The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 287 - 173: Off-Peak Travel? Impossible!_2

Chapter 287: Chapter 173: Off-Peak Travel? Impossible!_2

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On both offense and defense, he made LeBron look utterly useless.

If you said that every regular season game was Su Wan landing a "heavy punch" on LeBron’s reputation value, then now, it’s like Su Wan has a "Gatling gun" going "ratatatatata" on his reputation.

Interestingly, after the first two games between the Pacers and the Cavaliers, the Cleveland media began to lambaste the Pacers for not understanding the "rules of the world": "We’ve already secured a lead of more than 20 points and taken out most of our main players, why are the Pacers still keeping their full strength on the court?"

This sparked considerable discussion.

Rick Carlisle spoke on behalf of the team: "If it were the regular season, when the opponent takes out most of their main players, we would also take ours out, but this is the playoffs. In my view, if the Cavaliers don’t take LeBron out, then as far as we’re concerned, the Cavaliers still want to fight back. Every game in the playoffs is crucial, and we can’t joke about a victory that’s within our grasp!"

Seeing the Cleveland reports, Su Wan immediately felt there was something wrong.

Extremely wrong.

Subconsciously, he felt this had to do with LeBron’s team behind the scenes. Whether it was instigated by LeBron, Su Wan didn’t know, and he didn’t want to falsely accuse LeBron.

But upon seeing the report, a term immediately came to Su Wan’s mind:

Staggered travel!

There was no helping it, the Cleveland media’s intentions were too obvious; Su Wan couldn’t help but see through them.

What he hadn’t anticipated, though, was that Carlisle wasn’t giving them any breaks at all. He directly called them out, saying the Pacers would only acknowledge that the Cavaliers had given up if LeBron left the court. Otherwise, it was the same as wanting to struggle a little more.

Is this still the Rick Carlisle he knew?

All he could say was that the current Pacers were just too tough!

Any scheming and trickery were exposed...

Thinking they can bully us Hoosiers?

Impossible!

And so, with old grudges and new enmity, Game 3 of the series began at Quicken Loans Arena.

It was clear that Cavaliers fans truly loved LeBron!

Even though they’d lost by 60 points combined in the previous two games, Quicken Loans Arena was still packed tonight. As Su Wan and the others emerged from the visiting team’s tunnel, a barrage of boos echoed throughout the stands.

Clearly, the Cleveland media’s news about the Pacers not observing the ways of the world had successfully brainwashed lots of Clevelanders, who were now using boos to express their dissatisfaction with the Pacers.

At the same time, they still harbored a bit of fantasy in their hearts.

If...

If everyone on the team had a breakout performance, and LeBron found his confidence against other teams and beat the Pacers, they would be thrilled to the point where the whole of Cleveland would be shaken.

Yep, that’s the only demand Clevelanders had for their team now:

Win one game, and it’s as good as advancing!

At least it would let out the pent-up frustration.

But as soon as the game began, the atmosphere in the arena visibly cooled.

The Pacers had the first possession, and as soon as Su Wan had the ball, Newell from the wing came over to double-team.

It looked like the plan was to keep Su Wan away from the ball right from the start.

Mike Brown: I just don’t believe it, this guy can’t finish off the Cavaliers tonight with his off-ball offense!

If that’s how it was, he could only take it.

There was no other choice, with Su Wan’s current skill level within the Pacers’ system, it was all about multiple-choice questions now.

Keep him touching the ball as little as possible, cut down his chances of going one-on-one with the ball; in Mike Brown’s view, this was the only way for the Cavaliers to disrupt the Pacers’ initial momentum.

But the Cavaliers players on the court paid too much attention to Su Wan’s movements after passing, and Artest’s open three-point shot was a sure hit.

Then it was Little O’Neal, and after that, Tinsley.

Su Wan didn’t attempt a shot in the first three minutes of the game, and he also didn’t have many opportunities to handle the ball.

Yet it was through his movement that he restrained the Cavaliers’ defense, exploiting their preoccupation with his positioning to successfully slice through their defense.

During this period, most of the Pacers’ baskets were open shots.

There was no way you could expect a team that was eighth in the Eastern Conference and had gone through turmoil at the end of December and the beginning of January to have a good defensive quality, not even if Mike Brown or Popovich were in charge.

Just look at this year’s Spurs to understand, while there was an element of Popovich’s deliberate action, their ranking as twelfth in the Western Conference was a hard fact. Tim Duncan went fishing in April for the first time in his career.

One has to say, that old man was also clever, knowing that if tanking was too obvious, David Stern might not give him a high draft pick. So he deliberately put the team in a position that even David Stern couldn’t manipulate.

As long as there wasn’t an unexpected "No.1 pick" this year, with the Spurs’ ranking third from last in the Western Conference and fifth from last in the whole league, they were very likely to get the fifth pick in the first round of the draft, or at worst, the seventh.

Even though 2006 was a weak draft year; for a team like the Spurs, which already had a championship foundation, scooping up a qualified starter was already a successful tank.

Cough cough~

Let’s get back to the game.

Mike Brown started scratching his head, he really didn’t know what to do right now.

Just talking about restricting Su Wan, the Cavaliers had achieved their tactical goal; at least Su Wan had not taken a shot so far.

But the price for that was way too damn painful!

And once again, LeBron was being targeted...

With the same level of trapping and interception.

Under Artest’s and Su Wan’s constant pressure on either side, LeBron changed his play that evening, or rather, he increased the frequency of passing after breakthrough dribbling.

If his chances of passing after a breakthrough dribble used to be 30%, tonight LeBron’s probability of passing after a breakthrough became 80%.

Every time Su Wan and Artest blocked him, or Little O’Neal came over to help defend in the paint, he would dish out the ball.

There were several occasions where his passes actually found open teammates.

Sadly, in the end, the shots didn’t go in.

Barkley, showing the rationality of a professional commentator, although he hated LeBron, felt that this time it really wasn’t LeBron’s fault: "From the last few plays, the Cavaliers’ offseason acquisitions were a complete failure. LeBron doesn’t need a ball handler like Larry Hughes; what he needs are teammates who have decent catch-and-shoot abilities. If he had better shooters, the last few plays would not have come up empty, LeBron has the capacity to lead a ’One Star and Four Shooters’!"

Kenny Smith nodded in agreement: "The Pacers dare to blatantly trap LeBron because the Cavaliers’ perimeter has no shooting threat. If there were two shooters, LeBron’s situation would improve a lot!"

In the general manager’s office at Quicken Loans Arena, Danny Ferry was switching channels, listening to various commentators’ suggestions for the team.

Although most of it was nonsense, sometimes there were some inspirations to be found.

This season, no matter what, the team made it to the playoffs. Next up, continue to refine the roster, and maybe next season it might be possible to go straight to the finals.

The key was...

How to upgrade the roster!

Hearing Barkley and Kenny Smith say LeBron needed shooters, he wasn’t happy at the moment: "I don’t know LeBron wants shooters? I didn’t give him shooters? But in the end, wasn’t it he himself who failed to capitalize on them?"

However, this was some of the more useful information he had heard so far.

The Cavaliers had charged to the top of the Eastern Conference rankings earlier in the season because they had a shooter who could help LeBron stretch the defense.

What he needed to do was to continue to find similar shooters for LeBron, to make his breakthroughs easier.

"One Star and Four Shooters, eh?"

That might actually be worth a try!

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