The San Antonio Spurs were not in the mood for load management tonight.
No matter how much Popovich values the long-term health of his veterans, winning games still comes first. With both Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler unavailable for the New York Knicks, the veteran coach sensed an opportunity. For a coach who has always been pragmatic about picking his battles, this looked like the perfect chance for San Antonio to steal a road win in New York.
The Spurs opened the game with Tim Duncan, Boris Diaw, Manu Ginóbili, Marco Belinelli, and Tony Parker.
Belinelli, notably, once played for the Knicks during the 2009-10 season. The Italian guard has always been known for his shooting touch. Although he often jokes that he dislikes relying on three-pointers, Popovich understands better than anyone that modern basketball cannot survive without spacing and shooting.
Belinelli entered the night averaging 11.9 points per game and remained one of San Antonio's most reliable perimeter weapons.
His biggest weakness has always been his lateral quickness, but against Klay Thompson, that weakness hardly mattered.
Because against a player like Klay, it often does not matter who is defending him; if Klay is hot, the splashes are going to be heard.
Meanwhile, Duncan no longer needed to actively hunt mismatches against Lin Yi as he did during the NBA Finals. Yet the situation on the floor was still rather amusing. Duncan, widely regarded as the greatest power forward in NBA history, was playing center. Lin Yi, whose official position was small forward, was also playing center.
So what exactly qualifies as a center anymore?
At center court, Lin Yi won the opening tip for New York and immediately began the offense.
Once everyone got into position, the Knicks went straight to one of their newest favorite sets, low-post basketball.
It sounded almost unbelievable.
After building an offense around pace, transition attacks, and three-point shooting, the Knicks had unexpectedly circled back to one of basketball's oldest concepts, the low post.
The most fascinating thing about this Knicks team was its unpredictability.
Since Lin Yi's return, New York had experimented with virtually every offensive system imaginable. Triangle offense, Princeton sets, motion offense, small-ball spacing, they had tried them all.
The truth is that no system ever truly becomes outdated. The key is simply matching the right tactics with the right personnel.
Ironically, this kind of versatility had always been San Antonio's trademark.
Now the Knicks had learned the same lessons.
And with Lin Yi's ability to switch between positions and styles at any moment, New York might actually execute those concepts even better.
Duncan, the Stone Buddha, himself, struggled to hold Lin Yi in the post by himself. Diaw quickly rotated over to help.
Klay, meanwhile, had already drifted quietly into the corner.
San Antonio's rotation broke down.
Lin Yi pump-faked toward the basket before whipping a pass over his shoulder, a beautiful, nonchalant, no-look delivery.
Klay caught the ball in the corner and released it instantly.
Perhaps still irritated by losing yesterday's team three-point contest, Thompson was determined to make a statement.
Swish.
0-3.
Klay gave the Knicks the first points of the night.
On the sidelines, Popovich scratched his head in frustration.
"Who are these guys? How does every player on this team read the game so well?"
Popovich had admired Klay for years; his positioning on that possession was impeccable.
Whenever the strong side is overloaded, the weak-side corner becomes vulnerable. Every NBA player understands that principle.
The difference is that recognizing it and reacting to it in real time are two completely different things.
Many people assume Klay survives purely on his shooting touch, but his off-ball instincts often go unnoticed. His movement does more than create opportunities for himself. It improves the quality of the Knicks' entire offense.
Every possession creates better spacing.
And regardless of the system being used, the ultimate purpose of offense is always the same.
Create space.
Lin Yi walked over and patted Klay on the head.
"Finally. It actually went in. Do you know how many of my perfect passes you've wasted lately?"
In Lin Yi's eyes, those were all assists.
San Antonio's first possession ended empty. Parker's floater in the lane bounced harmlessly away.
The veteran point guard looked visibly frustrated.
To be fair, Lin Yi's defensive range was enormous. He occasionally relaxed on that end, but whenever he became fully engaged, he could still be an intimidating defender.
After helping contain Duncan, Lin Yi secured the rebound himself.
Inside the TNT broadcast booth, Shaquille O'Neal suddenly felt that Lin Yi had improved once again.
His positioning on that defensive possession had been textbook.
Has this guy really been playing small forward all these years?
Shaq could hardly believe it.
