Chapter 640: The Second Half of the Season, Fierce Competition
After the Spurs defeated the Trail Blazers, they swiped a wave of five consecutive wins.
It's not that the Spurs are not low-key, Qin Yan and other main players in these five games are basically the kind that clock out in the third quarter, but the opponent is too weak, what can be done to win the Spurs if the water is put like this.
They're distressed too!
Uncle Duncan has been very comfortable recently, although his average data in the last five games has become 16+9, but this is based on the fact that he only played 26 minutes!
That's right, for the first time in many years (excluding injuries and rotations), Uncle Duncan has averaged less than 30 minutes per game, and his 26 minutes of playing time is basically only half a game.
Not only Duncan, but Parker's playing time is gradually shortening, in order to save energy for the playoffs and prevent injuries and the like. After all, there are young people in the Spurs now, and the young people are playing well, these veterans just need to keep them in shape, and there is no need to let them play desperately.
The team currently has the longest playing time, one is Qin Yan, and the other is Leonard, both of whom have 34 minutes of playing time, although this time is not even ranked in the top ten in the league, but it is indeed the longest time for the Spurs.
It can be seen that Popovich is now deliberately exercising the abilities of these two guys, especially the cooperation between the two, when Qin Yan and Leonard are both present at the same time, the main thing is to complete the tactical cooperation of these two.
As for the guy Whiteside, he still eats cake obediently for the time being, just do a good job of defense, and now is not the time to assign him a specific tactic.
And when the Spurs played games recently, sometimes that lineup was really incomprehensible, Popovich, you can really pull out the bench for 10,000 years to make a team, or just keep one or two main players, and then match the bench lineup, no wonder many people say that Popovich is coaching the Austin Spurs instead of the San Antonio Spurs.
But this legendary "Spurs three-team lineup" can still break their wrists with many opponents in the league, if it weren't for the five consecutive wins to meet the Pacers, maybe the Spurs will continue to win.
In the game that lost to the Pacers, the Spurs took turns to rest Whiteside, Leonard and Parker, Maddy and Dior were the two substitutes, and Uncle Duncan was still off work in the middle of the game.
There is no way, 5 important people were rested at once, Qin Yan could only be a father and a mother at the same time, and the audience staged a one-on-one PK with his good buddy George, the two were full of firepower, George cut down the comprehensive data of 30+5+4+2+3, Qin Yan was not to be outdone, and returned a quasi-triple-double of 35+9+9, but Popovich took too many turns to rest, and it was difficult to support it alone!
The Pacers can win In addition to George's strength, someone in the team just broke out, and Steffenson actually threw in 8 three-pointers all over the game! Green, who made the Spurs alive by throwing threes, feel extremely ashamed.
No way, who made him only shoot 4 three-pointers in the whole game, only half of the others......
After the game with the Pacers, Qin Yan took turns to rest, sat on the bench and watched the team's game with the Knicks, and after the game, he said that this was the first time he watched the game so leisurely on his own bench.
Why? Because the Knicks' Anthony was completely locked up by Leonard in this game, ranking third on the scoring list this season, Anthony, who can average 31.8 points per game, shot 5 of 24 in this game! Don't want it! If it weren't for the free throws, Anthony wouldn't even be able to score 20 today!
In addition to Leonard, "Tielin", who was humiliated by Stephenson in the last game, also proved his strength today, and today Green only made 13 shots in the whole game if he had divine help from outside the three-point line, all three-point shots and no free throws, but he hit 10 of them! scored 30 points and became the leading scorer on the Spurs' side!
And the Knicks may be really in a bad state this time, and they will be beaten directly, and they may not even know how they lost in the end.
The Spurs had a smooth second half of the season, but across the league, the second half of the season between other teams intensified.
The Heat suffered a three-game losing streak in the East, and the Knicks have been unstable recently, and then the Pacers, who were originally third, took the opportunity to rush to the first place, and now the three are about to compete for the top spot in the East.
Outside of these three, there is little change from the other teams in the East, the Hawks are still the dividing line, and this year they have become a four-man maniac, more than the top and the bottom, and they are stubbornly defending their fourth position.
The remaining 4 playoff spots in the East are a big brawl, and the bottom 4 in the East will have to change the order if they don't pay attention.
This is still the case in the East, and the more competitive West is even more terrifying, except for the Spurs, even the second-place Thunder is almost unable to keep their position!
On the Western side, except for the Spurs, who couldn't catch up for a while because they won too much in the first half of the season, from second to eighth, the difference in wins was in two games, especially from sixth to eighth, and the winning rate of these three teams is now completely consistent! And the ninth and tenth and eighth are only one or a half games apart, to be honest, the West can now refresh the leaderboard at the end of a game, and brush it again again, it is likely that a certain team is still in the playoffs in the morning, and it will become the ninth or tenth that must be fought for in the afternoon.
And the winning rate on the western side is generally high, which is indeed a bit cruel.
The competition between the teams is fierce, and the competition between the players is also getting hot.
On the scoring list, Qin Yan has reached an average of 33 points per game, but he still can't ensure this year's scoring champion, because Durant, who ranks second, averages 32.4 points per game! Anthony, who is in third place, has 31.8 points! As long as these two people put down their faces and brush their points next, it will not be difficult to surpass Qin Yan! (The main reason is that these two people have a lot of playing time, both of them have 38-40 minutes of playing time, and Qin Yan can't compare with 34 minutes)
Not to mention the MVP list, Qin Yan, James, Durant, Anthony, the four of them have not decided the winner or loser until now, and the various prediction lists are also quite chaotic, sometimes this person is the first, sometimes that person is the first, and there is no accuracy at all.
Moreover, now George and Lillard are also in the MVP rankings, and these two are below the four, but now that the Pacers are rushing to the first place in the East, maybe the next update will make George a top three.
However, this chaotic situation is what the alliance wants to see, the competition for hegemony is definitely better than a single family, after so many years, there is finally this kind of scene like the group of heroes again, which makes Xiao Hua, who is about to take over, quite excited, he seems to see this alliance in his own hands to a higher glory!
"Sure enough, it's wise to support that Chinese kid." Xiao Hua made up his mind that after coming to power next year, he must give the Spurs some convenience, and if they can also complete the three consecutive championships, then they will be praised as the third giants in the league!
But now no one cares what decisions the future president of this league has made, and what they care about at the moment is whether they can grab a playoff spot in this fierce competition!
Of course, for the Spurs, who are at the top of the list, they are thinking about how to release the water......