noveldrama
Chapter 833 833 526 Shelter_2
Chapter 833 833 526 Shelter_2
?Chapter 833: Chapter 526: Shelter_2 Chapter 833: Chapter 526: Shelter_2 Pau Gasol became more concerned about picking up fouls and defending the pick-and-roll, which only encouraged Bosh to seek confrontation, actively engaging in pick-and-roll offense and continuously collaborating with Roy, attacking him relentlessly.
LeBron tried double-teaming Roy, as well as switching defensive assignments and squeezing through screens, but like calling out individuals, Roy’s style was different from Yu Fei’s.
Every step Yu Fei took was aggressive, while Roy seemed to lack aggression, moving slowly, relying purely on his sense of rhythm, but he could ensure that during a pick-and-roll he passed the ball to the right person, and could suddenly drive towards the basket when his opponents completely ignored him.
The only thing limiting him was the lack of conditioning due to being away from the game for a long time.
A minute before the end of the first half, Roy felt that familiar sense of running on fumes.
Alonzo Gee was quick to react, committing a deliberate foul.
Coach Lu substituted Larry Hughes for Roy to get through the last minute of the first half.
47 to 59
At halftime, the home team Lakers were surprisingly trailing the Supersonics by 12 points.
They failed to show the same fighting spirit that they did in the last game’s away victory over the Supersonics. On the contrary, because they were targeted inside the entire first half, their rhythm was thrown into complete disarray.
Tyronn Lu came off looking every bit the victor while accepting a halftime interview.
His coaching performance was already receiving praise from professionals on social media.
Especially tonight.
Whether it was his use of Roy or the targeted strategy of aggressively attacking the opponent’s inside line, everything was spot-on.
“I just did some trivial work,” Lu said humbly, “you know, without a superstar like Frye, all the planning would be for naught.”
Yu Fei walked into the locker room draped in a towel.
He didn’t inquire about his stats; he wasn’t concerned about scoring 50 points for the third consecutive game.
All he knew was that they had played well in the first half and had already taken half the Lakers’ life.
“Chris, you can play even tougher in the second half, the Spaniard has four fouls, he is already scared stiff!”
Yu Fei began his pep talk.
Bosh nodded vigorously, “Of course, hit him when he’s down!”
“Zo!” Yu Fei looked towards tonight’s secret weapon Alonzo Gee, “You also have four fouils, be careful.”
“Don’t worry, Frye,” Gee laughed, “I’ll make sure every foul I commit counts!”
Roy lay on the side receiving treatment from the team’s medical staff. He played 10 minutes in the first half, scoring 6 points and dishing out 5 assists. In the opening and closing stages of the first half, he provided the assistance to Yu Fei that no one else on the team had since the Western Conference Finals.
When Roy was off the court, if the ball wasn’t in Yu Fei’s hands, the Supersonics’ game lost its stability, becoming like headless flies; whoever got the ball would take the shot.
Tonight, Roy brought a long-lost sense of order; even without Yu Fei on the floor, they could play an organized game.
“You look like you’re about to die.”
Yu Fei said to Roy.
“Pretty much…” Roy replied languidly, “I can play at most another 10 minutes tonight.”
“That’s enough!” Kwame Brown said optimistically, “I reckon the Lakers won’t last more than ten minutes in the second half!”
Durant also chimed in, “Exactly, as long as we go all out, they won’t even last five minutes!”
“Confidence is good, but don’t get arrogant,” Yu Fei interrupted his teammates who were getting ready to pop champagne at halftime, “Don’t forget what happened in the last game.”
Yu Fei’s teammates seldom saw him take a game so seriously.
He usually didn’t give pep talks during halftime, especially on a night like this when he played so long in the first half; he should be lying down and resting like Roy.
The outside world talked about the Empire of One for the entire year, but in the end, the emperor of the empire needed his teammates. No one can win alone; he needed to rally everyone’s strength.
This could be his biggest advantage over Kobe and LeBron.
Compared to those two, he truly could rally the entire team’s strength, and no one would refuse.
