"Meng, after you get on the court, no matter whether the Thunder change the lineup and strategy, you need to strengthen your individual offense appropriately."

During the break in the first half of the first quarter, Popovich, who was sitting next to Meng Xu, watched the game that was going on on the court and arranged for Meng Xu to deploy after the official timeout.

"I see." Because Meng Xu mainly focuses on strategy and attracting defense in the first quarter of the game, so in the next game, the Thunder's bag clamp on Meng Xu is bound to be lax, especially after Kevin Durant is pushed to the position of power forward, the person responsible for wrapping Meng Xu is Kevin Martin, because his body is too thin, so Kevin Martin is definitely not as good as Durant in defense, plus Kevin Martin does not have Durant's height and arm span, so Kevin Martin is cooperating with Sapo Sofrosa to wrap Meng Xu, it will definitely not achieve the effect of Durant with the bag.

After Kevin Martin came to contain Meng Xu, it was equivalent to the Thunder freeing Durant, so Popovich asked Meng Xu to strengthen the offense after coming on the court and beat Durant back.

Because the Thunder fell too far behind in the first quarter of the game, so after the start of the second quarter, the Thunder's main lineup did not rest, but continued to play all, but the Spurs are still Manu Ginobili, with a group of substitute lineups, with Ginobili present, the Spurs will basically not have a scoring drought in a short period of time, so even if it is the bench against the main team, Popovich is not worried.

I have to say that the young people on the Spurs' bench, under the leadership of Ginobili, played quite hard, whether it was Gary Neal facing Westbrook, or Thiago Splitt facing Kevin Durant's performance, it was all remarkable, of course, the most important thing is Ginobili, as the core of the bench lineup, and the main offensive point on the court, Ginobili After appearing in the second quarter of the game, he repeatedly broke through to the layup under the Thunder's encirclement and interception, Not only that, Ginobili also grabbed Kevin Martin, the only defensive shortcoming of the Thunder on the court, and continued to play strongly, which made the Thunder's main lineup have always occupied the advantage on the court, but they have always beaten the Spurs to death.

48-44, when the official timeout came in the second quarter, the Spurs still maintained the lead, so when the bench lineup came off the court, head coach Popovich got up and walked to the sideline and encouraged the bench players who came off the court one by one.

As for the head coach of the Thunder, Scott Brooks, his face is not very good-looking now, because Scott Brooks originally expected to use the main force to catch up with the score, but now the result is not ideal, although they also recovered a few points, but it is far from meeting Scott Brooks' requirements, because Scott Brooks's bottom line is to equalize the score before the Spurs' main lineup comes on the court, so Scott Brooks is very dissatisfied with the result that the two sides are still 4 points apart.

"Damn, that's true!" When the Spurs' main lineup returned to the court, what Scott Brooks feared happened, Meng Xu was caught by Sapo Sofrosa and Kevin Martin, and the Spurs quickly widened the gap between the two sides to nearly 10 points again.

After Kevin Martin and Sapo Soflosa's package was almost useless, Scott Brooks had to replace Kevin Martin and re-let Durant cooperate with Sapo Sofrosa to pack Meng Xu, but after Kevin Martin went down, although Meng Xu's scoring momentum was contained, the Thunder's offense also became sluggish, Kawhi Leonard defended Westbrook, Meng Xu Meng Xu defended Durant, and the Thunder's two offensive strengths were once again targeted by the Spurs.

And when the halftime ended, the Spurs led the Thunder by as many as 12 points at 66-54, and even the Thunder die-hard fans at the scene realized that the Thunder was likely to face the result today.

"It's an endless loop." After handing over the task of arranging tactics to his assistant, Scott Brooks, who was sitting in the locker room, has been thinking about the strategy of dealing with the Spurs, but the more he thinks about it, the more Scott Brooks feels that there is no strategy to follow, not to contain Meng Xu, with Meng Xu's scoring ability and scoring explosiveness, the ending of the Thunder will undoubtedly be the same as that of the Warriors, but with Meng Xu, the Thunder not only has to sacrifice offense, but also face the situation of pressing the gourd and floating the scoop.

"Forget it, no matter." After pondering for nearly ten minutes, Scott Brooks decided to break the boat, give up the bag on Meng Xu, send the Thunder's strongest offensive lineup, and make a final fight in the third quarter, anyway, it is now 12 points behind, the Thunder has been forced to the edge of the cliff by the Spurs, how bad can the situation on the court be?

"This guy is really bold." After the second half of the game restarted, Popovich got up and walked to the sidelines after seeing the Thunder's lineup and the tactics used in the first round, and turned his head to look at Scott Brooks, who was also standing on the sidelines not far away. And it also means that Scott Brooks finally chose offense between defense and offense.

In this league, no matter which team it is, no matter who it is, as long as it is a one-on-one defense, it is an excellent offensive opportunity for Meng Xu, Sapo Soflosa's single defense is first-class, but when defending Meng Xu, it is obviously not enough, because no one can defend a player who has all attributes and abilities surrounding him in all directions.

Before deciding to give up the bag on Meng Xu, Scott Brooks was mentally prepared enough, so when Meng Xu staged a personal scoring show again at the beginning of the third quarter, Scott Brooks also endured not to make changes, but the Thunder, who strengthened the offense, still couldn't narrow the difference between the two sides.

The gap of about 10 points is not an irretrievable point difference, so the Thunder players on the court have been gritting their teeth and chasing after the Spurs, but when the third quarter of the game is over, the difference between the two sides is still 12 points, and the confidence of the Thunder began to waver.

Because their physical fitness has been problematic after the end of the third quarter of the game, because a big hole was dug at the beginning of the game, so several main forces of the Thunder have almost no rest in the first three quarters of the game, plus the intensity of today's game is far greater than before, so the two cores of the Thunder, especially Kevin Durant, who has to do his best at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, are already tired and don't want to move after the end of the third quarter of the game. It's impossible for the Thunder to win this game.

In the end, when the game was over, the Thunder, who were playing at home, lost the first game of the Western Conference Finals 107-122, and also lost their home court advantage.