"Greg is still very young, but he is a championship coach now, and the Spurs are a great team, but I think it is pointless for Greg to imitate that Rausch's triangle offense, the triangle offense is just an opportunistic, pointless tactic, and the Spurs don't need the so-called triangle offense to win the championship, and the previous two seasons have fully proved this. As one of the best defensive teams in this era, the Spurs just need to continue their current tactics, defense is the foundation of winning championships, and change is often the root cause of a team's turmoil. As a big man in the NBA coaching world, the cardinal was also invited to participate in the Spurs' championship ring presentation ceremony today, but the cardinal was dissatisfied with the tactics used by Popovich in the first half of this game. To put it bluntly, she is a nanny coach who can only hug her thighs.

At the same time, as an award named after the cardinal, the best coach of the NBA season, basically every year at the Auerbach Award ceremony, the cardinal will participate, but when Phil Jackson won the award in 96, the cardinal refused to go to the scene to present the award to Phil Jackson, and when he was interviewed by reporters, he said something that made Phil Jackson very unhappy, which made Phil Jackson very unhappy on a good day.

Similarly, when the San Antonio local media interviewed Cardinal after the game, Cardinal once again expressed his disdain for the triangle offense, and also implicitly criticized Popovich.

"Greg, maybe we should really give up the triangle attack and try other tactics, when Tim and Meng are on the court at the same time, we can play blocking and dismantling, and when Tim is off, we can use Meng as the core to play the breakout, so that we can solve all the problems perfectly?" The day after the Pacers game, after seeing the cardinal's criticism of the Spurs in the newspaper, Mike Budenholzer also took the newspaper to the video room to find Popovich for the first time.

"You can't win against this Lakers team by relying on pick-and-roll tactics alone. In this way, let's first formulate a single tactic for Meng Xu, and try it in tomorrow's game against the Timberwolves, and see the effect before talking. After defending the championship, Popovich is desperate to establish a dynasty that belongs to the Spurs, but in the face of the increasingly powerful Lakers, the Spurs must also make certain changes. Pick-and-roll tactics? Blocking tactics meet triangle offense, who can laugh at the end? Sloan's Jazz has already given everyone the answer, with Malone and Stockton, two superstars, and they are also the kind of superstars with a pick-and-roll system, it can be said that the Jazz is a team that has used the blocking and pick-and-roll tactics to the peak and to the extreme, but the Jazz met the Bulls in the Finals for two consecutive years, and they were solved by Jordan. At the same time, before Phil Jackson did not enter the Lakers, the Lakers with O'Neal were also beaten by the Jazz every year, but when the Lakers changed to a triangle offense, the Jazz were swept in the regular season against the Lakers last season.

On November 2, 2000, two days after the end of the Pacers' game, the Spurs welcomed their second opponent of the regular season at the Alamo Coliseum, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Tim Duncan naturally needless to say, two consecutive FMVP, it is not controversial to say that he is the first person in the league now, and Kevin Garnett averaged 23 points, 11.8 rebounds and 5 assists per game last season, and led the Timberwolves to a 50-win record, and 20+10+5 is also a very standard Larry Bird data. As for Chris Webber, he averaged 24.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists per game, under the leadership of Chris Webber, the Kings are also the most gorgeous offense in the entire league, one of the teams with the most points, although they were eliminated by the Lakers in the playoffs last season, but with the Lakers 5 games, Chris Webber's performance is also very good, there will be no controversy about what kind of ranking these 3 players are selected, and as for the last Dirk Nowitzki, this is another Larry Bird successor, although no one may question his talent and future, but last season's Nowitzki's performance is really not comparable to the above 3The Dallas Mavericks didn't even make the playoffs.

For David Stern's star-making movement, the entire league is now well-known, after Jordan retired and the four centers entered their twilight years, the current league also needs to establish its own new signboard, not only the four big forwards, it is said that the league is also planning to launch four scoring guards, and four small forwards.

After the league and major media have been hyped up by the four major forwards, this direct confrontation between Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan is also known as the duel between the strongest No. 21 in the new century, if you only look at the data, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan are also half a pound, both of them are also the kind of players with outstanding talent and strong physical fitness, and the two are also the tactical core of their respective teams, even the height and weight of the two are basically similar, maybe a little different, Kevin Garnett is the kind of power forward who is a bit biased towards a small forward, so he is slightly stronger than Duncan in terms of strategy, while Tim Duncan is a big forward who is biased towards a center style of play, so Duncan's finishing ability under the basket is more intimidating than Garnett on the defensive end.

The starting center of the Timberwolves in this game is Rasso Nesterovic, a decent interior blue-collar line, Kevin Garnett at the power forward position, and the starting small forward is Wally Szebiak, one of Meng Xu's few friends in the United States, and Meng Xu's upper trajectory in the Spurs is basically the same, as a rookie last season, after the Timberwolves did half a season on the bench, with an excellent performance, Wally Szzebiak pressed the Timberwolves' veteran Sam Mitchell to the bench, Became the starting small forward for the Timberwolves. Because the Timberwolves played a two-point guard strategy in this game, they also started two point guards, namely Chauncey Billups and Trill Brandon, Trill Brandon is also an All-Star point guard, who averaged 17 points, 9 assists, and 3 rebounds per game in the regular season last season. In the playoffs, facing the powerful Trail Blazers, he averaged 20 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds per game.

On the Spurs' side, perhaps the cardinal's criticism was touched, David Robinson returned to the starting lineup as the starting center, and the rest of the starters basically unchanged, continuing the lineup of the second half of the last game with the Pacers, big forward Tim Duncan, small forward Sean Elliott, scoring guard Meng Xu, and playmaker Avery Johnson.

"Meng, in the first quarter of today's game, you will be the main point of attack of the team, and David and Thiem will open up space for you on the inside, so let it go."

Today's game, before it started, Meng Xu already felt the uncontrollable power in his body, in today's training session, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer specially formulated a single-player tactic for Meng Xu, and also simulated it in the afternoon intra-team confrontation, as a result, the bench lineup led by Meng Xu and Derek Anderson beat the main force of Duncan and David Robinson, especially Derek Anderson, this guy shot 11 of 15 from 3-pointers, scared all the assistant coaches on the sidelines.

So when the game started, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer patted Meng Xu on the shoulder and said these words, Meng Xu is also extremely looking forward to this game, just like the game against Italy at the Sydney Olympics, this game will become a turning point for himself in the Spurs, and maybe a turning point in his entire career, even if he performed well last season, even if he faced the Lakers in the playoffs, Meng Xu's evaluation in the mainstream media is still an excellent role playerAlthough Meng Xu has always been dismissive of these evaluations, Meng Xu also hopes that he and Tim Duncan, like Kevin Garnett, will become the focus on and off the court.

When David Robinson beat Rasso Nesterovic on a jumper, the strongest No. 21 matchup between the Spurs and the Timberwolves, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett also kicked off.

After Avery Johnson controlled the ball through the half court, he handed over the basketball to Meng Xu, and he ran according to the tactics formulated before the game, since the playoffs last season, Avery Johnson can clearly feel that his status in the Spurs is getting lower and lower, this status of course refers to the tactical position, in the past as the leader of the Spurs locker room, the commander on the court, the Spurs' ball control was distributed by Avery Johnson, but since the playoffs last season, Avery Johnson has become more and more of a dribble guard, and was replaced early in the last game.

Although he is 34 years old, Avery Johnson has been in very good form in recent years, so Every Johnson does not want to sit on the bench now. But Avery Johnson also knows in his heart that with the continuous rise of Meng Xu, his status in the team will be lower and lower, and he will face the possibility of being sent away by the team at any time.