Spurs vs. Mavericks: Malicious marketing by a gang of drug dealers

I don't know if there is a resident pharmacy at the AT&T Center, but while I envy the local Spurs fans, I also have some sympathy for them - it's not good for your health to have to go through this heart rate of 145 every week.

Back to the game, in theory, the Mavericks aren't that tough of an opponent, they don't average too fast of a pace and don't have much of a strong outside attack point, so the Spurs had the game firmly in their hands in the first half of the game.

The Spurs' offensive and defensive understanding has improved after two thrilling Lake-Horse battles, and Cunningham was right when he said that they were able to play the same defensive game as last season after unifying the communication code on the defensive end, and the Maverick's blocking and running were almost leak-free by the Spurs, and they had to rely on the outside players' individual ability to force open the breakthrough.

However, in the face of this "forcing open" situation, the Spurs are in an awkward uncharted territory: small Jordan is a great cover wall, whether it is Dennis Smith and Matthews, or Barnes and Doncic, as long as they look for small Jordan to play blocking, the Spurs defenders are bound to be blocked behind, they are helpless in front of Ade, wandering alone in the mid-range and under the basket. So the Maverick relied on a handful of post-blocking dry shots/throws to almost shooting Ade into disbelief.

The Spurs, of course, couldn't take the humiliation, and thinking back to a few days ago, Lillard and McCollum were no better, so they got it back hard on the offensive end - just like the last game, with Fat D and Skinny D taking turns blasting the opponent's defense (Matthews was good defensive-minded but couldn't cover DeRozan's size), and the Spurs' two-sided ball transfer with DeRozan's The Spurs' two-sided ball transfer with DeRozan's blocking performance let Spurs fans dream back to 2014, Gay and Forbes acted as weak-side ball carriers, and Forbes' fake fax shooting skills stunned the four seats, not only bluffing the opponent but also fooling the honest Gay waiting to take over.

To be fair, the Maverick didn't play badly, and under the tutelage of championship head coach and comedian Kerry Kim, their position game offense was extremely methodical, with Jordan Jr.'s coverage advantage and open-cut threat being put to good use. But since the Spurs have a tacit defensive understanding, they are not afraid to play position battles with their opponents - or rather, the Spurs are afraid of their opponents running up the floor. If the game had been played at this pace, it would have been a very typical Spurs-style victory.

But in the second half, the game suddenly took a bizarre turn. The Spurs may be a 15-minute break at halftime, the third quarter, they suddenly can not play: DeRozan singles small Jordan was the latter face interception (comical degree comparable to Pachulia stealing Embiid), Doncic with the ball around the circle after finding a three-meter circle of no one (it is difficult to imagine the mood of Popovich at the moment, may have long been numb to it), Spurs players do not run block cut direct single dry, Cunningham I can only explain this change with "not yet in the state", the Maverick was surprised and happy to receive this gift, Dongqi two three, the Maverick in a minute and a half to erase the difference, the Spurs' rhythm The Spurs' rhythm was disrupted, and the Maverick's momentum picked up.

The Spurs side finally got the hang of it and picked up their first-half offensive system again, but the Maverick started to pick up the pace. Dennis Smith and Barnes took advantage of the momentum of the converted offense to overtake the score in one fell swoop, and even if they got into a position battle, they were able to earn a bargain on the MiFo combo - after all, even Barea was able to molest Forbes' defense Not to mention the young and feisty Smith.

The lineup of DeRozan-Mills-Forbes-Bertans-Grand Gasol is a bit of a "kill 10,000 enemies, lose 12,000" kind of sadness. They can certainly not lose position, but if they can not lose position to not lose points, then the Nuggets should be the champion. They can't provide enough defensive intensity at every position, and if the Maverick had an All-Star caliber player, the Spurs would have had more than just good luck getting outrebounded by three.

Of course, the Maverick has 31 points, 8 boards, and 4 assists from Doncic.

In this game, I unilaterally declare Doncic is the best rookie this year, he has an extremely stable three-point accuracy, but also can keenly capture the game changes, and become the team's offensive rhythm regulator, in the Spurs suddenly on the package, he can also use a scalpel pass instantly through the Spurs' defense. This forward-built, guard-playing European bruiser reminds me inexplicably of James and Brother Alphabet, the demons.

In this critical moment when the Spurs were down by 7 points, it was Mills again, catching the ball at the outside and shooting a 3-pointer, allowing the Spurs, who were close to falling into the opponent's rhythm, to renew their breath - how is this script so familiar?

So the two sides went back to the starting line, with the Spurs playing a block-and-cut game and the Mavericks playing a ball-blocking game with Doncic and Barea. The two sides got into a fierce chicken-and-egg phase, and the game became monotonous in the fourth quarter instead as you went back and forth.

In all seriousness, the game was not a good overtime game, as the Maverick began to fetishize its outside shooting of less than 30%, with two consecutive Doncic breakaways, and outside pick-and-roll three-point plays ending in iron. And the Spurs also began to head iron up, Gay singles finished double German singles, and even Mills is not lonely to swinging the hammer. The two teams were like two devout, almost fanatical believers, vowing to play the same way to the end, and when both sides were about to knock the basket out of alignment, Gay finally hit a dry jumper, followed by DeRozan, and the Spurs' home court was filled with cheers of "Finally, it's in", and the fans who were gulping down their pills in front of the TV were finally relieved. The Spurs' home arena was filled with cheers of "Finally! The Spurs knocked down the wall, but the Maverick didn't, so the game was over.

On DeRozan's key shot, Popovich said it spot on after the game, "DeRozan loves moments like this, he's not afraid to fail, Jordan doesn't make all the key shots, but only a very few people will always want to get into this state, and he's one of them."

DeRozan is so in love with these kinds of key moments that I even suspect he's a peddler of quick-acting heart pills, and as far as the game is concerned, it's not just DeRozan, the entire Spurs team is one of those guys.