Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Excellent defense puts the offense in a quandary, while the top defensive teams force the offense into making unwanted choices.

The Detroit Pistons were masters at forcing their opponents to do things they disliked.

This triggered Yu Fei's reflections.

He wanted to know how many options he had as a ball-handler facing the full-force defense of the Pistons.

He found that his options were not limited, which depended on his technical repertoire. Although he wasn't adept at low-post offense, relying on his physique to play against Prince was still manageable. When he came to the top of the key face up, his attack facing the basket troubled the Pistons.

If Yu Fei detected the trap defense based on double-teams in advance, it would be a devastating blow to their current defense system.

As the game progressed, this became increasingly evident.

Yu Fei moved to the top of the key, calling for a pick-and-roll with Big Ben. Big Ben stepped out. Mutombo rolled to the basket, and Yu Fei lobbed the ball.

Mutombo didn't score but drew a foul on defense from Rasheed, making one of two free throws.

In response, the Pistons had Richard Hamilton pull up for a quick stop and shot.

Yu Fei again called for a pick-and-roll, but this time, he didn't pass to Mutombo and instead broke quickly inside, drawing a blocking foul on Big Ben.

With less than four minutes left in the first quarter, the Pistons' foul count had already been reached. From now on, every foul they committed would send the Bucks to the free-throw line.

Yu Fei made both free throws.

It seemed the game was becoming as cluttered as the Pistons wanted it to be.

The Bucks' offense was riddled with constipation and blockages, but their coaching staff wasn't relieved.

Because it wasn't their defense that caused this, it was the Bucks' own choice.

Yu Fei certainly had better options. He could have played more smoothly, but he insisted on breaking the Pistons' defense, making his own offense extremely awkward.

However, an awkward offense doesn't necessarily mean it's terrible.

The Pistons themselves represented a style of disjointed offense, and now, it seemed like the Bucks had learned their method.

The last two possessions had been scored using free throws.

Then, on the defensive end, they set up the Iron Bucket Formation again. The Pistons were facing the most familiar strangers, a defense they always used to disgust their opponents, but they had never thought that one day the boomerang would come back and hit them.

Larry Brown's proudest aspect of the Iron Bucket Formation was that even if the Pistons played against it themselves, they couldn't find a way to solve it.

Until Yu Fei crushed them in the regular season, they thought the Iron Bucket Formation was invincible.

After getting blasted by Yu Fei, Brown decided to bring in Rasheed Wallace to fill the gap in the interior, but even so, they were still repressed by Yu Fei.

Brown knew it was a basketball issue.

Yu Fei represented the future warrior of basketball, a combination of the styles of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, possessing an unguardable individual offense while also being able to drive the whole team as a ball-handler.

Brown knew how special Yu Fei was, which is why he didn't rely on the Iron Bucket Formation to work but instead made detailed designs on some small details.

Unexpectedly, after just three games, Yu Fei had already figured them out.

Yu Fei dribbled to the frontcourt, and due to a miscommunication on the Pistons' part, they let Billups go match up with him.

That wasn't the worst news.

Because theoretically, the worst matchup would be letting Hamilton guard Yu Fei.

Billups was not a bad defender himself, but facing Yu Fei, it was a natural mismatch due to the size difference.

When Yu Fei faced Billups, he didn't call for a pick-and-roll. He crossed over in front of him, inching inside the three-point line, and suddenly, pulled up with the ball.

"Swish!"

This was the reason the Pistons would no longer let Billups match up with Yu Fei.

This guy, given a mismatch, really dared to take advantage—and could score.

17 to 13

The Bucks were leading by 4 points at home.

Larry Brown shouted angrily at Prince.

It was Prince's mistake to let Billups match up with Yu Fei.

But this kind of mistake was trivial for the game, and as Brown blamed his player, he also wondered what other strategies they had.

The Pistons launched a difficult offense through Rasheed Wallace.

Rasheed wanted to turn around and jump shot after posting up, but the Bucks double-teamed in advance, forcing him to pass.

Luckily, Billups was hot tonight. When his teammate passed the buck, he simply took a buzzer shot.

17 to 16

Billups gave Yu Fei a provocative look.

Yu Fei thought to himself that these guys were like stubborn stones in a mud pit, stinky and tough, and quite difficult to play against.

After that, Yu Fei took a break for a round, and the Bucks' ball went to Ray Allen's hands.

Allen's shooting was off tonight, but he also had a driving game. After a feint, he dribbled furiously towards the basket.

This highlighted how different Ray Allen and Yu Fei were as ball-handlers.

Facing the same double-team trap, Yu Fei seemed to have a prescient ability to react instantly, while Ray Allen was like a headless fly, neither shooting nor passing correctly. Just one second of hesitation got him completely clamped.

Ray Allen got called for a three-second violation.

"Rey-ray, I was right behind you."

Yu Fei meant, why are you aimlessly turning around without passing the ball?

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Ray Allen was at a loss for words—did Big Fei really think that everyone could find their teammates as quickly as he did?

