"Darko, well done!"

At the end of the first quarter, Darko Milicic was also very unfortunate to get the second foul of the game, and like Nn Hilario, he had to go off the court early, but when Darko Milicic came off the court, he was greeted not by complaints and blame, but by the comfort of head coach Rick Carlisle and the encouragement of his teammates on the sidelines.

Although Darko Milicic only scored 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting in 7 minutes of playing time, Darko Milicic's contribution on the defensive end is obvious to all, before Darko Milicic came on the court, Tim Duncan shot 2-of-3 and 3-of-4 free throws to score 7 points in less than three minutes, and in the 7 minutes after Darko Milicic came on the court, Tim Duncan was 2-of-5 shooting and 2-of-3 free throws, and the offensive efficiency was greatly reduced.

Darko Milicic's performance and contribution on the field was undoubtedly recognized by his teammates and the audience, so when Darko Milicic was replaced by Jeff Foster, the audience also gave Darko Milicic a round of applause and cheers.

"What a terrible thing!" Looking at Jeff Foster, who was replaced by the Pacers after Darko Milicic's two fouls, Popovich on the sidelines was both envious and helpless, NN Hilario was followed by Darko Milicic, Darko Milicic was followed by Jeff Foster, and Mutombo was still sitting on the bench.

Since David Robinson retired and Reeve Lafrentz was poached by the Mavericks, Popovich has been looking for a suitable starting center, but until now, Popovich has not found the right person, but on the other hand, the Pacers, Darko Milicic, the most improved player this season, has excellent talent enough to become the cornerstone of a rebuilding team, as for the other backup interior Jeff Foster, although not famous, but this is also a fierce man who can grab 7 rebounds in 20 minutes of play, If you change teams and play an average of about 35 minutes per game, you can definitely compete for the rebounding king, but such a player plays as a substitute in the Pacers, which is really distressing to watch.

26-27, after the end of the first quarter, the Pacers overtook the Spurs by one point, and such a result is undoubtedly an acceptable result for both the Pacers and the Spurs.

Although Tim Duncan dominates the basket, the Pacers' interior strength is not weak, four excellent interior lines take turns, constantly consuming Tim Duncan's physical strength, which directly leads to the continuous reduction of Tim Duncan's scoring efficiency, coupled with the Spurs' outside line, which has been suppressed by the Pacers from beginning to end, so for the score at the end of the first quarter of the game, Popovich is quite satisfied, in Popovich's opinion, the Spurs' five starters have all shown their highest level, and even played at a super level, So in this case, Popovich couldn't ask too much of them.

Generally speaking, at the beginning of the second quarter of the game, the main lineup that played a full quarter of the game must have to rest for a while, but when the rotation lineups of the two sides came on the court, Popovich found that Meng Xu actually played again! After the start of today's game, in order to make up for the shortcomings of the bench lineup that is not as good as the Pacers, Popovich put Manu Ginobili on the bench and arranged for him to play the sixth man, wanting to play the trick of Tian Ji horse racing, but he didn't expect the Pacers to give him a chance at all, and Meng Xu, who had played the entire first quarter, is now playing with the rotation lineup.

Mutombo, Nn Hilario, James Posey, Meng Xu, Chris Duhon, the Pacers' rotation lineup, even if it is a fight with the Spurs' main lineup, will not be too far behind, not to mention a group of veterans and rookies led by Ginobili, so after only 2 minutes of the second quarter of the game, Popovich called a timeout and replaced all the main players in advance.

"The depth of the Pacers' roster is just too strong!" The Spurs replaced all the main teams, but on the Pacers side, Rick Carlisle was unmoved, and still let Meng Xu continue to play with the rotation lineup, so looking at the Pacers rotation lineup under the leadership of Meng Xu, which is comparable to the main lineup of the Spurs, Barkley on the sideline commentary bench shook his head and sighed, compared with the lineups of the two sides, the advantage of the Pacers is too great.

"Do you think Indiana's nearly $20 million a year in luxury tax is paid for nothing?" After hearing Barkley's exclamation, Reggie Miller muttered very quietly, the Pacers' total salary this season is more than $20 million higher than the Spurs, second only to the Knicks and Mavericks, ranking third in the league.

