The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 404 - 200: The Tortured LeBron, The Impact of Shaquille’s Absence._5

Chapter 404: Chapter 200: The Tortured LeBron, The Impact of Shaquille’s Absence._5

That put Quentin in a tight spot; he didn’t know whether he should defend Su Wan or Ron Artest.

Seeing this, Su Wan didn’t hold back and straightaway drove the ball to the basket. Quentin saw LeBron make no move, so he quickly stuck close. Su Wan charged to the basket, and seeing the Cavaliers had "closed the door just in time," he passed the ball to little O’Neal.

Little O’Neal didn’t have much of an opportunity and passed the ball back to Artest.

Artest caught the ball at a 45-degree angle on the wing while Su Wan ran back to the top of the arc from the inside.

This was a tactical movement. The moment he got there, the ball flew from Artest’s hand into his.

"Swish!"

When the ball went in, Bill Walton couldn’t help but exclaim, "Beautiful!"

It was a play so brilliant it deserved a replay.

Laughter erupted in the TNT studio at that moment, with Barkley laughing unabashedly, "Look, look what LeBron is doing!"

Clearly visible in the transition defense, LeBron stood at the high post, turning in circles, his gaze following the ball flying around him, yet his feet never left the high post. If he had used his hands a bit, it would have been no different from directing traffic.

Kenny Smith had no fucks to give, finding it hard to believe this was the "City Son’s" level of commitment on defense.

The older generation of superstars all knew that defense, while not reflected by statistics, was also a display of spiritual power.

A team’s desire for victory can sometimes be reflected on the defensive end.

LeBron, looking the way he did, showed no desire to win the game.

For a team that was not favored by outsiders, without a fight-to-the-death attitude, they could never create any miracles.

Although the game had just begun, Kenny Smith had already mentally sentenced LeBron James to death.

With the team’s core player in this disposition, there was no way they could win.

And the following developments in the game held no surprises. The Pacers started with a lead and continually extended it, finishing the first quarter 11 points ahead.

The lead grew to 25 points by halftime.

It looked like the game was heading into "garbage time."

Bill Walton criticized LeBron’s mental state, "I can’t see any desire in LeBron to take this game, which is absolutely not the attitude a true leader should have!"

He was just short of saying outright, "I’m very disappointed in LeBron tonight."

However, after his critique, LeBron got fired up and began repeatedly attacking the inside. In the third quarter, he scored 14 points on his own, but the team’s deficit reached 30 points.

The Pacers noticed he had eyes only for the basket and would rush towards it as soon as he had the ball, paying him no mind.

As soon as they saw him charge, they just let him go in, giving him two points, refusing to give him the chance to create a "2 plus 1" foul, and then tried three-point shots on the outside.

The Pacers pulled away quickly tonight, so there was no pressure on their shooting state.

This is how shooters are, the less pressure there is, the more accurate they shoot.

And when they get into that playing state, it’s just a series of "clang clang clang" going in.

LeBron’s two-point breakthroughs wore him out, but to the Pacers, it was no pressure at all—actually, it was almost laughable.

Finally, the game ended. In the first match of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers defeated the Cavaliers 117 to 85 at home, a whopping 32-point victory.

This season’s Cavaliers, who had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, looked no different from last season’s team that met them in the first round.

Su Wan scored 32 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in this game, including 4 three-pointers.

LeBron was the best-performing player for the Cavaliers, with those 14 points in the third quarter, finishing with 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.

But aside from him, Quentin Richardson, Channing Fleay, and Gibson all performed poorly.

Quentin, who averaged 16.5 points in the Eastern Conference semifinals and made 2 three-pointers per game, went 1 for 4 from beyond the arc, only scoring 13 points on 15 shots; Channing Fleay got 16 points, but went 0 for 5 from the three-point line, with a lot of his points coming during the "garbage time" in the fourth quarter.

The most lackluster was Gibson, averaging 16.6 points and 5.4 assists in the Eastern Conference Finals, he did not score in double digits this game, shot 30% from the field, and not only made 4 turnovers but also had just 2 assists.

Bill Walton looked at the other Cavaliers’ stats and furrowed his brows, "Without Shaquille O’Neal, it’s clear that this team’s other players are extremely uncomfortable. LeBron played well, but... with only him performing, this game had no suspense."

Barkley’s comment was much more pointed: "When a team has only one person performing well and everyone else is slump, there’s only one explanation: the strategy is only comfortable for that one person and is extremely uncomfortable for everyone else. In fact, we’ve noticed that many of the tactics the Cavaliers used after the All-Star game didn’t come out in this match!"

"Tonight’s Cavaliers are more like the team at the beginning of the season, everyone revolving around LeBron..."

In other words...

"That’s where LeBron falls short of Shaquille; Shaquille could bring out the strengths in other players!"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l