Affected by Tim Duncan's departure, the Spurs were already 6 points behind the Pacers at the end of the third quarter, even though Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili performed well enough on the court and worked hard enough, but the Spurs without Tim Duncan were inevitably stretched by the Pacers, and the interior combination of Rasu Nesterovic and Robert Horry was almost blown up by Jermaine O'Neal and Nn Hilario.

However, the slight momentum of 6 points is not unacceptable for the Spurs, after all, there is still a whole quarter of time for the Spurs to catch up, and as one of the most calm teams in the entire league, the Spurs have never lacked patience or anything.

After the start of the fourth quarter, Tim Duncan, who had been rested for a long time, surprisingly remained on the sidelines, and Popovich sent a bench lineup led by Mike Finley and Nick Van Exel, while the Pacers, on the other hand, continued to maintain the original bench lineup.

"It looks difficult for the Spurs to rely on the bench to chase points, I don't know what Popovich's considerations are, he has been putting Tim Duncan on the bench, Tim Duncan looks very hot today, does Popovich have any other considerations?"

As shrewd as Magic Johnson, I don't know what Popovich's considerations were, so he kept Tim Duncan on the bench, the Spurs are not Pacers, they have always hoarded a lot of high-quality interior lines, Tim Duncan is the only interior pillar of the Spurs, and it can be seen from the process of this game that when Tim Duncan is on the court, the Pacers' two main interior linemen, Jermaine O'Neal and Nn Hilario, can't take advantage of Tim Duncan, but when Tim Duncan is off the court, not to mention Jermaine O'Neal and Nn Hilario, that is, the Pacers' two bench interior linemen Mutombo and Jeff Foster can abuse the Spurs' interior line, so Magic Johnson is really incomprehensible, what kind of considerations did Popovich have to keep pressing Tim Duncan on the bench, is there something that he can't see?

Since the defense is basically not considered, the battle between the two benches is more exciting than when the main team is on the court, and in the back-and-forth offensive battle, the 6 minutes passed quickly, and in the cheers of the audience, Tim Duncan, who had been resting for a long time, finally followed the main lineup back to the court.

After the game restarted, the Spurs suddenly strengthened the intensity of the game, no way, after a big battle of the substitute lineup, the Spurs have fallen behind by 8 points, if you don't come up with something real, this game will really be over, and if you want to complete the reversal and overtake the score, you must not only ensure the offense, but also strengthen your defensive intensity, only by suppressing the opponent at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, in order to reverse the situation on the field in the last 5 minutes.

After Tim Duncan returned to the court, the Spurs' defensive level has been raised by more than a notch, and with Tim Duncan sitting on the inside line to assist in the defense, the Spurs' defense of Meng Xu's bag is even more unscrupulous, Meng Xu is crazy to be trapped, and the inside line can't be opened, in this case, the Pacers' lead is being eroded by the Spurs little by little.

Just after the Spurs narrowed the score to 4 points through a high block and a mid-range shot by Tony Parker, Rick Carlisle on the sidelines quickly called a timeout and adjusted the lineup on the court, after the timeout, Rick Carlisle replaced Nn Hilario with James Posey, replaced Tyshawn Prince with Anfernee Hardaway, and Salunas Jascovisius replaced Tony Parker, and the signal to strengthen the offense was already very obvious.

Contrary to the Spurs' defensive footing, Rick Carlisle chose to end the game with offense, Sarunas Jascovy Hughes, Anfernee Hardaway, Meng Xu, James Posey, four of the five players on the court have excellent ball control and organizational skills, and the three-point ability of these four players is also very good.

The game restarted, while Rick Carlisle adjusted the team's lineup, Popovich also made corresponding adjustments to the Spurs' defensive strategy, and it seemed that Rick Carlisle's adjustment had been expected, and after the timeout, the Spurs gave up the bag on Meng Xu, and replaced Rasu Nesterovic with Robert Hawley, and very tacitly replaced the same small lineup as the Pacers.

The Pacers took the lead in attacking, because it was Sarunas Jascovisius who was now in possession of the ball, so after Sarunas Jascovisius advanced the half court with the ball, he did not hand the basketball directly to Meng Xu like Tony Allen, and Meng Xu organized the offense, but according to the tactics often used in the regular season last season, Sarunas Jascovisius organized the offense, and Meng Xu went to play off-ball tactics.

After the breakthrough was blocked, Salunas Jascovisius passed the basketball back to James Posey at the first time, and James Posey, who was covered by Robert Hawley, transferred the basketball to Anfernee Hardaway on the other side of the court, a very light movement on the spot, Anfernee Hardaway shook off Manu Ginobili who was defending himself, and then gently stood on tiptoe and threw the basketball in his hand.

"Damn it." Anfernee Hardaway hit a 3-pointer, and the difference between the two sides was widened to 7 points again, looking at the basketball that bounced off the ground after falling from the basket, Popovich on the sidelines squeezed his fist fiercely, many games are like this, scoring a key goal, and ending the game is not necessarily the leading player of both sides, but the role player who doesn't care about himself.

There are more than 3 minutes left in the game, the difference from 8 points to 4 points, and then to 7 points, as a backward side, it is easy to have problems with the mentality, and the Spurs' offense has a problem, Tony Parker, who is eager to chase points, after getting rid of the defense of Sarunas Jascovitius, was directly cut off by Meng Xu, who was on the defensive side, Meng Xu after the break, the fast attack, and the 9-point difference forced Popovich to call a timeout to slow down the pace of the game, and by the way, also adjust the mentality of the players.

With a 9-point difference and 3 minutes of game time left, as long as the Pacers themselves do not collapse, it will be difficult for the Spurs to complete the reversal, unless there is a miracle moment like 35.13 minutes or 9.8 seconds, if miracles always happen, it can't be called a miracle.