4 in the frontcourt.
scene.
"This is called a lesson learned!" Zhang Li said.
"Hey, Director Zhang, have you noticed? That Thabit on the opposite side was very active after he came on the field!"
Yu Jia pointed curiously in the direction of the Thunder players on the court.
"Maybe it's because I'm facing the king. If I don't put in some effort, I'll only get worse!"
Zhang Lili didn't pay much attention to it, he still looked cheerful.
But soon, violent screams suddenly came from the Energy Arena, and the two people in the commentary box looked at each other intently, with shock on their faces.
It turned out that it was Thabeet who blocked Lillard's layup under the basket.
First, he knocked the rebound away from Wang Zelin's head, and then blocked Lillard. In these two rounds, Thabeet's performance was somewhat unexpected.
Could it be that this thousand-year-old parallel importer is going to break out tonight?