When pride still matters

Chapter 266 For everyone

Sometimes, the breakdown is instantaneous.

Before Yu Fei destroyed the Wallace brothers, the Bucks had already taken a big lead, but the game was still very long, and Pistons fans could not feel the despair of losing.

After this goal, they started to feel that way.

Especially seeing that his home team's offense was so constipated, while the Bucks were so smooth when playing.

Their mentality is changing to "maybe losing" - "going to lose".

The Bucks became more relaxed as they played, because the lead was huge and there was no pressure on the players to take action. Therefore, everyone began to show their true level, and a very few people like Martin performed at a super level.

At halftime, 38 to 61, the Pistons trailed by 23 points at home.

"Our defense failed." Larry Brown said in a midfield interview. "I feel like we are not playing at home. Our defense was limited by the referees, that's what I want to say."

George Karl's face was filled with the joy of revenge.

Although the game is not over yet, with the Pistons' offensive ability, trying to fill the 23-point gap is tantamount to wishful thinking.

This is determined by the Pistons' team attributes.

They cannot fall behind by a big score, otherwise they will not be able to catch up.

You can't allow your opponent to score too many points, because that means the defensive system has collapsed.

Tonight, these two taboos happened at the same time, and the Pistons' comeback was only theoretically possible.

After the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Carr had severed ties with Brown, and the two were now enemies.

Moreover, Karl's dislike of Brown may be greater than that of Phil Jackson.

After all, Phil has nine crowns in his hands. Although he is a CJB who hugs MJ and OK, he is still much better than his senior brother.

What Karl hates most is that Brown preaches what is correct basketball and what is evil basketball all day long, as if the Bucks' success is the failure of basketball and everyone should boycott them.

On the surface, this negates the Bucks' basketball style. In fact, it is a satire on Karl's evil ways to achieve success.

This kind of ideological dispute itself is incompatible. Before, Karl still thought of the friendship between the same family and refused to break up with him, but after the battle at the Palace of Auburn Hills, even Dean Smith tried to persuade him.

Carr doesn't believe Brown wasn't behind what happened that night.

"What's going on? Why can't the orthodox basketball, which even Mr. Naismith will smile in heaven when he sees it, beat 'carnival basketball'? There must be something wrong with it." Karl mocked through ABC's halftime interview, "If this is orthodox basketball , my players and I would rather play carnival basketball for the rest of our lives!”

The ABC reporter seemed to have known that Carl would have such a reaction, and continued to ask like a normal person: "You have some grudges with Detroit. To what extent does this motivate you?"

Carl liked this question.

Because he also believes that their performance tonight is closely related to "that night."

They have reasons why they can't lose.

"I feel like that's why we're here tonight!" Carr said. "Everything you do has a consequence. For us, a lot of what happened that night, there has to be a consequence." This is important to us."

Coming to the locker room, Karl continued to encourage the players.

Yu Fei sat calmly aside and watched the score intently.

"What's so good about being so far ahead?" Leitner asked.

Yu Fei said half-jokingly: "I found that we scored too many points in the first half. If this continues, it will be difficult to reproduce the score that night in the fourth quarter."

That night, again...

Leitner's expression changed slightly: "Tell me you're not serious."

Yu Fei said: "The game is not over yet, is it?"

Laettner thought this was crazy, repeating the score from that night in a tiebreaker...what the hell? Are you joking? Shouldn't the tiebreaker be a life-and-death battle where you should have fun if you win?

What, you still have to do this?

Moreover, if we continue to play like this, garbage time may soon come. Whether we can reach that score depends on whether the Pistons cooperate or not.

Lightner was obviously overly worried.

This matter does not require the Pistons' cooperation, as long as they control the rhythm of the game.

In the second half, Yu Fei did not attack as quickly as in the first half and patiently controlled the rhythm of the game.

The Pistons adopted unlimited defense changes. No matter who gave Yu Fei a pick-and-roll, no matter whether that person had shooting ability or not, they would not double-team.

As a result, the Bucks have only one way to attack, and that is one-on-one.

The Bucks certainly won't fall into a one-on-one situation.

Since the Pistons do this, they only need to increase the frequency of flanking attacks and ensure that Billups calls for pick-and-rolls and Hamilton calls for screens, so that the Pistons can be forced into the dilemma of unlimited singles.

