When Pippen, who brilliantly filled the defensive gaps, returned again.
When rebounds were no longer the Achilles' heel of the Hawks.
When Roger could still effortlessly score those difficult points.
The defending champions seemed worthless in front of the Hawks!
Afterwards, the Spurs caught up a bit with their three-point shooting from the perimeter.
But the situation was firmly controlled by the Hawks.
Because the Hawks tightly controlled Duncan.
In the fourth quarter, Popovich had no choice but to let the Admiral take the lead again.
Since Big Ben dared not leave Duncan to help defend, relying merely on rookie Marion was impossible to stop the Admiral. Therefore, the Admiral's offense was highly effective, and he completely outplayed Marion head-to-head.
But everything was already too late.
You must accept a fact, during this period Popovich was just a rookie coach, and his on-the-spot commanding was very poor.
