Chapter 12: Iverson Erupts
When the Spurs and 76ers stood on the court, the second quarter of the game also began, it can be seen that after a trial of the game, Larry Brown changed the defensive strategy in the first quarter, and in the case of David Robinson's poor state, he began to wrap and wrap Duncan inside and around the front, although he could not limit Duncan, but it also forced Duncan to score more difficult when he consumed more physical strength, and the outside mainly focused on the Spurs' point guard Avery Johnson, Take a loose stance against shooting guard Mario Elli and small forward Chaki Brown, as these two guys were just too tough in the first quarter, and their scoring consistency can't be compared to Duncan's.
Larry Brown and Popovich are both coaches who are good at defensive and positional battles, so the tempo of both teams is extremely slow at the moment, and both sides are executing the manager's set tactics one by one.
"Tim Duncan, very nice dunk, Duncan, defended by two men from Teylon Hill and George Lynch, made another one-on-one success, and the Spurs led the 76ers by seven points at 30-23." As the game deepened, Michaels, the commentator at the scene, was also getting more and more emotional.
"Iverson and George Lynch's pick-and-roll, Iverson broke through to the basket, he was very fast, beautiful, and in the face of David Robinson, Iverson moved back two points for the 76ers with a difficult layup."
"Iverson broke the ball, he stole Avery Johnson, Iverson took the ball directly to the basket, the Spurs couldn't defend it, Iverson scored quickly, Iverson's speed was too fast, and the Spurs' guards couldn't keep up with his rhythm at all. And Iverson's defense of Johnson in the second quarter was also extremely successful, and nearly halfway through the second quarter, Johnson had not yet scored. ”
"Iverson, it's Iverson again, Iverson broke through to score a layup, and also caused a foul on David Robinson, Iverson hit the free throw safely, the 76ers equalized, and it looks like Popovich is going to call a timeout."
As halfway through the second quarter, Iverson exploded, and just when the team needed someone to step up the most, Iverson scored seven straight points to help the 76ers salvage and tie the score. Without waiting for the official timeout, Popovich decisively called a timeout.
"Meng, you replace Chaki Brown, your main task on the court is to defend the opponent's No. 30, and at the same time cooperate with Avery to help defend the small No. 3 opposite, don't let him easily get close to the basket." After assigning the task to Meng Xu, Popovich glanced at Chaki Brown with some disappointment, originally after Sean Elliott was determined to miss most of the games this season because of surgery, Popovich thought about directly correcting Meng Xu, but when he thought of Meng Xu's weak offensive ability, Popovich had to dispel this idea, and finally traded Chaki Brown from the Hornets last season who was able to get nearly 9 points and 5 rebounds in only 25 minutes on the court. But Chaki Brown was too disappointing in this game, not only did nothing on the defensive end, but also scored 2 points on 0-of-4 shooting on the offensive end, relying only on free throws.
"David, pay attention to the number of fouls you have, you've already committed two fouls, and if you do, you're going to have to go down. Tim, you have to pay more attention to protecting the basket, don't pull out easily, try to save energy, and be tougher on the offensive end. After Popovich arranged the next tactics, the game also resumed.
Since training with the Spurs team in May, under Popovich's weight gain and physical strengthening training, Meng Xu's weight has also increased from 76 kg to 85 kg, a full weight gain of 9 kg, and the corresponding Meng Xu's strength attribute has also skyrocketed from 51 points to 70 points, under Meng Xu's defense, completely cut off the connection between Billy Owens and other players of the 76ers, no matter how Billy Owens runs, he can never get rid of Meng Xu, Meng Xu is like a big net covering him.
"The No. 5 rookie looks pretty good defensively, and Billy Owens is like a prey in a spider's web, completely immobile." Originally, seeing Meng Xu playing, Michaels was still counting on watching Meng Xu's ugliness, but when he saw Meng Xu's successful defense of Billy Owens, he still praised it from the bottom of his heart.
Just when Billy Owens and Meng Xu were constantly entangled and trying to get rid of Meng Xu, Iverson was also under Johnson's kraft candy defense, and had to call George Lynch to block and dismantle, after seeing Iverson's intentions, Meng Xu quickly dropped his defensive object Billy Owens and moved in advance in the direction after Iverson's blocking.
Just when Iverson got rid of Johnson by blocking and dismantling, he found that Meng Xu was already waiting in front of him, but after looking at Meng Xu's height that was more than half a head taller than himself, Iverson didn't pay attention to it at all, Iverson's speed and breakthrough have always been his most relied on weapons, it can be said that the whole league has a lot of stronger guards than himself, but it is indeed rare to be able to keep up with his speed, to a big man like Meng Xu, in the past, Iverson only needed to accelerate slightly in a change of direction, You can easily get rid of them. Only this time Iverson obviously underestimated Meng Xu, just after Iverson gradually increased his speed and accompanied by a change of direction, Iverson was stunned to find that Meng Xu was still clinging to him, blocking his passage to the basket.
Iverson only had an emergency stop, another change of direction, this time it was only half a step away from Meng Xu, just when Iverson was secretly surprised by Meng Xu's movement speed, Meng Xu was also amazed in his heart, with his 80 basic movement attribute plus two additional 20 points of movement attribute of two skills, a total of 100 movement speed, now he can only barely keep up with Iverson, if he is changing direction, he will definitely be thrown off, I originally thought that my 100 movement attribute would definitely be the fastest person in the entire NBA, but now I know what it is, a mountain is higher than a mountain, and the green mountain building outside the mountain is outside the building.
"Stupid, believe me now, Iverson's base movement speed is 98 points, and he also has a natural skill of breaking through speed, so it's normal that you can't keep up with him." Before the game, Anna also specially told Meng Xu that the small guard of the 76ers opposite was one of the fastest breakthroughs in the entire basketball history, and Meng Xu also scoffed at him, he has 100 points of movement, he can have many pieces in the fast, it is difficult to fly, just this time in the matchup, this guy is really faster than himself.
At this moment when Meng Xu was slightly distracted, Iverson changed direction again, and finally got rid of Meng Xu and went to the basket.
"What a strong breakthrough, at such a fast speed, I was able to change direction 3 times in a row, and finally get rid of myself." Looking at the back of Iverson rushing to the basket, Meng Xu also sighed.
After Iverson got rid of Meng Xu, Duncan quickly left the basket and came out to block Iverson, at this time, Iverson changed direction after 3 times, it was already the end of the strong crossbow, but in the face of Duncan, Iverson did not go directly to talk to Duncan, but a quick stop, threw the basketball in his hand, hit two points, and the 76ers overtook the score.
Watching Iverson shoot this ball, the 76ers players were also very excited, and they ran over to hug Iverson to celebrate, and on the 76ers' bench, a group of soy sauce bottles were also waving towels excitedly.