One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighteen. Tianke

At 6:40 in the evening on March 31, 2014, the last day of the month, a focus battle was about to begin. The away Grizzlies entered the stadium.

When Sun Ce entered the stadium, he felt the enthusiasm of the Thunder fans. The boos filled the entire stadium and were deafening.

Sun Ce feels how popular Westbrook is in Oklahoma City this year, where Westbrook's popularity has surpassed Durant's.

This also allowed Sun Ce to feel Westbrook's popularity this season from the side. If Curry hadn't been so popular, Westbrook, who averaged a triple-double per game this year, would have a great chance of becoming an All-Star starter.

At first, when Sun was placed in the frontcourt position by the league in the All-Star starting voting, it was said that his position was not moved because of Curry, but because of Westbrook.

But no one can help but be attracted by Curry's three-pointer!

Compared with the "I'm going to shoot you to death" strength shown by Sun Ce's three-pointers in the past two years, Curry's "I just made the shot" is even more crazy.

Coupled with the fact that there is a guy who has dominated the All-Star starting lineup for Western Conference guards for more than ten years, Westbrook is unlucky enough to average a triple-double and fail to make the All-Star starting list.

It's because Sun is so popular that he doesn't have much personal experience of Westbrook's popularity being hyped by fans and the media this season.

But at least from the Thunder's home court, Sun Ce learned that Westbrook's local popularity has become higher than Durant's.

And his son, who beats Westbrook on the triple-double list, is definitely the image of a villain in the eyes of fans here.

Soon, the pre-match preparation time was over and the players from both teams took the field.

For the Grizzlies, the lineup of Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Richard Jefferson, and Yi Jianlian took the field.

For the Thunder, the lineup of Westbrook, Sefolosha, Durant, Ibaka, and Adams came on the court.

The two teams were already very familiar with each other. After the game started, both teams went all out and played fierce offense and defense based on the state of today's opponents, the studied opponent's playing style after the All-Star Weekend, and past experience. war.

The Thunder don't like to play tricks like the Warriors who are in a period of change, they just go hard!

The offensive end relied on Westbrook's breakthrough and distribution, Durant and Ibaka's containment and catch-and-shoot, Adams' cutting and scoring, and Sefrosa's soy sauce style of play.

On the defensive end, defend alone and defend with assistance. Durant defends Sun Ce, Sefolosha defends Paul George, Westbrook defends pitchers, and Ibaka selectively shrinks the defense.

Durant tonight was just like the last time they met. On the offensive end, he was mainly responsible for containment and taking shots, while focusing on defense.

For the Grizzlies, Sun Ce played very steadily tonight. Yesterday, his ability evaluation broke through to the S- level. In fact, compared to the day before yesterday, his skills have not really improved substantially. The breakthrough in ability evaluation is the accumulation of hard work over the past season. improvement, but the improvement in panel evaluation gave him stronger confidence.

His steady performance allowed his teammates to play steadily as well. Their lineup ranks first in the league in terms of offensive firepower and is already strong. When the mentality of outside shooting is stable and the influence of the impatient mentality of eager to win after three consecutive losses is reduced, The overall offensive performance was outstanding!

Relying on the containment of the outside trio, Yi Jianlian's sideline three-pointers and mid-range shots, and Richard Jefferson's cutting, played very well!

When the Thunder misses a shot and Sun Ce grabs a defensive rebound, Klay Thompson's chasing three-pointer and Paul George's cut-in, catch, attack to the basket and second pass can also come into play.

The first half of the first quarter lasted 5 minutes and 47 seconds, and the Grizzlies scored 18 points!

However, the Thunder also scored a solid 16 points.

In terms of offense, the Thunder can't beat the Grizzlies, but they did a good job of catching the Grizzlies' weaknesses. Adams scored 7 points in less than half a quarter. The Grizzlies' lineup defended Durant and Ibaka. I can defend mid-range shots well, but I don’t do a very good job of guarding against Westbrook’s breakthroughs or pick-and-roll breakthroughs.

Then Adams kept cutting in to eat the pie and hit the offensive rebounds, because they were all defending Westbrook's breakthrough, and Westbrook scored when he got to the basket.

