Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

"...that shot just now, if it had been you, it might have gone in."

James liked Richie.

Richie was the only one of the 'three Knights' who could live comfortably even without following in his footsteps.

When he heard this, James gave a subtle smile, "Richie, don't talk nonsense, you don't know anything."

But Paul said, "I know you, LeBron."

Did Richie really understand him? Maybe he did, he really understood him. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have spotted him in the business world at a glance.

Before James's friends knew who Rich Paul was, they didn't like him. At that time, Richie was only 21, but he was running a highly profitable company. He imported retro jerseys from Atlanta, each for 160 US dollars, and then sold them for 300 dollars each. At his peak, he could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.

This was a self-improvement man, who didn't care that he didn't have a business degree. At 16, he owned two cars. At 19, he bought his first house. There was nothing extraordinary about starting his own shop at 21. He believed in his ability and sense of judgement; once he had made up his mind, he would definitely do it. When he became convinced that James's future was far greater than his own, he decisively dropped his business and followed him instead.

Before him, James didn't have a single friend who could be considered shrewd, which was why he accepted Rich Paul. In fact, it proved to be the right decision, as Richie was willing to support him in any way possible.

Saying against his conscience that he was better than Frye was no problem for Richie.

James humbly refused the compliments of his close friends, but in his heart, he knew Richie was right, that someday he would be as good as he said.

No, he would be even better than that.

While James chatted with his friends, the Detroit Pistons continued to grab offensive rebounds.

This compensated for their low field goal percentage in set plays.

Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace's scramble for the offensive boards highlighted one area where the Pistons differed tonight from the past—they were willing to risk giving the Bucks more chances for defensive counterattacks in order to expand their inside advantage.

It was widely recognized that the Pistons' inside line was far stronger than the Bucks'.

But the Pistons' strength inside had an obvious problem.

Too team-oriented, too defensive-minded.

Rasheed Wallace wasn't the kind of core inside player who would continuously demand the ball; he neither had the capacity to undertake the number of shots of an inside core, nor, because of his team-first playing philosophy, did he often actively ask for the ball to attack.

Ben Wallace's situation didn't need explaining; the Pistons only initiated offense with him as the core when their thinking was flawed.

Since one wouldn't and the other couldn't, Larry Brown didn't insist, and they found another way to make plays through offensive rebounds.

The Pistons did indeed risk being torn apart by the Bucks' defensive counterattack.

But the formidable control the Wallace Brothers had over the offensive boards gave the Bucks a real wake-up call.

For three straight minutes, the Bucks didn't secure a single defensive rebound.

The Pistons, even with a lower field goal percentage than the Bucks, managed to take the lead in the score due to their continuous second-chance attacks.

After five minutes, the score was 6 to 8, with the Pistons leading by 2 points.

George Karl couldn't tolerate the situation where his team was being dominated in rebounds, and after a timeout, the Bucks subbed out Ratner and Gadzuric for Mason and Mutombo.

The game reached a state of equilibrium.

The Bucks shifted from a 4 OUT to a 3 OUT, and tonight, Ray Allen was off his game, failing all three of his outside attempts.

Instead, it was Sprewell's ball-handling attacks that caused damage.

Mutombo made a clear impact on the defensive end.

When Rasheed Wallace wanted to attack, he first faced a direct block from him, and when he picked up the loose ball and initiated a second attack, he got posterized again.

Mutombo, blocking two shots in one possession, proved that when he was well-rested, he was still one of the best rim protectors in the league. The Pistons couldn't make outside shots or push inside, ending up attacking blindly, grinding down the clock and relying on luck.

But neither did they grind out any results, nor was luck on their side.

Moreover, Mutombo and Mason's rebounding abilities were much stronger than Ratner's and Gadzuric's, rendering the Pistons' strategy to grab offensive rebounds ineffective.

The Bucks' shift in strategy rendered the Pistons' whole game plan useless.

Having addressed the backcourt problems, the Bucks needed to find a consistent scoring approach in the frontcourt.

Sprewell's drives were effective, but not very accurate under the basket; the Wallace Brothers' rim protection was no joke.

With Allen struggling from beyond the arc, Fei's pick-and-roll offense also wasn't effective.

Fei's approach was to spread everyone out and post up Prince in the low block himself.

It was the dumbest approach, but also the simplest and most effective one.

Fei backed in, bumped hard, dribbled, took a deep breath, pushed deeper, and dribbled again.

Fei's low-post play was formulaic; although he practiced it regularly, he had not yet systematically tried it in real games.

One reason was that he didn't need it yet, and another was that he was mostly handling the ball for the Bucks, not often having the opportunity to overpower smaller opponents in the post like now.

Although Prince was a tenacious defender, the weight difference between them was too much, and he was pushed away after a few bumps.

Fei was surprised at how easy it was, so he turned around, gathered the ball, and made the layup.

