Updated: 2012-12-03

In the first half, Stephen scored 24 points, four rebounds and five assists, and had one block and steal each, while LeBron and James only scored 17 points, six rebounds and six assists, and only one steal.

At the beginning of the second half, the two led the starting lineup to reappear on the court. Until now, both of them did not miss the game for a minute and remained on the court. McBrown and Caresimo were waiting for the other side to replace their team's core first, which resulted in such a result.

As soon as the second half of the game started, Stephen suffered a foul on LeBron James. After the foul, Stephen shook his hand in annoyance. He was not angry about the referee's penalty. His previous action was indeed a foul action.

This is because although he had a rest in the midfield, the physical loss caused by the high confrontation in the half-time game made him feel a little tired. He couldn't help but want to use a way to save energy while defending. Unfortunately, he was caught by the referee with a sharp-eyed eye.

Stephen gently reached out to the referee to indicate that he would obey the penalty and stop letting the referee misunderstand that he would not agree with the penalty. Otherwise, this game would be the opponent's home court, and LeBron James is a top star player in the league. The referee would definitely be biased towards the opponent. Stephen doesn't want to ask for trouble.

What Stephen didn't know was that the referee of the law enforcement game, Powell Hillary, is an alumnus of the University of Southern California. Although there are very rare people entering the field of basketball at the University of Southern California, it does not mean that none of them are there.

Seeing his junior was so well-behaved, Powell smiled and signaled the Cavaliers to serve as soon as possible. As a referee, he must not express his tendency toward a certain player, whether it is loose or strictly prohibited, otherwise the team at the battle could ask the league to change the referee.

The team sent it to LeBron James again. Ilgoshkas came up to make a pick-and-roll cooperation for LeBron James. His huge body completely blocked Stephen's way. Facing the lifted Koopard, LeBron James stopped and accelerated and got Coopard out of his back. However, before he could score a layup, Wilcox, who had made up, had reached out to pull him down.

In just the first round, the Supersonics paid the price of two fouls, which seemed very abnormal. In fact, this was a defensive strategy designed by Calesimo. Of course, Stephen's foul was definitely an accident.

It was still inspired by the last game against the Seventy-Sixers. Iguodala defended Stephen closely, and others used fouls to share the defense. For a team with only one superstar, this defense method is still very effective. Although it was bankrupt in Stephen, it gave Caresimo a revelation.

During the halftime break, Calesimo had already thought of Stephen's physical strength problem. Usually, Stephen started to rest in the second half of the second quarter. The time for the halftime break was enough for him to maintain a good state in the second half, but the situation in today's game made him afraid to replace Stephen, so in the second half, changes needed to be made.

His arrangement is that when defending against LeBron James, if the opponent has already gotten rid of the defense, Stephen does not need to pursue it deliberately, because doing so is very physically exhausting, but lets his teammates share this task. When maintaining his own foul numbers, use fouls reasonably to prevent the opponent's scoring.

In addition to Stephen's foul, Coupard's reaction was a little slower and failed to foul in time. Wilcox had to take it over. His foul was a little late and gave the opponent two free throws.

Wilcox didn't care that LeBron James was right in front of him and told Coupard directly that when encountering this situation, he would be extremely determined to foul, be more fierce and brave, and don't think about using ordinary defensive methods to stop the opponent. If LeBron James is so easy to deal with, he is not LeBron James.

LeBron James' free throw shooting rate is not too high, and it was even less than 70% last season, but these two free throws were super high and all the free throws went into the basket, and the foul did not play the role it deserved.

The Supersonics' offense changed from the beginning. Stephen did not get the ball to play with the ball from the beginning, but kept running without the ball, because this kind of running is easier and more energy-saving than confronting LeBron James.

For a player who is used to running without the ball, this offense is relatively easy, but for people who are not used to running without the ball, running without the ball is a very bitter thing. Once affected by this emotion, you will find that your physical strength is losing dramatically.

Although Stephen has greatly reduced the proportion of this offensive method in the overall offense since joining the Supersonics this season, Stephen has not completely given up. Sometimes running can disrupt the opponent's defense line and have a different effect.

Stephen received a pass from Watson during the run. LeBron James hurriedly accelerated his pace and followed, because for Stephen, he only needed a little shot space and time to shoot the ball into the basket. Stephen did not have the shooting area he used to in the shooting, and there was no obvious blind spot. No matter how hard he was on the court, he could take action, which made people dare not relax and careless.

