In the second quarter, the Spurs re-traded David Robinson, Duncan was also on the floor, the No. 3 was Sean Elliott, Antonio Daniels played shooting guard, the point guard was replaced by Avery Johnson, and Popovich wanted the junior general to control the tempo.

"Try to keep the rhythm down, Avery."

The intermission was very short, and finally Popovich emphasized defense, and the Spurs' tactical strategy in the second quarter was about to come out, slow-paced and defensive, Popovich still wanted to start with what the Spurs are best at.

The second quarter begins.

The Grizzlies also made substitutions, with Maddy resting, Raheem continuing to play, Rasius Nestrovic at center, and Sammark, Ragabel and McBibby on the outside.

Then, the Grizzlies suddenly lowered their tempo, pressed eight seconds to pass the half, and then each wave of offense took 20 seconds before shooting, which is the creep.

In the process of creeping, the rhythm slows down, the number of rounds decreases, and the Spurs are still 8 points behind, and when the tempo slows down, the Spurs' chasing points naturally slows down, which is why the Grizzlies suddenly began to creep.

Of course, in the process of creeping, the Grizzlies' offensive efficiency is not low.

Although Maddie is not on the court, Billups is not on the court, and Sean Marion is not there, but the slow work, the slow pace of continuous running, covering and passing, the Grizzlies can always find opportunities, Qiao Hai's rotation lineup, there are still two strong points on the offensive end.

One Rahim, the other Mike Bibby.

With Sammark, a three-point shooter, Ragabel, a 3-and-D wing, and Rasiunestrovich, who is slightly weaker than Brad Miller but has a stronger defense, the Grizzlies' rotation is still very strong.

The Spurs' strong offensive interior was limited a little by Rasian Nestrovic, and at least David Robinson's offensive efficiency went down.

As for the offense, Raheem's singles efficiency can still be guaranteed, Mike Bibby is not bad now, plus Sammark has performed well in two consecutive games, his outside three-point is very threatening, and the Spurs dare not let Sammark shoot.

Plus Qiao Hai opened with Popovich.

Popovich originally thought that the Grizzlies would stick to the style of play in the second half of the first quarter and play infinitely.

As a result, the Grizzlies also lowered their tempo and began to creep, and the pace of the Spurs was also slow, so if the two teams continued to fight, there would be no rhythm competition between the two teams, and the Grizzlies could slowly control the score in a slow-paced offense and defense.

If it continues to play like this, Spurs have always been a disadvantage, and the score can't be chased back.

So, Popovich had to make adjustments again.

But adjusting it again means that Popovich's command rhythm has been disrupted by Qiao Hai, and the Spurs, who are already poor in bench depth, are even more stretched in rotation at this time.

After two or three minutes of play in the second quarter, the difference widened to 10 points, Popovich made adjustments, Duncan was replaced, Marik Cross came on the court, the Spurs slightly increased the speed, and Avery Johnson controlled the rhythm, and after the speed, it was a slight restraint of the Grizzlies' tactics.

After the Spurs picked up slightly, the margin also narrowed by 2 points.

But the 8-point margin was maintained by the Grizzlies, and there was no intention of continuing to shrink at all.

Popovich off the field could only be in a hurry, with a cold face, walking around the sidelines, holding his hands on his chest for a while, scratching his head for a while, standing on the sidelines and shouting something.

Qiao Hai was idle, sitting in the coach's seat, staring at him in a daze.

But four minutes later, after a dead ball, Qiao Hai stood up.

"Tracy, go to the technical desk, replace Sherif and tell Mike, speed up, let's play fast."

With an 8-point difference, Qiao Hai has to make a change again.

Speed up, it's about to boom.

In this game, Qiao Hai's hole cards are very simple, but they are also complicated to say, through reasonable creep changes, take the lead, keep the lead, this is the most basic.

And on a deeper level, there are some sudden creep changes.

For example, now, the Grizzlies suddenly started to bombard again, which caught the Spurs off guard.

Maddie came out and replaced Raheem in the fourth position, and the lineup on the court became one big and four small, and this time, the Grizzlies were completely hit.

Quickly pass the half, end the attack quickly.

Maddy, who had rested for most of the quarter, broke out, scoring 6 points and 2 assists in a row, and the difference was quickly stretched to 14 points by the Grizzlies.

Popovich hurriedly called a timeout, scratched his head and thought for a while, but he had no choice but to continue to fight with the Grizzlies.

He swapped Duncan back, and then told the team to play slow, using slow-paced defense to restrain the Grizzlies' fast offense.

But after the timeout, Popovich saw the Grizzlies' substitution and instantly regretted it.

After the timeout, the Grizzlies changed to rough, Rasiunestrovic was still there, Maddy played the No. 3 position, and Mike Bibi Garagabel formed a guard line......

Popovich regretted it too late, he just took Duncan back, the twin towers were there, and the Spurs couldn't play fast if they wanted to, so, gritting his teeth, he sat back in the coach's seat and didn't respond.

As a result, the Grizzlies, who began to creep again, controlled the rhythm with the assistance of the Spurs, and the Grizzlies' defense was not as good as the Spurs, but the offense was stronger than the Spurs, so the Grizzlies kept the lead.

At halftime, the Grizzlies led by 15 points.

It was a result that surprised everyone.

Although there is still half a game left in the game, which is 24 minutes of play, the Spurs have every chance to chase back that 15-point lead, everyone also knows that the series has played six games, and except for the two games in which Maddy broke out, the Spurs have not fallen behind so much.

Maddie didn't break out much in this game, and only scored 15 points in the half, which is considered a normal performance.

It's strange that the Grizzlies won by 15 points without Maddie exploding.

Popovich didn't think it was strange that in this game, Qiao Hai always made adjustments unexpectedly, and when he responded, Qiao Hai also responded immediately.

So, to be precise, the Grizzlies' lead in this game was not won by the players on the court, but by Qiao Hai.

In this tie-break battle, the first half has ended, and in the duel with Popovich, Qiao Hai has an absolute advantage, and the pre-game arrangement and subsequent adjustments almost crushed Popovich.

The biggest contributor to the half-time lead was Qiao Hai.

Popovich couldn't help but review, this game can't be played like this anymore, and if it continues like this, the Spurs will be dragged to death by the Grizzlies.

Now, there is only one road left in front of the Spurs - one big and four small, fast attack!

If you don't attack quickly, you can't catch up with the 15-point deficit alone.

Popovich is still hesitating, he thinks that the Spurs can't attack quickly, will Qiao Hai not think about it? Thinking that the Grizzlies would follow the fast break in the second half, Popovich felt that this game should go far away......