The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 309 - 181 Shaquille, Maybe It’s Time to Retire_2

Chapter 309: Chapter 181 Shaquille, Maybe It’s Time to Retire_2

Su Wan’s words immediately brought to mind Shaquille O’Neal’s admonishment: "Absolutely do not trash talk him."

After all, an angry person is more determined to win!

"So, to face Su Wan, if you don’t want to push him into that mode, if you don’t want him to play in such a terrifying state, the first thing to do is to learn to keep silent? This is a very interesting phenomenon!"

Drexler thought of a contemporary figure when he brought up this topic.

In the ’90s, similar advice circulated in the NBA, especially for rookies: "Don’t provoke that black egg, all you need to do is stand on the court and execute the offensive and defensive strategies as the coach instructed, no matter how that guy greets you, don’t talk to him, and don’t even look at him!"

Now Su Wan has done precisely that.

And it’s not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry giving this warning, but the renowned Shaquille O’Neal!

The Indiana media was soon hailing Su Wan to the stars, finally finding an opportunity to loudly question the entire league: "Tell me now, who else doubts that Su Wan’s getting the regular season MVP this year due to his age, because everyone wants to witness history, and not because of his strength?"

Aside from a couple of "hehes" from Dallas, the other media who had previously expressed doubts all fell silent.

Are you kidding me? Even the "ringleader" Shaquille O’Neal has kept his silence; where would they get the courage to question Su Wan’s deservedness of the regular season MVP?

Moreover, even if Shaquille O’Neal was still not convinced, after watching yesterday’s game, they had to be.

points plus a final quarter 18 points, even peak Jordan could only do so much.

When Su Wan woke up the next day, it was already 2 p.m.

He had arrived home at 2:30 a.m. and went straight to sleep, sleeping a full 12 hours.

What’s more extreme is that, in the past, after sleeping for so long, he would wake up feeling refreshed, but today he woke up still feeling a bit limp.

It seemed the higher the physical fitness, the more thorough the consumption in "The zone" mode, and the more exhaustive the drain on the body.

But this was not hard to understand.

It’s like that thing, if the time is pushed to the limit, there will be a reaction afterward.

Su Wan had indeed gone to the limit yesterday, even using the "No Deceleration Change" at the last moment.

But against the ’06 version of Wade, only such an extreme effort could completely suppress him at key moments.

Speaking of extremes, if not for Nike adding the "Whistle Buff" to his repertoire, even with "Full Power," the Pacers would have had a hard time winning against Wade’s performance yesterday.

Keep in mind he scored a good 15 points from free throws alone, while the Pacers won by only 7 points in the end.

Without those whistles, it would have been the Heat Team winning by 8 points instead.

Moreover, if not for the "Whistle Buff" protection, without "The zone" mode earlier on, he couldn’t have made the Heat Team so wary of contact with him, and he wouldn’t have had so much stamina to activate "the zone."

In short, this victory, apart from Su Wan’s personal performance, also required gratitude for his forethought off the court, preemptively placing a call to Nike.

As for now, a line of poetry to describe the situation would be:

The light boat has passed through myriad heavy mountains!

A score of 3-1 versus a tie of 2-2 represent two entirely different situations.

From the Heat Team’s perspective, they’re completely pushed to the edge of a cliff, under immense pressure; from the Pacers’ perspective, holding three match points, their advantage is clear, with not a trace of irrational thoughts in their minds, only the excitement of being on the verge of the finals.

For the Heat Team, there’s something even worse:

Their loss in the last game turned what Pat Riley thought was a "turning point" into a "joke." Now the Heat Team’s targeted defense doesn’t even know where to begin. If all their defense focuses on the others, he’s worried Su Wan will have another huge outburst like in the last game, turning his coaching abilities into a laughingstock—to some extent, NBA head coaches are no different from Saint Seiya; they can’t be defeated by the same move twice.

The Heat Team was blown out in the last game because of Su Wan; if there’s no change in strategy this time, letting Su Wan do it again, then the media the next day will definitely say, "Pat Riley is too old," "He can’t keep up with the times," "Better to just focus on being your team’s general manager"...

But to continue targeting Su Wan...

The first and second games of the series have already proven this to be an unworkable method.

Both paths being blocked suggests one thing:

This season’s Fire Team definitely wasn’t up to par with the Pacers.

Pat Riley ultimately decided to change formations, primarily to limit Su Wan.

That way, even if they lost, they at least contained Su Wan, and from the outside looking in, it wouldn’t seem to have much to do with him as the head coach. After all, his adjustments were quite apparent. Mainly, it was because the Fire Team players just couldn’t outplay the opposition...

Hmm...

The "Divine Calculator’s" strategy of "sacrificing the car to save the general" went like this.

The final result wasn’t surprising.

Su Wan was targeted and contained by the Fire Team’s stringent defense during the game, managing only 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists for the entire game.

But Rick Carlisle had also guessed that Su Wan would be targeted, so he based his tactical setup on using a "Small Lineup" to attack the inside with little O’Neal.

Haslem was moved around, which utterly exposed Shaquille O’Neal’s slow footwork under the basket; little O’Neal’s build wasn’t as big as his, but he could use his agility to play Shaquille.

If Shaquille followed him out of the paint, he would use a cutback or a backdoor cut to shake off Shaquille and get ahead into the basket for a strong finish.

Little O’Neal’s footwork beneath the basket was very smooth, which is why many industry experts believed he should have a solid post-up game.

And if O’Neal stayed inside and didn’t come out, little O’Neal would use his accurate shooting to score over and over again.

All in all, it was a very easy game for him, and he ended up with 26 points!

Additionally, the Pacers shooting pack was extremely fierce tonight, especially since the large amount of trapping and help defense against Su Wan resulted in many open spaces for the Pacers. Just Artest and Calderon together nailed 6 three-point shots tonight.

Therefore, despite Wade’s high scoring of 36 points again, the Fire Team still lost with a score of 95 to 109, a 14-point difference to the Pacers.

Bill Walton couldn’t help but remark, "The Pacers totally took out the Fire Team with their offense tonight!"

What he really meant was that in the last game against the Wizards’ "Three Musketeers," they had the last laugh with their defense...

Facing teams with different styles, to have the ability to respond differently and still dominate each style, this year’s Pacers are just too strong!

At the first moment after the game ended, Su Wan turned to look at Shaquille O’Neal, who was passing by in a hurry to leave, and shouted at him, "Shaquille, maybe it’s time to retire. Dwayne is averaging over 30 points a game, and he still can’t carry you. I don’t think you’ll get your fourth Championship Trophy."

"Or..."

"You could take the toughest road!"

"Join the Pacers, it might be your only shot at kicking Kobe’s butt!"

"It’s just a shame, by the time you join, we would have already been champions, and everyone will surely say you’re just riding on our coattails!"

Humiliation!

Utter humiliation!

Wade stood right beside them, hearing every word Su Wan said.

But the sentences all strung together... he couldn’t help but grimace.

Isn’t that a bit too aggressive?

Shaquille O’Neal initially wanted to force a smile that was close to crying and beg Su Wan for mercy:

Truly honest, please spare me!

But hearing Su Wan’s humiliating words, he ultimately walked away with a dark expression.

Wade still sportingly congratulated Su Wan, just like last year.

Unlike last year though, looking back at Conseco Arena, he wasn’t sure if, come next year, he would be able to defeat Su Wan and this Pacers team.

Most likely...

He’d fall just like this year, right?

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