After Duncan's ultra-low-key retirement in the offseason, the Spurs signed Pau Gasol on the free agent market to fill the void left by Duncan.

After the Lakers and Kobe Bryant teamed up to achieve two consecutive championships, his form is declining, defense has never been his strong point, and as a star inside, it is difficult to satisfy fans with the shooting rate falling to 46%.

There is no doubt that Pau Gasol is no longer the sister-in-law who teamed up with Kobe Bryant to shake the league, especially the decline in finishing ability is very obvious, but in the Bulls, Gasol once again regained his second spring, re-hit a shooting rate of nearly 50%, and entered the All-Star bench, and Gasol's superb strategy and passing skills will not decline with age, and the ball quotient will only increase and not decrease.

Popovich has always liked players who play smart, and Gasol is the type he admires.

Gasol has also shown the experience of a veteran so far this season, and his integration into the Spurs has been seamless.

With the arrival of star player Aldridge the previous year and the addition of Gasol in the offseason, in the first season after Duncan's retirement, fans found that the Spurs did not have the slightest downward trend, and the momentum was very good.

Up to now, there are only 4 teams in the entire league that can really see the possibility of impacting the championship, the Warriors and Cavaliers, followed by the Spurs and Clippers.

Although the Mavericks performed very eye-catching under the leadership of Chen Zhi, and the Mavericks, who only lost two games, still had a winning percentage above the Spurs, the Mavericks still did not become a team with championship strength in the hearts of fans, especially Chen Zhi's recent shooting rate has gradually declined, and it is even more difficult to support the Mavericks with a weak lineup alone.

There are also many fans in major online forums who believe that the Mavericks are also one of the championship teams, after all, the winning rate and momentum are excellent, and this year's Mavericks are obviously different from previous years, not to mention that the Mavericks still have a big killer.

The two sides obviously will not fight for a result, and the most convincing conclusion is that the performance of the Mavericks in the next game will be the best test of whether they have the strength to compete for the championship, because the next team that the Mavericks will play against happens to be the Spurs, Clippers, and Cavaliers, all of which are strong teams with the possibility of winning the championship.

In the previous game with the Warriors, the Mavericks tried their best but still failed, which is why fans questioned the lack of gold content of the Mavericks' winning rate.

The veteran driver, Delon, Barria, and Harris are still on the waiver card, and the Mavericks have been hit by this wave of injuries very seriously, the team's two backup point guards have been injured and fell, and Harris, who has the ability to point guard in the position, has also been affected by injuries.

When Curry Jr. was transferred as a backup point guard, only Matthews and Anderson were left in the position to rotate, and once the Mavericks had another injury, it was really precarious.

What's even more lethal is that Mavericks center Bogut has a sore calf after the game against the Magic, and he will not play in this game against the Spurs, and whether he can play in the following games depends on the results of the team doctor's examination.

Although Chen's presence gives Mavericks fans hope at all times, the Mavericks' recent injury situation really makes it difficult for fans to believe that the Mavericks can continue to play a good record.

The inside starting lineup of Finney Smith and Mgerry is simply heartbreaking to watch, these two players may not even be able to enter the rotation lineup in other teams, and they are actually starters in the Mavericks!

Compared to the Mavericks' broken lineup, the Spurs' starting lineup is still luxurious, if not as star-studded as the Warriors.

Point guard Parker, point guard Danny Green, small forward Leonard, power forward Pau Gasol, center Aldridge.

In this lineup, there are Parker, Leonard, two FMVPs, four All-Star members, and the split player Danny Green is also a well-known 3D player in the league.

Just looking at this starting lineup configuration, even if the Spurs defeat the Warriors in the end, it is not impossible, not to mention that there are still two star players on the bench, Ginobili and David Lee, as well as Patty Mills, who is known as the god of rice.

