Parker made both free throws amidst the boos, and the Spurs took the lead.

Paul controlled the ball to the frontcourt, Griffin asked to continue the play, and Duncan also lowered his center of gravity to continue defending.

This time, Griffin paid attention to Duncan's block when he turned, but the shot was still disturbed by Duncan's outstretched arm at the moment he released it. The ball bounced off the rim, and he reached out but his hand was too short to grab the offensive rebound.

The Clippers' continuous attacks failed.

Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it to Parker. Parker wasn't in a hurry either, dribbling the ball to control the rhythm to the frontcourt, and signaled to run the AI hammer tactic.

On the court, Jefferson's breakthrough passed the ball to Green, a completely wide-open opportunity.

Green made a three-pointer, and the Spurs started with a 5-0 lead.

The atmosphere was restless. The Clippers' start was completely different from their game against the Trail Blazers.

Paul also realized that the momentum was wrong, and stopped passing the ball to Griffin, instead signaling to Jordan to come out for a pick-and-roll.

Del Negro wasn't a tactical coach; he gave Paul more freedom on offense.

Jordan pulled up to the free throw line for the pick-and-roll, and Paul took a mid-range shot after the pick-and-roll before Blair could switch defense in place.

"Swish!"

Mid-range as steady as a dog, Paul broke the Clippers' scoring drought on the court.

The fans in the audience erupted in cheers.

During his Hornets period, Paul flew all over the court, leading the Hornets to second in the West and finishing second in the MVP voting behind only Kobe.

Although he later suffered a serious meniscus injury, he was still a dominant point guard after his style transformation.

However, just as Paul made a mid-range shot to score two points, Parker also scored two points with a floater after a pick-and-roll with Blair.

Paul attacked again with the ball. This time, the Spurs' help defense was in place, and he passed the ball to Butler in the corner, whose shot was interfered with by the switching Green and went wide.

Turning around, Duncan mismatched Jordan under the basket, and his turnaround bank shot followed suit.

After about half a quarter, the score on the court was 20-10, and the Spurs had already established a 10-point lead.

Tang Tian sat on the sidelines watching, and basically had a good understanding of the Clippers' strength.

"Lob City" was more like a "performance team." Against teams with average defense like the Nuggets, their inside and outside blossomed with vitality, but against teams with strong defense like the Spurs, their ability to attack tough situations was very limited.

But that wasn't the main problem. With Paul, the offense still had a bottom line.

The bigger problem was defense. Not to mention Butler and Billups' slow feet and untimely retreat, there was no chemistry between teammates, and there wasn't even a well-formed defensive system.

In other words, the Spurs' offense was smooth and unimpeded, and they weren't disturbed much at all. They shot over 70% from the field in the first half of the quarter.

When the game reached about seven minutes, Popovich rotated his players ahead of schedule, with Ginobili, Splitter, and Leonard coming off the bench one after another.

The Clippers also replaced Billups and Butler with Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.

After being bombarded with 20 points in half a quarter, Del Negro also realized that there was a problem with the defense, but he seemed to only see that the old players were slow on their feet.

In the Clippers' offense, Foye made a catch-and-shoot three-pointer after running around Griffin's pick-and-roll. He had a good feel as soon as he came on.

Turning around, the Spurs' zip hammer tactic, Ginobili's pass after a breakthrough was given to Leonard, and the latter's open three-pointer was also made.

Still a 10-point difference, the Clippers made personnel adjustments, but the defense on the court was still as full of holes as before.

At the end of the first quarter, the Spurs had already taken a 15-point lead with a score of 35-20.

Del Negro tried several methods in the first quarter, but none of them worked. It looked like the game was going to be over by halftime.

During the first-quarter break, Popovich called Tang Tian and Bonner over, which was a move to replace all the main players.

Tang Tian took off his training uniform, shook his arms, and warmed up his muscles.

The previous preseason games were like an appetizer, and what followed was his true debut in the NBA arena.

Back from the quarter break, the Spurs had Ginobili, Tang Tian, Leonard, Bonner, and Splitter, a lineup with an average height of over 2 meters.

The Clippers also further rotated, with Mo Williams and Foye in the backcourt, Gomes and Kenyon Martin on the front line, and "rebound obsessed" Reggie Evans at center.

In the Spurs' offense, Ginobili played the 1 position and directly ran a zip hammer tactic.

Tang Tian, Leonard, and Bonner all had three-point range, and the Clippers expanded their defense a lot at this time. Ginobili broke through and scored a layup.

The point difference was widened to 17 points.

There was a commotion in the arena, and some fans even showed impatience in their eyes.

The Clippers hadn't been established for long, and they had only entered the playoffs a handful of times. Especially in recent years, they had been at the bottom of the league almost every year, resulting in very few loyal die-hard fans. Many of them only came to the arena to watch the games because of Paul's arrival.

Now that the situation was unfavorable, these wealthy Los Angeles residents showed more impatience than cheering.

Gomes' layup was blocked by Leonard, and some scattered boos were even heard in the arena.

In the Spurs' fast break, Ginobili made a three-pointer, and the point difference had reached 20 points.

Some fans cheered for Ginobili.

It was hard to tell who was home team anymore.

Mo Williams' breakthrough layup was interfered with by Tang Tian and missed. He had a small pushing motion, but he didn't push Tang Tian.

Tang Tian's previous thoughts on the sidelines were correct.

Any habit will be contagious, especially when the habit comes from the team's core. If the core of a team likes to complain to the referee, then the whole team will slowly become fond of complaining; if the core of a team can't fight hard battles, then the team will seem very soft.

Paul likes sneaky moves, and this habit is naturally easy to affect his teammates.

Especially in the current 20-point deficit, the control of the losing side in this regard will also become worse.

In the Spurs' offense, Ginobili broke through and attracted a double-team before passing the ball to Splitter under the basket. Splitter dribbled the ball once and exerted force to prepare for a dunk.

Martin, who was retreating, directly and violently lifted Splitter and knocked him to the ground.

This move was a bit big and almost caused a large-scale conflict between the two sides.

Popovich was very angry at this time, and he rushed to the technical table and roared at the referee.

His anger wasn't without reason. It was normal to win or lose on the court, but it was unacceptable to use these methods because of losing by a lot.

Moreover, what really angered him wasn't that the Clippers couldn't afford to lose, but that this kind of action could easily cause injuries.

The Spurs had many veterans, and their old arms and legs were more prone to injury. The team was very confident this season, and it was completely unacceptable if someone was injured in the opening game.