The Spurs' timeouts are often immediate, unlike some teams, calling a timeout is to give players some rest.

If one does not have enough rest, call another one.

Because the Spurs are a team with very strong execution, and the players are very familiar with Popovich's tactical routines.

In addition, Popovich never hesitates to scold the player. If you don’t play according to his ideas and ideas, you will definitely take you to the sidelines and scold him.

Only Duncan's thighs can avoid being scolded, like Tony Parker, who was almost grown up by Popovich's scolding.

Even a smart and talented player like Ginobili is still punished by Popovich's hair dryer.

In response to Li Liang's signs of offensive explosion, Popovich asked Leonard to invest more energy on the defensive end.

Basically, Leonard asked to give up the attack and devote all his energy to dealing with Li Liang.

Leonard's two offenses in the first quarter felt very good, but once he invested more in the offense, he would inevitably be a little rough in defense.

Especially when you attack, you can't always stare at your opponent's counterattack.

Once Li Liang starts to fight back, Leonard may not be able to keep up.

The Clippers tried their best to set the pace again and attacked the fast attack again.

Therefore, Popovich arranged for Leonard to reduce the proportion of offense, even when attacking, he would stare at Li Liang like he did when defending, and curb the Clippers' offensive and defensive transition.

But Leonard suddenly had his own idea, "If I attack Blues-Lee, can he focus more on defense, and his offense will also be affected."

Leonard never talks much, which is very similar to Duncan, making people feel that it fits the Spurs' temperament.

But in fact, Leonard's inner thoughts are still very rich, but he is not good at expressing himself.

For some reason tonight, after smelling the slightest stench, Leonard felt his mind active.

Popovich glared at Leonard and said, "Defense, focus your energy on defense."

Popovich's voice was obviously a little unhappy. He looked at Leonard's expressionless face and felt a little bored inexplicably.

This kid has always been serious and has no expression on his face when he dunks, but he seems to have a lot of thoughts.

In this regard, Leonard and Duncan are really different.

Duncan looked stupid, but actually he was really stupid.

Some objections arose to the players and coaches about the arrangement of tactical allocation.

However, the time for the suspension has come, Duncan stood up to smooth things over and applauded hard to cheer everyone on.

Although Duncan didn't talk much, he was an excellent leader. With him, the Spurs always have strong competitiveness.

But even Duncan could not have predicted that a small, black seed was planted in the Spurs and began to take root.

As for this seed, Popovich and Leonard thought it was Li Liang's fart.

...

Li Liang did not place his hope entirely on a self-taste agent.

He knew that the Spurs on the other side also liked to play tricks, but the premise of playing tricks was that you also had absolute strength.

Otherwise, you will be fooled and lose the game in the end, which will really be a loss to the wife and a loss to the army.

After the timeout, the first quarter will continue.

The score between the two sides is 17:15, and the Clippers are 2 points behind the Spurs.

Tony Parker took advantage of Duncan's pick-and-roll and shot again from the middle distance near the free throw line, or hit it!

Parker played very well in the first quarter tonight.

His form has declined this season compared to last season, but Parker is in good shape in this series against Paul.

He often dominates the Spurs' offense in the first half, and his mid-range shooting percentage is comparable to Paul.

On the Clippers, Barnes slipped through the bottom line and used Li Liang's cover to find an open position in the left bottom corner, received Paul's pass, and made a three-pointer!

19:18, the Clippers were only one point behind.

And Barnes made his second three-pointer in the first quarter.

Barnes is still in a family crisis, but he has put all his energy on the basketball court.

After entering the playoffs, Barnes' three-point shooting percentage was higher than the regular season. The two three-pointers in the first quarter reminded the Spurs not to think that the Clippers only have Li Liang.

Subsequently, both sides did not score for four consecutive rounds, and the defensive intensity on both sides became increasingly greater.

The Spurs replaced Gary Neal, hoping to open up the situation with Neal's impact and random shots.

As a response, the Clippers also replaced Crawford.

As a result, two guys shot birds indiscriminately, but none of them were shot.

Li Liang couldn't stand it anymore. After Crawford missed a spoiler, he tried hard to grab the frontcourt rebound.

Then use the skill [Bill Walton's pass behind the back]!

A clever pass from behind was sent to Barnes, who made a light layup.

After the playoffs, sometimes I see the surprises.

One or two unexpected players can always bring great changes to the situation.

Barnes scored 8 points in the first quarter and relied on this layup to help the Clippers successfully reverse the score.

Seeing Barnes's fierce behavior, I wonder if his wife still wants to divorce him.

Barnes' performance is not over yet.

Then Duncan held the ball at a low post, Li Liang fought against Duncan one-on-one, Paul came to double-team, and Duncan almost made a mistake.

Pass the ball back, but the strength was not mastered properly, and the ball almost flew through half the game.

Belinelli barely caught the ball back, and saw that there was no time, so he could only make a three-pointer.

Missed, but the Spurs grabbed the frontcourt rebound and reorganized the offense.

The ball was given to Ginobili, who came on as a substitute.

As a result, Barnes successfully cut Ginobili's ball!

In order not to allow the Clippers to fight back quickly, Ginobili had to make a foul.

There are three minutes left before the end of the first quarter, and the situation is turning around.

On the sideline ball, Paul held the ball almost over half and cooperated with Li Liang at a pick-and-roll at a high position.

As a result, Leonard, who was defending Li Liang, threw Li Liang away and went to Paul to try to get the ball.

Is Paul's ball so easy to break?

Paul protected the ball, then jumped up and passed it to Li Liang in the high position. Li Liang made a three-pointer in the open position and made a direct move and hit!

19:23, the Clippers regained their momentum.

Popovich yelled angrily on the sidelines and scolded Leonard. Why did he let Li Liang go and chase Paul?

Leonard had no expression or responded.

His response is very simple, which is to give the result on the offensive end.

After receiving Parker's pass, Leonard beat Odom in front of the basket.

He used his first step to enter the front of the three-second zone, then grabbed the ball with one big hand and pushed Odom with one arm, and scored two points with his right throw.

21:23, this is a very critical two-pointer.

Because the Spurs have not scored for three minutes.

But Popovich obviously won't praise Leonard, he is still angry at his defensive mistake.

As for offense, I told him during the timeout that he would reduce his independent attack on the offense and make every effort to defend!

Popovich immediately called a timeout, and he did not want any behavior that disobeyed his wishes to appear on the court.

After a short pause of 20 seconds, Popovich said nothing and did nothing to make arrangements. The only thing he did was to replace Leonard and press it on the bench.

Leonard also didn't say anything, just stared at the stadium.

Li Liang is still on the court.

Now Li Liang will play the first quarter before he ends up.

There is no way, Rivers needs him too much.

Compared with the two, Li Liang is the ball dominant in the Clippers, and he said one thing after the game, "I didn't lose if the team loses."

What about Leonard? This year, he has a 15th pick and a vague trend of becoming a star.

But any improvement you make will probably be attributed to the Spurs team and to the training of Popovich.

As for what he thought, no one seemed to care about it, because everyone always saw that he was expressionless and thought that he was a simple and had no ideas.

In fact, he had an idea. When he saw Li Liang, he couldn't help but think, "So this is possible."

In the last two minutes of the first quarter, the Spurs, who replaced Leonard, had a loophole on the defensive end.

Li Liang seized the loophole and made two beautiful passes to Jordan and Odom at the top of the high position, assisting the two to easily dunk.

At the end of the first quarter, the Spurs and the Clippers played 23:28, with the Clippers leading by 5 points.

Li Liang's self-taste agent has indeed played a role.
Chapter completed!