The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 39 - 38: That’s What High School Students Are Like!

Chapter 39: Chapter 38: That’s What High School Students Are Like!

"Coach, let me try again, I really feel good today!"

LeBron James felt as though the game had only just begun and it wasn’t time to draw conclusions yet.

Paul Silas hesitated upon hearing this, and Brandon Malone could tell from his expression that the pace of the game wasn’t going to slow down. He glanced at Su Wan, but before any exchange of looks could happen between the two, Silas spoke up.

As expected, he agreed with LeBron’s idea.

Su Wan didn’t insist. He only requested a substitution: "Let me play during the rotation period later on!"

"Tch," LeBron snorted disdainfully, thinking to himself:

That’s all the skill you’ve got!

Great, you’re not on the court, I can even up the score, and the credit will be all mine!

He didn’t think that Su Wan not being on the court would have much of an impact on him.

Silas did not stop Su Wan from taking a seat back on the bench.

He couldn’t refuse LeBron’s request, so he couldn’t refuse Su Wan’s either.

But...

Watching Su Wan sit back on the bench with a calm demeanor, Silas couldn’t shake the feeling that Su Wan was holding back something big.

The timeout ended.

The decision to substitute Su Wan out from the Cavaliers didn’t surprise the commentators. It wasn’t strange to sub out a player at this point, and they could clearly see that the pairing between Su Wan and LeBron wasn’t working well. With LeBron holding the ball, the play became a one-man show, and Su Wan looked more like he was running sprints rather than playing a game. Taking a break now and playing later during the rotation seemed like a good arrangement.

However, as the game resumed and they watched both teams continue to attack at a fast pace, they couldn’t help but wonder:

So, what was the point of that timeout by the Cavaliers?

In the TNT studio, Barkley expressed his confusion with a guess: "Was that timeout just to sub out Uncle?"

No one could answer his question.

On the bench, Su Wan watched the ongoing intensity of the Bucks and the slowly increasing point gap. He turned to Jose Calderon and said, "Jose, do you want to join the Cavaliers’ starting lineup?"

Calderon was taken aback.

Up to this point, he was averaging 8.4 minutes per game over two matches.

No matter how you looked at it, his current goal should be to become an important rotation player for the Cavaliers, rather than...

Starting player—a position out of reach.

But since Su Wan asked, he still nodded as if possessed by a ghost.

"Later, I’ll ask for you to join me on the court, Jose. The opportunity is coming! " Su Wan patted his shoulder confidently, as if everything was under his control.

The remaining time in the first quarter ended quickly, and LeBron James, upon returning to the court, played with even more focus than before.

Regrettably, he couldn’t support the team alone, and being caught up in the opponent’s preferred rhythm, his 13 points in a single quarter weren’t enough to prevent the team from falling 8 points behind.

"It’s our turn to play, Jose!"

Su Wan signaled to Calderon and walked up to Silas before the start of the second quarter, making his request. When Silas heard that Su Wan wanted to play with Calderon, he paused.

He didn’t have much of an impression of the Spaniard.

Brandon Malone, who was nearby, chimed in timely: "The two of them played together in the summer league and had a pretty good understanding of each other."

What else could Silas say, with his chief assistant suggesting this? He nodded in agreement.

LeBron saw Su Wan bringing Calderon onto the court and thought he understood their thinking:

So, they want to form cliques on the court!

So naïve!

It wasn’t LeBron being arrogant. With his status on the Cavaliers, even if the whole team, including his buddy Vallejo, sided with Su Wan, they wouldn’t be able to shake his spot.

When it comes to palace intrigue, you have to choose your battles!

A tenant trying to conspire against the landlord, can you ever win?

LeBron smiled at Su Wan’s naiveté written all over his face.

The second quarter began quickly.

The Bucks didn’t have any particularly strong players on the bench.

The "Super Sixth Man" from the Bulls Dynasty, Kukoc, was in the twilight of his career, with his only impact being "veteran’s caution," "veteran’s inspiration," and "veteran’s massage"; Zaza Pachulia was still a "nag," and even at his peak, he was just okay. The only somewhat capable player was ’95 top pick Joe Smith.

However, the notorious "Yin Yang Contract" around 2000 tarnished his reputation and his performance declined significantly. He had been wandering the league for years, floating outside various systems, completely lacking his initial drive from when he entered the league.

Even without entering "The zone" mode, with his current abilities, Su Wan was able to dominate over these players.

In just a minute and a half, the Bucks’ 8-point lead had shrunk to 5 points.

Seeing the gap closing, Bucks coach Terry Porter, a cautious man, quickly subbed the starters back in.

During the wait, Su Wan elbowed Jose Calderon: "The most critical moment is coming up, you just need to stabilize the rhythm and play position war!"

Confidence flashed in Calderon’s eyes.

He was not good at sieging or defending, but controlling the rhythm of the game and organizing teammate positions—that was definitely his forte.

He was a pure point guard.

As for the rest he couldn’t do...

To slow down the offensive and defensive tempo, Calderon’s command was one aspect, but another part was to slow down the opponent’s "engine."

"I’ll defend their point guard!" Su Wan took on the task of guarding Mo Williams. freёNovelFire.com

Brandon Malone heard this from the sidelines and immediately understood Su Wan’s plan, suggesting to bring Drew Gooden and "Big Z" up front.

LeBron, realizing later, saw that the entire Bucks’ starting lineup was back on, and except for himself, the rest of the Cavaliers’ starters were also brought onto the court.

And his replacement...

Was a Spaniard who usually didn’t make much of an impression!

