Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1036 - 593 I Dont Know the Answer to This

Chapter 1036: Chapter 593: I Don’t Know the Answer to This Question_2 Chapter 1036: Chapter 593: I Don’t Know the Answer to This Question_2 “`

Just in a flash, the Greek broke through to the basket, caught the ball, spun around, and powerfully dunked.

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As they entered the defensive round, this was the main doubt expressed by the outside world about the Titan lineup.

Experts believed that the Clippers would collapse defensively because of their height.

This worry was indeed reasonable.

Yao Ming and Jokić both struggled with defending the pick-and-roll, but each had different difficulties.

Yao Ming couldn’t defend drives or shots well; he was too tall and couldn’t keep up with the perimeter pace.

Although Jokić lacked speed on drives, he had exceptional awareness; his main difficulty was defending against shots.

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If the opponent didn’t pull any tricks and simply used the space created by the pick-and-roll to shoot, his “Hand of God” that could be salty, sweet, dry, or wet was of no use.

Irving didn’t take these differences seriously and just charged through whenever there was a pick-and-roll.

Jokić delayed him for a second before being breached.

But that one second was enough for the Clippers’ defense to get into position.

Yao Ming stood tall in the restricted area like a pillar; Irving ducked in the air and attempted a layup, but suddenly, his eyes widened, only to see the Clippers’ number 44 appear in his field of view, slapping his hands together and viciously pinning the ball to the backboard before snatching it down.

“!#￥￥%#&”

No matter how you looked at it, this play greatly demoralized the opponents. However, the Supersonics’ fans still cheered for the person who blocked Irving’s shot.

Bennett wanted to erase every trace of Yu Fei’s existence, just as Abe Pollin did with Jordan, using ruthless methods to obliterate number 23’s presence in Washington. It’s the privilege of the owners, and a microcosm of the professional league—as if everything about a star comes from the owner’s grace, and when the owner no longer wishes to give, the star can be thrown out like trash.

But Yu Fei was different from Jordan back then.

Jordan’s departure was ugly, and it was destined that he would not return to the court to seek revenge against Washington. Pollin squeezed every last drop of value from Jordan and then left him behind without a second thought.

On the other hand, Yu Fei was still lively, as if he could win eight more championships.

The more Bennett tried to make his traces disappear, the more intense the fans’ backlash became.

Because Yu Fei was right there on the court.

No statue? He could create a best-selling poster with a spectacular dunk to be hung in fans’ homes.

No memorabilia? The Clippers would happily fill that market gap for Bennett, even thanking him for voluntarily relinquishing that revenue.

No tribute video? No problem, every highlight reel of Yu Fei at the Boeing Aerospace Arena after a game would be more touching than any tribute video, becoming Bennett’s public shaming.

Take this round, for example. Yu Fei helped defend and blocked Irving’s shot, then joined the counterattack. He wasn’t the type to show flashy moves or humiliate his opponents, especially not the Supersonics. He never intended to humiliate the Supersonics or the fans of Seattle; he just thought of Bennett and then threw the ball behind him against the backboard, followed by a jump and a powerful clockwise slam dunk to put the ball into the basket.

“Frye seems particularly excited!”

“That’s right, we rarely see him dunk like this!”

Yu Fei listened to the cheers from the crowd, his gaze sweeping across Bennett’s box as if to say, you can erase my traces in the Boeing Aerospace Arena, but how can you stop my performance on the court? How can you prevent the fans from loving me just as they did before?

As long as this situation continues, Bennett can never turn the tide.

The only way to change public opinion is to lead the team to win the championship, proving that even without Yu Fei, they can succeed.

But with Irving as the core, it’s an incredibly arduous task.

Soon after the game began, the match between the Clippers and the Supersonics turned into a one-sided contest. The pre-game worries about the Clippers’ “Titan lineup” were somewhat justified, but the experts clearly overrated its disadvantages and underrated its strengths.

While the super-sized lineup indeed went against the current space basketball philosophy, not every team has the capability to exploit its weaknesses.

It’s true that Yao Ming had problems defending the pick-and-roll—as did Jokić. But even with poor defense, at least he could buy one second of delay. Tonight’s defense against Irving was a testament to that, as Jokić stepped up to defend the pick-and-roll, and even though he was eventually overcome, that one second of delay was enough for the other Clippers defenders to arrive.

One second on the court can change the outcome, just like Derrick Fisher once completed The Shot in 0.4 seconds.

The core of the Clippers’ defense is to contract, which doesn’t mean they start off by allowing the opponent to take three-pointers. When the opposition attempts to penetrate or play big against the twin towers, the Clippers’ defense immediately tightens up. This is thanks to Yu Fei and Antetokounmpo, two defensively extensive and athletic players.

Jokić’s defensive delay gave them enough time to rush from the wings to the interior, and Irving fell right into the Clippers’ trap.

The problem with this defensive strategy is that if the opponent’s ball handler has a wide view and precise passing, they have the opportunity to find teammates in the corner. However, the Clippers were willing to voluntarily give up part of the corner three-point defense to relieve pressure on the twin towers.

Luckily, the Supersonics were not a team that excelled in corner threes, and thus, they were completely suppressed by the Clippers’ collapsing defense.

After one quarter, they were already trailing by double digits.

Starting in the second quarter, the game for the Supersonics turned into Irving and Roy taking turns in isolation plays.

Tyronn Lue kept wiping sweat on the sidelines, yelling, trying to get his team to exploit the weakness of the Clippers’ twin towers, but throughout the game, the number of points the Clippers lost because of the twin towers were very few.