Butler played the same kind of performance as G1 again, and without Leonard targeting him, it allowed Butler to play his rhythm.

Popovich, who was on the sidelines, looked angry.

It is equivalent to Su Chen using two sets of plans to separate Leonard and Duncan's defense.

Not playing Duncan is like this, letting Leonard choose defense between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Butler.

The Spurs are relatively weak in the mid-range, which happens to be Butler's best mid-range shot.

But the Spurs have never changed their defensive system, and they won't put too much focus on defending mid-range shots, and the foundation of the Spurs is to guard the three-point line and the basket.

Popovich doesn't even have to think about it, once he changes the defensive system, then the Spurs will be attacked as frequently as the Warriors in the last series.

But if you go to Duncan, you will immediately repeat the rhythm of the first stanza.

This time it will not be able to fix Popovich.

At this time on the court, Butler's frequent mid-range shots allowed the Timberwolves to chase back the score.

The Spurs' offensive end is without Duncan, and the offensive efficiency has also dropped significantly.

Leonard is only at the peak of his defensive level now, and his offensive ability still needs to be further improved.

On the court, Dior and Leonard are supporting the offense, and everyone else is running according to tactics, but the Timberwolves still have a strong ability to switch defenses even in this lineup.

The Timberwolves are the best at defending the team.

Infinite Switching is afraid of a superstar who can blast in a single point.

But when Duncan wasn't on the court, the Spurs lacked the superstar who could shoot a single point.

It's not that Leonard, Parker, Ginobili and others don't have strong offenses.

It's because every point of the Timberwolves is a defensive player in the first echelon of defense.

If Parker and Ginobili were both at their peak, they would still be able to carry out some tough tasks, but now the GDP still has a supergiant offense, and Duncan is the only one who has a supergiant offense.

Even Duncan, because of his age, it is difficult for his physical strength to maintain such a high-intensity confrontation.

Spurs were chased after some points.

Popovich called a timeout to get Duncan back on the court.

After Duncan returned to the court, there was a noticeable improvement against the Spurs.

When Duncan returned to the court, the Timberwolves had already caught up with the score, and if Duncan didn't play, the Timberwolves could pull the score even further.

However, after Duncan's return, at least on the offensive end, the Spurs maintained their efficiency.

At the same time, it also allowed Iguodala and Lore Deng to play more offense after blocking with the ball, which made the Timberwolves' efficiency also decrease.

The Spurs chased the score back at one point, but as Duncan's stamina dropped, the Spurs didn't let the score pull away.

At half-time.

Timberwolves 50:52 Spurs.

In the second quarter, the Timberwolves were still in a state of winning points overall.

Originally, Popovich planned more rest time for Duncan, but if he was chased by the Timberwolves, if he didn't play Duncan, the Spurs' score would be pulled away.

Popovich was also helpless and replaced Duncan back in advance.

Although Duncan stabilized the Spurs' situation on the court, he did not pull the score away, because Duncan's physical strength was quickly depleted.

The Timberwolves basically go for Duncan, who not only wants to control his physical strength, but also his fouls.

Frequently challenged on the defensive end, under the new breakaway rules, Duncan also had no choice but to commit three fouls.

Although the Timberwolves' defense against Duncan is single-defense, they are all big moves, and they are not afraid of fouls at all.

Duncan's reduced efficiency in the second half was also due to Giannis Antetokounmpo's defense, but Giannis Antetokounmpo also committed three fouls.

But the Timberwolves can guard against Duncan's many, and Ibaka and Josh have all come up to the right one.

And there is Muscala, who is not afraid of fouls, when he came up to top a minute and a half of playing time, he was directly beaten by Duncan to 5 fouls.

It's not just about defending and confronting, Duncan is connecting the ball, and he needs to get rid of the entanglement of the Timberwolves players.

There was even a round when Duncan got rid of more than seven seconds to get the ball under Giannis Antetokounmpo's forward defense.

Giannis Antetokounmpo waved his long arms, and the Spurs wanted to feed Duncan, and they weren't so decisive.

