The inter-section Timeout passed quickly and the second quarter began.
At the beginning of the festival, Chen Xi was still leading the team, but without Butler, the lineup became Chen Xi, McDermott, Roberson, Grant, and Sabonis.
Spurs was replaced by Ginobili, Mills, David Lee, Dedmon, and Dezhangtai Murray.
Spurs was short of manpower, and even this year's rookie Murray was brought in. Popovich couldn't do anything, and the level of the others was obviously not enough.
Let Murray take control, Ginobili tops the Small forward position, and then the height of Spurs also drops slightly.
When the Spurs attacked, Murray brought the ball to the top of the arc, and Manu, who was deep inside, used Dedmon's screen to catch the ball, pulled out the defender and passed the ball back to Murray to open up space. Murray then faked a pick-and-roll with Dedmon and broke through with the ball. At the same time, Mills at the free throw line slipped to the strong side corner. Manu used David Lee's screen to reach the weak side corner. Murray suddenly passed to Mills in the strong side corner, who received the ball to complete the three-pointer.
Standard hammer tactics, the famous play style of Spurs, although the whole tactic has changed a lot, the final ending is mostly ended by Off-ball Screen running to Three-Pointer in the second and third positions of Corner on both sides.
Chen Xi controlled the ball for half the game, stood in front of Murray, called Pick-and-Roll from McDermott, and named Mills.
Mills, who is only 183cm tall, is naturally at a disadvantage facing Chen Xi. The latter didn't even waver when he came in front of him, and just made a pull-up jumper.
Three-Pointer hit
Popovich cursed on the sidelines. Did he forget everything he emphasized during the session?
"Contact! Contact!!! Give him Contact!!!!"
It's hard to believe that despite his age, he still screamed like this at the top of his lungs, even Chen Xi who retreated heard it.
"Brother, your coach asked you to play Contact for me."
The villain's winning temperament was fully realized.
Mills remained unmoved, while Offensive End continued to actively run and complete the team's tactics.
Seeing that the provocation was fruitless, Chen Xi stopped talking nonsense and devoted himself to defense.
As time passed, Spurs's strategy was somewhat effective. The increased intensity of Contact did have a certain impact on Chen Xi. The shooting efficiency was reduced, but the price was that Mills had to pay two fouls.
Soon, Westbrook Butler replaced Chen Xi Roberson, and it was time for Spurs to choose one from the other.
Butler came up and grabbed Mismatch and hit Murray twice, forcing Popovich to call Kawhi again.
Chen Xi walked off the court and faced the high-decibel noise from the audience at the AT&T Center Arena. Chen was indifferent and still smiled and exchanged high-fives with Teammates one by one.
At the end of the half, Thunder 60 led 54 by 6 points. Leonard today's Mid-range was so accurate that it pulled the score back by itself.
During the intermission, the Dianping session began.
"Looking at the entire first half, even Popovich didn't have a good way to limit Thunder's offense. Spurs's outside defense almost failed to prevent a few goals. If Leonard hadn't been wiping their butts, Spurs would have collapsed long ago." Yang Yi gave a speech.
"And when both offense and defense are taken into consideration, Kawhi's physical energy will be greatly consumed. This makes people worry about his Second Half's efficiency. Moreover, even if Kawhi survives this game, can he last a series? This round is conservatively estimated to last six games. This is the consensus reached by several commentators and I before the game."
"Yes, from the current point of view, Thunder occupies a very big advantage. The benefits of the three-core team are perfectly reflected. The high-efficiency offense covering the entire field allows Spurs to always maintain focus on defense while also occupying the core time."
"Popovich has used several Timeout to help the players regain their form. There are not many Timeout left for Second Half. At the same time, Defensive strategy also tried again and again, 23 Zone defense, 212 Zone defense, double team Westbrook, short Roberson that is not Spacing Option, etc., but the effect can only be said to be average. In the final analysis, Thunder has too many points to solve the offense, not to mention Butler Chen Xi and even Sabonis performed well in offense. This season's low-post skills have improved significantly. David Lee can't guard him. Spurs can only frequently let Gasol Mismatch guard Little Sabonis."
"It seems that the two teachers are more supportive of Thunder after watching half the show." The female anchor standing not far away interrupted the topic and reminded them that it was time for commercials.
Second Half started, Thunder once again returned to the Starting Lineup lineup, a head-on collision, good Touch, let Spurs was a little overwhelmed. If Ginobili hadn't suddenly burst out and scored 14 points in a single quarter with sudden shots, the game would have lost suspense at Third Quarter.
However, the subsequent impact is that Fourth Quarter should not expect Demon Blade to perform well. Demon Blade's physical strength was a weak link when he was young. Now that he is older, he will not be able to maintain his high efficiency for long.
What made Spurs even more desperate was that when time entered Fourth Quarter, even when facing Bench lineup at the beginning of the quarter, Spurs was unable to recover the score. Kawhi had problems with his physical fitness, and his shooting efficiency also dropped sharply.
After a long period of high-intensity personal offense, the opponent's strong point of single defense is still being played. On the defensive end, Teammates has to wipe his butt in various ways. If he can still maintain high efficiency, he may need to grab a 13 James.
Even if Aldridge began to take over the offensive task and continuously overran Little Sabonis in terms of position, it could not restore the decline.
In the end, Spurs 110 lost the first match 118.
As League's top defensive team, it allowed its opponent to score 118 points in one game. This is undoubtedly a huge failure. You must know that First Round Grizzlies's average score is only 97.5 points. The gap is clear at a glance.
Westbrook scored a triple-double of 26 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in a single game, once again showing the world that his exaggerated ability to get a triple-double is as simple as drinking water.
Chen Xi scored 28 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, becoming the highest scorer in the team. Spurs In the absence of an excellent defender, his outside play style became more popular, Kawhi Help defense couldn't make up for it, and Chen Xi only made sporadic conversions. When Mismatch faced him, Chen would very rationally hand the ball over to Butler.
Butler scored 21 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, Thunder scored 75 points with three cores, plus Little Sabonis's 15 points, four people scored in double figures, Spurs couldn't win at all.
Kawhi scored 37 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. He was exhausted and sweating, but he still could only watch the victory slip away.
Aldridge has 17 points, Parker has 11 points, and if it weren't for Manu's 20 points, Spurs might have lost even more completely.
After the game, Popovich's face was as dark as water. He had to find a way to break the game as soon as possible, otherwise there might be no suspense in this series.