The way of the center

Chapter 401 Deadlock
The frenzied summer has come quietly, and what matches this hot early summer is naturally the equally hot NBA playoffs.

In the morning of the City of Roses, the sky is finally no longer gray.The scorching sun tore through the clouds and threw them straight to the ground.The wet grass was covered with dew, and countless roses were awakened by the morning glow again.

Catherine was still a little sleepy, but the sunlight that penetrated the curtains hit her eyes.She snorted lazily, rubbed her sleepy eyes, turned over, preparing to hide from the sun, and also in order to be able to hug the big man who had been sleeping beside her for the past two days.

However, when Catherine put her arms around her, she didn't touch Angie's strong chest.After opening her eyes, Catherine realized that she was the only one in the bedroom.

"Ann?" Catherine yelled, but there was no response from the empty villa.Catherine quickly picked up the phone on the bedside table and checked the time. It was 10:25 in the morning. No wonder Anjie was not there. This guy must have been in the Rose Garden for a while.
The second most consecutive hits in a single game in the history of the NBA, and the player with the highest number of shots in the history of the NBA playoffs with a 100% shooting rate. 17 of 17, a super double-double, and a big victory over the Spurs. In the past two days, Anjie has once again become the focus of fans' attention, but this time, the fans are no longer paying attention to him because of the red headline of the San Antonio Post.

A few days ago, An Jie was pushed to the forefront by countless people, and his strength was also greatly questioned.Now, a few days later, An Jie has become a historical center forward again. Even An Jie himself feels that the outside world's praise for him is a bit too much.

But it doesn't matter, this is how the media make money.How can it attract attention without exaggerating the content and creating topics?Moreover, such exposure is not a bad thing for An Jie.

The sales volume of the Way of the Center was greatly stimulated by An Jie's performance.On Muslav's side, countless business contracts have also been actively embraced by him.Even Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming, the leading figures in Chinese basketball, were dug out by the reporters and expressed their views on An Jie.

An Jie knew that the miracle he created unintentionally had affected too many things.But there is one thing that must not be affected, and that is the upcoming game tonight!

An Jie is not a fool. The reason why he was able to make 17 of 17 shots in the last game was that apart from his own strength, good luck also helped him a lot.

So today, An Jie can't guarantee that he can still be efficient.He can't take the enemy lightly, even if they beat the crap out of the Spurs two days ago.

Therefore, because of Catherine, he has not practiced for two consecutive nights. Today, facing the morning glow of the city of tearing, he was the first to come to the Rose Garden Stadium.

When they came, Anjie and Aldridge said hello, and that guy was jogging around the perimeter of the court as usual.Entering the training hall, the stadium security had already opened the gate of the training field for An Jie, lest An Jie, an "annoying" guy, would disturb himself who had just finished his shift.

Everything is proceeding in an orderly manner, and now An Jie only hopes that everything will go well in the game tonight.

Since Popovich entered the public eye today, his expression is not very good-looking.There is no way, the Spurs lost in the last game was really aggrieved. Even after two days, Popovich still couldn't force himself to squeeze even half a smile.

This gray-haired old man came to the Rose Garden Stadium with emotions today.In the past two days, he has adjusted his tactics according to Ricard's defensive strategy. The Spurs players are also working overtime in Portland to practice offensive moves.Without winning a game in Portland, Popovich can't swallow the breath in his heart.

And what about Ricard?His palms were sweating and he spoke too fast. It was obvious that this rookie coach was a little nervous.

Against the Spurs, Ricard almost exhausted all his abilities.Now if he is asked to come up with something novel to catch the Spurs by surprise, Ricard really can't come up with it.

Maybe in the summer after the end of this season, Ricard will make great progress, but during the mere playoffs, Ricard can't make many changes.After all, he's done a good enough job that, if no one reminds him, many people forget that this foul-mouthed guy is coaching an NBA-caliber team for the first time.

