One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-Nine. Rhythm Battle

**The source of Vic's confidence is also the source of the Grizzlies' fear.

Rondo was willing to join the Spurs at a salary lower than his worth, which was unexpected by everyone. They all thought he would go to the Jazz and the Hawks, which have space for a top salary and a good lineup.

Who knew Rondo was willing to play as a substitute for the Spurs!

**Vic is a very flexible head coach, which can be seen from the way Duncan was used in his three peak periods. When Duncan first entered the NBA, he played a double tower tactic with David Robinson in high and low positions, mainly passing and cutting to attack the basket; after Duncan's first serious injury in 2000, the 00-01 season became a low-post back-to-back and high-post coordination; now it has become a mid-range shot and high-post coordination.

Rondo, a player who prioritizes the team, is strong in defense, and has strong command ability on the field, is too suitable for **Vic, regardless of personality factors, giving **Vic a choice he could never try before-a style of play with concentrated ball possession.

Everything has two sides, and it is difficult to guarantee the characteristics of each player when the ball is concentrated.

However, if the team is fully integrated, it will face the situation that it is difficult to break the deadlock when the situation is tense, just like the Spurs and the Lakers played very tensely in the playoffs last season, but Kobe and Leonard always helped the Grizzlies gain an advantage on both offense and defense with the help of James's containment and defense ability.

In the past, they had Ginobili to rely on, but Ginobili's time in the demon sword state is getting less and less, and the probability of pits is higher than the probability of outbreaks, which is one of the hidden dangers they regarded at the beginning of the season.

But with Rondo, although Rondo's scoring ability is not good, he is not ambiguous in key games. The active players who have obtained 3 times 15 large triple-double data in the playoffs are Rondo, except Sun Ce.

Looking at the quiet man Rondo who sat on the bench after entering the opposite side, he averaged 8. assists and 1.6 steals per game this season and played 30 games. Sun Ce knew that Rondo was likely to integrate into the Spurs from the fact that Rondo was willing to take a pay cut to join the Spurs.

If they are willing to take a pay cut, what else can't be sacrificed.

The two teams have a good relationship off the court, but on the court, the two sides have a lot of grudges. In the past few years, they have played against each other in the playoffs many times, with wins and losses. Both teams regard each other as one of the strongest opponents in the playoffs. The game is about to start, and both teams are very focused on the final preparations.

At 6:58, the referee signaled the starters of the two teams to appear.

The first three Christmas games today have been played, and there is no overtime, so the start time of the Grizzlies and Spurs is very punctual.

In the first Christmas game,

the Bulls narrowly defeated the Heat 101 to 97. Rose's two consecutive long shots at the critical moment made the Heat helpless. Originally, Rose's pick-and-roll attack ability was strong, and now his mid-range and long-range shots are getting better and better, and it is beginning to be unsolvable.

After laying the foundation for a few years, Rose's performance this season has surpassed Evans.

The three-pointer and a mid-range shot at 3:26 this afternoon helped the Bulls lock in the victory.

The second game between the Knicks and the 76ers received more attention than the first game. After all, it was a game between the Knicks, and there was also the topic of Howard's grudge with his old club. However, the Knicks were no match for the 76ers. Dragic and Howard were no match for Evans and Gasol. Gasol continued his performance as the league's top center this season, keeping the pace tight and helping the 76ers beat the Knicks 105-90.

In the third game, the Warriors beat the Pelicans 126-110 away from home, showing their dominance.

Unlike previous years when the Christmas game was the dividing line between the early and mid-season, this season's Christmas game was seen as the beginning of the mid-season.

Except for the Warriors, who relied on Curry's 6 three-pointers in a single game to score 31 points and Harden's 14 of 20 shots to score 39 points, the two scored 70 points together to soar, and the scores of the other two teams were lower than the early season.

An expert gave an evaluation after the first three games - all teams have begun to adapt to the defense under the new rules. The average score of 106.7 points per game in the league at the beginning of the season will most likely drop to between 103-105 points by the end of the season, which will not be as scary as the average score of last season by two or three points.

This is a sign. The average score of the Grizzlies was as high as 115.5 points during their 27-game winning streak.

Back to the FedEx Arena in Memphis, the game is about to start. At the signal of the referee, the Spurs' strongest player for 18 years, Duncan, led the starting lineup of Parker, Danny Green, Gay, and Split.

On the Grizzlies side, Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Randolph, and Aldridge made their debut.

Aldridge and Duncan came to the center circle for a jump ball.

Sun Ce felt that Duncan was really unlucky. At this age, he was the most capable player in the Spurs. If he hadn't dyed his hair, Duncan would have white hair.

Moreover, Duncan's average performance of 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2.1 blocks and 0.8 steals per game this season was achieved in an average of 28.5 minutes of playing time... He was only 4 months away from turning 39. The S-level ability evaluation made Sun Ce couldn't help but complain that other inside players were not given a chance to survive.

