In the game with the Timberwolves, the Spurs, Jin Feng and Aldridge performed very well, especially Aldridge, under the tactical care of Popovich, Ade handed over 26 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in this game, showing a completely different state of play from last season.

"When I think of Tim, people ask, 'How are you going to use Tim Duncan?' ”

"I said, 'Do nothing, I'll just watch him play for six months and see what he can do.'" He's a pretty good player and if I feel like there's something I can add, I'll do it.

On LaMarcus's side, when he came here the first day, I said, 'Okay, we're going to do this and that, JackSikma is going to do that, and you're going to do this feint.' 'I've been trying to change him, I'm trying to make him a different player. ”

'But actually, I shouldn't have done that, we can see that he's not comfortable on the pitch, he's not playing confidently'

"I've got to get him back to being the old guy and I still believe he can stay at the top"

"So, I'm not surprised by his performance in this game"

After the game, in front of the media, Popovich once again apologized to Aldridge, which made many people unbelievable, in Popovich's coaching career, this is rarely the case, maybe Aldridge will really make a difference to everyone this season...

Of course, for the Spurs, winning this game ended up paying some price, that is, Jin Feng's injury.

During the game, he was knocked on the knee of his right leg, and he still felt beautiful at the time, but when the game was over, the pain gradually increased, which also made the Spurs coaching staff very worried after the game.

In the end, it was concluded that Jin Feng suffered a knee injury in his right leg and was out for 3 days, and he was determined to miss the second away game against the Bulls in the new season.

………

In fact, from a league-wide perspective, injuries became the protagonist on the opening day of the new season. Hayward was seriously injured and the season was reimbursed, Green was injured and left the game, and even the referee was knocked off the court. Jeremy Lin, who was still wishing Hayward on social media the day before, was seriously injured the next day, ruptured the patellar ligament in his knee and was out for the season. Later, Teodosic encountered plantar fasciitis again and had to rest indefinitely.

In addition to these few major injuries, there are also various minor injuries that continue to appear. Injuries like Paul, Rose, Vitesse, Valanciunas, Beasley, Smart and others have been patronized by injuries. Two days ago, the media made statistics, and there were 67 players in the league who were put on the injury list, and you must know that there are more than 400 players in the entire league, which is not low in any way. Of course, some of these players were injured before the start of the season, which is a long-term injury, not that the No. 67 was injured in five days. But there's no doubt that the early and sudden wave of injuries has become the league's biggest headache right now.

Mirotic got into a fight with teammate Portis and was suspended with a serious injury

Where did so many injuries come from? Part of it was training, part of it was long-term injuries, and some of it was weird, such as the Bulls' Mirotic, who was broken and concussed in a fight with his teammates...... But most of it comes from the pitch, from the game. Heat coach Spoelstra pointed the finger at the league's reforms, citing shortened preseason breaks as one of the reasons for the high number of injuries. This is an interesting argument because the shortening of the preseason is to lengthen the regular season, while the purpose of increasing the season is to reduce the burden on players and reduce injuries. Why is it that the practice of reducing injuries has led to an increase in injuries?

"Pre-season was shortened by 10 days, the short schedule was crammed into six games, there was less time to train, and then suddenly, the first game came. I don't know how many NBA players are really ready and if their bodies are really ready to start such a fast, aggressive regular season season. ”

- Spoelstra

”

Judging from this passage, many of me feel that Spo's statement has some truth, because the original positioning and value of the preseason lies in "transition" and "warm-up", the intensity of the preseason is less than that of the regular season, but it is stronger than the simple intra-team confrontation, this intermediate state is suitable for players who have rested for a summer to gradually wake up their bodies, and then devote themselves to the regular season with fierce confrontation and high game density. And this warm-up process has indeed been shortened this season. If the players are not mentally prepared enough to adjust their bodies according to the rhythm they have been cultivated in the past, then it may indeed increase the risk of injury.

The increased pace of the NBA increases the risk of injury to players

Of course, the shortening of the preseason alone is not enough to have such a significant effect, and the injury problems also have to do with the changes in the regular season itself. Prior to this season, the league made a major overhaul of the game's timeout system, such as the maximum number of timeouts per game was reduced from 18 to 14, and each team now has a total of seven timeouts for the whole game; The 90-second timeout and the 20-second timeout are unified to 75 seconds; The timing of the media pause has also been adjusted. The immediate effect of these adjustments during the game is that the game time is shorter. This is a good thing for fans and the media, because the content of the game is more condensed and the broadcast time is more controllable, unlike the previous game of being in front of the TV for three hours at a time. But what about the players? Reduced total playing time with the same playing time means that playing time is condensed.

For example, a player would play 40 minutes out of a total of 48 minutes, but in previous seasons those 40 minutes were spread over three hours. There is a certain amount of space to rest between each high-intensity match. Now you have to play 40 minutes in two hours, and the game time is still 48 minutes, which is not compressed, so what time has been saved? Time to rest. In addition, the team has strictly controlled the rotation of players in the new season, and there is no way to find a reason to rest the players, and the multi-pronged approach has brought pressure on the players in many aspects.

In addition, there are some other indirect causes. First, the NBA's increasing pace of play and offensive rounds in recent years has led to an increase in the frequency of sprints, which will significantly increase the number of injuries. Compared with strong confrontation at a slow pace and low frequency, high-speed running combined with strong confrontation is more likely to cause injury. Second, the change in the referee scale in the new season feels more relaxed than last season, and it encourages players to fight. For example, the NBA has stated this season that it wants to crack down on cheating. This actually indirectly increases the scale of the defensive players, allowing them to be more daring when making moves.

It is impossible for a sports league to avoid injuries, which are always a major part of the sports game. However, it is indeed rare for the NBA season to come early, with frequent serious injuries and a wide range of impacts, and in addition to the factors mentioned above, it may also be due to some of the reasons that are really just bad luck. Perhaps as the season progresses and the players get into shape, the number of injuries can be controlled. I hope that the injured players can recover as soon as possible and bring more exciting games to the fans.

But this massive wave of injuries is definitely not the "cursed league this season" claim that some people speculate in private......