After the game started, the ball was the first to be obtained by the Supersonics. The starting lineup of the Supersonics in this game was: Reedno, Ray Allen, Daniels, Lewis, and Jerome James.

Timberwolves are: Kassel, Madman, Szebiak, Garnett, and "Sugar Man" Olovo Kandi.

Judging from the starting lineup, Supersonics is obviously a team that is offensive on the outside. Supersonics head coach McMillan chose Rashad Lewis as the starting power forward.

Instead of the double tower combination of Reggie Evans and Jerome James, which is occasionally used during the regular season.

Even though Lewis has extremely poor defensive ability in power forward position, the key is that this lineup can exert the strongest offensive firepower of the Supersonics.

If Lewis is allowed to play the third position and Daniels is taken to start, the Supersonics' offensive choice will be too monotonous, and only Ray Allen and Lewis can use their personal abilities to play singles.

After all, Reggie Evans is basically without offensive ability, and except for being able to grab rebounds, he is completely useless.

Seeing that McMillan still insisted on his regular starter, Luke, who was sitting off the court, smiled out.

McMillan's idea, Luke naturally understood that this lineup is the strongest lineup for Supersonics and the best matching for Supersonic running-in.

With the Supersonics clearly at a disadvantage throughout the entire series, McMillan decided to use offense to dominate the game.

Anyway, on the defensive end, it is definitely impossible to defend against the Timberwolves bombing. Instead of balancing the offense and defense, it is better to exert the offense to the extreme and see if you can win several victories with a detour.

This idea is naturally fine for a McMillan who is a steady coaching style and is unwilling to try it out.

But in Luke's eyes, isn't Jerome? James is disgraced alone in this series, and now Lewis may also fall into the abyss.

After all, Lewis is tall enough to play power forward, but his weight and defensive ability are too poor. In this group of personal matches with Garnett, even if the two Lewis are tied together, it is impossible to defend Garnett, the "Wolf King".

Originally, Lewis' offensive efficiency in the first round of the playoffs attracted many fans' dissatisfaction and was labeled as "Seattle Iron King".

If Lewis was also beaten on the defensive end in this round of the series, Luke felt that this guy would be depressed.

………

As soon as the Supersonics came up, they did not open up the situation through running from Ray Allen and Lewis as before.

On the contrary, after the pick-and-roll, Reedno directly hung the ball to Jerome James, who was asking for the ball at the low post. It seemed that he wanted Jerome James to play the "Sugar Man" in the inside and take the lead in opening the offense from the inside.

Facing the "Sugar Man" behind his back, Jerome James is full of confidence. The first round of the series against the Kings made Jerome James a little fluttered, and even once thought that he was the number one center in the Western Conference who was even better than Yao Ming!

"I really don't know why I asked you to come up and guard against me, you are a parallel person!"

When I heard Jerome James' ridicule, the "Sugar Man" did not respond. For so many years, the words "Sugar Man" have long been accustomed to the words "Sugar Man" like the top scorer in parallel. Now, the "Sugar Man" can be completely immune to it when I hear it.

For Olovo Kandi, the most important thing now is to complete the task assigned by head coach Luke. This game is the first time that Olovo Kandi was taken to the start by Luke. The "Sugar Man" just wants to work hard to play this game!

"Bang!"

As Jerome James hit Olovokandy hard on his back, Jerome James, who was originally sarcastic, suddenly changed his expression.

Jerome James found that he did not take advantage of his strength at all. He pushed his back and not only did the "Sugar Man" not only remained motionless, but the power he fed back also made Jerome James feel numb on his shoulders!

Gritting his teeth and continuing to harden his back. After several consecutive physical confrontations, Jerome James finally recognized Olovokandy's power.

In the end, Jerome James had no choice but to turn around and use throws to complete the attack.

"Bang!"

But just as Jerome James found that his power could not be moved at all, and turned around and threw the shot, Jerome James only saw a black shadow coming out of his eyes.

