"I'm ready to play."

After holding the Thunder at bay in the first half, Popovich started to be naughty again at the start of the second half, first putting Meng Xu on the bench, then replacing Tim Duncan with veteran Matt Bonner, and swapping him with Thiago Split to try to defend Kevin Durant.

Manu Ginobili, who replaced Meng Xu on the court, successfully supported the Spurs' offense with the cooperation of Tony Parker, but Matt Bonner was not happy, after using Thiago Split to defend Durant for the entire half, Popovich replaced Matt Bonner, who has a very different style from Thiago Split, and wanted to try to use Matt Bonner to defend Durant, but as a defensive player who is not as tall as Durant and not as fast as Durant, Matt Bonner's defensive outcome against Durant is in doubt.

So when Matt Bonner's defense of Durant was obviously not effective, and the Thunder closed the gap to 4 points left, Popovich left his seat and waved his hand to the bench, ready to make a substitution, after Popovich made the substitution instructions, Meng Xu and Duncan stood up at the same time, ready to play.

"I didn't call you both." Meng Xu and Duncan, who had just gotten up, were pressed down by Popovich one by one, and then Popovich took another step forward, pointed at Burreth Dior and said, "Burreth, you go on the court to replace Matt." ”

"Huh?" Meng Xu and Duncan, who were pressed to their seats by Popovich, first glanced at Popovich in puzzlement, then looked at each other and shook their heads at each other, indicating that they couldn't quite understand Popovich's substitution.

If the team leads by a big score, Popovich will make such a substitution, the score has not been fully opened now, it can be said that he is still in a state of anxiety, but Popovich put the two main players on the bench, is this ready to solve the Thunder with a semi-main lineup?

After Popovich made a substitution, Scott Brooks also frowned, I don't know what the hell this old fox is doing, now is a very critical third quarter, according to the normal rhythm, the third quarter should be a game of desperate struggle between the main lineups of the two sides, but Popovich put the two cores of the Spurs on the bench, is this waiting for the New Year?

"Whatever you're doing it for, the win will be ours." Although he is very puzzled by Popovich's "self-destruction of the Great Wall", Scott Brooks knows that the fate of Meng Xu and Duncan is undoubtedly beneficial to the Thunder, and as long as the Thunder seize this opportunity and take advantage of Meng Xu and Duncan's absence, overtake the score in one fell swoop and establish an advantage, then the Thunder has a high probability of winning this game.

Although the Spurs' defensive level and defensive intensity have decreased a lot because of the absence of Meng Xu and Duncan, the Spurs lineup led by Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard is not so easy to be defeated by the Thunder, Kawhi Leonard is mainly responsible for limiting Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are responsible for revitalizing the Spurs' offense, and for a time the Spurs led by Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker and the Thunder, dominated by Durant, launched a fierce confrontation on the court.

However, as the third quarter of the game progressed, Scott Brooks found a big problem facing the Thunder, that is, Durant's physical problem, in order to overtake the score as soon as possible and break the current deadlock, Durant did not rest throughout the first half, and after the start of the second half, Durant also continued to play, the Spurs, although they did not defend Durant, but from the beginning of the game to the present, they have sent three players to take turns to defend Durant, and at the same time as the main offensive point of the Thunder, Durant took as many as 24 shots in today's game, and the continuous shooting and scoring, and the opponent's wheel defense, all accelerated the consumption of Durant's physical energy.

When Durant missed consecutive shots in the second half of the third quarter, Scott Brooks's face was already difficult to see, and in desperation, Scott Brooks could only replace Durant with Nick Collison and let him rest to prepare for the fourth quarter of the game, and at the same time replaced Kevin Martin with Derrick Fisher, and let Russell Westbrook play the No. 2 position to take over the position of Kevin Durant's offensive core.

"Durant had a very good performance today, scoring 39 points in less than three quarters on 15-of-28 shooting in 32 minutes of playing time, and with a full quarter remaining, Durant has a good chance of scoring more than 50 points."

After Durant was replaced, Kenny Smith on the commentary bench began to milk Durant, although the Spurs' tactics today are very weird, no matter how Durant behaves, he will not be trapped, but there is one thing that Kenny Smith agrees with very much, that is, Durant's play is the root of the Thunder's victory over the Spurs.

When Kenny Smith was mad about Durant, Barkley and Reggie Miller on the side did not answer, neither agreed nor opposed, but in their hearts, they did not report any hope for Durant to score 50 points, although in the first three quarters of the game, the Spurs Durant's defensive intensity was very loose, but in the crucial fourth quarter, the Spurs will definitely strengthen Durant's defense, and the main reason why Durant was replaced by Scott Brooks just now is that his physical fitness has appeared. With poor physical fitness and a sudden increase in defensive intensity on the opposite side, it was difficult for Durant to play in the first three quarters of the game in the fourth quarter.

Just when Kenny Smith was still looking forward to whether Durant could score 50+ in today's game, the Spurs went directly to Stud after the start of the fourth quarter of the game, in order to strengthen Durant's defense, Popovich sent a set of center Tim Duncan, big forward Meng Xu, small forward Kawhi Leonard, scoring guard Danny Green, and organized guard Tony Parker's weird lineup, but the Spurs sent this lineup, and the signal to strengthen the defense was already very obvious.

Contrary to the first three quarters of the game, where Durant was put and Westbrook was the main defense, the Spurs strengthened the defense of Durant in the fourth quarter of the game, but relaxed the restrictions on Westbrook.

Meng Xu defended, Kawhi Leonard or Danny Green assisted in the defense, and Durant, who killed all sides in the first three quarters of the game, was difficult to even hold the ball in front of the Spurs' suddenly strengthened defense, let alone score like chopping melons and vegetables like the previous three quarters, as for Westbrook, after being taken care of by the Spurs for three quarters, in the face of the sudden relaxation of defense, he also had no feelings, and in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, the Thunder only relied on free throws to score 2 points.

"Hey, the Thunder are going to lose."

After Scott Brooks called two timeouts in a row, but couldn't stop the Thunder's decline, the outcome of the game was already doomed, so before the game was completely over, Barkley shook his head and said a word of regret.