In the first quarter of the game, the Trail Blazers relied on excellent offense and solid defense to establish a nearly double-digit lead at 28-19.

For the Trail Blazers, Aldridge was the absolute hero of the first quarter, contributing 12 points in a single quarter, almost directly beating his opponent Ibaka.

As for the Thunder, Westbrook, the absolute core player on the court, is indeed strong. Under the Trail Blazers' defense, which is almost double-teamed every time, he can still rely on his strength to score even when his teammates are not performing well.

Through strong play inside and drawing fouls, he scored 8 points in the first quarter and forced the Thunder to score points.

However, Westbrook's way of playing to the extreme is too tiring, and his shooting percentage is not too high under the defense of the Blazers players.

The biggest problem for the Thunder today is that the help other players can provide on the offensive end is extremely limited, which makes the Blazers play very easily in the game.

After the team established the lead in the first quarter, Stotts could also be on the court and boldly make some player adjustments to practice the latest tactics to see if they could be suitable for the NBA's defensive intensity.

For example, at the beginning of the second quarter, Stotts replaced Aldridge, who was in good form throughout the first quarter, to take a rest, and brought Lillard and Zhang Feng, who had already taken a rest in the second half of the first quarter, onto the court at the same time.

came and also sent another defender CJ McCollum.

As for the Trail Blazers, they directly changed into a two-gun combination in terms of backcourt player selection, and used the two-gun combination with Lillard and McCollum in pick-and-roll tactics during training. Zhang Feng, who has been honing extremely well, also retains

On the court, let's focus on showing the combat effectiveness of the two guns in the backcourt.

Although this kind of staffing is a problem for Westbrook's defense without Matthews.

However, after all, it is only the first game of the regular season. There is no need to worry about the details. Just play your own game well. Moreover, the team currently has a certain lead to try.

It is understandable that Stotts insists on his own ideas and tries the second lineup.

In fact, Stotts himself wanted to continue with this lineup and give them more time to try during the game.

After all, Aldridge has not yet completed his contract extension. If Aldridge leaves the team on a free basis after the end of this season, then it will definitely be impossible for Stotts to add a forward like Aldridge in the free transfer market.

Realistic.

And if you find another power forward to replace Ade, then if you continue to use the existing tactics, the team's strength will inevitably decline. Therefore, Stotts can only prepare for future changes in advance, find other ways, and change the tactics of some teams.

, adjust the team’s offensive focus.

For players with strength and perseverance like Zhang Feng and McCollum, Stotts believes that these two young people can further grow and become an important part of the future Blazers, and is willing to give them more time to develop.

To grow and "pay tuition".

The backcourt combination of McCollum and Lillard is indeed young. Together with Zhang Feng in the inside, all three of them are now on "child labor contracts", but they are able to show considerable strength on the court.

of immediate combat power.

The strong physique Zhang Feng has trained this summer allows him to provide a higher quality pick-and-roll effect during the pick-and-roll process.

It's not that Zhang Feng can delay his opponent longer, but that the number and probability of high-quality pick-and-rolls has increased.

You must know that the success of pick-and-roll tactics is mutual.

If you want to provide cover, it's true that sometimes you can create an excellent cover when the defender isn't paying attention.

Zhang Feng is always very accurate in selecting pick-and-roll screens. As long as the opponent doesn't pay attention, it will almost certainly be a perfect screen, completely blocking the opponent's pursuit.

But defensive players are not robots, although their defensive focus is still on the ball holder.

However, as long as you pay attention to the surrounding situation during the game, you will respond in advance, or directly rush to close the distance with the ball holder, or retreat, avoid the cover, and quickly go around.

Under such circumstances, the "imperfect" cover formed is to form a physical confrontation in the process.

Through reasonable physical confrontation, inside players can actually delay the opponent during this pick-and-roll screen process.

However, how effective this delaying effect is depends on how well the screen is completed and how much pressure it can put on the opponent's players during the physical confrontation.

Last season, Zhang Feng's pick-and-roll tactics relied more on his precise position selection to achieve a perfect pick-and-roll and prevent defenders from getting past him.

And if the pick-and-roll cannot be carried out perfectly, because Zhang Feng's confrontation ability is not that strong during the movement, the defender will still be able to catch up with Lillard and cause some interference.

But this season, in this game.

Whether it was Westbrook or Robertson, when they wanted to bypass Zhang Feng's pick-and-roll screen, they were greatly disturbed during the confrontation, which affected the speed of the pursuit.

This also gave Lillard and McCrum more easy shooting opportunities.

Our own basket was also very helpful to the two backcourt players today. Lillard and McCollum hit jump shots after the pick-and-roll provided by Zhang Feng, constantly contributing points to the Trail Blazers, and thus creating more games.

Big lead.

Stotts on the sidelines was very satisfied with the performance of both players in the backcourt who came on the court at the same time in the second quarter.

Although both of them are lacking in height, weight and strength, they may be targeted by their opponents when defending.

But both of them have very good offensive firepower.

Stotts knows that Lillard not only has outside shooting, but when he is full of energy, he is also very good at accelerating to the basket and will become a stable point-getting weapon.

As for McCollum, in the game, the entire free throw arc area is his sweet spot. When making pull-up jumpers immediately after the pick-and-roll, McCollum's shooting percentage in this sweet spot is also quite good.

And just like Lillard did not hit the inside, McCollum also did not exert his full strength. At least he has not made a small throw during the breakthrough process. It can be seen that the defensive pressure given by the Thunder is not huge.

In the first half of the second quarter, the Blazers' offense relied on an offensive system dominated by double guns in the backcourt. In less than half the game, they hit an 18-12 spurt, extending the score to 15 points.
Chapter completed!