roccoschili Chapter 875 Through 2019
Chapter 875 Through 2019
Chapter 875 Through 2019
After the Christmas war, 2019 is basically over.The Thunder have two games left in the year.One against the Hornets and one against the Raptors, both games are away games.
In the game against the Hornets, perhaps it was decided that An Luo and others had consumed too much energy in the Christmas game, so Donovan directly rested half of the main lineup.For this reason, the Thunder also received a warning from the league officials after the game.
Adam Silver really hates the fact that the main players are not allowed to play for no reason.However, this trend has been repeatedly banned in the league.Those head coaches always have various reasons to let the players rest.
Such things are mainly concentrated on two kinds of teams.One is teams like the Thunder and Clippers who aim for championships.It's easy for them to make it to the playoffs.Rotation can not only reduce the burden on core players, but also avoid injuries.The other is that a team like the Warriors is basically hopeless this season. They simply let some of their main players take a good rest. By the way, they can also strive for a better draft pick, get high-quality rookies or bargaining chips for trade.
But this kind of thing is not conducive to the operation of the entire league, and to a certain extent will damage the impression of the league in the hearts of fans.Therefore, in the past two seasons, league officials have begun to severely punish such incidents.
However, the results are mediocre.
Without the thunder of An Luo and Westbrook, the combat effectiveness has indeed dropped a lot.Therefore, facing the Hornets, the third-to-last in the East, they played quite hard.
Alexander and Ferguson replaced Westbrook and An Luo into the starting lineup.This is Donovan's first attempt to play Alexander at the [-]. Before that, he had always played at the [-].The Thunder management and Donovan are quite optimistic about the future of this young man, and even An Luo will "give up" his position.
Alexander is indeed worth the Thunder's energy to cultivate.So far, the average data of this second-year rookie has come to about 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Although it is still a bit worse than Doncic and Tre Young in the same session, this season, Alexander has been included in the It is within the scope of the discussion of the best sixth man.
If it stays like this, Alexander's per-game numbers should improve by the end of the season.By that time, Alexander will become the third player of the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the "Best Sixth Man" after Harden and An Luo.
This should also be a tradition of the Thunder!Both Harden and An Luo won the best sixth man award during their rookie contracts, and they both grew up in the end and became a shining star in the league.
Alexander's previous performance was good enough, but this game is the real battle to become famous.
The Thunder and the Hornets fought for 53 minutes at the Spectrum Center.The two sides have been at a stalemate. At the end of regular time, the Thunder had a chance to kill the game.But a mistake by Alexander gave the opponent a chance.Graham made a super long three-pointer to bring the game to overtime.
The last 5 minutes still maintained the situation of you coming and going.In the end, the Thunder sealed the victory with Alexander's pull-up jumper 1.8 seconds before the end of the game.
Donovan's trust in Alexander has not diminished after he made a mistake at a critical moment. It has to be said that it is indeed a bit risky.But it turns out that Donovan's trust was not wrongly paid.
In addition to making a quasi-lore, Alexander's performance throughout the game was very brilliant.Played 42 minutes, made 28 of 15 shots, 9 of 4 three-pointers, 8 of 6 free throws, and scored a game-high 40 points.In addition, he also contributed 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.Both offensive and defensive performances are impeccable.
After the game, Donovan was full of praise for the teenager.As a head coach, Donovan is really lucky.
Donovan took over the Thunder as the coach of two consecutive NCAA championships. At that time, he had Durant and Westbrook in his hands.Donovan, who holds the king bomb in his hand, did not spend too much thought, and the team was able to achieve very good results.
Later, the Thunder fell to the Western Conference Finals, and Durant joined the Warriors.But they got An Luo, and a year later they traded for Paul George.The Thunder made a magnificent turnaround on the verge of rebuilding and won two championships directly.
During this period, Donovan's greatest contribution may have been to adjust the relationship between the Thunder's Big Three on and off the court and integrate the team into a whole.In the construction of the team's offensive and defensive system, Donovan grasped the key to the Thunder's personnel allocation and brought the unlimited defenses to the extreme.On the offensive end, most of it is handed over to Westbrook.
Now, everything is the same as two years ago, with the departure of Paul George, the Thunder once again gained a very good young man.When Alexander fully grows up, Westbrook is not old at that time, An Luo is at his peak, plus a group of outstanding role players like Adams and Gallinari, the future of the Thunder is immeasurable.
Of course, Alexander's outstanding performance has a lot to do with Donovan giving enough opportunities, and it also has a lot to do with their opponents.The Hornets really have no intention of rising.Many operations are inexplicable. For example, they let go of Kemba Walker, who was cultivated so hard during the offseason, in exchange for Rozier, who has a higher eye than the top.
The Thunder will rest one night in Charlotte, then move to Toronto the next day.
It was another tough enough game.Moreover, the Thunder went all out in this game.
In this game, An Luo, Westbrook, Gallinari and Alexander, these four guys accounted for [-]% of the Thunder's scoring.It's not because other players don't get many opportunities, but these guys are in relatively better condition.
For players, being too busy and too tired is not good, but neither is taking too long a break.An Luo and Westbrook were obviously not in the state at the beginning of this game.Fortunately, they didn't spend too much time adjusting.
The Raptors' Lowry and Siakam created huge problems for the Thunder.The latter's performance this season has been outstanding, but the former also broke out at the same time, so it is very difficult to deal with.
In the end, relying on the tacit cooperation between An Luo and Westbrook, they played a wave of offensive climax, gained a 2-point advantage with 4 minutes left in the game, and maintained it until the end.
With the victories of these two games, the Thunder overtook the Los Angeles Lakers at the last moment of 2019 and reached the top of the Western Conference once again, marking a perfect end to this year.
(End of this chapter)