When the game between the two sides continues, the Trail Blazers' three interior tactics are indeed very good at limiting Duncan, especially the Trail Blazers' three interior players, to the surrounding of the paint area, the entire space under the basket is almost crowded by them, although Duncan's offensive ability is very good, and the shooting range is also very large, whether it is one-on-one, or even one-on-two, he can handle several interior lines of the Trail Blazers, but let Duncan go to one against three, it is undoubtedly difficult for some strongmen, under the joint blockade of the Trail Blazers' three interior lines, Under this almost relevant defensive style of wrapping around the front, Duncan's performance in the first quarter was indeed a bit aberration, and he only took three shots in the entire first quarter and scored 5 points.

In the face of the Trail Blazers' 3 inside, the number of shots of the Spurs team was greatly reduced, and the Spurs outside group, which performed well in the previous games, in addition to Meng Xu, were also a little abnormal in this game, especially Avery Johnson, who once again returned to his true colors as an iron god, Sean Elliott and Mario Airy were incarnated as nerve knives, and the Spurs got a total of 21 shooting opportunities in the first quarter, including 12 three-point shots, but only hit 4 shots. At the end of the first quarter, the Spurs trailed the Trail Blazers by two points at home, 21-23.

"The Trail Blazers' 3 interior tactics in this game were actually not successful, but due to the poor shooting rate of the Spurs' outside players, the Trail Blazers unexpectedly took the lead at the end of the first quarter of the game." When Meng Xu hit the first 3-pointer after the opening, Magic Johnson almost sentenced the Trail Blazers to death, but after the first quarter of the game, the Spurs he supported slapped himself in the face with a bad performance.

The advantages and disadvantages of the three inside tactics are very obvious, especially in the face of those teams with strong outside projection ability, as long as the opponent feels normal, I am afraid that it will be killed by a group of outside shooters of the opponent in the first half of the court. But in terms of the current situation of the Spurs, although the Spurs' 3-point ability in the regular season is very poor, but since the playoffs and the Lakers' series, the 3-point ability shown by the Spurs has suddenly risen a notch, but the only drawback is that the stability is poor, even the Spurs' best shooting on the outside line Meng Xu often has times when he plays abnormally.

Therefore, although the Spurs also put a lot of pressure on the Trail Blazers on the defensive end, the Trail Blazers still firmly suppressed the Spurs by relying on their huge advantage on the inside.

"Meng, well done." Although the team still lagged behind the Trail Blazers because the offense was not opened, as the most normal performance in the first quarter, when Meng Xu went off the court, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer still praised Meng Xu's performance very much.

"Meng, do you have a problem with your physical strength?" Because the main team of the Spurs played the whole quarter in the first quarter, when the main players came off the court and sat on the bench, Popovich immediately asked Meng Xu about his physical strength.

"No problem at all." After using Reggie Miller's training card, Meng Xu's physical strength has been greatly improved again, and it is no problem to play 35 minutes in a game of this intensity in the playoffs.

After a pause, as if experiencing a fierce mental struggle, Popovich patted Meng Xu on the shoulder with a tactical board: "Hurry up and rest first, and in the next game, you will defend Pippen and limit the connection between him and several interior players of the Trail Blazers." "Because Pippen's position on the court in this game is a scoring guard, so it is Mario Elie who is opposite Pippen, but Mario Elie has no way to take Pippen, and Meng Xu, who is also opposite Rasheed Wallace, can not prevent Rasheed Wallace at all, Rasheed Wallace, who is more than 10 cm taller than Meng Xu, when facing Meng Xu, whether it is a mid-distance jump shot or a back-to-back single, it makes Meng Xu want to die, due to the defect of strength, when defending these big forwards in a dislocation Meng Xu was always a little powerless.

Because the Trail Blazers use a three-inside strategy, so the player who connects the inside and outside has become a very critical point, because of the removal of Steve Smith and the replacement of an inside line, so now the Trail Blazers don't even have a stable strong point on the outside, if you can limit Pippen, the lubricant of the Trail Blazers, then even if the Trail Blazers have a big inside advantage, it is difficult to play.

After the start of the second quarter of the game, Duncan did not rest, but stayed on the court with a group of substitutes, after the Trail Blazers sent all 3 All-Star interior players to the starting lineup, although the bench roster depth still has a very big advantage over the Spurs, but relying only on O'Neal Jr. and Brian Grant can not effectively limit Duncan. Similarly, while Steve Smith broke up the backcourt combination of Terry Burt and Jalen Jackson, the Spurs relied on Duncan's excellent play to stubbornly equalize the score at the official timeout in the second quarter.

When the main lineups of both sides returned to the court and saw Tim Duncan, who was still on the court, Michaels also said with a puzzled face: "Is Popovich ready to let Tim play the whole game?" "Just from the game, the Spurs haven't reached the point where they need Duncan to play the full game.

"Perhaps, it's to contain the Trail Blazers' 3 interior lines, the current Spurs, the interior line is really unavailable, if Marik Rose is allowed to face Avidas Sabonis and Detreve Schramf, the Spurs will be blown up."

"Are the Spurs going to press the Trail Blazers all over the court?" When Scottie Pippen held the ball in the backcourt and encountered Meng Xu's close pressing, the situation on the field of the two teams also changed a lot.

Although Pippen's ball control is very good, but in the face of Meng Xu's kraft candy defense, Pippen can't even find a suitable opportunity to play the ball now, in the past, arm span and speed are Pippen's advantages, which also makes Pippen invincible when controlling the ball and defending, but in the face of Meng Xu, Pippen's arm span advantage is basically gone, and Meng Xu's movement speed is even faster. Similarly, when Pippen wanted to use his experience and consciousness to make some feints, they were all recognized by Meng Xu without exception, and Meng Xu was always able to appear half a beat in advance on the route that Pippen wanted to appear next. If Pippen's ball control was very good, coupled with his rich game experience, I am afraid that Meng Xu would have broken the ball a long time ago.