A joke about pulling your ass.

Durant dribbles the ball to the right of the frontcourt, and Black crosses to save Tatum. At that moment, Grant Williams (defending drummond) and Horford (defending Bruce Brown) stood in the penalty area, watching him. Jaylen Brown also decisively released Owen (! ), blocked his route to the left of the restricted area. Durant hesitated and had no choice but to stop the jump shot at the free throw line and be chased by Tatum behind him.

This defense runs through every round of this series. Whenever Durant wants to do something, there are always Celtic players in front of him. As a young and talented team, they have enough height, wingspan, confrontation, speed and execution. They won't let Durant pull the pick-and-roll easily, they won't give him a chance to rush into the restricted area, they won't let him dribble and pass the ball comfortably, and they won't let him jump shot. They would rather let him punish 20 balls.

Tatum concluded after the game: "We can't let him (Durant) play comfortably, we can't give him any space, and we can't let him find even a little rhythm of shooting. This is our game plan-try to make the most talented scorer of our time feel uncomfortable. "

Celtics tortured Durant in all directions, not only on the defensive end, but also on the offensive end. In the other round, Jaylen Brown dribbled on the two legs at the top of the arc, then turned back and dribbled all the way over Owen into the paint area. Although Durant let go of defensive Grant Williams and rushed back to the restricted area, his long arm failed to interfere with Brown's layup. Nash changed his defensive strategy in this game and stopped Durant from watching Tatum. His original intention was to reduce his tasks on the defensive end, and as a result, the defensive front of the Nets was too easy to collapse. On the contrary, Durant suffered more impact, and his physical fitness dropped even faster than playing. In the second half of yesterday's game, Durant 10 shot 0, playing the worst half of his career.

Grant Williams described their game strategy more vividly: "Our task is to make Durant feel difficult when he does anything, not only whether he has the ball, but also the offensive end or the defensive end. Even if he wants to go to the sideline to get a glass of water, we must find a way to disrupt his rhythm. "

Under the siege of Celtic, this series played two games. Durant made only 13 shots, but made 12 mistakes. At the cost, Cescurry, Goran Dragic and Bruce Brown gained some space in both games, but compared with Durant's outbreak, it was an acceptable price for Udoka. As the defensive assistant of the Nets last season, he knows better than most people in the league how much this team depends on Durant: "We hope to consume KD as much as possible at both ends of the offense and defense, make physical contact with him as much as possible, and keep him busy as much as possible. He made 20 free throws, which is a bit too much, but this is how we want to defend him. As far as the game progress is concerned, I think we have carried out our game plan well. Although we fell behind in the first half, I don't think we need to make any major adjustments. As long as we can stick to the end, we will win. "

Before the start of this series, we predicted that the Celtics had obvious advantages in the game. One of the important reasons is their size: the Celtics are a team that strictly abides by the rotation of eight people, and the rotation lineup of the Nets is on the old side and depends on the stars. When the game enters the fourth quarter, the physical strength of both sides will also usher in a vacuum period, and when both sides can't continue to shoot or run out of tactics efficiently, the physical strength advantage is undoubtedly the most immediate. As shown in the fourth quarter of today's game, Dan Blank and Tatum ran over Owen and Curry to the basket, and Durant's basket was a drop in the bucket.

But what we didn't expect was that Udoka gave Durant such great strength from the beginning of the series. In the initial pre-judgment, we will think that Udoka will first pinch the role players of the Nets, let Durant do a certain number of singles, and try to drag Durant down in the long series. However, Udoka is obviously more keenly aware of Durant's fatigue throughout the regular season. He left no successor and boldly advanced the decisive battle time, making the Celtics lead 2-0 at present.

Four years ago, the Celtics were 2-0 ahead of James' Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs. Later, as an organized athlete, James made the ultimate bloody, cold-blooded and iron-blooded adjustment to the Celtics in the face of one-on-one invitation. He kept shouting for cover in every round, mobilizing his 33-year-old body to attack the opponent's defensive weakness, and finally broke the iron curtain in Boston with an average of 33.6 points per game, giving the Celtics the only 2-0 lead in history.

Now Durant faces completely different challenges. He may be the best scorer in the league, but as the best defensive team in the league, the Celtics have given him an unprecedented test in this series. Durant's physical condition is obviously much worse than last year after he came back from a big injury and became a parent in the regular season. In this case, the Celtics tied his hands and feet with a fierce, tough and tough system, forcing him to pitch, forcing him to make a mistake, forcing him to fall into thinking and be the first mouse. After years of tempering, Durant's ball control ability is really different, but Durant, who the Celtics are wary of, is still the scorer Durant, not the organizer Durant. As long as you hesitate for a moment, Durant, no matter how sharp, has nothing to be afraid of.

Durant is not the kind of player who has a hard mouth. He also admitted that the Celtics defended him successfully and declared that he would make a change: "They always used two or three people to defend me, even when I didn't have the ball. When I ask for cover, al horford will release his defenders to attack me. When I break through, there are always other defenders stuck in my breakthrough line. When I want to pass the ball, there are always several hands crossing my passing line. This is the playoffs, and they showed their wild instinct. They did a good job of protecting me. Every time I get the ball, I will see several defenders around me, ready to attack. I think it is unrealistic for me to solve this problem by the mistakes of my teammates or opponents in the following games. I have to find a way to break this defense myself: either I have to play more patiently or I have to play faster sometimes. "

You see, Durant still believes in himself. On the one hand, this is a superstar's ego and self-confidence, but we can also see the opposite side: Owen and Durant stayed in Brooklyn for three years, and the Nets still haven't established the familiar cohesion or identity of being a strong team. Sudden transactions, injuries of key players, and municipal regulations on vaccines, this team is too easily disturbed by various external factors. When such a team hits the last critical moment and encounters troubles and difficulties, except for Durant and Owen's singles, a team that is not in and out of Qi Xin can't think of any other solution-just like their series, Durant is really in trouble, but even if the Celtics have made it clear that the horses and chariots will not let him play singles and force him to pass the ball, it is still difficult for him to trust his teammates, only himself.

Of course, we are not announcing the end of this series. Durant may still make effective adjustments, and Owen may have another amazing performance. It is said that Ben Simmons can come back in the fourth game of this series as early as possible. Celtic is a young team and may make some mistakes. In Brooklyn, the Nets may also gain some home advantage from free throws. You know, after playing 14 years in the NBA, Kevin Durant has never fallen behind 0-3 in a series. But not these two games or this series, we have to put a question mark. But a deeper problem:

If Durant insists on believing only in himself, it is hard to imagine that he can achieve the kind of success he wanted when he left the Warriors anywhere except Golden State Warriors.