Duncan was already tired of receiving the ball, and there was a move here that showed Giannis Antetokounmpo's talent, and that was Giannis Antetokounmpo's ability to immediately move back to his defensive position after being distracted for so long.

It's a little foot move, Antetokounmpo.

Athletic agility is too high.

In the Spurs locker room at halftime.

At this time, Popovich didn't have much to arrange, and all the strong points of this Spurs were targeted.

Although his on-the-spot ability is strong, this is beyond the scope of on-the-spot adjustment, and Popovich suspects that Su Chen has been studying how to play Spurs at the beginning of the season.

If that's the case, then Su Chen is too confident.

Because this strategy looks like a strategy that you came up with first, and then you will pick and trade accordingly in the offseason.

You know, the Timberwolves were still so far from the playoffs last season.

Su Chen is so confident that he can face the Spurs in the playoffs?

Regarding the question of whether Su Chen prepared a season in advance, Popovich didn't want to dwell on it, and now he still had to make a response plan.

Duncan looked at Popovich like this, and in his entire career, he was only when he was young and when he was overturned by Su Chen last season.

Popovich had a lot of temper when he was younger, but now he has a lot more composure, because Popovich is sure of a lot of things.

At the time of being hacked, Popovich was not like this.

The Spurs are a team with a pretty good team atmosphere, but the Spurs locker room at this time is a little stuffy.

Halftime back.

The third quarter begins.

By the third quarter, Duncan was still on the floor.

Obviously, the Spurs played a game of calculation, which was to separate the victory and defeat with the Timberwolves in the third quarter.

Two minutes after playing in the third quarter.

Su Chen understood Popovich's thoughts and directly let Giannis Antetokounmor be on the court to carry out a defensive sweep.

Because Duncan was obviously anxious at this time, he played more firmly, and wanted to use his willpower to defeat the Timberwolves in a wave.

In such a situation, Su Chen not only defended again, but changed back to the joint defense mode.

The sudden change of rhythm made Duncan not adapt for a while.

Originally, Duncan wanted to rely on his personal ability to defeat the Timberwolves directly in this section, but the Timberwolves' strategy change directly made Duncan's rhythm disrupted.

Some of the balls should have been passed, but Duncan hit the head and didn't pass.

Then with some fake defenses, Duncan passed the ball out again, and then the ball spun outside for a round and didn't have a chance to force a shot.

The decline in physical strength made Duncan's judgment many mistakes.

This is also the effect that Su Chen wants to see.

The Timberwolves' help defense directly relied on Giannis Antetokounmpo to sweep the range.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's height and reach and his agility are quite wide when Giannis Antetokounmpo is fully defensive.

As for the problem of physical exertion on such defense, Su Chen directly used a physical drink for Giannis Antetokounmpo, which allowed Giannis Antetokounmpo to sweep with high-intensity defense on the defensive end of the court.

For Timberwolves home fans, seeing Giannis Antetokounmpo on the court reminds them of the last Timberwolves legend, Garnett.

Garnett is also a pair of long arms on the inside, covering the sky and the sun on the inside, and the defensive area is quite extensive.

For a while, the images of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Garnett overlapped to a certain extent, which made Timberwolves fans more excited to watch.

Although Giannis Antetokounmpo has had a number of slumps on the offensive end.

But this is Giannis Antetokounmpo's rookie season!

And Garnett is not a super offensive player, and Timberwolves fans are not very demanding of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The third quarter was indeed a winner.

But it wasn't the Spurs who won the Timberwolves, it was the Timberwolves who won the Spurs.

At the end of the third quarter.

Scores for both sides.

Timberwolves 83:68 Spurs.

The two sides have opened up a 15-point difference, and the Spurs were originally 2 points ahead of the Timberwolves, which is equivalent to the Spurs losing by 17 points in the third quarter.

The Timberwolves have a lot of action against Duncan's defense, and they don't care about fouls at all.

But the entire core lineup of the Timberwolves, no one has a particularly high foul.

Except for Muscala, who has already graduated from 6 fouls.

Everyone else is still controlled by two and three offenses, mainly because there are more people who defend Duncan.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ibaka, Josh Smith.