The result of non-stop singles is that the hit rate plummets.

The Pistons also have a complete defensive system to limit singles, which made the Bucks' unsolvable offense in the first half inefficient.

The Bucks, who averaged 30 points per quarter in the first half, only scored 19 points in the third quarter.

On the contrary, the Pistons are more comfortable in this ugly game.

They scored 21 points in a single quarter.

59 is better than 80

The Pistons' point-chasing effect was "remarkable" and they successfully narrowed the point difference between the two teams by 2 points in one quarter.

"Okay, Frye, it's almost time for you to start scoring." Karl knew everything, but he didn't point it out. "It's still difficult to score 20 points in seven minutes."

Yu Fei smiled lightly and said: "In terms of offense, you shouldn't worry about me. You should worry about whether damn Detroit can score 18 points in seven minutes."

Karl thought to himself, yes, compared to them, the Pistons' offensive ability is more worrying.

Then, the fourth quarter begins.

From the beginning, the Bucks played a completely different rhythm from the third quarter.

One meter beyond the three-point line...

This location, this distance, Detroiters already have PTSD.

Prince rushed forward like crazy, but the Bucks didn't even get into position for the pick-and-roll. Such aggressive forward pressing defense was a moving flaw for the offense.

Yu Fei changed direction and passed by, rising up next to Princeton and hitting another three-pointer.

59 is better than 83

The inside and outside of the piston are connected, and Ben takes the cake.

61 is better than 83

Yu Fei took another outside shot but missed.

However, the long rebounds brought by the three-point shot made the Wallace brothers sigh. They were more familiar with the Bucks and took the offensive rebounds.

The ball returned to Yu Fei's hand. He threw it to Barry aside and walked to the edge to wait for the opportunity.

Laettner ran to the high post for a pick-and-roll, and Barry encountered a defensive switch and passed the ball directly.

Leitner was not in a hurry to get the ball and passed it to Yu Fei on the spot.

Yu Fei caught the ball and pulled it up directly behind Laettner.

This kind of unreasonable and illogical shot choice, which cannot be called the correct shot choice at all, and was called absurd by Larry Brown, appears again.

And this time, he made it again!

Seeing Brown with a face as pale as pig liver, Yu Fei couldn't help but spread his hands, "Oh, Evil Basketball has scored again, what should we do?"

Brown's so-called price did not appear, but the Pistons' retribution and the fruits of the battle at the Palace of Auburn Hills were ripe.

The Bucks kept shooting three-pointers, but the hit rate was not high. Except for Yu Fei, no one's accuracy was close to 40%.

But even such an accurate shot has a higher hit rate than the Pistons' positional battle. Seeing that the Pistons were unable to score, Yu Fei directed his teammates to strengthen interior defense and give his opponents open three-point opportunities from time to time.

Prince's open three-pointers were spot on tonight.

He was the Pistons' ray of light in the fourth quarter, the only player who gave people hope.

This also made Larry Brown increasingly embarrassed.

The three-point shot is just the worst option for him offensively.

But in the fourth quarter, the Pistons relied on three-pointers to support themselves.

Then, the game entered its final six minutes.

Billups hits a jump shot.

Yu Fei pushed back and scored.

75 is better than 97

The Bucks took the initiative to expand their defense and forced the Pistons to come in and score.

Yu Fei looks like a serious rim protector when standing under the basket. The Pistons seem to be afraid of his momentum and dare not enter the penalty area.

Hamilton came halfway and made a jump shot.

"boom!"

There are 5 minutes and 34 seconds left in the game.

Doc Rivers was the only one to find the score and game time eerily similar to Brawl Night: “As long as the Bucks get three more points and the Pistons get two more, things get interesting. "

Yu Fei missed a three-pointer from the outside.

The Pistons' fast break stopped midway.

This made Yu Fei and his teammates gnash their teeth. Why can't these idiots who were completely brainwashed by Brown be reckless?

Prince made a mid-range shot and still struck gold.

The rebound was won by Big Ben.

Big Ben's rough offensive skills prevented him from completing the offense against the Bucks' superficial defense.

Seeing that the game was about to enter the final five minutes, Horry couldn't bear it and did the most controversial thing of the day - he jumped up hard, grabbed the rebound with one hand, and then tipped it into his own basket in the air.

