Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 129 129. Christmas War
On December 12, the NBA ushered in the annual Christmas game.

Christmas is considered a relatively important holiday in the United States, and the Christmas game is also the game that fans are most looking forward to.

Every year, the league arranges for two interesting teams to meet in the Christmas game, and those who can be scheduled on the day of the Christmas game are the powerful players in the league.

Of course, except for a few pro-sons in prime locations, for example, the record of the Los Angeles Lakers is very average, but as long as the Lakers have the strength to hit the playoffs, basically there will be no shortage of Lakers in the Christmas game.

The opponent of the Lakers in the Christmas game this year is the Cleveland Cavaliers. The league intends to match the 23VS24 game, and the league has put a lot of effort into promoting this aspect.

Fortunately, LeBron James is quite competitive. Although he failed to bring the Cavaliers to a new height after entering the league, LeBron James' personal data is very good, and he is considered the leading star in the United States.

The Timberwolves, the defending champions, will face the Spurs at home on Christmas Day.

As a Western powerhouse, the Spurs still have a very good record this season, and now rank third in the league after the Timberwolves and the Pistons.

Since the San Antonio ball market is small, it can only be regarded as a small city in the United States, and the Spurs owner is not willing to spend money, so the Spurs' lineup changes every year are not very big.

The conventional reinforcement method is to cultivate the team through the draft, or some small transactions to strengthen the team.

But this summer, in order to avenge last year's playoffs, the Spurs have spent a lot of money on reinforcements.

During the offseason, the Spurs acquired Ricky Davis from the Boston Celtics through a series of operations.

Although Ricky Davis is not considered a top star in the league, he averaged 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists per game with the Celtics last season.

As an outside killer, Ricky Davis has excellent breakthrough and singles abilities, and he has the ability to carry the banner of offense if he joins any team.

Ricky Davis, who joined the Spurs this season, has been used by Popovich as a sixth man to provide firepower for the Spurs' second team.

截止到目前，里基戴维斯在场均登场28.6分钟的情况下可以贡献14.2分3.1篮板3.3助攻以及1.6次抢断。

At first glance, this data seems to have shrunk compared to last season, but in a disciplined team like the Spurs, Ricky Davis's data is very valuable.

After all, as one of the "troika", Ginobili can only contribute 15.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

The Spurs have never relied on individual heroism to win, but the team's overall coordination and tactics.

Today, the highest scoring average in the Spurs is Tony Parker's 18.9 points. The Timberwolves have two players higher than this data, but the Spurs will forcefully lower the rhythm in the game, so that the opponent has to fall into a positional battle.

The Spurs are the team with the least number of offensive rounds among the [-] teams in the league this season, so the Spurs' score has not been very high, and it depends more on the perseverance of the two sides.

The absence of Bruce Bowen dropped the Spurs' forward defense a notch, and at the same time forced veteran Robert Hawley to play more minutes, even though Horry's defense is not as good as Bowen's.

Before the start of the game, Luke and Popovich did not go face to face with each other tacitly. At present, the grievances between the two have been completely made public, and the two do not need any pleasantries in public.

How to win the game is what Luke and Popovich are most concerned about.

"This old dog's sanctimonious appearance makes people look very uncomfortable, with a sullen face as if everyone owes him money." Seeing Popovich standing on the sidelines, Trenton Hasse Er couldn't help cursing.

Trenton Hassel didn't like the Spurs at all. Last year's flagrant foul on Bruce Bowen made Hassel experience multiple suspensions until the new season.

Even though the salary lost during the suspension was secretly made up by the management, Hassell has no good impression of Popovich, a guy who instructs players to step on others maliciously, and even couldn't help but want to give him two punches.

Hassel has never regretted the malicious foul on Bowen. To be honest, Hassel felt that he was a bit light at the time.

"Don't worry, Trenton, I'll give you a chance to vent your anger." Lambiel squatted aside and raised his eyebrows at Hassel with a half-smile.

Seeing Ranbir's appearance, Hassell also couldn't help laughing, but this smile seemed full of evil.

Throughout the first quarter, the two teams played very slowly on the court, and every attack of the Spurs basically dragged on until 24 seconds.

In order to prevent the Timberwolves from playing an efficient defensive counterattack, Popovich even gave up fighting for rebounds, leaving only Nesterovic to fight in the frontcourt, and the rest turned around and returned to defense as soon as the offense was over.

The Spurs' defensive style is a bit stupid, but it has to be said that this style of play with strong men and broken wrists is indeed very effective.

The Timberwolves played a very limited number of defensive counterattacks in the first quarter, allowing the Spurs to successfully drag the game into a positional battle, and had to compete with the Spurs at a slow pace to see who had the higher defensive intensity.

The Spurs' inside twin towers are composed of Tim Duncan and Nesterovic. Nesterovic is [-] meters tall and is a standard international center.

Slow movement, poor jumping, has a certain singles ability in the low post, and mostly relies on his brain and height to play.

Magloire has an obvious footstep advantage against a center like Nesterovic. However, the Spurs have been defending the zone defense on the defensive end. This affects Magloire's offensive environment and it is difficult to use his speed to play. Advantage.

Since Szczerbiak missed this Christmas game due to an ankle injury, Luke chose Ariza, who has improved greatly in defense and three-pointers, as the starting small forward.

Although Ariza is not as good as Nehbar, his excellent wingspan and defensive ability can make the Timberwolves' defense more threatening.

The Spurs' starting small forward is Michael Finley, one of the Mavericks' Tridents back then, but now Michael Finley has long been absent due to injuries and can only contribute about 10 points per game.

Ariza did a good job of defending Michael Finley throughout the first quarter, allowing Finley to hit only one sports goal and get two points.

On the offensive end, the Spurs mainly rely on the performance of Duncan and Tony Parker. Under the heavy pressure of the Timberwolves, the complex tactical movement can only become the individual singles of Duncan and Parker.

The two players responsible for defending Parker and Duncan on the field are "Glove" Payton and Garnett respectively, which makes the Spurs' offense look very struggling.

In the second quarter, the two sides switched to the rotation lineup to compete. The Spurs' rotation depth was good. Ricky Davis, Fan Maniac, Muhammad, Udri, Brent Barry, these players performed very well.

But if compared with the defending champion Timberwolves, the Spurs are obviously not as good, it is because Szczerbiak and "Penny" Hardaway cannot play at the same time, otherwise the depth of the Timberwolves' rotation will be more vigorous.

Without the two main offensive points of Szczerbiak and "Penny" Hardaway, the Timberwolves were still affected and could only maintain the lead with a slight advantage.

At the end of halftime, the Timberwolves led the Spurs by six points with their better offensive performance.

(End of this chapter)