Super Role Player

Playing against the Jazz, the Spurs are still crushed in terms of hard power. In fact, Dillon Corbin has done his best.

One of his adjustments almost made the Jazz a 50-50 team with the Spurs. Of course, the difference is a bit much, but this does not prevent Popovich from thanking Dillon Corbin. Erbin, Popovich may not have discovered that there is such a problem in the current Spurs' offense.

There are only two high-level passers in the starting lineup. Once the opponent locks up one of them, the Spurs' offense will drop sharply.

And as mentioned earlier, whether it is replacing Anxi or Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs' perimeter defense will definitely decline, and it will be even more of a disaster against the Thunder and Heat. The Spurs still need to put two defensive gates on the outside.

The game was quickly decided. The Spurs led by 17 points at halftime. After three quarters, the lead of 24 points directly declared the end of the game. In the end, the Spurs defeated the Jazz 112:91 and won by 21 points. Won the first victory of the series.

After Popovich went back, he started thinking. After thinking for a long time, Popovich thought of a solution to the current problem, but it was only a temporary solution.

"We can only increase the rotation."

"Increase the rotation? How to increase the rotation?" Mike Budenholzer was a little puzzled.

"It's very simple. The starting lineup remains the same. If the offense is frustrated, we will replace Manu or Thiago, and then play more rotations. In addition, we have to make some small tactical adjustments."

"How to adjust tactically?"

"Speed ​​up, replace Manu and the others, the defense will inevitably decline. At this time, we speed up to minimize the impact of defense."

Speeding up is Greg Popovich's last idea. The combination of increasing rotation and speeding up the two can be regarded as minimizing the impact.

In the first game of the first round of the playoffs, the Spurs won easily. The gap in strength between them and the Jazz was too great.

In his playoff debut, Anxi played 27 minutes and made 5 of 9 shots, including 4 of 7 three-pointers. He scored 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block.

For Anxi, in his playoff debut, his performance was perfect. In the little playing time, he got an acceptable score, and his defensive performance was good enough.

Soon, the second game also started in San Antonio. The big victory in the previous game gave the Spurs a lot of confidence, but for the Jazz, they have reached the point where if they don't change or die.

Dillon Corbin really couldn't think of any good solution, so he could only continue to resort to the strategy of the previous game, so this game was regarded as a test product by Popovich.

Popovich increased the rotation, and at the same time asked the Spurs to speed up. He also added a requirement-increasing a large-scale transfer of the ball, which can help the Spurs to open up space more and better.

These adjustments are very effective. In this game, the Spurs won more. They finally won the second game of the series with 114:83 and a gap of 31 points! In this game, Anxi scored 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. He still played well. As a rookie, Anxi did not show discomfort in the playoffs.

Winning both games, for the Spurs, they have completed the tasks assigned by Popovich before the game.

Leading the Jazz 2-0 with a big score, the Spurs have almost entered the Western Conference semifinals.

As for the other playoff matchups between the East and the West, the Spurs' Western Conference semifinal matchup, the Clippers vs. the Grizzlies, the first two games have also been played. , the two sides tied 1:1.

In the other two games in the Western Conference, the Thunder first beat the Mavericks by one point, and then beat the Mavericks by 19 points.

2:0 lead; the Lakers are two consecutive small victories, 2:0 Nuggets.

In the East, the Bulls won a small victory in the first game, but Derrick Rose was suddenly injured and failed to play in the second game. The Bulls lost the second game because of this. They drew 1:1 with the 76ers; the Heat Then take two big victories, 2:0 Knicks; the Pacers and the Magic have one win and one loss, 1:1 tie; It was a tie.

After two games, the favorites for the championship have changed again. The Spurs and the Heat won two games, and the Thunder also won two games. They are in good condition. However, the Bulls, who were also the championship favorites before, because of Derrick Rose’s injury, The outlook is already looking bleak.

According to news from inside the Bulls, Derrick Rose's injury is likely to make him bid farewell to this season...

After the two home games, the Spurs also flew to Utah. In Utah, the Spurs settled for a hotel with a gym as the foothold for the two away games.

Unlike other teams, the Spurs did not rent an arena for daily training. Popovich felt that it was only two or three days, and the training would not be worth the loss.

After arriving at the Utah Plateau, the Spurs were doing some adaptive training in the hotel gym under the leadership of the coaches.

On the morning of the game, Popovich got in touch with the Jazz and was about to go to the Energy Solutions Arena for field training.

On the way to the arena, Popovich has been answering the phone, and his phone for the elderly has not stopped for a moment. Anxi listened to the general idea, as if he had an argument with someone.

Anxi poked Manu, who was listening to music with headphones, with his arm: "Manu, who are you arguing with, old man?"

Manu took off his earphones, listened to it for a while, and then said in a strange way: "From the league staff, it is estimated that the media interview before the game was canceled by Greg."

Anxi understood and nodded. He knew about the pre-match media visit to Anxi. This is one of the league's regulations for the playoffs. In the two games in San Antonio, Anxi participated in the media interview before the game.

The feeling for Anxi during this session is that it is a waste of time. The reporters will pester you to ask a lot of questions. , I used the rest time as part of the media interview, but when it comes to Popovich, it seems that the rest time is not willing to take it out.

But think about it, in the playoffs, every second counts, every game is very important, so the rest time before each game is also very important, if the rest time before each game is taken up by media interviews , then there is no need to play the game.

Popovich's approach is considered a special case in the league. His maverick approach was also punished. In the evening, before the start of the game, the league officially announced that because the Spurs failed to participate in the media interview as required, they would punish the Spurs. A fine of $50,000...

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