Healing Basketball

Chapter 721. The strongest Duncan, the weakest Popovich

到了6月2号傍晚，比分打成3比1的东决迎来了第5战。

The Pistons, who hold the match point, sit at home against the Heat.

As expected, the Eastern Conference finals did not end so quickly, 112 to 107, the Heat narrowly beat the Pistons by 5 points.

姚明24分10板、卡特29分6板2助攻、比卢普斯13分8助攻、阿米尔-约翰逊吃饼拿到15分……整体进攻打得很好，但对方暴走了。

安东尼-沃克拿到18分14板12助攻，加上韦德的37分、奥尼尔的26分、白巧克力的13分……全队齐心协力，将东决带回迈阿密。

After Liu Xiu watched the live broadcast, he clearly felt that the performance of Yao Ming and O'Neal declined with the decline in physical strength.

Carter and Wade have already taken over the battle, and Liu Xiu can clearly see that Wade's performance is better than Carter's.

In terms of Wade's desperate energy, Carter doesn't have it.

But should I talk about it, Liu Xiu felt that the referee really gave the call. This is the home court of the Pistons. Wade's 19 of 15 free throws are a bit outrageous.

Thinking of this, Liu Xiu's eyes suddenly widened - no way no way, this is 1 to 3!
...

Liu Xiu just thought about it for a while, he didn't have so much time to pay attention to Yao Ming's side, and he was too busy here.

After the two-day break, at 6 pm on June 3, the battle between the Trail Blazers and the Spurs at Tianwangshan began!

In the first quarter, Liu Xiu continued to hit the ground running, hitting three goals in a row and triggering 'Kobe time', and then scored a three-pointer after a pick-and-roll. After a wave of 10-3 by himself, he didn't make a single successful shot in the next 9 minutes. Got 4 free throw opportunities and hit all of them.

单节4投4中、其中三分球2中2、加上4中4的罚球，拿到14分，外加1板4助攻，率领开拓者队单节拿到37分！
在他的牵制和传球帮助下，雷-阿伦首节3投3中拿到8分，兰多夫5投3中拿到7分，两人感动得都要哭了。

The Spurs began to adjust their style of play after Liu Xiu played a wave of 10-3 calls for a timeout. It seemed that they were ready. I am emphasizing persistence.

In the next 9 minutes, the Spurs scored 24 points, and there was no qualitative difference in performance from the Trail Blazers who scored 10 points in the next 27 minutes. Of course, the overall gap still came to 10 points.

After the first quarter, the Trail Blazers lead the Spurs 37 to 27!
In the second quarter, the offense of the two teams was full.

Liu Xiu scored 8 points and 5 assists in a single quarter, and Ray Allen scored 12 points. It was the battle of Tianwangshan, and the role players of the Trail Blazers finally made a shot. Outlaws, Payton, McDyess and others The mid-range shot was swish.

Throughout the second quarter, the Trail Blazers scored 35 points in a single quarter!
However, the highest scorer in this quarter was not Ray Allen, but Duncan... 6 of 4 shots, plus 7 of 5 free throws, Duncan had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in a single quarter.

Add Ginobili's 6 points, Parker's 4 points, and Bowen's 7 points... The Spurs also scored 35 points in a single quarter.

After halftime, the Trail Blazers were 72 to 62, still leading the Spurs by 10 points!
...

When the game ended in this situation, Popovich began to panic!
He has never played like this!

He also scored soaring points with the Suns, but he didn't arrange to play offense against the Suns. He has been strengthening the defense and constantly adjusting the defense. A good offense is a troika.

Although they scored 62 points in the half and survived the opening stage where Liu Xiu scored 10 points in a row, their performance was not weaker than the Trail Blazers, but he was still afraid.

During the intermission, he still couldn't hold back and changed his style of play back to defense.

The Spurs players are used to whatever the coach says, so there is no problem, just adjust.

Duncan hesitated to speak. Although he felt that such a sudden change of style of play was not good, the start was adjusted smoothly. He only played for 3 minutes, and now halftime has passed, but he still didn't say anything.

After returning from the halftime break, the Spurs directly filled the defense and successfully contained the Blazers' offensive momentum in the third quarter. Ray Allen scored 10 points in a single quarter, and the Blazers only scored 27 points. 8 points lower than in the second quarter.

However, the Spurs offense was even worse. Duncan scored 7 points, Parker scored 5 points, Horry scored 5 points, Ginobili 6 points, a total of 23 points, and no one else scored.

After fighting for a quarter of defense, the Spurs' trailing point difference widened by 3 points.

After three quarters, the Trail Blazers led the Spurs by 99 points 85 to 14!
At this time, Popovich knew that he was cheated, but there was nothing he could do. It would be crazy to change the players, and it was not so easy to get back that offensive feeling, so he had to go all the way to the dark.

In the final quarter, the Spurs successfully limited the Trail Blazers to 20 points. Barkley, who explained the game, ridiculed that the highest and lowest points in a single quarter were scored by the Trail Blazers, and the offense fluctuated too much.

The Spurs scored 26 points in the final quarter, narrowing the 6-point gap, but it didn't help.

刘秀拿到27分6板15助攻3抢断、雷-阿伦32分、兰多夫23分9板、法外狂徒13分4板、夸梅-布朗6分6板3助攻1抢断……119比111，开拓者队以8分的优势击败马刺队，赢下天王山之战！
The top scorer tonight wasn't Ray Allen...

The big screen gave the data of the player who performed the best tonight.

26投14中，加上19中13的罚球，邓肯拿到个人季后赛生涯新高的41分，外加15板6助攻1抢断3盖帽……

After the game, Liu Xiu accepted a rare post-match interview, and only said one sentence - "Welcome the most powerful striker in history to join the team."

...

The start was 0 to 1, and the score was 3 to 2 after winning the battle of Tianwangshan. The performance of the Trail Blazers stunned the crowd.

The Spurs' performance fluctuated greatly in G5, and Popovich was scolded.

Everyone is saying that Popovich doesn't know how to play offense and has to change his formation blindly. Duncan is in such a good state for nothing.

The last time Duncan played so hard in a series was when he won the championship in 03.

Popovich was wronged by these remarks. If he didn't seek change, if he didn't put Ginobili on the bench, and didn't prepare for tactical changes, what would they use to fight against the Trail Blazers?

They made these adjustments under the pressure of losing to the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals last year and being swept by the Trail Blazers in the regular season this year.

But don't say, although it was forced to change by pressure, after a few tries, Popovich felt pretty good.

It's just that the changes he prepared in advance have almost been used up in G3, and there is nothing new in G4.

These preparations took a lot of time, and now let him continue to adjust his style of play in depth, he really can't do it... No, he was completely led by the nose by Maurice Cheeks in the battle of Tianwang Mountain...

(End of this chapter)