It is no exaggeration to say that this season's Spurs have a balanced and strong lineup, especially the strength of the bench lineup is above the Warriors, not to mention the halo bonus of Old Man Popovich, which is the root cause of their ability to beat the Warriors by 29 points in the opening game!

Even if the lineup comparison is so high, as the fans said in the barrage in the live broadcast, as long as Chen is there, the Mavericks have hope to win!

The Dallas Mavericks took on the San Antonio Spurs, and the fan-watching game started on time at the referee's whistle.

The Mavericks have a precedent of putting Powell in the center position to play a five-small lineup, but in this game against the Spurs, Carlisle deliberately put Mejri in the starting lineup in order to put him against Aldridge.

After Aldridge left the Portland Trail Blazers and joined the Spurs, he was already doing weight building and switching to the center position, and he is now unusually stocky, similar to the lanky frame of the Trail Blazers.

With Powell's thin body, I'm afraid Aldridge will use his back-to-back shooting stunt to blow up the Mavericks, and the Rockets must be very impressed by Aldridge's back-to-back shot, they were killed by Aldridge in the playoffs.

Aldridge, who was not outstanding in bounce and had no bounce to speak of after gaining weight, lost to Jeffrey in the jump ball without suspense, and the Spurs quickly settled in the halfcourt, and the Mavericks took the lead in launching their first attack.

Chen Zhi held the ball and pushed forward, and what he saw was the strongest shield in the league, Leonard, the two-time best defensive player, who successfully limited James and played an efficient offense in the finals matchup between the Spurs and the Heat, especially in the fifth game, and won the FMVP!

Chen Zhi has been looking forward to the battle with Leonard for a long time, although as Leonard takes over Duncan's mantle and becomes the new cornerstone of the Spurs, more and more attention is focused on the offensive end, and he has not won this honor after two consecutive best defensive players, but he is still the best guy in the league on outside defense.

In particular, his famous death entanglement made the players even more frightened. Jeremy Lin, who was ruthlessly stolen one after another, looked annoyed, and top point guards like Westbrook and Curry could not escape the devil's grasp, that is, Paul's super stable master point guard with very good error control, was also cleanly tackled by Leonard, and in the showdown with Wade, the horror of death entanglement was vividly displayed.

However, what made Chen Zhi a little stunned was that it was not Leonard who appeared in front of him to defend, but another defensive leader, Danny Green!

Green's defense has always been very good, so good that even if he uses iron to make a country, he is still the starting guard of the Spurs.

His blocks are even more unique among guards, with an average of 0.8 blocks per game in his career, which is the same as James' block statistics, and among active ball guard players, he is second only to Wade's 0.9 blocks per game.

However, compared to Leonard's top defensive experts, Danny Green is a notch off, mainly because his physical fitness is not at the same level as Leonard.

This result also surprised many commentators, "It seems that the contradiction between Chen Zhi and Leonard, which everyone is looking forward to, will not be staged for the time being." ”

"Leonard is now the heart of the team's attack and has to take on more tasks on the offensive end, so it's not too surprising that Mr. Popovich has arranged this."

Chen was a little disappointed when he saw Danny Green in front of him, and while it obviously meant easier offense for him, it was obviously more challenging and fun to compete with the best players.

It seems that he needs to show on the offensive end, probably so that the old man will send Leonard to defend himself!

Chen Zhi couldn't help but smile when he looked at Danny Green in front of him, and then under Danny Green's gaze, he took a step outside the three-point line and jumped directly to shoot!

"Chen Zhi actually shot directly!"

"There are only 7 seconds to go!"

"Oh! Three-point shot! ”

"Chen Zhi is really confident! After the opening, the Mavericks didn't make any passing, and shot directly outside the three-point line! ”

Tie Lin, who was in a defensive posture near the three-point line, was directly stunned, he looked at Chen Zhi and didn't react to defend at all, it was the first shot of the opening game, and he directly pulled out the three points far away, which is too unreasonable, if this kind of thing happens to the Spurs, the old man will inevitably call a timeout to replace people, even if it is the core of the team like Duncan and Leonard!

