Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Suddenly, the personal grudge among Yu Fei, Hamilton, and Brown seemed like an insignificant incident for this game.

The Bucks had more important things to focus on.

If they couldn't find a way to break the Pistons' Iron Barrel Formation in the regular season, they would face even bigger trouble when encountering it in the playoffs.

Karl and Yu Fei both believed that the 5 OUT strategy was the key to breaking the Iron Barrel Formation.

Now that Ray Allen and Sprewell were sidelined due to injuries, the Bucks couldn't present their highest quality 5 OUT lineup.

Midway through the second quarter, the Bucks changed their formation.

Yu Fei, Red, George, Horry, Ratner.

Speaking of the 5 OUT lineup, replacing George with Ray Allen would have been the Bucks' optimal choice, but now they had to make do.

After all, looking around the league, the Bucks were probably the only team that could still deploy a 5 OUT formation despite missing several key perimeter scorers.

The Bucks' lineup changed, but the Pistons' defense did not.

Yu Fei immediately called for a pick and roll with the five.

Big Ben hesitated between switching on Yu Fei and double-teaming him, but Yu Fei didn't hesitate at all; he stepped inside the free throw line on the right, came to a quick stop, and made a jump shot.

"Swish!"

Yu Fei began to perceive something.

It could be said that the Pistons had mastered the current rule set's version of the answer.

Since Jordan reigned supreme, the era of one-on-one stars had flourished, with the four great point guards of the early century all being masters of this approach.

The lifting of the ban on zone defense, liberating the defenders without the ball, not only changed the teams' offensive styles but also led to a revolution on the defensive end.

What is now seen in the Pistons, leaving offensive players who lack shooting threats unattended, stuffing the space, creating traps in small areas, and relying on the almost aberrant mobility of Big Ben to both sweep and protect the rim, are common sights in the era of small ball.

Yet, due to the shooting issues of role players, the same defense could lock down most of the league's teams in today's game but could easily be shot to pieces in the era of small ball.

In the following offensive round, the Pistons failed to score.

Richard Hamilton was clearly playing with a lot of emotions that were not purely about the game.

He very much wanted to perform well, but the more he thought like that, the more he tended to be burdened.

Yu Fei once again challenged the Pistons' Iron Barrel Formation.

Underneath the Iron Barrel Formation of the Pistons, there were inherent loopholes.

Memitt Okur, who had started the game, played more of a pseudo-starting role on the Pistons.

However, at the same time, there was no one on the Pistons' bench who could fully replace Okur's role.

Larry Brown naturally knew he needed to limit the Bucks' pick and roll offense, which meant Big Ben often had to be pulled to the high posts. But once Big Ben left the paint, the Pistons' paint protection was gone.

Okur's rim-protecting abilities were unworthy of reliance.

Okur's backup, Elden Campbell, was slightly better defensively, but being advanced in age, he was not that great either.

Milicic should have become an important reinforcement for the Pistons, but due to character and style issues, he was confined to oblivion by Coach Brown.

This round, Yu Fei first called for a pick and roll with the five, then with the four.

Campbell chose to shrink back, so Yu Fei immediately passed to Horry.

A three-pointer from the outside, nothing but net.

The Bucks scored in two consecutive half-court offenses, both times in an extremely smooth manner.

The tight Iron Barrel Formation had begun to loosen.

Coach Brown's gaze was distant, as if lost in thought.

While the Bucks' coach Karl clenched his fists, anticipating that zone defense would become widely adopted in the future and the Pistons' defensive approach would become popular as well.

He had to admire his senior colleague for truly understanding defense.

But what of it? The NBA's rollout of the zone defense was not intended to make defense easier. The presence of the defensive three-second rule made the NBA's version of zone defense seem neutered.

Yet, one thing was certain, within ten years, the contemporary trend of one-on-one perimeter stars would become outdated. They wouldn't disappear; they just wouldn't be as pivotal as they are now.

Unless they had terrifying efficiency, their current status would be supplanted by tall, versatile ball handlers like Frye.

The Pistons created another opportunity from Hamilton's position.

Hamilton's three-point attempt from the outside missed. Find exclusive stories on empire

"Both traded by Michael himself, how can you be so much worse?" Ratner couldn't resist taking a jab at his former teammate's morale.

The face beneath the mask grew even uglier.

In the frontcourt, Yu Fei exhibited his natural counter to the Iron Barrel Formation.

Under Coach Brown, the Pistons had a defensive term known as "Mass," which was different from the usual double-teaming against star perimeter players. Utilizing tough man-to-man defense and clever positioning, the Pistons constructed a labyrinth around the offensive player by blocking space. They forced great one-on-one scorers to navigate through an endless defensive maze before they could shoot or pass, making it difficult for scorers to react optimally.

