When the Clippers make the right adjustments, they are unstoppable here.
Moreover, the Clippers are playing at home. Being behind 0:1, they will more or less receive some care from the referees.
Losing two home games in a row in the first round of the Western Conference was really ugly.
As the team that stole an away victory, the Spurs' attitude in this game is to fight hard at the beginning to see if they can take advantage.
If it's the same as the last game, if we can have an advantage at the beginning and hold on to the Clippers until the last moment, we will definitely win.
After all, being able to take a 2:0 lead on the road is a huge advantage in the series.
But once they feel they can't beat them, are beaten too hard by the Clippers, or the referee blows too much, the Spurs will give up strategically.
Therefore, when the Clippers led the Spurs by 12 points 33:21 in the first quarter, Popovich knew he had to prepare for the third game.
Of course, the Spurs would not give up easily. Popovich made tactical adjustments during the quarter and decided to adopt a more risky strategy to play faster with the Clippers.
If the two sides attack each other, the Spurs can play less strenuously, and at the same time drive up the rhythm of the game, and the two sides will engage in an offensive battle.
Once the Clippers make a mistake in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter, the Spurs will still have a chance to turn around.
But the Clippers obviously don't want to give the Spurs this opportunity.
After the start of the second quarter, Tyronn Lue did not take a conservative defensive line.
Jeremy Lin, who played poorly in the last game, reappeared.
Min Congda specially reminded before the game, "Since you have decided to use this player, you must use him resolutely and consistently. Don't use him if you doubt him, and don't doubt him if you hire him."
Jeremy Lin performed well in the regular season, but he was not able to adapt to the intensity in the first playoff game.
In this game, Coach Lu still gave Jeremy Lin a chance to continue leading the second team to play at a fast pace.
Jeremy Lin lived up to Tyronn Lue's trust tonight. After coming on the court, he no longer hesitated or blindly accelerated.
Instead, he uses his speed and impact to bombard the Spurs' inside line.
As soon as the second quarter started, he made consecutive breakthroughs, causing the Spurs to foul inside and get to the free throw line.
Then he quickly passed the half court with the ball again and again, and boldly passed the long pass, allowing Leonard and Ricky Davis to break through inside for a quick attack.
The Clippers entered a familiar rhythm, with three-pointers from the outside and layups from the inside.
Once the pass-and-cut system is implemented, don't score too fast, as the Spurs will be a little overwhelmed.
At the end of the first half, the Clippers led the Spurs by 14 points 69:55.
This point difference reached the beginning of the third quarter, and the Spurs still had some thoughts of chasing points.
But as the third quarter began, Curry made a three-pointer, Harden broke through, Harden made a mid-range jumper, Harden made a breakthrough floater, Harden made a three-pointer, and Harden assisted Curry to hit a three-pointer.
The two people worked together to direct a 15:2 offensive shock wave. In just four minutes, the score difference between the two sides was widened to nearly 30 points!
The powerful scoring power of outside players was most vividly demonstrated at the beginning of the third quarter.
In the early 10 years of the playoffs, they were fighting each other like a meat grinder, and the scenes of internal wrestling are becoming less and less.
The Mavericks' championship in 2011 proved that you can win a championship by relying on shooting.
And accurate three-pointers and mid-range are extremely important. Once the three-pointer is opened, it is extremely powerful.
The Mavericks used extremely accurate shooting to defeat the traditional Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.
In the Western Conference finals, he and the Clippers exchanged shots, and finally successfully broke out of the siege and won the championship.
Now that the Clippers' two outsiders are feeling great tonight, the Spurs are simply powerless to stop them.
Popovich looked at Harden and Curry's downpour of long-range shots and could only call a timeout, then looked up at the scoreboard:
"It's 30 points. Now these guys are really accurate in shooting. Damn it."
As a fossil-level coach who has coached the Spurs since the 1990s and spanned three eras, Popovich has a deep memory of the changes in the league's tactical style.
He knows that the day when three-pointers will become popular will come one day, because no one who plays or coaches in the NBA is a fool. Everyone knows how significant the three-pointers will be once they are developed.
In the 1994-1995 season, the league shortened the length of the three-point line. As a result, the average number of three-point shots in the regular season soared from 9 to 15!
