beast basketball

If in the third quarter, Popovich half-pushed and half let the Kings take away a victory, then Popovich couldn't relax in the fourth game. After all, the playoffs are seven games and four wins, which can be squandered There are not too many opportunities. If you lose another game, you will have to come to Sacramento to play one more home game. Not to mention, it is very likely to bring hope to the Kings players that they may win the entire series. As soon as the combat power is improved, even if the Spurs win, it will be a miserable victory, and there are still strong players like the Mavericks behind them.

Popovich called the main players over for a small meeting, emphatically affirming the significance of the fourth game to the Spurs. If they win the fourth game and then return to the home court, they will be able to stand in front of the crowd of home fans. Defeat the Kings in front of them and win this series, so no matter what, this game must be won.

After explaining the meaning, Popovich began to arrange the tactics of this game. From this point, it can be seen that Popovich is indeed ready to win this game. Only then did Stephen understand why the last game was so hard to beat himself. I was pressed on the bench, and the coach didn't really want to win that game after making trouble for a long time.

After the meeting was over, Stephen still didn't understand why the head coach Popovich would give up the third game so obviously, but beside him, Robert Horry, who has been in the league for more than ten years, can ask for advice at any time, and he will soon know the reason for this.

Ordinary head coaches would not do this at all. One is because he did not squander the victory of a game with his confidence. It needs to be considered for business operations, which is what the general manager needs to consider. In a team, there is no distinction between the general manager and the head coach in terms of status. The general manager is responsible for other affairs, and the head coach is only responsible for the game. related affairs.

It is very common in the league that after someone becomes the general manager, he calls his friend over to be the head coach, and then both resign because of poor record. Managers were scrambled to the head coaching position as well.

For example, Popovich was originally the general manager of the Spurs, and then failed to recruit the old Nelson. The team lost the head coach, so Popovich also took up the position of head coach. After doing this, he found that the effect was good, so he devoted himself to becoming the head coach. He became the head coach and gave the general manager position to his friend Buford.

It is with the identity of the general manager and head coach, and Popovich does not need to worry about the job of the head coach, that Popovich can have more room to think about things other than the game , Except for Patlett, who would dare to do this if replaced by other head coaches.

That being the case, I might as well put in more energy, and when it’s home court, I’ll perform well in front of my own fans. What’s the point of showing to the fans of the Kings? Hearing what Robert Horry said, Stephen also has the idea of ​​​​reserving energy.

After only one day of rest, the fourth game between the Spurs and the Kings started again at Arco Arena. This time Popovich directly put Stephen in the starting position. It seemed that the last game was just a small punishment.

The starting lineup of the Kings has not changed much, but the Spurs mentioned Nesterovic in the starting lineup, and re-adjusted Muhammad to the substitute lineup. This is because Duncan has a little physical problem after successive battles , Defensively needs the defense of teammates around him. Although Muhammad worked very hard in the game, but due to his short height, he could not give Duncan much help in defense.

Although Duncan has a height of [-] meters, the most suitable position for him is the position of power forward. In the position of power forward, he has a great advantage in terms of body, height, strength and technology. If he is placed in the center position, his advantage will not be so great.

Now in the power forward position in the league, most of them are about [-] meters tall. With Duncan's physical and technical advantages, bullying them is easy and freehand, but as a center, he is similar in height. There are a lot of players, and now the centers are increasingly blue-collar. The centers of many teams are pure blue-collar players. Confronting them will only waste Duncan's lack of energy.

In this case, Nesterovic is more suitable to match with Duncan, especially when defending. Duncan can focus on outside defense and supplementary defense, and give Nesterovic the guarding of the inside penalty area. It's a pity that after this guy won the championship, his motivation to play has been lacking. In addition, he is over [-] years old, and it's not worth Popovich's trouble to train him again, so he adopted this method. Treat him with a lukewarm attitude. He won’t be angry anyway. If you let him go, he will go up. If you don’t let him go, he will sit quietly below. Desperately.

Due to the impact of the victory in the last game, the Kings played more confidently. The team seemed to have returned to the previous offensive state with mercury pouring down, and at the same time, it was more active on defense than the first and second games. It seems that one victory has made them feel refreshed. If they win another game, things will really be difficult to handle.