The highest scorer of the Spurs this season is still Gay, who averaged 31 minutes per game and was the player with the highest playing time in the Spurs.

This is why the Grizzlies had a hard time last time they played against the Spurs, even though the Spurs rested Parker, Gay, and Duncan. The opponent had a bunch of cheap players who played well in the Spurs system and could rotate and ensure strength.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air.

Aldridge beat Duncan to win the jump ball, and the Grizzlies attacked first!

Paul George advanced to the frontcourt. It was not easy for him to play against Danny Green. This guy is very good at defense and is one of the best forwards and guards in the league. Aldridge was not easy to play against Duncan, Sun Ce was not easy to play against Gay, and Randolph was not easy to play against Split... Relatively speaking, Sun Ce was the best. Paul George signaled Sun Ce to go to the high right position to receive the ball.

Sun Ce came to the high right position of the free throw line and received the ball against Gay.

Paul George passed the ball to Sun Ce and then pulled away to the right sideline. Aldridge came to the left side of the free throw line, Klay Thompson went to the left bottom corner, and Randolph went to the left side of the three-second zone.

Gay was under great pressure to defend Sun Ce. With almost the same height and wingspan, in terms of confrontation, except for explosive power and explosive speed, he was no longer dominant in other aspects. Sun Ce was stronger in static strength and could not stop Sun Ce from blocking the ball.

Feeling the pressure from behind, Sun Ce felt okay and took a step forward to shoot the ball. Gay immediately pressed forward to avoid Sun Ce's turnaround jump shot. Sun Ce's turnaround jump shot was a move that the opponent must strictly guard against. His skills were getting stronger and stronger.

But Sun Ce was faking it! While Gay was moving forward, Sun Ce swung the ball behind Gay with his left hand and turned left to break through the baseline!

There was no way to defend this. This was a left-handed move. Players like Sun Ce who could control the ball and shoot with both hands were too unfriendly to opponents!

Gay quickly turned around to chase, and at this time Duncan also retreated to the reasonable collision zone. Sun Ce went to the baseline, and Gay could chase and defend. Gay's wingspan was slightly longer than Sun Ce's, 221 cm. He was not as passive as other forwards in defending Sun Ce. If Sun Ce broke through the basket, Duncan could form a double attack.

Sun Ce broke through the baseline and turned around and jumped, passing to Aldridge on the left side of the free throw line.

Split switched defense quickly, and the basket could be handed to Duncan who had already retreated. Split rushed to Aldridge at the first time, but Aldridge was ready to shoot after receiving the ball, and shot a backward jump shot from the free throw line... hit!

Randolph's threat of eating cakes, Sun Ce's low-post scoring threat, double 3D's outside containment, Aldridge's accurate mid-range shot... The Grizzlies just finished the first attack, and a word starting with F came out from the side of **Vic.

Triangle offense!

It was actually a triangle offense!

He thought the Grizzlies had given up the triangle offense because they played it very little in the new season.

However, playing less does not mean not playing at all. Except for the 4 games in 5 days before the Christmas holiday, the Grizzlies played triangle offense in the first 28 games to some extent, giving Brian Shaw time to practice his tactical ideas and making adjustments all the time.

On the 23rd, the Grizzlies prepared for the Christmas game with the Spurs, and the tactics they proposed for the starting stage were a new version of triangle offense!

**Vic did not think that the Grizzlies would use triangle offense against them, but thought that Randolph, Sun Ce, and Paul George would form a triangle, with Aldridge and Klay Thompson as shooters, but he did not expect that the starting point was not Randolph, who had the strongest low-post singles ability in the game, but Sun Ce turned and cut in to create a threat, with Sun Ce as the starting point, Aldridge as the end point, and Randolph as the receiving point.

**Vic was unexpected for this change. He is the kind of head coach whose ability to prepare before the game is stronger than his ability to respond on the spot. For the time being, he can only think of one way - to pick up the rhythm!

When the Spurs attacked, Duncan seized the opportunity, cut in, received Gay's pass and made a layup to score two points. The Grizzlies' lineup's interior defense is indeed not good enough. It can't be said to be bad, but it's just average. It's hard to defend the Spurs.

It took only 11 seconds to complete the attack. **Vic always swallows back what he said. He said that he hated fast breaks and three-pointers the most. Now they are one of the best teams in light offense and open three-pointers.

After the first round, the two teams clearly felt what the other side wanted to do.

The Grizzlies wanted to use five All-Star players to play positional warfare slowly, while the Spurs wanted to speed up and play out the advantages of light offense.

They entered the confrontation state at the beginning!

This made the fans very excited and excited. Both teams showed a very high tactical level and excellent execution of the players!