"Defensively, we can't afford to be slack, the guys on the other side have great attacking firepower, we have to do better on the defensive end!"

At half-time, in the visitors' dressing room, Popovich began to sum up the first half of the game and set up the second half, with a strong emphasis on defence. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Thunder have two top stars who are very explosive on the offensive end, and a five-point lead is really not too big for the Spurs.

Popovich is also well aware of this, so he specifically emphasized that he should start on the defensive end.

After emphasizing the importance of defense, Popovich laid out more details on how to defend Durant and Westbrook.

Defending superstars like Durant and Westbrook is obviously not good enough to rely on one or two players to defend, even if Li Yang has a good limit on Durant at the beginning of the second quarter, he needs to rely on the cooperation of teammates and fill in the position.

Of course, Li Yang's defense in that section was still affirmed by Popovich.

It is precisely because Li Yang defended well in the second quarter that Popovich did not choose to replace Green with Neil when he was doing the player rotation halfway through the third quarter, but Li Yang was used.

Li Yang's appearance on the court will obviously drag the Spurs back on the offensive end, mainly because his outside shooting ability is a little poor, plus Parker's mid-to-long-range shooting is also unstable, so that among the three outside players, only Leonard has a deterrent outside the three-point line.

However, Li Yang's ability on the defensive end is what Popovich wants. So in order to cooperate with this adjustment, Popovich did not replace Dio when arranging the rotation of interior players, but replaced Matt Bonner.

Bonner is the player with the highest three-point shooting percentage in the Spurs team, and his presence on the court can also help the Spurs open up space for offense.

Split, Bonner, Li Yang, Leonard, Parker, this lineup played on the court for about 4 minutes, the effect was very good, in the middle of the third quarter, the Thunder had tied the score, but in these 4 minutes, the Spurs took a 4-point lead.

On the one hand, Li Yang and Leonard's defense is very good, they continue to maintain a very strong defensive pressure on the outside, and on the other hand, both Li Yang and Leonard are very lethal when they break through against Martin, who came off the bench against the Thunder, which allowed Bonner to shoot two three-pointers from the outside.

In the last 2 minutes of the third quarter of the game, Popovich arranged for Parker and Leonard to rest, and on the Thunder's side, although they were 4 points behind, they were really reluctant to replace Durant, but, considering the contest in the fourth quarter, Thunder head coach Brooks still chose to replace Durant off the court.

After three quarters, the score was fixed at 71-68, and the Spurs led by three points. In this quarter of the game, both sides worked the defensive end, which also led to the fact that both teams did not score high.

At the beginning of the final quarter, Li Yang faced Durant again, and compared with the second quarter, Durant was obviously more offensive in this quarter, which also increased Li Yang's defensive pressure.

Fortunately, the overall defense of the Spurs was very good, and Durant scored four points in a row at the beginning, but then his offense was forced to interrupt.

Because the third quarter of the game was half a quarter, Li Yang was replaced by Green after only 3 minutes of play at the beginning of the game.

The two sides also understand the importance of the first part of the fourth quarter, Popovich's main players rotated to play earlier, Green, Parker, Duncan and others all returned to the court early, and the Thunder on the other end did not let Durant and Westbrook rest for too long.

As expected by the outside world before this game, the two teams undoubtedly played very closely, especially in the fourth quarter of the game, the defensive intensity of both sides has increased a lot, not only a lot of fouls and dead balls on the court, but also the score of the two sides has risen very slowly.

In the blink of an eye, the game was less than two minutes into the end, and after the referee blew the whistle, Popovich, who was standing on the sidelines, frowned, and just on the court, Green fouled on the inside and received his fifth personal foul.

Although there were less than two minutes left in the game, and Green's five fouls did not have a particularly big impact, Popovich was still a little worried, knowing that the Thunder were likely to take the initiative to attack Green in the next round.

Before that, though, Popovich first needed to solve his offensive problems, and at this point, the score was 94-93, and the Spurs still had a one-point lead, but Green's foul gave Ibaka a chance to make free throws, and if the opponent hit two free throws, the Spurs would fall behind by one point.

After Ibaka scored the first shot, Popovich immediately called a timeout to set up the offense, and his arrangement was also very effective, back on the court, although Ibaka also hit the second free throw to rewrite the score to 94:95, but then, the Spurs' offensive coordination was also completed, and Duncan scored 2 points to regain the lead.

The Thunder did not call a timeout at this time, after Ibaka served from the bottom line, Westbrook rushed wildly with the ball and quickly rushed to the halfcourt, and at this time, Westbrook did not have the slightest intention of stopping, made a slight rhythm adjustment outside the three-point line, and then he quickly dribbled through.

Popovich looked at the court with his hands folded around his chest, and what he expected was right, it was Green who defended Westbrook, and the Thunder really attacked Green.

Green on the court also knew that Westbrook's attack was so decisive at this time, that is, he took a fancy to his five fouls, hoping that he would shrink back on the defensive end and then get offensive opportunities.

So at this time, Green did not back down in the face of Westbrook, and the two began to make physical contact about one step away from Westbrook when he rushed into the three-point line.

"Tick!"

What worried Popovich the most finally happened at this time, Westbrook's movements became louder and louder, which also made the physical entanglement between the two more obvious, and the referee's whistle sounded at the right time.

Green fouled and left the court with six fouls.

“fu*ck!”

When he saw the referee blow the whistle, Popovich almost immediately yelled at the court, but was quickly pulled back by several assistant coaches, and it was obviously not cost-effective to give the Thunder a technical free throw.

Pulled back to the bench, Popovich called a timeout, and then looked around the bench with a gloomy face, how to choose the right player for the next offense and defense, which is what he has to think about now.

In the end, Popovich's eyes were fixed on Li Yang.

"Yang, play!"