The Way of the Center

When Dantley got the Nuggets' unusual data, he realized how big a mistake he had made. Playing against the Thunder, maybe Anthony can do it against the Thunder's defense, but the rest of the Nuggets...

Anthony 25 points, Billups 25 points, nope, those are the only two Nuggets scoring more than double digits.

Nene made 1 of 6 shots, Kenyon Martin made 1 of 7 shots, "Birdman" Anderson made 1 of 4 shots, and Johan Petro? Under Anjie's tight defense, the French didn't even get a chance to make a shot.

Data sometimes does not reflect the real situation of the game, but today, this reason cannot be a shield for Dantley.

Facts have proved that the spear of the Nuggets cannot penetrate the shield of the Thunder. But Thunder's shield can actually split the spear. The score of 2 to 1 is nothing, but losing two games in a row, this has to make everyone in the Nuggets start to worry.

Barkley's prediction was indeed correct. The series between the Spurs and the Mavericks, the Thunder and the Nuggets became the most exciting two-group matchup in the entire first round.

The Mavericks are now likely to suffer a black seven, while the ambitious Nuggets may pack their bags and go home in the first round.

Dantley is undoubtedly an excellent assistant coach, but he is only suitable for assistant coaches. When the team was in trouble, he didn't know how to improve the morale of the team, and even now he doesn't know how to deal with the next game.

By George Karl's side, Dantley could concentrate on coming up with new ideas according to Karl's thinking, but now that he had to have his own tactical thinking, he couldn't think of one.

And another important factor, Billups, who shined last season, was also embarrassed by the rotation of Westbrook and Sefolosha in this series.

In four months, the guy will be 34 years old. 34 years old is definitely not young for a professional basketball player.

Dantley, the brain of the Nuggets off the court, couldn't think of anything, while Billups, the brain of the Nuggets on the court, was imprisoned. It is almost impossible to win games in the playoffs just by relying on those flashes of offense.

No matter how strong Anthony's personal ability is, he can't lead a team that has no rigorous tactical thinking, a loose game, and a demoralized team to victory. Even if they can win a game or two occasionally, they can't win the whole series!

Sure enough, just a day later, the Thunder once again defeated the Nuggets at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

This time the failure,

It made Dantley feel at a loss.

To be on the safe side, Dantley still chose a tactic that kept the team's offense and defense relatively balanced, and the Nuggets didn't make any big mistakes in this game, and they played smoothly all the way.

It's a pity that Anthony, who was eager to win the game with his personal ability, was very restless today. He got a quasi-triple-double data, 39 points and 11 rebounds, and of course 9 turnovers!

It's not an assist, it's a mistake! Anthony made too many mistakes, allowing the Thunder to score a lot of points by switching offenses. You know, players like Westbrook were born to switch offenses. When he rushes up, let alone Billups, even J.R. Smith and Anthony may not be able to catch up.

And Nene, the Nuggets' defensive stalwart, is precisely what he is least good at is defensive transition offense. On the surface, the Nuggets didn't play badly, but the Thunder relied on Anthony's 9 fatal mistakes to maintain the lead in the score.

When Anthony tried his best to score two points in the inside line guarded by Anjie, the Thunder could easily tie the score by relying on his mistakes. Needless to say, how much this affects morale.

The outside players of the Thunder played like a fish in water in the transition attack, and the inside line was also able to continue the offensive under the explosion of Anjie.

Anjie only scored 15 points in the last game because he put all his energy on defense.

But today, An Jie's desire to attack is very strong. Like Anthony, Ainger didn't want the Nuggets to win on his home court. Going to Denver with a total score of 3 to 1 is the safest.

Anjie's game can be said to show his lifelong learning, mid-range shots, big hooks, small hooks, dream dance steps, step-back jump shots...

All the skills that a center forward can display were brought to the table by An Jie. Angie scored a team-high 31 points on 13 of 17 shots and also had 13 rebounds. His rebounds alone accounted for one-third of the Thunder's entire team!

