Chapter 1499 1498. The Spurs System Is Here

On November 14, the Hawks coaching staff called the players together to study the last opponent of the four consecutive home games, the Spurs, who have not lost a single game so far this season.

The Hawks are very involved in their own running-in this season. They have to run in the lineup and maintain their record. They don't have much time to study their opponents. At least they have to wait until they enter the next stage before they have time to pay attention to other teams.

At that time, other teams have almost demonstrated their strength. At the beginning of the season, the performance of other strong teams is not very referenceable. The Suns are still ninth in the West. Their wins are the same as the fourth in the West, and the fourth in the West is not stable. The Trail Blazers are still competing with them for the top spot in the division, and there is no difference in the record between the second in the West, the Lakers, and the ninth in the West, the Suns.

After the situation in the West stabilizes a little, their performance will be of reference value.

The Hawks had no time to care about them. Their own running-in was the most important thing, because they had to wait for Wade's expected return before the Christmas game in December. Wade had entered the final stage of rehabilitation training. If he passed the physical examination at Thomas Carter next week, he could conduct personal technical training and participate in team training.

Liu Mang knew that the Spurs had been winning, but he didn't pay much attention to it. It was normal for the Spurs to win. When they had Duncan, they could get 50 wins even when there were 16 fewer games during the lockout, unless it was the 98-99 season when there were only 50 games in a season. Even if there were only 60 games in a season, Liu Mang felt that they had a chance to get 50 wins.

But after watching the Spurs' game video... Liu Mang's eyes widened!

"Is this... the Spurs system?"

Liu Mang looked at the Spurs' running position, super execution, a lot of mismatches, and the corner shooters became crucial... Even Bowen, who only had shooting left, had his role, and the offensive threat was greatly improved. This was very close to Liu Mang's impression of the Spurs!

Have fans ever thought that after two and a half weeks of the new season, the only undefeated team is the Spurs?

Liu Mang also didn't expect that the Spurs, who were eliminated in the first round of last season, actually made a comeback this season!

Pressure can be seen as motivation for people with strength and faith.

The Spurs originally needed many years of accumulation to polish the Spurs system in the 10-11 season, but now, they have already taken shape!

With the addition of the Hawks, a team with changeable tactics, Popovich has also learned a lot.

Thanks to the Hawks' crazy domination of almost completing four consecutive championships, the Spurs failed to win the championship in 2005 and 2007 by relying on the previous style of Duncan, which accelerated Popovich's construction of the Spurs system!

The failure to renew Artest's contract is Popovich's pain, and Battier's addition healed his inner trauma.

In addition, Popovich also signed veteran Brent Barry, Jacqui Vaughn, who has a career three-point shooting percentage of 35%, signed Damon Stoudemire who was amnestied by the Grizzlies, traded for small forward Amy Udoka from the Trail Blazers, renewed Francisco Elson's contract, signed French center Ian Mahinmi, and signed former Hawks 2000 No. 6 pick DeMar Johnson...

The starting lineup consists of Parker, Battier, DeMar Johnson, Duncan, and Fabricio Oberto, and the bench lineup is centered on Ginobili...

In terms of fame, the Spurs' starting lineup of DeMar Johnson and Oberto is really not that good, and the people on the bench are old and young...

But the Spurs relied on such a lineup to win nine consecutive games at the start! As strong as the Cavaliers were, they were beaten by the Spurs 102 to 82...

The most terrifying thing is that the Spurs averaged 104 points per game this season!

The last time the Spurs averaged over 100 points per game was in the 1995-96 season. After that, they averaged 95 or 96 points every year. But this season, the Spurs averaged 104 points per game, and the average points lost per game was only 97.8 points, which is lower than the league average.

The Spurs averaged 21.8 three-point shots per game this season! The number of three-point shots ranked ninth in the league!

Last season, the Spurs were still stubborn. One of the only two teams in the league with an average of less than 14 three-point shots per game. Last season, the Spurs averaged 13.1 three-point shots per game, second to last in the league. The most terrifying was the Jazz, who averaged 12.9 three-point shots per game last season...

This season, the Spurs' average three-point shots per game increased by more than 8 times!

Similarly, the Jazz also increased their three-point shots, ranking 19th in the league with an average of 19.5 three-point shots per game.

The two old coaches, who were pushed by the pressure brought by Liu Mang and the Hawks, were not stubborn and began to change their tactics.

The Jazz had Ray Allen, and the initial changes were mainly based on pick-and-roll offense. They wanted to change last season, but it was the second half of the season when they got Ray Allen, so they didn't have time, so they were eliminated by Iverson in the first round of the playoffs. This season, Coach Sloan integrated three-pointers into the pick-and-roll cooperation.