8 to 8

"What's the difference between this and giving me free points?" Fei asked sarcastically.

Prince remained silent; it seemed he had made up his mind not to say a single word to Fei.

Equally on the receiving end of a one-sided thrashing, Yu Fei still preferred guarding Hamilton, at least there was some enmity between them, allowing him to spout trash talk continuously. Once provoked, Hamilton would retort as well.

With someone like Prince, Yu Fei would lose interest if the player maintained silence for a while, and he would no longer target him.

The Detroit Pistons' offense was extremely stiff, dragging the play all the way to the 22nd second before Hamilton reluctantly took a shot.

It missed, but the rebound went far, luckily ending up in Billups' hands.

Billups knew that even if he passed the ball, the success rate would be low, so rather than letting his teammates waste the opportunity, he decided to take the shot himself.

In the midst of the Pistons' disarray, Billups took responsibility and showcased his individual skills by nailing a three-pointer from the outside.

8 to 11

After making the basket, Billups also encouraged his teammates while getting back on defense.

You could see the Pistons recovering from their confusion and panic.

A competent leader always knows when to awaken the team. Billups was no longer the second-rate point guard who clashed with the head coach and was rendered powerless by Kidd last year.

A player's growth can happen in an instant.

The Bucks' offense was initiated by Sprewell.

As a veteran, Sprewell also understood that the old guard should set an example.

However, his drive was blocked by Rasheed Wallace's help defense, forcing him to pass the ball out.

Yu Fei caught the pass, with less than 8 seconds left on the shot clock.

For tactics, this time was a bit tight, but for a one-on-one, it was more than enough.

Yu Fei didn't want to exert effort in vain. He remembered the team's pre-game analysis and spotted where the Pistons intended to intercept him at a glance.

There were ambushes on both the weak side and the strong side, leaving only one path for Yu Fei.

The most dangerous route down the middle.

Did he have a choice?

Yu Fei drove the ball to the left side without a stray thought, breaking through the encirclement formed by Prince and Hamilton in the middle lane, and headed straight to the paint to challenge Big Ben.

Big Ben didn't expect Yu Fei to charge at him and jumped hastily, only for Yu Fei to switch hands in mid-air and score off the glass with a layup, avoiding the block.

"What remarkable body control!"

"Frye is like a 6-foot-9 Michael Jordan!"

If Yu Fei had known beforehand that the commentator would compare him to Jordan for his mid-air switch-hand layup, he would have definitely chosen a different method to score.

Now that he was pegged as resembling Jordan, he had no choice but to play along, after all, he had hired Jordan's trainer.

Moreover, he had more important things to do than correct the commentator.

The Pistons' defensive traps, those seemingly irregular yet tactically intentional encirclements that had tormented him the past few games, he was starting to know how to handle them.

Just now, he had figured it out.

The Pistons were testing not his ability to react on the spot amidst chaos but rather his capacity to anticipate the chaos before it happened.

Great playmakers are always able to predict the next three or four moves in advance.

Hamilton's weak-side isolation jump shot added points for the Pistons.

It was the Bucks' turn to attack again.

Yu Fei went left, raised his hand, and called for Ray Allen's pick-and-roll.

Even if Ray Allen's shots weren't falling, would the Pistons dare give him an open look?

Of course not. Even with zero points so far, Ray Allen had a baseline three-point shooting percentage of 40% for the series. Even if he missed every shot tonight, the Pistons would not dare leave him open.

Therefore, at the moment the pick-and-roll happened, the Pistons decided to switch on defense instead of double-teaming.

Yu Fei wasn't surprised at all.

Just as Yu Fei had predicted, as he drove the ball towards the paint, he counted in his mind as if preparing for something imminent—suddenly, Rasheed Wallace surged out of the paint with Hamilton to force Yu Fei towards the sideline.

Yu Fei stopped the ball and leapt, tossing it directly to Mason.

Mason, uncontested, scored easily.

From Mason's perspective, the play was quite ordinary: he was open, Yu Fei passed, and he scored. Simple as that.

But from the Pistons' perspective, it was downright supernatural.

Yu Fei's reactions were too quick, his movements too agile; it was as if both sides were running a play they'd rehearsed in advance. How could it be that as soon as the trap was set, Yu Fei seemed to foresee it and passed the ball in an instant?

A sense of unease began to take hold in the hearts of both the Pistons' coaching staff on the sideline and the players on the court.

Yu Fei, already instilling fear in the opponent, was thinking:

Whether the pick-and-roll was initiated from the weak side or the strong side, it seemed to give the Wallace Brothers time to react. What if I started each play with a pick-and-roll from the top of the key?

This would extend their help distance, increase the difficulty of trapping, and open up their paint area.

By the time he got back to the backcourt, Yu Fei had decided that's exactly what he would do.