So no one is stupid. Once three-pointers become easy, everyone will be willing to shoot them.
That year was also the year when the Rockets, sixth in the Western Conference, won the championship. Their success benefited from the shortening of the three-point line.
They are the team that averages the most three-point attempts and hits in the regular season.
In the following two seasons, the number of three-point attempts increased year by year, and many players began to take more three-pointers.
The NBA believed that this situation would lead to a decline in game viewing, so it changed the three-point line back in the 1997-1998 season.
As a result, the number of three-point attempts dropped from 16 to 12 that season, and the NBA returned to the path of interior confrontation and slow-paced defense.
The reforms in just three seasons fully demonstrate that when everyone's three-point accuracy is relatively high, everyone is willing to shoot more three-pointers to obtain greater score gains, and at the same time, it can expand the playing field wider.
In the 1990s, three-point accuracy became higher because the three-point line shortened.
Now, the three-point accuracy has become higher because players have better shooting abilities and the perimeter defense has weakened.
Curry and Harden can use dribbling or single-blocking to get rid of defenders and gain space to shoot three-pointers directly.
Such shots were relatively rare 10 years ago. Most of them were forced shots from mid-range after getting rid of the defense.
Nowadays, players have raised their shooting range to a higher level. Curry has a unique shooting posture and extremely fast shooting speed.
Harden has a very strong upper body, allowing him to complete some difficult shots.
The two of them bombarded each other indiscriminately, and the balance of victory was instantly overturned.
Popovich's call for a timeout didn't have much effect.
Facing a score difference of nearly 30 points, the Spurs no longer have the ability to turn the tide.
In fact, in the playoffs, the Spurs rarely complete the kind of big comeback from a big deficit.
Their playing style determines that they rarely fall behind by a big score.
Once they fall far behind, the lineup's shortcomings of average scoring power and average defensive aggressiveness will be exposed.
At the end of the third quarter, the Spurs were slightly closer to the score, but after Jeremy Lin came on the stage, he hit a whirlwind and added insult to injury, making the score between the two sides in the third quarter 102:72...
The score difference returned to 30 points, and the Clippers scored 100 points after three quarters. This scoring explosion was really amazing, very amazing.
Min Congda looked a little dumbfounded in the stands. Is my team so strong?
"There's no reason to be so strong, it's just an accidental outburst."
"The Spurs' defense is rubbish. They have no strength at all on the outside. Hey, this third position is so bad."
Min Congda is used to criticizing the opponent's defense, and then looking back, they want to win this game.
By the fourth quarter, the game had completely lost its suspense.
The Clippers tied the score with a 122:100 victory.
However, the big score of 1:1 did not satisfy the Clippers.
A victory was stolen by the Spurs in Los Angeles, and they deserved to win the second game.
And in the playoffs, winning by 58 points has the same effect as winning by 1 point.
After the game, everyone in the Clippers locker room just celebrated lightly.
Min Congda simply didn't go to the locker room. Instead, he sent a text message to everyone: See you at the airport tomorrow morning.
The Clippers did not stay in Los Angeles after this game and took an early flight to San Antonio the next morning to prepare for the third game between the two sides.
The third game is obviously extremely important. If the Clippers lose the third game, the risk factor of losing the series will be greatly increased.
If they can win, the home court advantage will return to the Clippers.
In the case of a 1:1 tie, grabbing 3 is very important.
The Spurs' defeat seemed certain in this game, and the main players rested early in the fourth quarter.
Popovich is working hard to beat the Clippers hard in the third and fourth games.
The third game will be the one that sets the tone for this series. The strength, weakness, victory or defeat of both sides will be truly revealed from this game.
The Clippers, who arrived in San Antonio early, began adaptive training.
At the pre-match preparation meeting, Min Congda met with the coaching staff to make tactical preparations.
And just as the Clippers were actively preparing for the third game, the issue of Sterling's racial discrimination made new progress.
Sterling's wife, Shelly Sterling, suddenly filed for divorce with the court, deciding to end their 50-year marriage to Sterling.
Moreover, she publicly stated that she did not want to sell the Clippers, and claimed that she had relevant evidence, calling the recording incident a conspiracy.
