Popovich's confidence is also a source of fear on the Grizzlies' side.

Rondo was willing to join the Spurs at a salary lower than his value, which was something that everyone didn't expect, and they all thought that he would go to teams like the Jazz and the Hawks that had room for a maximum salary and a good lineup.

Who knew that Rondo was willing to play as a substitute for the Spurs!

Popovich is a very flexible head coach, and it can be seen from the way Duncan used it in his three peaks, when Duncan first entered the NBA, he and David Robinson played a double-tower strategy of high and low post cooperation, mainly passing and cutting to impact the basket and fly away; After Duncan's first major injury in 2000, the 00-01 season became dominated by low-post back-to-back play and high-post play; Now it has become a mid-pitch and high-level strategy.

A player like Rondo, who prioritizes the team, has a strong defense, and has strong on-field command skills, regardless of personality factors, is too suitable for Popovich, giving Popovich an option that he will never try before - a style of play that concentrates the ball.

There are two sides to everything, the ball is concentrated, and it is difficult to ensure that the characteristics of each player are played.

However, when the team is completely teamed, it will be difficult to break the deadlock when the situation is anxious, just like the Spurs and Lakers played very anxiously in the playoffs last season, but when they were anxious, Kobe Bryant and Leonard always used James's containment and defensive ability to help the Grizzlies gain an advantage on both offensive and defensive ends.

In the past, they had Ginobili to rely on, but Ginobili now has less and less time to enter the demon knife state, and the probability of pit is higher than the probability of outbreaking, which is one of the places where they were considered a hidden danger at the beginning of the season.

But with Rondo, although Rondo's scoring ability is not good, his key games are not ambiguous, and the active players have got a big triple-double of 3 times 15 in the playoffs, except for Sun Ce, it is Rondo, and there is no one else.

Looking at the quiet man Rondo who made the bench after entering the opposite side, he averaged 8.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game this season, and played 30 games.

are willing to take a pay cut, what else can't be sacrificed.

The two teams have a good relationship off the court, but on the court, the grievances between the two sides can be big, in the past few years, they have played each other many times in the playoffs, and both teams see each other as one of the strongest opponents in the playoffs, and the game is about to start, and both teams are very focused on the final preparations.

At 6:58, the referee signaled for both teams to start.

Today's first three Christmas games have been played and there is no overtime, so the Grizzlies and Spurs game started on time.

In the first Christmas game, the Bulls narrowly defeated the Heat 101-97, and Rose's two consecutive long-range shots at critical moments made the Heat team helpless.

After a few years of playing the foundation, Rose has outperformed Evans this season.

A three-pointer and a mid-range shot at 3:26 p.m. today helped the Bulls seal the win.

The second game between the Knicks and the 76ers attracted more attention than the first game, after all, it was the Knicks game, and the topic of Howard and his old club's grudge, but the Knicks are really not the opponents of the 76ers, Dragic and Howard, not the opponents of Evans and Pau Gasol, Pau Gasol continued the performance of the league's No. 1 center this season, pressed the rhythm to death, and helped the 76ers beat the Knicks 105-90.

In Game 3, the Warriors showed their dominance by beating the Pelicans 126-110 on the road.

Unlike previous years, when the Christmas game was used as the dividing line between the early and middle seasons, this season's Christmas game is seen as the start of the middle of the season.

Except for the Warriors, who relied on Curry's 6 three-pointers in a single game to score 31 points, and Harden scored 39 points on 14-of-20 shooting, the two combined to score 70 points to soar the score, and the teams in the other two games scored lower than in the pre-season.

Some experts gave an evaluation after the first three games - teams are beginning to adapt to the defense under the new rules, and the league's average of 106.7 points per game at the beginning of the season will most likely drop to between 103-105 points by the end of the season, which will not be as scary as the average of two or three points per game last season.

That's a sign of this, as the Grizzlies averaged 118.9 points per game during their 27-game winning streak, but now they've dropped to 115.5.

Returning to the FedEx Arena in Memphis, the game was about to start, and at the signal of the referee, Duncan, the strongest player in 18 years on the Spurs' side, led the starting lineup of Parker, Danny Green, Gay, and Split.

On the Grizzlies' side, Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Randolph, and Aldridge appeared in a luxurious starting lineup.

Aldridge and Duncan come to the center circle to jump the ball.

Sun Ce felt that Duncan was really miserable, at this age, he was actually the one who could jump the best inside of the Spurs, if it weren't for dyed hair, Duncan would already have gray hair.

And Duncan's performance this season averaged 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2.1 blocks and 0.8 steals per game, which was obtained in an average of 28.5 minutes per game...... It was still 4 months away from the age of 39, and the S-level ability evaluation made Sun Ce can't help but slander him for not giving other insiders a way to live.

