"This year's calves don't look easy to deal with." On May 3, 2001, after Meng Xu finished a day's training, he returned home and watched the whole game between the Mavericks and the Jazz in the 5th battle, and finally relied on Calvin Booth's quasi-lore, the Mavericks defeated the Jazz 84-83 at home, and Malone couldn't shoot in the face of Nowitzki at the last moment, and the scene of smashing the floor with his fists can only make people sigh that the hero is late, in the 5 games of this round of the series, Malone averaged 27.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, but shot only 40 percent from the field.

In this round of the series, the Mavericks lost two home games in a row at the beginning, and finally won three games in a row to complete the counterattack on the Jazz, so they became the third team in NBA history to complete a 0-2 reversal after losing two home games first.

And the next round of the Mavericks and Spurs series, is undoubtedly the most concerned by Chinese fans on the other side of the ocean, at the end of the regular season this season, Wang Zhizhi finally got rid of all the shackles and came to the United States, and Wang Zhizhi is now in the Mavericks' playoff list, in the fourth game of the series with the Jazz, Wang Zhizhi played 5 minutes in the final moments of the game, and got 7 points and 1 rebound. Although I don't know if Wang Zhizhi will get the opportunity to play in the next game, because of the two Chinese players, this round of the series between the Spurs and the Mavericks is also affectionately called the "Chinese Derby" by Chinese fans.

After the series between the Mavericks and Jazz, the first round of this season's playoffs was over, with the Spurs and Lakers both sweeping their respective opponents 3-0 in aggregate, while the Kings won 3-1 against the Suns. In the East, the Knicks and the Heat fought 5 games, and finally the Heat advanced thrillingly, and the Raptors were almost overturned by the Hornets in the case of a 2-0 lead, and finally in the battle between the two sides, relying on Carter's stunner, the Raptors eliminated the Hornets to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals, while the 76ers and the Raptors easily eliminated their respective opponents 3-1, and the Pacers, who reached the division finals for 3 consecutive years under Larry Bird, went home after the first round of this season.

Just after the first round of games are all over, the Spurs, who have been resting for more than a week, will play at home against the Mavericks who have just fought 5 games with the Jazz, although after a long break, the Spurs undoubtedly have a great advantage in physical fitness, but the Mavericks have been completely stimulated after a lot of hard work with the Jazz, and the veterans of the Spurs, after resting for so long, finally found a little state in the series with the Timberwolves, was also thrown into the Mariana Trench again, at least in this morning's training session, except for Duncan and Meng Xu, the other players of the Spurs were more or less out of shape. Duncan is because he has reached the realm, and he can already control his game state freely, while Meng Xu is because of the system to help adjust, as long as there are no human reasons, Meng Xu can now maintain a similar game state.

"Roughly, I didn't expect this day to come so soon." On the evening of May 5, 2001, at the Alamo Stadium, the home of the Spurs, when all the players of the Spurs and Mavericks walked out of the player tunnel, Meng Xu walked straight to the Mavericks' bench and greeted his teammate Wang Zhizhi in the national team. Meng Xu and Wang Zhizhi are rookies in the same year, and the two also participated in last year's Olympic Games together, but unlike Meng Xu who entered the NBA directly after being selected by the Spurs, Wang Zhizhi was the core player of the 81 team of the Huaguo Basketball League at that time, so Mavericks and 81 have never been able to talk about Wang Zhizhi's entry into the NBA. The patience of the Mavericks and Nelson Sr. became less and less, and in the end, it was under the direct intervention of the Chinese Basketball Association that Wang Zhizhi was able to enter the NBA.

"Thank you." After seeing Meng Xu come over and greet him, the current Wang Zhizhi is completely no longer talkative when he was in the national team, but looks a little shy, and Meng Xu can also see that Wang Zhizhi always has a tired look on his face, perhaps because of the NBA's overly dense schedule and flying around all day to catch up with the away game.

"I'll treat you to dinner when the game is over." Seeing Wang Zhizhi, who was a little cramped, Meng Xu directly opened his arms and hugged him, and then gently hammered Wang Zhizhi's chest with his fist: "Come on." ”

"Come on." Seeing Meng Xu turn around and leave, Wang Zhizhi also clenched his fists and nodded.

