Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 123 Head Coach Injured
Hansen continued his good touch in the first half, and after he made two consecutive mid-range shots, Popovich had to give up the zone defense.

But this frees Randolph up in the low post.

In the end, Popovich was so anxious that he paced back and forth on the sidelines. He had two bottles of poison in his hands, and it didn't matter which bottle he drank.

At the end of the third quarter, the score was 81 to 67, and the Grizzlies' lead had expanded to 14 points.

This is just like the game against the Heat, turning the fourth quarter into garbage time.

At the critical moment, Ginobili still showed his power.

As the saying goes, "In good times, you can run a sports car, in bad times, you can be a Buddha, and in desperate times, you can use a magic sword to slay demons."

Ginobili came off the bench and hit a difficult three-pointer from the outside, leaning his body, and then made a steal and scored 2+1.

Before the end of the third quarter, under his leadership, the Spurs brought the score back to single digits.

Popovich finally felt relieved.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Hansen volunteered to defend Ginobili to Hollins, but this time he was rejected by Hollins.

Last time, Han Sen did not choose to "obey", and Hollins' attitude towards him obviously changed.

There was no other choice but for Han Sen to talk to Guy.

"Show the old man some color." Han Sen looked at Popovich in the next half of the court.

Guy nodded vigorously, but looked in the direction of Hollins.

After Gay came on the court, he directly attacked the Spurs' inside line and completed a dunk.

There is a reason why this Spurs team was underestimated before the season. In addition to the age factor, the main reason is that they are currently lacking an outside defensive arrow like Bowen before.

Therefore, they could not effectively restrict Hansen and Guy from starting their breakthrough.

This will bring great defensive pressure to the inside, which would not be a big deal when Duncan was young, but now Duncan is old.

Ginobili continued to play, breaking through for a layup and causing Haddadi to commit a foul.

The Grizzlies' bench strength is not strong either, otherwise they wouldn't have been chased by Ginobili so much.

However, Ginobili had just made two free throws, and then it was Gay again who made a spectacular mid-range shot after passing Green.

At this time, Danny Green was only a sophomore, and he was cut by the Bulls after his rookie season. He was unable to defend Gay at all.

But what's even more interesting is that after Gay scored the goal, he turned around and raised his arms to the Grizzlies' bench to celebrate.

Han Sen then realized that Guy seemed to have misunderstood what he had just said.

However, as long as the effect is achieved, it's fine.

Gay's outstanding performance helped the Grizzlies regain their footing and maintain a double-digit score difference. The Grizzlies had great hopes of winning the game in the decisive moment.

At this time, the fans at the scene were already very agitated.

This is just a regular season game, but because of the All-Star voting, it is more than just a regular season game, and the outside world is paying a lot of attention to it.

Han Sen's performance today was unstoppable. If the Grizzlies win another game, it will help Han Sen slap the faces of those who doubted him.

Especially since Popovich deliberately looked down on Hansen before the game, he was the first to bear the brunt of it.

The Spurs reached out and called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Spurs made a personnel adjustment, with James Anderson replacing Green.

Anderson was the 20th pick in the first round of the Spurs this year and had few opportunities to play before.

He is smaller than Green, but faster on his feet.

This is because Green couldn't be defended, so he switched to someone faster.

This is in line with the characteristics that Popovich is targeting.

But what happened next was something no one expected.

While defending Gay, Anderson made an obvious dirty move by going for the shoulder.

Guy's speed was not fast, and he was unable to dodge and was knocked over.

The field fell into chaos in an instant. West went straight over and pushed Anderson. Several people from the Spurs also rushed over, but after James Johnson stepped forward, those people retreated one after another.

Gay eventually returned to the bench, where the team doctor examined his injury.

Gay looked very painful, and the team doctor shook his head after a preliminary examination.

This is definitely not a minor injury. The specific situation will have to wait for the subsequent examination report, but I definitely can't play tonight.

"Fuck! This old guy!" Han Sen cursed.

Hollins turned around when he heard that, and found that Hansen was staring fiercely at the opposite half of the court.

Because he played his rookie season in the Eastern Conference, he forgot how dirty the old man Popovich was.

Not only is it dirty, it's also insidious. It's well known that Horry knocked Nash into a billboard.

And that kind of playoff situation is barely understandable, but Bowen tripping Carter was even worse.

The Raptors and Spurs are not in the same division, so there is basically no competition between them.

But this is Popovich, he likes to use these small characters to mess with your core.

It is difficult for the opponent to respond to this kind of move, because if you really get carried away and attack the opponent's small character, it will allow the Spurs to complete the exchange.