The Spurs' highest scoring this season is still Gay, averaging 21.2 points per game and playing 31 minutes per game, which is actually the most minutes played by the Spurs.

That's why the last time they played against the Spurs, even if the Spurs rested Parker, Gay, and Duncan, their Grizzlies also had a tough time, and the opponent had a bunch of cheap players who played well in the Spurs system to rotate and maintain strength.

At 7 p.m., the referee blew the whistle for the start of the game and threw the ball into the air.

Aldridge beat Duncan to win the jump ball, and the Grizzlies attacked first!

Paul George pushed into the frontcourt, he didn't play Danny Green well, this guy defended well, he was one of the best defensive forwards in the league, Aldridge didn't play Duncan either, Sun Ce didn't play Guy well, Randolph didn't play Split either...... Relatively speaking, it was better for Sun Ce to play a little, and Paul George motioned for Sun Ce to go to the right high post to receive the ball.

Sun Ce came to the right high post of the free throw line and leaned on Guy to receive the ball.

Paul George hoisted the ball to Sun Ce and pulled to the right sideline, Aldridge came to the left of the free throw line, Klay Thompson went to the left corner, and Randolph went to the left side of the three-second zone.

Guy is under a lot of pressure to defend Sun Ce, in the case of almost the same height and arm span, in terms of confrontation, in addition to explosiveness and explosive speed, he no longer has an advantage in other aspects, and Sun Ce is stronger in static strength, and he can't stop Sun Ce from asking for the ball.

Feeling the pressure from behind, Sun Ce felt that it was okay, and took a step forward to probe the ball, and Guy immediately pressed up to avoid being turned back by Sun Ce and threw a backward jumper, Sun Ce's flip back jumper is a move that the opponent must strictly guard, and the skill is getting stronger and stronger.

But Sun Ce is a feint! Taking advantage of Guy's forward footsteps, Sun Ce slammed the ball behind Guy with his left hand, and turned left to break through the bottom line!

There is no way to prevent this, this is the action of a left-hander, a player like Sun Ce who can control the ball and shoot with both his left and right hands is too unfriendly to the opponent!

Guy hurriedly turned around to chase, at this time Duncan also retracted to the reasonable collision area, Sun Ce went to the bottom line, Guy can chase and defend, Guy's arm span is slightly longer than Sun Ce, 221 cm, not as passive as other frontline players to defend Sun Ce, if Sun Ce bursts through the basket, Duncan can form a pinch.

Sun Ce burst to the baseline and turned and jumped, passing to Aldridge on the left side of the free throw line.

Split changed the defense quickly, and the basket could be handed over to Duncan, who had already recovered, and Split pounced on Aldridge for the first time, but Aldridge was ready to shoot after receiving the ball, and shot a step-back jumper from the free throw line...... Hit!

Randolph's pie-eating threat, Sun Ce's low-post scoring threat, double 3-and-D outside containment, and Aldridge's divine mid-range shot...... The Grizzlies were just finishing their first offense, and Popovich spewed out a word that started with F.

Triangle Offensive!

It's actually a triangular attack!

He thought the Grizzlies had given up on the triangle offense because they had played very little in the new season.

However, playing less does not mean not playing, except for the five days and four games before the Christmas break, the Grizzlies have more or less played a triangle offense in the first 28 games, giving Brian Shaw time to practice his tactical ideas, and he has been adjusting.

On the 23rd, the Grizzlies were preparing for the Christmas game with the Spurs, and the tactics they proposed in the first phase were a new version of the triangle offense!

Popovich didn't think that the Grizzlies would use a triangle offense against them, but he thought that it would be Randolph and Sun Ce, Paul George to form a triangle, and Aldridge and Klay Thompson as pitchers, but he didn't expect that the initiation point was not Randolph, who was the strongest in the low-post singles ability, but Sun Ce turned around and cut in to create a threat, with Sun Ce as the starting point, Aldridge as the endpoint, and Randolph as the receiving point.

This change, Popovich did not expect, he is the kind of head coach who has a strong ability to prepare before the game than the ability to adapt on the spot, and for the time being, he can think of only one way - to raise the rhythm!

When it came to the Spurs' offense, Duncan seized the opportunity and cut in to receive Guy's second pass layup and scored two points.

It only took 11 seconds to complete the offense, and Popovich always swallowed back what he said, saying that he hated fast break and three-point shooting the most, and now they are one of the best teams to play light offense and open three-pointers.

After the first round, both teams had a clear sense of what they wanted to do.

The Grizzlies want to use five All-Star-caliber players to play positional battles and slowly get through, and the Spurs want to speed up and play the advantage of a brisk offense.

From the very beginning, it went into a confrontational state!

This made the fans very excited and excited to watch, both teams showed a very high level of tactics and showed excellent execution of the players!