Not adding three-point tactics with Ray Allen... that's a brain problem, and Coach Sloan is not stupid.

As for the Spurs... it's just like a different team. When the second strength rankings of this season came out and the Spurs surpassed the Hawks, who ranked first in the first week, to dominate the strength rankings, people began to pay attention to the Spurs.

The Spurs' average of 104 points per game has made the Spurs popular!

Some fans searched for online videos, and some TV stations replayed some of the Spurs' games the day before the Spurs challenged the Hawks on the 14th. Fans found that the Spurs' games were no longer ugly!

It is true that there are no superstars like the Hawks, and Duncan's playing style is no longer that of a superstar. There is no explosive performance from time to time like Liu Mang and McGrady. Even when Parker and Ginobili play well, they are at most similar to Jason Terry's performance when he is angry.

The Spurs even have only two players averaging more than 4 assists per game, Parker averaging 5 assists per game, Ginobili averaging 4.8 assists per game, but Battier, Duncan and Brent Barry on the bench all average 3 assists per game!

The Suns averaged 26.5 assists per game this season, ranking first in the league, the Jazz averaged 26.3 assists per game, ranking second, the Hawks averaged 25.5 assists per game this season, ranking third in the league, the Nuggets averaged 24 assists per game, ranking fourth, and the Spurs averaged 23.8 assists per game!

Defense is still the foundation of the Spurs, but they did not press the rhythm like before, but played a very good team offense on the offensive end!

Passing, running, pick-and-roll, creating mismatch opportunities, increasing three-point shots, strengthening cuts and creating mismatches to give Duncan and Mahinmi a high shot...

The Spurs' three-point shooting rate has reached 39.5% so far this season, averaging 8.6 three-pointers per game, both of which set a new record in team history! Especially the bottom corner three-pointer! Bowen, Battier, Barry, Jacqui Vaughn, Bonner...

On the Hawks, except for Liu Mang who remained silent, the others cried out in horror when they saw the video of the Spurs' game. The fans who started to pay attention to the Spurs after the latest strength rankings were announced today also cried out in horror!

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Looking at the smiling face in front of him, Liu Mang really wanted to ask the waiter to give this guy a technical foul...

Too wretched!

Duncan is now in high spirits!

There have been two MVP rankings this season. In the first, he, Old Duncan, had nothing to do. In the first, Liu Mang ranked first, Nash ranked second, and Garnett ranked third.

But in the second, Kobe ranked first. Duncan had no choice. After the Lakers had a bad start, they won five games in a row, but Duncan ranked second, beating Paul, Liu Mang, Deron, and Iverson!

In the top six of the second MVP rankings, five were guards and only one was a frontcourt player. Before the season, no one expected that this green inside player among the flowers would be Duncan!

Duncan rarely invites Liu Mang out for dinner, but this time when he came to Atlanta, after Duncan and his teammates arrived in Atlanta at noon, he called Liu Mang and asked him to have dinner.

How could he not be cocky at this time?

"So mean! What should I do if I want to hit him? He's so mean, he shouldn't cry if I hit him!"

Liu Mang looked at Duncan with malice, wanting to beat him up.

Duncan laughed enough, felt the malice from Liu Mang, put away his mean expression, and asked Liu Mang: "Ace, what do you think of our play this season?"

Liu Mang raised his eyebrows. This guy, not to mention being cocky, actually took advantage of him?

Liu Mang rolled his eyes at Duncan and said, "Not bad, pretty good."

"Of course," Duncan was very happy with Liu Mang's answer, "but it's too difficult. We spent two months memorizing tactical positions during the offseason, and all the teammates who didn't memorize them were traded away. But Greg said your tactics are the best, and that your tactical thinking is ahead of the league by an era. We must work hard to keep up with you."

Popovich said that? Liu Mang felt very strange and confused. Is this still the same Popovich?

But Liu Mang thought that Steve Kerr's unlimited switching defense of the death five in the original time and space may also refer to the unlimited mismatch of the Spurs system. It is hard to say that Popovich did not refer to D'Antoni's running and gunning...

NBA head coaches are difficult to predict. Before the Spurs system came out, Liu Mang could never have thought that Popovich would put the three tactical concepts of three-pointers, space, and mismatch at the top of the Spurs' offense.

"The Spurs are going to be the toughest opponent!"

"No, no, no, leading in tactical thinking has nothing to do with strength," Liu Mang shook his head, "The tactical thinking that can be implemented in the game is the best. You have already implemented the new tactics, and we are still running in. You are stronger."

This time it was Duncan's turn to feel a little weird. Liu Mang actually praised the Spurs!