To block and dismantle! This is a gesture made by Old Man Popovich on the sidelines.

After blocking and dismantling, Leonard shot a three-pointer, which was the first way Popovich came up with to deal with the Lakers' defense.

The Lakers' regional defense is different from the three-two defense when defending the Warriors, because the Warriors have almost 40 percent of their points being three-pointers, and the Lakers mainly defend them with three-pointers, because the Warriors can't win against the Lakers only by scoring inside.

The defensive tactics of defending against the Spurs are more extreme than the defense against the Warriors, but it happens to be specifically aimed at the Spurs, and Popovich reacts quickly, that is, he can play a quick three-point to catch the slightest loophole in the Lakers' defense.

However, Leonard was once again rare wayward.

Leonard went directly to the low post and leaned on Liu Ren to ask for the ball!

Popovich started the second time in a minute, and Messina, the assistant coach next to him, weakly asked if he wanted to call a timeout, and it was not particularly strange for the Spurs to call a timeout after less than a minute of play, but Popovich shook his head.

Popovich can only let Leonard play by himself, this guy is the future of the Spurs! No one thought that Leonard could grow to the point where he is today, Popovich originally planned to get a new version of Bowen back, but he didn't expect to get back a future core with a clean style of play and top talent in the league on the offensive end, since it is the core, he has the right to fight with O'Neal like Duncan when he first entered the league.

Although the Spurs were eliminated by O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in the playoffs for three consecutive years, it also allowed Duncan to grow into a three-time champion in 03, 05 and 07.

Parker saw that Popovich was not roaring on the sidelines and passed the ball to Leonard.

Liu Ren didn't expect Leonard to want to singled him so much, and he felt strange in his heart, if he wanted to play alone, it would be Aldridge's singles! Among all the opponents of the Spurs, Aldridge has the greatest advantage, not to mention why the Spurs don't play tactical coordination and actually play singles, even if it is a single, it can't be Leonard's turn!

Liu Ren chose to stick directly to Leonard and push it out, and it has not been difficult for Liu Ren to defend Leonard, since the two met for the first time at the end of the 2012-2013 season, Liu Ren has comprehensively suppressed Leonard.

Leonard got the ball and tried to hit Liu Ren, Liu Ren didn't move at all, and Leonard may have had a weight advantage two years ago, but since last season, Leonard has not even had a weight advantage, and he is beaten by Liu Ren every time.

Just when Liu Ren thought Leonard was going to pass out, Leonard suddenly turned around and picked up the ball! Looks like it's going to roll over and jump back! Liu Ren hurriedly pounced.

But Leonard, it's a feint! His pivot feet didn't move! After Liu Ren pounced, Leonard dodged Liu Ren's block and bullied himself to face the basket throw!

This singles move, Liu Ren said that he definitely never saw Leonard do it!

This rhythm, this time difference, is really good!

Merely......

Whiteside had already made up for Leonard when he did this series of moves, and a hat took Leonard's layup straight off!

This agility, this awareness! Leonard is hooded!

Whiteside's awareness of this cap is simply amazing!

Whiteside passed the ball to Green as soon as he grabbed it, Green immediately threw it to the frontcourt, the Lakers counterattacked with a very good sense of counterattack, Clarkson immediately went down when he saw Whiteside move and jump to Liu Ren, and got the ball in the front court to counterattack with a one-handed dunk and scored two points.

Leonard is still looking at Whiteside with shocked eyes, in his opinion, the player who has Whiteside's defensive dominance under the basket has only seen Ben Wallace, Howard, Garnett, and Duncan in his basketball career!

What made Leonard even more angry was that after Liu Ren and Whiteside high-fived, Whiteside glanced at him lightly, and the meaning conveyed by that look was clearly "contempt"!

Leonard didn't know that Whiteside looked at all the outside players with that dead fish face, he felt humiliated, he thought that Liu Ren's defense was so impulsive because he knew that Whiteside was behind him, and he didn't take him seriously at all!

When Leonard met Liu Ren, he always lost his mind so easily, and then he got into a fight with Liu Ren!

Liu Ren didn't expect Leonard to be stubborn and just want to fight with him, which ...... It couldn't be better!

Liu Ren's own singles were originally a very important tactic for the Lakers, and Leonard's singles were not the regular tactics of the Spurs at least this year, not even this tactic, the Lakers played stars, and the Spurs have been playing since 2010!

At the beginning of the series between the Lakers and the Spurs, the Spurs collapsed, and the collapse was very unexpected by the fans.

The Lakers are indeed stronger than the Spurs, but they are not so strong that they are crushed, but the game is ...... It's all blood! At the beginning of the game, the Lakers played a 16-4!

Popovich was furious, but he forced himself to sit on the bench.

"Greg, let's replace Kawai! He's 1 out of 7! Spurs assistant coach Messina said.

