After the game started, the ball was first obtained by the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves' starting lineup in this game are: "Gloves" Payton, Madman, Szebiak, Garnett, and Magloire.

The Heat are: "White Chocolate" Williams, Wade, James Percy, Antoine Walker, and Shaq O'Neal.

In terms of starting, both the Timberwolves and the Heat continued their preseason match and did not make much adjustment.

This season, Heat General Manager Pat Riley chose to fire Stan Van Gundy to coach himself, which is enough to prove the Heat's determination to win the championship.

As a brilliant figure who has won the best coach three times in his career, Riley's coaching level is far higher than that of Stan Van Gundy.

However, since Stan Van Gundy is a student of Riley, the two are similar, that is, the use of center players is much greater than that of other coaches.

Even if the younger Wade is the core of the Heat's team building in the future, in terms of tactical focus, Shaq O'Neal is obviously the core player of the Heat.

The Heat are frantically strengthening the offseason, which has also led to a huge change in the Heat's starting lineup this season.

Except for the two superstar players, Wade and O'Neal, the other three positions are different from last season.

The Heat's playing style was too single last season. Wade and O'Neal used their personal abilities to create damage. Jones stood on the outside and acted as a shooter, opening up space for Wade and O'Neal.

Haslem plays the role of second center on the court, helping O'Neal reduce pressure on both offense and defense.

The Heat's lineup diversity has increased significantly in the new season. "White Chocolate" Williams can become Wade's second organization point after being double-teamed, avoiding that once Wade is targeted, the Heat's organizational ability on the outside will instantly drop to zero, just like last season.

As for James Percy and Antoine Walker, both have three-point shooting ability. Antoine Walker, who is in the power forward position, is definitely a space-type inside player.

You can help O'Neal to the greatest extent. If you only look at the offense, the help Walker can provide for O'Neal is much greater than that of Haslem.

But on the defensive end, Walker and Haslem are not on the same level.

The biggest defensive colander on the Heat is naturally the "Fat Head" Walker, otherwise, with Walker's personal ability and average game data, he would not only receive a salary of $7 million this season.

At the beginning, the Timberwolves' offensive breakthrough point was very obvious. Facing Antoine Walker, this point created singles opportunities many times, allowing Garnett to make two consecutive mid-range shots, helping the Timberwolves be the first to open the situation.

Walker dared not be close to him when defending Garnett. Even though Garnett's main scoring method comes from mid-range jump shots, Garnett's scoring method is never limited to jump shots.

Especially in terms of body shape, Garnett, who is two meters tall, has a visible advantage when playing Walker. As long as Garnett is determined to hold high and play, Walker can only interfere with Garnett through blindfolded defense at most.

Walker's lateral movement speed was already very slow. In addition, the Achilles tendon suffered injuries last season, Walker's defensive footsteps are now comparable to those of the old man, and Garnett is completely accurate in every single shot.

This situation on the court made the "God Accountant" Riley couldn't help frowning. If Walker hadn't had Walker's excellent shooting ability to help O'Neal completely liberate on the offensive end, with Walker's defensive efficiency, Riley would have long pressed him off the court!

However, against the Timberwolves, which won by defense, Walker's performance on the offensive end will be crucial.

The Heat's offense, the defensive formations that the Timberwolves on the court are not much different from last season, and they are still mainly based on regional joint defense. However, the existence of "gloves" Payton made the Timberwolves' outside defense more outstanding, and there are basically no flaws on the defensive end.

Although Magloyle is a quasi-All-star center player, he is far from the "Big Shark" O'Neal in terms of size.

So as long as the Heat hit the ball to the low post in this game, the Timberwolves will double-team O'Neal without hesitation and will never give O'Neal a chance to play one at a low post.

Magloyle weighs only 118 kilograms, and his strength alone will definitely be hung up by O'Neal. If the Timberwolves want to limit O'Neal's performance, they must use pinch attacks on O'Neal.

Otherwise, this set of matches will be a reenactment of the top O'Neal in the finals that year, Uncle Mu, who was the best defensive player!

As for Wade, the Timberwolves' defensive strategy adopted against him is still arbitrary. However, compared with last season, the Timberwolves only let Wade go one step away this year, and no longer let Wade go as casually as before.

And the person who defended Wade in this game was not the "madman" Spreville, but the famous defensive expert "Gloves" Payton.

"Gloves" Payton is officially 1.93 meters tall, which is the same as "Flash" Wade. With a deliberately taking a step further, Payton can completely keep up with Wade's breakthrough speed, and the defensive end will definitely make Wade even more uncomfortable.

Unless Wade can hit those open threes.

In the first few rounds, Wade boldly chose to take action against an empty defense, but with two consecutive three-point shootings, Wade gradually became hesitant.

Especially the endless trash talk disturbances of "Gloves" Payton made Wade even more ashamed.

"You are like a borer on the court. I don't need defense at all, I let you shoot from the outside, can you make it?"

"Hey, this is the three-point result you have trained all summer? The waste is indeed waste!"

"If I were five years younger, I would definitely be able to guard against you, because you are just a scumbag, and you are not worthy of being able to see me in front of you!"

In the whole first quarter, "Gloves" Payton's trash talk was like a tight spell and surrounded Wade's ears. Wade clenched his fists several times, wishing he could kill Payton with one punch.

But whenever Wade looks at the players on the Timberwolves bench, Wade will instantly become calm.

No one hopes that his career will be ruined in one game. Although Wade is angry, he will not be foolish in challenging the Timberwolves' bottom line!

In addition, Maglouier performed well in the first quarter. Facing the "Big Sharks" O'Neal, Maglouier had no advantage at all. He could only rely on his mobility to try to grab offensive rebounds and gain more offensive rounds for the Timberwolves.

Seeing Magloire having a hard time fighting for rebounds on the court, even Luke couldn't help but sigh off the court.

In the first game of joining the Timberwolves, he faced monsters like "Big Shark" O'Neal. Magloil had no time to get along with his teammates and had to take on this important task. From a certain perspective, it was indeed a bit difficult for Magloil.

Fortunately, Garnett, the two-time MVP winner, performed bravely in the first quarter. Facing the defensive loopholes, Garnett used eighteen martial arts to hang up the "Fat Head Tuo" to beat him.

He pulled the ball in place in the middle distance, turned over and jumped back, turned around and hit the fantastic footsteps, holding the ball frame and hitting high. Walker was like a "score machine" in front of Garnett. He was beaten to no aura after only half a quarter.

Thanks to the "God's Calculator" Riley couldn't stand it and replaced Haslem in time, otherwise the Heat would not know how many points they would lose.

But the fate of "Fat Head" Walker made the Heat constipated on the offensive end. Haslem and Walker were like two extremes, one was good at defense and the other was good at attack.

However, it is difficult to be truly independent when you get it alone.

At the end of the first quarter, the Timberwolves made great efforts with Garnett's point and temporarily led by 6 points.
Chapter completed!