Therefore, from a tactical point of view in this game, neither team has an advantage.How the game turns out depends more on the performance of the players.

At the start of the game, the Spurs showed that they were more integrated than the Trail Blazers.Duncan, Leonard and Boris Diaw each scored a goal from the outside, mid-range and inside.The Trail Blazers are already one of the best overall teams in the league, but compared with the "grandfather" of the Spurs, the Trail Blazers' offense still seems a bit too dependent on Anjie.

But fortunately, although the Spurs' offense was very smooth at the beginning, the Trail Blazers still bit the score.Only this time, the first one to stand up for the Trail Blazers was no longer Anjie, but LaMarcus Aldridge!
After three games, Aldridge has gradually gotten used to Diaw's opportunistic defense.Therefore, in this game, when Anjie's receiving route was blocked by the Spurs, Aldridge was able to show his talents in front of Dior.

Dior's defense is indeed very smart, but the difference in physical fitness and height between the two cannot be made up by Dior's intelligence alone.Maybe the first three games were okay, but Aldridge, who is also making continuous progress, will not let Dior see himself dead for the fourth time.

"Turn over and shoot a jumper. The ball has a very high flight arc. If you have it, go in again! A low-key but deadly killer, coach Popovich will not forget Aldridge, a dangerous guy, right?"

"Diao took off and blocked the block! No, this is Aldridge's fake action. The foul was successful, and Aldridge got two free throw opportunities. To be honest, letting Aldridge free throws is the same as directly sending the Trail Blazers. no difference."

"Aldridge took advantage of the trend to cut in, and Ann stuck Duncan tightly behind him, and Duncan's defensive speed was greatly slowed down! One-handed dunk, wow, this scene is really rare!"

Aldridge, Aldridge.Throughout the first quarter, the name that appeared most frequently was Aldridge.The person who scored on the Spurs' side seemed to be different every round, but on the Trail Blazers' side, it seemed that Aldridge was always scoring.

Six minutes into the first quarter, Ricard replaced Anjie ahead of schedule.An Jie, who only made history in the last game, seemed to have disappeared today. He could only assist Aldridge in defense and pick-and-roll.

But Rickard was not disappointed by Anjie's sinking in the slightest. It is best for Aldridge to withstand it now.Therefore, An Jie, who has saved a lot of physical strength, will always play a role at critical moments.

So An Jie was forgotten by people at the end of the bench. Except for Catherine, few people would pay attention to An Jie.So what if the last game made history? People now care more about Aldridge, who performed better on the court.

An Jie sat down and sat until the middle of the second quarter.Duncan played offensively when Anjie was off the court. After Aldridge became Popovich's key target, his shooting percentage also dropped a lot.

Seeing that the Spurs were about to expand their advantage to five points, Ricard was finally willing to beat Anjie out!

Facts have proved that it is not unreasonable for Anjie to overwhelm Aldridge as the head star of the Trail Blazers.

After Anjie came back, the Blazers' defense immediately became different.Driving to the paint is now as difficult for the Spurs as outside shots.As for the offense, Anjie obviously doesn't have a magical halo on his head today, but his offensive efficiency is still not low, comparable to Aldridge, who just performed well.

If this is the case, the Spurs still have a chance to stabilize their advantage.But Anjie's excellent coping ability is something that Aldridge doesn't have yet.Under Anjie's organization, the Trail Blazers not only consolidated their defense, but also enriched their offense.The Spurs could only watch helplessly as the point difference was tied.Until the end of the halftime game, the two sides could not tell the difference.

54 to 54, the rhythm of the game seems to have returned to the previous two games.

"The second half! The weakness of the Trail Blazers is in the second half. In the two games we won against the Trail Blazers in the playoffs, almost all came back from the second half!" Popovich thought that today the Trail Blazers He would still follow the old path, but when the second half of the game really started, he found that the anxious situation had not been relieved at all.

