On December 2, the Nets began to sit at home to face the challenge of the Spurs!

This season, even though Elliott was seriously injured, the Spurs Twin Towers still maintained a strong record, with a 13-3 record in the first 16 games, temporarily ranking first in the league!

At this time, the Rutgers Athletic Center is becoming more and more of a devil's home stadium, attracting a large number of fans due to the team's better and better results, coupled with a beautiful style of play.

When the Nets played, the impassioned voice of the DJ sounded, and the Nets players took the court one by one, and the stadium was instantly filled with strong cheers from the fans.

When Ji Liang came out, the cheers reached the extreme, and the piercing and noisy sound seemed to uncover the roof of the stadium.

In the warm-up stage, Chi Liang and Duncan walked together and greeted each other, and Duncan congratulated Chi Liang on winning the Player of the Month!

In the face of the strong Spurs, the Nets naturally did not dare to be negligent and sent a combination of O'Neal Jr., Ji Liang, Newman, Billups and Armstrong.

Among them, Newman returned from injury and grabbed Margeti's position again, but with Margeti's performance, he will definitely get more playing time.

Spurs

Center: Robinson

Power forward: Duncan

Small forward: Chucky Brown

Quarterback: Mario Eri

Point Guard: Avery Johnson

The Spurs are still the same, Popovich has turned waste into treasure again and again, except for the two-champion inside, the other three are players that others don't want, but they have been reused in the Spurs.

Avery Johnson: 178 cm, 34 years old, non-draft player, his peak season in 1995-96, averaging 13.1 points and 9.6 assists per game, third on the assist list, and still maintaining excellent form.

Mario Eli: 196 cm, 36 years old, 21st pick in the 7th round in 1985, has averaged double-digit points per game in recent seasons.

Chaggie Brown: 201 cm, 31 years old, the 16th pick in the second round in 1989, although the draft pick is better than the first two, but it can only be regarded as a make-up number, mainly because Elliott is seriously injured, and Popovich can't find a better candidate.

After Elliott was seriously injured, Popovich's cards were so bad that he had to turn waste into treasure.

Fortunately, the Spurs have the best interior combination in history, and with their strength, the Spurs' record will not appear to be an avalanche and still jump to the first place in the league.

However, the Spurs lineup is seriously aging, and the starting five except Duncan, the other four are all over 30 years old, and they have all fallen to their peak, and it is difficult to continue to maintain such a strong position.

"I won't say anything superfluous, this game must speed up the pace, if anyone is tired, I don't mind letting him rest!" For the Spurs' lineup, Coach Rivers made arrangements.

Soon, the game begins!

Under the organization of the referee, he began to enter the jump ball link, looking at Duncan in front of him, O'Neal Jr. took a deep breath and suppressed the tension in his heart.

After the two sides were ready, the referee threw the ball vertically into the air, and when the basketball began to fall, the two jumped one after another.

Duncan bounced off brunchly before the injury and took the ball first to Johnson.

After holding the ball past half court, Johnson didn't stick to the ball and immediately passed the ball to Duncan.

The player who is opposite Duncan is naturally Chi Liang, and in the Western Conference Finals a few months ago, the two often played against each other, and they knew each other.

Duncan fell in the low post, and singled Chi Liang with his back, both of them are the core of their respective teams, and they can be said to be top power forwards, among which Duncan has a height advantage, while Chi Liang is faster and has his own strengths.

After receiving the basketball, Duncan leaned back, his strength was very strong, almost and Chi Liang, under Chi Liang's best to block, Duncan's shoulders shook, his steps took a step, and he used the turn to force Chi Liang and began to impact the basket.

After bursting into the penalty area, Duncan lifted the basketball and scored easily on the board after successfully lighting up Chi Liang.

Going back, Armstrong passed the ball to Ji Liang and then pulled away with his teammates, and like the Spurs, the Nets' first shot was also singled out by the core.

Duncan is very strong, but Chi Liang is not weak at all, especially after getting the true biography of Olajuwon, the low footsteps have become his killer feature.

In the horn area, Chi Liang received the ball with both hands, first took a step to the left, and after feeling Duncan's offset, Chi Liang immediately turned in the opposite direction, opened up the shooting space, and jumped the basketball successfully.

His movements were quite fluid, like eating and drinking, and by the time Duncan reacted, he was obviously a step late.

"It's obviously tougher than last season!" Looking at Chi Liang's back, Duncan had a little headache, in just a few months, Chi Liang's strength has improved significantly, and it is no wonder that he can beat O'Neal to win the best player of the month.

In the next round, Duncan covered Johnson, and his screen quality was excellent and he managed to block Armstrong.

With Duncan's cover, Johnson began to impact the inside, and Ji Liang had to choose to change defenses, facing the 'small and delicate' Johnson, he was easily beaten by small and big.

Johnson pulled the basketball, used the small to make the big way to complete the break, and then immediately threw the basketball to the basket after attracting the attention of O'Neal Jr.

O'Neill Jr. jumped up to intercept, but the ball was significantly higher, so he had to do useless work.

Bang dang~

At this moment, Robinson under the basket jumped up and smashed the ball into the basket with great force, completing the aerial relay.

"Attack!" At the first time, O'Neal Jr. served quickly, and after receiving the ball, Ji Liang threw the ball hard to the front court, and Armstrong, Billups and Newman had already rushed up.

Whether they can play fast break or not, the Nets will speed up the pace of offense and defense, and their goal is to drag the Spurs to death.

With a quick pass, Billups received the basketball, and he didn't stick to the ball and immediately passed it to Armstrong.

Although Johnson is fast, he is 34 years old after all, and there is a slight gap between him and Armstrong in terms of speed. But the moment Armstrong received the ball, he finally rushed up and wanted to make a steal.

When Johnson stepped up, Armstrong took a turn, avoided Johnson's steal, stepped forward, and easily put the ball in the basket.

In the following time, the Nets continued to increase the pace, and although the Spurs coped well, their lineup was old after all, and as long as one negligence was there, the Nets would be beaten into a fast break.

However, under the strength of the inner twin towers, the Spurs did not fall behind at all, but when the replacement lineup came on, the Spurs fell into a disadvantage, and there was an obvious gap between the two replacement lineups.

In this case, Popovich had to keep Duncan on the court to barely curb the trend.

In the first quarter, the Nets had a slight advantage with a score of 27:24!