One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-Seven. Half a Quarter of Madness!

In the playoffs, Livingston, Blake, Carter, Pierce and others all know that the playing time of these veterans will definitely be greatly reduced. In the regular season, as long as they have the opportunity to play, they will most likely play for more than 20 minutes, but in the playoffs, they may only be allowed to play at certain specific moments, and most of the time, only a few core players will play.

And they also need to be prepared and make contributions when they play, and this is their significance to the team in the playoffs, as veterans.

The combination of Sun Ce, Tony Allen, Paul George, Larry Sanders, and Randolph was replaced.

On the Thunder side, after the timeout, they had a lineup of Westbrook, Dion Waiters, Morrow, Ibaka, and Nick Collison.

With a 6-point lead, the Thunder coach began to let Durant rest.

This season, the Thunder can still play better than last season after Ibaka has declined from a top player. In addition to the progress of Dewey and Adams, and the addition of top pitchers such as Morrow, there is also the improvement of their head coach Scott Brooks' coaching ability.

Brooks knows that he can't defeat the opponent all at once, and it's impossible to do it even if all the main players play. People will learn from the president. They have encountered many situations before where they wanted to defeat the Grizzlies with one blow when they had an advantage, but were dragged to the critical moment by the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies relied on the depth of the lineup and dragged down Durant's physical strength, and they lost most of the time.

So when they have a leading advantage, they let Durant rest. Brooks thinks that this operation is at least not worse than Durant not being able to play in the critical moment after a hard fight.

Thinking about letting Durant play 44 minutes per game in the playoffs, Brooks himself feels stupid.

For the Thunder, Brooks' improvement in rotation has already made them a significant improvement. Scott Brooks' tactical level is also good in the league. The rotation has improved and the improvement is very obvious.

For the Grizzlies, even though this is the fourth matchup this season, they are still not used to the Thunder's rotation of replacing Durant early to rest, but for Sun Ce personally, this is good news!

In the first quarter, he only had 3 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, while Westbrook had 5 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Let's put the defense against Durant aside. His teammates couldn't get going. It was important to play well on offense while Adams and Durant were not on the opposite side.

After the timeout, without Durant's defense, Sun Ce immediately had a good time. Facing Dion Waiters, Sun Ce broke through to the mid-range and pulled the ball from behind to the right. He didn't score and distanced himself from Dion Waiters. Ibaka, who was defending, couldn't make up for it. Sun Ce turned around and jumped.

Dribble behind his back and turn around for a jump shot!

Temporarily upgraded to the S-level mid-range shot from the right side of the three-second zone. There was no interference, and when he dribbled behind his back and turned around, the jump height was compensated. Sun Ce, who jumped fully, made a mid-range shot!

12 to 16, the Grizzlies narrowed the gap to within 5 points.

After the transition from offense to defense, Sun Ce retreated to the backcourt and went to defend Morrow. Facing the Thunder's lineup, Sun Ce felt that the trouble was not in the offense, and the opponent's lineup could not be defended. The trouble was defense!

In terms of three-point threat alone, Morrow is the biggest three-point threat in the Thunder, averaging 2.1 three-pointers per game and a 44% three-point shooting rate, which is very accurate! This season, some people have been saying that the Pelicans letting Morrow go was their biggest failure last summer.

And this signing is also a rare good operation of the Thunder outside the draft.

Sun Ce is better than Paul George in defense, so Paul George continues to assist in defense, and Sun Ce defends Morrow's off-ball.

Westbrook's side, facing Tony Allen's defense, is more difficult to play than Klay Thompson, but their lineup is more mobile in off-ball pick-and-roll. Morrow, under Sun Ce's defense, ran back to the 45-degree sideline at the baseline. Sun Ce wanted to catch up but was blocked by Nick Collison!

If Ibaka was to do the pick-and-roll, Sun Ce and Larry Sanders would be able to switch defense to defend the two, but Randolph's switch defense to Morrow would be a bit difficult. Randolph is more suitable for mid-range defense. He can defend small players in mid-range defense, but he can only defend fixed-point shooters outside the three-point line.

Just when Sun Ce wanted to go around the line to see if Randolph could have a tacit understanding to use his body to press Morrow down the line when switching defense, he saw that Westbrook, who had not been able to pass the new force Tony teacher who had just come on the court, grabbed the ball half a step outside the right free throw line.

Sun Ce reacted temporarily, did not go around the line, turned around and rushed between Morrow and Westbrook, following Nick Collison!

Sure enough, Randolph's defensive awareness was really average, so he chased Morrow and did not use his body to suppress him. Morrow ran to the 45-degree angle, Westbrook passed the ball in advance, and Morrow arrived at the 45-degree angle on the right to receive the ball, and his passing route would not be blocked because Randolph chased him.

However, just when the ball was about to fly out of the three-point line and Randolph had no time to stop it and even Morrow could not effectively interfere after receiving the ball, Sun Ce got the ball first!

