field coach

Chapter 183 The Unexpected Guest
Look at the five players of the Magic who are standing on the court.

O'Neal, Horry, Sprewell, Anderson and DeWeese.

Pat Riley turned his head and stared at D'Antoni on the other side, the word "offensive" seemed to be written all over that hateful face.

This lineup is indeed the Magic's strongest offensive lineup.

Unlike the desperate defense in the first half, the Magic's lineup uses O'Neal and Sprewell as the core of the defense on the inside and outside, while other players can focus more on offense.

The Magic's tactics in the third quarter were more focused on outside shooting. O'Neal attracted the Knicks' attention, but Pat Riley discovered after 3 minutes that O'Neal was just a cover.

Only the current Magic team has the confidence to use a dominant player like O'Neal as a cover to attract the attention of the opponent.

Whenever O'Neal catches the ball inside, it can attract most of the Knicks' attention, but when the inside players want to help defend, O'Neal distributes the ball.

It's not that O'Neal's passing ability has suddenly improved qualitatively, but that every time he INSIDE-OUT, he gave Davis this point, and then Davis relied on his excellent passing ability to pass to players who have a chance.

The Magic just played against the Knicks, and O'Neal couldn't defend. If he defended, he didn't really play. The Knicks were exhausted.

At this time, in the auditorium on the sidelines, two people came down from the box and came to the front row.

One of them sat down first, and the one with him was tall and stood out from the crowd.

The person who sat down first had short gray-brown hair and a yellow suit, while the big man who sat down next was wearing ordinary sportswear. Both of them showed a different temperament from ordinary people.

"Greg, why do you want to watch the Magic game?" The big man next to him asked puzzled.

"The Bulls' game is nothing to watch. The Indiana can't stop Jordan at all, but I am very interested in the Magic. I want to know how this team grew from the bottom of the league to this point in just two years."

At this time, some fans recognized the big man.

"Hey, David, hello!" The fans next to him greeted the big man friendly.

"Hey, hello."

It turned out that this big man was the head star of the San Antonio Spurs, "Admiral" David Robinson.

And the person next to him is Greg Bovic, who just returned to the Spurs this year as the team's general manager.

Because he has the same military experience as David Robinson, Popovich quickly established a relationship with him after taking office.

Today, the two watched the game in the box at first, and then Popovich wanted to observe the Magic's every move at close range, so he came to the front with Robinson.

Popovich observed the situation on the field for a while. Ewing just scored a very wonderful goal. He carried O'Neal on his shoulders and dunked the ball in against O'Neal's defense.

David Robinson applauded the ball. He said to Popovich: "Patrick is in a good state. It's hard to say who will win this game."

Popovich smiled contemptuously.

"Don't worry, the Magic won't hand over the victory they have won. The Knicks, or Pat Riley, can't do much."

David Robinson was a little puzzled, and Popovich patiently explained to him: "Ewing is the core of the Knicks, there is no doubt about it, but if the Knicks can only rely on Ewing to score, especially against a team like the Magic, then they are not far from failure."

The two were talking, Horry ran out of the frontcourt, received a pass from Davis, and scored a three-pointer from outside the three-point line.

In the next round, the Knicks were not effective in passing the ball outside, so they could only continue to hand the ball to Ewing for singles.

Ewing was directly blocked by O'Neal in this singles, and the Magic pushed a wave of quick counterattacks, and finally Sprewell dunked.

A thoughtful look appeared in David Robinson's eyes.

"Manager, if you lead us, what will you do against the Magic?" He turned to Popovich.

Popovich spread his hands.

"Although your question doesn't make sense, we want to meet the Magic in the playoffs, it's already the Finals, we need to overcome many powerful enemies, and they also need to beat the invincible Bulls, but let me tell you, meeting them, with our current lineup, I have nothing to do."

Popovich watched the Magic's Anderson attack the inside and succeeded, and Ewing was stuck by O'Neal and couldn't protect the frame, so he nodded.

"If we meet the Magic, you will definitely defend that big shark, and I need another big man to serve as another inside fulcrum. He needs to have strong frame protection and defense capabilities, and a mid-range shot to facilitate the inside to create space. He also needs to have a stable low-post ability, and it is best to have a certain organizational ability. I will use him to prevent other people except O'Neal from attacking the inside."

David Robinson opened his mouth exaggeratedly.

"Does such a perfect inside player exist? With defense, shooting, organization and post-up, I think only the guy in Houston can meet your standard? Speaking of which, it seems that he is the only one who didn't come today."

Popovich spread his hands, "Who knows? But Olajuwon and your position are completely in conflict. If possible, that guy should be a power forward."

David Robinson shook his head with a smile, such a top insider talent is not so easy to find.

At this point, Pat Riley called a timeout.

Popovich stood up suddenly, quietly ran behind the Magic team's bench, listening to what the Magic team was arranging.

D'Antoni was too lazy to get up. In his opinion, the Magic had basically won the game. He motioned for Davis to say something to his teammates.

Davis took the tactical board unceremoniously, and pointed out to his teammates a few things that were not in place in the game just now. After finishing speaking, he glanced at Anna and nodded at Anna before continuing.

While looking back and forth like this, he spotted a sneaky figure behind his team's bench.

"Hey, what do you do?" he yelled at the tall guy.

The man smiled embarrassedly, and waved to Davis, but. . .After saying hello, he actually continued to eavesdrop. . .

Seeing the man's face, DeWeese said to the man in shock, "Are you Gregg Popovich?"

Being exposed, Popovich broke the defense on the spot. He lowered his head in embarrassment, and quietly walked back to his position.

Davis squinted at David Robinson, who was sitting with Popovich, wondering what he was thinking.

After a while, he suddenly smiled and continued to explain to the team members.

(End of this chapter)