The Way of the Center

Two consecutive losses, in the long regular season, two consecutive losses are nothing at all. However, if the Thunder continue to play in this state, the losing streak will definitely not stop at just two games.

Losing the first game to the Spurs, the Thunder lost because they were too arrogant. He thought that after winning ten consecutive victories, he could easily take down the old guys in GDP.

Losing to the Mavericks in the second game, the Thunder lost because they were timid and lacked self-confidence. After being scolded by Van Gundy, everyone dared not make any moves, and did not dare to do anything other than Van Gundy's arrangements.

Young people are like this, they are easily influenced by the outside world. Van Gundy is also thinking about it, maybe he really can't use the way he used to treat young people.

"Pseudo-strong team? Losing consecutively to the Western Conference powerhouses, the Thunder were beaten back to their original form."

"Michael Beasley: Those guys aren't worth mentioning."

"Oklahoma City Thunder: will only play the weaker team in the sixth place in the Western Conference."

"With the Thunder's strength, even if they make it to the playoffs, they will only be swept out in the first round." Charles Barkley also made such a conclusion on the weekend program. Indeed, they win consecutive victories against weak teams and lose consecutive defeats against strong teams. The Thunder's performance is in front of everyone's eyes and cannot be justified.

The headlines of newspapers and the words of commentators were all unfavorable to the Thunder. There is only one day before the next game against the Heat. Van Gundy must use this day to adjust the mentality of the players, otherwise "The Flash" will not miss the chance to win

An Jie admitted that during this period of time he has become more and more relaxed in his training requirements. More practice, not as hard as before.

Consecutive double-doubles and consecutive matchups made Anjie start to inflate himself a bit, lowered his requirements, and made him start to find excuses to avoid hard training.

"Didn't David Lee get blown away by me too?" Whenever An Jie didn't want to go to training, he always found all kinds of excuses.

But not today. After fighting Duncan and Nowitzki, An Jie realized that he was nothing. Those famous names surrounding him were all given by the media without authorization.

Leaving the house on time at 6:30, Anjie drove to the Chesapeake Energy Arena. It's been a week since Anjie didn't get up so early in winter to go to training.

"Don't forget how you got here!" Van Gundy's warning to him made An Jie dare not insult himself any more.

"It's so early today?" The security guard in the underground parking lot of the Chesapeake Energy Arena was a little surprised. Seeing the RX-7 driving towards him, he thought he was dazzled.

"The weather is too cold, go to the court to warm up." An Jie opened the car window and smiled at the security guard.

Van Gundy had a headache watching the Heat's game tape. Wade is getting hotter after returning from an injury early in the season, and Michael Beasley has shown his worth in these few games. It can be said that besides Wade, Beasley is now the second scoring point of this Heat team, which is completely different from the sluggish state of last season.

There are rookies breaking out, and old players who are in their prime are leading the way. The Heat's team structure is actually more reasonable than the Thunder's. If you can't adjust the mentality of those boys today, it will be really difficult to fight.

Just as Van Gundy was thinking, he heard the sound of a ball being slapped on the court outside the office.

"Ha, this kid." Van Gundy knew who was outside, and Anjie would not let him down.

"Ann, don't vote, come here." Van Gundy pushed open the door of the office and beckoned An Jie to enter.

"About the offensive run thing, look, you should. If Kevin is with Beasley right now and Jermaine O'Neal comes up on defense, you don't go pick and roll, you roll. Serious injury O'Neal Jr.'s footsteps after illness were very slow, and he couldn't keep up with your footsteps. But what if this is the case?" Van Gundy began to patiently explain the running position to Anjie, instead of just cursing a few words to solve the problem. While pointing at the screen, he wrote and drew on the tactical board.

An Jie listened carefully, Van Gundy's tone was very gentle, which made An Jie not think that Van Gundy was criticizing himself.

"Of course, these are just established tactics. When you are on the court, you should also have your own ideas. I believe in your judgment. You have always handled the team's offense very well." Finally, Van Gundy also gave Anjie A certain amount of autonomy. This not only ensures that An Jie will not stray too far from the general direction he has set, but also ensures that An Jie will not be too restricted by himself.

In fact, An Jie, who has lost his arrogance, knows what he should do, but with Van Gundy's comprehensive analysis for him, An Jie also gained a lot.

After listening to the tactics, Anjie trained alone on the field for a while, and Westbrook also appeared on the training field.

"Good morning, where's the boss?" Westbrook greeted Anjie cordially. Although his shooting percentage was not good before, Van Gundy never said anything about it. But the last time Van Gundy was furious, he also criticized Westbrook's poor shooting percentage.

"I'm watching a video in the office." As soon as An Jie finished speaking, Van Gundy came out again.

"Russell, come in." Like Anjie, Van Gundy beckoned Westbrook in. Van Gundy didn't comment on Westbrook's shooting percentage before, because he was afraid that it would affect Westbrook's confidence and that he would become afraid to shoot from now on. Once young people have no confidence, no matter how good their talents are, they will not be able to play. But now, he decided to solve this problem once and for all.

"Wade's playing style is also based on breakthroughs, but you can see why his shooting percentage is much higher than yours."

After that, when a player came, Van Gundy would call him into the office for a while. Since getting angry can only be counterproductive, Van Gundy simply patiently explained the problems he found one by one. Halfway through the season, Van Gundy naturally knew the strengths and weaknesses of the players.

Today, he used the training time to correct them one by one. Don't ask for a new look for the Thunder players, but at least let them change.

Van Gundy's gentle attitude neither shattered the confidence of the players, but also allowed them to recognize their own shortcomings. Seeing Van Gundy tirelessly discussing with Westbrook over and over again on the timing of his shots on the training ground, An Jie felt that the lively Thunder, who dared to fight hard, had returned.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the Thunder's regular training for the day officially ended. Van Gundy clapped his palms before stopping the players' movements.

"Listen, for tomorrow's game, as long as we play according to what we practiced today, there will be absolutely no problem." At the last moment, Van Gundy decided to give his boys a boost.

"I know that we have had a hard time in the last two games. To be honest, I am also responsible. But those fools say that we are a pseudo-strong team. I don't agree with this." Psychological problems are greater than technical and tactical problems. Van Gundy has always believed that this is a young player. commonality of the team. So now, he had to mobilize the kid's emotions.

"I don't agree either, why don't they say how we beat the sun." Morris was the first to stand up and echo.

"That group of idiots just don't understand anything, we just took a nap." Westbrook is the most criticized and most wants to prove himself.

"So, I know Wade is a respectable player, but"

"But tomorrow we will try our best to beat him." The arrogance he had when he was playing against the Spurs, and the arrogance when he was playing against the Mavericks, are now swept away by Anjie.

"Yes, this is our home court! We train here, we win here. Here are our fans, our supporters. Heat? No, so what about the fifth place in the Eastern Conference, they can't play wild here!" Van Gundy Waving his fist, he felt that the group of guys in front of him had become the group of Knicks players who were extremely jealous when they mentioned the Heat.

"right"

"The boss is right!"

"Isn't it fifth in the Eastern Conference?".

More and more people became excited and decided that the competition would start immediately.

Van Gundy looked at his "masterpiece" with satisfaction, and it was not a bad idea to use the failure of two games to pay the tuition.

Wade and the Heat players on the plane at the moment don't know that what will greet them will be dangerous and terrifying thunder and lightning!

"Defend your home court!" The player group photo poster outside the Chesapeake Energy Arena will become the well-deserved theme of the second day's game. (To be continued.)

Chapter 222: Eat soft but not hard: mz