NBA: Duncan feels uneasy coaching Warriors

Chapter 184 Big Score 2 to 1
Butler played that kind of performance in G1 again, without Leonard targeting him, which allowed Butler to play his own rhythm.

Popovich on the sidelines looked very angry.

It is equivalent to Su Chen using two sets of plans to separate Leonard and Duncan's defense.

Not playing Duncan would be like that, leaving Leonard with a choice between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Butler.

The Spurs' defense against the mid-range is relatively weak, which happens to be Butler's best mid-range shot.

But the Spurs have never changed their defensive system, and they will not put too much emphasis on defense in CIC. The foundation of the Spurs is to guard the three-point line and the basket.

Popovich doesn't even need to think about it. Once he changes the defensive system, the Spurs will be attacked frequently inside like the Warriors in the last round of the series.

But if Duncan is played, the rhythm of the first quarter will be repeated immediately.

Popovich won't be able to fix it all at once.

At this time on the court, Butler made frequent mid-range shots, allowing the Timberwolves to catch up with the points.

Without Duncan on the offensive end of the Spurs, the offensive efficiency has also declined significantly.

Leonard is now only at the peak of his defensive level, and his offensive ability still needs to be further improved.

On the field, Dior and Leonard are supporting the offense. Everyone else is running according to tactics, but the Timberwolves still have a strong ability to switch defenses even with this lineup.

The Timberwolves lineup is best at defending the team's offensive team.

The fear of infinitely changing defenses is a superstar who can explode with a single point.

But when Duncan is not on the court, the Spurs lack a superstar who can perform one-point blasting.

It's not that Leonard, Parker, and Ginobili are not strong offensively.

It is because every point of the Timberwolves is a defensive player defending the first echelon.

If Parker and Ginobili are both at the peak, they can still carry out some tough tasks, but now only Duncan has a super giant offense in GDP.

Even Duncan, because of his age, has difficulty maintaining such a high-intensity confrontation.

The Spurs were chased by some points.

Popovich called a timeout anyway, allowing Duncan to return to the court.

After Duncan returned to the court, there was a significant improvement for the Spurs.

When Duncan returned to the court, the Timberwolves had already caught up with the score. If Duncan didn't play, the Timberwolves could further open the score.

But after Duncan returned, at least on the offensive end, the Spurs maintained their efficiency.

At the same time, it also allowed Iguodala and Lol Deng to conduct more offenses after the pick-and-roll with the ball, which reduced the efficiency of the Timberwolves.

The Spurs even chased the score back at one point, but as Duncan's physical strength declined, the Spurs did not let the score open.

At halftime.

Timberwolves 50:52 Spurs.

In the second quarter, the Timberwolves were still winning points overall.

Originally, Popovich planned more rest time for Duncan, but if Duncan was not chased by the Timberwolves, the Spurs' score would be stretched.

Popovich also had no choice but to replace Duncan back in advance.

Although Duncan stabilized the Spurs' situation on the court, he did not open the score, because Duncan's physical strength was consumed quickly.

The Timberwolves are basically aiming at Duncan. Duncan not only wants to control his physical strength, but also controls his fouls.

Frequently challenged on the defensive end, under the new breakthrough rules, Duncan had no choice but to commit three fouls.

Although the Timberwolves' defense against Duncan is single defense, but all of them are aggressive, and they are not afraid of fouls at all.

Duncan's efficiency dropped in the second half, and Giannis Antetokounmpo's defense was also credited, but Giannis Antetokounmpo also committed three fouls.

But the Timberwolves have many people who can defend against Duncan, and Ibaka, including Josh, came up and got it right.

And there is Muscala, who is not afraid of fouls. When he came up for a minute and a half of playing time, he was directly hit by Duncan to 5 fouls.

Not only to confront when defending, Duncan connects the ball, and it is necessary to get rid of the entanglement of the Timberwolves players.

There was even one possession where Duncan had more than seven seconds to get the ball out of Giannis Antetokounmpo's dribble.

Giannis Antetokounmpo waved his long arms, and the Spurs were not so decisive when they wanted to feed Duncan.

