Capítulo 1341: Chapter 537: This Is the True Three Giants!

This made it even more difficult for him, Curry, and even Thompson to find opportunities.

With other opponents, it wouldn’t matter if the supporting players were a bit cold; they could accept Green’s 40+35 shooting percentage even against the Spurs.

But this opponent is different. They scored in all four of the last rounds, with DeRozan hitting 3 consecutive shots for 7 points, Harden scoring a step-back three-pointer, and even though Zhang Yang hasn’t started firing yet, that’s the scariest thing…

They definitely need to direct Green to the inside, at least to draw Zubac’s attention to rim protection; his chances to score with a drive would be better.

Yes, after seeing through the opponent’s tactical intentions, Durant’s in-game adjustment was precisely — to respond with isolation plays!

At this critical moment that might determine the direction of the game, Durant withstood the pressure, drove to a close-range stop, and hit a jump shot!

Zhang Yang clicked his tongue, noticing his 7 out of 11 shooting for 17 points; this guy is really fierce when his stamina is good!

Clearly, the opponent has seen through his intentions, which he expected. Durant’s choice of adjustment was also within his expectations; it’s just that Durant hit the shot again.

However, even if Durant continues to score, it’s within his expectations!

After running to the front court, he continued to create space on the flank, closing ranks, unleashing DeRozan! After DeRozan finished, there was Harden!

DeRozan continued to single out Curry; this time Curry pressed up, DeRozan drove to the high post and passed to the left side. Harden turned and cut in, drove to the basket under Thompson’s pursuit… and missed the floater.

Green grabbed the defensive rebound, passed to Curry to push for a counterattack, but it wasn’t successful. Josh Smith followed up, received the ball for an easy shot, but was blocked by Ed Davis! He couldn’t jump; his forced shot was slapped down by Zhang Yang rushing in!

The 31-year-old Josh Smith had long lost his explosive power of the past. Precisely at the age of 29, his athleticism plummeted from comparable to James, becoming just an ordinary athletic forward. His playing style completely dependent on talent couldn’t sustain his core role… then he was cut by the Pistons, with two and a half years left on his contract. Apart from the 14 million for the season he was cut, from the 15-16 season to the 19-20 season, he could still get 5.33 million annually from the Pistons.

Fortunately, on the left sideline following up, Thompson grabbed the ball and passed it back to Curry, avoiding being counter-attacked by the opponents.

Curry received the ball and was immediately stuck by the aggressively defending Harden. He pulled out to the three-point line, waited for his teammates to settle, and fell into a half-court battle.

Finally, by the sidelines, Kerr understood why Ed Davis was playing at the power forward position. Although slightly slower in reaction than Curry and Durant, during DeRozan’s second call-out play against Curry, he also saw through the opponent’s intention. But he was puzzled. Looking from the past few rounds, whether using Nance Jr. or West at the power forward position as easy-shot options, wasn’t much different from Ed Davis, and could still retain the option to relay pass inside.

Now it was clear, it was to prevent their small-ball fast break!

Nance Jr. and West didn’t lack defensive enthusiasm either, but Nance Jr.’s skinny body couldn’t withstand charges from Josh Smith, Green, or even Durant; West, on the other hand, was slow and couldn’t retreat, so they used Ed Davis.

Seeing Durant keep asking for the ball to initiate attacks, Kerr decided to emulate the Zen Master, mainly because he couldn’t think of any better option…

The game entered the scenario foreseen during halftime by Zhang Yang and Budenholzer, where the star players directly faced off from the start of the second half!

There were actually risks, like if the trio didn’t perform well shooting, especially with long-range shots, they’d likely be crushed by the opposition’s burst.

After Harden’s missed drive could be defended during the counterattack because Curry’s receiving point was inside.

But fortunately, they scored 10 consecutive points in 4 rounds at the start, successfully forcing the opponent into a head-to-head duel!

After Durant duked it out with the other Three Giants for 3 rounds, Curry joined the fray.

Curry’s pick-and-roll attack with the ball, along with Durant’s isolation, Thompson as a wing support, Green with decent inside passing capacity, plus Kerr subbed in McKie for Josh Smith taking advantage of a dead ball to enhance cut-in reception capacity. Once the Warriors initiated this star-studded duel phase, their performance was ferocious, often overtaking the score!

But on the Lakers’ side, they withstood the pressure. Whenever the Warriors overtook the score, Zhang Yang would forcefully go against Curry, driving Curry crazy and making Durant’s scalp tingle.

Both coaches, when rotating lineups, didn’t dare remove the Tsunami Trio and the Three Giants, only dared to make adjustments in the interior.

However, Budenholzer did it proactively, while Kerr followed passively. Kerr even dared only to substitute at the center position, alternating McKie and Pachulia, and didn’t dare to swap Green, this relay point.

When Kerr subbed in a formal center, Budenholzer had more microsurgical conditions, as Nance Jr., David West, and Blake could rotate in depending on the need.

At the 9:49 mark of the third quarter, both teams surpassed a hundred points, with the Warriors scoring 34 points in less than 10 minutes, catching up to their second quarter score and elevating their total score to 101.

The Lakers scored slightly fewer points, ‘only’ scoring 31, bringing their total score to exactly 100.

However, Durant, who only took 10 shots in total in the first half and hit 6 of them, had already attempted 7 shots in the third quarter! After the first two minutes, Durant was throwing almost once every minute!