"Goodwin, you're up." Doc Rivers once again put his trust in Goodwin, whose scoring had caught fire.
Early in the second quarter, Doc Rivers once again brought out a lineup of Goodwin and four substitutes.
Goodwin didn't disappoint Doc Rivers. As soon as he got on the court, he started firing away from beyond the arc.
Swish. Swish. Swish... With each three-pointer, the deficit shrank little by little.
Watching from the bench, Gregg Popovich furrowed his brow.
Honestly, he hated the three-point shot.
Popovich thought of three-pointers as circus tricks. The old coach seemed to have an almost instinctive aversion to them. He preferred half-court offense built on intense defense, as if that were the only way to showcase his own tactical brilliance. Even the stars who played for him had never made their names in the league by relying on the three.
But seeing Goodwin shoot so well, Popovich couldn't help wanting to bring him onto his team.
A vision formed in Popovich's mind: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili, playing alongside Goodwin, a deadly accurate outside shooter.
Wow! The picture was almost too beautiful to be real. Even Popovich found it hard to believe.
Still, Popovich was willing to give it a try. They might be the defending champions, but who wouldn't want to make their team even stronger?
Especially when they were in the wild Western Conference.
The thing giving Popovich the biggest headache this season was undoubtedly the Los Angeles Lakers, who had assembled an F4 over the offseason. If they wanted to win back-to-back titles, they had to beat the Los Angeles Lakers.
Popovich turned toward the bench. "Bowen, get in there and shut him down."
"Got it, boss!" Bruce Bowen sprang out of his chair, took off his warm-up jacket, and headed to