Author: A hint of divination

This year's trade deadline is March 15, which is a little longer than in previous years.

Compared with last year's endless blockbuster deals, this year's mid-term deals have been quite disappointing, and can only be described as loud thunder but little rain.

Among them, the one who made the loudest noise was Howard.

As a star who can lead a team to the Finals alone and can be traded for James alone during his peak period, Howard's trade naturally attracted much attention.

Since the beginning of the season, rumors about Howard's trade have been rampant, with various news constantly coming out.

However, after half a season of turmoil, the end result was that Howard gave up on opting out of his contract and continued to stay with the Magic.

…

How about playing?

Except for Magic fans, other fans were disappointed: I have taken off my pants, and you are going to show me this?

Apart from Howard, there are no big fish in the trading market.

There were rumors about the Thunder, such as Green, who had completed surgery and was recovering, and Harden, who was in hot form recently. But fortunately, they were just rumors. No news came out until the trade deadline passed.

Just like that, this year's trade deadline ended quietly.

On March 16, the Thunder faced the Spurs at home.

There is good news for the Thunder in this game, that is, Sefolosha has returned from injury and has returned to the team's starting position.

Compared with the Thunder's prosperity, the Spurs are much more miserable. They have encountered a serious wave of injuries.

The team has never been fully staffed, and in this game, Ginobili, the team's third scoring point, and Patrick Mills, the team's fourth scoring point, were both absent due to injuries.

On one side, players were returning from injury, and on the other side, injuries continued to ebb and flow. The Thunder thought this was an easy game to win, but unexpectedly they encountered a strong blocker.

After the pick-and-roll, Westbrook passed the ball to Li Pu, who took off in two steps and dunked the ball into the basket through Duncan!

"Didi!"

At this time, the referee blew the whistle: offensive foul!

"What?" Seeing the referee's penalty, Li Pu immediately couldn't sit still and quickly came to the referee.

"When I made physical contact with him on that ball, he was obviously still moving and not stationary. How could it be that I committed an offensive foul?"

Faced with Li Pu's angrily questioning, the referee explained expressionlessly: "Tim's feet were already stationary just now and did not move!"

"You are wrong! His body is obviously moving!"

"Stop messing around with me, or I'll give you a T!"

When Durant saw this, he and Harden quickly pulled Li away.

The reason why Li Pu was so angry was not because he was impulsive, but because he needed to put pressure on the referee. At the same time, he felt sorry for the goal just now.

At this time, the time has reached 1 minute and 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the score is 110:108, and the Thunder are 2 points behind.

If the offensive foul hadn't been called on the ball just now, the Thunder would have tied the score. This is the first time the Thunder have taken the lead since the start of the game.

If Duncan is called for a blocking foul, then he still has the opportunity to add penalties, and maybe he can go ahead and lead the score.

But now all this has come to nothing.

Two points don't count, but they also give the opponent an opportunity to attack. As time becomes less and less, the game has become very difficult for the Thunder.

After tonight's kickoff, the Spurs caught the Thunder off guard and dug a 10-point hole for the Thunder right off the bat.

At one point, the lead was as high as 21 points.

Fortunately, the Thunder team caught up in the second half and even managed to close the gap to just 2 points before the end of the game.

If he failed to score this goal and ended up losing, wouldn't he have let down everyone's hard work tonight?

Parker slowly dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, almost violating the eight-second violation. His speed completely lived up to his reputation as a French sports car.

It's no wonder that what the Spurs want now is success rate and time consumption.

After arriving in the frontcourt, the Spurs were not in a hurry or deliberately pressed for time. The players began to run tactics skillfully.

After some movement, the Spurs didn't get any good opportunities, so Parker passed the ball to Duncan inside. Danny Green, who was in the strong side corner, began to slide down the baseline and came to the weak side corner, giving Duncan a pass.

Open up the singles space.

Tonight, the Spurs are extremely accurate on the outside. Parker, Danny Green, Leonard and even DeJuan Blair. Who would have thought that among the Spurs' starting five, the one with the least score would be Duncan, who only scored 14 points?

The person who defended Duncan was Li Pu. To be honest, Li Pu defended Duncan very well tonight, shooting 4 of 12 from the field. Duncan's shooting percentage tonight was only 33%. You must know that this is an inside shooting percentage!

Having defended Duncan like this, Li Pu is proud of himself!

However, at this time, he didn't have any arrogance, and even felt nervous in his heart.

Although Duncan didn't feel well tonight and was in poor condition, that's Duncan!

Who wouldn't be afraid of his key goals?

After opening up the space, facing the almost empty field here, Duncan was finally able to let go and play.

Duncan pushed his back against Li Pu's chest, but it didn't produce the effect Duncan wanted.

Li Pu's strength has increased more than last year, so much so that even after losing weight, Duncan didn't even move at the first push.

Duncan followed up with another one!

Faced with Duncan's second blow, Li Pu was not afraid. He made Duncan extremely uncomfortable throughout the night. That is to say, the Spurs were too accurate from the outside today, otherwise the Thunder would not have lost so much.

After letting go of Duncan's second blow, he didn't expect that Duncan still didn't give up and actually planned to use force for a third blow.

Still coming?

But when the two of them came into physical contact, Duncan suddenly used his strength to turn around and pass Li Pu cleanly.

"Don't even think about it!"

After realizing Duncan's intention, Li Pu quickly adjusted his body and covered Duncan again, and was about to give Duncan a hot pot blow.

But at this moment, Duncan only staggered for a moment and did not get up. After tricking Li Pu into jumping up, he took off again.

"Didi!"

"White No. 88, the thug fouled!"

Although Li Pu ruined Duncan's inevitable goal, he was charged with a foul.

Duncan, who caused the foul, remained expressionless, without joy or happiness, as if everything had nothing to do with him and no one knew what he was thinking.

But Li Pu suffered great frustration in his heart. After all, he lost to Duncan's experience in the most critical round.

Duncan went to the free throw line and used free throws to score the key points.

Even though Duncan's free throw shooting rate this season is less than 70%, and tonight he only made 4 of 9 free throws, but at this critical moment, Duncan was able to make two free throws without interference from the outside world.

As a result, the point difference was widened to 4 points.

Although Durant hit a three-pointer in the end to continue the suspense of the game, he still lost his breath after all.

In the end, the Spurs defeated the Thunder 116:113, ending the Thunder's seven-game winning streak.
Chapter completed!