The troika and Popovich's role player plan are indeed a powerful combination that can be ranked at the forefront of history, Rao is the Hawks' all-time best record of 39-4 this season, such a terrifying strength, and they can't have an advantage in the first meeting, and the two teams can only fight to the death.

Just like in the playoffs, no matter how weak the team is, the weak team has a chance to win one or two games against the strong team, and often the first few games have a better chance of upset, but if it is not restrained or too careless, after the series is deepened, the advantage of the strong team will become more and more obvious, because the opponent has been thoroughly explored.

Now the Hawks are 39-4 and the Spurs are 34-9, which is actually a difference of 5 wins, and the strength is not to the point of difference, and the Hawks cannot completely suppress the Spurs, who are now working harder to play better than last season after losing the championship in the Finals last year.

In the first half, the two teams have been in a state of parity, the first meeting between the two teams, in terms of technical tactics and play, is similar to testing the opponent in the playoffs, and the Spurs have some initiative, because they are the team that has changed, and the Hawks' side, the players' scoring habits have definitely not changed, although Liu Mang and Maddie's style of play has changed a lot, but the area that is good at scoring can be seen directly from the shooting heat map, the Spurs first started to adapt, and in the case of a slightly weaker strength than the Eagles, there was a strain, and the Hawks played a close and anxious state.

But this state, in the third quarter, was broken by Liu Mang!

The Spurs relied on a troika and a group of high-quality role players to fight against the Hawks Three Hawks, plus a number of role players, and the performance of the two teams was about the same in general, even if the Hawks Three Hawks soared, or the demon knives and demons so many times, they failed to break the deadlock.

But Liu Mang suddenly broke out, threw three incredible three-pointers, and after Liu Mang scored 10 points in a row on a free throw to stretch the difference to 8 points, the deadlock on the court was broken instantly!

The previous regular play of the two teams has achieved the ultimate in their offensive performance against the opponent's defense, and the defense of the two teams has also been done to the extreme, according to common sense, it should be scorched until the end like many anxious games.

However, Liu Mang's unconventional play was won in just four minutes!

The Spurs went from being able to grind the rhythm steadily, to having to start using the individual abilities of Ginobili, Sprewell, and Finley to chase points!

Under the existing rules, the strength of the inside star can directly affect the strength of a team, and in terms of sustainability, the impact is much greater than that of the outside star.

But that's the impact on a season or several seasons, and for a game of chasing points, the role of the inside player is far less than that of the outside! It doesn't matter what kind of rules it is.

And Duncan's team, if it wants to turn around, it is already difficult.

Duncan's team is characterized by stability, Duncan can adjust his style of play well for 19 years to affect the strength of the team, Popovich on Duncan's characteristics, build a stable system, play Duncan's biggest role, but therefore, once a player starts to wave, and the wave does not go in, the Spurs' stable offense will be broken!

By the middle of the third quarter, Ginobili watched the long-term gap and not be able to narrow to within five points, and began to wave confidently.

Although Ginobili is powerful, it is not wrong to be powerful, it is easy to hurt others, and it is easy to hurt yourself!

Originally, the difference was narrowed to 6 points by the Spurs, and the Spurs may narrow the difference to within 5 points before the final critical moment, and at the end of the day, they used the two players who could shoot key shots signed last summer, Sprewell and Finley, as well as Ginobili's personal ability, to try the final reversal, but Ginobili's two three-point shots gave the Hawks a chance!

gave Liu Mang a chance!

In the seventh minute of the third quarter, after Liu Mang missed a three-point shot on the first counterattack, he seized the opportunity on the second counterattack and hit the sixth three-pointer of the game!

70-61, the Hawks extended their lead to nine points!

In the second half of the third quarter, Liu Mang didn't get any good shots, and successfully received the ball and successfully threw the ball out of these two points, which did not have a good chance, but because of this, the rest of the Hawks were in a state of 4 to 3 for almost a long time, maintaining an efficient performance.

Although Duncan's high post is back-to-the-back strategy, Liu Mang can't learn, but the passing thing, learning Duncan's passing ideas, can still be learned, Liu Mang uses more of his containment on both sides of the top arc, directing teammates' air cuts and off-ball blocking, at the end of the third quarter, the Hawks 79-70, with the Spurs becoming more active defense and more resolute offense, still maintain the 9-point lead.

……

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In the third quarter, he "only" shot four three-pointers, but he laid the advantage of the game, Liu Mang did not regret that he shot so much less in the third quarter, if he had a few more iron in the third quarter, and the three-point shooting rate of 4 of 5 was stunned into 4 of 8 or 5 of 10, it is possible that although he scored a few more points and made one or two more three-pointers, he may not have made the difference so big.