According to the new rules, the first timeout call after 5 minutes in each quarter is considered an official timeout. Sun Ce, who scored 6 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, was replaced to rest.

Coach Hollins chose to let Sun Ce rest less than half a quarter, mainly because the team's offense was very stable tonight.

The most important thing is that Sun Ce plays very steadily!

Although Sun Ce has always shown himself to have strong self-confidence, tonight, coach Hollins found that Sun Ce had become more calm, not in his actions, but in his temperament, that kind of self-confidence from the heart, which was much more calm than in the past. There is a little difference.

You may not be able to see any difference if you compare them individually, but this little detail change makes Sun Ce more comfortable in the game, especially with these teammates who have played the strongest offensive five in the league. When he came on the court, Sun Ce scored 6 points and 3 assists in these 5 and a half minutes. He didn't make a single mistake or even a bad pass. He played extremely steadily.

Furthermore, the entire team's offense was very stable!

Sun Ce set the tone for the team's stable offense and defense. Next, it depends on the performance of the whole team.

The opponent also performed well, so let's fight for the best.

While fighting for form, the head coach's personnel adjustments and tactical changes are very important.

Coach Hollins replaced the lineup with Livingston, Klay Thompson, Prince, Amir Johnson, and Whiteside.

On the Thunder side, the three young players of Dewey continued to play, and the lineup of Andre Robertson and Nick Collison came on the court.

With this lineup of the Grizzlies on the court, the defense under the basket suddenly improved!

If it was against the Heat, Whiteside would be doubted by Paul's pick-and-roll mid-range shots, but against Westbrook or James, Whiteside's role would be infinitely magnified!

In the second half of the first quarter, Whiteside blocked Westbrook's breakthrough layup twice, interrupting the Thunder's offense!

Because their Grizzlies are not the Heat who had collapsed to the edge of the Eastern Conference playoffs when they got Whiteside in the original time and space, their Grizzlies have a very clear understanding of Whiteside, and know how to use Whiteside's advantages and avoid disadvantages as much as possible. If the disadvantage is too big, don't use it, but when the advantage is big, of course, you have to use it more!

From the second half of the first quarter to the end of the first half, Whiteside played for 18 minutes and 13 seconds, scoring 8 points, 8 rebounds and 6 blocks!

In the first half of the game, he blocked 3 shots, two to Westbrook and one to Perkins, and blocked two shots to Adams at the basket, and blocked one shot to Durant!

Due to Sun Ce's steady start of 3 shots and 2 of 3 shots to get 6 points and 3 assists, Klay Thompson was left to cooperate with Livingston and others to continue the offensive performance in the second half of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Sun Ce and Paul George came back, with Beverley, Yi Jianlian, and Whiteside, who was specifically designed to counter Westbrook. When the Thunder scored 16 points in the first 5 minutes and 47 seconds, the Thunder only scored 30 points in the next 18 minutes and 13 seconds! Not even two points per minute!

When both sides had good overall performance in outside shooting and both teams had strong tactical execution, the changes on the Grizzlies side could not be coped with by the Thunder!

The Grizzlies made good use of Westbrook's weakness of poor outside shooting ability. Westbrook's weakness means that his pick-and-roll offense is not very good. Whiteside's ability to defend the basket restrained Westbrook's breakthrough scoring and passing, allowing Ibaka and Durant to take more shots.

Although the Grizzlies only scored 54 points in the first half, which was lower than the season average, they still led the Thunder by 8 points with 54 to 46 into the halftime break!

The Grizzlies took the initiative to fall into the positional battle and played average offense and defense. With Whiteside getting 5 offensive rebounds in the first half, they were lucky to guarantee the score.

Mainly because of good defense.

However, with Whiteside's 6 blocks in the first half and almost the Thunder's entire three-second zone scoring being strangled, the Thunder was able to score 30 points in the next 18 minutes and keep the score difference within 10 points, which was unexpected by the Grizzlies.

In the last 18 minutes and 13 seconds of the first half, Durant scored 18 points, accounting for half of the Thunder's points during this period!

