The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 151 - 117 Su Wan Hopes This Can Come True_2

Chapter 151: Chapter 117 Su Wan Hopes This Can Come True_2

Anyway, if Yao didn’t play well, it certainly also meant that Amare was not going to play well. The important thing was that McGrady could open up the situation from the flanks.

As long as he could explode, then the Rockets would be able to win easily.

If they really knocked out the Phoenix Suns, that would be really interesting.

McGrady’s 35 seconds 13 points had happened in December of last year, and by this time, he was like a dark cloud hanging over the Spurs.

Could it be that the Rockets’ most promising year was not 2009, but 2005?

However, to tell the truth, according to the historical patterns in the NBA, any duo that doesn’t perform well in their first year together tends to do worse in the following years. The most typical example would be Billups and Anthony later on.

They made it to the Western Conference Finals in their first year together and then never reached that height again.

It was the same for Yao Ming and McGrady.

It wasn’t until the two of them were no longer on the same team that the Rockets made it to the second round of the playoffs.

It’s worth mentioning that at that time, the Rockets really started to treat Yao Ming as the absolute core.

From this perspective, if they had focused on Yao Ming as the absolute core earlier, maybe the Rockets could have achieved greater success.

One can only say that Yao Ming met McGrady at the wrong time.

Although he was also a Western All-Star starter, McGrady was a two-time "Scoring King." With more seniority, he didn’t want to play "second fiddle" to a junior like Yao in his third year, and the team management wouldn’t find that hard to accept either.

Or to put it more bluntly, the 35 seconds 13 points had raised the outside world’s imagination of McGrady.

In fact, he was a "first-round virgin"!

However, McGrady in ’05 at least still had the tail end of his absolute peak and contributed to the playoffs with iconic moments like the slam dunk over the "Big Bamboo Pole." Now that they’ve made it past the first round, there’s indeed room for imagination.

Especially if they knock out the Phoenix Suns, facing the Spurs, they might just be able to make it to the Finals in their first year of cooperation.

Su Wan hoped that this could become a reality.

From his perspective, of the remaining teams in the West, the Spurs, the Suns, and the Rockets, the easiest to deal with were the Rockets!

The Pacers’ journey through the Eastern Conference playoffs was difficult enough, having beaten the defending champions, and next they had to face "The League’s First Center" Shaquille O’Neal. If they made it out of the East, who wouldn’t want to squeeze a soft persimmon!

Returning to Bolis International Airport, it was already 2:30 a.m.

What Su Wan and the others didn’t expect was that the passionate Pacers fans had come to pick them up again.

To advance to the Eastern Conference Finals after defeating the Pistons was an image they couldn’t have imagined before the playoffs started,

Even though they had believed there was a high probability of it happening.

Thinking it’s possible and it actually becoming reality are two different things!

The Pacers actually eliminated the Pistons!

And it was a "gentleman’s sweep" of "4-1."

So dominantly that they thought it was another team playing against the Pistons.

This not only avenged their grudge from the Auburn Palace but also settled last season’s grudge from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Honestly, Indiana no longer found it so hard to get over the "Auburn Hills incident." In their view, if it hadn’t been for that disaster, how would they have gotten Su Wan?

They had to thank the Pistons fan’s bottle of drink, which led to Artest throwing the punch that changed Bolis’s destiny!

"MVP!"

"MVP!"

"MVP!"

The airport was filled with unified chanting.

If the "MVP" chants for Su Wan at the end of the season were in response to Barkley’s banter, then the "MVP" chants at Bolis Airport now were truly heartfelt.

Su Wan’s performance in the last few minutes of the game really wetted their eyes! freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

No disrespect to Reggie Miller, but there really hadn’t been such a heart-stopping performance in Indiana’s history.

Reggie Miller certainly had his "Miller Time."

But Su Wan not only knocked down the Pistons from the offensive end but also locked down their offense on the defensive end.

Dominating on both offense and defense...

That’s not something Reggie Miller could do.

And Su Wan’s "Locking Throat" move against the Pistons at the last moment, fulfilled all their imaginations about wrapping up this series.

That’s how it should be!

That’s how it should be!

They have no objections to Su Wan becoming Indiana’s "new symbol," and now they’re completely in awe, only short of draping him in an emperor’s robe and telling him, "Your Majesty, we’ve arrived at Chen Qiao. Let’s revolt!"

Su Wan didn’t give a speech like he usually did.

It was late!

And after he activated "The zone" mode today, every move was a challenge to the body’s limits. The physical reaction from this series of actions was quite distinct; he just wanted to lie down and rest. But faced with the enthusiastic Pacers fans, he tried his best to show some enthusiasm and raised his voice to say,

"Everyone, there are just 8 more victories waiting before we bring home the O’Brien Cup!"

With just one sentence, the whole Bolis Airport erupted.

Rick Carlisle watched Su Wan casually stir up these fans’ emotions, shook his head slightly, his eyes full of emotion:

He understands so well!

Su Wan wanted to get home quickly, so he chose to end his speech with just one sentence. But as a result, that one sentence set off the "firecrackers," and it took a full half hour of explosive cheering around Su Wan before he could finally get back to his car.

By the time he got home, it was nearly 4 AM, and that "snake" in Los Angeles was already dribbling the ball in the gym. (Don’t lecture me again about Kobe only occasionally training in the gym at 4 AM; I’m just playing on the meme.)

By the time Su Wan finally lay in bed, he didn’t even know how he fell asleep. He just felt his eyes close, and then...

When he opened his eyes again, it was already 10:30 AM the next day.

"Ugh!"

Su Wan felt like he had "died" for several days before waking up again.

Pushing the body to its limits is indeed thrilling at the moment, but the damage to the body is very clear. He felt sore all over, and this aftermath wouldn’t fade away for a couple of days.

Fortunately, there were no games in the next few days.

After the Pacers finished their third game against the Pistons, the Heat finally met the Wizards, who had advanced to the second round of the playoffs. They just finished the second game of their series and are currently leading 2-0. Even if they swept their way through, they’d still have five days of rest.

Five days should be enough for him to bounce back as a "tough guy"!

Just to be on the safe side, Su Wan put all his recent zone points into "injury resistance," and after maxing it out, his potential value for injury resistance went straight up to 90 points.

Since he has been preparing for the playoffs recently, his training program wasn’t very extensive, mainly focusing on dribbling, breakthroughs, and mid-range shots, leaving no time to train other skills. So these days, the zone points weren’t used.

He was planning to save them, aiming for a boost in his physical potential during the summer.

But after trying out "The zone" mode’s limit operations, he realized there was a risk of injury.

To avoid a tragedy, he chose to put all the accumulated zone points into "injury resistance."

While this couldn’t make the soreness in his body disappear, at least it could reduce the risk of future injuries.

He should have already increased "injury resistance," but his base was too weak, so he had to focus on improving other, more important areas first.

Luckily, he had never encountered any serious injuries.

After closing the system, Su Wan planned to get up and head to the gym for practice.

The Pacers didn’t have a regular training session today.

They still had some time before the Eastern Conference Finals. Yesterday’s game against the Pistons was a tough battle, so Carlisle gave everyone a day off.

But Su Wan didn’t plan to rest. Although the aftermath of pushing his body was obvious and he couldn’t do strength training, he could still practice shooting.

People are inherently lazy.

The only thing that can kill laziness is habit.

Struggling to get ready, Erin called, and her first words were:

"Su, can you really enter the ’The zone’ state that Michael talked about?"

Su Wan: ???

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