unfinished glory

Chapter 232 Revenge
The regular season is over, and the final rankings are officially announced.

In the Western Conference, the Spurs, relying on the "gift" of the Grizzlies, squeezed into the playoffs at the last moment, ranking seventh.These two teams also became opponents in the first round.

The No. 65 team is naturally the Lakers. They won [-] games and played against the young Thunder in the playoffs.

The third-ranked Nuggets and sixth-ranked Jazz, as well as the fourth-ranked Suns and fifth-ranked Mavericks, are the other two teams.

Among these teams, except for the Thunder, who are newcomers, the other teams are basically regulars in the playoffs, and they are very familiar with each other.

In the second round of the playoffs last season, the Grizzlies had already competed with the Spurs.Moreover, the two teams belong to the Southwest Division, and they have to play four times a season, so they know each other well.

According to the strength of the two teams, as long as they play at a normal level, they can win, so Carlisle only prepared some small tactics without making too many adjustments.

Popovich cherishes this hard-won playoff spot very much, and uses the rest time between the regular season and the playoffs to arrange his tactics well.

No team expects to be able to prevent Li Chongxiao to death. The restrictions the Spurs have made are to minimize his role on the offensive end, let him score fewer points, and then limit the performance of other Grizzlies players.

Can't help but let Li Chongxiao score 50 points at most, but if the other players of the Grizzlies can score less points, they can also win.

This strategy did have some effect in the opening game. Li Chongxiao's offensive efficiency declined after double-teaming, and Duncan's outstanding performance limited Gasol's offensive rhythm.

Under the influence of both sides, the Spurs suppressed their opponents in the first half and took the lead.

In the second half, the Grizzlies began to adjust slowly, and when they gained a firm foothold, they quickly brought the situation back.

By the end of the third quarter, they not only evened the point difference, but also surpassed by 3 points.

In the last quarter of the game, although they did not beat the Spurs in one bang, the Grizzlies finally won by virtue of their steady performance.

In the postgame press conference, Popovich praised Lee for the first time in two years, possibly out of gratitude to him for helping the Spurs make the playoffs regardless of past suspicions:
"We had a chance. We also controlled the situation in the first half. It's a pity that Li Chongxiao is too stable and has been holding the score firmly, so that we can't expand our advantage. When the Grizzlies get out of the quagmire , our advantage slowly disappears and is then reversed."

……

The second game is still the home of the Grizzlies. With the foreshadowing of the first game, they showed good form at the beginning and quickly took a double-digit lead.

The Grizzlies in good condition are stronger than the Spurs.And it's not that the regular season doesn't have time to prepare targeted tactics. At this time, the head coach will make some fine-tuning according to the opponent's characteristics.

The first game was off to a poor start and these adjustments didn't help.And in this game, under the leadership of Li Chongxiao, the teammates all showed the spirit of [-] points, at least the tactics were played smoothly.

At the end of halftime, the Grizzlies successfully opened the score, and then they made persistent efforts to maintain their advantage until the end.

With a 2:0 lead, the Grizzlies came to San Antonio.

The Spurs, who are playing at home, are preparing for a strong counterattack, and they took a 7-0 lead at the beginning.

But the following situation was not as good as they imagined, because Li Chongxiao broke out again.Following the law that the Spurs must explode every time they play an away game, he scored 28 points in the first quarter.

Just working hard on the offensive end is not so unacceptable.The key problem is that Li Chongxiao on the defensive end also caused huge damage to the Spurs.Regardless of whether the attacker in front of him was Manu Ginobili or Richard Jefferson, they were all defended by him without getting a point.

Under the ebb and flow, the Spurs were beaten 41:18 in a single quarter, falling behind by as many as 23 points.

In the second quarter, the Spurs' fantasy chance to chase points did not come. When Li Chongxiao was not on the court for a few minutes, the other players of the Grizzlies also seemed to be playing chicken blood. They played 120% of their energy on both ends of the offense and defense. Pulled to more than 30 points.

At the end of the first half, after playing most of the quarter, the Spurs recovered and did not let the point difference continue to widen.

In the second half of the game, the Spurs wanted to counterattack, and the offense did start to improve, but it was too late. After Li Chongxiao came on the field, he stabilized the situation.

In the third quarter, he played steadily, relying on one goal after another, withstood the Spurs' wave after wave of counterattacks.

After three quarters, Popovich knew the situation was over, but he still struggled with the main lineup for half a quarter.Seeing that there was no possibility of a comeback, the Spurs voluntarily gave up the game before Li Chongxiao played.

……

The fourth game was a battle of dignity. The Spurs tried their best, and Duncan was dragged to play for 43 minutes.

In this game, the Spurs seemed to have returned to their peak. Although their offense was far behind in 2007 and their defense was not as strong as in 2005, their resilience was back.

Although the Spurs fell behind in the first quarter, they entangled the Grizzlies and tried hard not to widen the point difference.

Manu Ginobili and Jefferson naturally couldn't defend against Li Chongxiao, but they didn't give up. No matter how difficult the ball was, they tried their best to defend it, even if it cost them a foul.

Li Chongxiao has long been accustomed to this kind of defensive intensity, and the goal should be scored as usual.But other players on the Grizzlies were more or less affected.

In the playoffs of last season, Gasol, another star player of the team, played abnormally because he was not used to this kind of tough confrontation.

After deliberate training in the regular season and big Ben's confrontation practice this season, he is finally much stronger.However, it is still incomparable with an experienced fighter like Duncan, and Gasol's performance is also limited.

Other Grizzlies players also have this problem.It can be said that the tactics formulated by the Spurs can only be truly realized in this game.

Leading tactically does not mean that the team can win, and ultimately depends on the strength of the team.

The Spurs' hard power is not enough, and the trouble they caused to the Grizzlies only lasted more than three quarters.

Because Li Chongxiao has been at the front and helped the Grizzlies maintain a balanced state, the Spurs not only failed to defeat their opponents, but instead made Gasol and others gradually adapt to this confrontation.

In addition, Jefferson committed 6 fouls and was sent off. In the end, the Spurs still lost the game by 9 points.

With a 4:0 elimination, the Grizzlies finally avenged their first-round sweep by the Spurs.

(End of this chapter)