On April 21, 2001, after a two-day break, the Spurs welcomed the first opponent of the playoffs at home, the Minnesota Timberwolves, this season's Timberwolves lineup has changed a lot compared with last season, because Garnett's contract is too big, and the team owner is unwilling to pay more, so after the end of last season, in order to save salary space, the Timberwolves sent away the team's important rotation player Joe Smith, and Bobby Jackson After the contract expired, the Timberwolves also chose not to renew the contract, gave Bobby Jackson to the Kings for nothing, and now Bobby Jackson is already an important rotation player and sixth man for the Kings, and another veteran of the team, Malik Healy, chose to retire directly after the team confirmed that he would not renew his contract. These 3 players are all players who can contribute 10+ points per game, and the Timberwolves have not made any reinforcements while losing these 3 giants, so the team's strength will inevitably decline.

In this case, the Timberwolves are now also Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and as Garnett's salary gets higher and higher, the Timberwolves will have more role players leaving. Although Garnett is also quite critical of the team's behavior, there is no way to make your contract bigger than O'Neal's, and now Garnett's salary alone has reached two-fifths of the team's salary cap. And Minnesota isn't a big city like New York and Los Angeles, and the Timberwolves' owner is still notoriously miserly. Therefore, the Timberwolves are also very reluctant to enter the playoffs this season, but in the face of the powerful Spurs, the Timberwolves are likely to be another round trip this season.

After the warm-up was completed, when he looked at Duncan, who was holding the basketball into his arms not far away, and at the same time standing Meng Xu and David Robinson on the left and right, Garnett was also envious, he and Duncan were the same age, and they entered the league two years earlier than Duncan, but now Duncan has two championships and two FMVP trophies, and he has been empty-handed until now, and his team has always been on the edge of the playoffs, even if he enters the playoffs, it can only be a first-round tour. Especially when he saw Duncan's teammates and looked at his teammates, Garnett was a little jealous of Duncan, maybe not only Garnett, but the entire league is now jealous of the Spurs.

"Ervin, do you think there is any suspense in this series between the Spurs and the Timberwolves?" When Duncan returned the basketball in his arms to the referee on duty, Michaels, the commentator on the sidelines, said with a relaxed face, the first round of this year's playoffs, I am afraid that this round of the series between the Spurs and the Timberwolves is the most suspenseful, the gap between the two teams is really a bit big, the Spurs and the Timberwolves have played four games this season, and the same as the King, except for the first game because of Meng Xu's absence, the Timberwolves defeated the Spurs, the remaining three games of the two teams ended in the Timberwolves' fiasco, Garnett can play with Duncan on the court without a win, But the other players of the Timberwolves are a little worse, especially the Timberwolves' bench lineup, which was blown up by the Spurs' bench group and couldn't find the north.

"I personally think that Kevin should choose to leave, if he continues to choose to stay with the Timberwolves, then he will not win a championship in his life, Glenn Taylor is too stingy, if Kevin can be paired with a few excellent role players, then the Timberwolves will definitely be a favorable contender for the championship, but, now 。。。。。。" Magic Johnson shook his head and didn't continue. In fact, there are a lot of bosses like Glenn Taylor in the whole league, after all, not every team is not short of money like New York and Los Angeles, for these owners, the NBA is also a kind of business, since it is a business, then making money is the only purpose, so they will do everything possible to get the team's salary level stuck below the salary cap, so that they can earn, and there are several team owners who will pay out of their own pockets.

Seeing that Magic Johnson stopped halfway through his words, Michaels also smiled, this problem is actually the norm in the league, at present, among the 29 teams in the league, only 5 teams have salary levels that exceed the luxury tax line, and those that exceed the luxury tax line are either big cities like New York and Los Angeles, or local tyrant owners like the Trail Blazers and Mavericks, and even the defending champion Spurs, their salary level is now below the salary cap, not to mention small teams such as the Timberwolves.

"Alright, Erwin, maybe this game for Spurs won't be as easy as they thought." As the whistle sounded, in Garnett and Duncan's jump ball, Garnett jumped the ball by a very small margin, and the game officially began.

