LeBron Jas and Brad Miller lay on adjacent beds while team doctors cleaned their wounds and stopped the bleeding. An ambulance would be arriving shortly to take them away.
Their eyes were glued to the television.
Brad Miller suddenly spoke up. "LeBron, this teammate of yours is a beast. I have to admit, it was stupid of Chris Webber to stir up all that hype before the ga."
"But I get it. He had no choice. After he got injured in the playoffs last year, a lot of people were saying he was past his pri and would never be a top-tier star again. He wanted to seize the opportunity, but Little Sheep Su Xi is no pushover."
Jas remained silent.
He watched as Su Xi charged in for a powerful, montum-filled dunk, then got a steal, then another layup...
"This guy can do everything. He’s not actually going for a freaking quadruple-double, is he? God, no rookie in NBA history has ever gotten a quadruple-double in their first ga. He’s a goddamn chosen one," Brad Miller exclaid. He then tilted his head slightly and said to his fellow sufferer, "LeBron, your stats tonight weren’t bad, either."
Jas’s expression stiffened.
"Damn it, the Cavaliers aren’t actually going to mount a coback led by Little Sheep Su Xi, are they? The mont I’m gone, they just wilt like that?" Brad Miller muttered. "But even if they do co back, it’s got nothing to do with . We were up by 12 when I left the ga. They can’t bla the loss on ."
"Right, LeBron?"
A muscle in LeBron’s jaw twitched.
Just then, a staff mber entered. "The ambulance is here."
"Get on it, quick," Jas said, sounding impatient.
Brad Miller frowned and mumbled under his breath, ’What’s his problem? What did I say to set him off? Weird rookie. Thinks he’s all that.’
The team doctor cleaning his wounds nearby couldn’t suppress a smile. He thought to himself, ’Big White Bear, every single thing you said offended him.’
’Are all NBA players this clueless about how people work?’
...
BANG!
Su Xi slamd the ball hard off the front of the rim, and it bounced high into the air.
"Ah Bu!"
Carlos Boozer imdiately fought for position, boxing out Weber. He leaped up and forcefully tipped the ball out toward the periter.
Su Xi caught the ball and, with a quick touch, drew the entire defense in. Then, he rapidly passed it to the corner.
"Ah Ka!"
Kapono caught the ball, quickly rose up, and shot... SWISH!
He hit the three-pointer.
The lead was instantly cut to five.
Around three minutes remained on the clock.
After LeBron Jas left the court, Su Xi had personally orchestrated a 7-0 run.
Ah Bu and Ah Ka excitedly rushed over to Su Xi, high-fiving him from both sides.
"Can we really pull this off?"
Even Paul Silas was in disbelief.
It was all happening so fast.
’Jack is running the sa Number 1 play. His talent isn’t on the sa level as Jas’s, but the results... how are they this good?!’
"If Jack orchestrates this coback, I’m calling it the greatest rookie debut of all ti! Bar none!" Charles Barkley declared.
Kenny Smith, sitting beside him, looked unconvinced, but even he couldn’t na anyone who’d had a more dominant debut than Su Xi.
Mike Bibby brought the ball past half-court.
Brad Miller was out. And tonight, Su Xi had stripped the ball from Chris Webber so many tis he probably wouldn’t recognize his own mother.
The ball had to go to Divac.
Divac got the ball and imdiately held it high—that generation of centers all had the good habit of playing high above the rim.
But even with the ball held high, he couldn’t get a shot off. Ilgauskas stood before him like a giant tree.
The Cavaliers’ current lineup was actually a great counter to the Kings’ players on the floor.
Their inside pivot, Divac, was completely blanketed by Ilgauskas.
Their other pivot, Weber, was psychologically scarred from all of Su Xi’s steals. Adelman was so worried about Su Xi getting the quadruple-double that he’d even told his players to pass less. He didn’t want his team to beco a historical footnote.
As a result, the Kings were playing passively.
Divac managed to get the ball to Stojakovic. Peja was the Kings’ top shooter, but his ball-handling skills could only be described as average.
Under Davis’s scrappy, if not exceptional, defense, he was flustered. A guard with better handles would have treated him like an ATM, scoring on him at will.
CLANK!
A brick.
Carlos Boozer grabbed the rebound.
He passed it to Su Xi.
Su Xi brought the ball up the court.
He patiently directed his teammates, showing great strategic composure. Even down by five, he wasn’t rushing things.
Once his teammates were in position, he called out to Ah Bu.
Boozer happily trotted over to set a screen. Su Xi accelerated past, shook Chris Webber at the free-throw line, and drove into the paint. As Divac slid over to help, Su Xi had already passed to Ilgauskas, his montum carrying him into Divac to create a buffer.
Ilgauskas didn’t usually dunk, but Su Xi had served this one up on a platter and even helped clear out Divac for him.
How could he refuse a al like that?
BOOM!
He took a small hop, getting maybe six inches of air, and threw down a one-handed dunk.
He even let out a couple of roars.
Fired up.
105:108.
Just like that, the Cavaliers were only down by three.
