Courtside.
The Raptors' head coach immediately called a timeout.
They had led by more than ten, but the Spurs had cut the lead to six in just a few possessions. Naturally, he had to call a timeout.
As Lillard left the court, the crowd's chants of "Dametime" grew louder and louder. Lillard kept waving both hands.
He was whipping the fans into a frenzy.
The crowd roared even louder.
As he came off the court, he high-fived Wemby;
bumped chests with Seth Curry;
and celebrated with his other teammates one by one.
Even Popovich was all smiles as he slapped Lillard's hand.
In fact, Lillard's last two three-point attempts had both been completely unreasonable.
On one, he faced Big Lock Rock. Rock had already gotten into position, but Lillard still forced up a three off the dribble.
On the other, he had just crossed half court and, after only a few steps, launched a three from way downtown.
If Popovich had been ten years younger, he absolutely would not have tolerated that.
Popovich had always believed the game should be played the right way.
Twenty years earlier, he had been even more devoted to playing the game the right way.
In his eyes, basketball was a five-man sport, and all five players needed to share the ball.
It was unreasonable for anyone to take too many shots.
There was even a saying back then.
If anyone on the Spurs scored more than 20 points in a game, he would get chewed out afterward.
It was fine if all five starters scored 20 points.
But if the other four scored nothing, then even a player who scored 100 would get chewed out.
Of course, that was just a joke fans liked to make.
It was an exaggeration.
But it still showed