Afterwards, the Detroit Pistons progressed with Hamilton holding the ball up high, drawing a foul from Mutombo.

Thus, the Bucks had also reached their foul limit.

With only 2 minutes and 50 seconds left in the first quarter, Hamilton made both free throws, making the score 17 to 18—Pistons took the lead.

The Pistons trapped early, forcing Yu Fei to pass the ball to an unguarded Ray Allen.

Rasheed Wallace quickly rotated over.

Ray Allen then passed the ball to Sprewell in the corner.

Sprewell's strong drive to the basket was unsuccessful.

On the Pistons' counter-attack, they were stopped by Yu Fei who chased down for a massive block.

The game showed continuous offense and defense, each side demonstrating its own characteristics.

The Pistons were rigorous and organized; the Bucks were bursting with energy.

But as the deadlock without scoring threatened to form again, the Bucks knew they needed points. If they let the Pistons gain the upper hand on their home court, it would boost the confidence of their opponents for the remaining three quarters.

Yu Fei broke the deadlock in the shortest time possible.

Taking the ball from the backcourt, he quickly dribbled forward, not wasting time, and immediately called for Mutombo to pick and roll.

In previous pick and roll plays, Yu Fei mixed driving, passing, and shooting. With the multiple threats, the Pistons were unsure of how to defend the play.

Mutombo rolled to the basket as planned, Yu Fei stopped abruptly, threw the ball into the air, assisting the African mountain with an alley-oop dunk.

19 to 18.

The confusion on the defensive end pained Larry Brown—he tolerated defense being broken through but couldn't stand players not knowing how to defend.

But how exactly to defend?

If the problem couldn't be figured out, no matter how much Brown cursed his players, they couldn't find the correct way to defend.

The first quarter was coming to an end, and Pistons' routine passing was still ineffective.

Billups tried a three-pointer from the perimeter, but missed.

Yu Fei didn't rush, dribbling slowly to the frontcourt, waiting for his teammates to spread out. Just when the Pistons thought he was going to call for a pick and roll, suddenly, he accelerated to the right, like a lion on the savannah pouncing on its prey, leaving Prince behind and storming through to dunk over Big Ben with authority.

"BOOM!!!!!"

"Listen to me, the Frye problem is unsolvable!" Doc Rivers shouted after the dunk, "The Frye problem is unsolvable! This young man is outstanding!"

Afterward, the Pistons continued to miss in their set offense.

Sprewell scored on the counter.

23 to 18.

The Bucks suddenly had a 5-point lead, yet the Pistons had a stroke of luck, despite their positional offense failing drastically—they managed in the last few seconds of the quarter to let Rasheed Wallace casually throw a long three-pointer that, through sheer fluke, banked in.

The first quarter ended at 23 to 21.

That shot wouldn't change anything.

The fundamental issue for the Pistons remained unsolved—their specialty of locking down the opposing stars was ineffective tonight against the "Frye problem."

The Iron Bucket Formation couldn't contain Yu Fei, the traps couldn't kill Yu Fei, and double teams couldn't catch Yu Fei.

Larry Brown knew they had to change tactics, otherwise, if the game continued at this pace, the momentum would completely belong to Yu Fei alone.

For the Pistons, it was a slow death.

Even though the Bucks' advantage seemed small, the energy from Yu Fei alone was overwhelming.

Small incremental gains were all they needed—they didn't need to beat the Pistons by 10 or 20 points, they just needed to maintain the lead until the end of the game.

Even if by just 1 point, that was a win.

Larry Brown could confirm that the Bucks were their biggest adversary in the league, considering the F4 of the Lakers to be just a typical Western Conference bubble.

Overcoming Milwaukee was all that stood between them and the championship.

That was the only significant thing missing from Brown's 32-year coaching career.

But for a long time, he was more known as a "traveler" rather than a "winner." Before he came to Philadelphia, he never stayed more than five years at any one place, which significantly impacted his reputation. Even though he made the playoffs in 15 of his 21 NBA seasons and had a coaching win rate close to 60% in the NBA and close to 80% in college—both of which were very good reasons for his entry into the Hall of Fame in 2002.

Now, the path to the championship was in front of him, yet he was blocked by a team led by a man not even 22 years old?

Speaking of defending this young player, Brown had used up all his tricks.

But the opponent resolved the defensive dilemma with ease.

This brought the Pistons to a crossroads.

If they continued down the same path, there was only a dead end.

Brown's brother, Herb Brown, said to the always stubborn brother, "Larry, I know this is hard for you, but maybe we should seriously consider a zone defense."

Before the legalization of the zone, there were hundreds of coaches who opposed it, and among the most determined, the most stubborn, was Larry Brown.

Even though his Iron Bucket Formation emerged as a result of the rule changes brought by the legalization of zone defenses, he still did not accept zone defense.

Now, his brother was offering this advice, the only tactic they hadn't tried yet.

The cost was to contradict himself, turning from an opponent of the zone to an advocate for it.

"Tweet!"

The referee blew the whistle, indicating the start of the second quarter.

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