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After the entire game, Curry completely dominated the Warriors' offense without being "warmly entertained" by the Thunder, shooting 14 of 22, including 7 of 13 from three, 3 of 3 from the free-throw line, racking up 38 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, delivering the most beautiful individual scoring performance in the playoffs so far.
Curry's assists weren't many, and after he passed the ball to Green, Green didn't rush to pass it but would cut to the basket, further compressing the Thunder's defense, waiting for opportunities to observe the defense and then feeding projectiles to his teammates.
After the entire game, Green made 5 of 7 field goals and recorded a solid triple-double with 11 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals, being everywhere both offensively and defensively.
Besides Curry and Green, who were playing well, Chandler, who scored 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks, was another major contributor to the Warriors' victory.
It was the boxing king who protected the interior line, preventing Westbrook, who was in hot form, from wreaking havoc under the basket, forcing him to take many zombie mid-range jumpers, which reduced his offensive efficiency. Chandler also grabbed 4 offensive boards, all of which turned into points, and his own high rate of scoring in the paint made it an outstanding display of offensive and defensive integration.
Additionally, Klay scored 12 points, Butler added 14 points, Jeremy Lin had 10 points and 4 assists, and Yi Jianlian recorded 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block.
As for the Thunder, Durant made 11 of 17 shots, scoring 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, high production and efficiency. Westbrook hit 12 of 23 shots, scoring 29 points, with the two of them shining brightly as stars, but they were powerless to turn the game around. Harden was in terrible form during this game, barely even trying to shoot—just 1 of 5 field goals, 4 of 4 free throws, and 6 points, failing to provide enough help to his older brother and younger brother.
But this wasn't the main reason for the Thunder's loss. Harden is only a sixth man right now, and in the context of the playoffs, when rotation is cut, his lack of firepower could be supplemented by Westbrook and Durant to increase production. The stubbornness and rigidity of Brooks were the biggest reasons for the Thunder's defeat.
He adhered to the traditional anti-block and pick-and-roll methods from start to finish, paying attention to Curry's projection ability, but not giving him the full attention, which resulted in the Thunder's defense being completely dismantled by Curry's relentless pursuit and dismantling.
After the loss, Brooks realized his mistake in hindsight, but it was already too late. He could only say with a bit of self-reproach during the interview: "The responsibility for this loss is all mine. I underestimated Stephen Curry's projection. I just looked at the technical stats and discovered that he made 7 three-pointers. I should have paid attention earlier. There's no doubt that my negligence wasted Kevin and Russell's good form... but next time will be different, and we will definitely get a win in Oakland before returning to Oklahoma!"
The reporter asked Liam about this statement, and Liam casually smiled:
"There are two days before G2, I look forward to the Thunder's game, but we'll defend our home court. It's not that I underestimate the opponent. The Thunder doesn't have much experience, and it's impossible for them to win, at least not in Oakland."
The reporter asked Liam about his thoughts on Durant and Westbrook's game, and Liam said:
"Durant is a good scorer, but Westbrook is the one who can truly change our defense. I'd rather see Durant score 30 points than see Westbrook score a point in our paint."
The reporter was surprised:
"Coach Liam, aren't you worried that Coach Brooks will be inspired by this when you say it so openly?"
Liam smiled slightly:
"If I say this, will he believe it?"
After finishing his statement, Liam stood up and left, ending the interview, leaving the reporters looking at each other in confusion.
Brooks soon learned of Liam's comments in the interview and immediately sank into deep reflection.
Why would he say that? Is he trying to trick me, or is he trying to deceive me into thinking he's trying to trick me? But now, it's clear that Russell has the ball, he's the offensive initiator for the team, while Kevin is more of a spot-up shooter... the final point, and Russell is more effective at compressing the Warriors' defense. He's in better form this game, so if I lean more on him and let Kevin be a purer point shooter...
Brooks got tangled up, feeling unsure about the tactics for the next game. He didn't know Liam's intentions and kept thinking about whether to give Westbrook more touches and let him lead the overall offense for the Thunder, or let Durant attack more and fully use Durant's strong offensive capabilities.
