NBA: Strongest In The History Of Holding A Large Ball

"Coach, what are you laughing at?" Chang Tiancheng asked after seeing Popovich's smile.

"You still come to ask me, do you dare to say that you don't know what I'm laughing at?" Popovich struggled to contain his smile and asked rhetorically.

"I guess you're laughing at Doncic starting to play with the ball on his own?" After thinking for a while, Chang Tiancheng gave his own answer.

"Chang, you're really smart." Popovich nodded, "The reason why the Mavericks are putting on such a lineup now is nothing more than letting Doncic play the role of organizing the tandem bench, so that he can save his physical strength and not have too much time off the court for a while." And now that he is playing like this, this will undoubtedly consume his physical strength even more, and I am afraid that the playing time of their full starting lineup will also be shortened. That way, we just need to watch out for Owen on the other side.

"If he can score more points at this stage, then I think he will continue to play even if he doesn't have time to rest." Chang Tiancheng's eyes followed Doncic on the court, "I think from the moment he made up his mind to start heads-up, he had already thought about the rest of the matter."

"It's really possible, after all, Doncic is a smart kid too." Popovich nodded, "But if he does this, he will still bring some bad points to the team." "

Are you saying that you violated the task given to him by the coach?" Chang Tiancheng asked.

"Well," Popovich replied, after a moment's hesitation, "if a player doesn't play according to the coach's instructions on the field, what does the coach do?"

"But it's normal for players to have some of their own ideas on the pitch." Chang Tiancheng continued to discuss with Popovich, "Of course, if it were me, I would still play according to the coach's instructions.

"Hehehe, you're obedient." Popovich smiled. He actually thought of another thing in his heart, but he didn't tell Chang Tiancheng.

If a starter doesn't give the substitutes more opportunities when playing with the substitutes on the pitch, it will inevitably cause chaos in the dressing room over time.

As a professional footballer, in addition to playing better on your own, how to manage the relationship with your colleagues is also a very important thing.

Like Doncic's behavior of passing a few balls to a bench player just now, and then starting to go it alone after the substitute is missed, it is actually very damaging to the team's relationship.

Even Kobe, who is known for his "unreasonable shots", does not do it alone on his own every ball.

That champion Lakers team, in fact, most of the time, Fisher, Gasol, and Odom have a very high degree of tactical freedom. You can even see Odom attacking with the ball in the backcourt, Gasol going to the weak side to play with his back to the single, Fisher will also come with a few unreasonable dry threes from time to time, and Kobe Bryant will only make consecutive concentrated shots when the team is not going well.

Thinking of this, Popovich looked at Chang Tiancheng beside him, and couldn't help but sigh, fortunately, Chang Tiancheng himself is a player who will put his teammates as the first priority on the field, otherwise with his ability to deal with interpersonal relationships, I am afraid that he will be dissatisfied by many players now.

Chang Tiancheng didn't think about things from the perspective of the locker room at all, he only paid attention to the right and wrong of Doncic's behavior on the court.

And the situation on the court is exactly as Popovich thought, Doncic's continuous singles, the first thing to hurt is his team's defensive enthusiasm.

The players are completely running around with Doncic on the offensive end and don't get a shot at all, and that mentality is directly reflected in their defense.

I think that when Jordan was playing, he habitually let his interior players play one or two under the basket first, in order to encourage them to defend actively.

But Doncic clearly hasn't realized that yet, and he's still basking in the thrill of countless single-handedly Vassell successes.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd naturally saw this, but now the team's roster construction is not very complete, and he has no better way to do it, so Doncic can only play like this, and wait until the game is over to maintain the locker room relationship.

In this way, most of the second quarter passed, and under Doncic's series of solo plays, the Mavericks successfully overtook the score.

Seeing this, Coach Kidd hurriedly replaced five players, including Doncic, and sent another lineup led by Irving.

Popovich looked at the time and felt that the time was almost up, so he also requested a substitution, to replace the players on the field and rest for a while.

And the Spurs starters also understood what Popovich meant, and they all stood up and ran to the sidelines to start warming up.

Just when Wembanyama was about to join them, Popovich saw Wembanyama pressed on the bench: "Victor, you don't have to play for a while, you can rest more." "

Huh?" Wembanyama looked up in disbelief, "Why?" Coach, is there something I didn't play well? "

No, it's because you're playing so well that you need to rest even more, and I'm going to keep you to play Doncic for a while." Popovich comforted.

"Playing Doncic? Coach, you don't think I can't limit Owen! Wembanyama's tone was a little anxious, "You believe me, coach, just now I have already figured out how to face his punching frame off the court, and this time I will definitely be fine." "

Of course I believe you, Victor." Although Popovich's tone was calm, his attitude was indeed very resolute, "You have to trust me, I will send you when I need you the most." You remember, it's not that I have a problem with you, it's because it's the best tactical arrangement.

After listening to Popovich's words, Wembanyama sat down on the bench in disbelief.

Irving had already been substituted at this time, and he was thinking about what move to use to deal with Wembanyama on the opposite side later, but when he looked up, he found that the Spurs had not replaced Wembanyama at all!

This made Owen feel a little angry, and the routines he thought of specifically for Wembanyama were now likely to be used on Drummond's body, which was a bit of a knife killing.

And when Coach Kidd saw that the Spurs did not send Benjamin, he shouted in his heart that he had fallen for Popovich's trick again!