Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 783 783 511 Not One Not Two_4

?Chapter 783: Chapter 511: Not One, Not Two_4 Chapter 783: Chapter 511: Not One, Not Two_4 All of their starting five had their own responsibilities, but Brown had become a problem for the Supersonics.

He didn’t shoot, couldn’t open up space, nor did he have a dominating presence on defense, which allowed the opposing team’s interior players to single-cover him. His boxing out ability wasn’t bad, but that was about it. His physique wasn’t impressive, a fact that became particularly apparent when facing top interior players. In the eyes of the Lakers, he was a player with defensive flaws and a black hole on the offensive end.

When Brown repeatedly received passes under the basket from Yu Fei, he only managed to make 2 out of 4 shots, intimidated by Pau Gasol’s feints.

The Lakers could live with this outcome; Brown’s scoring couldn’t really hurt them.

On the contrary, deliberately giving Brown opportunities actually led to Yu Fei making misjudgments in his passing choices.

Sometimes he balanced poorly between passing to the inside or outside.

In the end, it was Coach Lu who made the decision.

Since Brown couldn’t contribute much either way, why not bring in DeAndre Jordan, whose strengths were stronger and weaknesses were weaker compared to Brown?

This was a smart move by Coach Lu.

With DeAndre Jordan on the floor, Yu Fei’s thought process became clear.

Since DeAndre Jordan’s ability to finish at the rim was far stronger than Brown’s, Yu Fei passed directly on seeing an opportunity, as the others could handle it themselves; he continued to run pick-and-roll plays with Chris Bosh and Durant.

Although Durant couldn’t find his rhythm, Chris Bosh was on fire.

Both teams entered the second quarter tied.

That was also the biggest variable of the game.

Phil Jackson took Kobe out seven minutes into the first quarter and then had Kobe lead the second unit at the start of the second.

Coach Lu made the mistake of path dependence.

The first game of the series against the Lakers was also a close first quarter, but at that time Durant was in good shape, so handling the second unit wasn’t a problem; he did the same tonight.

But Durant only made 1 out of 5 shots in the first quarter.

Although Bosh scored 11 points, making 4 out of 6 shots, all his points came from pick-and-roll plays with Yu Fei.

Without Yu Fei, Bosh was like a fallen angel.

In this situation, could they be relied upon to hold the fort again?

On the Lakers’ side, the Zen Master changed his approach from solely relying on James, starting the second quarter with the former resting, then fielding Mike Bibby, Kobe, Mike Miller, Artest, and Big Z.

“The Lakers team is so stacked that they can use a squad good enough for the conference semifinals to play in the bridging minutes,” tweeted Bill Simmons, a renowned Celtics fan and Lakers critic.

Yu Fei couldn’t sit calmly on the sidelines, aware that Durant was out of form.

But seeing the Lakers using Kobe to bridge the quarters made him even more anxious.

For Durant, whether it’s Kobe or James, although everyone is a frontman for the same company, each aspires to be the biggest frontman.

After Woods’ scandal, Kobe became Nike’s face, followed by James, and what Durant wanted to surpass was Kobe.

This was a good opportunity for him.

He had outplayed James before, although not recognized, but what if he blew up Kobe at the Staples Center?

The first two minutes of the second quarter seemed amicable, with Durant trying to go one-on-one but struggling with his touch, while the Lakers started following the Zen Master’s instructions to run a proper Triangle Offense, which also didn’t swim along smoothly.

When Durant hit a jumper over Kobe’s head.

Kobe was annoyed.

He started to defend Durant actively, and on the offense, turned into a dinosaur, resembling the Third Eye of Erlang Shen as he pulled up for a three in Durant’s face, hitting it and adding, “FUCK YOU! You can’t guard me!”

Half a minute later, a perfect defense by the Supersonics collapsed completely when Kobe, deviating from the norm, caught the ball at the buzzer, drifted into the air, and made a limit step-back three-pointer off the board.

The measure of a superstar is whether he can take over whenever he wants to.

Kobe made Durant helpless.

A year earlier, he had thought that only Yu Fei could do that across the entire league.

In the first quarter, he found out that James could too.

Now, Kobe was overwhelming him just like Yu Fei had in their practice game.

In that instant, Scarlett, the Nike frontman rivalry, championships, everything vanished from Durant’s mind.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Lakers, he was no different from Chris Bosh.

After just three minutes into the second quarter, the Supersonics fell behind by 6 points again.

Yu Fei shook off the towel from his body.

In front of a full-strength Lakers, the Supersonics had no margin for error.

Yu Fei couldn’t rest for even a second.