Sun Ce played for 15 minutes, scored 11 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and no blocks, all of which were taken by Whiteside!

Back in the locker room, seeing Whiteside was exhausted, Sun Ce knew that Whiteside probably couldn't play in the third quarter. It was not certain that he could win the game today, so he had to let Whiteside rest well and play at the critical moment.

Facing the Thunder, who don't like fast breaks, Whiteside's restraint on Westbrook and the opponent's breakthrough and pass-in style of play are the key to their Grizzlies' victory!

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After the halftime break, the Grizzlies re-deployed the starting lineup in the third quarter, and the Thunder also replaced the four starting lineups, but replaced Sefrosa with Andre Robertson.

After the start of the third quarter, Sun Ce started to attack desperately!

In the first half, except for the first half of the first quarter, Sun Ce played steadily and fought hard. He played slowly for 10 minutes in the second quarter. During that time, he only scored a three-pointer and a counterattack dunk. The rest of the time, he fell into positional battles and passed the ball to the running shooter with his back to the ball in the high position. He relied on his teammates' sloppy shots and Whiteside's offensive rebounds to protect his points. He was happy to get assists.

In the third quarter, it was time to fight!

Due to Sun Ce's play in the first half, the Thunder team was very afraid of Sun Ce's passing. They were caught off guard by Sun Ce's reckless inside and outside shooting in the third quarter. When they reacted, Sun Ce, who was a little tired after playing 5 consecutive offenses, started to pass the ball again.

After all, the Thunder team could not defend the offense of the Grizzlies' lineup. They could not defend it in the first place. No team in the league has really successfully defended the Grizzlies' lineup.

Of course, if the Grizzlies started the third quarter in the same way as they did in the first half of the first quarter, the prepared Thunder could still play a big role in limiting them, but Sun Ce didn't play like that, he just wanted to be tough.

For the Thunder, it's no big deal to be beaten by the Grizzlies' lineup, but the key is that they didn't continue their offense in the third quarter!

Durant made 9 of 14 shots in the first half, scoring 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block with a super high hit rate, but after playing the whole first half, especially in the 18 minutes and 13 seconds, he threw 11 shots and scored 18 points in 7 of 11 shots, and his shooting performance declined significantly in the third quarter!

When Durant missed three consecutive shots, the Grizzlies began to shrink and block Westbrook!

After so many encounters and watching so many Thunder games, the Grizzlies have long known about Durant's average physical strength.

That is to say, Westbrook was strong enough to compete with the Grizzlies by breaking through and killing.

The Grizzlies played with a running and gunning lineup for most of the quarter, and in the second half, Sun Ce, Hardaway Jr., Paul George, Amir Johnson, and Yi Jianlian ran for another half of the quarter. After three quarters, they led the Thunder by 11 points with 86 to 75 and entered the intermission.

In this quarter, Sun Ce scored 17 points and 28 points in three quarters, catching up with Durant's score!

After three quarters, Sun Ce scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 block, and 2 steals.

Sun Ce felt sorry for Durant in this game. The coach on the opposite side was just using him like an animal! He knew he was tired, but he didn't replace him!

Durant shot 9 of 14 in the first half, and 11 of 20 after three quarters... Sun Ce felt that it was not Durant who was trying to maintain a balanced shooting rate, but the Thunder coach who was trying to maintain Durant's average shooting rate of half miss and half miss per game.

The Thunder scored 29 points in the third quarter, and the best player was Westbrook, with 11 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists in a single quarter, and 17 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists after three quarters!

But after the intermission in the third quarter, Westbrook's nightmare came!

5 points, 3 rebounds, 4 blocks and 1 assist in a single quarter!

The Thunder had guarded against Whiteside's offensive rebounds, but Whiteside still grabbed 5 offensive rebounds in the first half. In the fourth quarter, they did a good job of limiting Whiteside's offensive rebounds, using Perkins to block the position.

However, offensive rebounds can be limited, but defense is really difficult to limit. An important part of the Thunder's scoring is Westbrook's breakthrough and others' cutting in. After Whiteside came up in the fourth quarter and blocked three shots in a row, the Thunder became hesitant to cut in for several minutes!

