Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1110 - 619 As If It Will Never Stop_2

Chapter 1110: Chapter 619: As If It Will Never Stop_2 Chapter 1110: Chapter 619: As If It Will Never Stop_2 However, the Clippers’ strength is another concept.

The Knicks swept through the Eastern Conference relying on talent, only to find themselves suppressed by the Clippers’ talent in the NBA Finals. The presence of Giannis Antetokounmpo is to tell the world how capricious one can be with extreme talent.

A few years ago, he was playing in Greece’s lower leagues, earning only ten thousand US dollars a month. With his talent, he rapidly climbed up the social ladder, landing in the world’s top league. And even at this level, his talent still crushes most players.

Now, Antetokounmpo is rapidly improving every year, and besides his individual offense still being slightly unstable, he has become the core of the Clippers second only to Yu Fei.

Apart from visible talents like Antetokounmpo, the Clippers also possess top “soft talents” like Jokić that are not so obvious. The Knicks, trying to compete with the Clippers in talent, can’t help but recall last year’s Christmas showdown. At that time, the Clippers had also crushed them in this helpless manner.

Derek Fisher tried to emulate the Triangle Offense system of the Zen Master, but this tactic only works well when one has a talent advantage. Once the talent is no longer superior, it becomes difficult to effectively execute.

The Clippers crushed the Knicks with a 24-point victory in the first game of the NBA Finals.

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After the game, reporters asked Fisher: “Do you still have faith in winning the Finals?”

Fisher replied, “We always have confidence.”

But the source of this confidence was not clear.

Essentially, Fisher and the early Rivers are quite similar. They both played for multiple teams in their player days, served under different coaches, and had strong interpersonal skills off the court. However, there are also differences—Rivers was adept at managing connections, while Fisher had a certain administrative ability. As a former players’ union president, he only needed to adapt slightly to the coaching role, and leading the team was not an issue.

But leading a team is often just a small part of coaching.

The ability to adapt on the court, which is really needed, is what Fisher lacks the most.

Coaches who like to let players play to their talents must have a game plan and more meticulous on-the-spot arrangements when facing a team surrounded by talent, but Fisher didn’t have one.

Hence in the second game in Los Angeles, the Knicks were like elephants performing at the Staples Center.

The Clippers were responsible for showing how to put this elephant into the refrigerator.

They did it in three steps.

The first step was firepower suppression, with a barrage of three-pointers to widen the gap, forcing Durant to enter hero mode.

The second step was equal retaliation. When the Knicks played their stars, so did the Clippers. What Rivers loved to do was to have the GOAT perform freely.

Durant knew very well that to defeat the Clippers, he had to outplay Yu Fei.

That was also what many people wished.

If he truly had the capability to take over the league, he would have to defeat Yu Fei just like Jordan smashed the Lakers in 1991.

It is not unreasonable to expect a 26-year-old superstar in his prime to beat a 34-year-old superstar in his twilight.

To ensure a fair showdown between the two, Fisher even refrained from high-post delaying on Yu Fei.

Although this arrangement only lasted two minutes, it was enough to determine the outcome.

Durant, like an infatuated youth, thought a star duel was a traditional head-to-head battle, and pridefully smiled after scoring over Yu Fei with consecutive changes in direction.

Little did he know, Yu Fei was also smiling.

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Young man, do you think an old man in his thirties, full and bored, would play traditional PK with you?

If the Knicks would have done their work properly, using necessary delays and switch-style defense against Yu Fei, then Yu Fei, even if he didn’t want to, would have to respect tradition.

But the Knicks didn’t do it.

The consequence of not doing it was allowing Yu Fei to easily use high-quality screens from Antetokounmpo and Jokić to get open, catch the ball, shoot, swish!

Before Yu Fei did this, the Clippers were only leading the Knicks by 5 points.

In less than two minutes, Yu Fei changed angles and consecutively hit five three-pointers, expanding the lead from 5 to 16 points.

The Knicks realized this was just like seeing a replica of Curry.

But how could this Curry be 206 centimeters tall?

The Knicks, watching the suffocating point difference, entered the fourth quarter in dismay.

The game came to the final step: extinguish the fire.

Fisher did not understand how to calm the players down at this time, nor did he tell them, “We have plenty of time; let’s claw our way back step by step.”

On the contrary, he arranged many three-point tactics, hoping to quickly catch up with three-pointers.

Indeed, three-pointers are a great thing; they led to the arrival of the era of small ball and space basketball. But if the hit rate isn’t good, three-pointers can bury not only the opponent but also oneself.

Although a 16-point gap seems significant, there was still a quarter left in the game, not yet a time for despair. But if one bets it all on three-pointers, the fate of the Knicks would be decided within minutes. Either they make them and continue the fight, or miss and have to return home.

In the end, New Yorkers safely went home.

The Clippers took two victories in a row, leading the series with a score of 2 to 0.

“It looks like even Derrick Fisher doesn’t want to let KD stop Frye from getting his tenth ring,” said Steve Kerr.

Kerr had just harshly had his coaching dream ended by the Clippers not long ago, but he seemed to have quickly adapted to his new role. As a coach “returned” by the team, he keenly noticed problems within the Knicks’ coaching team.