As soon as LeBron James approached, Stephen passed the ball out again, and then took another step to start running. LeBron James had to lower his speed and run with the opponent. Moreover, Stephen's running was very elusive, constantly changing directions, turning back, and accelerating and stopping, which was very uncomfortable.

LeBron James felt ruthless, thinking that if I was tired of running like this, you wouldn't be able to go there, who could run past who, the two of them ran on the court. Stephen ran to the basket and just received a pass from his teammate, LeBron James came behind him, making him dare not take action at will, so he used the ball to bypass Coupard, but before he could take action, Ilgoshkas's foul came.

This is not the Cavaliers' tactics, but the experience of Ilgoshkas. When he found that using ordinary methods could not stop Stephen from scoring, he immediately reached out to foul. He couldn't let LeBron James foul.

LeBron James has just bypassed Coupard. If Stephen slows down a little, he will be able to jump and block it. However, Stephen also knows him very well, so he takes action very quickly. He firmly seizes the opportunity and forces Ilgoshkas to have to foul.

Both sides adopted the same defensive strategy intentionally and the other spontaneously, which greatly affected both Stephen and LeBron James' performance, but this also gave other players more opportunities accordingly. Durant of the Supersonics and Drew Guden of the Cavaliers scored consecutively.

When there were only more than four points left in the third quarter, Stephen used a quick three-pointer to widen the gap to four points. He turned around and stole it from Larry Hughes, made a long pass to launch a fast break, assisting Watson to score two points. Seeing the team playing smoothly and being in the lead again, Calesimo took the lead with Szebiak, and then replaced LeBron James with Gibson.

In the first quarter, Gibson's three-pointer caused great trouble to the SuperSonics. Now, as soon as he came on the court, he first received the ball and made a shot outside the three-point line. After returning, Wilcox missed the shot, the rebound was obtained by Ilgoshkas. After falling into the position, Gibson forced Watson to succeed, broke through to the basket and scored a layup. The advantage of six points was only one point left in less than a minute.

Calesimo widened his eyes. Although any situation on the court could happen, it could not be reversed so quickly. The stalemate was over, and the core players of both sides also ended together. Calesimo looked at the players sitting on the bench. Who would be replaced? Apart from Stephen, the team does not have the kind of player who can reverse the game. Could it be that Stephen will be on the court again?

After Pavlovic made a mid-range shot and overtook the score, Szebiak finally made a three-pointer, helping the team stabilize the situation and also made Calesimo give up the idea of ​​substitution. He originally planned to let Ridno perform better in this game, but he stopped again when he saw this.

Stephen wiped the sweat from his body and drank half a glass of water. The team fell behind. After seeing Szebiak's three-pointer, Stephen felt relieved. However, after Kupad was shaken by Ilgoshkas, he was eager to make up for the merits, but was deceived by Ilgoshkas and successfully committed a foul.

As the only center forward with Yao Ming, who performed technical foul free throws, Ilgoshkas hit 80% of the free throws. He easily sent two free throws into the basket, and then blocked Watson's shot in the defense, making great contributions to the team, Ilgoshkas was replaced by Valejo.

After receiving the ball, Cooperd turned around and flew away far away from Valaijo, who had just been on the court. Although his movements were obviously exaggerated, the referee still ordered Cooperd to make an offensive foul. He was angry and wanted to argue with the referee, but was grabbed by his teammates.

Although he also came from the University of Southern California, he could not enjoy the treatment of an alumni in front of Powell. Powell didn't even know that he was also a member of the University of Southern California. Carlesimo was very disappointed with Cooperd's performance in this game, so he reached out and called Robert Horry off the bench. After giving the opportunity in person, Robert Horry replaced Cooperd.

Calesimo's substitution is quite different from McBrown's expectations. Robert Horry has basically faded out of the Supersonics' regular rotation lineup, but has only played as a surprise player several times, and usually appears on the court with Stephen, using his tacit understanding with Stephen to play some small-scale cooperation. He never expected that Calesimo would send him on the court at this time and let him appear in the power forward position.

This lineup effectively restrained the Cavaliers' current inside lineup. At the same time, after Watson increased his defensive enthusiasm, Gibson failed to perform well. Both teams played in a mess. Until the end of the third quarter, the Supersonics fell behind by only two points to the opponent.

{Piaotian Literature www.PiaoTian.com Thank you for your support, your support is our greatest motivation}
Chapter completed!