Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1074 - 606 The 9th Ascent

Chapter 1074: Chapter 606: The 9th Ascent Chapter 1074: Chapter 606: The 9th Ascent “Before the game started, I was only worried about one thing—that was our mindset.”

After winning the first game of the finals, Doc Rivers said, “It turns out I was over-concerned. We are indeed a young team, but we have as much championship experience as Miami.”

The media then asked about Yao Ming’s performance.

Because Rivers had benched Yao after a disastrous performance in the first quarter, letting him rest until the second half.

Regarding this, Rivers said, “Miami is a special existence for Yao. It’s hard for him not to get emotionally invested, but as you can see, he adjusted well in the second half.”

Since the playoffs began, Yu Fei, who’s been in increasingly fiery form, had caught the attention of numerous media outlets.

They wanted to know what made Yu Fei’s performances so outstanding.

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Yu Fei simply said, “I haven’t won a championship in two years. I miss it.”

The next day, the Los Angeles Times quoted Yu Fei’s words and wrote, “Said the man who has won eight championships in the past 14 years. This pure desire for victory, perhaps, reveals why the Clippers are so special in the Frye era. This also proves why Frye is capable of leading every team he has been part of to success—oh, D.C, this isn’t targeted at you.”

However, the Miami Heat were not discouraged.

In the subsequent second game, they learned from the Golden State Warriors Team’s advanced experience, using unlimited switching and zone defense to heavily limit Antetokounmpo’s breakthroughs and Yao Ming’s low-post offense, forcing them to play isolation.

Warriors Team died by Yu Fei’s isolation in a crucial battle.

Why did Miami dare to do this? They were not afraid of the GOAT, but compared to other options, isolation was the fairest choice among all. Moreover, Miami had more players who could go one-on-one.

Curry, Wade, and Butler could all handle the ball in isolation.

Anyone who had observed the main timeline of the universe’s Warriors and Houston Rockets series would be impressed by both teams’ decision to abandon complex tactics in the playoffs deep struggle, allowing stars to score through isolation.

It was like a mutually assured destruction scenario between nuclear powers, where survivors return to a primitive society and continue their wars with sticks and stones.

The Miami team didn’t give up hope. Curry performed brilliantly in the second game, and Wade’s weak-side isolation also brought trouble to the Clippers.

However, with the advantage of home court and rebounding, the Clippers succeeded in continuous second-chance points at crucial moments, defending their home court by a margin of 2 points.

This was undoubtedly a thrilling game.

Curry said, “They did what they had to do; now it’s our turn.”

Historically, teams that take an early 2-0 lead have high championship odds, but anything less than 100% doesn’t prove anything.

With the return to the away games, the home advantage shifted to Miami.

The League didn’t want a one-sided finals, hence, Miami received all the benefits due in their home court.

These benefits resulted in Miami being more comfortable handling Yao Ming, being freer in compressing Antetokounmpo’s space, by exerting tremendous defensive pressure, forcing the Clippers to rely on the individual abilities of their stars to solve problems.

However, Curry’s three-point shooting became increasingly destructive.

In the third game, the Clippers kept the scores close until halftime, but were beaten by several trailing three-pointers by Curry in the fourth quarter, ending up 1-2 behind.

The script was almost the same in the following fourth game.

Yao Ming dominated the inside lanes, but suffered heavily on the perimeter.

The Clippers’ defensive resources could cover Yao against most teams.

But against the Heat, a team with multiple ball-handlers and three-point shooters, Yao’s old problem in defending pick-and-rolls became an obstacle.

The Clippers loved the space and positioning Yao brought, alongside his rim protection, but these benefits became less evident in the two games in Miami.

Curry was playing in a way that could destroy traditional centers.

It was not a question of whether Yao needed to change his style.

Like his days in the CBA where he couldn’t contain Liu Yudong, his height was set, and his lateral speed inherently limited—these were his unsolvable Achilles heels.

In a finals level game, it has always been about who can exploit the opponent’s relative weaknesses.

At home, the Clippers could use their home-court advantage to address these problems, but away, those issues were amplified.

After another defeat in the fourth game, and the series tied, calls for Miami’s three-peat emerged.

Criticism towards the Clippers grew more intense.

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Long-silent Bill Simmons revived his curse theory.

“The transformation Frye wrought for the Clippers was miraculous, but from the recent games, we can clearly see something has changed,” Simmons said, “The Clippers’ ingrained bad omens are starting to show!”

The Clippers had a problem.

That was Yao Ming, a center with guarding and three-point ability, lacked a dominant power forward to take on the rest.

In Yu Fei’s original plan, this was peak Antetokounmpo’s job.

Until Antetokounmpo came into his own, whether it was Yu Fei or anyone else alongside Yao Ming in the paint, there was always something missing.

In the Western Conference, no team could directly target this.

But Miami was different.

Because Stephen Curry was essentially a child of the small-ball era.