Chapter 1 The Beginning

Duncan jumped for the tip-off and won the ball for the Spurs. Parker dribbled to the frontcourt and directly signaled for Duncan to post up.

The Timberwolves' starting lineup was good on offense, but their defense was a big problem. Ridnour, Love, and Pekovic were all known defensive sieves.

Duncan received the ball in the low post and immediately backed down Love.

Love was big but slow. Duncan spun towards the basket and then back towards the baseline, shaking off Love before hitting a bank shot.

The Spurs scored the first basket.

On the Timberwolves' offense, Rubio orchestrated from the perimeter. Love set a high pick-and-roll, and Ridnour and Williams weaved back and forth with off-ball movement.

Adelman was one of the league's best coaches at using the "Princeton offense." The Kings he built in the early 2000s had a gorgeous style of play that once swept the league.

Although this Timberwolves team was not as strong as those Kings, their style of play was similar: people move, the ball moves, and they coordinate as one.

The Spurs' defense was solid, but Rubio suddenly threw a long, bouncing pass that cut through the crowd and went directly into Pekovic's hands under the basket.

Pekovic caught the ball and hooked it over Blair.

Blair weighed in at 120 kilograms, a real muscleman.

But so was Pekovic, a large meat shield, and he was also 10 centimeters taller than him, making it difficult for him to interfere with the shot.

"Swish!"

The ball went into the net, and Pekovic returned the favor.

The fans in the arena erupted in cheers.

Pekovic's finish was beautiful, but Rubio's pass was even more beautiful. This was the team's hope.

On the Spurs' offense, Duncan continued to play inside. This time, Pekovic came to help defend when he turned.

But he was even slower than Love, and by the time he got into position, Duncan had already released his shot. The ball hit the backboard and fell into the net again.

Although the "Stone Buddha" was old, he was still accurate.

The Spurs had this matchup advantage, and they didn't even need to waste energy running plays.

Back on the other end, the Timberwolves continued to run the Princeton offense. This time, Love held the ball at the high post.

As Ridnour and Williams cut and ran, he passed the ball inside to Pekovic.

Pekovic received the ball, powered up once, and then his hook shot missed, but he immediately grabbed the offensive rebound and scored on a second-chance opportunity.

Both teams scored on their first two possessions, tying the game at 4-4.

Popovich stood up from the sideline at this point, loudly reminding Blair to push Pekovic out of the paint.

On the Spurs' offense, Duncan continued to receive the ball in the low post. This time, Pekovic double-teamed him early.

Duncan passed the ball to Blair under the basket.

Blair caught the ball and dunked it with both hands, finally getting some revenge.

Pekovic's strengths and weaknesses were quite obvious. On offense, he was strong, powerful, and very good at using his body, and he had a very soft touch around the basket.

But his weaknesses were that he was slow, slow to help defend, and basically couldn't get back out once he came out.

On the Timberwolves' offense, this time Pekovic went straight to the baseline to receive the ball. As Love was about to pass, Duncan consciously retreated towards the basket.

When Tang Tian saw this, he immediately helped defend Love. Love, however, was very steady with his shots from mid-range.

Love was about to shoot, but seeing that Tang Tian had already helped, he flicked the ball to Williams, who was cutting in.

Williams caught the ball and scored a layup before Duncan could help defend.

The Timberwolves continued to score, and the two teams started trading baskets.

This became a microcosm of the first half of the first quarter.

Although the Timberwolves' porous defense allowed the Spurs to score frequently, Blair's disadvantage in the matchup forced Duncan to help defend from time to time.

And Tang Tian had to help defend Love, giving Williams and Ridnour opportunities in succession, so the Timberwolves' offense didn't stop either.

With about seven minutes played in the first quarter, the score was tied at 18-18, with neither side able to stop the other.

In the Spurs' locker room, Jefferson was laughing like a pig at this moment.

As he had imagined, Tang Tian's effect as a starter was completely different from his effect as a substitute.

After playing for so long, his statistics only showed one steal, and he hadn't even taken a shot!

And what was even more deadly was that Williams, who was guarding Tang Tian, had already scored 4 points!

No opportunities on offense, and continuous scoring by the opposing player on defense, such a performance was simply terrible.

Parker's penetration drew a foul on Pekovic.

"Beep!"

At this moment, he heard a short whistle from the broadcast, meaning a substitution was about to be made.

And at this point in time, it was an early substitution.

The camera didn't show it, but he was already pretty sure that Popovich was going to take Tang Tian off.

But when the camera turned, his smile suddenly froze.