In the third quarter, Liu Mang scored 15 points and 3 assists in a single quarter, and a total of 33 points and 6 assists in the third quarter, helping the Hawks establish a solid lead.

After the third quarter, Liu Mang made 6 three-pointers, two short of two.

In the second half of the third quarter, Liu Mang used his threat to help his teammates score, allowing the Spurs to consciously adjust their defense against Liu Mang and the rest of the Spurs after the start of the fourth quarter.

Seeing Liu Mang receive the ball and pass it to his teammates who have a chance, it seems that Liu Mang deliberately played so many in the third quarter, just to improve his threat and help his teammates score, and the Spurs' defensive tendency began to change.

In the minds of Spurs players, the biggest role of the three-point shot is not to score, but to open up space to contain the defense, so that others have a better chance to score within the three-point line, they don't know how many three-pointers Liu Mang must throw in this game, so they guess the purpose of Liu Mang's style of play that Liu Mang began to help his teammates score for a while, and guess with their own understanding.

Popovich played nearly three minutes in the fourth quarter, and the margin was still at an eight-point timeout, laying out the tactical strategy of letting the Hawks single and not letting them play together.

The Eagles three eagles are too scary to shoot in the open space, and they would rather let them play one-on-one singles, and there can be a little way.

In the third minute of the fourth quarter, after the timeout came back, Liu Mang received the ball from Jason Terry in the front court, and originally wanted to use his containment to attract the pinch and pass it out, and then help his teammates score, and after the difference in points reached 10 points, he began to wave.

But this time, only Sprewell came up to defend him, and it wasn't the kind of defense that forced him to go to a non-comfort zone and gave him a chance to break through, or the kind of defense that was normal rough movements!

The lineup on the Hawks' side is the Three Eagles plus the Twin Towers, and the Spurs' side is the strongest lineup of the Troika plus Sprewell and Muhammad, seeing that Liu Mang did not suffer a bag, Jason Terry pulled to the left bottom corner, Maddie went to the right side 45 for vacation, Rasheed Wallace went to the right bottom corner to pick up, and Kwame Brown contained Duncan's defense on the left side of the three-second zone.

Liu Mang's perfect singles opportunity to top the arc!

Liu Mang immediately understood the other party's thoughts, this is to target him for nearly 8 minutes of the game without shooting three points, and defend his singles alone!

Liu Mang looked at Sprewell, the Spurs have always been interesting, and the most powerful single defense is either Bowen's almost no offensive skills, or a veteran like Sprewell.

Liu Mang grabbed the ball with his right hand, took a step forward with his right foot, did not move his left foot, and slammed the ball from the bottom right to the left with his right hand to make a big loop, and Sprewell immediately dodged it, but after Liu Mang's big loop turned around, he pasted it as soon as possible.

It's really a lot stronger than Ginobili's defense!

It's not a good idea for a player to be named to the All-Defensive Team in his second year, even at the age of 35, his defense is still excellent.

However, this moment of opportunity was seized by Liu Mang!

Sticking to Sprewell, breaking through from the right side, Sprewell just pressed up, quickly retreated, blocking Liu Mang's breakthrough, as long as he blocked in front of Liu Mang, it was enough to put pressure on Liu Mang to shoot.

Liu Mang took the lead, and after taking a step in, he retreated sharply and bounced back to the top arc!

Sprewell didn't get fouled in the big loop, Liu Mang broke through, and Sprewell also followed, but in the end, the 35-year-old veteran finally couldn't keep up!

Liu Mang's trademark step-back sniper three-point shot!

Continuing the fiery feel, Liu Mang sniped at the basket with a three-point throw and fell into the frame!

85-74, the Hawks stretched the difference to 11 points!

Liu Mang's three-point shot made the Spurs feel deflated for the first time, and the point difference was finally stretched to more than 10 points!

However, the Spurs did not give up, and then began a wave of ferocious offense, Ginobili came out of the body at a critical moment, and in the case of the Hawks stabilizing the 11-point difference, in the middle of the fourth quarter, he broke into the interior twice in a row and shot a fairy-ball layup, and the Spurs limited the Hawks on the defensive end for two rounds, and the Spurs chased the score to 82-89, narrowing it to within 7 points!

Ginobili scored 24 points in a single game, Duncan had 18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in the middle of the fourth quarter, and Sprewell also scored 15 points.

The stable play allowed the Spurs to control the difference within ten points when there were five and a half minutes left, when Liu Mang broke out like in the third quarter.

The Spurs feel like there's still a chance!