The Spurs called their first timeout just after five minutes of play in the first quarter.

Although the Runners were only five points ahead of the Spurs at this point, Spurs head coach Alexander Pope had already sensed that something was wrong.

The Spurs players are doing a decent job of defending on the court, but Pope can clearly feel that his veterans are struggling.

The veterans do have a lot of experience that the Runners players don't have, but in the face of the young team's outright running style of play, the experience of the veterans is actually not so important.

Defending this very extreme run-and-bomb style of play is either to completely lock in all of the Runners' outside scoring points, or to expect the Runners to feel cold.

But although the Spurs have a lot of veterans with playoff experience, there are only not enough outside defenders, and it is impossible to expect veterans to play with their defense, because it is equivalent to drinking to quench their thirst.

The first game was the home of the Runners, who had already played countless games and practiced on the field, and the Runners players were familiar with almost every detail of the field.

Although the young men of the Runners looked a little excited and nervous today, the feeling they felt when pitching was not affected much by the effect of habit.

That's where home advantage comes in, where the players have supporters, they know the pitch, and they don't worry too much if they have problems.

So the Spurs couldn't meet either condition, so they could only run like they were trying to defend it.

Once you get started, the pace of the game is out of the Spurs' control.

Spurs head coach Alexander Pope had to call a timeout at the halfway point of the first quarter, both to adjust his play and to give the team's veteran a chance to catch his breath.

"Interrupt their shooting, no matter what way it takes, we can only do this in this game, if the opponent really shoots the feeling, then I'm sure the game will lose suspense if it doesn't play at the end, you all know how strong their outside firepower is, just that Oriental kid's three points are dangerous enough, so interrupt their shooting as much as possible, even if it's to send them to the free throw line is better than letting them play smoothly completely."

Pope said that there was no way out, after all, the Spurs really didn't have enough outside defenders, and they could only use this way to make sure the team wasn't brutalized.

Seriously, after the start of the game, the confidence of the Spurs veterans was hit a lot, they originally thought that the Runners, who had little playoff experience, would look helpless in such a game, but who would have thought that such a young team would have such a high execution, their coach didn't seem to care if it was a playoff game or not, or let the players shoot wildly on the outside, and they could all score, and every three-point goal was a blow to the Spurs veterans.

Fernando Torres was also very depressed at this time, he had repeatedly "played" Turgun in the regular season, and then today the referee simply ignored his exaggerated actions.

As a well-known "acting school" in the league, Fernando Torris has actually been blacklisted by the referees, and they don't want to cooperate with this acting school's performance, but in the regular season, given the Spurs' status as a "retirement home", the referees will turn a blind eye to some of the behaviors of many veterans of the Spurs, but after entering the playoffs, and it is still the home court of the Runners, the referees will definitely not tolerate some people in the Spurs anymore.

After the pause, the Spurs really began to act, and the players on the Runners suddenly felt that their pressure began to increase, the opponent's defensive action was even bigger than before, and the attack was also very decisive, between fouls and no fouls, such actions definitely made the Runners players uncomfortable in the playoffs, and also made the referees on duty feel the pressure soared.

Referees are actually not so easy to do, they have to cooperate with the league's promotion policy, they have to take into account the emotions of the two teams, and sometimes they even have to take into account various relationships, so the referees who seem to be honest and serious actually have huge pressure.

Now the Spurs' actions are not judged to be fouls, several referees actually have different ideas, some of them think that this is Sacramento, the Spurs should be awarded a foul, and some people think that this is a playoff game, this kind of foul is actually tolerable.

The referee's hesitation did affect the course of the game, and the Runners had a succession of unsuccessful attacks.

The Spurs didn't take advantage of the opportunity to counter-attack, but they relied on more efficient offense to tie the score.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides began to change their rotation players, and the score was tied at 28, which seemed to be a close match.

However, after the rotation of players from both sides, the Runners gradually showed their advantage, and compared to the calm of the Spurs' rotation players, the young players of the Runners appeared to be more active and focused.

Veterans do have the advantage of veterans, and their rich game experience is definitely a huge asset for a team, but at the same time, veterans also have a lot of flaws, such as slippery, such as laziness, such as lack of aggressiveness.

Veterans who have worked in the league for many years come to San Antonio to relax, and they don't work hard enough to take on a huge injury risk themselves.

Spurs head coach Alexander Pope can manage some people, but he can't manage all the veterans on the team.

So in the two minutes before the end of the first quarter, the Runners' bench lineup led by Francis Leonardo played a wave of 7-0 mini-climax.

The Runners' bench players have stunned the Spurs' rotation players with a more positive form.

"Don't be afraid of confrontation, I even think you should take the initiative to find confrontation, go to their body, now we are the leader, we have the advantage, the free throws seem to be in their favor, but as long as we make sure we hit the free throws, their tactics are completely in vain."

During the intermission, Wang Lei expressed dissatisfaction with the starters who shrank down before leaving the game.

The Spurs' starters were somewhere between fouls and non-fouls when they started on defense, which made the Runners' starters hesitate when handling the ball, and it also caused the opponent to tie the score, and if it wasn't for the excellent performance of the rotation players, the Runners might have fallen behind at this time.