Kot Thomas did not appear on the bench of the Seattle Supersonics even at the beginning of the second half, which made many media unable to help but speculate. Monica Robinser, the commentator of Comcast TV who was responsible for broadcasting the game, said worriedly: "It seems that the problem was not solved during the halftime break. Although Kot Thomas' form has declined this season, he still has the most capable and experienced players in this position. If this problem is not resolved as soon as possible, it is likely to have a great impact on this team."

"Although Cote Thomas is the least important one among the starting fives, this will still affect their internal stability. The Supersonics had no news of a locker room problem before, but now it seems that it has not exploded, otherwise it would not have been so terrible." His partner Juan Matas also said worriedly.

A non-professional commentator like this is not as tit-for-tat as an ordinary commentator.

"Let's review what happened just now. Although the camera did not capture the last scene, from the front, it was mainly caused by a meaningless foul by Cote Thomas. Then Stephen expressed dissatisfaction with him. Cote Thomas was not to be outdone and did not take Stephen seriously. As for the dispute between the two, we can only see that the two people had a linguistic conflict. However, since there was no video information, we could not ask a lip-language expert to interpret it. However, after the language conflict, you can see that Stephen made a gesture to head coach Caresimo, and then Caresimo asked Nick Colinson to prepare to appear. At this time, Cote Thomas looked obviously very angry. He once again made an unnecessary foul and applied for the end. After the game, he did not return to the bench, but went directly to the locker room." Monica Robinser introduced the whole story to the audience.

"I want to say that Cott Thomas is a bit old, but Stephen is indeed a little young and energetic. He is behind the game and everyone is anxious. However, this is not the responsibility of one person. It requires everyone to work together to strengthen defense, improve offensive success rate, and narrow the score gap. If they fight each other, it will hurt their own team. Judging from their performance in the second half of the first half, it is obvious that everyone has been affected." Juan Matas also concluded.

"Let's wait and see if Stephen will give us a miraculous reversal in the second half. After all, he has done this frequently since last season." Seeing that the players had already stood on the court and the ball had been sent out, Monica Robinser asked the director to switch the camera to the field.

Stephen is indeed unwilling to give up on failure, but sometimes it is not to say what you want. When Stoyakovic was off the court, the New Orleans Hornets replaced James Posey. Although James Posey was not as good as before after winning the championship and signing a big contract, his defense was still so good. Under his defense, although Stephen scored eight points in a row after the start, the Hornets also scored eight points, and the gap still failed to narrow.

Many players begin to lack physical strength when they get older and cannot make him perform as well as before. However, if his playing time is shortened, he can still perform very well, just like a player like James Posey. If you let him play thirty minutes, he can spend half of his time playing soy sauce, but if you want him to play about twenty minutes of games, he can still play like before.

In addition, with Ryan Bowen's assisted defense, if you pay attention to the Rockets' games, you can know that this person is also famous for defense and is often used to defend against the opponent's arrow characters under Van Gundy. However, in fact, he has a huge gap in his defensive ability with Bruce Bowen, but he works very hard and works hard to make up for the shortcomings with diligence. Although he is old, he can still barely make up for his strength in the league.

James Posey's defense is that. I don't ask you to be unable to score every time, but I will make every score very difficult for you. This defensive strategy is still very good for Stephen. Although it does not limit Stephen's score on the surface, it actually prevents Stephen from scoring explosively.

If you can't score explosively, you can't get close to the classification quickly, because even after the Hornets change, as long as Chris Paul stays on the court, their offense will still be as omnipresent as mercury, and Chris Paul's personal offensive ability cannot be stopped by either Earl Watson or Russell Westbrook.

As an organizational defender, Chris Paul seems to be not as stable as Steve Nash in terms of personal offense, but he has the ability to attack that Steve Nash does not have. Although he is not as good as the scoring organizational guards like Bairon Davis and Arenas in terms of personal scoring, he is much better than these people in terms of team organization. In terms of assists per game, he is ranked first in the league. Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, two old demon guards at the Hall of Fame level. They are only a handful of people who can achieve double-dollar assists per game in their third season.

His defense is limited to his height and strength disadvantage, and he is not very outstanding, but judging from the number of steals per game, he gives the offensive side a lot of pressure. If his organization is S-level and the offense is A+, then his defense can also meet the A-level standards.

He fully demonstrated the value of a core organization guard. While organizing the team's offense, he always maintained offensive pressure on the Supersonics No. 1 player, and at the same time used defense to prevent the opponent from attacking at will. After most of the third quarter, the Supersonics still failed to overtake the score. Stephen seemed to have done his best and had no good means.

In fact, Stephen’s problem in this game is not too big. He has scored 28 points and grabbed seven rebounds at the same time, but his assists are only three, and the three quarters are about to pass. Except for Stephen, the Supersonics only have only Yao Ming and Durant scored in double digits, but they are just double digits.

The worse the teammates performed, the more dared the Hornets to double-team Stephen. Stephen's pass was useless and gradually stopped passing the ball. His offense was the highest efficiency. Doesn't he waste opportunities for others if he didn't attack? But in this way, the Hornets attached more importance to his defense.

Stephen briefly adjusted his style of play, tried his best to create opportunities for his teammates, and then passed the ball himself, but the chance was wasted every time, and the score difference became larger and larger. Stephen naturally no longer insisted on such a style of play. Faced with this situation, although Calesimo made tactical and lineup adjustments, the adjustment did not seem to be effective. By the end of the third quarter, the score difference between the two teams was widened to sixteen points.

In the fourth quarter, Stephen rested for two minutes off the court. After all, he has not had a rest since the beginning. Although Chris Paul has not yet rested, you should know that Stephen's activity volume is much larger than Chris Paul. And seeing that Stephen did not play and Chris Paul did not play either. In the absence of core players, the Supersonics still failed to gain an advantage. Driven by David West, the score difference was widened to 19 points. When Stephen returned to the court, Rasul Butler made another three-pointer, widening the score difference to 22 points.

After Stephen came on the court, he gained a certain advantage in a short period of time and narrowed the gap to fifteen points. However, as Chris Paul returned to the court, he expanded the gap again with a cold arrow-like three-pointer as soon as he came on the court.

From the three-point shooting percentage, we can see the backwardness of the two teams. The Hornets' three-point shooting percentage of the entire Hornets is not too high. So far, it has only been 35.6%, but the Supersonics are as low as 26.2%. This is based on Stephen's three-point shooting percentage of six shots, which shows how bad the other people feel.

Stephen's own score cannot change the situation where the team is lagging behind, and passing the ball to his teammates is a waste of opportunity. At this time, Caresimo called a timeout and told Stephen to be patient, learn to adapt to different game situations, and trust his teammates. Even if he loses the game, it is worth it.
Chapter completed!