The time comes on June 2nd, and the NBA Finals arrive as scheduled.

This year marks the second consecutive year that the Wizards and the Spurs met in the Finals.

Before the series started, the outside world's support for the Wizards to win the championship was as high as 61.3%, which means that the support rate of the Internet that supports the Spurs to win the championship was only 38.7%.

It is not difficult to see from this data that fans prefer the current Wizards. Although the Wizards' style of playing is not as good as the Thunder in the past, it is much better than the dull Spurs.

According to big data, the Spurs are one of the teams that fans dislike watching the most. Even though the Spurs have always been a powerful Western Conference, the team also has top stars in the league, such as Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili.

But the Spurs' overall style of playing is too slow. Although they can win the game in a smooth and steady manner, it seems to be a torture in the eyes of fans.

For example, in the 2005 series between the Spurs and the Pistons, the ratings of the Finals hit the lowest NBA ever.

It is because the Spurs and the Pistons are both teams that focus on defense, and both sides have no beauty in the game, and the audience has started to feel drowsy when watching the entire series.

It was since then that the league kept changing the rules, hoping to further improve the viewing of the game and avoid following in the 2005 Finals.

Since the Wizards achieved the league's first record in the regular season, the first two games will be played at the Wizards' home court.

Before the game started, the entire MIC Center Arena was packed. Looking around, the entire Arena was filled with a lively atmosphere.

This atmosphere has not appeared in Washington for more than a decade.

It can be said that Yang Fan's arrival not only saved the Wizards, but also saved the city of Washington, further improving Washington's basketball culture.

Otherwise, if the Wizards continue to be in a bad state for a few years, then this politically-filled city is likely to be completely depressed.

According to local media in Washington, after the Wizards won the NBA championship last year, the economic level of the entire city was not only lifted by 3.4%, but also the wild courts in every corner of the city became lively.

There are a bunch of children playing basketball everywhere wherever they go. This scene is simply unimaginable for Washington a few years ago.

So even if some people say that Yang Fan is the basketball god in the city of Washington, I believe no one will refute it!

…………………

"We worked hard all season, guys, and now we're finally on the floor of the finals again."

"I know, it's a cool thing, but what I want to say is that although we struggled all the way to the finals, there is only one team that can stay here to celebrate."

"Everyone, cheer up!"

"This is our home court, this is our territory, we are the defending champions. In my opinion, the Spurs are challenging the team's authority."

"So please do your best after you come on the court. Now you don't need to have any reservations."

"Please show all your strength, give the Spurs a surprise, and give everyone a surprise!" Before the game, head coach Yang Fan stood on the sidelines and kept cheering the players.

In fact, although the Wizards team is still very young, everyone except Draymond Green has excellent playoff experience.

Let’s not talk about old guys like Kidd, Ray Allen, even Wall, Paul George and others won the championship trophy with the team last season.

Therefore, this Wizards can no longer be regarded as a young team. Strictly speaking, it can even be compared with the experienced Spurs.

After the game started, the ball was first jumped to the Wizards. The Wizards' starting lineup in this game were: Wall, Thompson, Paul George, Aldridge, and Yao Ming.

The Spurs are: Parker, Danny Green, Leonard, Duncan, and Split.

Judging from the starting lineup, both sides have followed their most regular starting lineups, and are very comprehensive on both ends of offense and defense. They need to have three-pointers and make breakthroughs. Just looking at the lineup, you will know that this will definitely be a fierce battle.

As soon as the game started, the Wizards mainly focused on cutting and cutting tactics.

Although Yao Ming has a huge personal advantage in his defense against Split, the Spurs are the league's favorite team to defend the regional defense.

So when Yao Ming receives the ball at a low post, the Spurs will interfere with Yao Ming.

This kind of interference is different from pinch attacks. The Spurs' regional joint defense can not only ensure that they interfere with the ball holder, but also ensure that there will be no open spaces. This is why the Spurs rank second in the league in defensive efficiency.

At present, the Wizards no longer need to hesitate to play the blocking and cutting tactics. All players are very clear about how to run and cooperate in this lineup.

After all, this set of starters has been playing together for two seasons, and some behaviors have even become subconscious behaviors, and there is no need to think through the brain.

Finally, as Aldridge mentioned that he had blocked a space for Paul George from a high place, Paul George took the ball and scored three-pointers from a 45-degree angle on the right. The whole set of movements was smooth, and there was no hesitation in the final shot.

"Swish~"

As the sound of basketball entering the net sounded, Paul George, who was retreating from defense, looked calm and did not have much joy with this goal, as if it was just a very ordinary thing.

I have to say that after coming to the Wizards, especially this season, Paul George's growth can definitely be seen with the naked eye.

If Paul George last season has grown into an excellent starter, then Paul George this season has grown into a leader.

This kind of leader is not a spiritual leader, but the ability to really kill the game on the field.

The Spurs' offensive tactics are not complicated this season, and they are even strictly similar to the Wizards.

That is, Duncan stands at a high position as a ball holder, and then others try to create offensive opportunities through a large number of off-ball pick-and-rolls.

Or maybe Tony Parker and Split play pick-and-roll at the high position, while Split is moving lower, Duncan will also raise the high position at the first time.

Then Parker can choose to pass the ball to Split, or choose to return the ball to Duncan at the high position, or complete the attack by himself.

This horn tactic initiated by Parker is also one of the Spurs' favorite styles of play this season.

After the entire set of tactics ran, the Wizards did not lose their position at all, because Yang Fan was very clear about the Spurs' style of playing.