The main thing is that these people are on defense, and Luo Er Deng will occasionally go to the top, but not often.

The audience also gave Muscala a standing ovation to the rookie when he was beaten by six fouls, and his defensive performance made Minnesotans look to themselves.

The whole game has already begun to win on the side of the Timberwolves.

"The Spurs did a little bit poorly to protect Duncan, he was consumed too much by the Timberwolves, and this is the 38-year-old Duncan."

Barkley shook his head.

"In fact, there is still no way to share the offensive pressure of Duncan, when the GDP is at the peak, the firepower of the other two except Duncan also needs to be vigilant by other teams."

"But if you look at the performance of Ginobili and Parker, when they face the defense of Iguodala, Lore Deng, Butler, they have a hard time breaking through the Timberwolves with their individual ability."

Johnson looked at the situation on the field and analyzed.

Today's Spurs are indeed too lacking on the offensive end, and Leonard's offense is still in a state that has just been developed, and he has become the Spurs' third leading scorer.

Not even worse than Parker.

It's not that Leonard's offense is too strong now, it's that Parker and Ginobili's offense is too poor.

Playing with the Mavericks is actually a problem for the Spurs' offense.

In the entire series tie-break with the Mavericks, the Spurs did not score more than 100 points in three games.

Who are the main Mavericks rotations?

Novitzki Sr., Monta Ellis, Jose Calderón, Samuel Durham Porter, Sean Marion, Carter Sr., Wayne Ellington.

Most of the Mavericks' rotation is defensive averages and below.

The most defensible is to lose to old Marion, and when old Marion encounters a fast one, he has already reached the state of being one-stepped.

Although these guys are very good at mid-range shooting, they can deploy weak mid-range against the Spurs.

However, under the defense of these people, the Spurs have not scored more than 100 points in three games, which can indeed explain the Spurs' current offensive problems.

With the Timberwolves now targeting Duncan and the rest of the Spurs unable to step up, then this series is all clear.

A few people from the commentary desk also talked about these things.

However, although they didn't know that the Spurs and Mavericks had hit a tie-break, they still saw that the Spurs couldn't stand up on the other offense.

Popovich has designed tactics for them, but without Duncan, a strong containment point, the Spurs can't run out of many tactics.

The Spurs on the field are also doing this kind of scene.

Duncan is tired now, and even if Duncan wants to play Ibaka now, it is not as easy as the first two quarters.

And the Timberwolves' Giannis Antetokounmpo is too physical, running around on the defensive end and then running fast on the fast break.

Duncan, though, was able to limit Giannis Antetokounmpo in positional warfare.

However, in the transition offense, Giannis Antetokounmpo's speed with the ball, the Spurs basically did not catch up with him except for Leonard.

A few big steps can go straight to the Spurs' free-throw line for a layup or a dunk.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ran the whole race, didn't seem to feel tired.

Duncan's role on the court has diminished, and the Spurs have been even less able to chase on both ends of the floor.

Halfway through the game, Popovich also saw that this game could not be won, and replaced the water cooler player in advance.

Especially Duncan, Duncan is tired enough in this game, it is better to let Duncan rest and play the next game.

The Spurs stopped playing, and the Timberwolves also chose to substitute and rest after playing two more rounds.

Toot toot!

With the whistle blowing at the end of the game, the game was over.

Timberwolves 108:85 Spurs.

Big score in the series: Spurs 1-2 Timberwolves.

The Spurs attacked the Timberwolves' home court for the first time after dropping a home court and didn't win it.

The MVP of this game is Butler in terms of good stats.

But it was Giannis Antetokounmpo who really played a big role in both offense and defense.

Giannis Antetokounmpo got a very comprehensive stat in this game, with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks.

Passing dogs walked by, and they were all slapped and slapped by Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was very impressive in this game.

Butler can do that too, and he's mostly on the offensive end, finding that G1 feel.

Butler scored 25 points in the game, the highest on the Timberwolves team.

In this game, he once again punished the Spurs' mid-range deployment problems, and when Duncan was not on the court, he took on the role of the Timberwolves' main offense.

(End of chapter)