~.-~     Although there were two key substitutes, driven by Stephen's strong 42 points, nine rebounds, eleven assists, and Durant's form recovered, the Supersonics still easily defeated the New York Knicks 109 to 95, avoiding their own losing streak.

Stephen found that he always passed by the triple-double, and he was so weak that he had no triple-double. He was just like Jordan, who deliberately pursued triple-doubles? Stephen thought about it and let it go. Jordan was angry. Others said he could not pass the ball, but no one said he could not pass the ball.

There is no need for that. As for the reason for the small number of rebounds, Stephen also knows that because most of them are attacking and the shooting percentage is a bit high, there are basically no frontcourt rebounds. As for the backcourt rebounds, there are two guys who specialize in rebounding, and it is not really a turn for Stephen to grab them.

The main reason is that Stephen has invested too much energy on the offensive end, so he naturally has a little insufficient investment on the defensive end, which is inevitable. If Stephen is still a defensive vanguard on the outside like he was on the Spurs, he will definitely not be able to invest all his energy on the offense.

However, the Supersonics are not a defensive team, so Stephen is still the first person in defense in the team, the second in the team per game, the first in the team for steals, and the first in the team for blocks. Currently, Stephen averages scores per game, the first in the league, steals, and the first in the defenders.

In the regular season's most valuable player odds ranking, Stephen has jumped from 11th to 2nd place, and ahead of him is Kobe Bryant of the Lakers. The gap between the two is now very small, surpassing LeBron James, who ranked third.

After defeating the New York Knicks, the Supersonics boarded the plane without stopping and flew to Minneapolis, the city where the next opponent, the Minnesota Timberwolves, was located. Even if you were sitting inside the plane, you could hear the cold wind blowing from the north.

Minnea means "water" in Indian, while Polis means "city" in Greek. The combination of the two is "water city". The city spans both sides of the Mississippi River. In winter, the temperature here will be as low as minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius, making it a very cold city.

And now is the coldest day of the year. When the plane landed at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, staff were reminding everyone to wear warm clothes because the temperature outside was minus 32 degrees below zero.

It makes people feel terrible when hearing this temperature. This is also the reason why many players don’t like to come here to play. He is also the lowest temperature in the city with league teams. I feel a little unbearable when I come here to play once. I really don’t know how the players living here can tolerate it.

After getting off the plane and getting on the bus, Stephen felt like he had passed through the cold water, but it was much better to get on the bus. From the bus to the hotel, and then to the room, he basically stopped getting cold.

On the second day, after the training, due to the cold weather, most players had no interest in having fun. They hid in their rooms, slept in big heads or played computers or game consoles. Those who liked activities also took activities in the hotel.

Stephen browsed casually online. In addition to the news of the league's strong players, Stephen also reads comments from some experts or media about himself or the team. Can stones from other mountains be used to make a splash? Although what they said may not be correct, there is no problem to use for reference.

Suddenly, Stephen saw Durant's name on a website. After Oden's knee injury was reimbursed for the season, Durant became the most eye-catching rookie of this year, but Stephen's performance obscured his light, because no matter how good he performed, he was always the second best in the team. Therefore, Durant had a little starlight and rarely had articles related to him. At most, he mentioned him when he was talking about the Supersonics.

Stephen opened this article curiously. The article was on a very pertinent position from the beginning. Of course, this is their old routine. If you don’t show it more pertinent, how can you deceive others’ trust? If you attack directly at the beginning, most people will just shut down the matter and won’t even read it.

The first half of the article is praised, believing that Durant is very qualified as the second attack point of the Supersonics. Whether it is offensive efficiency or offensive skills, he is worthy of his draft pick. With Stephen taking up a large number of shots, he can still score nearly 19 points per game, which is enough to prove his ability.

What can also be proved is his inclusion in the current system of the Supersonics. His technical characteristics are very suitable for the team's needs, but at the same time he has developed his own offensive ability. In the first month, most of Durant's shots were taken as soon as he caught the ball, but after the game against the Orlando Magic, Durant intentionally or unintentionally increased the number of attacks he held the ball.

