Chapter 1 The Entire First Quarter

Throughout the entire first quarter, Durant was effectively contained by Tang Tian. He only managed 5 points on 1-for-5 shooting, and the Thunder trailed the Pelicans by a significant margin of 17 to 29.

Tang Tian, on the other hand, racked up 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists in just that quarter.

Donovan's non-existent defensive strategy allowed Tang Tian to play with ease.

Moreover, the Pelicans players, seeing Tang Tian in good form, consciously or unconsciously gave him opportunities for rebounds.

In the second quarter, Stevens adjusted his defensive strategy, switching to Bogdanovic to guard him.

Durant increased his offensive frequency, but his touch had been disrupted by Tang Tian in the first quarter, forcing him to rely more on drives to the basket for scoring.

However, Davis' help defense became another headache for him.

He scored 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting in this quarter, but the Thunder were already trailing by as many as 17 points, 41 to 58.

Meanwhile, Tang Tian took over the scoring load in the second quarter, raising his individual stats to 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 10 assists.

During the halftime break, Durant sat in the locker room, feeling dejected.

He had many reasons to be dejected.

Back when Brooks was the coach, although there wasn't much offensive strategy, at least there was a defensive system. But now, Donovan has no defensive training at all!

Everyone else seems to be improving, but Tang Tian makes leaps and bounds every time. For the first time, he began to question his own talent!

And these teammates on the Thunder, except for Westbrook, are all useless in such tough battles!

"Kevin, you'll regain your touch in the second half."

Westbrook, noticing Durant's low mood, patted him on the shoulder and offered words of comfort.

Durant glanced at Westbrook, his expression complex.

This was his best brother, but now, every time he saw him, he couldn't help but recall the scene at the cake shop during the All-Star break.

He nodded.

After a while, Donovan came into the locker room.

"We need to adjust our defensive strategy. Someone needs to play tight defense, and someone needs to provide help defense, otherwise we'll lose this game."

For the first time, Durant publicly made a tactical request to Donovan in the locker room.

Donovan frowned slightly, then nodded.

"I'll play tight defense," Durant added.

Donovan didn't say anything and agreed.

After he finished adjusting the tactics for the second half, he called Westbrook out separately.

"Russell, Kevin hasn't been in good form lately. You need to take on more responsibility and lead the offense more."

Donovan said to Westbrook with a meaningful tone.

He had been with the Thunder for more than half a year.

During that time, he had been pondering the issue of Durant's and Westbrook's tactical positions.

He had coached in the NCAA for 19 years, and in those 19 years, the point guard always led the offense, but that wasn't the case with the Thunder.

This wasn't his usual coaching style, and he also knew that Durant was just a scorer, whose playmaking ability was far inferior to that of James.

So he had been looking for an opportunity, and now was the opportunity. He wanted to shift the offensive initiative from Durant's hands to Westbrook's.

Westbrook didn't know what Donovan was thinking, but he accepted Donovan's suggestion.

Durant had always carried the team on his shoulders in the past, but now that Durant was in poor form, it was time for him to step up.

When the second half resumed, neither team adjusted their starting lineup. The Pelicans attacked first.

Tang Tian still had the ball, but the person guarding him had changed from Roberson to Durant.

Tang Tian wasn't too surprised. Durant was the kind of superstar who cared a lot about external opinions.

If he couldn't perform on the offensive end, he would definitely want to make a contribution on the defensive end.

If he was completely outplayed on both offense and defense, then he would really have no face as a superstar.

Tang Tian lowered his body and dribbled the ball.

He knew that Durant was tall and had long arms, so shooting in front of him wasn't a good choice.

After a series of dribbles, he suddenly accelerated to the right.

Durant was too tall, and his center of gravity couldn't keep up, so Tang Tian squeezed past him directly.

Ibaka in the paint came out to help defend, and Tang Tian, after getting close, made a no-look bounce pass, sending the ball from Ibaka's right armpit to Davis at the baseline.

Jokic boxed out Adams, and Davis caught the ball and took one step before throwing down a one-handed dunk.

Another Nash-esque brilliant assist!

Durant angrily slapped his hand.

If he couldn't keep up with Tang Tian's first step, then this defensive strategy would still be useless.

On the Thunder's offensive end, Westbrook no longer set up plays for Durant like he did in the first half. Instead, he actively called Adams to the high post for a pick-and-roll.

After the switch, he was mismatched against Jokic, and he used an explosive drive to the basket.

Davis came over for a help block, and Westbrook directly went up strong for a layup, drawing a foul on Davis.

Westbrook's ninja turtle-style breakthrough was just a wild charge.

He made both free throws, helping the Thunder to keep the score close.

Back on the other end, Jokic held the ball at the free throw line, and Tang Tian cut in and then back out. Durant was chasing him hard.

Tang Tian caught the ball and used a triple threat shooting fake, fooling Durant before turning around and driving to the basket.

Adams and Ibaka were both afraid of Tang Tian's passing and didn't dare to come out too aggressively. Tang Tian directly accelerated and scored with a two-handed dunk.

Durant turned his head and watched Tang Tian dunk, a hint of despair flashing in his eyes.

I can't score, and I can't defend. I can't beat him!

This was even more uncomfortable than when he first entered the league and faced James.

Because back then, even if he couldn't defend James, he could still trade baskets with James.

But Tang Tian, this freak, really made him feel hopeless!

His mentality was somewhat collapsing.

Is this what it felt like for those people to face Jordan in the early 1990s?

Westbrook drove to the basket and scored.

Back on the other end, Tang Tian saw that Durant's positioning was relatively far back, so he used a shooting fake to trick Durant into coming up, and then followed up with a turnaround fadeaway jumper.

When this shot went in, Durant was convinced that the person he was guarding was Michael Jordan.

Durant's poor performance on the court led his Thunder teammates to start helping him with more help defense.

But this gave Tang Tian a lot of passing space.

Tang Tian scored 6 points in a row at the start of the quarter, but then dished out 4 consecutive assists.

However, Westbrook performed well in this quarter, scoring 20 points to help the Thunder keep the score close.

And in the third and fourth quarters, during the bench rotation period, Kanter stepped up on the inside, successfully reducing the deficit to 12 points before the two sides entered the final decisive battle.

The game was still within reach.

But Durant was really mentally broken by Tang Tian in this game. He failed to seize consecutive opportunities on the offensive end in the crucial stage, and he was hammered by Tang Tian on the defensive end.

In the end, despite Westbrook's season-high 40 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Kanter's eye-catching performance of 17 points and 8 rebounds, Durant's performance of 8-for-28 shooting, 22 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers was simply terrible.

The Thunder ultimately lost 105 to 118.

Tang Tian's performance in this game was quite outstanding, getting 32 points, 13 rebounds, 21 assists, 2 steals, and 2 fouls.

Donovan said before the game that it was impossible for Tang Tian to get 20 assists, but Tang Tian ended up getting...

And after getting this triple-double, Tang Tian's triple-double count for the season reached 7, surpassing Green and becoming the player with the most triple-doubles so far this season.