He didn’t think that Calderon taking his place on the court would reverse the situation or change anything.

But...

Though that was his intention.

For some reason, his heart was uneasy.

"Coach, I’m ready to go!"

He decided to enter the game.

But the referee’s whistle sounded, and the game restarted.

Mo Williams took the ball past half-court.

He would later be dubbed by domestic fans as "Mo Buzhuan."

However, he wasn’t "Mo Buzhuan" to every teammate.

In his first year with the Bucks, he passed well, and later with the Cavaliers, he did equally well.

He just didn’t pass to Yi Jianlian!

Su Wan remembered a game Yi Jianlian had against the Bobcats, where he scored 29 points by the end of the third quarter, but he barely touched the ball in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, Yi Jianlian’s NBA career-high score could have been even higher.

In addition to decent passing, Mo Williams was proficient in mid-to-long range shooting, possibly because his 1.85-meter height was too short, and also because he himself was not a "speed type guard," he was more resistant to breakthroughs.

That was the case when facing the physically intimidating LeBron in the first quarter.

But for some reason, when facing Su Wan, he seemed to hint at attempting a breakthrough.

Did this guy have a bit of "racial discrimination"?

Otherwise, Su Wan found it hard to understand why he wouldn’t pass to Yi Jianlian and now seemed so confident in front of him.

Whether it was true or not, there was no question about it—take him down!

Su Wan defended closely, using physical confrontation to force his dribble.

The aggressive defense was something Mo Williams hadn’t anticipated, and he became single-minded in how to get rid of Su Wan, no longer observing the positioning of his teammates. It was then he realized he might have underestimated the Huaxia man before him.

Su Wan’s physical talent, whether static or dynamic, even among the African American players he had faced, was above first-class.

"F*ck off!"

Mo Williams panicked!

Su Wan slapped away his hasty throw with a swipe of his palm.

The ball landed in Jose Calderon’s hands.

Seeing the Bucks quickly falling back on defense, Calderon recalled what Su Wan said earlier:

Set up in position!

He waited unhurriedly for the other Cavaliers, especially for Su Wan to get into position on the wing to receive the pass, directed his teammates’ movement, and then finally passed the ball to Su Wan.

Paul Silas saw it clearly, the positioning of the other players that Calderon directed was exactly what he had practiced yesterday for Su Wan’s one-on-one tactics.

Calderon hadn’t played at that time, but he firmly remembered the positioning of the other players in that set.

This Spaniard...

Now he had made quite an impression.

Su Wan was up against Michael Red.

Red’s defensive stance, before he became the main man, was quite good. But limited by his own strength, his defensive quality wasn’t high. After becoming the main man, even the right attitude had disappeared. Su Wan managed to fake him out with consecutive ball-handling moves, tricked him into reaching for the steal, and after getting inside, he made Gadzuric jump with a feint, then passed the ball to the following Big Z. The Lithuanian took one step forward and easily laid the ball into the basket.

Now the deficit was just three points.

"Defense, defense!"

Su Wan called his teammates to quickly fall back.

Because the Cavaliers had set up in position, the opponent’s defense had all fallen back; there was no chance for a fast break. Coupled with Su Wan’s command, as Mo Williams brought the ball up, he saw the Cavaliers’ defense was already in place.

Having just tasted the fierceness of Su Wan’s confrontation, Mo Williams did not dare to try it again easily; he passed the ball to Michael Red.

Red held the ball on the wing, his fake move didn’t trick Newell in front of him, and he gave up on the idea of shooting, continuing to move the ball to Mason.

Mason, mismatched against Calderon, had a good opportunity to overpower him.

However, Calderon played him at a distance, not giving him a chance to drive hard.

With a career three-point shooting percentage never surpassing 30% in a season and an average of only 26.9%, attempting only 0.4 three-point shots per game, Mason didn’t dare to take a three-point shot. In the end, with determination, he drove to the basket, but Big Z successfully disturbed the shot, and Drew Gooden under the basket grabbed the rebound.

The ball reached Su Wan, who then passed it to Calderon.

Proceeding methodically, Calderon stood in front court at Su Wan’s signal; he called for a pick-and-roll himself, drove hard with the ball, and near the free-throw line, he suddenly stopped, waiting for Su Wan to make a cut from the wing toward the basket. He then passed the ball in front of Su Wan.

The inside man, Van Horn, realized what was happening too late, only to see the "Great Wall Cannon" flying before his eyes.

"Bam!"

Single-handed slam.

"Tweet!"

The whistle sounded, and as Su Wan dunked, Van Horn’s light push sent him to the free-throw line.

After making the additional free throw, the Cavaliers had erased the Bucks’ eight-point lead.

In fact, the Bucks weren’t very dominant this season, finishing with a record of 30 wins and 52 losses, ranking third last in the Eastern Conference.

Without a player with the capability to isolate with the ball on the perimeter, and without anyone who could play with the ball inside, just by getting into position, denying them the space to cut and drive, it was not difficult to cut off their offense.

Even with LeBron leading the team, it was possible to do the same.

But in this game, he was focused on breaking down the Bucks by himself, which let the opponent enter their "comfort zone."

After all, a fast-paced offense and defense were also LeBron’s favorite style of play.

High schoolers are like that!

As Su Wan fell back on defense, he saw LeBron getting up, knowing he surely couldn’t sit still any longer, and in order not to let this achievement be overlooked after the game, he shouted to LeBron:

"LeBron, everything’s fine on the court; you can rest a bit longer and don’t rush back!"

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