While Yu Fei was stabilizing the team’s morale, the Lakers’ locker room presented a starkly different scene.
Marc Gasol was like a player with his microphone turned off.
The Supersonics targeted him as the Lakers’ weak point, negating his value as a player, especially as Phil Jackson had always placed considerable reliance on him, endowing him with an incredibly high tactical status.
To make it clear that Pau was the future of the Lakers, and also to strengthen the power forward position, the Lakers even traded the true prince, Andrew Bynum.
Pau Gasol certainly didn’t disappoint, nailing a stable top-of-the-arc three-pointer in his second season, and as the pivot of the Triangle Offense when James wasn’t on the court, he earned Jackson’s trust.
During the first four games of the Western Conference Finals, even though he was often targeted, he overpowered the Supersonics’ proud frontcourt in the two games the Lakers won.
In front of him, Chris Bosh, as a power forward, didn’t have the strength, and DeAndre Jordan and Brown were too rough.
But unexpectedly, his world was turned upside down in this critical King of the Hill battle.
Yu Fei targeted him as a weak spot and truly broke him down.
Now he had neither the will to fight nor the confidence.
But the problem was, apart from him, the Lakers had no other powerful frontcourt player to support the system.
Big Z was like a slower Pau Gasol, with less stamina, diminished one-on-one capabilities, significantly reduced playmaking abilities, and a shooting range that didn’t extend beyond the three-point line.
But the Supersonics were so ruthless that even Big Z racked up three fouls by mid-court.
If Pau Gasol broke down and Big Z proved of little use, were the Lakers supposed to send their mascot D.J. Mbenga to hold the fort in the frontcourt?
Phil Jackson and the assistant coaches held a short meeting in the room while the players quietly waited on the side.
For this moment, Jackson wasn’t in despair, perhaps having seen too many storms, such “minor issues” could no longer stir his emotions.
He said these words for the assistant coaches and for the players:
“When everything falls into chaos, retreat into your ‘shelter.’ This is a mental image or a memory in our minds that can bring us peace, joy, and inner calm.”
Some people need peace, joy, and inner calm; some do not.
Kobe stood up and said, “Enough! That’s enough! I don’t want to see them attacking our center with impunity anymore! If push comes to shove, we’ll do without a center. I can play center, LeBron can play center, we all can play center!”
“Exactly!” Richard Hamilton chimed in, “I can play center too!”
“I can as well!”
One Lakers player after another loudly declared they could play center, showing their support for their teammate in this way.
Meanwhile, Jackson’s gaze fell on the most thoughtful person, “LeBron, where is your ‘shelter’?”
For James, there was not a single place in his life he could accurately call a “shelter.”
As a child, he lived in a dilapidated house in the worst part of Akron, with his mother Gloria working late every day, leaving him alone to face the kind of noise outside that could traumatize a kid; bouncing from house to house for years, even though he encountered some nice families, it wasn’t his home. Cleveland gave him everything, but he buried them with “The Decision.” Los Angeles is Vanity Fair, a sanctuary for those seeking fame and fortune, never a shelter.
If he truly had to find a place in this world to store his soul, it would only be on the basketball court.
“The court,” James affirmed, “that is my shelter.”
Basketball had changed his life, giving him wealth and status beyond imagination; it was the only thing that let him temporarily set aside reason and calculations, wholeheartedly throwing himself into it.
But if he failed again, then even his shelter would be destroyed by the hurricane named Yu Fei.
Only when winning fame and fortune, did the court become his shelter.
“So, LeBron,” Jackson said, “I want to see your determination to defend your shelter.”
With Jackson’s words, the team’s confusion dissipated.
Minutes before the second half started, all major TV networks received the Lakers’ starting lineup for the half.
They were James, Kobe, Hamilton, Artest, and Jamison.
Before the game started, a courtside reporter asked Jackson who would be the Lakers’ center for the second half.
Jackson replied, “They all are.”
PS: This segment is extracted from a chapter that I haven’t finished writing, as I couldn’t finish it before midnight, so I’m posting part of it. I will conclude this game in one go tomorrow.