In the end, Anthony, who was in a mess, did not use crazy offense to lead the team to recover from the decline. Instead, he used crazy mistakes to push the Nuggets into the abyss.

106 to 117, the away game is in front and the home game is in the back. The Nuggets once again defeated Oklahoma City by more than 10 points, and the total score of the series was also rewritten by the Thunder to 3-1!

3 to 1, what kind of concept is this? As of now, there are only 8 teams in NBA history that can complete a comeback when they are behind 3 to 1.

In other words, the Nuggets now have one foot in the air. The Thunder can throw them all off a cliff with just a push!

Some of the media supported the Thunder, and naturally some supported the Nuggets. Especially the local newspapers in Denver listed a lot of conditions, proving that the Nuggets still have hope.

"Since the beginning of the 21st century, only two teams have accomplished the feat of coming back from a 3-1 deficit. And one of them involved Billups! As the core of the team's tactics, he knows how to deal with this situation. In such a situation, they know how to lead the team out of the predicament! The current Thunder is just like the Magic that was overthrown back then, they are a group of arrogant young people! I believe that the Nuggets will definitely win at home, and then take advantage of the victory to pursue and win in one fell swoop. Series!" This passage is from the Denver Metropolis Daily. Although the author's point of view is far-fetched, it has become the last straw for the Denver people.

However, a dramatic scene really happened. Two days later, at the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets just played against the Thunder, which had won three games in a row and was in good condition. It is not a point or two to win, but a game won by a huge advantage of 14 points!

Today, Durant was once again strangled to death by Anthony, and the athletic insider of the Nuggets also scored wildly in front of Anjie for the first time. Of course, J.R. Smith is indispensable for such a thing as winning. He finally did not disappoint the Denver fans today. He scored 17 points in the game. Sefoloza and Livingston tried their best, but they still couldn't stop him.

After a second big win at the Pepsi Center, Denver fans literally exploded with joy. They found that history is always surprisingly similar, and the current Nuggets seem to be in the same situation as the last two comeback teams!

They have Billups who has created a miracle once, and they are exactly the same as the Suns' counterattack against the Lakers in 2006.

In the 2006 playoffs, the Lakers lost one game in Phoenix, and then they pulled three games in a row under Kobe's explosion, making the total score 3-1.

Back then, the Suns defeated the Lakers in the third away game, and then went all out to complete the overtake in one fell swoop and win the series.

It can be said that the Nuggets completely reproduced the difficult journey of the Suns. Not to mention the Denver fans, even the Nuggets players have regained their confidence. As long as they can bite the bullet and win the next game at Chesapeake Energy Arena, the Nuggets can bring the Game 7 to the Pepsi Center! At that time, they must be the ones who can advance!

"They have a good idea!" Anjie said while pushing Morris away and hitting the ball again with a small hook.

"Damn, don't vent your dissatisfaction on me, it's me instead!" Morris picked up the basketball and threw it to An Jie, and the two of them were practicing back-up singles.

"I said, don't work so hard, save some energy for tomorrow's game. That guy Nene performed well in the last game, you have to be more careful tomorrow." Morris and An Jie attacked in exactly the same way, But his little hook misses the frame.

"I blamed me in the last game. I underestimated the enemy and let the Brazilian score a lot of points. But this is good. At least I will take good care of him tomorrow." An Jie shook his shoulder and stepped back for a jumper, but he was caught by Morris' interference. strike iron.

"Hey, why do I feel that your defense has improved again?" Although the ball missed, Anjie still smiled and patted Morris on the chest.

"Do you think you are the only one making progress? I have to say, the playoffs are really a good place to get tempered!" Morris was proud. If only Anjie was relied on, the Thunder's interior defense would not be so strong. It is impossible for the Thunder to get to this point.