For him personally, this is a very gratifying change, which shows that he is not persistent in being a pitcher. It is also a better change for the Supersonics, because if he strengthens his breakthrough offense, he can reduce the opponent's defensive pressure on Stephen.

However, the ball-holding attack also exposed some of his weaknesses, such as weak confrontation ability. Although the first step of the start is very fast and the pace is very large, and his skillful ball-holding skills also ensure that he does not make mistakes when dribbling, so that he can easily get rid of defense. However, after getting rid of defense, when he takes action, he is easily missed due to the pressure of defense.

Also, when breaking through, there are few changes, too much reliance on speed, and lack changes in rhythm and direction. When I saw this, Stephen smiled because many of the words were once on him. Sometimes experts say ambiguously like charlatans or witches, saying that they are ambiguous and almost anyone can do it.

In Stephen's view, this is how breakthroughs are. You must have an advantage in one item so that you can get rid of defense. Power and speed are innate advantages, and rhythm and change direction are acquired advantages. Either you are faster than your opponent, or you are stronger than him, or you are using changes in rhythm and direction to get rid of it.

Since it is an acquired advantage, it can be related to experience. If you have experience, you will naturally know how to deal with it. As a rookie, Durant has been officially in the league for less than two months. It is normal for this problem. Stephen has been over for a season and has been criticized like this.

However, the opponent also thinks these offensive problems are small problems. He believes that Durant's main problem is defense. Of course, promoting first and then depreciating is also a common routine for smearing a certain player. If you want to praise it, it is to demote first and then promote it.

Durant's defensive problem is that Durant's strength is against tall and large counterattack players, and Durant's figure is too tall for those counterattack players of ordinary height, which brings about speed and flexibility.

This problem cannot be solved. Why doesn’t he talk about Durant’s advantages when playing against those players? When tall and large players face Durant, they lose their flexibility and speed. The low-short counterattack players are at a disadvantage in height. This statement seems very reasonable on the surface, but in fact, if you talk about it in another direction, it will become an advantage again.

These are all old routines and there is nothing new. Stephen was about to close this article, but suddenly he found that there was another paragraph behind him. He continued to look down and said that Durant's defense was still a problem, but this paragraph talked about Durant's defense attitude.

Most of the criticisms are also placed in this section, believing that Durant is too gentle and elegant in defense, like the team's confrontation training, he dares not take action or foul. It can be seen from his average of less than three fouls per game that most Durant's defense is only for entanglement at most.

The opponent believes that Durant's defensive level is still in the level of the university league, not in the professional league. Stephen dares not be harsh. Although Durant's defense is not very good and his attitude is not considered a fierce defense, he is still quite threatening because of his height and wingspan, and is not as bad as the opponent said.

However, the problem of not being fierce in defensive attitude does exist. Stephen also plans to take advantage of the opportunity to talk about Durant. If you have a smile on your face when you defend the opponent, you must at least make a cold expression. Like Rashid Wallace or Stephen Jackson, you don’t need to do anything. If you come over, you can make people frightened. Let’s not say that you have this defensive bonus effect, at least make a fierce expression.

Since Stephen played the role of Cooley in defense when he entered the league, he did not have this problem. As soon as he entered the league, under the words and deeds of Robert Horry and Van Exel, he learned the methods of using both right and wrong when defending. Players like Durant were the leaders of the team in college, and they were second-class players again. It is normal for them to know much about these things or be useless.

As a result, in the next day's game against the Timberwolves, shortly after the game started, Cory Brewer broke through Durant's defense, and Wilcox had already made up, and Durant still made a foul on Brewer.

It is normal to have a foul in the game, and no one thought too much. Only Stephen looked at Durant more. It was not that Durant had just read that article. He was just criticized for not being fierce when he was defending, so he immediately became fierce, but it was not so fierce.

When defending, you should be not afraid of fouls. It is not to ask you to take the initiative to apply for fouls. This is a bit too much. It seems that after the game, I have to talk to him, but after only two rounds, Durant once again fouled at Brewer. When he shot, he covered it with great momentum. There was no problem in the first half. He had already shot. If you don’t take it back, continue to play. Isn’t this a foul?

~.-~


Chapter completed!