Today's Pan Dafu, Ci Shiping in the past, and Artest once said: "Give Popovich five old ladies and he can also win the championship." "Although Popovich at this time was not as magical as he was in the future, he was also a very good tactician among the "young marshals".www.biquge.info

After experiencing first-hand the power of the Knicks' new weapon, the outside double gun, Popovich immediately made a targeted arrangement.

On the other hand, Van Gundy also had some ideas in his heart, but in fact he didn't make any changes. If it were Thomas and Johnson, there would not be much difference in strength, but there is no doubt that the disadvantage in height is too great; In such an inside encounter, Dudley has no room to play in the rebounding scramble with a relatively good hand; As for the Knicks, the twin towers of Murphy and Camby, which Van Gundy often uses, both have a fatal problem that their bodies look a little thin among interior players; Of course, the Knicks also have a veteran, Herb Williams, a veteran who has been in the game for 18 years, has only played six games this season, which may add up to 30 minutes, and as someone who has experienced the Knicks' boom and decline now, he is more likely to sit on the sidelines and wave a towel.

Van Gundy didn't make any adjustments, and simply made substitutions, Charles, Houston, Sprewell, Thomas, and Moxi.

The Knicks were the first to attack.

The Knicks quickly got into their own offensive rhythm, pushing slowly, attacking from the ground, and running frequently. Only this time, the Knicks always felt a little awkward and uncomfortable.

It turned out that Popovich did not focus on the defensive double gun on the outside, because he felt that no matter how good the shooter was, it would be useless if he couldn't get the offensive power, so he set up heavy troops to encircle and suppress the point guard.

Charles experienced a heavy siege in the middle of the half, Avery Johnson suddenly increased his defensive strength, pressed Charles at the halfway, Charles leaned back, almost returned to the court for a violation, and quickly handed the ball to Thomas, who ran over after serving the ball on his side.

The Spurs' defense is very direct, the Knicks' current organization points on the court, the point of play, and the most important thing is undoubtedly Charles, whether it is Mo Xi or Sprewell, although they have this ability, but they can only make a temporary cameo, if they are allowed to do this full-time, it will definitely not be good, the best thing is to assist Charles to organize the offense. But now, Charles is under a lot of defensive pressure, not to mention the normal passing assists, and the Spurs' defense has exhausted him a little.

Charles Kankan handed the ball to Sprewell, who saw that there was not much time to regroup, so he simply pulled out his hand outside the three-point line, and the defender on the opposite side was still some distance from him, but Sprewell was not a player who was praised for his three-point shot, the ball bounced out of the basket, and the rebound was accepted by Duncan.

The Spurs went on offense. The Spurs' offense was not slow either, continuing the style of the first quarter, when Robinson was rested and Duncan was partnered with a blue-collar player, Malik Rose.

The Spurs' offense was very direct, starting from the inside and passing the ball directly to Duncan in the low post, who singled in the low post. Duncan has a lot of strength, and Mo Xi pressed his center of gravity very low to resist the onslaught from the opponent. After two chisels, Duncan felt the resoluteness of the opponent's defense, suddenly retreated, and raised his hand to make a move. Mo Xi hurriedly raised his hands high, but the two were about the same height, although Mo Xi still had some advantage in the arm span, but Duncan's low-post offensive ability was still too strong, the ball crossed Mo Xi's palm, rubbed on the rebound and bounced into the basket.

In the face of this high-profile insider, Mo Xi is still powerless to resist.

The Knicks' offense is a bit of a bottleneck, after all, if there is no organization, the Knicks' offense will become an individual single, and among these people on the court, the unexpected individual singles ability is actually stronger. So, when the outside line couldn't be opened, Mo Xi began to compete with Duncan.

Of course, today, countless of us are saying that Duncan's defense is seriously underrated, that he is a great defender, and that being overlooked is partly due to the influence of character, team, style of play, and the fact that defense is really nothing compared to his offense.

Mo Xi naturally didn't know about these, but at this moment, he only knew one thing, this person's defense was really exceptional, and it was hard to imagine that a person could really achieve such an offensive and defensive integration.

It's not like he hasn't played against top defensive centre-forwards such as Mourning, Mutumbo, Ben Wallace and Theo Ratliff. But he never encountered such a defense, and Duncan's defense makes you feel like you are playing a game of chess with him, and the two of them are constantly guessing each other's next move, but unfortunately, it seems that Duncan guesses correctly every time. Seeing that the time was coming, Mo Xi had no choice, and pushed Duncan to it, and then turned over and stepped back to shoot. The ball stumbled to the basket for a while, but eventually fell out, Duncan took the rebound, and the Spurs quickly switched offense.

The Spurs' offensive and defensive transitions have always been fast, after two passes, the ball has come to the frontcourt, and the Knicks are also a strong defensive team, but this wave of defense is still not fast enough, and the Spurs formed a three-on-two in the frontcourt, and the Spurs scored quickly.

The Knicks attacked again, this time Spreville temporarily served as commander, but at the cost of this being that the Knicks had one less point of attack, and Sprewell had to devote some of his energy to organization.

This time Houston and Thomas were playing a pick-and-roll near the free-throw line, Houston attracted a lot of defensive attention, and Sprewell quickly passed the ball to Thomas, who shot in the high post. The shot was good both in timing and arcing, but there was only one problem, Thomas's luck didn't seem to be very good today, the ball actually rolled out after a circle in the basket, and Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound again.

This time, the Knicks had the experience of the last shot, and the speed of the return defense was extremely fast, and all the players quickly returned to the defense position.

However, the Spurs responded to the changes with the same and hung to Duncan on the inside, and Duncan once again singled out the ink. This time, Mo Xi was not well prepared, Duncan topped, one let, Mo Xi saved, Duncan leaned up to make a foul, and at the same time hooked his right hand to make it, fortunately, this goal was not scored, Duncan went to the free throw line, free throws twice.

Murphy was fouled twice at this point, and Van Gundy replaced him with Camby and Johnson.

The Spurs also changed their lineup, Robinson returned to the court, and the Spurs twin towers were recombined.

Despite the substitutions, the Knicks don't seem to have improved significantly either defensively or offensively. On the defensive end, Camby can't stop Duncan, and on the offensive end, even if Johnson returns to the court, it doesn't seem to be improving, after all, Johnson has only begun to transform into a playmaker in recent years.

Visitors fans in New York were also anxious, and the lead in the first quarter was gone, and the main thing was that the Spurs' defense was too strong, and the Knicks scored extremely hard in this quarter.

After Ward's desperate three-point shot, at halftime, the Knicks trailed the Spurs by eight points at 37:45, but the key thing is that in this quarter, the Knicks only scored 10 points, while the Spurs still scored 21 points steadily.

Van Gundy frowned deeply, the Knicks' situation is very dangerous, the Spurs are a rare defensive team in the West, the defensive team Knicks have not met, the Heat is, but the Spurs are not bad at the same time as they have excellent offensive ability, which is very rare. The Knicks are not afraid of defensive teams, because he is also himself, as long as he competes to see who has more perseverance on both sides, but the current Spurs are more like Van Gundy's team, discipline, teamwork, and the interior as the core, which is simply the template of Van Gundy's championship team, but now, Van Gundy needs to think about how to beat him.

In the first quarter, the Knicks relied on the momentum accumulated in the previous round and played a suffocating performance at the beginning, but many people did not expect to get to this step in one intermission.

If Van Gundy understands the culture of the Celestial Empire, he will definitely find that the current situation of the Knicks can be perfectly summed up in a sentence: "One blow, then decline, three exhaustion." ”