Junior Basketball says

Chapter 322 Can't take it

The situation of the Timberwolves playing against the Spurs did not change in the second quarter, which made Popovich gradually become anxious.This is not good news for the Spurs. The further they drag on, the less likely they are to reverse and win.

Originally, Popovich hoped that Duncan could support the team's offensive firepower, but now it seems that he thought too well. With the Timberwolves' double-teaming and physical confrontation at all costs, it is difficult for Duncan to stay close to the basket. He shot easily, and even his signature rebound shot didn't allow him to score many points. As for rebounding, it was only a [-]-[-] split between the two sides.

In desperation, Popovich could only pin his hopes on Parker. The head of the French men's basketball team is known for his unpredictable breakthroughs, and his 360-degree turn and layup made many insiders suffer. Ability to score high.

Taking advantage of an opportunity of a dead ball, Popovich called a timeout. After a few words and arranged tactics for the players, he took Parker aside and said loudly in his ear: "Tony, I need you to score, the ball The team needs you to score, understand? Show your courage to carry a team by yourself in the World Series, and use the score to silence the fans at the scene!"

Parker nodded, with a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes: "I will use actions to stop them, I promise!"

The timeout passed quickly, and when the Timberwolves returned to the court, they quickly discovered that the Spurs had changed their offensive focus.Before, they always tried to give the ball to the inside and let Duncan play with the ball in the low post. Now they basically concentrate the ball in Parker's hands and let this extremely fast Frenchman decide how to play.

Facing Parker's sudden outburst, Xu Hao, who had been facing him all the time, was also caught off guard.With Parker's height and weight, on the defensive end, he is basically unable to prevent his breakthrough with the ball or his own singles, but on the offensive end, he frequently uses his speed to tear apart the defense line, and then uses a small throw or a spinning top in front of Love. Basket points, the efficiency is quite good.

Xu Hao also tried to defend close to him, but Parker used a cover to leave him behind, and then roared away like a sports car with the accelerator pressed to the bottom, shooting directly at the Timberwolves' three-second zone and even the basket like a sharp arrow. Down.

After failing to defend for several consecutive rounds, Xu Hao simply gave up defending Parker. He only planned to do his best and did not want to embarrass himself.In Xu Hao's logic, it's not a big problem to let the opponent score, as long as he can make up for the lost points on the offensive end, anyway, the team with more points in the end will win.

Seeing Parker's unstoppable appearance on the court, McHale could only shake his head and smile bitterly. He knew what Xu Hao was thinking.Sometimes he really loves and hates this guy. If it were another player, he would definitely rather commit a foul to prevent Parker from scoring. It was better for him to just give up when he could only stop it by fouling, leaving McHale dumbfounded.

Xu Hao also knew that the coach hoped that he could prevent Parker from scoring, but the French sports car was obviously full of firepower now. Instead of needlessly fouling him, it was better to find a way to score more points on the offensive end and make up for the lost points.

He thought so, and he did so.Although the Spurs often double-teamed him on the defensive end, Xu Hao was not afraid, and continued to break through forcefully, attracting the defense and then passing the ball to a teammate in a better position.

In the second quarter, Parker scored 13 points and 4 assists alone, and also helped the Spurs score 35 points in a single quarter, but they still failed to narrow the point difference, because the Timberwolves also scored 34 points in this quarter. , almost a draw.

This made Popovich feel very depressed, and Parker was even more embarrassed.In fact, he is very satisfied with his performance in this quarter, but it is useless, because his personal outstanding performance did not help the team reverse the situation. What is the point of scoring and assisting under such circumstances? ?After all, the outcome of the game is determined by the performance of the two teams.

Continuing to lead by double digits at the end of the half, McHale's joy was written on his face, but when he walked into the locker room, his smile had been completely restrained. He didn't want the players to be affected by him. Affected by emotions, the second half was full of waves, and the opportunity to win the reversal was handed over to the Spurs. That would be too cheating...

McHale gave everyone a small compliment, and then pretended to be serious: "I know you must not have taken the Spurs to heart, thinking that this game will be as easy as the previous two games. But I want to tell you, If you really went into the second half with that mentality, the chances of us losing would be unimaginable."

McHale paused, and continued: "No matter what the score is, the overall strength of the Spurs is above us. It's just because they can't outrun us that they are forced to fall behind. But you must know that they The ability to seize opportunities is very strong. If you make too many unnecessary mistakes in the second half, they will soon be able to narrow the point difference. At that time, I doubt whether your mentality will collapse. Want to win?"

Of course, McHale's words were more or less sensational, but they still sounded the alarm for the Timberwolves players.After the start of the second half, the herd of animals continued tirelessly from one end of the field to the other, and then from the other end to this end, and so on, as if each of them was not flesh and blood, but machinery and gears.

Parker is still trying very hard to score, but others do not give him more support, and Xu Hao and Ellington also harass him from time to time when he is attacking with the ball, which reduces his scoring to a certain extent efficiency.

Although Parker scored 21 points in the second half and scored 38 points and 8 assists in the game, the Spurs still lost Game 102 embarrassingly 117-[-].The reason why it is embarrassing is that they have lost two consecutive games to the Timberwolves by double digits, which is quite rare for the Western Conference regular season champions with strong defense, let alone this is the first round.

When the final whistle sounded, the Target Center became a sea of ​​joy. The fans never thought that their team could keep two home games and grab the match point. Judging from the state of the game, they seemed to be more The strong team.The entire Timberwolves team couldn't believe it. They actually won their second home game just like that, rewriting the big score to 3 to 1. Now they are only one step away from advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

(End of this chapter)