Paul Silas was an experienced head coach. He could see the same problems his son could.

LeBron James played until the fifth minute of the second quarter before being subbed out, after which Su Xi checked into the game.

When Su Xi had left the court, the Cavaliers were leading by 6 points. Now, as he re-entered the game, the Cavaliers were trailing by 1.

The Knicks and the Cavaliers were a match made in heaven—as opponents. Even though the Cavaliers were inexplicably down three players tonight, the Knicks still couldn’t seize the advantage. Even with Darius Miles getting into LeBron James’s head, they still played like dead fish.

This sent James Dolan, watching from his VIP suite, into a rage. A man who treated money like dirt, he fumed to Isaiah Thomas, "Look at this! After all the money I’ve spent these years, after paying all these people, they play like a pile of shit when it counts. They don’t look like a modern team at all." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The boss was furious. Thomas quickly promised he would speed up the reforms.

"Get Little Sheep Su Xi back, and do it fast. I picked him out with a single glance back then. It was those two bastards, Layden and Donnie, who traded him on their own authority. I didn’t know a thing about it. Now, you see it too. Jack’s brilliance is no less than LeBron James’s."

Speaking of Little Sheep Su Xi, James Dolan talked about him like he was talking about his first love. "It was a boring afternoon, and I was sitting in the arena watching the game. Those two idiots were trying their best to sell me on Carmeron Anthony, but I had my eye on Jack from the first glance. They all tried to stop me, thinking I only knew how to spend money and didn’t know a thing about basketball. But now, you see."

"I think Jack is even better than LeBron. LeBron is all hype, but Jack fought his way up, step by step."

James Dolan spoke with great enthusiasm.

Isaiah Thomas quickly reminded him, "Boss, you can’t say these things in public."

He was worried that if James Dolan said this publicly, he would become a laughingstock. No matter how you spun it, Little Sheep Su Xi still couldn’t surpass the Chosen One.

James might have had his share of hype, but his talent was blindingly obvious.

Su Xi still had a ways to go.

"Why? On what grounds?" James Dolan asked, indignant.

"The fewer people who know about this, the better. If the Cavaliers knew that Su Xi was better than LeBron James, do you think... they’d still trade him?" Isaiah Thomas was a smooth talker, quick on his feet. "Secrecy is the key to success."

James Dolan nodded repeatedly. "You’ve thought of everything. That plan you mentioned before, I think it’s very feasible. After this game, have the media run with it."

Isaiah Thomas’s plan was to concoct a detailed statistical analysis: when Su Xi and LeBron James were on the court at the same time, Su Xi would encroach on LeBron James’s room to grow, steal his ball-handling opportunities, and prevent James from developing properly.

However, before that, Ricky Davis had already fired his shot. It grabbed the media headlines and achieved a similar effect.

He hadn’t expected the Cavaliers to clean house so quickly, trading Ricky Davis away for practically nothing.

After the Ricky Davis trade was announced, Isaiah Thomas was ready to accelerate his own plan.

Thomas’s plan struck at the Cavaliers’ weakest point: no matter how outstanding Su Xi was, if he was seen as hindering LeBron James’s development, they would definitely trade him!

When it came to scheming, the Bad Boys Legion were professionals.

Compared to Larry Bird calling up commentators like Kenny Smith and getting them to say on TV and in magazines that Su Xi wasn’t good at this or that... it wasn’t even in the same league.

Whether Su Xi was good or not... whether he was really good or just faking it, none of it mattered.

The important thing... was James.

If these two masterminds were sitting at the same dinner table, the Smiling Assassin would have to raise his glass and gloat a little: Larry Bird only knows how to put on an act.

Su Xi was playing very well on the court.

Under his leadership, the Cavaliers looked more like a team.

Su Xi’s playmaking talent was average, and his passing was average. But he passed the ball whenever an opportunity arose, and he used his ability to attack the paint to draw defenders and create opportunities for his teammates.

James possessed all these abilities, and his court vision and passing skills were both superior to Su Xi’s.

Against strong defensive teams, James would be more effective.

But the Knicks were not a strong defensive team, and James was too busy feuding with Darius tonight.

Therefore, the Cavaliers quickly retook the lead and began to pull away.

With 2 minutes left in the first half, Paul Silas subbed James back in.

James took control of the ball, and Darius was right back on him.

James forced one-on-one plays and failed twice in a row.

The Knicks clawed back 4 points as a result.

The first half ended with the Cavaliers leading 57-55.

At that moment, the media cameras captured an interesting scene.

As the buzzer sounded, LeBron James walked toward the players’ tunnel with his head down. Su Xi reached out, high-fiving his teammates one by one, then walked back with Boozer and Kapono, laughing and talking.

James looked like a lonely outcast.

’This is all great material!’

Isaiah Thomas marveled. He loved this kind of stuff.

When it came to scheming, he was a professional.

...

The second half started quickly. Su Xi was on the court with James for 3 minutes before being subbed out. When the two of them were on the court, there was indeed some tactical overlap. Moreover, James wasn’t running the pick-and-roll with Su Xi tonight, so one of their staple plays went unused.

Paul Silas decided to just take Su Xi out and have him play exclusively as the sixth man.

Not two minutes after Su Xi left the court, an incident occurred.

After being pulled down, ball and all, by Darius Miles during a layup attempt, an infuriated James threw the basketball at Darius.

Darius Miles had a short fuse and immediately rushed forward, tackling James to the ground. James was trying to be restrained, but Darius wrapped him up, causing a scuffle between the two. However, it was James who had thrown the ball first.

The head referee rushed over to pull them apart, then blew his whistle, ejecting both players from the game.

This sudden turn of events caught Paul Silas off guard. He had no choice but to quickly send Su Xi back in to stabilize the situation.

The Cavaliers’ mission this year was to make the playoffs. The Knicks were one of their rivals, and a team they had to beat.

Today, the Cavaliers had just traded away three players, including last season’s top dog, Ricky Davis. Now, their absolute cornerstone, James, had gotten himself nonsensically involved in a fight and ejected from the game.

How were they supposed to play now?

However, life is unpredictable.

The Knicks were just that kind of magical team.

After Su Xi took the court with his teammates, he immediately adopted a strategy of relentless drives to the basket. The Knicks’ defense was as soft as butter, easy to poke through.

First, Su Xi created havoc in the paint. Then, he started dishing bullets to the outside.

Kapono and Bremer hit three three-pointers in a row.

The Knicks were completely stunned.

And then, they completely fell apart.

A rout is like a landslide.

They clearly had a stronger lineup. They clearly had talent, experience, and bench depth.

But they just collapsed, inexplicably.

Their head coach, Lanny Wilkens, was a seasoned veteran who had seen it all, but he just couldn’t find an answer.

He frequently shuffled his players, but it didn’t inject any life into the team.

Finally, three or four minutes into the fourth quarter, just as Su Xi’s stamina was about to hit its limit, Wilkens threw in the towel, signaling garbage time had arrived.

"This was a good game."

Isaiah Thomas told James Dolan, "Even though we lost the game, we’re getting closer and closer to getting Jack."

Dolan fully agreed with Thomas. He said as long as they could bring Su Xi to the Knicks, he wouldn’t mind losing 10 more games.

...