Chapter 325: Kobe's confidence

James Harden tried his best on the defensive end, but he was not the first offensive choice on the offensive end. Westbrook brought the ball to the front court. He made a tentative breakthrough attempt on Fan Xi's side, and then passed to Durant, who was asking for the ball on the wing for a one-on-one.

Durant played one-on-one against Leonard.

Durant is a monster with long hands and long feet. Although his offensive movements have no aesthetic feeling, the efficiency is very high. He faked a shot after receiving the ball, and then jumped to shoot.

Even though Leonard sealed his huge palm on his face, Durant still hit the ball.

The biggest challenge for the Clippers on the defensive end is Durant.

Turning back, James Harden defended Fan Xi, his standing position slightly closer to the inside.

When Fan Xi broke through, he had a leading action, and, when Fan Xi killed into the free-throw line by one step, Ibaka quickly closed in.

Ibaka's defensive conditions are very good. Their double-team blocked Fan Xi's only way, making Fan Xi very uncomfortable... This shows that Coach Brooks' research on Fan Xi is very deep.

Their double-team is like stuffing a wooden stick into a smoothly running machine, making the Clippers' offensive momentum jam.

Fan Xi had to stop. James Harden gave him great confrontation, and Ibaka interfered in the surroundings.

This made it difficult for him to even shoot directly.

He had to find an opportunity to pass the ball out. Nowitzki received the ball, Kevin Durant quickly helped defend, and Nowitzki then passed the ball to Leonard.

Leonard received the ball, and Ibaka had already followed up quickly.

"Beautiful defensive sniping, Coach Brooks' research on Jack is too thorough. He pinched the most fragile link of Jack's offensive end."

The ESPN commentator said excitedly on TV.

Bang!

Leonard's shot hit the iron.

But the rebound was tapped into the rim by DeAndre Jordan under the basket... Perkins failed to pinch DeAndre Jordan's jumping space. He wanted to give DeAndre Jordan some dirty tricks too much, but instead let DeAndre Jordan find an opportunity to bypass his body and tap the ball into the rim.

Fan Xi exchanged a look with Nowitzki on the way back to defense.

Nowitzki immediately understood.

Next, they were going to play some coordination.

Bang!

Westbrook's stop-and-go jump shot failed to hit.

DeAndre Jordan got the defensive rebound and passed it to Fan Xi. Fan Xi held the ball and arrived at the front court unhurriedly. Nowitzki immediately pulled to the top of the 3-point arc.

He set a screen for Fan Xi.

Where did he know that James Harden quickly shrank inward, and Ibaka didn't pull up.

Fan Xi simply stopped and shot directly... Swish!

3-pointer hit.

In the absence of defense, Fan Xi's 3-point ability is extremely accurate.

Coach Brooks patted the back of his head on the sidelines; this is something he is helpless about.

It is an impossible task to completely limit a superstar. When they decided to shrink and double-team to break the Clippers' smooth offensive momentum, they inevitably had to make sacrifices.

Amidst the shouts of MVP from the whole arena, the Thunder's another attack hit the iron. Kevin Durant assisted James Harden, and Harden's jump shot outside the 3-point line failed to hit.

The rebound was grabbed by Fan Xi rushing into the paint again. Fan Xi started a fast break, he rushed into the paint like lightning, attracted a double-team and passed the ball outside the 3-point line, Hamilton received the ball and hit a 3-pointer.

The point difference expanded rapidly.

The Thunder seemed to want to use up their good luck from the last game in this game.

Kevin Durant even started hitting the iron. His back-turn was pushed out of the rim's horizontal line by Leonard, and his drifting jump shot threw the ball directly into DeAndre Jordan's hands.

Fan Xi still ran a screen with Nowitzki, but after the screen, he passed the ball directly, Hamilton received the ball and shot, Swish!

Mid-range hit.

The Clippers continued to lead the score.

And showed a trend of blooming everywhere.

If the last game was the Thunder's touch exploding, tonight it was the Clippers players' turn.

Fan Xi didn't need to hold the ball and kill into the paint inside the free-throw line to seek opportunities at all. He distributed the ball to his teammates at the arc top and could create offense.

Because everyone's touch exploded, the Clippers entered a smooth mode.

The first quarter played for 8 minutes, and the Clippers' lead expanded to double digits.

Subsequently, Stephen Nash came on, and Nash, this offensive master, led Fan Xi and others to play a wave of run-and-gun, and the offensive firepower further improved, although Westbrook seized Nash's weak defense and scored continuously.

But the point difference didn't narrow, but expanded instead.

The Thunder finally experienced the sadness of "the opponent is like a god."

They copied the "how to shoot and how to hit" of the second game to the Clippers players in the third game.

So much so that Fan Xi rested for five minutes in the second half of the second quarter, and the point difference was still expanding.

This made Coach Brooks feel very "damn."

In the second half, the Thunder recovered some vitality, starting from Durant hitting a 3-pointer outside the left 3-point line, James Harden completed a fast break, and Westbrook repeatedly impacted the basket. They once narrowed the score to only 9 points.

