At the end of the first quarter of the game, the Runners were still one point behind the Heat, although the gap was very small, but it also showed the correctness of the Heat's previous defensive strategy, after all, according to the offensive firepower of the Runners in many previous games, a point difference of less than 20 points is not a big difference for them.

Although the Runners are good at playing tailwinds and playing against the wind, they have also staged a lot of comebacks in the regular season, especially when someone on the Runners team suddenly breaks out, and sometimes it is really difficult to judge who is the real core of the Runners.

Blair has had a number of consecutive 40+ scoring performances, Turgun has also had a single game 40+ or even 50+ scoring performances, Salish has also had a performance of scoring more than 20 points in a single quarter in the regular season, and the Runners in addition to these three cores, such as Stephen and Francis, and even Erwin have had extremely bright performances in the game.

So throughout the first quarter of the game, the Heat team was very careful on defense, not only to be careful of the sudden outbursts of the three cores such as Turgon, but also to be careful of the outbursts of role players including Francis, Stephen and others.

I have to say that this kind of careful defense is really too draining, especially mentally, and the Heat's starters feel a little dazed when they leave the court.

At the start of the second quarter, there were only role players and rotation players left on both sides, with Turgun and Wall also resting, and the Runners brought Sallich on the court to distribute the ball with Francis Leonardo.

The Heat, on the other hand, have a predominantly veteran rotation lineup who have a lot of experience and know when to cut off the Runners' speed, so the two sides continued to play hard after the start of the second quarter.

Wang Lei and Claeson are both exploring each other's next tactical ideas at this time, Wang Lei believes that Claeson will continue to play the current way of play, because although the Heat team looks precarious, they have always maintained the lead, and more importantly, the Heat team is almost taking what they want on the inside.

Clayson's side believes that Wang Lei will definitely change the team's style of play next, the reason is also the inside problem, Clayson does not believe that Wang Lei will go all the way to the black, even if it adopts a passive strategy such as fouling or shrinking defense, Clayson always thinks that Wang Lei will definitely consider making changes.

The role players and rotation players on both sides played quite fiercely on the court, and the Runners side still used a run-and-gun tactic, with Francis and Salich sharing the ball, Francis in charge of leading the pace, and Salich in charge of positional breakouts.

The veterans of the Heat team are more insidious, they use all kinds of "small means" to constantly stimulate the nerves of the runners players, and at the same time, all kinds of exaggerated and performative actions are also endless.

The temper was a little hot and Francis originally bullied the Heat's backup point guard Valles, but then he was "taken care of" by the Heat's veteran.

After a diagonal run with Sallich, Francis used his physical advantage to shake off Valles and go straight to the basket, but the Heat backup center, 36-year-old veteran Sam White, used a very bad "dark elbow" to elbow Francis to the ground.

Francis, who had a temper, almost immediately got up to have a "passionate collision" with Sam White, but fortunately Sallich was extremely shrewd and hugged Francis, avoiding a violent incident on the court.

Although Sam White was sent out directly by the referee, Francis also had to go off early because of the pain in his ribs.

Although the team doctor judged that Francis, who was very physically fit, was only injured and there was no major problem, Francis, who was in unbearable pain, was replaced by Wang Lei.

The Runners began to replace the starters in advance because of this accident, and Claeson also immediately replaced Wall and others.

At this time, the game had reached about the fifth minute of the second quarter, and the difference between the two sides was three points, and the Runners had the offensive ball.

After Turgun came on the court, he began to control the ball, and Wall still pressed very hard, but Turgun firmly controlled the ball and did not give Wall any chance to steal.

The Runners' offense slowed down suddenly, with Sallich "impersonating" power forward in the high post and defensive former power forward Toby Sevig "impersonating" center to cover Turgun at a 45-degree angle on the left.

Wall had already seen the cover of the Runners players out of the corner of his eye, so he immediately accelerated to get around Toby, but at this time, Toby Syves, who had done a normal screen move, suddenly turned his back to Wall, and at the same time, Salich in the high post moved outside the three-point line with a counterrun.

Turgon, who was dribbling the ball, looked as if he was going to dribble behind Toby to find an opportunity, but as soon as Toby turned, Turgun changed direction and moved towards the baseline.

Wall immediately braked and chased after Turgon, his center of gravity adjusted quickly, and he didn't give Turgun much space.

However, by this time, Salish had already bypassed Toby Sevig and ran to the position of Turgon, and the Heat players who defended him were well blocked by Tobin Vichy.

At the same time, due to Turgon's previous change of direction, Corey Ryder, the Heat interior who defended Toby, was also attracted to Turgon's attention, so Salish had a very large open shot.

Naturally, Turgun was not going to miss such an opportunity, and he passed the ball almost as soon as Salehi was out of position.

Sallich catches the ball from beyond the three-point line and immediately shoots a three-pointer.

In the first quarter of the game, Salish missed none of his three shots from beyond the three-point line, which already showed that he had a bad hand, but at this time, Salish did not hesitate to shoot in the face of open opportunities.

The curve of the basketball is relatively flat, which is a characteristic of Salish's shots, and it is not at all the same as the spinning ball of Turgon.

Despite the flat arc and the lack of touch in the first quarter, Salehi hit the basket with a resolute shot that hit the rim of the basket and then obediently drilled into the net.

Sallich used such a wonderful three-point strategy to announce the recovery of his hand, and also allowed the Runners to tie the score for the first time in this game, and more importantly, this three-point shot made the Heat's defense even more worried, because the Runners have found another scoring point.