He thought about it when leaving the Oracle Center, when boarding the team bus, and even when returning to the hotel, late into the night.
The next day, Brooks, with deep circles under his eyes, suddenly realized and laughed at himself:
"Why should I make a mistake because of my opponent's words? Now I should be thinking about how to defend Curry, as for offense... it's enough to give it to Westbrook and Kevin!"
Brooks stopped thinking about silly things, immediately gathered the coaching staff, played the video of the G1 game, discussed the G2 strategy, and set aside the team's offense, focusing on defensive tactical adjustments, especially against Curry.
He also knew that his in-game adjustment ability was a bit weak, so he worked hard to prepare for the game.
As the discussion deepened, Brooks gradually discovered many details he had missed in the game, and his expression grew more and more serious.
Curry launched threes again and again after a single screen, Curry found gaps in the Thunder defense repeatedly and passed the ball to Green, and Green sent exquisite assists after falling repeatedly... Brooks clearly saw how Curry's pick-and-roll was dismantling the Thunder's defense, and it all came down to Curry's powerful shooting ability.
That was when he realized the mistake he had made the previous night.
It's not that Brooks hadn't seen Warriors' game footage before, but the Warriors in the regular season and the Warriors in the playoffs are two very different teams. Last night, Curry went into offensive mode from the first minute of the opening game.
Even though he led the league in scoring during the regular season and put the team first, he didn't have to take so many difficult shots to hold the ball in a game, and his three-point production in the regular season was based more on a variety of offensive methods with and without the ball.
In this case, Brooks didn't gather much useful information from the Warriors' game footage.
But in the playoffs, Curry didn't even try to ease into the game; he activated his killing mode directly. Brooks still used his regular-season experience to deal with Curry's offense, influenced by the inherent basketball concept, thinking that his ball-handling three-pointers couldn't last. The attention given to Curry was completely insufficient, leading to the Thunder defense being dismantled by the Warriors.
Of course, his lack of playoff experience was also one of the reasons why he wasn't prepared. This is the price that playoff rookies have to pay, despite Brooks having been an assistant coach for many years. It's very different from being a head coach.
Liam was able to make the correct judgment unaffected last season because of his three years of experience in the NCAA's Crazy March, and under the baptism of the single-elimination system, even crazier than the NBA playoffs, Liam had accumulated enough "cup" experience and knew exactly how to play in the playoffs.
Fortunately, it's not too late for reconciliation. Brooks is a pragmatic man; he's not an old-school coach who sticks to tradition and is willing to make any change as long as it helps the team win. It's just that he's a bit slow to react.
After a morning of careful discussion, Brooks finally clapped his hands:
"He's so determined, first change the defense, if we can't pinch Curry, it's the playoffs, we don't have much time to adjust, it's all about winning, we can't let him score so many points again!"
The assistant coach reminded:
"What about Draymond Green? He got a triple-double yesterday and is very good at handling the ball, so if we focus more of our defense on Curry, will he pass more assists?"
Brooks thought for a moment and said:
"His independent scoring ability isn't strong, others can shrink properly to give him space, and besides Klay Thompson, the three-point shooting of others on the Warriors isn't as precise, let them shoot, we only need to focus on the interior and Curry, and the rest is just battling with the Warriors to attack!"
-day break, the second battle between the Warriors and the Thunder took place as scheduled at the Oracle Center.
The crowd was still packed, the atmosphere still loud and enthusiastic, and it was still a back-and-forth counterattack.
But the difference was that the Thunder's defense against Curry had changed from the laxity of Game 1. Every time Curry initiated a pick-and-roll, they would immediately switch the defense and not give him the opportunity to take a three-pointer directly after hanging onto coverage.
However, this only added a little offensive difficulty to Curry, and the bulky Perkins was like a stake in front of him. Curry could create shooting space and opportunities to advance with a single move, while Perkins was just like a bag.
But Brooks was prepared before the game and made quick adjustments, allowing Perkins to return to the method of strong delay and then retreat, targeting Chandler's ball-handling weakness so that Curry's ball wouldn't become easy scoring opportunities. After all, Chandler didn't have Green's passing ability.
