The game starts soon.
In the absence of Chen Xi, Donovan replaced Wade with Starting Lineup.
What's interesting is that Butler and Wade, the old players from the Bulls era, are now on the same team again, and they are both Starting Lineup again.
Should we say it or not, the two of them are really destined.
This has also become one of the ways for Wade to quickly integrate into Thunder.
He also talked with Butler, and also talked with Chen Xi (after Butler left, Wade played with Odie for half a season)
And Westbrook is even more famous as a social butterfly.
If he can have a good relationship with the three core players of the team, then there is no reason why he would be in a bad situation in Thunder's locker room.
On the opposite side, Grizzlies is not in a good situation recently.
Although Conley was not selected as All-Star, he also suffered injuries.
Last month, on January 28th, Conley chose to undergo surgery on his left heel and announced that he would be out for the season.
The core point guard's season reimbursement almost directly eliminated most of Grizzlies's combat power.
In the absence of Conley, as of the evening of February 11th, before the match against Thunder.
Grizzlies lost 5 times in 6 games, and the only one they won was against Western Conference, who was last in the rankings, Suns.
In this case, Grizzlies is basically coming to an end this year.
It is worth mentioning that on January 28th, according to the original historical trend, Andre·Roberson would have suffered a huge injury due to patellar tendon rupture in the match between Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers that night due to a problem with his landing posture after an alley-oop.
2018 was a truly troubled year for the entire NBA.
Roberson's injury this time directly led to his complete disappearance from League in the future, and also directly led to the collapse of Thunder's defensive system.
Wing's defensive system, which was just established by him and George, collapsed directly.
PG is left alone, and he has to wipe the butt of Melo from time to time.
This is also one of the major reasons why Thunder failed to go far with Playoffs.
But fortunately, the current Thunder is unprecedentedly powerful. With the defensive level of Roberson, he can only be placed on the bench.
While his playing time was reduced, it also helped him avoid bad injuries, which can be considered a pros and cons.
Back to the game, Thunder struggled a bit at the beginning.
Wade and Butler's Shooting Threat are much worse than Chen Xi, which allows Grizzlies to comfortably shrink the defense.
As a result, Westbrook becomes less comfortable at Offensive End.
Fortunately, Westbrook, Wade, and Butler all have good organizational skills, and Interior's finishing level is very high.
The three of them cooperated with each other, passing and cutting inside and outside, and actually produced some wonderful cooperation.
Compared to Deron, Wade is much faster and more comfortable to adapt to the lineup system of Thunder.
However, due to the decline in projection level, the space of Thunder has shrunk a lot.
So not long after, Donovan took advantage of the dead ball opportunity and replaced Gordon with Harris.
After replacing Gordon with a shooter, it not only opens up the shooting space, but also provides the outside trio with ample finishing space for Interior.
The effect is also very good, Thunder's attack became smooth immediately.
Although it is the first time to play under Thunder's system, Wade is still a little uncomfortable.
However, Westbrook and Butler are very rational and often create opportunities specifically for Wade to complete the attack.
So that he can adapt and integrate into the team faster.
Tacit understanding always needs to be cultivated little by little.
No matter how high basketball IQ is, players still need time to adapt. Even Paul took a lot of time to adapt to Rockets. However, in Rockets's early season schedule, several opponents were not strong, which just gave him time.
Then, the opponent became stronger, but Rockets's chemical reaction also picked up, and that's how Western Conference first became today.
Compared to Thunder, which plays like a soldier, Grizzlies seems to have a bit of a bad attitude.
Little Gasol and Evans were completely trapped in their own Isolation and could not extricate themselves. Several role players followed the two Leader brothers and ran back and forth.
In this case, let alone chemical reactions, Little Gasol is considered highly respected even if it doesn't explode.
In the eighth minute of the first quarter, Thunder called out Timeout, replacing Westbrook, Butler, and Sabonis.
Replaced with Collins, Grant, Deron, plus Wade and Harris to form a brand new Bench lineup.
Deron and Wade don't work well together, but fortunately, Collins is a player who is very good at playing with high-level open shots.
To put it simply, it means eating cakes.
Deron Although Individual Ability has declined, the organizational level is still there, coupled with the familiarity with Pick-and-Roll's tactics.
In these two days of team training alone, he has already taught Collins a lot of things.
This also gave this young man a lot more respect for Deron.
He is still very rational now. As a rookie, he can still be humble and work hard to survive in League.
As for what it will be like when he gets a big contract and puts up good numbers in the future, that's unknown.
At least for now, Collins can serve Deron well and make Pick and Roll Screen of good quality.
Pick-and-Roll is also very fast in completing the game. This is his strength, there is no reason why he can't do it well.
However, Mid-range's relatively ordinary shooting level still limits his upper limit, and also limits the upper limit of this combination.
Fortunately, in terms of projection, Harris and Grant can still provide help.
Although the performance of Thunder and Bench lineup is not very good, at least they did not lose points.
After all, Grizzlies's substitute is even worse.
After the first quarter, Thunder led Grizzlies 30 to 22 by 8 points.
Then, it was Monk's turn.
The young man showed his impact on the team as soon as he came on the court.
Unfortunately, it has a negative effect.
He came up and swung the ball, hit three consecutive times, shot Brick twice, and was slapped away by Little Gasol once he broke through.
It can be seen that you want to prove yourself, but my suggestion is that you don't prove it yet...
Chen Xi was wearing a suit and frowned, looking at Monk's performance with some dissatisfaction.
Just two goals later, Collins, not far from Monk, had the chance to finish directly, but he didn't pass the ball.
As a player who is only 1.91 meters tall but plays shooting guard, this kind of irrational shot is really hard to like.
Facing Dillon·Brooks' defense, Monk didn't feel comfortable playing, but he still played hard, which was a bit unwise.