Junior Basketball says

Chapter 379
The situation on the field in the second quarter remained unchanged.After discovering that Xu Hao can fight Leonard, the ball has been concentrated in his hands again.What's more, at the beginning of the second quarter, he played with a substitute on the court, and naturally the right to shoot belongs to him.The others didn't have any objection to this. With Xu Hao's strength and status, this was a matter of course.

Popovich seemed calm on the sidelines, but in fact he was very anxious.He knows exactly what the Timberwolves are like-they are used to earning enough leads in the first half, and then relying on a wave of flow in the third quarter to directly establish the victory.So what he has to do now is to break the game and let the Spurs even out the point difference at halftime and even take the lead.

It is obviously impossible to rely on Leonard to block Xu Hao.Popovich can see clearly that Xu Hao has found a way to break Leonard's defense, and he will not be able to solve it for a while, unless Green is allowed to help defend, but this is tantamount to allowing Korver to take advantage of the loophole. The old man couldn't tolerate it.So the best way now is to let the strong players on your side start to explode. What are you afraid of scoring less than the opponent?Can't it be enough to chase back one point and one point to the end?
Originally, Popovich wanted to replace Ginobili as the vanguard of the team to score points. The Argentine has always been the sharpest knife in his hand, and it is said that he is also the only player who has not been restricted by the "40-point ban".Ginobili's behavior on the court is often unexpected, but it is undeniable that as the head of the Argentine men's basketball team, his scoring ability is extremely strong.Even if he has some seemingly unreasonable shot selection, Popovich is going to swallow it hard.

However, before Popovich made a substitution, the situation on the court changed suddenly.Duncan, who had been mediocre before, suddenly sounded the horn of offense.Before that, he seemed to disappear on the court. As the head star of the Spurs, his performance was obviously unqualified, but now he seems to be a different person, forcibly stuck in a deep position, raising his hand to ask for the ball.

The rotating point guard Mills is a guard with a style similar to Barea's, but he still dared not disobey the request of the team boss, and seized an opportunity to hoist the ball into the interior.Duncan turned around after receiving the ball, dribbled the ball directly and broke through Pekovic's defense, and Milicic made a dunk across the oncoming Milicic!The powerful dunk instantly ignited the entire arena. Amidst the deafening shouts of the home fans, Duncan ran towards his own half with a blank face.

Duncan's dunks are rare in the game, but they are not absent, so the Timberwolves players did not take this matter to heart.But what they didn't expect was that Duncan easily blocked Ellington who slipped in along the baseline for a layup. After regaining control of the ball, he threw a long cross-court pass and assisted Stephen Jackson for a layup. succeed.

This offense and defense fully demonstrated his strength as the Spurs star and epic power forward.Before the Timberwolves could react, Duncan even scored 9 points with penalty shots, chasing the point difference to only 2 points in one fell swoop.Of course, his face is still expressionless, otherwise he would not be nicknamed "Stone Buddha" by Huaxia fans.

McHale quickly called a timeout. Duncan's outbreak was completely out of his plan. He had to call a timeout to rearrange the arrangement and change players along the way.The combination of Milicic and Pekovic is good at protecting the rim, but it is difficult for them to compete with Duncan who exploded in a small universe. Fortunately, he asked for a timeout in time, otherwise he would suffer a lot.

In fact, it is useless to switch to the team's starting inside combination at this time. Love and Jordan were deflated by Duncan more than once last season.One of them is not good at defense, and the other is a rough guy. Facing a top insider with both stature and skills like Duncan, it is not normal not to be abused.The reason why McHale wanted to replace them was mainly to offset Duncan's influence on the offensive end, so as not to give the Spurs a chance to reverse.

However, Love and Jordan, who reappeared, soon felt the deep malice. Facing the berserk Duncan, they had almost no power to fight back. Love was also very embarrassed to make two consecutive shots at the basket and was attacked by Duncan. Cover.If it wasn't for Korver, who was replaced together, to hit a few consecutive three-pointers, the positions of the two sides would have been reversed.

Xu Hao couldn't help but frowned. He was not an inside player, so he couldn't be allowed to fight Duncan inside.The only thing he can do is to use the pass to lead his teammates to the right position. Whether they can score or not depends on them.

The Timberwolves' inside line was barely supported by Xu Hao's pass, but they still couldn't guard Duncan, so they could only watch helplessly as No. 21 continued to score.Although Duncan maintains his paralyzed face, it can be said that he has moved out all the things in his arsenal, and he can get anything he wants at the basket, and no one can stop him.

Duncan scored 15 points and 6 rebounds in the second quarter, which is rare for him.However, the Spurs are still behind in the score, thanks to the Timberwolves outside shooters who scored 1 consecutive three-pointers in the last minute of the second quarter.Although Xu Hao was not included in the scoring, two of them were assisted by him.

The current situation on the court is very obvious, and neither side can do anything to the other.The Spurs relied on Duncan's advantage at the basket to basically smooth out the point difference, while the Timberwolves' outside firepower was as fierce as ever, mainly because Xu Hao had the upper hand in the fight with Leonard.But relatively speaking, the Spurs still have a better chance of winning, even if they are still in a backward position. After all, their roster has many outside defenders, but the Timberwolves' inside line can't stop Duncan.

However, Popovich did not feel relaxed because of this, but became more anxious.Although outside scoring is not as efficient as inside scoring, they have an extra 1 point bonus, and the Timberwolves have hoarded a large number of shooters.Needless to say, Korver and Xu Hao, three-pointers are as simple as eating and drinking for them. Ellington has grown into an excellent 3D player. Three-pointers are a must-have skill. Rubio and even Love inside Can shoot three-pointers, such scattered firepower is a threat to any team.It's true that the Spurs have outside defenders, but they can't put four or five at the same time to limit the opponent, can they?

After much deliberation, the old man still wants to start with Xu Hao. Although Rubio is the leading point guard of the Timberwolves, Xu Hao's threat is obviously greater. Since Leonard can't work, it seems that he has to adopt other methods ...

(End of this chapter)