"Jack’s a ’bad boy,’ huh?" Charles Barkley gushed on television. "He drives in for the pass and knows how to use his montum to push the defending center out of the way. Makes it look like he just can’t stop in ti."
"That’s one of the dirty tricks he learned from guys like Stockton and Isaiah Thomas," Kenny remarked, annoyed.
The two of them were yin and yang, always on opposite sides.
In front of his television, Larry Bird’s eyebrows shot up. He was about to slam his hand down on Carlisle’s leg when Rick Carlisle quickly grabbed his arm. "Boss, that hurts!"
Larry Bird pulled his hand back, patted Carlisle on the head, and said, "Jack is a perfect fit for our Pacers."
"Yes, absolutely," Carlisle readily agreed.
Just then, Larry Bird quietly got up, walked around to the other side of Carlisle, and sat down, placing his left hand on Carlisle’s right thigh.
Big Bird’s intentions were clear to all: ’This leg doesn’t hurt, right?’
Carlisle desperately wanted to file for worker’s comp. ’What is wrong with these people? If you get excited, slap your own thigh!’
He glanced over at Reggie Miller and finally understood why Miller always sat in a hard, separate chair.
The ga resud.
Under Su Xi’s leadership, the Cavaliers gradually seized the montum.
Su Xi wasn’t actually doing anything extraordinary. He was simply executing the plays, waiting for his teammates to get to their spots, attacking from the center, and then delivering tily, accurate passes.
That was it.
They were simple, fundantal tasks.
But it was precisely these simple, fundantal tasks that so many players couldn’t execute.
So lacked the patience, so wanted to showboat, and others simply didn’t have the ability to penetrate the lane.
The Kings, for their part, were essentially crippling themselves. For one, they had reduced their passing. For another, Weber had lost all confidence. A superstar player, he was now doing the work of a role player, actively trying not to touch the ball. Divac was old and tired; he couldn’t run and was completely shut down by Ilgauskas.
With one minute left in the ga, the Cavaliers took the lead on a layup from Carlos Boozer.
In truth, the Cavaliers had all the montum.
The players were completely fired up, running on pure adrenaline.
They were roaring on the court.
ARCO Arena, anwhile, was as quiet as a tomb, the crowd completely deflated.
Adelman called a tiout to draw up a final play.
"Looks like Jack’s quadruple-double is going to be tough to get now," Charles Barkley said. "But a near-quadruple-double is already incredible. If they pull off the coback victory, Su Xi’s debut will still be one for the history books."
Over the last stretch, the Kings had gone into a defensive shell. And while it resulted in them losing the lead, they had succeeded in preventing Su Xi from getting that final steal.
In that respect, they had succeeded.
But you couldn’t call it a complete success just yet. What if Su Xi managed to get one more steal in the final 1:01 and achieve an unprecedented rookie-debut quadruple-double?
"Chris, we need you to open things up from the periter!" Adelman yelled at Weber from the bench. "Show so guts! If you can get your outside shot falling, it’ll open up our entire offense."
He tried to fire Weber up.
He wasn’t asking Weber to be the do-everything player he once was, but he needed him to at least provide so consistent shooting.
The Kings were at a do-or-die mont.
If he, as the team’s leader, didn’t co through with so firepower now, it would be a complete embarrassnt.
Chris Webber took a deep breath. He clenched his jaw, his eyes sharp. "Alright," he said. "Get the ball."
Adelman drew up a play, going over the details again and again.
TWEET!
The whistle blew.
The ga resud.
Mike Bibby brought the ball past half-court. As diagramd, Weber ca up to set a screen. Bibby drove to the free-throw line, then made a look-back pass to Weber.
Su Xi switched onto him.
To be honest, Weber felt a pang of fear when he saw Su Xi. He’d been stripped so many tis tonight he was spooked. In his eyes, Su Xi was a pickpocketing demon, constantly reaching out with his devilish claws to snatch the ball away.
But Weber was still Weber. A forr superstar isn’t afraid to take the shot.
And he was experienced.
He gave a hard pump fake, then took a long stride forward. His agility and coordination were still there.
Su Xi instinctively fell back.
As Su Xi retreated, Weber seized the mont, stopped on a di, and executed a step-back.
His coordination and balance were better than Su Xi’s.
After falling back, Su Xi needed a mont to recover.
Although he lunged forward quickly, he couldn’t get there in ti to contest Weber’s jump shot.
The ball sailed through the air in a high arc.
And then... SWISH!
It went in.
112:114.
The Kings retook the lead by two.
Chris Webber had finally co through in the clutch. He raised both hands as the entire arena erupted in cheers.
It was as if the King had returned.
Weber’s confidence ca flooding back.
But just then, Su Xi darted in to receive the inbound pass. He brought the ball quickly up the floor, catching the Kings before their defense was set. He ran a pick-and-roll with Carlos Boozer, then passed to a cutting Ricky Davis, who scored with a left-handed layup.
Tie ga.
seconds left on the clock.
Both teams were back on even footing.
Theoretically, the Kings would get at least two more possessions.
The Cavaliers, however, likely only had one.
That ant they had to get a stop on this possession.
...
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