Because if Lin Yi continued developing his interior game, especially his work inside the paint, then even O'Neal felt that his own fundamentals suddenly looked a little rough by comparison.
New York scored again on its next trip.
The Spurs once more sent extra help toward Lin Yi on the strong side. Lin Yi calmly raised the ball above his head. Duncan's length was impressive, but there are still differences between humans and monsters.
Reading the defense instantly, Lin Yi found Danny Green cutting toward the basket.
Green finished the layup.
0-5.
Everything felt effortless.
As his fundamentals continued to improve, Lin Yi's game became increasingly smooth and natural. The skills he had developed while playing center, combined with the vision and passing instincts of a point guard, were producing something unique.
Watching from the bench, D'Antoni suddenly had an interesting thought.
Maybe Lin Yi really was better suited to playing center. He did come into the NBA as a center.
At small forward, Lin Yi showcased his scoring ability.
At the center, he displayed complete control over the game.
In an era after the decline of the traditional dominant big men, Lin Yi was beginning to look like the standard every center would be measured against.
San Antonio attacked again.
Ginóbili spun past Danny Green and drove into the lane.
The moment he saw Lin Yi rotating over, he instinctively floated the ball toward the rim.
Because if Lin Yi committed to the help defense, Duncan would certainly be open. Unfortunately for Ginóbili, he underestimated Lin Yi's length.
He rose into the air and intercepted the lob with one hand.
Steal.
The Madison Square Garden crowd erupted instantly.
The Knicks immediately pushed the pace.
Lin Yi grabbed the ball and launched another pinpoint outlet pass. Klay sprinted ahead, caught the pass in stride, and finished an uncontested layup.
0-7.
Popovich immediately called a timeout.
The old coach rubbed his forehead and muttered,
"How exactly did we beat this team once in the Finals?"
At least judging from the opening minutes, the Spurs and the Knicks looked like they belonged in entirely different weight classes.
The frustrating part for San Antonio was that Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler were both still unavailable. This was not even the Knicks at full strength.
Of course, Popovich also understood that the biggest problem was his own team.
New York's execution had been straightforward. There were no complicated adjustments, no unexpected schemes, and no hidden tricks. The Spurs were simply being outplayed.
Their slow start to the season had already begun to concern many San Antonio fans. Sometimes it felt as if the Spurs had contracted a strange illness, one that prevented them from playing real basketball until the playoffs arrived.
Inside the TNT broadcast booth, Charles Barkley was still arguing with Kenny Smith about Lin Yi's famous birthday phenomenon.
Shaquille O'Neal sat between them, looking completely unconvinced.
Even if Lin Yi eventually broke another record, Shaq felt it certainly would not happen tonight.
Barkley, however, remained absolutely confident.
"I guarantee it. Something special always happens around this guy's birthday."
To O'Neal, this was pure superstition.
"As human beings, we should believe in science."
At that moment, Shaq once again felt that education truly changes lives.
After all, even if he never worked another day as a television analyst, he would still have more money than he could spend. Among former NBA players, O'Neal had established himself as one of the league's smartest investors, owning early shares in Google and several successful businesses.
From Shaq's perspective, Kobe's decision to invest in sports drinks had originally seemed foolish—a decision made without enough research.
Although judging from the success of BodyArmor, perhaps Kobe had seen something everyone else missed.
Still, one issue continued to bother O'Neal. Kobe never invited him to invest.
That made Shaq slightly irritated.
Why did he invite Lin and not me?
. .
Meanwhile, the man himself sat peacefully on the Knicks bench.
He was receiving a massage to his legs and shoulders while he drank water during the timeout. Lin Yi had absolutely no idea that he had somehow managed to awaken the resentment of a seven-foot Aristotle sitting in a television studio.
Then, during the timeout, Lin Yi suddenly froze for a moment.
He blinked.
"Oh right..."
"My birthday is coming up again?"
The moment the thought crossed his mind, several teammates nearby exchanged glances.
Because throughout the Knicks locker room, there was already an unspoken rule.
Whenever Lin Yi's birthday approached, strange things tended to happen.
Records.
Historic performances.
Career nights.
Sometimes, even victories that seemed impossible.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, nobody really knew.
But one thing was certain.
Madison Square Garden suddenly became a little more excited.
. . .
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