Parker & Willis: A sports car driving on two different tracks

Tony Parker crossed the half court with the ball and the familiar sound of cheering from the Spurs' home court and the familiar roar from the sidelines rang in his ears. At the moment of the timeout, Popovich was really in the lead, waving his arms and spitting like a boxer warming up, coming straight at Parker.

Manu Ginobili thought that Popovich was shouting at himself and was about to put on an innocent face when he found out that the old man was targeting Parker again, he headed straight for the bench without looking back.

Parker has been through a lot of battles and has seen a lot. The real warriors dare to face the anger of the head coach, 29-year-old Parker not only does not bow down and admit fault, and even dares the commander-in-chief to return fire - only to see Parker turned around, two hands, and began towards Popovich "blowing beard glare".

Before that, Parker had 18 shots 26 points, the highest in the game.

After the game, the flower suit Craig Sager interviewed Parker: "As the highlight of the game, why did Popovich reprimand you?"

Parker replied with a smile, "It's nothing, he's been yelling at me for 11 years."

Sager took over: "Welcome back to the rookie season."

The play took place on May 31, 2012, in G2 of the NBA Western Conference Finals between the Spurs and Thunder, where the Thunder tried to block Parker's breakaway with a switch in defense, forcing him to shoot the ball to solve the problem. Coach Brooks of the Thunder said after the game, "Those are the shots you have to live with, those are the things we gave him. Westbrook and the other guards did a great job of limiting it, and overall, we controlled him."

Only the Thunder gave up a little too much this time: Parker had his best performance of the series, scoring 34 points on 26 shots from the field, only one of which came from the free throw line.

Shooting into the second half, Parker drew a double team from the Thunder, and this superstar treatment naturally led to more openings, so Danny Green and Ginobili took Parker's distribution and drained key threes to douse the fire of the Thunder trio's comeback.

It's hard to say how bad a 23-year-old Russell Westbrook was defensive. He hadn't yet developed the bad habit of "missing his opponent for a rebound" and had good judgment and aggressive footwork on the block (both Willis and Harden were still above average defensively in 2012).

Willow didn't give Parker many open opportunities in that game. Except for the G2 game, Parker didn't play that well throughout the series, not to mention that after this highlight show, the Spurs lost four straight and went home to fish. But even without this game, Parker's 41% shooting was better than Willow's 37.8% for the entire series - the second-best Thunder player in that series was James Harden off the bench.

In some ways, Westbrook and early Parker are quite similar: extremely fast, the explosive first step on the break, both good at rebounding fast breaks, immature outside shooting, and organizational skills ...... The fans lamented their strengths while counting their weaknesses, hoping that they would soon become the ideal perfect core, which can be called "love is deep, blame is cut".

Willow's physicality and explosiveness, as well as Parker's near-basket touch and footwork in the box, even in the history of NBA point guards there are few rivals. The two lack exactly what the other is good at - Parker's injury is basically due to long-term wear and tear, while Willow is like a robot, back to the factory overhaul is about the same as upgrading in place; Willow's breakthrough layups often slide out of the basket with too much force, and to this day still has the problem of unstable long-range shooting, while Parker in 2005 after adjusting the shooting hand shape The company's first-ever "The World of Warcraft" is a new and innovative way to get the most out of the world.

So fate is sometimes as far as the Thunder's defensive tactics: while depriving you of something, it will give you something else.

"A good player always takes away whatever the opponent gives him. That's what Tony did." Popovich said after the 2012 second-round win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Facing different defensive strategies, using his extensive arsenal to dismantle and punish one by one, forcing opponents to change their strategy in the matchup game. This is a necessary ingredient for top offensive players.

Parker in his prime did this, once hitting the top of the annual MVP list. And Willis has looked a little less consistent - it's not like he hasn't had his share of "unanswerables," especially in the 2016-17 regular season, with all those unbelievable chases and shutouts that added to his MVP name. But once the summer of 2017 was over, Willis went deep into the venue and couldn't extricate himself, a small meeting for three days and a big meeting for five days, more ruthless and relentless than Popovich's meeting to open Parker.

When Willis found his near-basket touch and jump shot accuracy, he was almost a tall, strong, non-slowing version of Parker; but when his accuracy was unstable and his CPU was overloaded with heat, his eyes were like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, temporarily blinded by a red cloth. The double-edged sword is so sharp that the team and the audience have to endure the usual "roll of the dice" - take something away from you or give something to you.

Unlike the highly accomplished and talented Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, Parker is an example of a nurturing leader, as he said, "Popovich is always pushing me to move faster."

Now that I think about it, Parker is unique in the way he's been treated: almost no player has been treated so harshly by a head coach after being the team's top two scorers. Coach Brooks said of Willis, "I have a lot of respect for him because I know what he's put in." Even when Willis missed an open Parker jumper in G1 of the 2016 Western Conference semifinals, coach Billy Donovan didn't glare at Willis the way Popovich did.

Popovich seemed to be done fuming at Parker. Parker has openly envied the Spurs' rookie guards because "Popovich doesn't reprimand rookies the way he reprimands me anymore.

It's hard to say how this "tough love" will bear fruit, and not everyone has Parker's big heart and good mentality. So the Spurs are still lucky that they have raised a team core in this way, and Duncan formed fifteen years as a blocking partner, has been used in 2018, and became the "send the first guard home" championship goalkeeper.

On the other hand, the Thunder, also a small-ball city, relied on the talent of the Kings once close to the top, but luck always seemed to be on their side, and Willow and the Thunder's system style is not mature and stable. He showed the potential for a big package in the first few years of his career, but CBA wideout Joseph Young will tell you that even if you bag three-quarters of the team's points, you don't necessarily win the game.

So Westbrook, who has been playing for 12 years, went from "Willow" to "Willow". After rejoining Harden's side and experiencing the three-point frenzy in the first half of the season, he found his mid-range shooting accuracy and found the most suitable position for himself.

In Westbrook's 12-year NBA career, his most frequent opponent was Dirk Nowitzki in 48 games, followed closely by Tony Parker in 47.

The two have even played against each other, Westbrook will face Parker more frequently with the back-body offense, and Parker will correspondingly increase the frequency of no-ball block cuts, so much so that once Willis played the Spurs, it was like installing a cooling fan, as Parker said: "Russell is very talented, I have to give my all every moment."

Back in 2012, the 23-year-old Willis rolled over Jason Terry, 34, and Jason Kidd, 38, as well as Sessions and Steve Blake. And the 29-year-old Parker eliminated old foes Devin Harris, Chris Paul & Bledsoe. Parker and Westbrook had not yet officially played in the playoffs, and both were still young and had league-leading speed.

The night before the Western Conference, Parker publicly stated in the media: "Westbrook has not guarded a guard like me, the aggressiveness of the Mavericks and Lakers guards can not be as strong as me."