One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty. Source of Confidence

Clearly leading and controlling the initiative.

In terms of state, the Thunder team should be better, with a better touch, and they have been limiting Sun Ce's three-pointers and even Sun Ce's passes.

But the Thunder team felt so tortured! Sun Ce was like a lingering demon, never giving them a chance to create a clear lead!

This is not over yet. At 6 minutes and 44 seconds in the second quarter, the Thunder team was leading by 9 points and had the ball. This was their best chance to widen the gap to more than 10 points, but this time Dion Waiters received the pass and encountered a backup defense. When he chose to pass it to Carl Landry who cut in, Sun Ce appeared again! Once again blocked the Thunder team's passing line!

After stealing the ball, Sun Ce counterattacked directly. While being chased by Durant and Dion Waiters, he passed the ball to Yi Jianlian. Yi Jianlian received the ball on the left and cut in. Carter pulled to the right. Klay Thompson followed to the left at a 45-degree angle. Sun Ce passed the ball this time. Dion Waiters, who was blocking Sun Ce, immediately went to fill in the position. Sun Ce took the opportunity to turn around Durant and cut in the middle. Yi Jianlian threw the ball into the air and passed it back to Sun Ce!

Sun Ce rushed into the inside and jumped hard, and scored an alley-oop dunk!

50 to 57, the Grizzlies continued to close the score!

This time the Thunder couldn't stand it and called a timeout!

Both sides didn't call a timeout. The Thunder scored 24 to 21. It only took a little more than half a quarter. The Grizzlies refused to call a timeout. Scott Brooks didn't want to call a timeout, but he was really tortured enough. He took the initiative to call a timeout and gave up the obvious advantage in front of him.

The Grizzlies had enough! They were obviously behind, but they played as if they were leading. That confidence... was given by that guy!

Sun Ce!

The Thunder was able to maintain their lead tonight, not simply because they were in good shape, but because they were fully prepared. They really regarded this game as a preview of the playoffs against the Grizzlies.

Their coaching staff and core players have discussed this game for a long time. After they locked in the fourth place in the West, they have been discussing the last curtain call against the Grizzlies. They really want to win against the Grizzlies once in this regular season, otherwise the pressure will be huge.

For the Thunder, they have no idea how strong the newly rising Warriors are. They are quite good at beating the Warriors. This season, the Thunder and the Warriors have a record of 2 wins and 1 loss.

The Thunder has long focused on the Grizzlies, the Lakers, the Horses and the Bulls.

The focus is on the Grizzlies!

Everyone has to have dreams. Although it is difficult to win against the Grizzlies in the regular season, the Thunder always have a chance, even if the Grizzlies have this record, but what if? What if they win...

So, the Thunder want to try, want to find confidence.

The Thunder have fully studied every player of the Grizzlies, even the four minor rotation players Carter, Livingston, Pierce, and Richard Jefferson who will not play much.

That's why they were able to defend the Grizzlies' 4 goals in the first half of the second quarter. You should know that during this period, the Thunder did not have Westbrook and Ibaka to suppress the rhythm, and they were forced to compete with the Grizzlies in offense. The Thunder scored 10 goals in half a quarter.

The Thunder players are very sure of this offensive efficiency, and the opponent's running and gunning lineup, Huo Tu, definitely didn't expect it!

The Grizzlies only made 9 of 14 shots in a fast-paced offense for more than half a quarter, which is also very good, but it is definitely much worse than the Thunder's 10 of 10 shots.

But the Thunder just can't pull away!

Over and over again, over and over again... 28 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 5 steals. The Thunder players looked at Sun Ce's data on the big screen. Compared with the first quarter, Sun Ce's rebounds, assists, and blocks did not change much, but in a little more than half a quarter, the steals increased by two! The score increased by 12 points!

Of Sun Ce's 12 points in the half quarter, 5 points were scored after steals!

The Thunder must have studied Sun Ce the most, and they are very afraid of Sun Ce's "outburst". If Sun Ce really broke out, they don't know what to do.

But tonight, Sun Ce's touch is not considered an outburst so far. He made 11 of 18 shots, including 3 of 5 three-pointers and 3 of 3 free throws. He shot three-pointers very well, but he didn't shoot crazy. Instead, he must find good opportunities.

The key is Sun Ce's defense! Another thing is Sun Ce's ability to convert the effect of defense into scoring through defense-stealing!

Of the 28 points, Sun Ce scored 12 points by steals, two counterattack three-pointers, and three counterattacks to attack the basket and dunk!

The main reason is that Sun Ce's defense tonight was something the Thunder had never seen in any game video! Even when Sun Ce scored a quadruple-double and had 10 steals, it was not this kind of defense!