Duncan was already tired after receiving the ball, and here is an action that can reflect the talent of Giannis Antetokounmpo, that is, Giannis Antetokounmpo even interfered with the front for so long. Immediately moved back to his defensive position at the back.

As expected of a little foot move, Antetokounmpo.

Athletic agility is too high.

Inside the Spurs locker room at halftime.

At this time, Popovich didn't have much to arrange, and all the strengths of the Spurs were targeted.

Although his on-the-spot ability is very strong, it has exceeded the scope of on-the-spot adjustments. Popovich even suspects that Su Chen was already studying how to play the Spurs at the beginning of the season.

If that's the case, then Su Chen is too confident.

Because of this strategy, it seems like a strategy that was thought up first, and then the corresponding selection and trading were carried out during the offseason.

You know, the Timberwolves were still so far away from the playoffs last season.

Su Chen is so confident that he can face the Spurs in the playoffs?

Popovich didn't want to get entangled in the question of whether Su Chen had prepared a season in advance, and now he still had to make a countermeasure.

Duncan looked at Popovich like this throughout his career, only when he was young and when he was turned over by Su Chen last season.

Popovich was very angry when he was young, but now he has calmed down a lot, because Popovich is very sure of many things.

When he was hacked, Popovich didn't do this.

The Spurs are a team with a pretty good team atmosphere, but the Spurs locker room at this time seems a bit stuffy.

Back at halftime.

The third quarter begins.

By the third quarter, Duncan was still on the court.

Obviously, the Spurs' calculation is to decide the outcome with the Timberwolves in the third quarter.

After playing 2 minutes in the third quarter.

Su Chen understood Popovich's thoughts and directly put Giannis Antetokounmpo on the court to conduct a defensive sweep.

Because Duncan was obviously anxious at this time, and he played more firmly, trying to defeat the Timberwolves with a wave of willpower.

Under such circumstances, Su Chen not only defended again, but switched back to the joint defense mode.

The sudden change of rhythm made Duncan unable to adapt for a while.

Originally, Duncan wanted to rely on his personal ability to directly defeat the Timberwolves in this quarter, but the Timberwolves' strategy change directly messed up Duncan's rhythm.

Some balls should have been passed, but Duncan hit the head and didn't pass.

Then some fake help defenses, Duncan passed the ball again, and then the ball spun around for a round without a chance to force a shot.

The decline in physical strength caused Duncan to make many mistakes in his judgment.

This was also the effect Su Chen wanted to see.

The Timberwolves' defense directly relies on Giannis Antetokounmpo to conduct a range sweep.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's height and wingspan and his agility, when Giannis Antetokounmpo is fully defensive, the defensive coverage is quite wide.

As for the energy consumption of such a defense, Su Chen directly gave Giannis Antetokounmpo a stamina drink, which allowed Giannis Antetokounmpo to provide high-intensity defense sweeps on the defensive end.

For the Timberwolves' home fans, seeing Giannis Antetokounmpo's defense on the court reminded them of the last Timberwolves star Garnett.

Garnett also has a pair of long arms in the interior, covering the sky and covering the sun in the interior, and the defensive area is quite wide.

For a while, the images of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Garnett overlapped to a certain extent, which made Timberwolves fans even more excited.

Although Giannis Antetokounmpo has been on the offensive end, there have been many downturns.

But this is Giannis Antetokounmpo's rookie season!

And Garnett is not a super offensive player, and the Timberwolves fans' requirements for Giannis Antetokounmpo are not very high.

The third quarter was indeed decided.

But it wasn't the Spurs that won the Timberwolves, it was the Timberwolves that won the Spurs.

After the third quarter.

The score of both sides.

Timberwolves 83:68 Spurs.

The two sides have opened up a 15-point gap. Originally, the Spurs were 2 points ahead of the Timberwolves, which means that the Spurs lost by 17 points in the third quarter.

The Timberwolves have made great moves against Duncan's defense, and they don't care about fouls at all.

But the entire core lineup of the Timberwolves, no one has a particularly high foul.

Except that Muscala has been beaten by 6 criminals and graduated.

The others are still controlled in the appearance of two crimes and three crimes, mainly because there are many people defending Duncan.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ibaka, Josh Smith.