There was indeed a substitution on the Spurs' side, but Splitter and Ginobili came on to replace Duncan and Green. Tang Tian was still on the court!

He gritted his teeth.

Popovich was being biased!

He was subbed off after scoring 4 points against the Celtics, but this time he wasn't taking Tang Tian off!

Parker had two free throw opportunities.

He made one of two, and the Spurs took the lead again.

But compared to offense, what the Spurs needed to improve more now was defense.

Love received the ball at the high post and continued to pass to Pekovic. Pekovic powered up and turned for a shot, but this time his shot was clearly off.

Splitter stretched out his hand at this time. He wasn't shorter than Pekovic, and although his strength was slightly worse, he was very good at interfering with his vision.

On the Spurs' offense.

With Duncan off the court, the Spurs didn't have as much of a matchup advantage as before. Parker signaled for an Ai Hammer play.

Parker's penetration after the play on the left side attracted the defense under the basket, and he flicked the ball to the right corner.

Tang Tian had already appeared in the corner after using Splitter's screen.

An open three-point opportunity.

Catch, shoot.

Although he hadn't had a chance to shoot since the start of the game, his rhythm was still very good.

"Swish!"

The three-pointer went in clean, and Tang Tian scored his first goal of the game!

This goal also helped the Spurs extend their lead to 4 points.

On the Timberwolves' offense, Love went to the low post to receive the ball and backed down Blair, turning for a hook shot off the backboard.

He was heavier than Blair, and this turn was a complete white bear rolling over, and Blair couldn't interfere.

The ball grazed the backboard and went into the net, and Love continued the Timberwolves' scoring, a 2-point difference.

Ginobili held the ball in the frontcourt, but he didn't attack immediately. Instead, he dribbled while signaling for Tang Tian and Blair to run an off-ball screen.

Blair was big enough to completely block Williams.

Tang Tian got an open three-point opportunity, and Ginobili threw the pass in the first moment.

Tang Tian caught the ball and shot, and Pekovic was completely unable to switch in time and could only reach out symbolically.

"Swish!"

Tang Tian's second three-point attempt, and it went in again!

Popovich was smiling on the sideline.

The team had a bad start, and he knew very well that the problem was defense.

Tang Tian seemed to be letting people go, but his help defense choices were not a problem at all.

This was also why he kept Tang Tian on the court. He didn't need Tang Tian's scoring, he needed his defense.

But he didn't expect that Tang Tian didn't miss either of these two three-point opportunities, which gave him a big surprise!

Jefferson's face was a little unsightly. Tang Tian's rising performance made him particularly unhappy.

But fortunately, Williams then caught a pass from Love and hit a big two-pointer from outside, which made him feel a little better.

Tang Tian had defended a lot of people before, but Williams was bigger than him and had excellent physical qualities, making it difficult for him to defend.

In other words, although Tang Tian's offense was open, it didn't mean his defense was in place.

Now Williams had scored 6 points in one quarter, and if he was on the court, the result would definitely not be the same.

There was a substitution on the sideline at this time. Beasley and Wesley Johnson came on to replace Pekovic and Rubio, and Mills came on to replace Parker.

Tang Tian's three-pointer forced him to replace Pekovic.

On the Spurs' frontcourt offense, Ginobili received the ball. Tang Tian's running didn't create an opportunity, so he dribbled straight to the basket.

Ridnour was weak and slow, and couldn't keep up with Ginobili.

Ginobili slithered to the basket and scored a layup off the backboard.

The Spurs still maintained a 5-point lead.

This was Ginobili's role on the Spurs. He was playing with his brain completely.

Pekovic was slow, so he let Tang Tian run for open three-pointers. When Pekovic went down and the Timberwolves' defense under the basket was empty, he could single out Ridnour and score.

On the Timberwolves' offense, Love posted up Splitter in the low post, but the opportunity wasn't good. He passed the ball back to Ridnour and ran to the high post to continue playing the Princeton offense.

The ball was passed to Williams, who accelerated past Tang Tian for a layup.

"Pa!"

But before he could pick up the ball, he felt a lightness in his hand. His ball was directly stolen by Tang Tian!

A reach-back steal!

Tang Tian's move was quick and accurate. After the steal, he immediately passed the ball to Ginobili.

Ginobili threw a long pass to Mills for a layup.

The Spurs extended their lead to 7 points!

Jefferson's face became more and more gloomy.

In fact, what Jefferson thought was completely wrong!

Because his ideas were only accurate for ordinary rookies.

In fact, players like Tang Tian don't really need the ball.

The reason why he stayed on the court was that he had strong enough defense.

The fact that Williams scored more before was because he had to help defend Love, and Popovich knew this very well.