So the only way is to use their own methods to harm the person, and attack "GDP"? Or, directly attack Popovich?

The former is difficult, as the Grizzlies don't have any small characters specially trained for them. If Hansen goes on the court himself, he will still be traded.

The latter is more difficult. Popovich is the coach, and it is unrealistic for you as a player to mess with him.

Is it definitely impossible?
At this moment, a memory suddenly flashed back to Han Sen's mind.

That was the playoff game between the Suns and the Timberwolves that he watched before he traveled through time. Because it was a memory from right before he traveled through time, he was deeply impressed.

After the timeout, Hansen was replaced by Hollins.

After Gay was injured, the Grizzlies could only use Hansen to maintain the score difference.

Hansen observed before going on the court and found that Anderson had been replaced by Green again.

This confirms Popovich's behavior.

Hansen arrived at the frontcourt and saw Popovich sitting on the bench. He took the ball from West and then signaled for a one-on-one game.

Because Neil was too small, it was Green who switched defense on him at this time.

Now Green can't defend against Guy, nor can he defend against Hansen. The only difference is that when defending against Guy, he can't keep up with the confrontation, while when defending against Hansen, he can't keep up with the speed.

After Hansen passed him, he faced Split who came up to defend him and performed a phantom step followed by a powerful two-handed dunk.

He swung around the rim before landing, and this ball was clearly an act of emotional release.

No, it's not with, it's basically.

Because after Hansen landed after the dunk, he did not celebrate as usual. Instead, he turned and walked towards the Spurs' bench and said to Popovich, "Are you sure you don't need to send your bad boy back to the court?"

Popovich turned his head and pretended not to hear.

Han Sen did not continue to attack because that was not his purpose.

In the transition from offense to defense, Hansen directly guarded Ginobili.

Ginobili's offense with the ball is unpredictable, so his defensive method is to limit Ginobili from receiving the ball.

Ginobili tried to run back to get rid of him, but Hansen seemed to be stuck to him and he couldn't get rid of him.

Neil passed the ball to Blair for a low-post single play, but his shot was blocked by Haddadi.

Although the Persian was not very mobile, he had a good height. West got the rebound and threw the ball to the three-point line, where Hansen had already rushed out.

After receiving the ball, Han Sen quickly broke through to the front court and scored with a one-handed slam dunk.

And after the dunk, he walked to the Spurs bench again and spread his hands in the direction of Popovich.

There was a burst of boos from the audience.

Han Sen's provocation was too strong. Popovich is a famous coach in the league after all. It really shows no respect to him to do this repeatedly.

"Han, focus on the game!" Hollins also shouted at Han Sen when Han Sen retreated.

Han Sen frowned. Hollins was really a man who fought hard within the team but was timid to the outside world. Guy was beaten up without him saying a word, but now he started shouting again.

Ginobili successfully received the ball this time and made a serpentine breakthrough against Hansen.

However, when he exerted force for the second time, Hansen seized the opportunity to get to his body, then broke out in confrontation, causing him to lose balance and cutting off the ball from his hand.

The serpentine break is essentially the European step, which is the same as the phantom step. Han Sen has used it a lot himself and knows how to best defend against it.

Han Sen also had a good grasp of the scale. The referee did not blow the whistle, and he controlled the ball and broke forward quickly.

After taking a look at the situation on the Spurs bench, he chose to fast break on the right, but his advancement speed was not as fast as in the previous round.

This gave the Spurs a chance to defend, and Neil struggled to get back to Hansen.

The scene was instantly filled with cheers from Spurs fans.

Han Sen was too arrogant in the first two rounds, well done to Neil!
West's fast break in the middle was also followed by Green, and Hansen began to slow down after crossing the center line. The Grizzlies' attack seemed to be in vain.

However, at this moment, something that no one could have expected happened again.

Han Sen, who had been slowing down, suddenly sped up, as if he wanted to break through Neil by force.

Neil was caught off guard and had no time to react, and was knocked out of the game by Hansen.

As luck would have it, not far behind him was Popovich, who could no longer sit still and stood next to the technical table.

The two men collided and Popovich fell to the ground.

Neil showed his reaction speed, turned around and pulled Popovich, but his knee inevitably collided with Popovich's knee.

At this time, the players and spectators at the front of the bench also came over to help, preventing Popovich from hitting his head on the ground.

But Popovich covered his knees with his hands and looked very painful.

The game was forced to be interrupted and a stretcher was finally brought to the scene.

The large LED screen at the scene began to replay what happened just now. Han Sen's hasty escape caused the accident.

Popovich was eventually carried away from the scene on a stretcher.

