As a rookie last season and one of the team's important substitutes, Catino Mobley can play both shooting guard and point guard, due to his physical strength, variety of offensive means, and excellent defense, Catino Mobley is also one of the team's key development targets. And Mobley did not live up to Tomjanovich's expectations, when Francis was limited by Meng Xu and Olajuwon Barkley was physically exhausted, Mobley scored 5 points against Avery Johnson, who was half a head shorter than him, and scored 5 points with a sudden shot, which greatly relieved the pressure on the team. In the end, the Spurs and Rockets ended the first half with a score of 50-44.

"Meng, you take the time to rest first, and Marik Rose will take your place in the second half." After playing a high-intensity game in the half, Popovich was ready to make a change in the second half, replacing Meng Xu and David Robinson with Marrick Rose and Samaki Walker, both of whom have some shooting ability and excellent maneuverability. After this adjustment, Tim Duncan will play as the center, the Spurs will play a big and four small tactics, and at the same time to speed up the pace of the game, after a half-court fight, whether it is Olajuwon or David Robinson, the physical strength of these old players has run out, and the outcome of the game depends on the third quarter.

After the start of the second half of the game, Tom Janovic was also relieved to see Popovich's personnel adjustment, Popovich's adjustment this time was obviously to speed up the pace of the game, so as to drag down these old guys of the Rockets. However, at the halftime break, Tomjanovic also made adjustments, giving up the tactics of playing positional battles and defending with the Spurs, and instead lined up Charles Barkley, Walter Williams, Shanton Anderson, Steve Francis, and Catino Mobley in the second half.

Also after seeing Tomjanovich's adjustment, Popovich also scolded in his heart: "Old fox." ”

When he saw Meng Xu sitting on the field, Francis was also in ecstasy, the pressure Meng Xu brought to himself in the first half was too great, and the guy who was like a dog skin plaster almost collapsed himself.

Both teams want to defeat each other through the third quarter, and the Rockets also sacrificed their killer weapon after the beginning of the third quarter, running and bombing tactics, to be precise, it is a strategy of running up and playing, originally the Rockets have been playing a big and four small, a combination of internal and external tactics, but as the team's tactical core Olajuwon is getting older and older, and his athleticism is getting worse and worse, the Rockets cannot find a player who can take over Olajuwon's tactical position, and this tactic will gradually enter a dead end. After the team selected two fast defenders in a row, Tomjanovic was trying to change the team's tactical system, Tomjanovic first thought of the small ball tactic, after a summer of practice, although not to the point of being used as a regular tactic, but as a spare tactic is enough to use occasionally.

After the start of the 3rd quarter, the style of the two teams changed abruptly, the Rockets and the Spurs both played a high-speed rotation sports battle, the two teams also abandoned the confrontation defense that played half of the court, and played the offense, especially the Rockets, who completely abandoned the defense, and there was only one player left on the court who was more than two meters tall, followed by the continuous acceleration of the pace of the game, and the two sides finally played the beautiful basketball that Mr. Stern hoped for in the 3rd quarter, and the scores of the two teams also rose alternately, seeing Francis with the cooperation of Mobley, When he hit 2 mid-range shots in a row and increased his score to 7 points, Meng Xu couldn't sit still.

"Can't wait." Seeing that Francis was about to score more than 10 points, Meng Xu's heart became more and more impatient, and at the moment when Meng Xu wanted to speak, Popovich also called a timeout.

After the timeout, Popovich made a substitution, this substitution also meant that Popovich's adjustment at the beginning of the third quarter failed, after the game restarted, the Spurs began a slow-paced positional offense, either to patiently look for opportunities in the perimeter continuous passing, or to hand the ball to Duncan, using his height, on the inside against Barkley to play slowly, the basic principle is that as long as you don't make mistakes, even if you can't score, don't let the Rockets play fast break and counterattack, and it takes 20 seconds for an offense to take 20 seconds. Although Duncan's height and arm span are much stronger than Barkley's, and he is younger than Barkley, as an old ruffian who has been in the league for more than ten years, Barkley's defense also makes Duncan very uncomfortable, and under Barkley's marking, Duncan's success rate is also very low. After Duncan finally scored this goal with Barkley in his sitting, Duncan wiped the sweat from his forehead expressionlessly and began to retreat to the backcourt.

Barkley quickly sent the ball to Catino Mobley near the 3-point line, who strode forward and Francis accelerated straight towards the basket. Catino Mobley easily passed Avery Johnson with a change of direction, ignoring Johnson behind him, and Catino Mobley threw the basketball directly in the direction of the basket.

Francis, who had already rushed to the free throw line, took a big step inward and jumped up with a tacit understanding, completely ignoring that Meng Xu had chased after him.

"Steve, be careful." Seeing Meng Xu running wildly all the way and rushing to the basket in advance before the basketball was passed, Mobley behind Francis also shouted loudly.

At the moment when Francis jumped, Meng Xu also jumped up to the left of the basket, which was the necessary route for Francis to go to the basket, after Francis received the ball in the air, his mind was full of thoughts of violent dunks, such an offensive opportunity was also an excellent offensive opportunity for Francis, but when he heard Mobley's shout behind him, he saw Meng Xu flying in front of him in the air, and he wanted to make a lever in the air in a hurry, but was slapped on the basketball by Meng Xu fiercely, Suddenly he lost his balance and fell heavily to the floor.

When Johnson picked up the flying basketball and launched a fast attack, Francis still did not wake up from the shock just now, until now Francis couldn't understand how Meng Xu caught up with him, obviously when he rushed up just now, Meng Xu was still 2 meters behind him.

"It's an amazing speed to return to the defense."