So whether it was his role on the court or the coaching staff's consideration, Tang Tian did a good job, which was something that data couldn't reflect.

Now that he didn't have to help defend Love, Tang Tian's one-on-one defense against Williams was no problem at all.

Williams wanted to use his speed to shake him off, but his speed was much slower than Tang Tian's, and Tang Tian's dynamic vision had already captured his intentions.

The reality was a backhand steal.

Around 10 minutes into the first quarter, both sides began to make large-scale rotations.

On the Timberwolves' side, Love, Williams, and Ridnour were also replaced by Milicic, Webster, and Barea.

On the Spurs' side, Bonner and Anderson also came on to replace Blair and Tang Tian.

This section was a pure bench lineup for both sides.

In the last two minutes, Beasley was basically attacking on the Timberwolves' side, but his efficiency was very low. On the Spurs' side, several plays didn't really come together.

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 31-23, with the Spurs holding an 8-point lead.

Entering the second quarter, the Timberwolves replaced Beasley with Williams.

Beasley and Williams were very similar. Beasley didn't have a good touch, and Adelman wanted Williams to lead the team's offense.

The Timberwolves attacked first in the second quarter.

"Go! Timberwolves!"

Under the leadership of the DJ, the home fans cheered for their team in this losing situation.

The Timberwolves' young players were a little fired up, but the Spurs' defense was as solid as a rock, and they didn't get a good scoring opportunity after more than half of the offensive time had passed.

Barea finally called Williams for a pick-and-roll and gave him a mismatch after the switch.

Williams caught the ball and backed down Mills, then turned towards the basket and accelerated for a dunk before Splitter could recover.

You could see from this ball that his competitive state was very good.

He was faster after losing weight, but his strength hadn't dropped too much, and he looked very light overall.

On the Spurs' offense, Ginobili broke through for a layup, drawing a foul on Milicic, and continued to maintain the point difference after making both free throws.

Back on the other end, Barea directly signaled for his teammates to spread out, and then handed the ball to Williams, signaling for him to isolate against Anderson.

Since the start of the game, Williams had scored 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Apart from the steal by Tang Tian, his performance was perfect.

He should be allowed to play more while he's hot and close the gap.

After holding the ball, Williams chose to face up for the isolation. His footwork was excellent in the NCAA, and he was even more comfortable after losing weight.

After a crossover, he squeezed past Anderson and charged towards the basket.

Anderson made the right judgment, but the strength difference was too great, and he could only choose to foul and stop him at the basket.

Williams drew a foul during the contact and scored the basket, a 2+1.

The crowd erupted in cheers. Williams had already scored 10 points and had a free throw to come!

He was going to explode tonight!

Popovich turned around and called Tang Tian over, telling him to replace Anderson.

Williams had a free throw opportunity, and he was happy to see Tang Tian come on.

He had been careless on the steal before, but now that he was the team's main offensive point and he was on fire, he could just get his revenge!

Williams made the free throw, scoring his 11th point.

On the Spurs' offense, Ginobili signaled Tang Tian and Mills to cross, and the ball was passed to Tang Tian.

Tang Tian had a good opportunity to catch and shoot, but this time he was a little off and didn't make the shot.

Williams grabbed the defensive rebound and dribbled to the frontcourt to face Tang Tian.

He was eager to face him.

Inside the Spurs' locker room, Jefferson was also watching intently.

Tang Tian was being subbed in at this time, and Popovich was clearly telling him to suppress Williams.

If he couldn't suppress him, things would become very interesting.

Knowing that he didn't have an advantage in speed, Williams turned his back and chose to post up with the ball.

He still remembered when he was in the NCAA, he had knocked Tang Tian to the ground again and again.

If the referee hadn't called him for an offensive foul, the outcome of that game might have been different.

Old and new grudges, he exerted force and slammed into him.

"Bang! Bang!"

But to his surprise, Tang Tian didn't fall at all, but instead went head-to-head with him.

There was a muffled sound of muscle colliding on the court.

The audience was excited by this scene.

And Williams was heavier and still had the upper hand in the contest, pushing Tang Tian towards the inside little by little.

Williams was a little surprised by Tang Tian's choice, but this was even better. When he got to the basket and dunked the ball over Tang Tian, the thrill would be doubled!

"Bang!"

There was another clash of muscles, and Tang Tian stood his ground this time.

Williams clearly exerted more force when he pushed again.

But in the instant after he exerted force, he suddenly realized that he had lost his footing!

Tang Tian made a "pull the bench" move, directly half-circling to his side.

"Pa!"

Another steal!