Popovich shook his head: "Let him fight." ”

Then Popovich began to conceive of a tactic for Leonard, who had almost never officially owned his own tactics, to give Leonard a better one-on-one chance.

Popovich knew that by forcibly yelling at Leonard, or replacing Leonard, the Spurs' decline would be immediately reversed.

Because the Spurs still have the troika and Aldridge and David West, even without Leonard, they can still maintain a good strength this year, although they are not the opponents of the Lakers, but the scene will certainly not be so embarrassing and ugly.

However, Leonard has the potential to be the best player in the league!

Originally, Popovich was ready to finish Duncan's vote and retire, because the Spurs no longer have the kind of player who has enough dominance on both offensive and defensive ends.

But now with Leonard, Popovich's dream of creating the third giant in the NBA seems to have another chance! With Leonard as the core, waiting for Leonard to grow further, there is definitely a better chance to win the championship in the future, as long as the Lakers' current brutal lineup is over, at least the cheap contracts of the Lakers' current group of players will be over.

Popovich is a very pragmatic person, there are two monster teams of the Lakers and Warriors this year, and he doesn't have any big expectations for winning the championship, but he has to fight for it if he has the opportunity to win the championship.

And for now, Popovich is definitely not going to replace Leonard.

Popovich is good at control, and he knows that at this time, scolding Leonard back to normal, preventing Leonard from continuing to fight with Liu Ren, or replacing Leonard, will be a big blow to Leonard.

That's not just a heads-up fight against Liu Ren, because this is already a fact, Liu Ren is really much better in terms of offense than Leonard, a player who has only begun to develop offensive ability in the past two years.

If he is forced to stop fighting when he can't fight his opponent, Leonard will definitely suffer a huge critical blow to his confidence, and even the coach has no confidence in himself, Leonard has played with his life in training for the past two years, and forcibly changed his offensive strength from a 3D player to a current player who can now be inside and out, and even the momentum of leapfrogging progress developed by the back will completely collapse, maybe it will stagnate!

In 1998, Duncan in his rookie period met Karl Malone in the second round of the playoffs, and Malone was at his peak that year, although Duncan was already a strong contender for the first place in history in his rookie season, but that year was undoubtedly stronger for Malone, Duncan was provoked by Malone's trash talk and black elbow to play with Malone and wanted to go head-to-head with Malone, and as a result, Malone, who was second in the NBA all-time scoring list, was abused and couldn't take care of himself.

But at that time, Popovich didn't stop it, but let Duncan know where he had gaps, and then he was almost swept by the Jazz.

As a result, Duncan developed a mid-range shooting in the second year, and the two teams continued to meet in the second round the next year.

In Popovich's view, Leonard's skills are already very comprehensive, and he already has good offensive ability on the offensive end, but he has never played the role of Duncan's core scorer back then, and he has no awareness of what to pay attention to when playing singles, so he will be repeatedly killed by the Lakers.

So, Popovich chose to support Leonard and let Leonard learn from playing against the strongest defending champion in the league, like the Lakers.

Playing star heads-up with the Lakers is undoubtedly the worst choice, and it is also the most brutal blow and failure.

However, Popovich feels that this may be the right thing for Leonard and the best for the future of the Spurs.

The most brutal blows of defeat have been encountered, and if Leonard overcomes this difficulty, or overcomes it in the future, what else can make him frustrated?

……

……

In the small fishing village of Cleveland, James breathed a sigh of relief after playing the Celtics, and finally defeated the Celtics, and this year there is psychological preparation, the players are ready to prevent injuries, although the fight with the Celtics is fierce, but the two teams played hotly and hotly, or prevented injuries.

As long as he doesn't get hurt, everything is good, and if he is tired, he will be tired, James took a comfortable shower, and then went back to the locker room to do physiotherapy while watching the Lakers and Spurs game, and then went home.

The Lakers are strong, James admits that he basically couldn't play against the Lakers in the finals last year, although there are two superstar teammates who are injured, but the opponent is strong, James knows better than anyone.

And the Spurs have always been strong, even if they stopped in the first round last year, but this year the strength is back, although it is not as good as the two years of '13 and '14, but it is not much worse.

In James's view, the Lakers and the Spurs will definitely fight to the ground, after he experienced a nightmare but finally defeated the cruel game of the nightmare, he wants to watch the game between the Lakers and the Spurs to find a psychological balance, he wants to see Kobe Bryant and Liu Ren's deflated expressions, being worn by the opponent This kind of thing, James of course wants to find the same thing, and his heart will be more comfortable.

But......

When James saw the score on TV, the bath towels fell off, revealing a big big brother......

42 to 25? Less than halfway through the second quarter, the Lakers had already scored 42 points, while the Spurs had only scored 25 points! And next to Leonard's data, 15 rushed to 6, and scored 16 points......

What's that?

James said that he did not watch a fake game!