Then the basketball flew directly to the backcourt like a volleyball cap. At this moment, Olovokandi's blocking force was very strong and he slapped the ball far away.

At the same time, it also made Jerome James dizzy. For a moment, Jerome James didn't know what happened just now!

Seeing Olovokandi's volleyball cap, the madman with excellent offensive smell ran to the frontcourt immediately.

When the basketball was about to get out of the bottom line, the madman who was sprinting with all his might picked up the basketball and completed an unguarded two-handed dunk!

The madman responded very quickly. The moment the "Sugar Man" raised his hand to block the shot, the madman started sprinting like a frontcourt.

Obviously, the Madman has formed muscle memory in Luke's counterattack tactics. As long as the enemy team takes action in the offensive round, the Madman will launch a fast attack as soon as possible.

This behavior has been unintentionally developed a habit, making the Madman the best defensive counterattacker in the league this season!

Even Minnesota fans have given a new title for the Madman, called "Charge Wolf"!

As Olovokandy gave out a big hat on the defensive end, the madman understood the frontcourt and rushed forward to counterattack, the entire Timberwolves' Arena instantly became lively, and crazy shouts came from the fans.

It seemed as if the Timberwolves had just started the game, and they had crushed the supersonics in terms of momentum.

"Damn it!" Jerome James gritted his teeth and glared at the "Sugar Man".

"I advise you to shut your mouth before my teammates go crazy." Olovo Candy curled his lips with a little disdain.

The words "Sugar Man" made Jerome? James think of something. The words he said were swallowed back by Jerome? James.

It was not until this time that Jerome James realized that although the "Sugar Man" was a dough man, his teammates were not good at slap!

If it really arouses the Timberwolves' anger, Jerome James doesn't think he can go out of the field intact.

"You guy who only depends on your teammates!" Jerome James said in a low voice in a sour tone.

It was still the Supersonic offensive round. This time Jerome James did not take the initiative to ask for the ball at the low post. I wonder if the block of the "Sugar Man" left a psychological shadow on James. In short, James had no intention of asking for the ball in this offensive round.

According to the tactical supersonics constantly use unball pick-and-rolls on the offensive end to run, but Luke defended a small-scale regional joint defense in this game.

And it is also an area joint defense that can be replaced without limit!

This defensive position is a bit similar to the defensive method of the Lakers winning the championship in the later years. With Anthony Davis as the defensive core, others compress the enemy's shooting space through constant switching and rotation.

But this Timberwolves Anthony Davis has become Kevin Garnett with better defensive skills!

Facing the Timberwolves' defense like a candy, the Supersonics were unable to run out of the opportunity on the offensive end, and finally Ray Allen barely made a jump shot from the middle distance.

"Bang!"

With this emergency stop jump shot, Jerome James and Olovo Candy launched a fierce positioning battle at the basket, but James' position was obviously much better than the "Sugar Man".

Seeing the frontcourt rebound flying towards him, Jerome James showed a hint of ecstasy on his face, but before Jerome James could jump, he saw a pair of black hands stretching out from his head and snatch the rebound that fell to his mouth!

With the protection of the backcourt rebound, Garnett glanced at the frontcourt, saw the Madman's position without hesitation, and directly threw a long pass into the frontcourt!

After receiving the pass, the madman pressed Daniels to the basket, attracting Daniels' defensive attention. Then, during the march, the madman transferred the ball to Szebiak in the left bottom corner.

With an open shot opportunity, Szebiak lowered his center of gravity and aimed at the basket, and used an unstandard shooting action to complete the shot decisively.

"Swish~"

At the beginning, the Timberwolves used offensive and defensive conversions to form scores twice in a row, tearing the Supersonics' defense into pieces, and gaining an advantage in both offense and defense.

The Supersonics were still in offensive troubles for a period of time and could not break through the Timberwolves defense on the offensive end. Even though the Supersonics had made a large number of unball pick-and-rolls, the Timberwolves' defense was like a candy and could not be escaped.

