Chapter 229 228. Stone Buddha enters the empty group again

During the intermission, commentators from all major TV stations were analyzing the Bobcats' play in the first quarter, and almost every commentator cursed a few words.

Bickerstaff's imaginative response strategy once again amazed everyone.

People finally understood why Bickerstaff, whose coaching style has always been criticized, was able to work in the NBA for more than 30 years and why so many bosses were willing to give Bickerstaff a chance.

He always brings surprises to people in desperate situations!

Time Warner Sports, Hubie Brown had already analyzed a lot during the game, but during the intermission, he did not analyze much, but emphasized: "For the Bobcats, the advantage in the first quarter does not mean that they will win, and the Spurs' defense will become more and more fierce.

And Ginobili’s poor performance in the first quarter doesn’t mean he won’t play well in the rest of the quarter. He often plays badly in the first half or even the first three quarters, but suddenly explodes in the final moments…”

The fans in front of the TV felt that Hubie Brown's words made sense. In the five years since he entered the NBA, Ginobili left people with the impression that he was the only player the Spurs could look forward to when they were in extremely unfavorable situations. Although he occasionally failed, his highlights were unforgettable.

But Popovich on the sidelines was not so optimistic. Although he also had very high expectations for Ginobili, he had to see who the opponent was.

If the opponent is a mature and stable team, and the opposing players are a group of experienced veterans who have suffered many losses and play cautiously, or even superstars in their prime, Popovich will be much more optimistic.

He is not afraid of opponents who play steadily and cautiously, but he is very wary of opponents who are inexperienced and inexperienced. The Bobcats are the latter!
The score difference in the first three games was very small. People who only looked at the scores thought that the Bobcats and Spurs competed in tactics, went back and forth, and were evenly matched. In fact, the Spurs continued to take the initiative, and the Bobcats counterattacked every once in a while. In order to maintain the initiative, the Spurs players maintained a high-pressure state.

Popovich wanted to defeat the Bobcats by suppressing their morale, but failed. After losing G1 and G3, the Bobcats played harder and more unreasonably in the second game. It's the finals already, it's impossible to suppress their morale!

Popovich is very similar to Jeff Van Gundy in some ways - he can always clearly judge the situation on the court and accurately predict what the opponent will do.

At the same time, they rarely respond effectively.

This time his prediction was correct again.

In the second quarter, the Bobcats continued to fight hard!
Duncan continued to play the entire second quarter, making 7 of 4 shots, plus 3 of 1 free throws, scoring 9 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal. Parker also played well in this quarter, scoring another 6 points, plus 2 assists.

With Parker's assist, Barry cut into the basket and made a 2+1 against Muhammad, and Finley made a close jump shot from the baseline.

With Ginobili playing for only 5 minutes in the second quarter and scoring only 3 points, Duncan and Parker led the Spurs to 23 points in a single quarter.

For the Bobcats, Felton played for 10 minutes, made 6 of 2 shots, including 4 of 2 three-pointers. Although both of his breakthrough jump shots were blocked by Duncan, he still scored 6 points.

Zhang Yang scored a free throw line jump shot against Bowen, a counterattack dunk, and two free throws when he cut into the basket and caused Elson to foul, scoring 7 points in 6 minutes.

加上杰拉德-华莱士3分1助攻、朱梅因-琼斯接杰拉德-华莱士传球进了一个三分、奥卡福进了1次上篮和1个罚球拿到3分、隆多替补上场进了一次突破抛投……山猫队第二节也拿到23分。

At the end of the first half, the Bobcats continued to lead the Spurs by 48 points with 44 to 4!
After the halftime break, the Spurs couldn't hold on in the third quarter because Duncan only played for 8 minutes in this quarter, made 4 of 2 shots, and only scored 6 points with 3 of 7 free throws.

加上帕克的6分、吉诺比利3投1中拿到2分、鲍文进了一个三分球，马刺队单节只拿到18分！
On the Bobcats side, Okafor took advantage of Duncan's rest in the third quarter to attack the inside, making 4 of 3 shots and 2 of 1 free throws to score 7 points.

杰拉德-华莱士4分4板1助攻、米尔萨普靠着进攻篮板球二次进攻拿到4分、张杨4分、费尔顿3分、帕金斯2分……单节拿到24分。

At the end of the third quarter, the Bobcats extended their lead to double digits, leading the Spurs by 72 points, 62 to 10!
Trailing by 10 points entering the final quarter, Popovich was almost in despair. When the opponent was trailing by 10 points, he would worry about being overturned. They were trailing by 10 points... He did not completely despair because he was still expecting Ginobili to explode. If Ginobili could soar, it would not be impossible to overtake by 10 points in a single quarter.

