"We're going to win this game."

Looking at the score that was shrinking little by little under the Heat's half-court tight defense, Eric Spoelstra, who was standing on the sidelines, had an excited look in his eyes, as long as the Heat could maintain such a state of play, they would be able to overtake the Spurs sooner or later.

Although at the beginning of the first quarter of the game, the Spurs suppressed the Heat on both offensive and defensive ends, and played a huge 19-11 point difference for the Heat before the official timeout, but from the timeout of Eric Spoelstra, the Spurs' suppression of the Heat began to gradually loosen, under the Heat's half-court tight defense, the Heat players led by LeBron James launched wave after wave of fierce counterattacks, and finally at the end of the first quarter of the game, the Heat narrowed the gap to only 4 points, Losing by 4 points in a single quarter is not a big deal, not to mention that the Heat is still 8 points behind, and the situation on the court is almost pressed to the ground by the Spurs, and they fought back and reversed the unfavorable situation on the court in one fell swoop, so at the end of the first quarter of the game, although the Heat was still behind in the score, the Heat fans on the scene, and the head coach of the Heat, Eric Spoelstra, did not have too much worry, because they knew that the Heat would definitely overtake the score and finally defeat the Spurs.

After a short pause, Eric Spoelstra arranged for Dwyane Wade, who did not play much in the first quarter of the game, and Ray Allen to play with a bench lineup, the Heat's starting lineup is first-class in the entire league, but because of the high salary of the Heat's Big Three and the door-picking mentality of the Heat management, the Heat can only rely on the veteran's base salary and the mid-level contract to sign some veterans who are no longer in the playing years to make up for it, so the Heat's bench lineup is quite bad compared to the Spurs.

Although these veterans are no longer qualified for the rotation position of a championship team in terms of ability, but relying on rich game experience, and the leadership of the Big Three, coupled with Ray Allen, who suddenly exploded in the playoffs this season, the Heat's bench lineup is also remarkable in the face of the Spurs bench composed of Manu Ginobili, Danny Green and Burris Dior, although affected by the Heat's crazy counterattack in the first quarter, the Heat's benches have the upper hand in momentum, But they couldn't turn momentum into victory, and they couldn't continue the Heat's momentum in the second half of the first quarter.

But fortunately, the Heat, from head coach Eric Spoelstra to James, did not have much hope for the bench lineup, counting on them to overtake the score, it was better to pray that the Spurs team suddenly had no touch, so when the first half of the second quarter was over, the Spurs' lead expanded to 6 points, James and Eric Spoelstra also had indifferent expressions, maybe the performance of these benches was exactly the same as their psychological expectations.

Although the Spurs are still on the leading side, they have no momentum to continue to extend the lead, if the Spurs do not make adjustments, when the main lineups of both sides return to the court, the situation on the court will definitely return to the state in the second half of the first quarter, so after the timeout, Popovich decisively replaced Thiago Split with Danny Green into the main lineup, pushing Meng Xu to the fourth position.

And when the main players of both sides reappeared, Meng Xu, who had rested for most of the game, directly stuck to James at the moment when the referee blew the whistle for the start of the game, and compared with the performance of the two sides in the first quarter, Meng Xu's defense of James is obviously more ferocious.

"Is this old guy crazy?"

Looking at Meng Xu, who was crazy about defending James, Eric Spoelstra, who was standing on the sidelines, also couldn't understand the Spurs' tactics, Meng Xu's strength and state after his comeback were so strong that Eric Spoelstra was surprised, so Eric Spoelstra did not hesitate to let James play the fourth position, in order to avoid the confrontation with Meng Xu, but in this game, Popovich kept arranging Meng Xu to take the initiative to find James and provoke a one-on-one between James and Meng Xu. Meng Xu's physical fitness has always been very good, and before he retired, he was even called "Iron Man", but Meng Xu is now 33 years old, and Eric Spoelstra does not believe that Meng Xu's current physical fitness can still support his almost crazy style of play.

"Greg, if Meng continues to fight like this, there will be no problems with his physical fitness, right?" Not to mention Eric Spoelstra, even Popovich's assistant coach Brett Brown is a little incomprehensible to his arrangement, the reason why Popovich arranged Kawhi Leonard and Meng Xu to start together is to rely on Kawhi Leonard's excellent defense to reduce the pressure on Meng Xu on the defensive end, so that Meng Xu can put his limited physical strength into the offensive end, Brett Brown believes that Eric Spoelstra arranged Sean Battier and James to play together, and also retains this idea, But Popovich now asked Meng Xu to look for James at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, so that Meng Xu consumed a lot of physical strength in the second quarter of the game, so Brett Brown never understood what the purpose of Popovich's arrangement was.

"Brett, a game or a series, it's not just about the strength and fighting spirit of the two sides, it's not just about the tactical level of the two sides, it's also very important, that's human nature, remember the two finals when I told you about the Pacers beating the Lakers in a row? The Pacers won not in terms of strength, nor in tactics, but in Larry Bird's mastery of humanity. ”

After the assistant coach asked, Popovich tilted his head and explained in detail to Brett Brown in a very small voice, although Larry Bird is not the greatest player in NBA history, he is the most legendary player in NBA history, because he is the only legend in NBA history that includes the best player, the best coach, and the best general manager.

In particular, Larry Bird's experience of coaching the Pacers is more legendary than Larry Bird's playing career, Larry Bird coached the Pacers as a head coach for five seasons, and in these five seasons, the Pacers' worst record was the Eastern Conference Finals, including three Finals and two championships, and Larry Bird led the Pacers to defeat the strong for two consecutive seasons, defeating the Lakers who were in full swing at the time, and breaking up the Lakers with the F4 combination, which is a classic battle in the Finals.

As a high-minded Popovich who wants to build the Spurs into a giant, it is impossible not to study how the Pacers defeated the strong with the weak, and the more thorough the analysis, the more Popovich admires Larry Bird, human nature, psychological warfare, these are all important parts of a game, and even can affect the whole game, pry the general weight of victory, and what Popovich is doing now is psychological warfare, using James's psychology of wanting to defeat Meng Xu to pry the foundation of the Heat.