Then the Grizzlies once again displayed their strength. Although Faried didn’t have Little Gasol’s post-offense capabilities, he fully utilized his physical fitness and help-defense abilities to stubbornly hold down the Grizzlies’ interior.
And during a help-defense, he cleanly blocked James just like in a regular-season game.
Of course, Faried had his shortcomings—lack of height and experience meant that his low-post defense wouldn’t be very effective.
But the Heat’s inside players didn’t really have low-post offensive capabilities.
Bosh had some, but he reduced his weight to play outside in order to complement James, which also greatly diminished his low-post threat.
Joerger’s move to have Hansen calm Faried was proving golden.
The Grizzlies once again got through that stretch. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
Then, when the starters came back in the second quarter, Little Gasol, who had sat for almost half the period, got on the court and was whistled for his third foul within minutes.
The Spaniard totally lost it, cursing out the referees.
Compared to Big Gasol, Little Gasol actually had a much more volatile temper, and it was only because the Grizzlies had Randolph that he seemed relatively mild.
The referees gave Little Gasol a technical foul, and ultimately, his Grizzlies teammates had to pull him back. Joerger had no choice but to sub him out to cool down.
Accumulating two technical fouls meant ejection; the Grizzlies would effectively be resigning themselves to defeat tonight.
At halftime, the Grizzlies were behind the Heat 46 to 50.
During the break, the Grizzlies players returned to the locker room.
"Fuck, these goddamn bitches! I want to kill them!" Randolph couldn’t hold it in any longer once he got back to the locker room, furiously tearing off his headband and throwing it to the ground.
They thought the refereeing against the Lakers had been bad, but there was an even darker whistle waiting for them here.
"Foster might as well have been taken out! He clearly doesn’t intend to let us win tonight!" Even Conley, who was usually mild-mannered, couldn’t hold back.
"Even without Foster, there would be someone else," Battier, always the realist, had seen too much in his years in the League.
"They just want to extend the series, the League wants to make money," Tony Allen chimed in, a rare occurrence.
When people said the Grizzlies lacked the championship DNA, they automatically overlooked Allen, who, although he didn’t get much playtime, had been part of the 2008 champion Celtics.
While his introverted nature didn’t offer much help to the Grizzlies, he still spoke from experience.
"Why should we put up with them? I’m gonna take LeBron down in the second half; I’ve been sick of him for a while!" Guy blurted out angrily, and surprisingly, he and Randolph were in agreement.
"Rudy, calm down, you’ll get suspended for that. Our efforts all season would end with this fight, and it’s not worth it if we lost the championship because of that," Battier was still the most rational one on the team.
That’s when Hansen stood up.
All eyes in the locker room turned to him in unison.
Hansen was unusually quiet today.
"Rudy is right," Hansen began, startling everyone.
Guy was stunned; he subconsciously checked his ears again, truly thinking he had misheard this time—completely different from before.
Battier looked bewildered as well. Hansen was not known to be impulsive.
At that moment, Joerger and Tois entered the locker room.
"If they don’t plan to let us win tonight, then let’s flip the table!" Hansen didn’t stop speaking because of Joerger’s entrance.
"If we don’t flip the table, their refereeing in the subsequent games will only get worse. We all know what happened in 2006."
Many Grizzlies players nodded subconsciously.
The same idea, coming from Guy, was impulsive; coming from Hansen, it was a measured decision.
"Han, have you considered the consequences?" Battier finally spoke.
He knew Hansen was right, especially since it was the Heat they were playing, which made it easier to resonate with others.
But why didn’t the Mavericks flip the table back then? Because flipping the table meant dying faster.
"Of course, Shaun’s concerns are legitimate. So, we need to research how to flip the table," Hansen continued, truly surprising everyone.
Joerger was also taken aback, but then chuckled.
This was Hansen’s style—even if he were to play dirty, he was prepared to do so.
"We didn’t hear anything; continue," Joerger then said.
After making his point, he left along with Tois.
As the head coach, Joerger obviously couldn’t sit down and plot with the players.
Because that would be a completely different matter.
But his words just now were a tacit approval of Hansen’s actions.
Only a young coach like him would do that; if it were Hollins in this situation, not to mention implicit permission, he would definitely be suppressing his players.
The second half was about to start; Barkley and O’Neal were also talking at the commentary desk.
Barkley had already slammed the refereeing many times during the first half, while O’Neal had been quieter.
It wasn’t that he suddenly changed his stance; rather, the refereeing in tonight’s first half made it too easy to recall the 2006 finals.
If he joined in the criticism, it would be tantamount to questioning the value of his fourth championship.
Indeed, from the TNT show where they avoided discussing the refereeing, it was clear they were giving O’Neal face.