After the Thunder returned to pick-and-roll, the next two rounds quickly paid off, when Chandler received a pass from Curry and needed to pass to regroup or give Green a semi-open position to finish, but it didn't result in scoring.
But Liam immediately instructed Curry and Green to play pick-and-roll, and Curry, who had defeated the Thunder in the last game, appeared in front of them again.
However, Brooks was prepared for this, and Ibaka resolutely switched the defense, while Sefolosha surrounded Green's front defense at the offensive rim, allowing Curry to play alone with Ibaka, not giving Green a second opportunity to handle the ball.
Compared to the bulky Perkins, Brooks had much more confidence in Ibaka's defense.
And as expected, Curry tried to use speed to break through in his individual matchup with Ibaka, but Ibaka accurately predicted his movements, and Curry ended up taking a rushed three-pointer.
In the following rounds, although Curry also scored, the efficiency dropped significantly compared to when he simply connected with Perkins, and it was so low that Brooks could accept it.
Liam was not surprised by this; at this moment, Ibaka had not experienced a major injury, it was when his athleticism was at its peak, and after two seasons of conditioning, his defense had reached a high level. His ability to defend against smaller players was excellent, and his rim protection had reached an elite level. He had been selected to the All-Defensive team for three consecutive years and was regarded as the best interior defender in the league.
After all, Curry was just a second-year rookie. Although he hadn't taken any detours under Liam's guidance and had made incredible progress year after year, his ball-handling, confrontation power, and projection skills hadn't reached their peak. It wasn't impossible to play against Ibaka, but while he was still adapting to Ibaka's defense, his efficiency would inevitably decrease.
Thunder players took advantage of this opportunity, with Durant and Westbrook continuing their excellent performances from Game 1, scoring in mid-range. Despite Butler and Klay doing everything they could to defend, they were still helpless against the two's hot hands, and by the second half of the first quarter, the Thunder had taken an 8-point lead, 23-15.
Liam no longer waited and watched. He called a timely timeout to make adjustments, which allowed Green to distribute the ball from the top of the arc and the low post, playing a pass, and Klay and Curry made off-ball three-pointers to help stabilize the situation.
After a season of matchups, Liam began to let Green distribute the ball from the top of the arc and wouldn't give up his "successful experience" like this. And the effect was indeed good. Klay and Curry could easily break through the opponent's defense with the help of cross-running covers, and Green could deliver the ball in time. Although his passes were not at the level of perfection at his peak and his turnover rate was quite high, the Thunder's defense was still strong enough.
As explosive as Durant and Westbrook were offensively, they were equally lax defensively.
Westbrook had been with them since entering the league, and his tendency to neglect defense was something that had always been with him and would not change in the future. Meanwhile, Durant didn't know what defense was at the beginning of his career. With his height and long arms, he lacked presence on the defensive side.
Relying on Klay and Curry's three-pointers and the rest of Westbrook, the Warriors managed to close the gap by the end of the first quarter, entering the break with a 23-28 deficit.
In the second quarter, both teams sent a rotation lineup, and this time, Brooks learned a lesson and let Westbrook bring in a bench lineup, allowing him to rest early in the first quarter.
Facing the Warriors' interior line guarded by Big Z, Westbrook's eyes lit up. Without the precaution of facing Chandler, he walked to attack the interior when he received the ball. However, he ignored the presence of Kirilenko. AK47 ruthlessly blocked him with two big swats, lighting up the Oracle Arena and reminding Westbrook that Liam was still sharp. He dared not attack the Warriors' restricted area recklessly.
Relying on Kirilenko's support on defense and Jeremy Lin's advancement and tandem, the Warriors pressed the scoreboard back into contention. When both starters returned to the court, the score was 34-37, with the Thunder holding only a 3-point lead.
In the second half of the second quarter, neither Liam nor Brooks made any significant adjustments, and both teams passed through the final period of the first half smoothly, with the Warriors going into halftime trailing by 2 points, 45-47, tacitly leaving the battle to be decided in the second half.
In the tense atmosphere of the playoffs, the 15 minutes of halftime passed in the blink of an eye, and both teams returned to the court for the second half of the battle.
