NBA: Strongest In The History Of Holding A Large Ball

The Spurs' next game will be against the Hawks, an Eastern team that also has a ball-handling core in the team. After selecting Doncic in exchange for Trae Young, the Hawks, although they have not yet shown the strength to compete for a championship, are definitely a team with playoff-level strength, far from being comparable to the Pistons in the last game.

On the plane to Atlanta, Popovich began to give Chang Tiancheng a small cooking: "Although the opponent's nominal point guard is Trae Young, it is definitely Murray who will be responsible for defending you at that time, his defense is very good among guards, you have to be very careful at that time."

Popovich's analysis of Murray is very convincing, after all, Murray was a Spurs player until last season. After being drafted by the Spurs, he played for the Spurs for several seasons, winning the All-Defensive Team and steals and being an All-Star. While not able to be the core of a team in its own right, it is definitely a quality puzzle piece for a championship-winning team. The technical characteristics of the company also complement Trae Young.

His arrival has helped Trae Young share a lot of pressure, which allows Trae Young to focus more on the offensive end.

Chang Tiancheng listened carefully to Popovich's analysis of Murray's technical characteristics for himself, and carefully wrote them down one by one in his heart. He didn't want to be embarrassed by the opposition defense in the second competitive game of his Spurs career. He wants to prove that he can lead the team to win game after game consistently.

After arriving at the Hawks' home state, the Spurs players walked briskly to the locker room to change their clothes and then to the basketball court to warm up. And by this time, the Eagles players had already begun to practice shooting.

Dejounte Murray took the initiative to walk over to the Spurs, and had a warm exchange with his former teammates and Coach Popovich, and it was clear that even if they didn't play on the same team, they still had a good relationship.

As the crowd entered one after another, the game soon began.

For the first time, the Spurs fielded their own small lineup: Chang Tiancheng, Vassell, McDermott, Keldon Johnson, Sochan.

The Hawks, on the other hand, are their regular starting lineup: Dejounte Murray, Trae Young, DeAndre Hunter, John Collins, and Clint Capela.

In the middle circle jump ball stage, due to the height disadvantage, Capela beat Sochan and won the ball for the team.

If you go by the Hawks' path last season, this time it should be Trae Young who directly holds the ball to find offensive opportunities, but after trading to Dejounte Murray this season, the task of holding the ball through the half court fell to him. Trae Young, on the other hand, can slowly move off the ball into the half, looking for offensive opportunities.

Murray looked at Chang Tiancheng, who was defending him in front of him, and couldn't help but want to try the quality of the former club's new point guard. Although he has already watched the videos of Chang Tiancheng's previous two games, whether the opponent is powerful or not can only be really felt in actual combat.

So Murray didn't ask anyone to block for him, but signaled his teammates to pull away, and he wanted to play one-on-one singles. The other players of the Hawks are also very face-saving, honestly opening up space for Murray on the inside.

Murray suddenly broke through Chang Tiancheng's right side after performing two crotch dribbles. This made Chang Tiancheng completely unresponsive, although his body has been systematically strengthened, but his defensive awareness and defensive experience are still at his previous level, so his steps have not had time to adjust, and he was passed by Murray in one step.

Seeing this, Sohan, who was guarding the penalty area, immediately wanted to come over to make up for the defense, but Murray's start speed was too fast, and before Sohan could stand in a defensive position, Murray had already jumped high and completed a one-handed slam. Fortunately, Sochan dodged sideways in time, which did not allow Murray to directly cause a defensive foul on Sochan.

Murray, who finished dunking, retreated backwards, and stretched out a finger to Chang Tiancheng and shook it: "Chang, if you want to carry this team, you still have a long way to go."

Chang Tiancheng was naturally unaffected by his trash talk, and after receiving Sochan's serve, he quickly directed Vassell and McDermott to land in the opponent's corner, and then attacked the opponent's basket with Keldon and Sochan.

However, Capela had already set up a defensive position in the penalty area early, killing the idea of the Spurs attacking directly inside in advance.

After all, he is also the core center of the Rockets team led by Harden, and he is also familiar with this bombardment system, so when Sochan is still serving, he has desperately returned to defend his restricted area. Because he knew very well what the Spurs wanted to do next.

Seeing that the inside line had been taken by Capela, Chang Tiancheng chose to block and dismantle with Sohan in a high position, hoping to transfer Capela out of the inside line. But Capela didn't eat that at all, he knew that with his speed, once he was transferred out to change the defense Chang Tiancheng, it would definitely be Chang Tiancheng to complete a breakthrough layup, so it was better to stand under the basket and give Sohan a three-point shot.

According to the team's data analysis results, although Sochan has a certain three-point shooting ability, the shooting rate is not high, and this deal is worth it!

Seeing that Capela did not mean to come out of the restricted area, Chang Tiancheng directly passed the ball to Sochan outside the three-point line. Sochan did not hesitate after receiving the ball, and directly chose a three-point shot.

Due to Chang Tiancheng's point guard god skill bonus, Sochan's three-point shooting ability has been improved to a certain extent, and this three-point shot also hit the basket steadily.

Trae Young walked over and stretched out his hand to signal Capela to serve quickly, while comforting: "Capela, your judgment is fine, the opponent will not shoot three points all the time." On the contrary, if our interior line is lost, it will make the opponent's attack difficult to defend. "

Through the video analysis of the last game, Trae Young has come to a conclusion: the Spurs' shelling tactics need to attack both inside and outside. The offense on the outside is a more volatile option than the inside. Therefore, their defensive strategy today is also very simple, that is, to stick to the inside line and give the opponent some opportunities to shoot outside, so that the Spurs, who are already at a disadvantage in height, can only rely on their outside line on the offensive end, and once their outside line is inaccurate, it is naturally not far from failure.

Trae Young received the serve, quickly dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, facing Vasseur, who was defending him, he called Collins to block for himself, and after bypassing Collins' cover, he took advantage of the time when Keldon made up for it, made a step-back, and then made a direct shot from a long three-point shot.

The basketball went into the net, and the score came to 5-3, with the Spurs trailing by two points.