The GDP trio played very well in the third quarter. Parker's steady shooting, Ginobili's terrifying pass and monstrous breakthrough, and Duncan's steady play against Angie all made the Spurs' score stable. rise.

However, just as Ricard expected, Anjie, who had been quiet for long enough in the first half, finally took over the invisible baton from Aldridge in the second half!
An Jie began to bombard the Spurs' hinterland again, and his all-around offensive methods made the seasoned Duncan a little embarrassed.

Dejuan Blair, Thiago Splitter and Matt Bonner took turns to share the pressure for Duncan, but none of them could restrain Anjie's performance.

Blair is too short, and Anjie can easily hit and score without going into the penalty area and directly hooking.Splitter has too little experience, and Anjie's dreamy footsteps always deceive him into dizziness.As for Matt Bonner, this guy's soft style of play couldn't withstand An Jie's powerful back attack.

In the end, Popovich found that only by continuing to let Duncan play could he slightly limit Anjie's momentum.Taking turns to face this move will not work against An Jie at all.

So the third quarter also ended with neither side having an advantage, 75 to 73. The Spurs only relied on Ginobili's buzzer shot at the last moment to lead by two points.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the coaches of both sides asked most of the main players to rest, and let the team's second team temporarily support the situation.

Courtney Lee and Jamal Crawford performed fairly well, and none of them "transformed" into a superstar today. As a result, Ricard's second team could not choose a third better There is a threat of attack.

Fortunately, the performances of veteran Spurs Stephen Jackson and small guard Gary Neal were also very average. The two sides presented a boring 4-minute game to the excited fans. Four minutes later, Popovich came up with GDP, and Ricard sent Anjie and Aldridge.The two coaches have a tacit understanding, allowing the rhythm of the game to enter the decisive stage!

"Wesley Matthews! Three points!" At the critical moment, the Spurs paid the price for their defense that focused on blocking the penalty area.

Anjie and Aldridge admitted that under Popovich's targeted arrangement, it will be very difficult for them to lead the team with scoring.But Anjie was always able to find a way to transfer the ball to the outside, and Matthews, Felton and Gerald Wallace, who responded from the outside, did not disappoint Anjie's trust in them.

So in the second half of the last quarter, it was rare for the Trail Blazers to rain three-pointers. Wesley Matthews' three-pointer came with just one hand.The Blazers' strengths are in the mid-range and three-second zone, but today, the Spurs were almost killed by the Blazers' worst scoring method.

9 of 6 three-pointers, this is the answer sheet given to Ricard by the Blazers' three starting perimeter players at the last moment.But these 6 three-pointers went straight to the point and took the Spurs' last breath.

Although the Spurs relied on the cooperation of Parker and Duncan to bite the score, Anjie and Aldridge made a three-pointer and a dunk at the basket at the last moment, but they set the tone for victory.

After a fierce game, the Spurs finally swallowed the second consecutive defeat in the Rose Garden by 6 points.

103 to 109, Popovich couldn't have imagined that he would be shot through by the Trail Blazers with a three-pointer!

What the hell shit, let Popovich meet him!

Ricard looked at the results with satisfaction. He admitted that when Anjie and Aldridge couldn't score, Ricard just tried the outside line with a gamble mentality.As everyone knows, this test really opened up the outside line.

This result is indeed accidental, but accidental, it must be based on a certain strength.

In any case, Ricard and his players managed to tie the series to a 2-2 tie without any risk.

Ricard, who got a little breathing time, was not proud. He did not forget that in the playoffs, the Trail Blazers had never conquered the ATT Center yet.

However, one of the two games that will determine the outcome will be played at the ATT Center!

Both Popovich and Ricard are now looking for a way to allow the team to win two games in a row, the tiebreaker?Whoever likes to fight will fight. Anyway, Ricard and Popovich, two utilitarian guys, will not be interested in the tiebreaker.

It's not easy to tie the score, but don't forget, the playoffs are still going on.The competition between the two teams with close strength seems to be at a stalemate.

(End of this chapter)