The game between the two sides began, with the Hornets' first offense, Paul possessing the ball over the half, and Nash leading Paul. Paul held the ball at the top of the arc and quickly distributed the ball to Peterson on the left, then Paul went down to the bottom left side, Peterson passed the ball back to Paul, and Paul held the ball on the bottom side to face Nash one-on-one.

Paul is only 6 feet tall and has a rare ability to carry the ball in the basket, which he is not yet fully proficient as a third-grader, but defenders must pay attention to him when he is holding the ball in the waist or bottom corner.

Nash stood in front of Paul, tucked his waist, leaned forward, and did not give Paul room to adjust to break through from the baseline, and Paul did not choose to squeeze to the free throw line after a few physical contacts with Nash, because there would be a Suns player trapped.

He opted for a pass because David West put a cover on the high post for Butler, who was coming around from the weak side, and Butler got a decent shot inside the three-point line, and Paul immediately passed the ball to Butler.

A C&S, Butler took the ball and hit the first goal of the game, a skilful combination from the Hornets and Paul's excellent passing.

Leon watched the Hornets' first attack from the sidelines, and he could feel that the Hornets and Scott were definitely prepared for this game, and they must have made a tactical set-up.

Scott, the coach, Leon has played against him many times, and he still knows him very well, and he is very good at arranging tactics around the core defenders to build the team, which can maximize the brain role of the core defenders on the offensive end, and the team has a clear division of labor and strong combat effectiveness.

The disadvantage is that once there is no passing master in the backcourt, he is not very good at commanding, his thinking is relatively dull, and he lacks creativity in following the prescription.

Of course, such a coach is very effective in the regular season, at least this season the Hornets have shown strong combat effectiveness, although their record is not as dazzling as the Suns, after all, the Suns are a strong team that has been running in for several seasons, but Leon believes that this year's Hornets will be a strong competitor in the playoffs after watching a lot of videos.

By this time, the Suns had completed their first counterattack, Nash split the ball to Bell, who cut into the three-second zone in the air, and Bell received the ball with a feint and stepped back to hit a jumper.

This season, Bale has had a bit more freedom on the offensive end, and in the past Bale has been more of a three-point and defensive gatekeeper, but after Jascovy Hughes arrived, Bale felt some pressure.

Jascovy Hughes is certainly not as good as Bale defensively, but his decisiveness on the offensive end has made Leon willing to put him on the court to share the pressure with Nash rather than having Bale on the court.

Leon also reminded his old subordinate to play more open on the offensive end and not to hold back, so that the Suns' slightly weak backcourt can have a stronger threat.

After that, the two sides each scored a few goals, the Hornets played with a single board, the Suns were free-spirited, the offense was not all controlled by Nash, everyone could participate in the offensive coordination, complete any link in the offense, initiation, conduction, running, finishing.

The scores of the two sides were alternating upwards, both teams were attacking teams, and the game started very openly, with Paul and Nash both getting into the groove early and playing smoothly on the court.

So in the first four minutes, there were no dead balls on either side, there were no timeouts, and there were only a few free throws, so the technical station gave an official timeout, and the two sides took a break to give the TV station an advertisement.

Leon continued to sit on the bench quietly, without making any adjustments, and didn't even bother to speak, so he let everyone drink water and wipe their sweat on the bench, and rest.

Steve Nash took on the role of coach, constantly communicating with his teammates, asking them to pay attention to their movement and tactics, and repeatedly reminding them to "don't help, don't help." ”

The Suns helped defend several times in defense, giving Paul the opportunity to pass the open ball, and Nash was also energetic, he didn't want his teammates to help defend anymore, he wanted to get Paul on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

This is a rare form for Nash, who is indeed a very competitive player, but his competitiveness is mainly reflected in team wins and does not care too much about individual matchups.

It's just that tonight is different, recently many media have begun to compare Chris Paul and Nash, Nash is still inconspicuous at Paul's age, and Paul has played at a super high level in succession.

This contest between the newly rising No. 1 position and the two-time MVP has naturally attracted a lot of attention.

A reporter asked this question before the start of the game, and Nash naturally prevaricated back with an official response, saying that he only fancies the game and only wants to win.

However, before the start of the game, in the interview in front of the locker room, Leon intentionally or unintentionally mentioned that Chris Paul is a better defender and more all-round with potential, which made Nash very unhappy to hear.

So after the timeout, the two sides returned to the court, and in the Suns' offensive round, Nash, who had not taken the initiative to attack before, turned on the attack mode in advance.

He made a pick-and-roll with Xiao Si at the top of the arc, Xiao Si cut out, giving Nash a huge space in the middle, David West did not dare to let go of Xiao Si, Chandler made up for it, but Nash was not in a hurry, using his rhythm to go around the inside in a circle and slip out of the baseline.

Paul followed very closely, and there was movement in his hands, but Nash was not disturbed, and suddenly a quick back turn followed by a backward jumper shot, Nash was very fast, Paul didn't have time to jump to interfere, and Nash's ball was already thrown.

With such a close distance, it was too easy for Nash, who easily scored two points.

In terms of speed, power and explosiveness, Nash's break-through is only mediocre, but his passing threat is too great for opponents to fill in, and his sense of rhythm is extremely well controlled, and he is rarely disturbed by defenders.

Nash scored his first point of the game, and Paul's response came quickly, he quickly dribbled past the half, took advantage of the Suns' defensive foothold, with the help of teammates' cover, smashed into the basket from the middle, and scored two points with a difficult right hand throw to hit the board under the defense of Xiao Si.

Paul dribbled through the crowd like an elf weaving between giants, and in the end no one could touch him, and his speed was his greatest weapon.

Nash couldn't catch up with Paul's speed at all, but when he turned around, Nash immediately called his teammates to serve quickly, he used great speed to kill the half court after receiving the ball from the backcourt, and after advancing to the basket, he didn't choose to throw with one hand, he didn't have Paul's explosiveness, but slipped the bottom line again.

This time Chandler learned his lesson and followed, but Nash turned over and passed the ball to the middle with one hand, and Dior, who cut in, received the ball and made a layup with his left hand, a beautiful offensive coordination.

The speed of the two sides was completely accelerated because of the duel between Nash and Paul, Paul was of course not to be outdone, after getting the ball in the backcourt, this time he did not dribble through the half court, directly in the backcourt on a long pass to Peterson's hands, Peterson held the ball on the right side and rushed forward, shook off Marion's defense, rushed into the basket and scored with one hand!

The tempo on both sides was too fast, and the defensive alignments of the players were scattered.

Leon saw that the two sides were going to start the rhythm in the first quarter, and he didn't think about calling a timeout to press the rhythm, on the contrary, he wanted the players to play offense in this game to see if the Hornets were strong in attacking the team, or the Suns' current unrestrained and free system was better.