Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1042 - 595 Revenge Fire_2

Chapter 1042: Chapter 595 Revenge Fire_2 Chapter 1042: Chapter 595 Revenge Fire_2 “Yao Ming once told me he had a very happy time in Miami,” Yu Fei said in an interview with TNT before the game, “He said Miami is the best city in the world, but I disagree, I think Seattle is.”

“Ironically, neither of us could stay in what we believed was the best city,” Yu Fei continued, “but I believe Yao Ming will feel even more tonight.”

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Charles Barkley of TNT couldn’t help but provoke: “More than your feelings when you played at the Boeing Aerospace Arena?”

“Maybe even more,” Yu Fei replied indifferently, “after all, I left on my own decision, whereas Yao Ming was rejected when he was ready to stay. Chuck, have you ever had that feeling? I guess not, since you’ve never won.”

“!##@%”

The people in the studio began to laugh.

Barkley is a host who understands show effects very well, so he immediately pretended to be offended and exclaimed: “I hate you, Frye! You’re becoming more and more like Michael!”

“At least I’m willing to talk to you,” Yu Fei said pointedly.

...

It was already well-known that Barkley had sharply criticized the Bobcats two years ago, leading to his fallout with Jordan.

Yu Fei’s mention now made Barkley look even more embarrassed.

However, these dramatic moments were just the prelude to the Christmas battle.

The game between the Clippers and Miami Heat started in 20 minutes.

From the record, Miami Heat was currently only third in the Eastern Conference, not as good as the Knicks and the Knight, but as the defending champion, if they could stabilize Wade’s performance, they might well surpass the others later.

There was no better game than this high-profile battle to calm Wade down.

But certain decisions by the Clippers made Wade even more agitated.

From the beginning, the Clippers’ targeted defense focused on Curry.

Moreover, their purpose and tactical mainstay were revealed from the first play.

Yao Ming came to set a high pick, and Curry, matched against Thompson, was forced to squeeze past Yao Ming’s mountain-like body.

This wasn’t really meant to let Thompson cross time and space to beat up his best partner; the core purpose was to make Curry run as much as possible on the defensive end, squeezing through various picks, thereby tiring him out.

At the same time, after Yao Ming set the high pick, there was a fallback plan.

He would retreat to the three-point line, and if Izeli did not follow him out, Yao Ming would take a three-pointer; if Izeli came out, then he would pass the ball to Yu Fei, allowing him to exploit Love’s notorious defensive weakness in the entire League.

Just with this one tactic, the Clippers played five consecutive rounds from the opening without changing, and as a result, the Miami Heat let Yu Fei attack for two rounds, Love got blown up, seeing they couldn’t give Yu Fei the chance to take Love on singles, they let Yao Ming shoot threes, and then Yao Ming made 2 out of 3 three-pointers.

This was just an appetizer package at the offensive end; the Clippers had much more sophistication on the defensive end.

They always maintained two people on the strong side and three on the weak side.

The strength of Miami Heat’s offense lay in the dual threat from the backcourt duo: Wade has a powerful ability to drive, and Curry is renowned for his incredible outside shooting. Plus the support from Love and Butler, making any team difficult to defend against as long as they played normally. However, the Clippers used a 2-3 zone defense tactic, relying on Yao Ming’s height advantage to block the paint while Yu Fei, Jefferson, and Antetokounmpo implemented high-intensity help and switch defenses to compress the opponent’s offensive space.

Because Wade monopolized the ball possession, he was forced to go solo, but the Clippers chose to let Jefferson defend him one-on-one, focusing their main energy on limiting Curry and Butler. The Clippers’ strategic disdain and tactical disregard completely enraged Wade. He tried to use his individual ability to crush his opponents, but emotional fluctuations caused his shooting to be unstable, only making one shot out of his first four, providing Antetokounmpo and Yu Fei with multiple fast-break opportunities.

Less than half a quarter in, Miami Heat was already passive, the score gap widened to 9 points, and if they didn’t adjust in time, the gap could easily reach double-digits. Coach Spo made a tough decision, benched Wade, and let Curry take control of the ball.

This was a profound decision.

After all, the Curry of the 2014-15 season was in possession of the ball. In Yu Fei’s past life, that year Curry had risen unexpectedly, becoming the biggest threat to LeBron James in the battle for historical status. That year, Curry entered his prime.

Even though he was suppressed by Wade before, Curry maintained his composure, never complained, nor played erratically, patiently waiting for the opportunity. Now that the opportunity had finally come, he used various pick-and-roll tactics, forcing Yao Ming to acknowledge his former teammate’s power.

“We can’t let him keep shooting threes like that!”

After Yao Ming was continuously scored on by Curry’s pick-and-roll threes, he anxiously said to Yu Fei.

Yu Fei glanced at Coach Rivers.

Coach Rivers was still mouthing “rhythm,” “confidence,” “keeping our momentum,” and other correct but not very useful platitudes.

Yu Fei decided not to wait for Rivers’ reaction.

Kidding, this guy is the king of being reversed. Waiting for him to react, Curry might have overturned the game by then.

Yu Fei first drove into the lane, drawing a foul on Love, then before the free throw, he clapped his hands for his teammates to come over, making a concise and clear on-the-spot arrangement.

Yu Fei’s arrangement was simple: “From now on, switch everything, don’t give Stephen Curry the chance to kill us with pick-and-roll. Remember, switch everything, even if Yao has to defend Stephen, we must switch! Keep switching!”

Rivers didn’t know what happened; all he saw was that after that, Curry no longer enjoyed the leisure of getting open shots just by calling for a pick-and-roll.