Immediately afterwards, on the afternoon of the day Shelley Sterling made the above announcement, NBA-Batman, the king of NBA gossip on Twitter, sent out a tweet, saying:
"Sterling's recording originated from illegal wiretapping because some people wanted Sterling to leave the NBA. This was an internal conspiracy."
Once this news was released, it once again caused quite a stir in the public opinion circle.
Although the tweet did not name anyone, everyone knew who this "someone" was.
It must be Clippers general manager Smart Min!
NBA-Batman has been sparing no effort to shape the image of Min Congda seeking power and usurping the throne in the Clippers.
Well now, the character that has been created for so long has finally come true!
Smart Min really wanted to usurp the throne, and even came up with such a trick to frame his boss?
People suddenly began to have some sympathy for Sterling, which is very critical.
Regardless of what kind of legal society the United States is, in fact the tendency of public opinion and people's emotions will always play a decisive role in the judgment of some matters.
Earlier, many people supported Sterling's expulsion from the league, but now there are voices supporting Sterling because some people don't like Min Congda.
In short, a series of sudden changes caught the NBA off guard and gave Silva a headache.
Silva contacted Min Congda, who was preparing for the game with the players in San Antonio, and wanted to know the situation.
Min Congda said: "I can't protect myself now. Everyone says that I framed Sterling! Have you found out the manipulator behind that NBA-Batman? News is always exposed like this, and one day it will be exposed to you. Do you believe it?" Do not believe?"
These words made Silva break into a cold sweat. He knew that this matter was inseparable from his manipulation.
If this NBA-Batman really drags him down, then he will no longer be able to do a good job as NBA president and will have no choice but to take the blame and resign.
How could Silva have imagined that this NBA-Batman is Min Congda himself.
How did he know that there were such lunatics in the world who were willing to defile themselves?
Shelley Sterling's divorce has also brought big trouble to the team's sale.
Once the two divorce, Shelly will legally own half of the Clippers.
If Shelly is unwilling to sell her Clippers shares and only sells Sterling's share, who is willing to buy it?
Because you can't get only half of the equity, you can't gain control of the Clippers.
Silva wasn't sure what happened. Shelly Sterling had clearly supported selling the Clippers.
With her connections in the Los Angeles area, if she can find a good buyer, this person must be familiar to Silva.
By then, the NBA board of directors will welcome new members, and the smelly and hard pit stones like Sterling will be removed.
Who knew that Xie Li suddenly made such a move, and it was unknown whether the court would pass this decision.
Adam Silva felt vaguely that he seemed to be calculated.
But he was not sure who the person who plotted against him was.
It feels like Smart Min, because he didn't let Jordan be the boss according to his ideas.
But he was also hurt in this incident. NBA-Batman's tweet was directed at Min Congda. This guy is bound to be involved in the whirlpool of public opinion.
For a moment, Silva didn't know what to do. He began to regret a little. Why did he team up with Min Congda and play power games in the first place?
Once this thing backfires, it will be very fatal.
Just when Silva was at a loss and feeling anxious, Stern made a call to Silva.
During the phone call, Stern told Silva: "When it's time to give in, make a step forward. The number one task this season is to finish the season smoothly and have a good ending that satisfies the fans. I still focus on In basketball, let some things go. Smart Min is a difficult person to deal with. Don't cooperate with him casually, but don't provoke him either. This guy is very evil. Let's just finish this season well, Adam .Next season you will be the real league president, no longer an agent."
Stern's words meant that Silva should be on the right track and not mess around.
And he gave Silva reassurance that he will continue to be president next season and will no longer be acting president.
This means that Stern will completely retire and withdraw from the stage of history.
With Stern's commitment, Silva held a press conference the next day to announce the suspension of the Clippers' forced sale plan.
They will re-study Sterling's inappropriate remarks and make a new penalty decision.
On the same night, the Clippers played their third game against the Spurs on the road.
After trailing by 15 points in the first three quarters, the Clippers suddenly made a comeback in the fourth quarter and completed a huge comeback!
105:103, a precious victory in the away game with a 2-point advantage!
The final goal was even more thrilling.
(End of chapter)
