NBA: Strongest In The History Of Holding A Large Ball

Chang Tiancheng was stunned by Popovich's sudden question, and said slowly: "No, I never thought about it that way."

"That's not it. Popovich turned his face back and locked his eyes on Wembanyama in the ring, "I don't think he will think that you will limit him." On the pitch, if we want to be a good team, we have to sacrifice a little bit of the individual ability of the players, don't worry too much.

Chang Tiancheng nodded, no longer thinking about these things.

The third quarter of the game ended quickly with the referee's whistle.

Wembanyama again slashed three blocks in a single quarter. Unlike his last time with 5 blocks in a single quarter, this time he played more of a Giannis-like role on the court, less of a frontal block on the inside, and two of these three blocks were obtained by him from outside the three-point line to the interior to block the opponent's inside.

There is also a block when he was helping to defend the inside line, and the ball was passed to the outside player by the inside line, but when the outside player just shot, he grabbed it directly from mid-air.

But the hidden danger is that he led the team alone in this quarter, and he still played a little inefficient on the offensive end, hitting only one goal in 6 shots in a single quarter.

Although he showed a lot of things: dribbling from beyond the three-point line, pulling three-pointers from the outside, and flipping back jumpers from mid-range, none of them were scored.

The only shot he scored was when he got a great opportunity under the basket and went straight to a dunk.

Judging from his current performance, it is difficult for the Spurs to look at him as a reliable offensive point, and the immediate combat power he has shown so far is still his defensive ability.

Even though he struggled on the offensive end, his dominance on the defensive end was a testament to why he was the top rookie in this class, and why he was known to many fans before he even entered the league, and they were looking forward to his on-court performance early.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Chang Tiancheng came to the Grizzlies' half with the ball.

At this time, the Spurs still sent this small lineup, but Popovich is ready at any time, if the Spurs' interior line is really bad, they will send Benyama to partner with Chang Tiancheng.

In fact, Popovich planned to send Wembanyama in the first place, but Wembanyama had just played in the second half of the third quarter, and Popovich now wanted to let him rest again.

Chang Tiancheng beckoned Sohan to come over to cover for himself, and then suddenly accelerated to break through, so that Adams, who had changed his defense, did not react at all, and was thrown away a distance at once.

Rose, who was originally responsible for defending Keldon, hurriedly came over to make up for the defense, but after Chang Tiancheng saw Rose coming to block his breakthrough route, he immediately realized that Kelden was in a state of being empty at this time, so he passed the ball over.

Keldon hit an easy three-point shot to continue to extend the Spurs' advantage.

Rose advanced with the ball, and he knew very well in his heart that if his team really wanted to beat the Spurs' small lineup, the most reliable way was actually to let his interior play out.

Thinking of this, Rose held out a finger and motioned for Jaren Jackson Jr. to come over and block for him.

After receiving instructions, Jaren Jackson Jr. quickly mentioned the upper line to cover for Rose.

Rose took advantage of Jaren Jackson Jr.'s defense, causing the Spurs to switch defenses and immediately retreat to beyond the three-point line with a series of consecutive dribbles.

At this time, Jaren Jackson Jr. has returned to the inside, and he is facing Chang Tiancheng behind him.

From Rose's point of view, Chang Tiancheng naturally had no power to fight back in the face of Jaren Jackson Jr., and was about to pass the ball over, but suddenly recalled that the Spurs seemed to be indiscriminately sandwiching the inside line, especially this kind of misplaced interior line.

After a moment of hesitation, Rose did not choose to pass the ball to the inside, but gave the ball to Smart on the other side outside the three-point line.

This time, not to mention completing the block and successfully creating a misplaced single opportunity but not receiving the pass, Jaren Jackson Jr. was a little puzzled, and Smart, who connected to the ball, also said that he couldn't understand.

Smart glanced at Rose and then took the initiative to pass the ball to Jaren Jackson Jr. himself.

And the situation turned out to be as Rose thought, as soon as Jaren Jackson Jr. received the ball, he was directly picked up by the Spurs.

This time the encirclement was even more excessive, in addition to Chang Tiancheng, Keldon and Sochan also came directly to participate in the bag, and the three surrounded Jaren Jackson Jr. in the middle, making him unable to move.

And the most terrible thing is that these three people will put their hands on the ball from time to time and try to hold the ball in their arms, which also makes Jaren Jackson Jr. dare not pass the ball even if he has the idea of passing, for fear of being directly tackled by these three people.

In this way, after a stalemate, the referee blew a three-second offensive penalty for Jaren Jackson Jr.

The Spurs got the ball, and Grizzlies head coach Jenkins called for another timeout.

During the timeout, before Jenkins could speak, Smart took the initiative to walk up to Rose and asked, "Derek, why didn't you just pass the ball directly to Jaren Jackson Jr.?"

"Let me answer your question, Marcus. Coach Jenkins said, "Because if Derrick had passed the ball to Jaren Jackson Jr. without any hesitation, it would have been Sochan, Chang Tiancheng and McDermott who would have covered him." The result is all the same.

Seeing that Smart stopped talking, Coach Jenkins said to several starters: "Now the Spurs' defensive strategy is obvious, which is to take our interior players. As soon as they receive a pass from an outside player, the Spurs guys will choose to wrap it up, even going so far as to empty our outside players for it.

"How dare they?" Smart asked, puzzled, in his eyes, this defensive method is definitely gambling!"

"I think it's because they must have done on-court research and know that our outside players don't have that much three-point threat, and the inside players are not strong enough to shoot the ball, so they dare to boldly let it go." Jenkins continued, "And the Spurs' strategy is to deliberately make us choose to shoot as much as possible from the outside, so that they can get the most defensive rebounds. "