And the chain reaction continued even after Hansen arrived in Boston.
At the hotel where Hansen was staying, some radical black people appeared, holding signs saying "Boston doesn’t welcome bastards" and wearing T-shirts with "F*** Hansen" on them.
Hansen found it amusing.
It was already peculiar that ESPN reported it so heavily, and seeing these people now, it’s hard to believe Nike isn’t behind all this.
But what amused Hansen wasn’t this; it’s not new anywhere in the world for people to resort to smearing when they can’t win.
What amused him was the sense of déjà vu this brought him.
Seven years ago, when he first came to Boston, he had almost the exact same experience, except the name after "F***" changed from James to him.
Looks like tomorrow night’s game is going to be lively.
On the same night the Cavaliers arrived in Boston, the second game of the Warriors against the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals had concluded.
Without Leonard, the Spurs’ performance on both offense and defense dropped significantly, facing a crushing 100-136 defeat.
At this time, Brown’s previous remarks played a significant role as he exposed Popovich’s attempt to dirty Curry, which made Popovich dare not try it again in Game 2.
The suspense of the Western Conference Finals basically ended with this game.
The Warriors are most likely going to power through their division like the Lakers in 2001 and advance to the finals.
The only suspense now is whether their finals opponent will be the Cavaliers or the Celtics.
The next evening, Boston’s North Shore Garden Arena was filled to capacity, and the fans were in high spirits.
As Hansen entered the arena, he could see various aggressive slogans everywhere, and upon lowering his eyes, he saw Ray Allen and Pierce warming up on the opposite side, making him instinctively glance at the tech table by the court!
The "Boston Outcast" vest is logging back in.
During the opening ceremony, Hansen was treated to a whole arena of boos.
The Boston fans, who were still bitter over past events, seized this opportunity to vent their emotions thoroughly.
Hansen responded by making a listening gesture.
As expected, this was met with even louder boos.
Both teams’ players had completed their pre-game warm-ups, and the match was about to officially begin.
The starting lineups, Cavaliers: Hansen, JR, Covington, TT, Jokic;
Celtics: Little Thomas, Bradley, Durant, Horford, Towns.
Stevens didn’t abandon Little Thomas despite his poor performance in the last game.
Or rather, no coach would abandon an All-Star who averaged 25+ in the regular season. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕥⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
Amid the cheers of Boston fans, Towns won the jump ball for the Celtics.
However, it wasn’t Little Thomas who struck first, but Durant.
With Horford facilitating from the free-throw line, Durant used Towns’ screen to make a mid-range shot with precision.
And when they fell back to the defensive end, the one defending Jokic switched from Towns to Horford.
Horford is a standard four-body type, but when he played for the Hawks, he was often arranged to play at the five.
Poor him, he complained more than once, but was ignored by the coach each time.
Now, he’s in Boston, yet he can’t escape that fate.
But believe me, his experience with the Hawks gave him a fighting skillset to battle centers, and even though he’s a bit smaller than Jokic, his defense and positioning made it tougher for Jokic than when he faced Towns.
It was at this point that Hansen, noticing Jokic’s predicament, accelerated, breaking free from Bradley to cut into the lane.
Jokic seized the opportunity for a quick pass.
But the ball never reached Hansen’s hands; someone unexpected intercepted it.
Durant isn’t an elite defender, but his physicality, when he chooses to invest, can produce high-quality defense in certain moments.
However, because of Jokic’s high-quality pass, Durant couldn’t complete the steal outright and only altered the ball’s trajectory, causing it to fly out from in front of Hansen.
This gave Bradley the chance, and he quickly controlled the ball.
The Celtics launched a defensive counterattack; Little Thomas received the ball, sprinted past JR, and scored a fast break layup in the frontcourt.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Jokic continued to post up low against Horford; this time, he managed to use his elbow to create separation and have Horford behind him. But just when he was about to make his move to the basket, Towns quickly came over to help.
Jokic made a beautiful bounce pass to TT, but Durant, who somehow made it back to the basket, swatted the ball off the backboard as TT went up!
Durant’s presence felt intense on both the offensive and defensive sides tonight!
The basketball rebounded toward the three-point line, where Little Thomas quickly collected it.
The Celtics launched another fast break, with Hansen trailing Little Thomas closely this time.
Little Thomas drove to the frontcourt, jumped, and spun in the air to dish the ball backward; Durant, who reached the frontcourt first after making the block, leaped high after receiving Little Thomas’s pass and dunked it with both hands.
Landing, Durant roared excitedly at Hansen.
Five years, from being traded from the Thunders to the Heat Team, feeling the championship was within reach, yet repeatedly having those hopes dashed and brought back to reality by Hansen—five whole years, do you know how I lived through those five years!
This time, he would not let Hansen snatch the championship from his hands again!