Hansen continued the hot hand from the first half, and after he hit two consecutive mid-range shots, Popovich was forced to abandon the zone defense.
But this freed up Randolph in the low post.
At last, Popovich paced frantically courtside, holding two bottles of poison in his hands, drinking either one was no longer an option.
By the time the main phase of the third quarter had finished, the score was 81 to 67, with the Grizzlies’ lead expanded to 14 points.
It was just like the game against the Heat, turning the fourth quarter into garbage time.
At the critical moment, it was Manu Ginobili who rallied.
As the saying goes, "In prosperity a sports car, in adversity a Buddha, in existential crisis Demon Blade cuts down the demons."
Coming off the bench, Ginobili leaned and hit a difficult three-pointer from the perimeter and then completed a steal to score a 2+1.
Before the end of the third quarter, under his leadership, the Spurs had cut the deficit back to single digits.
At that moment, Popovich finally allowed himself to relax.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Hansen volunteered to guard Ginobili, but Hollins refused him this time.
Last time, because Hansen chose not to "obey," Hollins’s attitude towards him had evidently shifted.
With no other option, Hansen could only resort to talking to Guy.
"Show the old guy some colors," Hansen directed his gaze toward Popovich on the opposing half of the court.
Guy nodded vigorously, but his gaze was directed towards Hollins.
After entering the game, Guy directly attacked the Spurs’ interior, finishing with a forceful dunk.
The preseason skepticism about this Spurs team had its reasons, beyond just the factor of age, the main issue was their lack of a perimeter defender like Bowen used to be.
So, neither against Hansen nor Guy could they effectively limit their drives, putting great defensive pressure on the interior, which wouldn’t have been a problem if Duncan were younger, but now Duncan too had aged.
Ginobili continued to play well, driving for a layup and drawing a foul from Haddadi.
The Grizzlies’ bench wasn’t strong either, otherwise they wouldn’t be getting caught by Ginobili’s scoring runs.
But right after Ginobili made both free throws, it was Guy again, who after blowing past Green, hit a picturesque mid-range jumper.
At this time, Danny Green was only a sophomore and had joined the Spurs after being waived by the Bulls post-rookie season; he simply couldn’t guard Guy.
However, what was more entertaining was Guy turning around after scoring and raising his arms in celebration towards the Grizzlies’ bench.
Hansen then realized that Guy might have misinterpreted his earlier words.
But, the desired effect was achieved.
Guy’s excellent performance enabled the Grizzlies to regain their footing, maintaining the double-digit lead, and significantly increasing the Grizzlies’ chances of winning the decisive moments of the game.
At this point, the fans in the arena were already getting restless.
This was just a regular season game, but because of the All-Star voting, it was more than just a regular season game, drawing high external attention.
Hansen’s performance today was unstoppable, and if the Grizzlies won the game, that would be a slap in the face to those doubters.
Especially since Popovich had deliberately belittled Hansen before the game, targeting him first. The rıghtful source is 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
The Spurs called for a timeout.
After the timeout, the Spurs made a personnel change by bringing James Anderson on to replace Green.
Anderson was the 20th pick in the first round for the Spurs this season and hadn’t much chance to play before.
His build was smaller than Green’s, but his footspeed was faster.
This was a change because Green couldn’t guard, bringing in someone quicker.
This move was very characteristic of Popovich.
But what happened next was unexpected by everyone.
During one defense against Guy, Anderson made an overt dirty move aiming for the shoulder.
Guy wasn’t fast, and unable to dodge, he was directly knocked over.
The court instantly erupted into chaos, West went directly over to push Anderson, and several from the Spurs side also rushed over, but then James Johnson stepped forward and the crowd dispersed.
Eventually, Guy returned to the bench where the team doctor checked his injury.
Guy’s expression looked pained, and after a preliminary check, the doctor shook his head.
This was definitely not a minor injury, the specific condition had to wait for a later medical report, but he definitely couldn’t continue tonight.
"Damn! That old man!" Hansen cursed out loud.
Hearing this, Hollins turned around, only then did he realize Hansen was fiercely staring at the opposite half of the court.
Since his rookie season was in the East, he had forgotten how dirty Popovich’s tactics could be.
Not just dirty, but sinister, Hory sending Nash flying into the billboards was well known.
And that sort of play in the playoffs could be somewhat understood, but Bowen stepping under Carter was even worse.
The Raptors and Spurs weren’t even in the same division, there were basically no competitive relations.
But that’s Popovich, he liked using these minor characters to mess with your core players.
This tactic made it very hard for the opponents to respond because if you really retaliated against the minor Spurs players, it would actually play into the Spurs’ hands.
So which approach should they take, retaliate against the "GDP," or go directly at Popovich?
The former was difficult, as the Grizzlies didn’t have those types of minor characters developed, Hansen personally entering the fray would still result in a swap.
The latter was even harder, Popovich was a coach, unreasonable as a player to go after him.
Was it really impossible?
Just at this moment, a memory suddenly flashed through Hansen’s mind.