"Shaunayler for David, Malik for Thiem, Antonio for Sean, Jalen for Avery." After the official pause in the first quarter, Popovich directly made substitution arrangements, except for Meng Xu, the rest of the Spurs' main players were all replaced, which was to make Meng Xu feel like he had enough to play thoroughly.

Looking at Popovich's unhappy face, and at the same time, Meng Xu also noticed a little strange about Popovich's substitution, also because he consumed too much physical strength in the first half of the quarter, Meng Xu was originally ready to change his style of play in the later games, and Popovich's substitution also happened to be what Meng Xu liked. There is no way, the physical strength consumed in the first half of the quarter is too great, if you continue to play this style, not to mention the fourth quarter, I am afraid that you will not be able to run in the third quarter. And in the previous game, I was already happy enough, and I scored 19 points in the first half of the quarter, so I can be better than this when I start pretending to be pressing. If you are happy enough, it will definitely be your teammates' turn to be cool next, otherwise it will be easy to cause public anger.

After the game restarted, seeing Popovich's substitution, Philip Sanders on the sidelines was very depressed, the tactics formulated before the game were completely useless, in order to limit the Spurs' twin towers, Philip Sanders's own assistant watched the video all night, studied tactics, and finally sent a lineup of double point guards in this game, and also formulated a strategy to prepare to counter the Spurs, but in this game he continued not to play the Spurs a surprise, On the contrary, he was caught off guard by Popovich's arrangement, and he had no measures to deal with it at all. Who could have thought of a player who averaged 8 points per game and scored 19 points in six minutes of the first quarter.

The Timberwolves are now a powerhouse in the West, although they were ranked sixth in the West last season, but they also got 50 wins, as Kevin Garnett gradually entered the peak, and after trading several outstanding role players this season, the Timberwolves are full of fantasies and expectations for this season, and in the playoffs this season, the Timberwolves are also likely to meet the Spurs, so in several regular season games with the Spurs this season, Philip Saunders will not have the slightest hiding, These games will be played according to the intensity of the playoffs, and this game is no exception. But this game only lasted less than half a quarter, and the little confidence in Philip Saunders' heart was hit without a trace, not to mention Duncan's two-time FMVP, that is, the No. 5 in front of him, no one in his team could prevent him, 19 points in the first quarter, and the Timberwolves only scored 14 points as a team. One can imagine how difficult this No. 5 player will cause to his team in the future.

"Popovich replaced Tim Duncan, and I think fans who want to see Tim vs. Kevin face off are going to be disappointed in this match." Since the league launched the "Big Four", the showdown between Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett has begun to be hyped, and this game of national attention has undoubtedly been stolen by Meng Xu, because until now, Duncan has not had a one-on-onehit with Garnett on the offensive end, and now Duncan was simply replaced by Popovich and sat directly on the bench.

Although they are very appreciative of Meng Xu, Michaels and Magic, but as an ABC employee, they may not be happy about this game, this long-hyped national live broadcast was destroyed by Meng Xu and Popovich together, although Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett still have the opportunity to match in the later games, but it can be expected that almost everyone's eyes have been gathered on Meng Xu now.

Of course, the reporters on the scene, I'm afraid they feel the same way now, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, Spurs and Timberwolves, this is undoubtedly a matchup between Mars and the Earth, but now it is completely invisible.

"Meng actually passed, and after the pause, he seemed to change his style of play, could it be that this was also arranged by Popovich?" When the game restarted, Meng Xu rushed into the inside line of the Timberwolves with the ball as always, but this time Meng Xu did not choose to go to the basket, but passed the basketball to his teammates on the outside halfway through to the breakthrough.

Antonio Daniels, who received Meng Xu's pass, was stunned at first, and then hit a steady shot from outside the 3-point line. Originally, after coming on as a substitute in advance, Antonio Daniels didn't have any ideas, because Meng Xu's outright one-man performance in the first half of the quarter also made Antonio Daniels unable to think of wanting to score points, but it was a little unexpected that Meng Xu chose to pass the ball for the first time and passed it to himself.

Antonio Daniels is an important substitute for the Spurs, in the case of Mario Elie getting older, Antonio Daniels is playing more and more, last season's average playing time has reached 26 minutes per game, compared to Mario Elie is not much worse, and in this limited playing time, Antonio Daniels can contribute about 10 points per game, and the 3-point shooting rate has reached 40%. This season is Antonio Daniels' contract year, and Antonio Daniels' current idea is also to brush up on more data and get a big contract next season. Originally, watching Mario Elie get older and older, Antonio Daniels was also waiting for the opportunity to get on the top, but with the playoffs last season, Mario Elie had a second spring, and this season the Spurs signed Derrick Anderson, an All-Star level guard, plus Meng Xu has to make a cameo appearance as a scoring guard from time to time, so even Antonio Daniels himself is not very optimistic about his prospects in the Spurs.

In the next game, Meng Xu's performance in the first half of the quarter was completely two people, although he still kept hitting the Timberwolves' interior, but in most cases he did not attack by himself, but passed the ball to Jaren Jackson and Antonio Daniels on the outside, as long as they were vacant, even if Meng Xu had rushed to the basket, he would pass the ball to them. According to their two 3-point shooting rate of about 40%, plus their own 12% bonus, although it will fluctuate, but the minimum will not be lower than 45%, so these two guys are also hitting the table now, Antonio Daniels 3-of-5 3-pointers, Jaren Jackson 3-of-4 3-pointers. The Spurs, who were replaced with four bench players, were not caught up by the Timberwolves, but continued to widen the difference, and before the game was over in the first quarter, the Spurs led the Timberwolves by as many as 10 points at 36-26.

And now Jaren Jackson and Antonio Daniels on the court are also smiling when they see Meng Xu, for a substitute who doesn't have much playing time, is there anything better than statistics? Especially Antonio Daniels, who is in a contract year and desperately needs to put in a good stat.

'It's such a special player, it's only his second season, and he can already touch that door, and there are two different options. Seeing Meng Xu, who was completely different from the upper and lower sections, as a person who had come over, Magic Johnson seemed to feel something, looked at Meng Xu on the field with a smile, and muttered to himself in a low voice.

"Elwin, what were you talking about?" Because the voice of the magician Johnson was very small, Michaels only saw his mouth moving just now, and did not hear any sound, Michaels thought that his headphones were broken, and after patting the headphones, he did not find any problems, so he pushed the magician directly.

"I mean, this is a special little guy." Although I have touched that door in my first season, and there are many players like me, many more players have never seen that door for the rest of their lives. At the same time, as a player who has two options after touching that door, this is one of the few in the entire history of basketball, so the magic will say that Meng Xu is a special little guy. Obviously, Meng Xu is now facing the problem of how to choose between the two paths.

After scoring 19 points in the first half of the first quarter, Meng Xu handed out an astonishing 7 assists in the next 6 minutes, and 21 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in the entire first quarter. The Spurs also led the Timberwolves 45-33 in the first quarter.

In the subsequent game, Meng Xu did not play, and at the end of the half, the game had already entered garbage time, and finally relied on the foundation laid by Meng Xu in the first quarter, and the Spurs defeated the Timberwolves with a score of 113-95. The duel between the strongest No. 21 in the new world ended hastily, and Duncan and Garnett, who had only played for 15 minutes, did not face each other directly several times throughout the game.