The main reason is that these people are defending, and Luol Deng will occasionally defend, but not often.

When Muscala was beaten by six fouls and graduated, the audience stood up and applauded the rookie. His defensive performance made Minnesota people see it.

The victory of the whole game has already begun on the Timberwolves' side.

"The Spurs did a poor job of protecting Duncan. He was consumed too much by the Timberwolves. This is 38-year-old Duncan."

Barkley shook his head and said.

"Actually, it's still not here to share Duncan's offensive pressure. When the GDP is at its peak, the firepower of the other two besides Duncan also needs other teams to be vigilant."

"But look at the performance of Ginobili and Parker. When they face the defense of Iguodala, Luol Deng, Butler, etc., it is difficult for them to break through the defense of Timberwolves through their personal abilities."

Johnson analyzed the situation on the field.

Today's Spurs are indeed too lacking on the offensive end. Leonard's offense is still in a state of development, and he has become the Spurs' third scorer.

Even compared to Parker, it's not much worse.

This is not because Leonard's current offense is too strong, but because Parker and Ginobili's offense is too poor.

Playing the tiebreaker with the Mavericks is actually a problem for the Spurs' offense.

In the tie-break against the Mavericks, the Spurs had three games without scoring more than [-] points.

Who are the main rotations for the Mavericks?
Nowitzki Sr., Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Shawn Marion, Carter Sr., Wayne Ellington.
More than half of the Mavericks' rotation is defensively average or below average.

The one who can defend the most will lose to old Marion. When old Marion encounters a fast player, he has already reached the state of being overwhelmed by one step.

Although these people are very good at mid-range shots, they can deploy weak mid-range shots against the Spurs.

However, under the defense of these people, the Spurs did not score more than [-] points in three games, which indeed can explain the current offensive problems of the Spurs.

With the Timberwolves now targeting Duncan, the rest of the Spurs can't stand up, so this round of the series is very obvious.

Several people at the commentary desk also talked about these things.

However, although they didn't know that the Spurs and the Mavericks had reached the tiebreaker, they could still see the problem that the rest of the Spurs couldn't stand up offensively.

Popovich has designed tactics for them, but without Duncan as a strong containment point, the Spurs can't run many tactics.

The Spurs on the court are also doing such a scene.

Duncan is very tired now, even if Duncan wants to play Ibaka now, it is not as easy as the previous two quarters.

And the Timberwolves' Giannis Antetokounmpo is too physically strong, running around on the defensive end, and then running fast on the fast break.

Although Duncan can limit Giannis Antetokounmpo in positional battles.

But in the transition attack, Giannis Antetokounmpo's ball-handling speed, the Spurs basically couldn't catch up with him except Leonard.

A few strides can go directly to the Spurs free throw line for layups or dunks.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ran the whole game, didn't seem to feel tired.

Duncan's role on the court has decreased, and the Spurs have no chance to chase on both ends of the offense and defense.

After more than half of the game, Popovich also saw that the game could not be won, and replaced the drinking fountain player in advance.

Especially Duncan, Duncan is tired enough in this game, it is better to let Duncan rest for the next game.

The Spurs stopped playing, and after the Timberwolves played two more rounds, they also chose to substitute and rest.

Beep!
As the whistle sounded for the end of the game, the game was over.

Timberwolves 108:85 Spurs.

The big score in the series between the two sides: Spurs 1-2 Timberwolves.

After the Spurs lost a home court, they attacked the Timberwolves' home court for the first time and failed to win.

The MVP of this game is Butler in terms of good statistics.

But it is Giannis Antetokounmpo who really plays a big role in offense and defense.

本场比赛扬尼斯-阿德托昆博拿到了一个非常全面的数据，19分13篮板9助攻5抢断3盖帽。

Giannis Antetokounmpo slapped every dog ​​passing by and slapped him.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's performance in this game is very eye-catching.

Butler is okay, his performance is mainly on the offensive end, and he has found the feeling of G1.

Butler scored 25 points in the game, the highest score of the Timberwolves.

In this game, he once again punished the Spurs' mid-range deployment problem. When Duncan was not on the court, he served as the main offense for the Timberwolves.

(End of this chapter)