On November 3, 2000, after two consecutive home victories over the Pacers and Timberwolves, the Spurs left San Antonio and left for Golden State, first facing the Golden State Warriors on November 4, and then rushing to Phoenix to face the Suns, after two consecutive road trips, the Spurs will return to San Antonio to face the biggest championship rivals of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Warriors and the Suns are not strong teams in the West, so on this road trip, Popovich also rested two main players in rotation, claiming that it was Sean Elliott who broke his foot in the training game and was going to rest for about a week, while Meng Xu was poisoned by a bad stomach.

After the Spurs rushed to the airport by bus, Meng Xu, who had food poisoning, and Sean Elliott, who had a foot to his feet, are now taking Ira Newbell, who is also on the injury list, to abuse a group of trainers on the court.

"Meng, okay, where did you get so angry?" When Meng Xu broke the ball from the trainer's hand, and then rushed directly to the basket and dunked the basketball in his hand into the basket from another trainer, Sean Elliott behind him shook his head and shouted at Meng Xu. Originally, after the Spurs successfully defended the title last season, Sean Elliott wanted to retire directly, after undergoing kidney transplant surgery, Sean Elliott is now in very poor physical condition, and it is optimistic that he can play about 20 minutes in a game now, but Popovich in order to realize the dream of three consecutive championships, repeatedly persuaded Sean Elliott to play for another year, but he really can't resist his coach, and Sean Elliott also wants to become a witness to a dynasty, In this way, Sean Elliott chose to execute the final year of his contract with the Spurs. Although Sean Elliott chose to stay, Popovich also knew that in the regular season, he should be rested as much as possible and wait until the playoffs to play a greater role.

"Sean, don't let me play, aren't you allowed me to vent on the training ground?" After dragging the basket and shaking it twice, Meng Xu walked directly to the sidelines after landing on the ground, took the water and towels handed by the staff, and sat on the chair.

"Coach, this is for your own good." Sean Elliott took a towel while wiping his sweat and sat next to Meng Xu: "Since I arrived at the Spurs, the coach has been here as an assistant coach, for you, I have never seen him take a player so seriously, maybe Tim is also one, even David has not had this kind of treatment, in the coach's heart, you are as important as Tim, you are the future of San Antonio." ”

"Really?" Listening to Sean Elliott's tirade, Meng Xu stared into his eyes, wanting to see if he was lying to himself. 'I'm not like Thiem, who is the focal point here, the cornerstone of the team, and I'm just a dispensable person. Originally, Meng Xu thought that after the "outstanding" performance in the last game, Meng Xu would get more balls and opportunities in the Spurs, but he didn't expect head coach Popovich to say a word, and directly put Meng Xu on the injury list, and at the same time claimed that Meng Xu was because of food poisoning, and all this Popovich and Mike Budenholzer did not tell themselves in advance, Meng Xu still learned the news of his food poisoning from the TV, which made Meng Xu very unhappy, but when Meng Xu told He Hui the news, After wanting to talk to him, He Hui looked at Meng Xu and didn't speak.

"Meng, you have to believe me, I have been in the team for 11 years, and I know the coach very well. And I think you're better than most of your peers, so you don't have to be presumptuous. This season is the last year of Sean Elliott's playing career, regardless of whether the Spurs can achieve a three-peat, after the end of this season, Sean Elliott will choose to retire, and Mario Elli, the two have already discussed this summer, but compared to Mario going into business, Sean Elliott decided to stay with Popovich as an assistant coach like Steve Kerr.

"Perhaps." Although Sean Elliott said this, Meng Xu was not sure now, because the head coach had never told him all this, and after putting down the water glass in his hand, Meng Xu walked towards the gym. Because he wanted to rest for at least 6 days, Meng Xu decided to continue to practice today, and the additional training items are still strength, Meng Xu has always followed Duncan to practice some low-post singles skills, but if you want to practice low-post back-to-back singles, you can't do it without enough strength. At the same time, according to the plan made by the Spurs for Meng Xu, with Meng Xu's height, it is best to maintain a weight between 100 and 105 kilograms, so Meng Xu is still a little thin now, although it is only a few days, but the weight gain plan will continue to be implemented.