Not only Popovich, many commentators were also discussing whether Ginobili might explode in the final quarter.

Soon, the fourth quarter began.

Zhang Yang did not start the game. Those who played were Felton, Rondo, Gerald Wallace, Millsap and Perkins.

He looked across at Jacqui Vaughn, Ginobili, Bowen, Oberto, and Duncan.

He felt that Popovich really didn't trust Parker. Parker had 18 points and 4 assists in the first three quarters, but Popovich didn't use him in the final quarter. Ginobili only scored 11 points with 3 of 7 shots in the first three quarters and was regarded as a hope by Popovich.

But think about them. In G2, he missed all his shots in the last quarter, but when he made the winning shot, it was still him who shot the tactic arranged by Bickerstaff. It seems understandable.

On the court, the Spurs, who won the jump ball at the start, attacked first. Jacqui Vaughn advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Ginobili.

Zhang Yang focused his attention on watching Ginobili play one-on-one against Gerald Wallace.

I don't know why, but he really hopes that Ginobili can make some shots in the final quarter... Of course, he can't say this out loud, or he will be beaten up by his teammates. He is not afraid of one-on-one fights, but two fists cannot beat four hands, and three legs cannot beat so many legs.

But unfortunately, Ginobili broke into close range and missed his quick stop jump shot under the double-team of Gerald Wallace and Millsap!

In the next three minutes, Ginobili missed another shot. He once pulled up from outside the three-point line and caused Gerald Wallace to foul, but he only made 3 of 3 free throws.

During this period, it was Duncan who supported the Spurs' scoring. He made 3 of 2 shots and scored 4 points, leading the Spurs and the Bobcats to a 6-6 tie and preventing the Bobcats from widening the gap.

When the Bobcats attacked, Rondo broke through and passed the ball to Felton in the corner, but the ball was hit out of bounds by Oberto who rushed down from the high position.

Popovich had no choice but to call a timeout and replace Ginobili, who only scored 13 points in 3 of 9 shots tonight. The magic sword can kill gods when it is convenient, but when it is not convenient, it can accidentally hit the Buddha.

Also substituted was Jacqui Vaughn, the point guard who matched best with Ginobili, and replaced him with Parker and Finley. Oberto was also substituted and replaced by Horry, while Bowen and Duncan continued to play.

On the other side, Bickerstaff replaced Felton, who had played for 36 minutes, and Millsap was also replaced. Zhang Yang and Okafor were replaced, while Rondo, Gerald Wallace and Perkins continued to play.

After the timeout, the Spurs attacked. Parker's mentality was really good. He was regarded as the last choice at the critical moment. He was also full of fighting spirit after entering the court. He wanted to lead the team to victory!

But after he changed direction and broke through Rondo and rushed into the inside, there were a lot of people inside and Rondo was very fast behind him, so he was not left behind.

He finally passed the ball to Horry on the wing through the crowd, and Horry took a three-point shot... but missed!
The Bobcats no longer played one-on-one defense like they did in the first three quarters, and began to shrink and double-team!
Other coaches: Horry is very accurate in key shots, be careful of him.

Bickerstaff: He is only accurate in making buzzer beater three-pointers. He is very accurate in other times. Don't bother with him unless it is a buzzer beater.

The main reason is that the Spurs only made two three-pointers in the first three quarters, 10 of 2 shots, and Ginobili and Bowen each made one. At this time, ignoring Parker's 18 points in the first three quarters and Duncan's 32 points, and running to worry about Horry's three-pointer? That's not Bickerstaff.

Perkins held off Duncan, and Okafor secured the defensive rebound.

Rondo received the ball and advanced to the frontcourt, passing it to Zhang Yang.

Follow Bowen on defense and don’t worry about organizing the offense. Zhang Yang only has the basket in his eyes now. Just go for it when he gets the ball!

"Bang" a iron ball was delivered, Zhang Yang quickly retreated, followed Bowen closely, and thought about how to attack in the next round.

When the Spurs attacked, Duncan took over the ball again, took up the offensive banner and continued to swing!
In the next 6 minutes, Duncan threw 8 shots, 5 of which were successful, 5 of 3, caused 3 fouls, and scored a goal to win a free throw. He got a total of 7 free throws, but only made 4, got 10 points, and gave an assist to Finley who cut in, and Finley made a layup.

Parker failed in the final quarter, with no goals or free throws. He only broke into the inside once and attracted a double-team, then passed the ball to Finley, who made a mid-range shot.