The audience gave Popovich encouraging applause.

It is common for players to retire due to injuries during basketball games, but it is extremely rare for a head coach to retire due to injuries in NBA history.

Popovich left the court and Budenholzer took over as the first assistant coach.

At this time, both sides gradually replaced their main players and entered the final decisive moment.

Budenholzer also failed to find a good solution to the problem that Popovich failed to solve.

He finally chose one of the two poisons and continued to play zone defense.

Hansen silently gave a thumbs up to the future Eagles head coach and the league's best coach, and then continued to start a happy zone defense moment.

In the last quarter, Hansen scored 14 points again.

Under his leadership, the Grizzlies defeated the Spurs 102-96 and won the game.

赛后的数据统计，马刺队得分最多的是帕克，他砍下30分9助攻，吉诺比利得到16分5助攻，邓肯13分15板5助攻3盖帽。

For the Grizzlies, Randolph had a big double-double of 24 points and 21 rebounds, while Hansen scored 41 points, becoming another player to score 40+ points on the Spurs. Gay had 15 points and 5 rebounds before he retired due to injury.

Hansen and Randolph attended the post-match press conference together.

"You shot 13 of 11 from mid-range tonight. How did you do that?"

Randolph's "double 20+" performance was certainly brilliant, but GDP was in great shape tonight, and the deciding factor in the game was Hansen breaking through the Spurs' double-team defense.

"You should ask the Spurs coaching staff about this. I don't know why they left me open in the mid-range. Am I really bad at mid-range shooting?"

Han Sen’s words made the reporter ashamed. Don’t you know that you were not so good at mid-range shots before?

But the reporter couldn't refute it. After all, Han Sen shot so accurately tonight. Can you really say he is not good enough?
"Did you 'intentionally' knock Popovich down?" The next question was from a local reporter from San Antonio.

"Why do you have such a strange idea?" Han Sen's expression was very serious.

"Because you had made provocative gestures towards Popovich twice before." The reporter said the key.

"I did that to ask him to replace James Anderson. That guy deliberately injured Rudy. I want revenge for Rudy." Hansen was indignant.

"It was just an accident," the reporter explained.

"You can go back and watch the video. I told Popovich to replace him with Anderson. That's why I made the provocative move to him." Hansen repeated.
"As for you saying that Rudy's injury was an accident... why do I say it was 'intentional'? Do you have any evidence? Be careful or I will sue you for defamation!"

The reporter was speechless. After all, Hansen didn't even have any direct physical contact with Popovich.

Hollins also took the microphone at this time: "No player would intentionally hurt the other side's head coach. This has never happened. It was just an accident."

After coming out of the press conference, Randolph put his arm around Hansen's shoulder.

"You're so cruel." Han Sen's rhetoric could handle reporters and deceive Hollins, but it couldn't fool him, as he had been hanging around on the streets since he was a child.

And what he said was not just an expression of emotion, because if it were him, he wouldn't dare to do that.

"It was just an accident." Han Sen smiled. Of course he would not admit it, not in front of anyone.

Randolph didn't say anything else. He just laughed and pulled Han Sen into his arms again.

It’s not that he doesn’t like to communicate with others off the court, it’s just that the Grizzlies are too civilized and they can’t have a conversation.

But now, a man who is even more ruthless than him has appeared, and they even have something in common in some sense.

He beat Patterson for his teammates, and Hansen beat Popovich for Gay.

Such people are his kind, the kind with whom he can confide.

……

After the game, Popovich was diagnosed with a torn patellar tendon in his right knee and needed surgery, and would be out for at least three months.

We are used to hearing about players missing games due to injuries, but this is the first time that the head coach has been injured so seriously.

With this result, Hansen, who had already been questioned because of the All-Star voting, was once again pushed to the forefront.

But this time, most people didn't think Han Sen did it on purpose.

After all, Hansen did not directly hit Popovich, and the requirement of "shooting the bull from behind the mountain" is too high.

Some people also think that Hansen did a great job, because Anderson had previously ruined Gay, and the Spurs have done this kind of thing too many times, and too many fans who were dissatisfied at the time stood up to support Hansen.

"Whether it was intentional or not, this is karma for the Spurs, karma never fails."

Of course, there are also many people who think that Hansen did it completely on purpose, most of whom are Spurs fans.

"That chink is the dirtiest player in NBA history, he should be banned for life!"

There are even extreme Spurs fans who make such remarks.

Before this, Han Sen's black fan value had accumulated to more than 30 because of the All-Star voting, and after this wave it directly exceeded 40.

In any case, the feud between him and the Spurs was completely settled after this night.

(End of this chapter)