But Yu Fei was never known for his "one-on-one" prowess; he could shoot threes from outside, come to a halt for a jump shot while dribbling, and when calling for a pick-and-roll, had enough vision to pass the ball to any teammate, with his penetrating ability ranking at the top of the league.

Possessing multiple threats, the Pistons' labyrinth was too shallow for him. Yu Fei blew past Billups' defense, using his body to power through under the basket. As Campbell jumped up to block, he was fiercely shoved aside.

"Whistle!"

It was a superstar call.

Campbell's physical challenge was substantial, but Yu Fei adjusted mid-air, casually tossing the ball with his left hand and banking it in.

ESPN pundit Bill Walton said Yu Fei's biggest change this season was his greatly enhanced body control.

"Just imagine, what if Magic Johnson played the game with Darius Miles's body but Dr. J's style? Wouldn't that be beautiful?"

As long as Ratner and Horry made their three-pointers, the Pistons' Iron Bucket Formation would crumble.

Moreover, the greater the threat from the outside, the harder it was for Big Ben to cover the paint. As a result, Elden Campbell's defense became a multi-player thanksgiving celebration, clear for all to see—you could instantly identify who was the least capable.

The Pistons, who restricted the Bucks to just 18 points in the first quarter, let the Bucks explode for 30 points in the second quarter, especially during the latter half when Yu Fei played like poetry in motion, scoring 22 points in 6 minutes.

By halftime, the Bucks led the Pistons 48-37, an 11-point advantage.

This was a major shortcoming for the Pistons; if they couldn't suppress their opponents defensively, they struggled to compensate through offense.

Because high-pressure defense is a double-edged sword.

You suppress others, exhaust yourself, and if you succeed in containing the opponent, it's fine. But if the opponent, like tonight's Bucks, found a way through, the wasted effort on defense would doubly backlash during offense.

The clearest example was Richard Hamilton.

He was the man the Bucks focused on defensively.

Coupled with some mental issues, his first-half performance was a disaster—3 out of 11 for 6 points.

He missed threes, had no free throws, and was somewhat of a liability for the Pistons defensively, although his off-ball defense was decent. But in one-on-one situations, he was merely passable and would become a Campbell-like weakness if targeted by Yu Fei.

"Coach Brown, Frye said he has some personal issues to resolve with you, what's your take?"

Brown always had a stern face, as if the whole world owed him money.

"We have no issues to resolve. My only issue with him is why, as a superstar in the national spotlight, he wouldn't want to give the public an opportunity to be proud of him."

"This season, the Pistons' defense has been astonishing, but tonight, the Bucks successfully broke the '40-point curse'. Does this mean your defense is failing?"

The so-called "40-point curse" was a concept coined by draft expert Chad Ford for the Pistons.

If the Pistons kept their opponents' total score under 40 points in the first half, they would surely win. If the score broke 40, it meant their defensive system was failing and might collapse.

Brown didn't believe in numbers or probabilities; his gaze was icy and devoid of the inherent warmth of humanity. He simply said in a low voice, "I don't think that's a problem."

But how could it not be a problem?

Brown recalled the first half of the game, where his team made no mistakes—clogging the lanes, protecting the paint, controlling the rebounds, slowing down the pace.

They did all that.

Yet, the Pistons who did all these could not do one other thing: seal off the three-point line.

However, Brown didn't believe any team could solidify paint defense while also stopping opponents' threes.

The Bucks seemed to have staked their lives on the perimeter which, in Brown's view, was a suicidal strategy, but unexpectedly, they thrived.

The five-out offense worked, and the ball was now in Brown's court.

Still, Brown didn't believe a five-out lineup could dominate all the way because shooting was variable; the real issue for the Pistons was Big Ben leaving the paint unprotected.

Memitt Okur and Elden Campbell weren't up to the task.

Returning to the locker room, the first person Brown saw was the blonde-haired Darko Milicic.

Should he try him? Brown thought, give him a minute, swear on God's name, just one minute.

To everyone's surprise, Milicic, who hadn't played outside of garbage time so far this season, was in the Pistons' starting lineup for the second half.

It thrilled some Pistons fans.

They thought Brown had an epiphany, but in reality, letting Milicic play in such a moment proved too much a burden for him.

Milicic was even confused in garbage time. How could he be expected to play against the championship-contending Bucks?

Within one and a half minutes, he racked up 2 fouls, 1 turnover, and saw the Pistons fall from an 11-point deficit to 16 points.

Milicic turned out to be a backfiring card. With the score gap widened, for the Pistons, the game was almost handed over.

Brown took him out and turned into a devil incarnate, ready to devour Milicic, an utterly brutal scene.

Yu Fei stood aside with a refined and amiable smile.

This scene looked somewhat familiar.

It felt like Kwame Brown being bullied by Collins and Jordan.