In 6 minutes, the Spurs scored 14 points, which was a very efficient performance!

On the other side, Zhang Yang scored 5 points with 2 of 4 shots in the positional battle, and was fouled by Parker in a counterattack, and made two free throws to get 6 points.

Felton, who came on the court after a few minutes of rest, made his sixth three-pointer of the night. Brother, the head coach asked him to shoot, and he was really reckless. He shot 6 three-pointers in the whole game!
With Okafor's tip-in, the Bobcats scored 6 points in 11 minutes.

末节打到10分24秒，马刺队20比17小胜山猫队3分，将比分追至82比89，分差缩小到7分。

It was the Spurs' turn to attack again, and Duncan continued to ask for the ball and play one-on-one.

Score, defend, and there is still a chance!

首节10投5中加上2中2的罚球拿到12分，第二节7投4中加上3中1的罚球拿到9分，第三节4投2中加上6中3的罚球拿到7分，末节到现在8投5中加上7中4的罚球拿到14分，邓肯今晚，29投16中，加上18中10的罚球，已经拿到42分了！

Among these 18 free throws, 4 were 2+1 free throws, which means that his shooting alone caused 11 fouls in the Bobcats' interior, which was extremely brutal!
The game was so intense that Bickerstaff didn't dare to let Okafor face off against Duncan. Muhammad sat on the sidelines with 5 fouls, and Perkins also had 4 fouls.

But this also makes Duncan's position for the ball farther and farther away from the basket, and now he is outside the three-second zone.

He could no longer support Perkins, who weighed 123 kg, 5 kg heavier than him!

After receiving the lob from Parker, Duncan turned around and took a close-range jump shot from the baseline... It was his 30th shot tonight, and it missed!

Okafor blocked Horry and grabbed the defensive rebound!

Popovich sighed and sat back on the bench. It's over, it's over again tonight.

He looked at Brezek, the tallest player on his team, and then at Muhammad, who was sitting on the sidelines after being fouled by Duncan tonight, and rookie Millsap, who played a certain role in this finals. He felt so regretful.

In this finals, Brezec played for a total of 4 minutes in the four games. Only when Duncan was resting did he need to use Brezec's height and inside one-on-one ability, and he didn't play well.

The two players he gave to the Bobcats, Muhammad and Millsap, are both the opponent's main rotation players!
But who could have imagined that the Bobcats could make it to the finals?
At this moment, Popovich felt that he really deserved to be the teacher of the young general Johnson, and he shot himself in the foot...

In the transition from offense to defense, Zhang Yang received the ball with his back to Finley in the high position.

Finley worked very hard to defend the shot. Zhang Yang took the opportunity to cut in, got to close range, changed direction and stepped to avoid Horry who was blocking him, came to the right side of Duncan, and shot before Duncan turned around and stretched out his hand... and it went in!
Finley is in a bitter mood. When he was young, he was beaten by Jordan, Hardaway and others. At that time, he worked hard and thought that he had reached his peak and could beat others. As a result, he was beaten by Kobe, McGrady and Carter at his peak. Now that he has become a veteran, he is beaten by young people again... In this life, he is either beaten or on the road to being beaten...

91 to 82, 58 seconds left, 9 points difference!
Duncan missed the shot at the critical moment, and Zhang Yang made a shot to widen the score gap, completely killing the Spurs' hopes of a comeback!
In the last few tens of seconds, the Bobcats only needed to focus on defense and waste time on offense. The Spurs made two shots from the outside, but both missed.

In less than a minute, the Spurs' opponents could make up for the 1-point deficit, but the Spurs themselves...

Amid the continuous cheers from the fans at the scene, the time came to 11:20 pm and the final whistle sounded.

The cheers of the fans at the scene reached their peak with the long whistle!

The Bobcats players, coaches, and Jordan all rushed into the court and gathered together to cheer and celebrate.

Surrounded tonight is...Felton!

费尔顿今晚打了39分钟，中近距离，6投仅1中……但三分球11投6中！加上3中3的罚球，拿到23分4助攻。

If Zhang Yang is the one who gives the opponent a fatal blow at every critical moment, then Felton is the one who scored in regular time tonight!

Zhang Yang had a very good playing time tonight, playing only 33 minutes, and his shooting was also very efficient, making 21 of 10 shots, plus 6 of 6 free throws, getting 26 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.

加上隆多4分6板6助攻、杰拉德-华莱士11分5板3助攻2抢断3盖帽、奥卡福的16分10板2盖帽……91比82，山猫队击败马刺队，将大比分扳成2比2平！
(End of this chapter)