Chapter 457: Who Says the King?
By the first official timeout of the game, the Kings had an eight-point lead over the Spurs 16-8, with Kenny and Barkley both predicting Popovich to make a change.
Sure enough, after returning from the timeout, kawaii replaced Kyle Anderson, who had just returned from injury and had been pressed by Popovich for playing time, but now the Spurs are too far behind, not only in terms of score, but also in terms of momentum, and he must play early.
The task after going on the field is not easy, and in the first round, you have to misplace Zhang Feng.
The two have fought before, Zhang Feng won by speed, and now they are facing each other again, and there is no need to try again.
I saw Zhang Feng's crotch, which was originally stopped at the top of the arc, twisted, and then his upper body shook, and he rushed to the 45-degree three-point line on the right side in a daze. The kawaii is held high with his left hand and the soles of his feet moving one after another, following closely.
The master duel, the fight is a slight advantage, Zhang Feng is one step faster, every step is faster, after he settles down, kawaii is still half a body distance away from him.
Kawaii has a long arm span, but it can't smooth out this distance, and Zhang Feng still pulls it directly, and even the shooting action is one motion shot, and kawaii can only brake and look back at the hoop.
'Whew', the basketball hollowed into the net, and the king scored another 3 points.
"The Spurs are finished, and the strongest point can't hold Zhang Feng, Popovich is probably very uncomfortable," Barkley said with a little regret.
"Alright, it's the first time, let's take a look," Kenny said.
Yibian Spurs attacked, kawaii tried to single Justin at 45 degrees on the right side, and he was about to play, but Zhang Feng was suddenly trapped, and he could only pass the ball to Murray.
Without Zhang Feng's defense, Murray didn't want to shoot immediately.
'Duang', the shot hit the iron, the rebound was picked up by Lefou, the king launched a defensive counterattack, Zhang Feng received the ball and strode across the halfway, and Murray and Kawaii chased after him.
The three of them reached the three-point line with their front and back feet, Zhang Feng suddenly braked and stopped, Murray hit his head, the referee blew the whistle, and Murray fouled.
"The Spurs didn't make any free throws, so why did they foul? Could it be that the king is more powerful in playing positions than in fast attack? Zhang Feng can't understand this operation," Barkley shook his head.
"It's not that you don't know, Zhang Feng is a master of psychological warfare, his original intention is not to score, but to destroy Murray's defensive confidence, if Zhang Feng creates another foul on Murray later, will he dare to defend him?" Kenny seems to be very clear.
On the court, the Kings served on the left sideline to reorganize the offense, but in the playoffs, every ball was fought for, and the Spurs were heavily defended.
Zhang Feng stood in the short corner on the right side, and after the referee signaled the timer to start, he continued to use the off-ball cover of Love and Randolph to rush all the way to the left sideline, before freeing his left hand to receive Justin's pass.
As soon as he received the ball, Murray stuck to him again and stuck him to the right, deliberately forcing him to go from the left touchline.
Zhang Feng looked up and saw that there was a kawaii in the short corner on the left, although he was not afraid, but he couldn't joke with his physical strength. Between the lightning and flint, Zhang Feng dribbled the ball behind his back with his left hand, and at the same time slammed his right foot to the lower right, making a gesture to detour the right half near the halfway line.
Murray was not slow to react, and he moved sideways with his feet in small steps in succession, trying to catch up with Zhang Feng.
But who knows, after Zhang Feng controlled the ball with his right hand, he suddenly made a large change of direction in front of his body, and pulled the ball down to the left side. Once he went back and forth, he took a position with Morri.
At this moment, Kawaii, who was squatting in the short corner on the left, gave up Justin and went straight to Zhang Feng without looking back.
There is a saying in chess called 'horses don't go to the side', Zhang Feng is on the left sideline after changing direction in advance, if the pinch is formed, he will fall into the point where there is no way to advance and no way back, and the worst thing is that his teammates can't respond, which can be said to be a dead game.
Just from this defense, you can see how terrible Kawaii's defensive awareness is.
However, Zhang Feng did not have the slightest panicked look on his face, he didn't even frown slightly, and in the face of the pinch, he directly pulled out his hand for 3 points from a long distance.
Hit! A look of despair flashed on Kawaii's face, Mori's face was confused, and Popovich's body on the sidelines shook slightly.
"Ouch, I'm Cao, this Nima is okay?" Barkley seems to be too emotional, and he actually exploded in the live broadcast in the United States.
"Although no one can understand this kind of operation, it is still necessary to be low-key and calm, and to maintain the basic quality of a host, but it is true that he is too hanging" Kenny couldn't help but praise in a rude way.
"When this ball is played, the game is over, and it depends on how long the Spurs can hold on," Barkley sighed.
"It's only the first quarter, isn't it?" Kenny was a little incredulous.
But the ensuing result made him have to believe that after the first quarter, the King led the Spurs 36-22, in fact, as far as the playoffs are concerned, the Spurs' single quarter score is not bad, but they can't stand Zhang Feng's general performance.
During the timeout, the Kings bench was asking Zhang Feng why he shot a 3-pointer.
"I also made a bet that I saw that Randolph and Love were in a good position under the basket, and if we didn't hit, we would probably be able to grab the rebound, and if we hit, the Spurs would definitely be a lot weaker. But in fact, the most important thing is that as soon as I make such a move, the other side can't understand it, and can only guess my routine, so that their defense will be very passive, and you can also see the results later," Zhang Feng said.
"Make sure you don't lose money, you kid, in the next few rounds, the Spurs are all blind defense, a moment of packing, a moment of changing defense, you kid has a set" Carter gave a thumbs up.
At the end of the timeout, the two sides switched to the second lineup, although the Spurs were led by kawaii on one side, the Kings couldn't guard against him, Rose also played a 55 with Parker, and Mason was also choked by the 'demon knife' Ginobili, but at the point of the power forward, Giles completely broke Rudy Gay.
When the first official timeout of the second quarter arrived, the Kings still led by 8 points, but after Zhang Feng and other starters returned to the court, the Spurs' scoring efficiency fell off a cliff.
But the Spurs relied on Gasol and Ade, chasing the score little by little, and showed no signs of giving up the game.
Just when Barkley thought that the game between the two teams would be deadlocked until the fourth quarter, the Kings, who came back from a halftime timeout, replaced the five-small lineup of Zhang Feng, Bogdan, Temple, Carter, and Love.
In the face of the five-small lineup's 'mad dog' style close-to-the-top steals, and the defensive strategy of shrinking the basket in advance if they couldn't grab it, the Spurs were once in a mess.
On offense, the Kings' five-small lineup is crazy to pass the ball and bet on 3 points, the Spurs are tired, the defense has many loopholes, and the king has a burst of hands, hitting 6 3-pointers in a row, directly putting the game into garbage time.
In the end, the Kings won the first game of the playoffs with a score of 113-100 against the Spurs and won their first victory. Zhang Feng also relied on 32 points, 11 and 5 steals to win the best data of the day.
At the exciting press conference after the game, Popovich bluntly said that he couldn't understand Zhang Feng's tactical strategy, and the Spurs failed to make quick adjustments, and they were convinced of the loss.
There was nothing wrong with this statement, but under the misinterpretation of people with good intentions, there was a claim that Popovich thought that the head coach of the Kings, David, was a puppet.
At first, no one cared about this statement, and no one discussed it, but after ESPN's official tweet and forward, it was deleted in seconds, and it spread to the entire social network at once, and fans followed the trend and started a routine.
Who is in charge of the king?