When he came on the court with the main lineup, Meng Xu thought about it more, which teammate would give the ball to whoever had a good hand, and which teammate had a vacant position, whether to give him the ball or not, but when he led the rotation lineup to play, Meng Xu didn't have so many worries, especially when Meng Xu and James Posey were on the field at the same time, James Posey would give up all the offense, surround Meng Xu with peace of mind, and be a full-time thug for Meng Xu.

Therefore, the current situation on the court, although it is the Pacers' rotation lineup against the Spurs' main lineup, but in the face of Meng Xu, who is full of firepower, the Spurs' main force cannot suppress the Pacers' rotation lineup at all, although Tim Duncan still occupies an absolute advantage on the inside, but Duncan, who fought with the Pacers' three inside lines in the first quarter for a whole quarter, and was forced to play early without much rest in the second quarter, does not have enough physical strength to continue to anser-ball with Meng Xu.

"It's such a cool feeling!" After facing Robert Hawley's jump shot again, Meng Xu waved his arm fiercely while retreating, if in the past, for this kind of goal that has no technical content and will not make people feel the blood boiling, Meng Xu would not celebrate, but today, after scoring consecutive goals and completely suppressing the Spurs on the field, Meng Xu's heart rose an indescribable sense of pleasure.

"Is this kid going to embarrass Spurs?" Meng Xu's performance today, Magic Johnson felt a little weird, probably since last season, Meng Xu has gradually developed the normal state of saving strength in the regular season and not working hard until the critical moment, even in the finals last season, Meng Xu did not have a few games to do his best, but in the finals with the Spurs this season, Meng Xu came up with a desperate posture, and the second quarter of the game was only halfway through, Meng Xu has now scored 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. This has to make Magic Johnson a little suspicious that Meng Xu has an opinion about his old club.

Because both parties are tight-lipped about it, the disintegration of the Wake Forest duo is still an unsolved case until now, and no one knows how Meng Xu and Duncan, who are known as the most promising duo in NBA history, disintegrated inexplicably, but there have always been various speculations about this matter, some say that Meng Xu and Duncan are not in harmony, some say that Meng Xu is dissatisfied with his status in the Spurs, and some say that the Spurs management is skeptical about the career of a yellow man, anyway, there is everything, But in the end, most of them were over, but now it seems that the speculation of these media is not unreasonable, otherwise how can Meng Xu be desperate when he sees Spurs?

If Meng Xu knew what Magic Johnson was thinking at the moment, he would definitely shout that he was wronged, he definitely didn't have such a narrow mind, and he would fight hard when he encountered the Spurs, that was simply because he didn't want to lose to Tim Duncan, just like Kobe Bryant didn't want to lose to O'Neal, and O'Neal couldn't lose to Kobe Bryant, to put it bluntly, it was just self-esteem, and now it's the finals, Meng Xu doesn't want to, and there is no reason to lose to Tim Duncan.

After the official timeout came in the second quarter, Rick Carlisle took the opportunity to change to the main lineup, Rick Carlisle originally planned to let Meng Xu rest for a few minutes, but Meng Xu refused to live or die, and Rick Carlisle, who couldn't resist Meng Xu, had to let Meng Xu continue to stay on the frontal court, and at the same time instructed Jermaine O'Neal to let him share more for Meng Xu on the offensive end, so that Meng Xu could save some physical strength a little.

When the Pacers' main lineup came on the court, Tim Duncan also began to exert his strength, and NN Hilario, who did not receive a foul in the first half of the second quarter, received a foul on the Pacers' main lineup after all the players came on the court, and he was very sad to receive two more and third fouls in this game, and could only be left by Darko Milicic in tears and sat on the sidelines to rest.

Tim Duncan beat Nn Hilario, Jermaine O'Neal also beat Robert Hawley, and after Robert Hawley was forced by Jermaine O'Neal again and again, Tim Duncan had to devote part of his energy to wiping Robert Hawley's ass, and this undoubtedly accelerated Tim Duncan's physical exertion.

After Jermaine O'Neal began to score constantly, Meng Xu was a lot easier, he shot one when he had the opportunity, and handed the ball to Jermaine O'Neal when he didn't have a chance, so that he could single Robert Hawley and consume Tim Duncan's physical strength, which was definitely the best of both worlds for Meng Xu and the Pacers.

By the end of the first half, the Pacers' lead had expanded to four points, but the four-point difference was nothing for the game with 24 minutes left.