Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 816 816 521 Return to the Starting Point_2

?Chapter 816: Chapter 521 Return to the Starting Point_2 Chapter 816: Chapter 521 Return to the Starting Point_2 After the initial foul calls, did Yu Fei still have any expectations for the referees?

Caught up in a sense of complacency, Artest was caught off guard by Yu Fei’s back-to-the-basket, turn-around drive.

Yu Fei easily broke past him, charged under the basket, and forcefully squeezed past Big Z’s help defense to score with a layup.

Yu Fei turned to Bavita, pointing to his own arm, wanting to know why the whistle hadn’t blown.

Bavita met his gaze with cold indifference.

Then, the audience at the venue erupted in angry boos.

To Bavita, the audience’s boos were nothing new, but that didn’t mean the pressure didn’t exist.

Indeed, they had missed an obvious foul.

It seemed like the referees, who behaved as if they couldn’t be bothered by hot water, called a foul on Artest for an off-ball screen just when the Lakers were about to start their offense.

Artest showed an unprecedented level of bewilderment, a look of surprise on his face that seemed to say, “Aren’t we on the same side?”

Only Bavita, with his ever-indifferent expression, provided the answer: Who’s ‘we’?

Subsequently, the Lakers’ set play failed, and Yu Fei snatched the rebound and quickly pushed the counterattack, not waiting for either the opponent or his teammates to get into position, and launched a trailing three-pointer, narrowing the gap to 3 points.

The cheers in Key Arena grew louder with each wave.

As long as Yu Fei could keep performing, the SuperSonics wouldn’t be a team that could be easily defeated.

The two teams were deadlocked until the final minute of the first quarter. James, who had largely been conserving energy for defense, suddenly made a tank-like drive to the basket for a dunk and a 2+1, and then another play with a help-defense block on Hughes, capping off a coast-to-coast defensive counterattack.

James scored five points in a row with his individual ability.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers secured an 8-point lead thanks to James’s outburst in the last minute.

This margin made Coach Lu wary of resting Yu Fei at the start of the second quarter like he had in the previous game.

On the other hand, the Lakers, having an advantage on the floor, allowed the Zen Master to confidently rotate Kobe out of the game.

In the second quarter, the Lakers rotated their lineup with James leading the team, while the SuperSonics tried to keep their main lineup as much as possible.

The only change made by Coach Lu was to have DeAndre Jordan take over for Bosh.

Due to foul trouble at the center position, Bosh had played a significant part of the first half at the five, and it took a toll.

Luckily, he wasn’t troubled by fouls.

Coach Lu was hoping DeAndre Jordan could fill in for Bosh for five or six minutes.

After all, in terms of physical gifts and rim protection abilities, DeAndre Jordan was more suited to the five than Bosh.

However, the fact that DeAndre Jordan only made it to the starting lineup in the Western Conference Finals due to his superior talent was telling.

He was a player still green in many aspects.

At a moment when the team needed to grit its teeth, DeAndre Jordan was like fresh blood-drenched meat dangling above a hound, making consecutive positioning errors on defense and getting clogged up on offense, unable to find the cutting lanes like in the first quarter, nor did he have a shooting ability to help.

With his mistakes on defense and turning into a black hole on offense, DeAndre Jordan became an obstacle for the SuperSonics’ play.

Yu Fei wanted to play cooperatively, but while the idea was right, the person, unfortunately, wasn’t.

With a series of mistakes and fouls by DeAndre Jordan, the SuperSonics fell behind by 12 points in less than three minutes.

Coach Lu promptly substituted in Nick Collison.

DeAndre Jordan was sidelined for the night.

His talent was invaluable, and by all means, he was an exceptional athlete, but an exceptional athlete, at an inappropriate time, cannot become an outstanding basketball player.

This was the most dangerous moment for the SuperSonics.

No one on the inside, no accuracy on the outside, Durant on the wing was suppressed by James, and all the pressure fell on Yu Fei.

Yu Fei didn’t let this pessimistic mood continue to spread on the court.

First, he drew a foul from Artest, then following a screen by Collison, he nailed a three-pointer from the outside.

The difference was back to 9 points, as long as the Lakers gave him a chance…

But tonight, the Lakers were flawless on the offensive end.

James had publicly stated after losing the third game that he could score on anyone’s head, a claim that remained to be proven, but the Lakers Team seemed truly able to score at will.

With just one pick and roll, James found Hamilton’s position, assisting him to score.

James’s face showed neither sorrow nor joy, and he seemed quite satisfied with his role.

“You guys concentrate on the defense, leave the rest to me,” Yu Fei said only this, then scored a 2+1 over Artest’s head.

He was the only player on the SuperSonics who wasn’t pressured by the opponents.

“They have a lucky charm in Frye Seattle, but the problem is, they can’t take this luck for granted. If Frye’s performance drops during the game and they can’t quickly find another outlet, then the game is over,” Doug Collins commented harshly on the SuperSonics, but his concern about Yu Fei’s performance possibly dropping was an unnecessary worry, at least for the first half.

In the following five minutes, Yu Fei’s offensive display simply conveyed one fact to the outside world—LeBron’s choice to join forces with Kobe was justified because he couldn’t defeat Frye on his own.

In the first half of the second quarter, Yu Fei accounted for 15 of the SuperSonics’ 17 points, leading the team from a maximum 12-point deficit to only a 5-point difference.

During this time, apart from assists, James attempted two three-pointers and one drive; all his shots missed except for the successful drive.

Even though he was outplayed by Yu Fei on the offensive end, James did not show any displeasure, continuing to play the kind of basketball the Zen Master wanted to see, as if he truly had become the modern Scottie Pippen.