Vol 3 Chapter 176: An opener worthy of reflection

It was not until he left the press conference that Donovan breathed a sigh of relief. As the head coach of a professional team, his pressure is not small.
　　 This is the price of a luxurious lineup: everything points to the final championship, winning the championship is success, otherwise, it is failure. In this process, victory becomes justified.
　　 Therefore, although the match was won, Donovan still worried about the problems reflected.
　　 The first is lineup running-in. The existing problems were exposed quite thoroughly in this game. Although the team's offense is relatively smooth, it is all due to the players' strong personal abilities. The designed tactics did not play particularly well, and several successful cooperations were only a flash in the pan.
Westbrook is indeed trying hard to connect his teammates. Paul George and Anlow’s scoring ability is indeed very good, but if the chance of scoring is completely pinned on Paul George and Anlow’s three-point shooting percentage, That kind of team is more suitable to play on the field than at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
　　 Players are all capable, but very lack of linkage. Obviously, it can be seen that the biggest problem for the Thunder now is not who to give the ball, but what should others do when Westbrook or Paul George has the ball? It is not enough to just throw from the inside and then shoot three pointers. Excellent off-the-ball ability is not about catching the ball and shooting, but whether a capable player can make the opponent's defense feel threatened by running without holding the ball. In this regard, An Luo did a good job, but he was not enough alone, Paul George must do better.
　　 When they start to learn to take the initiative to respond to the inside, this Thunder team is bound to usher in a radical change.
　　Secondly, in this game, the Thunder lost the pace of last season, and the pace became a bit slow. However, Westbrook's five consecutive points in the first half made the game a turning point. Prior to this, the Thunder had never played like the Thunder. Fortunately, Westbrook discovered this problem, so he began to let his teammates keep up with his rhythm. Therefore, in the second half of the game, the Thunder played more smoothly.
　　 In fact, in the last season, Donovan has already tried related tactics and achieved great success. As long as Westbrook rushes up, he has the ability to hit two or even three or four in the penalty area. So we often see lightning fast breaks. Usually Oladipo or Anluo followed. There is absolutely no need to think that this game will be overwhelmed as many times. When the speed is raised, as long as you throw away the chasing soldiers behind you, the game becomes a competition of the personal strength of the players of both sides. In this regard, the Thunder's starting outside combination is definitely the top three in the league. They should play that rhythm.
　　 Of course, if the player's personal ability is not enough, that's another matter. Just like the Lakers in the Los Angeles Derby in California not far away, Luke Wharton is also asking Lonzo Ball to do the same thing. He uses his long pass as the core to play fast break, but because the player's personal ability is not good enough, fast break is difficult to convert into scoring. Therefore, they are trapped in the opposing defensive formation. The exponential increase in mistakes is something the Thunder must pay attention to avoiding.
　　 In comparison, the Thunder's defense is still very good. In fact, the Thunder's defense is very tough. Especially perimeter defense, last season was what all backcourt players didn't want to face. Now with the addition of Paul George, this advantage has multiplied. And Paul George is the kind of player who can defend from outside the three-point line to the basket. His chasing cap has left the Knicks' Li and Hardaway with lingering fears.
　　 Robertson reached the fourth position, seemingly compelled, but in fact, the effect is quite good. He seems to be back in the playoffs of 16 years, and he always feels very familiar. His height and wingspan are not at a disadvantage, and he is more flexible, able to switch defenses to any position on the outside. Such a defensive champion standing in the fourth position greatly liberated Adams under the basket. He can mention more defenses in high positions, and when facing a small ball style team, this advantage will be infinitely magnified.
　　 So in this situation, although the Thunder did not score high in this game, the Knicks were even worse. Under the airtight defense of the Thunder, they failed to win the first five offenses. Although Porzingis' personal ability opened up the situation later, he still couldn't cope with such a defense.
　　 In this game, the Knicks only scored 42 points in the half, shooting 40.5% from the field, and 30.8% from the three-point range (4 of 13 shots). A total of 15 turnovers occurred. At the end of the game, the Knicks made only 40.5% of their field goals and only ~EbookFREE.me~ with 25 turnovers.
　　 It can be seen that the Thunder, with a new lineup, has at least achieved defensive success. They only need to solve their offensive problems, so even if they meet the Warriors in the playoffs this season, the hope of winning is still great.
　　 Of course, from the perspective of the situation, the Thunder is still developing in a good direction.
　　 In fact, among the Thunder's current "Big Three", with the exception of Anlow, Westbrook and George are both ball-holding players and both need to have the ball in their hands to play their best role. This requires one of them to make sacrifices in order to coexist. Judging from the situation in this game, Westbrook is the player who took the lead in making sacrifices. He sacrificed his personal offensive scoring data, constantly using his ball-handling ability, ability to attract double-teams and passing ability to create open shooting opportunities for George and An Luo. The most important thing is that the open spaces created by Westbrook are opportunities, and Anro and George can play very easily. George's personal efficiency improved in the second half, and it was because Westbrook spared no effort in tandem, finally found the shooting feel.
　　 Of course, he has done enough things like this last season. So Westbrook does not seem to resist, after all, the return is pretty good. In this game, he only played 28 minutes, but sent 15 assists.
　　 This is also the distribution model Donovan thinks about the Thunder's offensive possession: Westbrook is the dominant and offensive initiator, and Anlow and George are mainly responsible for scoring. Everyone also reached a preliminary agreement, approved this approach, and initially resolved the ball rights dispute.