The main reason is that the Timberwolves change whenever they are blocked, which makes the supersonics unable to use the pick-and-roll to form a shooting space.

Two of them were used to replace Garnett with pick-and-roll, but two consecutive small-shot Lidno broke inwards and was blocked by Garnett's pursuit, which made Ridno start to be autistic for a moment, and his eyes were filled with fear when he looked at Garnett.

As a sophomore who performed well in the regular season, Ridno struggled a bit in the playoffs this year.

Average of 8 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game, plus less than 40% of the shooting percentage, which makes Ridno seem submissive on the offensive end.

Now that he has been blocked when facing Garnett's small game, Ridno's mentality has gradually collapsed and he has completely lost confidence on the offensive end.

On the other hand, while the Timberwolves are very restricted on the supersonics on the defensive end, the Timberwolves on the offensive end also have the advantage.

Both Szebiak and Garnett can be regarded as strong offensive points, especially Garnett's singles in the interior are as simple as hitting his son!

Lewis is 2.08 meters tall, but weighs only 98 kilograms, and his bench press data is even worse than some defenders.

Faced with Garnett's strong ball play, all Lewis could do was to raise his hands as high as possible and tell the referee that I did not foul this ball!

As for Daniels, who is responsible for defending Szebiak in this game, he also has poor defensive skills. His height of 1.93 meters and 88 kilograms make the counterpart Szebiak look as strong as a devil-music man.

Szebiak has a high basketball IQ and he knows very well what kind of offense to use when facing different types of defensive players.

Against Daniels, Szebiak used his height and strength advantages, and his back-to-back singles on the offensive end made Daniels completely helpless.

As a role player, Daniels has a good offensive ability. He averaged 14.1 points, 3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game against Kings Daniels in the first round of the series.

Unfortunately, Daniels, who has average shooting ability, basically has no offensive space in this round of the series. Now that the offense fails, defense has become a loophole in the Supersonics, which makes head coach McMillan really have a headache.

At the end of the half, the Timberwolves led the Supersonics by 24 points at home with an impeccable overall performance on both offense and defense.

No player in the Supersonics scored double-digit points in the entire first half. The one who scored the most was Ray Allen's 8 points, and these 8 points were still Ray Allen's data barely exchanged for 11 shots.

Jerome James, who performed well in the last round of the series, performed very poorly. Jerome James made only 1 of 7 shots in the first half, and with 1 of 2 free throws, he only had 3 points and 4 rebounds.

When the midfielder left the game, James was a little impatient and he lowered his head and passed by his teammates without saying a word.

Obviously, Jerome James knew very well that he lost not only the data in the first half, but also the large amount of money he was about to get!

In sharp contrast, the "parallel No. 1 pick" Sugar Man, the center who has always been under the paralyzed No. 1 pick, handed in 2 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in the first half.

The data is not very outstanding, nor is it very dazzling, but the "Sugar Man" completed all his tasks. While defending Jerome James until he was inefficient, he also sent three blocks in the first half, successfully building the field of Minnesota's no-fly zone!

The two best players in the Timberwolves in the first half were Garnett and Szebiak.

Among them, Garnett scored 16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block in the first half, which made the "Seattle Iron King" Lewis miserable, and even took the initiative to ask the coach to switch himself off the court.

Szebiak also contributed 15 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist, and was in the upper hand in the match against Daniels.

If Luke hadn't let him leave the court early to protect Szebiak, Szebiak would have scored more than 20 points in the first half.

After all, Szebiak and Daniels have a weight difference of 20 kilograms.

I believe that McMillan will definitely make adjustments to the small forward's position in the second half, otherwise nearly half of the players will feel depressed after playing Supersonics in this game.

Reedno, Daniels, Lewis, Jerome James…

These are all players who were almost collapsed by the Timberwolves in the first half.

It is hard to imagine that this is a matchup in the Western Conference semi-finals!
Chapter completed!