unfinished glory

Chapter 79 Victory
In the second quarter, Li Chongxiao took a rest.

Watching Bowen, who was replaced, was pushed into the three-second zone by Stackhouse, and then a butt bounced off, allowing the latter to hit a two-pointer.

Li Chongxiao sat on the sidelines, feeling very relieved, it was his "master"'s turn to get beaten up.

At this moment, the Mavericks took the "Jet" Jason Terry and replaced the slightly tired Finley.This season, Terry has some attributes of a microwave oven. As soon as he played, he "swished" and scored two goals in a row.

Although the Spurs seemed a little defensively weak, they showed no sign of weakness on the offensive end.After Ginobili attempted two misses in the offense, he was relieved to organize.Nesterovic, Barry, Horry, and Bowen all missed. After missing two shots, the Spurs hit five goals in a row, including two three-pointers.

A wave of 12:6 offensive climax directly stopped the Mavericks.

After the timeout, the Mavericks couldn't wait to take Nowitzki, hoping to open the situation from the inside.After Nowitzki scored a goal on the Spurs side, they immediately replaced Duncan, directly matched, and carried out defensive suppression.

Although Nowitzki has a strong ability to attack independently, and his offensive style is not too afraid of any defense, but facing Duncan, who can compete for the best defensive player every year, he is somewhat uncomfortable.

Then he scored one goal and one goal, but on the Spurs side, Duncan and Parker continued to fire, and the points slowly opened up.

Halfway through the second quarter, the Spurs had a 19-point lead.Avery Johnson was the first to make the adjustment.

The very bad news for the Mavericks is that Dampier has committed three personal fouls, and the helpless Avery Johnson can only let Alan Henderson play to defend Duncan.

But after two rounds, he gave up.Duncan played a board, made a 2+1 dunk, and played with Alan Henderson in the palm of his hand.

Seeing that the point difference was about 24 points, the Mavericks were forced to suspend again.Avery Johnson made personnel adjustments first, and discharged the lineup of Nowitzki, Stackhouse, Josh Howard, Finley and Terry.He brought the players together, not only emphasizing the strong desire to attack, but also focusing on defense.

After Nelson resigned due to physical reasons this season, assistant coach Avery Johnson took the position of head coach of the Mavericks.Although he only led the team for 18 short games, he had a record of 16 wins and 2 losses.

Born in the Spurs, he slowly instilled the spirit of defense into the crazy offensive Cowboys.The existence of Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels, the "black wind and double ugly", gave him the confidence to defend, and Stackhouse's positive transformation also made him very gratified.

In this quarter of the game, if the next offense cannot be opened, we can only hope to contain the opponent's offense and wait for the players to recover.

The Spurs also replaced Li Chongxiao in a targeted manner, leaving only Duncan as a pure insider to defend against the rapid movement of the opponent's small lineup.

Li Chongxiao and Stackhouse faced off again. When the two paired up, the audience began to cheer in unison. Spurs fans are very used to this style of hand-to-hand combat in the 90s.

On the defensive end, the two continued their game style in the first quarter and continued to compete with each other with high intensity.

On the offensive end, although Nowitzki was on the court, Stackhouse still got a certain right to shoot. He singled Li Chongxiao in a row, but this time with Duncan sitting in the paint, he didn't dare to go too deep, resulting in a high hit rate. Not too high, 5 of 2 shots and 4 points.

However, Li Chongxiao's independent offensive ability is not strong enough, and he can't single-handedly beat Stackhouse. He only got two shots and hit a mid-range shot.

The first half of the game ended in a tug of war, and the Spurs returned to the locker room with a 21-point lead.

Popovich praised the players for their performance in the first half of the game, and especially pointed out Li Chongxiao's fighting spirit.He asked the players not to relax at the start of the second half, because any coach could tell that the Mavericks would definitely counterattack.Otherwise, if this situation continues until the fourth quarter, there will be no possibility of winning at all.

Avery Johnson was indeed laying out tactics for chasing points. In front of the players, he admitted that he had slightly underestimated the Spurs' rookie. The opponent was only a rookie in the first round, not a defensive lineup, so he formed an exchange with his ace substitute.

At the beginning of the second half, he asked Nowitzki to be the core, and Stackhouse and Terry to be the offensive support.In particular, it is proposed that Stackhouse should not be obsessed with the hand-to-hand fight with Li Chongxiao, but should be flexible, create easy offensive opportunities through running positions, and ensure the success rate.

……

At the beginning of the second half, the Mavericks took Dampier again, which can liberate Nowitzki and prevent the latter from being distracted in the defense, and can strengthen the defense and add an extra rebound point.

The Spurs are still the starting lineup for this game. Duncan blocked Dampier's layup as soon as he came up, and Li Chongxiao picked up the rebound.The Mavericks retreated quickly and did not give the Spurs a chance to break fast.

Li Chongxiao once again got the ball from outside the three-point line, and Duncan also pulled it over. This time, the Mavericks were ready, cutting the pass line, delaying and double-teaming in time. Gave Parker a reorganization.

Parker faced Terry and missed a strong throw, but Li Chongxiao rushed out of the crowd to get the rebound and passed it to Bowen in the corner for a three-pointer.

In the second round, Nowitzki faced Muhammad's defense and forced a shot, but Duncan also responded.

The two sides entered the team's core heads-up situation.

The Mavericks finally waited for Nowitzki to recover. He made consecutive hits and scored 8 points in one go.But Duncan was also in excellent form today, scoring 7 points even with shooting and grabbing. Not only did he score a goal, but he also caused Dampier's fourth personal foul.

After adding two free throws, Duncan has scored 30 points in this game.

In desperation, Avery Johnson had no choice but to put all his eggs in one basket. In the second half of the third quarter, the Mavericks players shot wildly. Unfortunately, the shooting percentage was low and there was no guarantee of rebounds. They lost 10 points in a single quarter.

The fourth quarter started with the Spurs leading by 31 points. Li Chongxiao played a little bit of data and scored 18 points.

Parker performed normally with 20 points, but Ginobili's performance in this game was mediocre, scoring only 7 points and 4 assists.

……

After losing Game [-], Mavericks owner Mark Cuban traveled from Dallas to San Antonio to cheer for the team.

In the early hours of May 5, the league announced the best coach of the season, and Mike D'Antoni of the Phoenix Suns won the honor.

Although this is expected, the Spurs players have complained for Popovich.

In the second game against the Mavericks that night, Manu Ginobili, who performed poorly in the previous game, showed his power and turned the Mavericks' inside line upside down with a European step.He made 14 of 8 shots and 16 of 14 free throws in the game, scoring 35 points.Coupled with the 20+10 data output by the rock-solid Duncan, the Spurs made another victory in their appearance.

Li Chongxiao fished in troubled waters and scored 16 points. At the same time, he tangled with Stackhouse again on the court, allowing the latter to only score 12 points, which was far below the level of the first round.

There was another tidbit on the court. When the game was about to end, when the victory was already decided, Li Chongxiao was pushed down by Stackhouse in front of the audience seats. Mark Cuban suddenly shouted at Li Chongxiao who got up: "Little boy, Go back to your mother's arms and go to breastfeed!"

Not to be outdone, Li Chongxiao responded: "You cry bastard who can't afford to lose, let me say hello to the staff and leave a corner for you to cry!"

(End of this chapter)