the great gatsby

Chapter 322 The treacherous and cunning Popovich!

Popovich is a coach with strong adaptability, but he became very stubborn today. Even though Gatsby scored 21 points in the half quarter, he still insisted on this strategy and did not change.

Gatsby was also wondering what Popovich, an old and cunning guy, was thinking. Today's style doesn't look like him at all. If he keeps playing like this, he will probably get another very good statistic today. Isn't he afraid?

Gatsby returned to the bench, led by Anthony and Stoudemire. This lineup played on par with the Spurs. At the end of the first quarter, the Knicks led the Spurs by 8 points.

In the second quarter, Gatsby brought Kevin Martin, Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Tyson Chandler.

The Spurs were led by Ginobili, with Splitter, Antonio McDyess, Matt Bonner and Richard Jefferson on the floor.

Gatsby noticed the difference as soon as he came on the court. The old fox finally used his tricks. He was waiting here. The defensive strategy of forcing Gatsby to go inside in the first quarter did not achieve good results, but Popovich already knew That's the best way, but in this section Gatsby came up with a substitute, except for Gatsby, the others were not very autonomous, so Popovich boldly used the strategy of flanking Gatsby.

Knicks possession.

Gatsby breaks through Jefferson with the ball. Although Jefferson mostly plays small forward, his speed is very fast. He is still at his peak. His speed can keep up with Gatsby. Jefferson is tight Chasing Gatsby, Ginobili also chased and flanked, Gatsby passed the ball to Wilson Chandler who was emptied, and Wilson missed a three-pointer from the bottom corner.

Splitter grabs the rebound, Ginobili holds the ball for half court, Splitter goes up to the pick-and-roll, Ginobili goes around and breaks through Martin, the serpentine breakthrough is very sharp, even though Chandler is guarding the basket , but Ginobili froze around to get a shot space - although this space is not considered a space for others, but he can get in!

The Knicks had the ball, and the Spurs resolutely pinched Gatsby. This time the ball was terminated by Martin. Martin rushed to the basket to attack Splitter, a young man from Brazil. He seemed easy to bully, but Martin was caught by Spurs. Lite capped off, and Ginobili took the opportunity to play a fast break.

In this lineup, the Spurs' strategy is obviously working. Gatsby feels like he is stuck in a quagmire. The Spurs' defense is layered very well. Layer by layer, they can always force Gatsby to pass the ball. As long as Gatsby passes the ball, the Spurs have a way to prevent Gatsby from receiving the ball. The Spurs even chased and intercepted Gatsby with three people, but the other Knicks players failed to seize the opportunity, and the open opportunities were not efficient. high.

D'Antoni could only make personnel adjustments in advance. Anthony and Stoudemire finally stopped the decline. In the second quarter, the Spurs not only evened the score, but also overtook it by 6 points.

Jeff Van Gundy praised: "Greg is really a great coach. The Spurs under his leadership have strict discipline, high defensive discipline, offense like quicksilver, and the ball is extremely smooth. The Knicks are very strong, but The Spurs defense got them in trouble."

Gatsby finally knows why the Spurs have been strong for so many years. Although the GDP combination is strong, Popovich's training of role players is definitely second to none in the league. Each of the Spurs' role players can perform their duties , performing their duties conscientiously, everyone does not need to think too much, as long as they do well the tasks assigned to them by the coach, the Spurs ball does not seem to have much passion, but there is an industrial precision in the calm Terrible power!
The game entered the second half, and the starters of both sides returned to the court. The Knicks played a wave of scoring climax under the leadership of Gatsby in the first half, but they did not defeat the Spurs. Cibi went down to rest, and Anthony led the team on the court, and Ginobili led the team to equalize the score again.

Gatsby admired inwardly: Ginobili is such a demon player, he seems to be unconstrained on the field, and it is impossible to guess what he will do next.

Mike Breen said: "The Knicks are indeed very strong this season. When the starting lineup is on the court, they basically don't lose much. Even in the face of the powerful Heat, both the Lakers and the Spurs are like this, but I found a problem.

It is good for the Knicks to put Billups and Gatsby on the court at the same time. After all, both of them are players with high golf intelligence, but they must make compromises with each other. After all, they will still have restrictions on each other. Being able to be a substitute, the Knicks' bench lineup will be even stronger when they are on the court! "

Jeff Van Gundy said: "I believe Coach D'Antoni is aware of this problem, but he wants to make this difficult decision. Gatsby is the leader of the team, even if this is only his second season, but Gates It is impossible to rotate the lineup. Although Billups is old, he is still an All-Star. He is not Manu Ginobili. It is probably not willing to let him play as a substitute.

Here comes the problem. D'Antoni knows that it is not the best way for the two to be on the court at the same time, but he can only maintain this status quo. At least he is still winning. Only after the crisis hits will they have the motivation to make changes. "

Jeff Van Gundy's conjecture is correct. Coach D'Antoni is not a rich man. From his eyes, it can be seen that Gatsby and Billups are a bit restrained when they are on the court at the same time. It's not that they can't play well, but they could have played. It's better, and being there at the same time is a bit of a waste of resources.

But both of them have a reason to start, and it is not feasible to ask anyone to play as a substitute. A little carelessness will cause turmoil in the locker room. Without external promotion, D'Antoni will never take the initiative to make a move. changed.

The relationship between big-name stars and coaches in the NBA is definitely not easy. Unlike college coaches who absolutely control the players, in the NBA, if a coach and a big-name player have conflicts, it is really hard to say who will stay and who will stay. .

The game entered the fourth quarter, but the suspense was still maintained. In fact, in the last 2 minutes, the Knicks were still behind the score, 89:92!

The reason for falling behind is that the Big Three performed very well today. Duncan scored 24 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists in the face of Bogut and Chandler, two excellent defensive centers in their prime. Lee scored 28 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists, Parker scored 19 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, and the Big Three scored 71 points!
Gatsby had the best stats on the Knicks side, scoring 34 points, but Anthony and Stoudemire's stats were not good. The Spurs' defense was tough and patient. With Duncan at the basket, Stoudemire played very aggrieved. Anthony didn't quite adapt to Blair's defense. Blair's body was very strong and his feet were flexible. In addition, Anthony's desire to attack tonight seemed not strong, so he was actually restricted.

Popovich's layout has worked!
(End of this chapter)