At the beginning of the season, people even thought that the Thunder's desire to enter the playoffs was a dream. Midway through the season, the perception was that the Thunder were little more than a passer-by in the playoffs, a foil for the rest of the team.

But now, they lead the Nuggets 3-2, as long as they win another game at home, they can advance to the second round!

For a team playing in the playoffs for the first time, how amazing it is to be able to make it to the second round. You must know that Yao Ming has played in the NBA for seven years, and it was only last year that he successfully broke through the first round of the test for the first time.

However, this curse does not seem to apply to An Jie.

"Come on again Ann! In the last group, I will definitely win you!"

"Your hand feeling is not as good as Nene's. How can you beat me. Come on!" An Jie put on a posture. Once these two people start to fight each other, it's like an addiction, and they will never tire of it.

...................................

Anthony will never forget the blue ocean of the Chesapeake Energy Arena in his life. Yes, this place seems to be more terrifying than last year's Staples.

Between the distractions, Westbrook once again attacked the ball aggressively. And Durant's ghostly running off the ball also appeared again.

"Damn it!" Anthony gritted his teeth, and ran after No. 35 again.

He is already very tired, in order to defend Durant, Anthony almost paid all his energy. But what about the result? The game has reached the fourth quarter, but the Nuggets are eight points behind. As a result, Anthony was wondering if he was doing useless work.

Just as Anthony was thinking, Durant received the ball again. Anthony was tired, but he couldn't give up.

Durant naturally felt Anthony's fatigue, he suddenly made a breakthrough, and made another emergency stop while advancing. How could Anthony stand such a toss, Anthony's legs suddenly went weak during the take-off process, and he fell to the ground. Durant's emergency stop jumper went hollow into the frame.

"Carmelo!" Seeing this, Nene immediately went to help Anthony. The team was 10 points behind. If Anthony fell, the entire Nuggets would fall too!

"I'm fine, serve quickly, let's attack back!" Anthony wiped his sweat, it's not over yet, he can't give up yet...

The fans of the Nuggets felt sad watching it on TV, and the incompetent Dantley had already been overwhelmed by the fans' saliva.

Anthony finally broke through Durant's gibbon, and before he could catch his breath, he had to deal with An Jie, who had a larger defensive area.

He changed his layup hand in the air, bowed his waist and avoided Anjie's block. But all this is not over yet, Ibaka has already jumped high, Anthony has no time to change his posture for the second time in the air, and this ball ended with Ibaka's block.

Anthony looked at his teammates, and Billups had been blown out by the Thunder guards in turn. Nene and Martin were unable to play a threatening attack in front of Anjie. J.R. Smith played a good half, but he hasn't been able to help the team so far in the second half.

Finally Anthony looked at his hands, he had no choice but to rely on himself!

"Carmelo Anthony broke through again! Fell down, Anthony fell down. Westbrook's fast drive, oh! Beautiful dunk! Incredible..."

Anthony fell to the ground, hearing the cheers from the Thunder fans because of Westbrook's dunk, but his eyes were full of the blue ocean in the stands of the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The blue ocean that he will never forget all his life...

Anthony couldn't remember exactly how the game played afterwards. He only knows that he breaks through again and again and falls down again and again. Why not shoot? He knows that with his current physical fitness, there is no hit rate at all when shooting.

Until he held the ball again and was about to enter the Thunder's porous penalty area, he was pulled by Billups next to him.

Anthony turned his head to look at Billups in astonishment, what's going on! ?

"It's over Carmelo, the game is over. Our season ... is over." Until then, Anthony discovered that the reason why the Thunder's penalty area is full of holes is that they have begun to celebrate the victory.

The time of the timer on the rebound has become zero. Anthony still holds the ball, standing still outside the three-point line.

This blue ocean has begun to wave. And he stood in the middle, as if he was about to be swallowed by this big wave...

Lost, this time they did not lose in the Western Conference Finals. But in the first round, he was lost in the vast sea. (To be continued.)