"Maybe today's game is a historic moment for this league and for David." Looking at Meng Xu and Wang Zhizhi, who were hugging each other not far away, Magic Johnson said with a smile. David Stern and the top management of the NBA league, it is already a well-known thing to want to open the Chinese market on the other side, and now David Stern's wish is finally about to be achieved, when Meng Xu became popular in the NBA, another player from China successfully entered the NBA, and the team of the two met very coincidentally in this year's playoffs, as soon as I thought of this, Magic Johnson glanced at the box in the far stands, it is said that today's game, The top of the alliance were all present. Although he is not a conspiracy theorist, Magic Johnson is also very skeptical in his heart at the moment whether someone is playing in the Mavericks' game against the Jazz.

Michaels on the side also nodded after hearing Magic Johnson's words, but he didn't make a sound, these things involving the NBA's top management, Michaels usually avoids talking about it, he is not an NBA celebrity like Magic, and no one can hang him.

Later, when the warm-up of the two teams was completed and all the starters were on the court, Michaels also began to introduce the starting lineups of both sides in this game: "The starting center of the Mavericks in this game is Sean Bradley, power forward Dirk Nowitzki, small forward Juwan Howard, scoring guard Michael Finley, and playmaker Steve Nash. ”

"In this game, the Mavericks actually sent 3 insiders?" After seeing the Mavericks' starting lineup, Magic Johnson was also a little surprised, in order to deal with the Spurs' inner twin towers, the old Nelson was also racking his brains, the Mavericks' 5 starters, except for Steve Nash, the rest are all more than 2 meters tall, but I just don't know, Steve Nash can be a good series of Mavericks' group of big men, you must know that according to normal tactics, 3 inside line is best to partner with 2 guards, so as to be a good tandem team, But the Mavericks now have only one guard on the court. And Meng Xu, who is opposite Nash, his defense is the top in the league, and once Nash is restricted by Meng Xu like Trill Brandon of the Timberwolves, then the Mavericks' 3 interior tactics will completely fail. And there is a very big loophole in the Mavericks' tactics, that is, the team's outside defense, after accumulating 3 interior lines, the Mavericks' outside defense will inevitably be very weak, and Nash and Finley are not the kind of players who have excellent defense, especially Nash is a defensive black hole at all, and Meng Xu is now one of the best outside lines in the league.

"Erwin, maybe the Mavericks will surprise us." From Magic Johnson's tone, Michaels heard that Magic was very unoptimistic about the Mavericks' 3 interior strategy, but Nelson Sr. was one of the best head coaches in the league after all, and his arrangement would not be untargeted.

"Steve suffered too much in the face of Meng Xu, and Finley's footsteps couldn't keep up, which is a big loophole and hidden danger for the Mavericks." Magic Johnson doesn't believe that miracles will happen to the calves, but Magic Johnson is also a little confused, he can see the problem, old Nelson can't see it?

When the referee threw the basketball in his hand into the air, facing Sean Bradley, a big bamboo pole nearly 20 cm taller than himself, Duncan with extremely fast speed, just after Bradley's foot left the ground, he had already dialed the basketball in the air to the Spurs' backcourt.

After getting the first wave of the ball in this game, Meng Xu also slowly dribbled through the half, the Spurs' tactics in the playoffs are very clear, that is, slow down and play positions, the two sides fight for consumption and defense, and the Mavericks' 3 interior tactics in this game seem to be definitely going to play a positional battle with the Spurs.

"Steve, do you coaches have an opinion with you? Let you defend me. While dribbling the ball, while looking at Nash in front of him who was defending him very hard, Meng Xu squeezed his eyes at Nash. After switching to an organizational guard this season and having the ball-control skills such as fingertip dribbling, it can be said that in the face of the defenders of the whole league, Meng Xu is misplaced, and those orthodox organizational backs can't prevent Meng Xu at all due to the hard injury in height, and if you use a small forward with a similar height to Meng Xu to defend Meng Xu, not to mention how effective the defense is, as long as the opposite side changes the defense like this, then Mario Eli and Sean Elliott will immediately have a big and small misalignment opportunity, Moreover, there are only a few people in the current alliance who can keep up with Meng Xu's first step, and there is no one who can prevent Meng Xu from breaking through.