Right from the opening tip, Leonard stripped Link's layup.
That immediately put even the fans who had not taken the Spurs seriously before on edge.
As everyone knew, Link had always ranked near the bottom of the league in turnovers. Unlike players such as Harden and Westbrook, who racked up huge assist totals along with huge turnover totals, as the Grizzlies' primary ball-handler, Link averaged just 1.4 turnovers per game—a downright astonishing figure.
What did 1.4 turnovers per game mean? Even a low-usage, dunk-fed player like the Clippers' DeAndre Jordan, who barely handled the ball at all, averaged the same number of turnovers as Link.
Normally, a ball-handler averaging fewer than 2.5 turnovers per game was already considered exceptionally good.
Even the "god" back in the day averaged over two turnovers per game.
Leonard was already excellent at limiting turnovers, yet he still averaged 2.1 per game this season.
Link, meanwhile, had only 1.4!
This showed that Link was not merely careful with his passes. Even while attacking with the ball, he rarely made mistakes.
But today, he turned it over right away! And it was all thanks to Leonard. No one without real skill could force Link into a turnover.
"The Spurs are on the attack again. Both teams have gotten a stop in one possession each. I wonder who will be the first to break the deadlock tonight."
No sooner had Hubie Brown finished speaking than Danny Green, who had been cutting along the baseline toward the basket, suddenly reversed course and sprinted back out beyond the three-point line.
Parker delivered the ball immediately. Though the Frenchman no longer had many eye-catching individual numbers, no one understood the Spurs' offense better than he did.
This off-ball move was already one of the Spurs' classic plays, yet Green could