Onion-Style Offense

The San Antonio Spurs had been chasing hard behind the Grizzlies all season. Whether it was the up-and-coming Clippers in the Western Conference's top tier or the young, energetic Thunder, neither had put together a record as impressive as San Antonio's this season.

So far in the regular season, the Thunder were 25-9, slightly inferior to the Spurs. The Clippers were even worse, having already lost 13 games this season.

Therefore, the only team truly capable of keeping pace with the Grizzlies this year was the Spurs.

They were a team whose core players were on the older side, a team that had barely brought in any big-name stars through free agency or trades. Yet the Spurs were like evergreen ivy, seemingly never withering.

It was just that the Grizzlies' record this season was too good. Popovich realized that no matter how hard he chased, he simply could not catch up.

31 wins and 2 losses—an outrageous record that far exceeded Popovich's expectations. But considering that the Grizzlies had already won 70 games last season and had come just two games shy of that great mark, it was not entirely unexpected.

However, even though the Grizzlies had posted an absurd 31-2 record, even though the entire league had fallen into panic, Popovich remained utterly fearless. On the contrary, he wanted to fight the Grizzlies more than anyone else in the league!

Popovich's pride had been trampled into nothing by the Grizzlies over the past few years. They had eliminated him two years in a row, and although they had not knocked him out in the third year, Popovich could only watch helplessly as the team he had looked down on held the Larry O'Brien Trophy in its hands.

In this season's opener, the Spurs had even become the biggest backdrop,