Sun Ce rushed out to grab the ball, and rushed out of the court without standing firmly after grabbing the ball. Seeing such a big guy weighing more than 100 kilograms rushing out, the fans on the sidelines quickly got out of the way.

Randolph, who was chasing Morrow, just got the ball!

Morrow and Westbrook were stunned by this reaction ability. Morrow wanted to counter-grab the ball, but Randolph dribbled the ball with his butt sticking out like a defender and passed it to Paul George.

Paul George received the ball and passed it to the front court. The fans cheered. It turned out that Sun Ce held the seat that the fans had made way for after he jumped out of bounds. After seeing Randolph grab the ball, he stood up and rushed to the front court!

Dion Waiters did catch up, but he couldn't catch up. Sun Ce received the ball at the free throw line, stepped out and dunked with one hand to get two points.

14 to 16, the Grizzlies narrowed the gap to two points!

After being suppressed for half a quarter, Sun Ce exploded as soon as he came back from the timeout, scoring 4 points and 1 steal!

The offense and defense switched, the Thunder attacked, and the veteran Nick Collison had a very good sense and grasped the timing of slipping to the baseline just right. Westbrook also saw it and made a layup with a high and low pass.

The Grizzlies just got up, and the Thunder immediately stabilized their position.

Westbrook may not be calm when playing against other teams. Even when playing against the Lakers and Spurs, he will be impulsive, but not against the Grizzlies.

Because he lost so badly to Sun Ce and kept failing. Although Sun Ce entered the NBA a year later than him, Westbrook regarded Sun Ce as his goal to surpass. Although it was difficult, even after the regular season this season, he felt that his chances were slim, but he was still working hard.

This mentality made him know that he had to be calm when playing against the Grizzlies. Only if he calmly connected the offense and got the points he deserved, plus Durant's key ball, would he have a chance to compete with Sun Ce.

Although reasonable Westbrook is rare, it is really amazing!

And the Thunder's touch tonight was really good. At 10 minutes and 58 seconds in the first quarter, the Thunder led by more than 5 points, 31 to 24, leading the Grizzlies by 7 points!

And they still had the ball, and had the opportunity to create a 10-point lead in the first quarter! This was done when Durant was resting!

The main reason for this score difference is that the Grizzlies did not play as well as the Thunder in the first half of the first quarter. After the Thunder took the initiative, they played better and better. Westbrook scored 7 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists, and played the best first quarter performance against the Grizzlies in his career!

Just now, Paul George of the Grizzlies missed an open three-pointer. Westbrook got the fourth rebound of this quarter and pushed forward. He passed the ball to Ibaka.

Ibaka was open when he received the ball. As soon as he received the ball, he was double-teamed by Larry Sanders and Paul George. Ibaka passed the ball to Dion Waiters who cut in from the left. Seeing that Dion Waiters could get the ball and break into the inside line to open the score difference to 9 points, at this time, Sun Ce, who had directly left Morrow empty, got the ball first!

Directly counterattacked, Sun Ce rushed to the frontcourt quickly. Under the pursuit of Ibaka, Dion Waiters and Westbrook who caught up after the steal, Sun Ce rushed to the basket and quickly jumped up and dunked with one hand to score two points.

The score difference was reduced to 5 points again!

Here it comes again!

This is the third time in this quarter!

Whenever Westbrook and Ibaka teamed up to widen the score difference and were about to establish a very solid advantage, Sun Ce would complete the steal and narrow the score difference.

Tonight, the teammates' outside shooting felt worse and worse. As the game went on, Sun Ce's score had exceeded 10 points. This time, with a dunk, Sun Ce's score increased to 13 points, and the Grizzlies also chased the score to 26 to 31!

There were 40 seconds left in the first quarter. The Thunder did not rush to play a fast break first to fight for the last attack, but played a steady positional battle. Westbrook himself circled in the breakthrough and hit a close-range jump shot on the left edge of the three-second zone. 33 to 26, the Thunder still led by 7 points!

When the Grizzlies attacked, there were only 16 seconds left in the first quarter. Paul George pushed forward to the front court and directly passed the ball to Sun Ce at the top of the arc. Sun Ce wasted time and did not move. Dion Waiters, who was defending him, was patient and did not press forward. He had suffered twice in this quarter. When he pressed forward, Sun Ce rushed to the right. He was blocked by a turnaround jumper and a hook shot from the baseline. Sun Ce scored both times, making 6 of 6 in the half quarter!

However, Sun Ce did not move and protected the ball well with 5 seconds left. Randolph and Larry Sanders understood and began to look for opportunities to rush. With 3 seconds left, Sun Ce pulled to the right, Tony Allen came up to block Dion Waiters, and Sun Ce faced Morrow who was switched to defense and shot a three-pointer...

Must take a gamble! After scoring two points, the opponent was still 5 points ahead. Sun Ce wanted to narrow the gap to within 5 points before entering the second quarter, and could not stay at this hurdle of 5 points!

This time, Sun Ce made the right bet! The touch for his previous mid-range shot has been restored, and he made a three-pointer after the pick-and-roll!