As soon as the third quarter started, the Thunder launched an aggressive attack, with Westbrook and Durant taking turns opening the scoring.
But Westbrook's shot declined. First, he hit the iron from mid-range, then launched an outrageous three-pointer, giving the Warriors two counterattack opportunities.
After a frustrated shot, Durant turned to attack inside, but with Chandler and Green blocking together, he struggled to find opportunities in the Warriors' restricted area, and the offense became painfully inefficient.
Although Westbrook delivered two assists when the Warriors were busy helping on defense, it was a drop in the ocean and didn't help much with the Thunder's offense.
Throughout the third quarter, the Thunder's offense relied solely on Durant.
His mid-range shots left Butler helpless, and although Butler did everything he could to challenge his set shot and disrupt his rhythm, Durant wouldn't have been able to win the scoring title if he were as weak as his lanky frame suggested.
Butler wasn't an ordinary small forward. He and Durant, with their arms on their knees, were two extremes. His talent was average, but Butler's tenacious confrontation and persistence allowed him to take every opportunity to interfere with Durant's shot. The little difficulty he added made Durant have to adjust his direction and run each time he scored, consuming a lot of physical energy and reducing efficiency.
Meanwhile, Curry had also adapted to Ibaka's defense. He no longer tried to break through inside. Ibaka quickly turned, was tall with long arms, and was particularly good at blocking. He interfered with Curry's layups several times in the first half.
If you can't move forward, then step back.
Curry first stuck to the three-point line, shook the space, and then took a three-pointer. He then took a step back to shoot another three-pointer, and then stepped back two more steps to launch an ultra-long three-pointer. In front of tens of thousands of fans at Oracle Center, he made it again, again, and again—each time retreating further back and continually launching difficult threes, interpreting finesse to the extreme.
Ibaka couldn't help but protect himself against Curry's advance. Curry wasn't a shooter who could only take three-pointers; he had to leave room for a reaction, especially when Ibaka got too close after Curry hit two step-back threes. After Curry bypassed him in one step, he no longer dared to stick to the defense.
As a result, Ibaka couldn't block Curry's threes, so he could only stretch his arms and pray that Curry wasn't feeling it.
Unfortunately, it seemed like God wasn't listening to his prayers.
With Ibaka not daring to defend, Curry easily found his rhythm through continuous dribbles, and a step-back three-pointer, left-right horizontal retreat, was taken with ease, which continued to ignite the Oracle Center atmosphere, with "MVP" chants filling the arena.
This was Curry. He didn't have Durant's monstrous talent, but in one-on-one situations, if he was given enough time to find his rhythm, his scoring became unstoppable, especially if he was facing a big man. As long as the opponent was more than 10 cm taller than Curry, they couldn't limit his scoring!
With Curry's stellar three-point performance, the Warriors quickly opened up the score. When Durant had two points and two points, Curry, who had completely gotten into rhythm, changed direction to receive the ball behind him, then took a step back and scored a three-pointer. This explosive scoring surge made him score 21 points in a single quarter, allowing the Warriors to pull ahead by 12 points, entering the final quarter with a score of 72-60.
In the fourth quarter, Brooks only let the bench play for 2 minutes before he quickly brought back all the starters. The playoffs were not the time to save energy, and if the Thunder returned home with a 0-2 score, the situation in the series would become very dangerous for them. They would fight for a victory in Oakland no matter what.
But, how could Liam give them this opportunity? Both the Warriors and the Thunder were young teams, full of energetic players. Brooks was willing to shorten the rotation, and Liam didn't spare the playing time of his main players. With a great wave, Curry, Butler, Green, Chandler, and Tony Allen appeared on the court.
After seeing Brooks ask Ibaka to defend Curry alone, Liam decided to let Tony Allen defend Westbrook. Westbrook's defense against Klay in this game was much tighter, not giving him the opportunity to run out of an open spot easily. After all, Westbrook still had a defensive mindset for now.
And when Klay was silent on the offensive end, leaving only the role of opening up space, his defensive shortcomings became a little more evident. Of course, if Brooks was going to pressure Curry, then he would bring Klay back to open up space.