"Made a mistake...!???"

Because Horry's action just now didn't look like a mistake at all, just like it was put in deliberately.

Horry faced his opponent's surprised expression and said indifferently: "That's enough."

"Fry!!!"

Horry threw the ball to Yu Fei with 5 minutes and 11 seconds left in the game.

Yu Fei advanced at full speed, pushing away Prince who was trying to defend him like a train, and once again entered the inside line. This time, there was only Ben Wallace inside.

Big Ben made up his mind to stop Yu Fei, and the two had a strong physical confrontation in the air. This was a contact that was bound to be called a foul. Yu Fei finally used his height to change hands and pick the basket over Ben's head.

The basketball flew onto the backboard and bounced hard into the basket.

"Beep beep beep!!!!!!"

The referee was afraid of another conflict and the whistle sounded sadly.

Yu Fei was supported by his teammates behind him and did not fall to the ground, while Da Ben flew under the basket.

He glared at Yu Fei angrily: "Did you do this on purpose?!!"

"You can find out that we did it on purpose, which means you are not hopelessly stupid." Yu Fei looked at him mockingly, "Of course, if you guys can fight a little bit, Robert may not have to do that, so, this You only have yourselves to blame for this."

Yu Fei scored an extra penalty.

The game picked up where it left off that night.

In the last five minutes, the Bucks led the Pistons 100 to 77.

However, the Pistons were unable to fight anymore. All they had left was unventable anger, insulted self-esteem, and broken souls.

In the end, the Bucks defeated the Pistons 114-86 on the road, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals with a score of 4-3.

Not only did they complete their revenge, but they also humiliated their opponents on the road in a controversial way, which brought them endless controversy. These effects are long-lasting and destined to be remembered, just like every Pistons fan who watched this game. Same.

Such a shame and humiliation are destined to be unforgettable for them forever.

Post-match interview

"I've said it before, this is Detroit, and I'm proud of my guys." - George Karl on the controversy surrounding this game.

"I just want to go back to that night and finish the five minutes that we didn't finish. What's wrong with that?" - Robert Horry explained his tip-in to his own basket.

"Detroit deserves this." - Christian Laettner responded to accusations that the Bucks lacked competitive spirit.

"They are the Nazis on the basketball court! They distorted the game of basketball with a horrific game that showed no sportsmanship or pride as an athlete. It was a disgusting game that I will never forgive for participating in." Every Bucks player!" - Larry Brown crazily accused the Bucks of what they did after the game.

"I don't have much to say about the loss, but I'm sad to lose to a bunch of unsportsmanlike people." - Chauncey Billups on this game.

"There's a reason why that guy doesn't get along with MJ, Shaq and everyone." Richard Hamilton hinted that the mastermind was Yu Fei.

于飞打满全场48分钟，砍下48分13篮板8助攻2抢断4盖帽。

At the end of the game, ABC and ESPN wanted to conduct live interviews with him.

But he said breathlessly: "I don't know what to say, I feel very deeply now."

Then he left.

Back in the locker room, everyone was celebrating and cheering for this revenge. Even if they won three consecutive championships, they probably wouldn't be happier.

After taking a rest, Yu Fei went to the media interview room.

There's a huge media presence here with tons of questions for him.

"How does it feel to be in the Eastern Conference Finals again?"

"It doesn't feel like anything, I'm used to it."

"You have been criticized by many for instigating the team to draft Kevin Martin. Are you gratified by his performance tonight?"

"Well, I'm grateful to have him."

"Are you confident of entering the finals and winning three consecutive championships?"

"This is our goal and I will try my best."

“Was Robert Horry’s tip-in in the fourth quarter intentional?”

"I hope he did it on purpose." Yu Fei said with a smile, "But I think it was unintentional."

"What do you think about the Pistons accusing you of a lack of sportsmanship?"

"We have sportsmanship, but it depends on who our opponent is." Yu Fei said, "Detroit does not deserve sportsmanship, because what we encountered here has no sportsmanship at all."

"What do you think of this series?"

"It's not me, it's us." Yu Fei said, "We want to win the series, but it's not just for ourselves. It's for Ray Allen, for Latrell Sprewell, for Those who didn’t get to be here, we’re going to win the series and I’m glad we did it.”

(End of this chapter)