Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1011 - 585 Another Curse
Chapter 1011: Chapter 585 Another Curse Chapter 1011: Chapter 585 Another Curse The semifinal elimination of the Warriors meant that the Clippers had made history.
It was a major event for Los Angeles.
For a long time, the Clippers had been like Fredo Corleone in LA’s professional sports—no one took them seriously because of their perennial bad luck and the so-called curse they bore.
That’s why, when the GOAT initially chose to join the Clippers, so many people were skeptical about them.
But now, a new history had emerged, and the cursed Clippers seemed to have vanished along with the end of Donald Sterling’s era.
“The Clippers have refreshed their best historical performance, now what?”
The opponents they faced next were the Spurs, a team whose intensity completely surpassed that of any Western team.
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This year’s Spurs had aged another year, but Duncan and Ginobili had become more crafty with age. The loss in the finals had provided them with motivation, and the growth of Paul George and Kemba Walker had significantly increased their overall strength.
Yu Fei had predicted at the start of the season that their limit would be the Western Finals, but having reached the conference finals, how could they not give it their all against the Spurs?
The Spurs were a completely different opponent from the Warriors.
In terms of coaching, Rivers was nowhere close to Popovich.
As for player matchups, the Clippers expected their advantage positions to be Yu Fei and Griffin.
But as the game started, they found that Yu Fei was the only advantage.
Griffin could bully the interior lines of the Rockets and the Warriors, but against the Spurs, his tricks just didn’t work.
Duncan, at 38, looked old, and his white beard was proof that he was nearing the end of his career. His once magical, cold legs no longer possessed outstanding jumping ability.
Yet somehow, he was able to score against Griffin’s defense with a variety of simple, fundamental interior offensive moves.
Griffin might have appeared able to run and jump, but as a post player, his static talent was completely suppressed by Old Duncan.
Old Duncan didn’t need to run or jump; he just had to use his core strength to lock down Griffin’s talent. By applying pressure during the attack and not giving Griffin space to jump, Griffin was left with no options.
Fortunately, Duncan inevitably got old and could drop 20 points on Griffin in a half, but in the second half, he didn’t have much energy left for offense.
However, as soon as they wore Duncan down, Pau Gasol started up.
His suppressing force wasn’t as strong as Duncan’s, but he didn’t let Griffin easily fight back either.
Griffin carried the name of an unmatched griffin, with unrivaled sprinting and jumping ability, and exquisite skills, but as a post player, he lacked the most crucial thing—the toughness when facing confrontation.
The hardness of a post player comes from core strength, and this energy, which is about the status of the post, is what the contemporary post players value the least. It’s also the least regarded trait by so-called unicorns growing in the era of space basketball.
Griffin could easily bully the Warriors’ interior, but in front of the Spurs’ posts, his tenacity wasn’t even comparable to Antetokounmpo.
After one game, Yu Fei knew he could not count on Griffin.
Under this intensity, Griffin had to treat himself purely as an off-ball offensive player.
But he liked to have the ball.
Moreover, the Clippers really couldn’t do without him in that role.
If Griffin didn’t handle the ball, then the Clippers would have to concentrate it in Yu Fei’s hands.
Then, Rivers realized, double-teaming the GOAT? It seemed it wasn’t unfeasible.
In San Antonio’s G2, Yu Fei played 44 minutes, slowed down the pace to his advantage, and kept switching between calling out plays and shining among his support stars. With a score of 88 to 86, they won narrowly against the Spurs.
Yu Fei alone amassed 44 points, 14 rebounds, and 9 assists.
“I really enjoy playing against Frye,” Popovich said meaningfully, “He played that way back in 2003, and I didn’t expect that he can still do the same now.”
Over the years, Yu Fei had gone through several transformations, and his style had already greatly changed from that of 2003.
However, that night, he was forced to revert to his 2003 approach to wrest a game away on the Spurs’ home court. Indeed, it was due to the roster’s limitations that the Clippers had to rely completely on him.
But such a one-man show couldn’t last till the end of the series.
Because he was up against the 2014 Spurs.
Returning to Los Angeles for the third game, the Clippers hoped to win and take a 2-1 lead in the series. However, the Spurs, with their excellent pick-and-roll, cutting, and ball-sharing tactics, plus a three-point barrage from the corners, had blown the game open by halftime.
Yu Fei scored 35 points, took 11 rebounds, and gave 12 assists that night, but they still lost by 19 points in the end.
The Spurs’ “beautiful basketball” made the greatest individual talent seem powerless against the team.
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Yu Fei thought, only five wing players could limit the Spurs’ beautiful basketball.
But the Clippers, at best, only had Yu Fei himself, Antetokounmpo, and Matt Barnes to play switch-all defense.
From a roster perspective, they simply didn’t have the basic conditions to defeat the Spurs.
In G4, almost the same script played out.
The only difference was, the Spurs’ performance was even more astonishing than the last game.
During the entire first half, the Spurs shot an incredible 65%. They continually cut through the Clippers’ defense with their passing, finding easy scoring opportunities. With their teamwork at its peak, their three-point shooting was flawless as well.
Yu Fei felt he had played well enough that night. He changed his tactics, assisting his teammates with split-second three-point shots by constantly breaking through. Yet, there was a twenty percentage point difference in shooting percentage between the two teams.
