Chapter 762 Durant: I Can’t Beat Him! (Third Update!)

Throughout the first quarter, Durant was very uncomfortable being guarded by Tang Tian. He only scored 5 points on 1 of 5 in a single quarter. The Thunder also trailed the Pelicans by a score of 17 to 29.

Tang Tianguang scored 6 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists in this quarter.

Donovan's no-defense strategy allowed Tang Tian to fight with ease.

Moreover, seeing that Tang Tian was in good form, the Pelicans players consciously or unconsciously gave way to him.

In the second quarter, Stevens adjusted his defensive strategy and let Bo Yang defend.

Durant increased the frequency of attacks, but his touch was lost by Tang Tian in the first quarter, and he could only rely more on breakthroughs to score.

And Davis's help defense has become a headache for him.

In this quarter, he scored 12 points on 4-of-10 shots, but the Thunder already trailed by as many as 17 points, 41-58.

Tang Tian mainly attacked in the second quarter, and his personal statistics have risen to 18 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists.

At halftime, Durant sat in the locker room feeling depressed.

He had many reasons for being depressed.

When Brooks was coaching in the past, although there were no offensive tactics, the defense was systematic, but now Donovan doesn't even practice defense!

Everyone was obviously making progress, but Tang Tian made rapid progress every time. For the first time, he began to question his talent!

And these Thunder teammates, except Westbrook, no one else can help in such a tough battle!

"Kevin, you will get your touch back in the second half."

Westbrook saw that Durant was not in the right mood, so he came over and patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

Durant glanced at Westbrook with a complicated expression.

This is his best brother, but when he sees it now, it reminds him of the scene at the All-Star Cake Shop.

He nodded.

After a while, Donovan came to the locker room.

"We need to adjust our defensive strategy, have someone to defend and someone to help defend, otherwise we will lose this game."

For the first time, Durant publicly made tactical demands on Donovan in the locker room.

Donovan frowned slightly, then nodded.

"I'll defend you."

Durant continued.

Donovan agreed without saying anything.

After he finished adjusting his tactics for the second half, he called Westbrook out alone.

"Russell, Kevin's recent state is not very good. You need to admit more responsibility and lead the offense more."

Donovan said meaningfully to Westbrook.

He has been with the Thunder for more than half a year.

For the past six months, he has been thinking about the tactical status of Durant and Westbrook.

He has coached in the NCAA for 19 years. In 19 years, guards have led the offense, but not the Thunder.

This is not the coaching style he is used to, and he also knows that Durant is just a scorer and his support ability is far inferior to James.

So he has been looking for opportunities, and now is the opportunity. He wants to transfer the offensive dominance from Durant to Westbrook.

Westbrook didn't know what Donovan was thinking, but he accepted Donovan's proposal.

In the past, Durant carried the team on his shoulders. Now that Durant is in poor condition, it is time for him to step up.

After the halftime break, both sides did not adjust their starting lineups. The Pelicans attacked first.

Tang Tian still holds the ball, but the person guarding him changes from Robertson to Durant.

Tang Tian wasn't too surprised. Durant is the kind of person who cares a lot about external evaluations.

He can't perform well on the offensive end, so he definitely wants to make achievements on the defensive end.

If both offense and defense are completely destroyed, then there will really be no place for him to put his face as a superstar.

Tang Tian dribbled low.

He knows that Durant is tall and has long arms, so shooting in front of him is not a good option.

After dribbling continuously, he suddenly accelerated to the right and broke through.

Durant was too tall and couldn't keep up with his center of gravity, so he was squeezed past by Tang Tian.

Ibaka on the inside came out to help defend. Tang Tian got close and hit the ball without looking at anyone, passing the ball from Ibaka's right armpit to Davis on the baseline.

Jokic blocked Adams, and Davis took the ball and made a one-handed dunk.

Another Nash-style wonderful assist!

Durant clapped his hands angrily.

If he couldn't keep up with Tang Tian's first step, this defensive strategy would still be useless.

In the Thunder's offense, Westbrook no longer used tactics for Durant as he did in the first half, but took the initiative to call Adams to the high post for a pick-and-roll.

After breaking it open, he faced Jokic in a mismatch and accelerated his explosive breakthrough to the basket.

Davis assisted in blocking the shot, and Westbrook directly forced a layup, causing the latter to commit a defensive foul.

Westbrook's Turtle breakthrough is a brutal collision.

With two free throws, Westbrook helped the Thunder tighten the score.

Looking back, Jokic held the ball at the free throw line, Tang Tian cut in and then reversed, and Durant was struggling to catch up.

Tang Tian caught the ball and faked a triple-threat shot. He deceived Durant and then turned and went to the basket.

Both Adams and Ibaka were afraid of Tang Tian's pass and did not dare to pounce too far. Tang Tian directly accelerated his hands and dunked to score.

Durant turned back to watch Tang Tian dunk, a look of despair flashing in his eyes.

I can't attack, I can't defend, I can't beat him!

This was even more uncomfortable than facing James when he first entered the league.

Because even if he couldn't guard James at that time, he could still fight with James.

But this pervert Tang Tian made him really desperate!

His mentality was a bit broken.

Is this what it felt like to play against Jordan at the beginning of the century?

Westbrook broke through and scored a layup.

Looking back, Tang Tian saw that Durant was standing relatively far back. He used a fake shot to trick Durant into coming up, and then turned around and hit the ball backwards.

When the ball went in, Durant was convinced that the person he was facing was Michael Jordan.

Durant's condition on the court was not right, and the Thunder teammates began to help him defend more.

But this gave Tang Tian a lot of space to pass the ball.

In this quarter, Tang Tian scored 6 points in a row at the beginning, but then sent out 4 assists in a row.

However, Westbrook performed well in this quarter, scoring 20 points in a single quarter, helping the Thunder cling to the score.

And in the third and fourth quarters when the substitutes were connected, Kanter stepped up in the paint and successfully narrowed the point difference to 12 points before the two sides entered the final decider.

Competition, there are still a dozen.

But Durant was really beaten by Tang Tian this time. He failed to seize the consecutive opportunities on the offensive end in the decisive stage, and was also hammered by Tang Tian on the defensive end.

In the end, although Westbrook scored a season-high 40 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, Kanter also had a brilliant performance of 17 points and 8 rebounds.

But Durant's performance of 8 of 28 shots, 22 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 turnovers was really bad.

The Thunder eventually lost 105-118.

Tang Tian performed very well in this game, scoring 32 points, 13 rebounds, 21 assists, 2 steals and 2 fouls.

Donovan said before the game that it would be impossible for Tang Tian to get 20 assists, but Tang Tian got it...

And after winning this triple-double, Tang Tian's triple-doubles this season reached 7 times, surpassing Green and becoming the player with the most triple-doubles this season.