Paul Silas took a fair approach to handling his two young talents.

He let Su Xi run the offense for the first five minutes, then handed control of the plays over to LeBron James.

This greatly displeased James. Deep down, he believed that Su Xi could never be compared to him, could never share ball-handling duties with him. Any power Su Xi had should be granted by him: ’I can give it to you, but you can’t take it.’

However, things had already changed.

Over the past several games, Su Xi had built up trust within the team. He had notched a quadruple-double in his very first game, leading the team to a comeback victory. Then, while James and Davis were feuding, he was quietly running plays with his teammates.

When James was ejected and suspended, he was improving his chemistry with his teammates.

Su Xi had already established good chemistry with most of his teammates.

James couldn’t stop Su Xi from taking control of the ball.

Su Xi played very well in the first five minutes of the game, leading the team to go toe-to-toe with the Pacers.

When Su Xi was subbed out six and a half minutes into the game, the Cavaliers led 15-12.

Afterward, the Cavaliers entered LeBron Mode.

James was fiercely competing with Ron Artest tonight. He was already furious that Artest had said his defense was "three tiers" below Su Xi’s. To make matters worse, Ron Artest then stole the ball from him and taunted Su Xi, "Jack, my steal count is the same as yours now!"

This sent a surge of fury through the Chosen One.

’How dare Ron Artest be so contemptuous of me!’

’Using the King as a mere prop in his competition with Su Xi?’

James tried to get the ball from Su Xi to go for an isolation play.

But after giving him the ball once, Su Xi didn’t pass to him again, telling him, "You’ve already missed too many chances."

James seethed with anger.

’What do you mean I’ve missed too many chances?’

’This whole Cavaliers team is mine. The last guy who tried to usurp the throne, Ricky Davis, was exiled. Do you want to follow in his footsteps?’

Su Xi stuck to his game plan.

The Pacers’ shooting was off tonight. The Eastern powerhouse relied heavily on their jump shots.

Moreover, they couldn’t effectively contain Su Xi’s drives tonight... because they had to keep their attention on James.

After Su Xi was subbed out, James finally took sole command of the court.

He continued with Su Xi’s style of play, and he did very well. He was also willing to pass and unite his teammates.

Boozer’s shooting was ridiculously good tonight; he even extended his range beyond the three-point line. This posed a huge challenge for Little O’Neal’s defense.

Ilgauskas stood like a great mountain at the edge of the paint, and his jump shot left Foster helpless.

Larry Bird sat on the sidelines, already planning for things far in the future. His brow was furrowed. ’If our frontcourt can’t do anything about Ilgauskas, then dealing with Yao Ming will be even harder. And what about Shaquille O’Neal? If we make it to the Finals, how are we supposed to handle Shaquille O’Neal?’

In fact, "Big Bird" Bird had already made a move. He had traded Brad Miller to the Kings for Scott Pollard. Before the trade, Brad Miller was already a near-All-Star player, while Scott Pollard was useless for anything other than changing his bizarre hairstyle and beard shape every now and then. So why did Bird make this trade?

This was because Scott Pollard had played a key role in the ’02 Western Conference Finals. That was the series Kings fans still held a grudge over. They said that if the head referee hadn’t been so obviously biased, the Kings could have emerged from the West and won the championship. The Lakers escaped by the skin of their teeth in Game 6 due to controversial calls, and then finished off the Kings in Game 7... a big reason for that was Scott Pollard fouling out early in Game 7 with six fouls.

He was a professional at doing the dirty work.

Although it was unrealistic to expect him to stop O’Neal, his ferocious dives for the ball, his fouls, his desperate jostling for position, and his fights for loose balls were the reasons the Pacers were willing to give up a near-All-Star for him.

However, after coming to Indiana, his performance had been mediocre. He hadn’t yet found the key to fitting in with the team.

Heaven knows if he ever will.

The Pacers had another problem: they were too reliant on jump shots and lacked a strong inside attack.

But Larry Bird was confident he could solve this problem. The answer was in Cleveland.

The game progressed.

The first quarter quickly came to an end.

The score was 24-23.

The Cavaliers led by 1 point.

When you played against the Pacers, you had to be prepared to score only seventy or eighty points in the entire game. While they weren’t exactly masters of offense, they made sure you wouldn’t be either.

The second quarter began, and Su Xi remained on the bench, resting.

He said to Carlos Boozer, who had also been subbed out, "No matter what, we have to win tonight."

At first, Boozer thought Su Xi was just giving a normal morale-boosting speech. But when he saw the incredibly serious look in Su Xi’s eyes, he realized Su Xi wasn’t just saying it.

’But can we really beat the Pacers? They’re number one in the East. They were just taking a nap in the first quarter. Once they get serious, we won’t be able to stop them.’

’Besides... Jack, why are you so obsessed with beating the Pacers?’

During the long and arduous regular season, it was impossible to go all-out against every opponent, so teams would often strategically give up on certain games. For example, tonight, the coaching staff hadn’t given the players much information on their matchups before the game. On one hand, this was because the Cavaliers had new players, and the most important task was to integrate them. But on the other hand, it strongly suggested they were prepared to concede the game.