Popovich was surprised, and regretted more and more that he didn't choose Guo Xu this year, this is the point guard that the Spurs urgently need, with him the Spurs can hit the championship, and the No. 1 position is no longer a weakness.

He feels that Guo Xu is like a strengthened version of Avery Johnson, he has a longer range on the offensive end, he is stable in protecting the ball, and he is not weak on the defensive end, and he can withstand most defenders, which Johnson does not have.

Popovich couldn't figure out why Guo Xu was able to knock Johnson away twice and turn around, obviously the two were similar in size. How the hell did this kid practice? Looks so thin, is it a natural divine power?

Guo Xu's confrontation is because of practicing dance and boxing, his toes are very strong, his body is used to being punched, and the impact on the basketball court is naturally not taken seriously. Even if the opponent is much stronger, he dares to be close, and he doesn't care about the pain.

After two more rounds, Rose ran to catch the ball and missed the shot under Grant's interference, and Duncan touched the ball out of the baseline when he grabbed the rebound in the frontcourt, forming a dead ball.

With 2:33 left on the clock, both sides made adjustments, with the Spurs replacing Johnson and Elliott with Danny Ferry and Antonio Daniels. The Lakers replaced Guo Xu and O'Neal on the one hand, and sent Brian Shaw and Horry.

Guo Xu scored 19 points and 2 assists before he finished the first quarter, and when he left the court, the fans gave him warm applause.

"It's crazy, Jason put on the scariest scoring performance of the rookie against the Spurs, who are currently second in the West," Woodson said. ”

Horvath laughed: "This year's draft is really ironic, the last rookie is more like the champion than Kenyon Martin, Martin is a blue-collar player on the Nets, he can't even control fouls. ”

On the sidelines, Megan Fox stared at the big screen on the pitch in a daze, feeling a little unreal.

This person who grabbed the limelight of the "OK combination" turned out to be my neighbor, who would chat with me, eat together, and buy groceries together?

Austin touched her arm and smiled, "Don't be in a daze, he's looking at us this way." ”

"Who looks at us?"

Meghan looked along Austin's finger and saw Guo Xu waving at them on the bench. Austin gave him a thumbs up and shouted, "Brother, you're the best!" ”

Megan suddenly didn't know how to greet Guo Xu, she opened her mouth as soon as she was nervous, and subconsciously bit her lip, with an embarrassed smile, as if she was tempting.

Guo Xu couldn't stand her expression the most, for fear of affecting the state of the game, so he hurriedly turned his head, picked up a bottle of sports drink endorsed by himself, and poured a few sips to suppress the shock.

After the substitution, the Lakers couldn't attack, and only Kobe Bryant made two fouls and made two free throws and scored two points. On the Spurs side, Anderson scored two points on a back-running catch-and-shoot layup, and Robinson was substituted in the final eight seconds to play a pick-and-roll with Daniels, hitting a buzzer-beating shot.

The Lakers ended the first quarter with a 34-21 lead.

In the second quarter, Jackson changed his strategy, Guo Xu rested first, and the OK combination came out with a substitute.

After only one minute of play, Popovich realized that Robinson alone could not withstand the attack of the OK combination, and replaced Duncan early.

The Lakers held the initiative firmly and led by 16 points at 48-32 halfway through the second quarter. At 6 minutes and 20 seconds, in order to strengthen the attack, the Spurs replaced Johnson and replaced Daniels. The "Zen Master" immediately replaced Brian Shaw and sent Guo Xu.

O'Neal attracted Duncan's defense in the low post, Guo Xu and Grant played in the middle to block and dismantle Johnson, Robinson was slow, experience was still there, saw the opportunity, stretched out the long arm from the side and stabbed the basketball in Guo Xu's hand, allowing him to add a mistake, the Spurs quickly counterattacked, and Burt scored in the middle of the shot. 48 to 34.