After getting the ball in this game, Timberwolves' All-Star point guard Trill Brandon quickly advanced the ball across the halfcourt, and after seeing Garnett reach for the ball below the free throw line, Trill Brandon also turned sideways to Meng Xu, forced out a little passing space, and then handed the basketball to Garnett, who was facing Duncan with his back. The current Timberwolves are under the coaching of Philip Saunders, and there are basically no tactics at all, in the case of a player like Garnett, the Timberwolves are now resolutely implementing the superstar tactics with Garnett as the core, most of the team's offense is to hand over the basketball to Garnett first, and Garnett will play singles on the inside, and then hand over the basketball to his teammates after Garnett can't open the situation. Originally, at the beginning of Philip Saunders' tenure, he also wanted to shape a combination of inside and outside tactics in the Timberwolves, but Garnett, a big forward with a small forward style of play, his technical characteristics are not suitable for this tactic at all. Therefore, after more than a dozen attempts, Philip Saunders directly broke off his thoughts, anyway, the team's management has no requirements for records, and as long as Garnett is there, even X**D can enter the playoffs, so the current Timberwolves are also the most resolute team in the league to implement X**D tactics.

And after Garnett received a pass from Trill Brandon and tried several times in a row, but there were no good opportunities, Garnett also gave the basketball to Szzzerbiak who got rid of Sean Elliott through the air cut. The Spurs' defensive rotation is very good, but Sean Elliott and Mario Eli are very old, and their footsteps often can't keep up with each other, but fortunately, in the Spurs team, whether it is Meng Xu or Duncan, the ability to assist in defense is very good, so Szzerbiak just received the ball, and he didn't even have a chance to adjust, so Meng Xu appeared in front of him with a big hand.

Now the Szzerbiak who receives the ball is also sad, Meng Xu's defense is too good, whether it is a single defense or a co-defense, it is now the top in the league, and he is not the kind of player who is physically talented, he can rely on his body to eat Meng Xu, so every time he faces the Spurs, every time he faces his good friend, Szzambiak will play very uncomfortable, and this time is no exception, and finally after Szzerbiak protected the ball in place for more than 2 seconds, he passed the ball back to the Timberwolves' organizational guard Trill Brandon again.

"The Spurs' defensive intensity has been directly improved by a level compared to the regular season." Looking at the first round, it has been more than 20 seconds, the Timberwolves have not found a suitable opportunity, and Michaels on the commentary bench is also incredible, the Spurs' defense in the regular season is good enough, and the average points per game have been kept below 90 points for 3 consecutive years, the Spurs have always been the best defensive team in the league, but I didn't expect that in the playoffs, the Spurs' defensive intensity could be stronger.

"El, that's the intensity of the playoffs, and the playoffs will always be a stage for superstars." After Magic Johnson finished speaking, he also looked at the center of the Spurs, the former star David Robinson, originally according to David Robinson's performance, there is no problem in entering the top 50 in history, but David Robinson has been criticized as soon as he arrives in the playoffs, so he has always been criticized, which has directly led to his historical status falling by more than one notch.

Seeing that the Timberwolves were about to violate the 24-second rule, Anthony Peeler had to throw the basketball in his hand in the direction of the basket, and the basketball just came out of his hand, and the 24-second time of the offense was over.

After seeing this round of excellent defense, Popovich on the sidelines also nodded with great satisfaction, from the second half of this season, Popovich began to artificially control the game state of all Spurs players, first adjusted their game status to the trough, and then slowly adjusted after entering the playoffs, after two rounds of series adjustments, when the Western Conference finals arrived, the state of the Spurs players would be stimulated, and in this series with the Timberwolves, The state of the Spurs players is just in the stage of slowly rising from the trough, and this state has been well shown in the team's training match today, except for Duncan who can control his game state freely, other Spurs players, even old fritters like Mario Elie are a little out of shape, not to mention young players such as Meng Xu and Derrick Anderson.

Therefore, in this case, in order to ensure victory over the Timberwolves, in addition to continuing to adjust their game state, the Spurs also directly increased their defensive intensity, and defense has always been the Spurs' strength.