But as Nowitzki scored continuously, the point difference quickly expanded to double digits again.

This score was never caught up by the Thunder until the end.

123:105.

The Clippers easily won their first playoff home victory of the season with a posture of not staining their blades with blood.

Won very easily.

Fan Xi played very leisurely tonight: 17 points, 15 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block. Nowitzki got 28 points, 7 rebounds, Nash 11 points, 9 assists, Leonard 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, DeAndre Jordan 12 points, 11 rebounds, Kwame Brown 8 points, 8 rebounds, Hamilton 11 points, Butler 9 points, Arenas 7 points.

The main rotation players all had double-digit or near double-digit scores.

This is a very average victory.

The Clippers released their lineup depth to the fullest.

Coach Brooks said very calmly after the game: "They can't maintain a 62% shooting percentage in every game. We will make some adjustments in the next game and will carry out more targeted defense against Jack. James performed very well tonight, he rarely let Jack go deep into the paint to score, I take my hat off to his performance."

Brooks focused on praising James Harden.

It seems that James Harden has already been his surprise soldier in this series.

He didn't know that Fan Xi was actually a bit regretful.

Fan Xi returned to the locker room and said to Nowitzki: "I originally wanted to run some pick-and-rolls with you, but I didn't expect... your shooting was too accurate, and you didn't give us a chance at all. It seems that we can only release sweat in the training hall."

Nowitzki raised his eyebrows.

That's also good.

It feels good to take down the opponent without staining the blade with blood.

Moreover, this is a good omen. This is the first home victory since the Clippers entered the Fan Xi era. Winning so easily, does it mean... the future journey will be smoother.

Fan Xi didn't attend the post-game press conference and took Chen Ye's car home... Since Dr. Laisi became pregnant, Chen Ye had a lot of time.

So, he was bored and continued to talk to Fan Xi about Kendall Jenner.

"Jack, didn't Jenner come to watch the game tonight? I saw the news today, Kim Kardashian said she wanted to see Justin Bieber, it seems the Kardashian family is going to create new gimmicks again."

Chen Ye chattered: "I don't really like the Kardashian family. Except for Jenner, I think every woman is full of shrewdness and calculation. They are obviously trying to make a lot of money through this matter."

Fan Xi frowned slightly and said: "What does this have to do with me? And it has nothing to do with Jenner."

"No, Jack. Do you know what kind of person can best destroy the relationship between boyfriend and girlfriend? Is it a crazy rival? No, it's not. It's a good best friend, it's those good sisters who claim to be for her own good."

Chen Ye said: "You really have to have a good chat with Jenner. Aren't you on holiday tomorrow?"

"But I have already made an appointment with Nowitzki to practice pick-and-roll tactics tomorrow." Fan Xi said.

"Go to his pick-and-roll tactics, Jack, you have to stabilize your backyard."

"No, basketball is more important." Fan Xi said very seriously.

"Then the day after tomorrow, don't you have time during the day the day after tomorrow? You can chat with Jenner, even if it's just drinking coffee at the Staples cafe." Chen Ye continued.

Fan Xi raised his head and looked out the window, he didn't continue to speak.

If it weren't for Chen Ye always saying these things in his ear, he would never have felt that getting along with his girlfriend was a troublesome thing.

After all, he was always the one being pursued, and he liked to be passive.

Chen Ye originally intended to continue saying something, until Fan Xi's phone rang, and it was actually Kobe Bryant calling.

Kobe called Fan Xi for nothing else.

He just told Fan Xi: "Coach Brooks using James Harden to defend you is a good flag, it gave many teams wonderful fantasies."

"Their double-team pinched the weakest part of the offensive end, limiting your passing, cutting, and shooting. You can't be as lucky as tonight in every game."

Kobe said to Fan Xi very easily on the phone.

Fan Xi raised his eyebrows. "You underestimated me."

"Jack, don't think that pick-and-roll screens can solve this problem. Believe me, their defense against you will definitely upgrade in the next game. In fact, we have also started to study this problem. If you don't have the ability to stop and jump to shoot, you will be limited to that position, eight or nine feet away from the rim."

Kobe said very simply: "If you want to enter the playoff ruler club, you must have the ability to stop and jump to shoot."

Fan Xi was noncommittal.

Then, Kobe said to Fan Xi again: "By the way, Jack, I also want to tell you. Your regular season plan is not seamless. Although you played the Spurs and taught us a lesson. However, when the Western Conference Finals start, you will find how stupid this plan of yours is. You shouldn't have let us release our chemical reactions thoroughly from weak to strong."

"We will easily sweep the Jazz, and then take down the Spurs in five games, six games at most. Regardless of whether you enter the Western Conference Finals, at that time, we will be the high mountains you cannot cross."

"The Lakers will achieve a four-peat."

"There is no team in the East that can compete with us."

Kobe said incomparably confidently.

Fan Xi hung up the phone, not letting his proud laughter come over.

... ===== CHAPTER 326 =====