NBA: Strongest In The History Of Holding A Large Ball

Seeing this, Keldon also quickly adjusted his defensive pace and closely followed Mitchell's defense.

But Mitchell had already been prepared, and he was now familiar with what it was like to be defended by Keldon, only to see him break through a step, blow the ball on the spot again, and then directly follow up with a step-back step, and make a decisive shot with the last two seconds of offensive time.

Mitchell's shooting touch today was good, and even after this kind of continuous action, he still managed to hit.

At 14:8, although the Cavaliers did not close the score as quickly as the audience expected, at least they were not beaten by the opponent as they were at the beginning of the game.

Just when Chang Tiancheng wanted to do further offense, Coach Popovich took the initiative to apply for a timeout. This move also made Chang Tiancheng feel a little puzzled.

He doesn't think there is anything wrong with his tactical arrangement, as long as he continues to play, his side can continue to rely on tactical cooperation to score, while the Cavaliers can only rely on Mitchell or Garland's heads-up to maintain the point difference, and the score will soon be pulled away again.

But Popovich still chose to take a timeout, and took the opportunity to apply to the referee for substitutions, replacing all the starting lineups, and sending the Spurs to the bench.

After the timeout, the Cavaliers didn't seem to have any intention of playing the full first quarter with their starting lineup, and also sent a bench lineup.

Seeing that the Cavaliers also sent a substitute lineup, Chang Tiancheng understood why Popovich had just replaced his starters, so he asked with some curiosity: "Coach, have you already seen that they will also replace the bench, so they will be counted and replace us in advance to take a break?" "

Huh? What are you talking about? Popovich looked at Chang Tiancheng with an expression of disbelief, "I just see that you seem to be a little tired on the court, and you are not very active in running, so I will replace you first to adjust and adjust."

Chang Tiancheng suddenly felt a little crying without tears: Coach, it's really not that we deliberately didn't run, but the Cavaliers really didn't put any pressure on us just now, even if they play actively, it will still be the same result.

In the words of a famous film and television figure. "Before I could do anything, you fell."

Popovich didn't pay any attention to Chang Tiancheng, and just watched the game on the court intently. In terms of lineup and tactical system, the Spurs' bench is much better than the Cavaliers, after all, many of them were starters last season.

After the Cavaliers came to the bench in the second half of the first quarter, the score was pulled wider than the starting lineup against the starting lineup. By the end of the first quarter, the score was 27-16, and the Spurs had an 11-point lead.

So in the second quarter, Popovich saw that the bench lineup played so well, so he simply continued to send the bench lineup to play on the court, and the starting lineup continued to sit on the bench to rest.

But the Cavaliers didn't do that with the Spurs, and they fielded their starting lineup again at the start of the second quarter.

Mobley and Allen, the inside duo of Wembanyama and Drummond, have suffered a lot before, and now they have a lot of spirit against the Spurs' Collins + Sandro combination. Mobley, in particular, even began to directly ask to go to the back to play Collins.

Although Garland gave him three singles chances, Mobley only scored once, and it was a fairly extreme step-back jumper, but it was still clear that Mobley was in a much lighter mood than he had been against Wembanyama before.

Halfway through the second quarter, the score between the two teams became 32:27, and the score difference was only 5 points. There are two main reasons why he was chased six points. First, because the Spurs' outside touch was suddenly inaccurate, whether it was Vassell, Graham or McDermott, they couldn't continue to hit three-pointers on the outside, and Collins and Sandro on the inside couldn't attack under the basket when facing Mobley + Allen's defense, and finally only scored 5 points in the half quarter.

On the other side, the Cavaliers played a wave of offensive mini-climaxes, Mitchell and Garland's outside firepower is still sufficient, and more importantly, Mobley and Allen finally began to score near the basket, which is undoubtedly a very important support for the Cavaliers' firepower.

Seeing that the situation on the field was almost the same, Popovich sent his starting lineup again.

Mobley couldn't help but let out a long sigh when he saw Wembanyama reappearing. It took a lot of self-confidence to play on the offensive end, and now that Wembanyama is back, he is expected to lose his performance on the offensive end again.

Chang Tiancheng gave the Cavaliers a little three-point shock as soon as he came on the court, facing Mitchell's defense, and easily hit a long-range three-pointer.

At 35:27, the Cavaliers' starters began to feel a trace of despair in their hearts, as if as long as they faced the Spurs' starting lineup, their side had no ability to fight back at all.

But even if there was no way, the game had to be played hard, Mitchell turned his head and tried to meet Keldon's defense to shoot a long-range three-pointer, and he hit the same shot. It can be seen that his shooting touch today is really good.

Chang Tiancheng found that Mobley's defense was not as active as before, on the one hand, because he had been on the court for a while, and his physical strength had been consumed to a certain extent, and on the other hand, because Mobley had developed a certain fear of Wembanyama at this time.

Celtic legend, "The Lord of the Rings" Bill Russell, once said that the important thing is not to block every shot of the opponent, but to make the opponent feel that you can block every shot of him.

It can be seen that the psychological state of players can actually play a very important role on the basketball court.

Chang Tiancheng hoisted the ball directly to Wembanyama. The moment Wembanyama received the ball, he understood what Chang Tiancheng meant, so he directly dribbled with his back to the inside of the Cavaliers.

Although his backhand didn't push Mobley much inside due to his still slightly thin body, it was enough distance for Wembanyama, who was tall and long-armed.

Wembanyama took a deep step, raised his hands, and flew Mobley with a flick, and then stuck directly on Mobley, easily put the ball in the basket, and caused Mobley's foul.

With Wembanyama's free throw, the Spurs were 38-30 and led the Cavaliers by eight points.