The strongest champion puzzle

Chapter 443 The Final Suspense

After all, Popovich has the most say about the rotation.

In an interview, Popovich said that he understands the chairman of the league, Xiao Hua, and as the team coach, he also feels some pressure.But after that, he will still make that decision. In Popovich's view, it is more important for a player to play more years and be able to play more playoffs than one game.

However, even though he said he was disobedient, the old man already had countermeasures in private.

In the Spurs' next back-to-back game against the Kings, the Spurs did not have a rest player, but the few starters only played a maximum of [-] minutes.

Of course, it is also the king's dish, and the resistance is not fierce.

After the game, Parker, a big player on the team's rotation, said, "I have some strains, so I only need to wait a week for it to recover. This will not be a long-term injury."

He cooperated with Popovich's previous speech and took the initiative to say: "I told him that I don't want to rest. I need to find a rhythm before entering the playoffs, because it will come soon."

On March 3, the Spurs played away against the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves have given up hope of the playoffs at this time, but they still played well, especially the substitute players.

It's just that with the Spurs' strength in the third quarter, there is not much suspense about the outcome.

"We ramped up the game in the third quarter, like it was important," Popovich said casually in an interview after the game.

Ginobili is very serious that the team continues to play with fire, he said: "It seems that sometimes we need to be pushed to the limit to play our best performance."

"We're getting closer to the playoffs, and we're less than a month away, so we should be playing more consistently now, more consistently."

In fact, it is not only the playoffs, but the regular season win record, but the Spurs players no longer talk about it.

On April 3, the Spurs played against the Grizzlies at home.

In fact, the Spurs do not rule out meeting the Grizzlies in the playoffs, so they took a lot more seriously this time.

To be precise, he was very serious last time, but this time Popovich just gave a lecture.

The Grizzlies are the starters of one big and four small ones, which allowed them to fight for a little bit of offensive ability, but just a little bit, they played exceptionally last time, and the Spurs didn't do their best defensively.

The Spurs were also a bit empirical last time. In fact, Randolph became a substitute. After the opponent does not put up a two-bear lineup, they don't need to shrink their defense so much.

Restrict their outside line, and then let the two bears slowly chisel inside.

But there is a premise that their outside lines must be played out, and they are suppressed more severely on the outside line.

At the beginning of this round, Parker was completely suppressed by Conley. A few years ago, the situation was reversed. Who would have thought that it would be like this now.

However, the Spurs quickly changed their formation and stabilized the form by increasing outside shooting points.

Their defensive focus has also changed from black and white bears to the isolation of Conley.

Conley would blow up the Spurs all by himself if he had the skills, but he's clearly not that type.

Starting from defense, and then using stars to improve attack power, Zhang Xiaotian, Leonard and Aldridge joined forces, and the Spurs gained an advantage in the first half.

This is the way to fight against the Grizzlies. It doesn't matter if you use your strength early to gain the advantage, and then everyone grinds slowly. I'm afraid that the opponent will gain the advantage first, and then fall into hand-to-hand combat and cannot extricate themselves.

The Grizzlies belong to the tough category. In the second half, their rebounding became better and they played a very good team. Under the organization of Conley and Gasol, the team blossomed more.

But that's all, more flowers but not many.

Both Conley and Gasol Jr. are very practical players, but they are not the type who can score with others at critical moments.

So in the fourth quarter, after Zhang Xiaotian improved his combat effectiveness, the Grizzlies couldn't keep up on the offensive end.

When Conley was forced to single at the last moment, the Spurs' victory was already unstoppable.

When interviewed after the game, the Spurs players did not think that this victory was because they regarded the Grizzlies as their opponents in the first round of the playoffs.

Zhang Xiaotian said, "It's the same no matter who we play in the first round of the playoffs. We will try our best to win the opponent."

In fact, this question, the seven or eight teams in the West will answer the same, because the Spurs and Warriors are the opponents they are least willing to meet.

Zhang Xiaotian's son is one month old, he is white and fat, and he is much more handsome than when he made his voice.

Now he has another job when he goes back, which is to amuse his son.

But the mother-in-law has also come over, and there is not much time for the son to turn to him.

Yang Feiyu recovered quickly, and seemed to be more heartless than before, and she was pregnant for three years.

The rest of the games in March are not very intensive, and they are at home, so it is convenient to prepare for the games.

On March 3, the Spurs played at home against the Knicks, who were hopeless in the playoffs last season.

Anthony truce, the Spurs had an absolute advantage at halftime and easily won the game.

Popovich was asked about the record after the game. The old man said deliberately: "I don't want us to make any mistakes. I hope the players can hit every shot. I hope I can prevent every offense. That's it."

Next, the Spurs will encounter several strong enemies, and the outside world hopes to see the opponents prevent them from achieving better results.

But the Cavaliers who visited next surrendered at halftime, posing no threat to the Spurs at all.

The outside world lamented how the Spurs felt stronger than before.

It might sound like the Cavaliers don't really want to play, but Zhang Xiaotian also felt the players' excitement.

Even if you don't advocate the pursuit of records, but the team's performance this season is so good, it will indeed affect everyone's mentality.

After the game, Popovich also said: "Tonight's defense is very good. Everything is caused by defense. Our shooting is not bad. The defense is really good. The defense is much better than usual because there are more Communication, when we were one-on-one, everyone was able to face the challenge, and the offensive and defensive transition in the first half was also very good, so the Cavaliers didn’t have many easy scoring opportunities, and I think this helped our offense.”

James said in an interview: "We are indeed not playing well now, but we are still confident that we should not be frustrated now. The team needs to understand some things and solve their own problems. We will not be like this in the next game. Confused, this performance is really bad!"

Cavaliers coach Lu said: "I wanted to rest the main players before the game, but I gave up this idea. The Spurs are really good on both ends of the offense and defense. They are too fast."

Perhaps this game went too smoothly, and then the Spurs suffered their sixth defeat of the season.

It was the Warriors who beat them, and maybe the Warriors didn't want the Spurs to break their record.

Through this game, the Spurs also understood the danger of the Warriors. Their ability to burst points is too strong.

(End of this chapter)