Stephen's old opponent is still Artest. Seeing Stephen Artest felt a little frightened. Stephen's defense is really annoying to him, far from being comparable to Bruce Bowen's candy-style defense. Stephen can be called Niu Pisuo, especially Stephen's strength, which is not weaker than him at all, but among the two weapons of his offensive magic weapon, breakthrough is very dependent on strength. Without the advantage of strength, he cannot If you break through, you can only shoot from the outside.

Artest's first attack test was like hitting a wall. Stephen stood in front of him leaning forward, not giving himself any chance to squeeze in. Artest had no choice but to push inward. Chong, then turned back and stepped back to take off to shoot. Fortunately, although the shot felt extremely awkward, the ball was hit, and the Kings scored two first.

Duncan served the ball to Parker, and Parker controlled the ball to the half court. Mike Bibby went to defend early, and Parker didn't like to fight, so he passed the ball directly to Stephen. Hit Steven on this.

Stephen is different from others. He attacks alone with the ball. He can play with tactics and without tactics, so Stephen has a relatively high degree of freedom. After Stephen gets the ball, Artest immediately surrounds him. come over.

In terms of strength alone, there is basically no difference between the two, but in terms of flexibility, moving speed, especially lateral moving speed, Artest and Stephen are much worse, so Stephen can run side to side, Squeeze one side inward.

However, Artest's title of the best defensive player is not for nothing. Although he can't stop Stephen's encroachment tactics, he can not give Stephen the space to shoot, and Stephen doesn't mean to force the shot. It's still not tight. Slowly nibbling towards the inside line.

Slowly, Stephen approached the position of the three-second zone. At this time, Kings power forward Kenny Thomas couldn't stand on the side, and hurried over to meet Artest, but Stephen suddenly exerted strength and got into the gap between the two. In the middle, on the surface, it seems that Stephen is throwing himself into a trap, but in fact, Stephen has other plans.

After attracting Kenny Thomas to move, there was a space between Stephen and Duncan. Stephen swished the ball to Duncan next to him, and then cut to the basket empty-handed. The two seemed to have made an agreement Similarly, Duncan's pass arrived immediately, and Stephen easily dunked with one hand, opening the tie for the Spurs first.

The Spurs who play tactics are terrible, but the Spurs who don’t play tactics are also terrible, because many of them also have strong singles ability, such as Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Duncan , when the tactics cannot be opened, the three of them will undertake their own different tasks. If Ginobili is an extremely sharp sword, then Tony Parker is a sharp knife that pierces people's hearts, and Duncan is a An indestructible stick.

And Stephen is a heavy and flexible sword, which can take a light and agile route, such as the air cut behind, or a strong attack, such as the hard press in the front, plus the tacit understanding between him and Duncan. With cooperation, the attack was completed.

Although another attack by the Kings passed Brad Miller's hands, the ball finally came to Artest's hands, but Artest, who had suffered enough, did not lose his mind because of this. Compared with others, Artest is quite self-sustaining, and calling him unstingy is a bit too underestimating of him.

After receiving the ball, Artest still tried to score an attack, but after being hindered, Artest immediately took the ball to cooperate with Wells, then handed the ball to Wells, and also assisted Wells. Ernes blocked Michael Finlay.

Wells made a shot one step away from the three-point line. Although the ball missed, it still fell into his hands. He moved a step to the right and avoided Michael Finley's defense. Si shot again, and this time it finally hit.

Back to the Spurs, the Spurs began to play according to the tactics, but Stephen managed to run without the ball to get a chance to make a shot. At this time, Duncan’s pass arrived in time again. Down two points.

In the offense of the Kings, Mike Bibby's shot deviated from the basket, but the rebound was caught by Wells again, and then Wells' short and fat body turned around with great flexibility and went around Muhammad's Behind him, with one hand, a lightly kicked in the basketball.

The two sides are playing inextricably, evenly matched, and no one can have an absolute advantage. I believe that if the Kings have been in this state, they will definitely not fall to the eighth place in the Western Division. If the Spurs are 80.00% If the strength of one hundred is usually only 90.00%, if it is 110% now, then the Kings are now [-]% of their strength. Considering this way, it is understandable for the two sides to play like this.

But when Stephen finished everything, he saw Wells still galloping freely on the field, as if unstoppable, he couldn't help wondering what was going on with this guy, he wasn't usually so powerful, could it be I took some abnormal medicine.