The Thunder was able to hold on to the score in the third quarter and not be defeated by the Grizzlies' 32 points in a single quarter, relying on execution and enthusiasm as well as Westbrook's personal ability.

When the cutting became hesitant, the Thunder could only rely on Durant to score in the final quarter. Durant shot well in the final quarter, making 3 of 6 shots, 1 three-pointer, and 3 free throws. He scored 10 points in a single quarter and raised his personal score to 38 points.

However, the Thunder only scored 21 points in the final quarter!

The Grizzlies only scored 22 points in the final quarter, but it was enough!

With Whiteside's 13 points, 11 rebounds, 10 blocks and 1 assist in a single game, and Sun Ce's 35 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 block and 3 steals in a single game, the Grizzlies defeated the Thunder 108-96 and ended their three-game losing streak!

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In the scoring battle, Sun Ce's 35 points were not as good as Durant's 38 points.

In terms of shooting percentage, Sun Ce made 13 of 27 shots, which was not as high as Durant's 14 of 26 shots.

In the triple-double battle, Sun Ce scored 35 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, but he was not as good-looking as Westbrook's 20 points, 11 rebounds and 18 assists.

But even if Sun Ce was separated, he was not much worse than the two!

The key is that after this game, Sun Ce's crazy performance of either a triple-double or 40+ continued to the 21st game!

This time, Sun Ce finally grabbed the headlines, and the headlines given by major media were almost the same-the crazy March lord show was a great success!

However, this cannot cover up Whiteside's crazy performance when he met Westbrook. Westbrook only made 7 of 18 shots tonight, and Westbrook was forced to hit a three-pointer in the fourth quarter!

Whiteside's 10 blocks, 4 of which were given to Westbrook, two of which were blocked.

It is the first time in NBA history that three players have triple-doubles in one game!

Among them, Sun Ce and Whiteside both got triple-doubles, which is the fifth time in NBA history. The previous four times were Magic and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bird and Parish, Jordan and Pippen, Kidd and Carter!

In addition to marveling at Sun Ce's hot performance since the All-Star Weekend, the fans are most concerned about Whiteside.

In the first four games since Whiteside returned to the NBA, he averaged 7.5 points, 11 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game, and his performance was explosive, but he didn't expect that he would become more and more courageous and win the fifth single-game 10 blocks in the history of the Grizzlies against the Thunder!

Westbrook is simply a natural enemy!

After this game, regarding the triple-double rankings this season, people have already determined that Sun Ce will continue to dominate the list, but they feel sorry for Westbrook, who averaged 20.5 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 11.9 assists per game, played 73 games and got 30 triple-doubles, but he is still a long way from the top of the single-season triple-double rankings!

On the contrary, Durant, who fought hard tonight and scored 38 points, and his scoring performance was better than Sun Ce, was complained that he did not score enough...

The games in March are over, and the NBA 2013-2014 regular season has entered the last game month.

On the morning of April 1, the day after the Grizzlies played against the Thunder, the Grizzlies did not stop and came to the next opponent's city-Denver Plateau.

At 12 noon, the NBA officially announced the Player of the Month for March. In the East, Paul, the star player of the Heat, who rushed to the second place in the East, won the Player of the Month for March, surpassing Griffin. Paul played 16 games in March, and his performance of 19.5 points, 4 rebounds, 14 assists and 2.5 steals was indeed good, helping the Heat to play a record of 12 wins and 4 losses, and beat the Pacers to the third place in the East.

In the West, there is no suspense! Sun Ce won his third Player of the Month this season! The total number of Player of the Month in his career has also increased to 9 times.

This year, the NCAA players who are preparing to participate in the draft and are playing in the March Madness game are all very upset.

The NCAA March Madness game, which is loved by the American people, is actually no match for a name - the March Madness Lord Show!

In contrast, the NBA officials are very happy. The Grizzlies have 17 games in March, 12 of which are broadcast live or extra broadcast nationwide. If there is a Grizzlies game live on that day, the ratings of the NCAA live broadcast are not as high as those of the Grizzlies game! This situation is rare in the past ten or twenty years!