A Tiger-Headed Beginning and a Snake-Tailed Ending

When the game entered the second half, the situation on the court immediately turned around by 180 degrees.

The Suns' offense ground to a halt after Booker missed his first shot. And once it stopped, it stayed that way for a full five minutes.

That five-minute scoring drought wiped out every bit of the hard-earned advantage they had built up in the first half!

Even though Monty called two timeouts during those four minutes, it made no difference.

They couldn't hit their shots. That was that.

They were using exactly the same approach as in the first half: Fast Break Counter-attacks, transition offense, drives and kick-outs.

But the guys taking the shots from the perimeter just couldn't get them to fall.

When the Thunder faced this kind of situation, they usually had two solutions.

First, give the ball to Chen Xi and let him handle the tough shots. He could rely on his godlike individual ability to keep the scoring efficiency up and carry them through the rough patch.

Second, run plays centered around the Big Three of Chen Xi, Westbrook, and Davis. Their excellent chemistry and elite finishing ability would get them points.

In situations like this, their offensive focus would usually shift toward the basket.

Westbrook and Davis would also attack the rim much more often.

But the Suns didn't do that.

Or rather, they couldn't.

With Booker also struggling, they had neither a high-level Clutch Offense player nor the nerve to cut off one of their own options and settle into half-court sets against the Thunder.

So all they could do was grit their teeth and keep shooting, hoping one of them would get their touch back...

But playing that way depended a lot on luck and the players' mindset.

The good news was that five minutes