It turned out that Brooks wasn't accustomed to changing his tactics during the game and insisted on having Ibaka defend Curry alone. Even though Curry repeatedly pressured Ibaka to the floor, Brooks still believed that Ibaka could limit Curry's scoring in the next round.
This left Liam's substitution unchallenged, and the Warriors had three players without space on the court: Tony Allen, Green, and Chandler, but Curry still calmly faced Ibaka one-on-one, and the offensive rhythm was in no way limited.
In a trance, Liam seemed to see Curry training Adams, Ibaka, and Durant in the 2016 Western Conference Finals Game 7.
The difference was that Curry was much younger, healthier, and more skillful, with only the lack of that great strength.
But Liam believed that with a little more time, Curry, who was even more invincible than his unanimous MVP season, would surprise everyone with a more legendary performance.
This game was a prelude. Curry appeared in the fourth quarter and continued training Ibaka. Although his hand had slowed, he still maintained high scoring efficiency. With Butler's strong attacks, the Warriors held onto their lead.
And Butler's defense against Durant on both ends played a role. Durant spent a lot of physical energy in the first three quarters, and his scoring efficiency dropped dramatically in the fourth quarter. Westbrook was under Tony Allen's tight coverage in the first line, and then Green and Chandler helped with the defensive interference, leaving him almost no chances to score and committing several turnovers, giving the Warriors the opportunity to counterattack.
Although Harden was in good form, scoring 8 points in a single quarter by Curry without anyone's help, it was just a drop in the ocean for the Thunder. In the end, the Warriors defeated the Thunder 98-90 to win Game 2, leading 2-0, and the series was in a good position.
After the game, Curry made 15 of 24 field goals, 10 of 16 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, scoring 42 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds, shining throughout the game, almost single-handedly leading the Warriors' offense in this intense defensive battle.
Durant contributed a luxurious stat line of 32 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists, but was far behind Curry in terms of production and efficiency, which didn't take away from the victory.
Westbrook only made 6 of 16, scoring 17 points, 7 assists, 8 rebounds, and 5 turnovers. These 17 points were mostly scored in the first half, and his performance on the offensive end was very poor in the second half, but he blocked Klay's offense, limiting him to only 9 points in the game. However, compared to his defense, the Thunder needed more of his offense.
Harden's form had recovered, with 16 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds, but his defense was a problem. In the fourth quarter, Liam arranged for Butler to get Harden in an inverted screen, taking advantage of his slow lateral movement to score many points.
On the Warriors' side, although only Butler scored 20 points apart from Curry, none of the other players even scored double-digits, but Klay scored 9 points, Jeremy Lin had 8 points and 4 assists, Kirilenko had 7 points, Green 7 points, and Chandler 8 points, all contributing as much as they could.
In addition to that, they couldn't score more points while doing their best on the defensive end and playing very cohesive defense, which was the main reason why Westbrook went silent in the second half. The Warriors' young and veteran players gave everything to help the team successfully defend their court.
Under Brooks' adjustment, the Thunder's defensive efficiency had improved significantly compared to the last game, with Sefolosha, Ibaka, Perkins, Collison, Butler, Tony Allen, Green, and Chandler all not sparing their physical strength on the defensive side. Otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed the Warriors to have only 2 players scoring double-digits.
But Curry's 43 points ruined all their efforts.
After the game, commentator Jeff Van Gundy sighed:
"A fierce defensive battle like this really tests the hard capabilities of stars on both sides. Curry stood tall. From start to finish, he carried the Warriors' offense on his shoulders, defeating the Thunder's best interior defender, Ibaka, without help. I even doubt if Ibaka has the confidence to stand in front of Curry in the next game."
"Durant was able to score consistently in the first three quarters, but in the fourth, due to physical fatigue, his efficiency plummeted, and Westbrook got lost in the Warriors' tight defensive web, which was very fatal for the Thunder. Relying only on Harden and Durant to score, the Thunder couldn't win this series."
"Maybe Coach Liam is right. He doesn't want to see Westbrook score a layup more than seeing Durant score high points. Westbrook is the offensive engine of the Thunder's wings, and in this game, the Warriors shut down the Thunder's engine!"
End of this chapter
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