Chapter 210: Winning the Finals Match Point
At 19:34, the first quarter ended, and the difference between the two sides remained at 15 points, although the Heat strengthened on the defensive end in the second half of the first quarter, they did not find much of a good feeling on the offensive end. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½
Trailing by 15 points in the first quarter put the Heat under pressure, realizing that if they didn't make some changes, the game would be completely passive.
The last time the Heat felt such a crisis in this series was at the end of Game 3, when they held an internal meeting and the Heat Big Three said they would play well
The current situation naturally does not allow the Heat's Big Three to hold an internal meeting to express themselves to their teammates, so they decided to take action.
At the start of the second quarter, veteran Battier hit a three-pointer to help the Heat stabilize the situation, and then Bosh of the Big Three took the lead.
Taking advantage of Duncan's off-court break, Bosh grabbed the frontcourt rebound for two consecutive rounds, causing a foul once and a direct secondary offense.
And then, Wade found his sense after two consecutive missed shots and scored four points in a row, and then James, who returned to the court after a short break off the court, also found his offensive touch.
In the second quarter of the game, the Heat's Big Three were fully opened, each scoring 8 points, leading the team to 33 points in this quarter.
And after this quarter, the difference between the two sides is ...... 11 points.
Yes, the margin was still in double digits, and although the Heat played well enough on the offensive end in the quarter, they were not able to narrow the margin to single digits after the first half.
After realizing that the Heat's Big Three had found an offensive feel, and it was difficult to limit it even if he defended with all his might, Popovich took another approach, attacking!
GDP with the organization of Danny Green and Leonard, can be inside and out, there are sudden shots, and cooperation, even in the face of the collective performance of the Big Three on the Heat side, the Spurs did not fall too far behind, scoring 29 points in a single quarter.
At 52:63, after the end of the first half, the Spurs playing at home were still the leading side.
"Yang, you started in place of Manu in the second half. ā
At halftime, Popovich made a surprise lineup adjustment, once again lining up three top wing defenders Li Yang, Leonard, and Green, but this time he did not arrange for Parker to rest off the court, but Ginobili.
In this game, Leonard and Green felt very good in mid-to-long-range shooting, and Li Yang also hit mid-range shots, and with such a lineup, Popovich was not worried about sacrificing space under the basket.
What's more, when sending this lineup, Popovich originally didn't plan to fall into the position, he wanted defense, a counterattack!
He hopes to use such a lineup to beat the Heat on a foothold and establish an absolute advantage after the start of the second half.
"Hey, the Spurs change their starting lineup after halftime, which is not very common!"
After the break, the second half of the game began, and the changes to the Spurs' lineup were immediately noticed.
Seeing such a lineup, the Heat fans in front of the screen felt nervous for no reason, Li Yang, Leonard, Green, the defense of the trio really impressed them in the first half of the game.
The nervousness of the Heat fans was not unreasonable, and as soon as he got on the court, Danny Green received a pass from Parker on the outside and hit a three-pointer, widening the gap between the two teams to 14 points again.
Wade controlled the ball and dribbled to the half, and he and James completed a cross run. Wade and James's cross-running was intended to disrupt Li Yang and Leonard's defense, but what they didn't expect was that Li Yang and Leonard's defense was not disrupted.
Wade and James crossed running, Li Yang and Leonard decisively switched defenses, and Wade obviously didn't expect the two to have such a tacit understanding, and after completing the cross run, he habitually passed the ball to James.
"Oops!"
As soon as the ball was passed, Wade immediately screamed in his heart, and he realized that he had passed the ball too carelessly. However, he woke up too late.
Wade's ball had just been passed, and Li Yang, who was moving towards this side after completing the change of defense, rushed out quickly and stealed!
Next is the performance time that belongs to Li Yang, after completing the steal, Li Yang ended his performance with a 360-degree dunk!
At the same time, the difference between the two teams was widened to 16 points, which was the largest difference between the two sides in this game.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, they received a dismissal from the Spurs, which made the Heat more and more careful in the following games, although the Heat paid great attention to the stability of the pass and did not give Li Yang and Leonard the opportunity to grab the ball at will, but at the same time, in order to stabilize their many cooperation, they were not able to play.
Li Yang was substituted after playing nearly six minutes in the third quarter, a performance that had met Popovich's expectations, and his halftime flash of inspiration had already made a difference, as the difference between the two teams had once again stabilized at more than 15 points.
At 23:26, in the third quarter, the Spurs' offense was not as efficient as the first two quarters, but the excellent defense was enough to make up for it.
After three quarters, the Spurs led by 14 points. According to the pattern of the first four games, whoever can take the lead after the third quarter of the game will get the winning percentage of the game.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Heat tried hard to break this rule, but they were not able to succeed.
At 29:27, in the last quarter of the game, the Heat played very well, especially on the offensive end, very aggressive, but the Spurs also put out a big four lineup to play against each other, making such an excellent game of the Heat meaningless.
At 104:116, the game was over, with a 12-point difference, the Spurs won the fifth game of the Finals, leading 3:2 and seizing the match point of the Finals.
The Heat's offense actually played very well in this game, they scored 104 points, Wade and James both scored 25 points in the Big Three, Bosh also scored 18 points, and Ray Allen also scored 20 points.
However, if you look at the Spurs' stats, they will realize that they did not lose unjustly.
There are two Spurs players who get 20+10, 24 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks, which is Duncan's data, in this series, Duncan almost double-doubled every game. Ginobili, who started the game, also scored 24 points and had 10 assists.
Although Parker was squeezed out of some playing time by Li Yang in the first quarter, his performance throughout the game was also very stable, especially in the offensive stage, his role was very obvious, with 22 points and 5 assists.
Danny Green's three-pointers remained solid, and he hit six more three-pointers to become the fourth Spurs player to score 20 points and hit 25 three-pointers in five games, setting a new NBA Finals record.
Four of the Spurs scored 20 points, so you can imagine how fierce this battle was.
But what did the Spurs really rely on to take the lead in this game, defense!
Li Yang and Leonard, as the outliers in this offensive battle, scored 10 points each, and they were not conspicuous on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, the two teamed up to score 16 rebounds, 7 steals, and 5 blocks!
And the whole Heat team only had 5 steals and 3 blocks.
After this game, the Heat will of course be impressed by Danny Green's stable three-point shooting, Duncan's stable performance and Ginobili's starting outburst performance, but whether it is James or Wade, what impresses them the most is definitely the two long arms, one yellow and one black!
(To be continued.) )