But the demon in front of him actually did this, it was even more prodigal than Curry's three-point shot, and it was even more unreasonable!

The most infuriating thing is that Carlisle, the famous coach of the Mavericks on the sidelines, who has always been strict, just snorted, just to show his surprise!

After Chen Zhi hit the shot, he smiled and glanced at the old man Popovich who was sitting outside the court, who grinned and put on a smile without any smile, and then immediately replied with a calm face, as if he did not see Chen Zhi's expression, and was not moved at all.

The Spurs quickly started attacking, and they put their first offensive attempt inside.

Aldridge is a player with very distinctive characteristics, with a soft touch and a stunt low-back projection that makes the low post a great threat. His arrival has clearly enriched the Spurs' arsenal, with the aging Duncan attacking from the low post disappearing many years ago.

In the face of Meijeri, Aldridge turned his back to the right, turned around and made a jumper, the basketball responded to the net, Meijerry's interference with him seemed to be completely non-existent, and on the first ball, Ade showed his unreasonable back-to-back shot.

In the face of the Spurs, Chen Zhi didn't dare to have too many reservations, but first he had to fulfill his duties as a point guard, the Mavericks had no ball on the weak side to cover, and Parker, who was defending Matthews, was blocked by Meijri's thick body, and the ball in Chen's hand was immediately sent to Matthews, who got a short vacancy, but unfortunately the latter made a three-point shot and hit the iron!

Gasol under the basket suddenly stretched his long arm and grabbed the rebound directly in his hand, Finney Smith, whose height was a cut behind Gasol, although he tried his best to card Gasol behind him and occupy a favorable position to grab the board, but the difference in height and arm span was too large.

Gasol held the ball high above his head, flicked his wrist quickly in the air, and passed it to Leonard, who was already in the corner, and before Barnes, who was ready to support the interior defense, was not in place, Leonard hit a three-point shot in the bottom corner.

The Spurs' twin-tower lineup has a devastating effect on the Mavericks' weak interior, with the Spurs scoring twice and giving more than half of the credit to the interior twin-towers.

The Spurs are a team that, like the old man who coaches it, has a lot of personality, they never chase the trend in the league, but always be the trend leader, and the Spurs have led the trend of the bottom corner three-point long before the Warriors used the three-point to the extreme.

At a time when teams around the league are trying to emulate the Warriors in forming a five-man lineup and ditching the tall interior, they seem to be swimming against the tide and erecting twin towers on the interior.

However, their current twin towers are different from the previous interior twin towers of Duncan and Robinson, Aldridge and Gasol are both not very physical and technical, and both have three-point shooting ability. And the highly dominant interior twin towers are no longer the core of the Spurs' lineup, and Leonard, who is outside the twin towers, is the main scoring point.

Change is the only constant truth, the Spurs seem to have been constantly demonstrating the true meaning of this sentence, and their change is never to imitate others, but to find the most suitable change for themselves, this is the true nature of a real strong team, rather than trying to imitate and copy the success of which team!

The Mavericks attacked again and tried two tactical runs successively, both of which failed under the rotation of the Spurs, who were extremely tactically literate, and there were no particularly good open opportunities.

Seeing that there were only 3 seconds left in the time, Chen Zhi could only choose to shoot by himself again, and in the face of Danny Green, Huang Ama tried his best and was powerless to stop.

After surpassing Tie Lin's position, Chen Zhi directly stopped and pulled up on the spot, and Tie Lin, who turned to chase after him, couldn't touch Chen Zhi's body, and the referee's whistle sounded immediately, Chen Zhi leaned forward and threw the ball in his hand, still hollow hit!

Chen, who got up from the ground, walked to the free throw line and hit the free throw again.

Chen Zhi, who hit both shots, couldn't help but have a little more confidence in defeating the Spurs, and he felt very good today!