Copying the Magic: A Drifting Three-Pointer

At the game, after Chen Xi and Westbrook teamed up once again to score, Atkinson called another timeout.

No matter what, victory wasn't far out of reach. If they still had a chance, they had to fight for it.

Atkinson quickly sketched a simple, improvised play for a few players on his tactics board.

After all, sometimes overly complicated plays only made things worse. At a time like this, it was better to leave the game in the hands of players like Harden and Durant, who had both the basketball IQ and the skill to handle it.

The short timeout ended quickly.

Both teams returned to the court.

The Thunder made a lineup adjustment.

Donovan went back to tinkering, bringing Reddish in for Little Jordan at this critical juncture.

The idea was to move Davis to center, freeing him up to protect the rim, while shifting Chen Xi back to small forward to further unleash his instincts for help defense. They would also sacrifice some size to improve the team's mobility.

After watching the game unfold, Donovan had realized that against a team like the Nets, who could score from all over the court, mobility mattered more than sheer size.

Little Jordan had grown too slow. His defensive rotations couldn't keep up, and he could only maintain his rim protection by staying near the basket.

But with only four players defending the perimeter, it was still difficult to handle the Nets' ball movement.

So on this defensive possession, Donovan chose the more mobile Reddish, who was also better at defending one-on-one, to cover shooting guard.

That was the choice he made based on his understanding of basketball.

But no matter how you looked at it, the game's final outcome still depended on how the players performed.

Back on the court.