Just when Meng Xu and Ira Newbell were practicing in the gym, the game between the Spurs and the Warriors had already played half time, seeing the shooting percentage of these outside players of the Spurs on the court, Popovich now misses Meng Xu and Sean Elliott very much, Derrick Anderson, who started this game, shot 1 of 6 in the first half, 0 of 3 three-pointers, Avery Johnson shot 1 of 4, Samaki Walker shot 2 of 6, Mario Elie shot 0 of 4, fortunately, Duncan and Robinson were as stable as ever, Substitute Marrick Rose shot 7-of-8 from the field and 4-of-7 from the free-throw line in the first half, scoring a team-high 18 points, and relying on Malik Rose's excellent play, the Spurs were able to lead the Warriors by 4 points at halftime 50-46.

You must know that the Warriors are a fish-belly team, with an astonishing record of 19 wins and 63 losses last season, ranking third from the bottom of the league, and facing such a team, the defending champions have played so hard. At the same time, due to Meng Xu's absence, in the first half of the Warriors' backcourt double gun Antoine Jamison and Larry Hughes combined for 29 points, Antoine Jamison shot 7 of 14, 2 of 2 3-pointers, 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 19 points in half a game, you must know that last season, the Spurs and the Warriors met in 4 regular season games, and Antoine Jamison averaged only 14 points per game under Meng Xu's defense, and the overall shooting rate was only 38%.

In the end, relying on the bench Marry Cross's career-high 30 points, and Duncan's 23 points and 14 rebounds, the Spurs won a very thrilling 113-107 victory over the Golden State Warriors on the road, Antoine Jamison scored a game-high 34 points, Larry Hughes scored 25 points, and the Warriors' 3-point shooting rate reached 44% in the game, and the defensive system that the Spurs relied on to survive was gone.

After the end of the game with the Warriors, the Spurs rushed to Phoenix, this game the Spurs were not as lucky as the last game, there was no second Marrick Cross to stand up to save the team, 12 of 14 in the last game, only 3 of 14 shots in this game, the Spurs' shooting rate was as low as 36% in the whole game, and only 1 of 9 3-pointers, except for Duncan who scored 18 points, no one on the team scored double-doubles. Derrick Anderson shot 2 of 6, Avery Johnson shot 2 of 7, Antonio Daniels shot 1 of 6, Jalen Jackson shot 1 of 5, and Mario Elie shot 1 of 7.

On the Suns' side, the situation is basically similar to the last game of the Warriors, the Suns have several outside shots, small forward Sean Marion scored a game-high 26 points, Tony Deck 22 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, Jason Kidd contributed 10 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists of quasi-triple-double data, and finally in the absence of Anfernee Hardaway, the Suns beat the defending champion by as many as 25 points at home 103-78.

"Greg, what are we going to do in the next game against the Lakers?" On the flight back to San Antonio, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer, who was sitting next to Popovich at this time, saw Popovich looking at the clouds outside the plane and was a little distracted, and he was a little helpless to suggest to him. The performance of the Spurs in these two games was really poor, not only could they not play the desired coordination on the offensive end, but even the defense they relied on for survival was beaten into a sieve.

Obviously, without Meng Xu and Sean Elliott, to be precise, after the lack of Meng Xu, the strength of the Spurs has directly dropped a notch, especially the defense on the outside, it is basically the same, after Meng Xu and Sean Elliott took turns to rest, Mario Elli played small forward, and Derrick Anderson played as a scoring guard, it turned out that whether it was defense or offense, Meng Xu and Sean Elliott have left them more than one street.

But when I think of the game with the Timberwolves, Popovich has a headache, Meng Xu is developing more and more in the opposite direction he wants, Meng Xu's singles success rate in that game is really high, but that is also based on the Timberwolves' outside garbage, once Meng Xu develops this habit of liking brainless singles, then what should the Spurs do when facing those teams with excellent outside defense in the future? Especially among the Spurs' championship contenders, which team doesn't have more than two excellent outside linemen?

Similarly, relative to Meng Xu, Duncan is the cornerstone of the team, no matter what tactics Popovich tries, it must be with Duncan as the core, even if you want to integrate Duncan and Meng Xu's triangle offense, the role of the terminator must be Duncan, and Meng Xu can only be Pippen. And now Duncan is at the peak of his career, not surprisingly, this peak state will last at least 10 years or so, as far as Meng Xu's style of play, one or two games are okay, and the two will inevitably have conflicts after a long time. If that happens, the team will inevitably send one of the two away, but Popovich can't give up either one. Whether it is Duncan or Meng Xu, for Popovich, they are treated as if they were his own children, whether they give up and take one, it is unacceptable in their hearts.

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