Without Sun Ce's 12 steals and counterattacks, even if the steals and counterattacks were reduced by half, the Thunder would have been ahead by more than 10 points.

It was Sun Ce! It was this guy who made the Grizzlies play with the momentum of the leading team when they were behind.

This was too uncomfortable for the Thunder. They were leading, but they felt tortured!

They could limit Sun Ce's ability to connect the offense and cut off Sun Ce's first pass, but if Sun Ce wanted to make up for the block and cut off the defense with mobility... they really couldn't limit this, especially in a style of play that mainly relied on Durant's singles and others' attacks on the basket and close-range shots.

So the Thunder had no choice but to give up their current advantage, switch back to the regular lineup to strengthen defense, play regular offense to open up more space, otherwise they would be tortured to death by Sun Ce!

…

On the Grizzlies side, they saw that they were 7 points behind, and the opponent opened up the gap to 7 points when Westbrook and Ibaka were resting, but they didn't feel frustrated at all. There was pressure, but they were confident!

The Thunder felt tortured, and the Grizzlies saw that they could still hold on to the score and not let the opponent pull away even if the opponent made 10 of 10 shots, which naturally made them quite excited.

Sun Ce scored 28 points in the first half! 5 steals are simply amazing!

Coach Hollins began to make adjustments. After running for more than half a quarter, it was time to let the running and gunning lineup rest.

Carter, Yi Jianlian, and Richard Jefferson were replaced, and Paul George, Aldridge, and Gobert were replaced.

Sun Ce was really happy, not only because his own data and Durant's score were limited to 8 points, but also because he succeeded in dunking before the official timeout, and the goal 2 of the "Flying Man Inheritor" event was completed! His dunk count reached 256!

In the action package category in the skill section of the system, there is a new action package - S-level dunk package: Carter dunk package!

But it is marked that the dunk success rate using this dunk package is 10%...

Now just wait for the game to end, and you can get the "Performance" skill! He didn't pay attention to his dunk count before, and he had exceeded 240 dunks several games ago. As long as he takes a rest and doesn't play the remaining games, he can directly complete goal 1 and get this skill, but he can't get Carter's dunk package if he doesn't dunk more than 255 times.

Now, just wait for the end of this game, and this skill will be in hand, and you can also use Carter's dunk package to upgrade to level 2 to get a higher bounce bonus for dunking!

But now, Sun Ce knew that he couldn't get too excited because of this. They were still behind, and only with his 5 steals in the first half, they barely managed to keep the gap within 10 points.

Sun Ce began to think about the next response...

...

After the official timeout, the Grizzlies' lineup of Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Aldridge, and Gobert came on the court.

On the Thunder team, Westbrook, Dion Waiters, Durant, Ibaka, and Adams came on the court.

Before going on the court, Sun Ce called his teammates together to talk about the response strategy.

After the game started, the two teams still played very targeted. The Thunder team made sufficient preparations, relying on Durant and Ibaka's mid-range shots, Adams and Dion Waiters' cuts to attract Gobert's attention, and maximally avoiding Gobert's defense under the basket. Westbrook organized the offense or scored. In the first half of this quarter, relying on Durant's half-quarter 3 assists, DJ-Augustin's half-quarter 3 assists, Dion Waiters' half-quarter 2 assists, and Durant's first 2 singles, the Thunder shot 10 out of 10 to help the Thunder gain a greater advantage.

Now Durant needs to rest, relying on the threat of the shooter. Westbrook and Dion Waiters, although their shooting is not very good, have a certain shooting threat. They are both physical men with strong impact, and Dion Waiters' shooting is neither good nor bad. So far in his career, his three-point shooting rate is 34%, averaging 1.2 three-pointers per game.

Adams is one of the league's strongest inside players in the ability to eat cakes.

At least tonight, the Thunder team avoided some of its own shortcomings very well, and its advantages were well shown through state adjustment and strengthening cooperation.

Facing such a Thunder team, the Grizzlies avoided their edge and did not expect to overtake the score in the first half. The game time is still long... The key is not to be too anxious and give the opponent a better opportunity!

The opponent's state is already good enough. If they are anxious to catch up and reveal more flaws, that would be bad!

The Grizzlies are not anxious when they are behind for so long, mostly because of their record this season! Moreover, this season they are not as easy as it seems with 74 wins and 7 losses. On the contrary, many games are difficult to play and they won with great difficulty. It's just that the difficult process has been forgotten by people, but they didn't forget it.

And there is Sun Ce! Sun Ce has always been the biggest source of confidence for his teammates, and tonight is even more so!

The Thunder team has the advantage in terms of overall performance tonight, and they have also tried hard to find opportunities to widen the score with advantages. There are also opportunities again and again, but Sun Ce can always stand up at the critical moment!