Eat a trench and grow a wisdom, Guo Xu and Grant in the middle to block and dismantle, the right side broke through and Robinson kept a distance of 45 degrees, Robinson must keep up, if he doesn't follow him, he will shoot, Johnson chases the defense, Guo Xu jumps up and quickly divides the ball to the middle, and Grant makes an empty jump shot.

50-34, Guo Xu's third assist.

Guo Xu had to defend the middle block, Popovich shouted on the court, let Duncan go to the block, Johnson was tighter.

However, Jackson's offensive strategy has changed, he let Grant block Guo Xu, and O'Neal continued to be in the low post, all of which are familiar offensive positions for players.

Guo Xu in the middle didn't have a chance to shoot, and after attracting Duncan's defense, he passed to the wing Kobe, who singled out or gave O'Neal a low drop ball, forming a triangle with Fox in the bottom right corner.

There are a lot of tricks in the triangle attack, all of which are designed to create heads-up opportunities for players.

When blocking and dismantling in the middle, Guo Xu and Kobe Bryant on the right side and Grant on the middle side are also in a triangle position, and he attracts Duncan to change the defense only need to look at two points, and it is easy to find teammates to answer.

Many people look down on the triangle offense and feel that it is not easy to create vacant spaces, but with the presence of stars, heads-up is enough for the opponent to bear, and there is no need for so many vacant spaces.

Fox and Guo Xu can also switch positions, when Fox cuts the bottom line, he can receive O'Neal's pass and directly hit the basket, and if he can't catch the ball, he will go to the bottom left corner and wait for opportunities. At this time, Guo Xu has to run to the bottom corner of the right side to ensure that someone in the bottom corner of the strong side can catch the ball and shoot. These are a few of the Lakers' main runs, and it's not difficult.

After Guo Xu joined the Lakers, he mainly practiced three running routes, and he ran very smoothly. In his previous life, Artest complained when he joined the Lakers that he had never known what the triangle offense was, which made Guo Xu feel that he was a person with a high ball quotient and was a little complacent.

2 minutes and 40 seconds, O'Neal grabbed the defensive rebound and passed to Fox, Fox made a long pass to Guo Xu, the Spurs were misplaced after the blocking, Guo Xu ran wildly and threw off Robinson to score a layup, and the second quarter opened.

In 31 seconds, the Lakers quickly counterattacked, Guo Xu advanced to the front court with the ball, and faced Johnson on the right side of the 70-degree three-point shot, which was his sixth three-pointer.

His shot selection may seem poor, but it's actually smart, and with nine seconds left for the Spurs to finish a positional attack, the Lakers have plenty of time to attack another one.

After two passes, Ryder made a foul on the basket and hit both free throws.

At halftime, the Lakers led by 24 points 66-42 and almost sealed the win, Guo Xu had 24 points and 3 assists in the half, and shot 6 of 9 three-pointers, while the Spurs made a total of one three-pointer.

Popovich did not return to the dressing room at half-time, and a reporter took the opportunity to interview him live and ask him to comment on the first half of the game.

Popovich sighed: "We have to guard against Jason Guo, he is a huge threat, we seriously underestimated his quality before the game, if you let him shoot on the outside is a terrible thing, he opened up space, and it also made O'Neal and Kobe Bryant more difficult to defend." ”

The reporter asked, "Do you think Jason is a better point guard right now than Spurs starter Avery Johnson?" ”

Popovich replied without even thinking about it: "There is no doubt that Jason is much stronger, Avery may be able to compete with him in his prime, but now that Avery is in a slippery state, he is the best rookie of the year." ”

The journalist notes that Popovich said "the best rookie" and did not add "one".

This is what Popovich really thinks, not a killing. The Spurs' three point guards all have a single role, can only break through or can only shoot threes, and if you want to adjust your tactics, you have to make substitutions. Guo Xu is a guard who can combine points and shots, and he is currently the only rookie who can do this.

There is no suspense, he is the best.