Although Popovich's coaching ability is good, what makes Popo's amazing lies in the potential of developing role players and the stability that has been going on for ten years.

While Yang Fan had already printed Popovich's playing style in his mind, Popovich could only pray that the player's personal touch would be hot, otherwise it would be somewhat a bit of a dream to simply rely on tactics to defeat the Wizards.

In the whole first quarter, the Wizards and the Spurs played very smoothly, and no one could make a climax and quickly establish a leading advantage.

In addition, Popovich also arranged many defensive tactics against the Wizards' offense in the game.

For example, after the team completed the offense, everyone would withdraw from the backcourt as soon as possible, leaving Split alone to compete for rebounds in the frontcourt.

This style of play that is basically equivalent to giving up offensive rebounds is to limit the Wizards' defensive counterattack to the greatest extent.

As we all know, the Wizards are one of the teams that can play defensive counterattacks the most this season. Perhaps in terms of defensive counterattack, other teams cannot see the Wizards' rear taillights at all.

Especially Wall's excellent burst speed can push the ball to the frontcourt as soon as possible.

In this case, Popovich naturally chose to give up offensive rebounds and then concentrate on defending, which was to rather give up the offensive opportunity, but the Wizards had to cut off their own arm.

In addition, Popovich is also very clear that the current defect of the Spurs is that they are older and if they really want to play a fast-paced game with the Wizards, the Spurs are likely to be dragged to exhaustion by the Wizards in the first three quarters.

That's why Popovich tried every means to reduce the rhythm on the field, forcing the Wizards to fall into a positional battle with the Spurs.

In this way, the Spurs can try to reduce physical energy consumption while preventing the Wizards from playing the most familiar game rhythm.

Yang Fan naturally saw this situation, but Yang Fan did not have many ways to do this. Yang Fan could not deliberately reveal flaws and let the Spurs compete for offensive rebounds.

So what Yang Fan can do is to give full play to the Wizards' greatest offensive advantage in positional battles, strive to suppress the Spurs completely on both offense and defense, and compete with the Spurs in positional battles.

With the high-intensity offensive and defensive confrontation between the two sides, at the end of the first quarter, the Wizards who fought at home led the Spurs by three points, ending the competition between the two sides in the first quarter.

After returning from the second quarter, the two sides replaced the second team to fight. The Spurs are a team with particularly balanced overall strength.

Even in terms of fame, the Spurs' second team is still not as dazzling as the Wizards, but the substitute lineup of the Spurs cannot be inferred based on common sense.

Because the Spurs are a team with very strong tactical execution, they can even be said to be the team with the highest tactical qualities in the league.

This also leads to the Spurs' role players having a lot of offensive confidence and mobile phone opportunities.

Especially Dior and Ginobili in the second team, one of them is sexy, and the other is really sexy!

And when the two of them are on the court at the same time, the Spurs' overall offense can basically be activated.

What's more, the Spurs also have Neal, who has excellent shooting ability in the second team, and Yang Fan's former disciple "Martial Saint" Jackson.

Although Martial Saint is 35 years old this year and his competitive state has begun to decline after leaving the Thunder, Jackson's outstanding playoff experience and unreasonable three-point shooting can still give him a place.

The Wizards and the Spurs were still hard to distinguish in the second quarter, and many fans were stunned by this situation.

Because in the impression of fans, the Wizards' second team is completely unsolvable. Even if the first team fails to open the score in the first quarter, the second team can often quickly defeat the opponent.

As a result, as soon as they came back in the second quarter, the Spurs and the Wizards still had a match. Neither side could expand their lead to more than five points, and the alternating leads between them were as high as 11 times.

After the final half, the Wizards ended the fierce battle between the two sides in the first half with a slight advantage of 1 point.

"It's really a fierce finals confrontation, and even in my heart, it's the most exciting round of the NBA in the past decade."

"It's hard to imagine that the Spurs are still fighting with the Wizards so anxiously when they are not optimistic about everyone, and limiting the Wizards' most proud three-point shooting and defensive counterattacks."

"If the old guys like the Spurs can be a few years younger, then I believe the Spurs will definitely win this round of the series."

"But now, I think the Wizards should launch a counterattack in the second half because the Spurs' physical strength is a fatal flaw."

"I believe the Spurs will find it difficult to maintain this high-intensity defensive confrontation in the second half." During the halftime, ESPN's famous commentator Coney Freck said with a smile.

After returning from the second half, as commentator Freke said, the Spurs gradually had problems with their physical strength.

This problem is not that serious in the third quarter. At least at the end of the third quarter, the difference between the two teams was only 2 points.

But when the game entered the fourth quarter, the Wizards began to gradually gain the upper hand and expanded the score advantage bit by bit.

Even though Popovich brought the main players to the court very early, Yang Fan, who was also lonely, was not careless at all, and he didn't even have time to control Yao Ming, so he directly took out the main players to fight the Spurs.

At the end of the game, the Wizards controlled the situation in the second half of the fourth quarter with their better physical fitness, defeated the Spurs by 7 points, and won the first victory in the finals with difficulty.

After the game, Yao Ming and Duncan hugged in the middle of the field. It seemed that Yao Ming was comforting Duncan.

But in fact, Duncan doesn’t need Yao Ming’s comfort at all, because it’s hard to see the word disappointment on Duncan’s face. In most cases, there is only one word you can see, that is “dai”.

The Wizards were able to win this game entirely because of their physical fitness. Because the Wizards seized the score well in the first three quarters, they were always comparable to the Spurs.
To be continued...