It’s the finals, no one with a brain would play ’everyone gets along’ here!
Wade: Be polite my ass?
Hansen just set a hard example for Wade.
Whether Wade got it or not is unknown, but James really lost his composure.
With fury, he got up from the ground like a flipping crab to sneak attack Hansen from behind.
But he couldn’t succeed because Dedmon rushed over to block him.
Before tonight, Hansen was just a basketball legend admired by Dedmon for his strength.
But after tonight, Hansen is his boss!
You want to sneak attack my boss? No way!
During their confrontation, Dedmon’s bulging biceps showed why he could limit James’ performance on defense.
James, whether in his bulky version or slimmed-down version, fears muscular guys with height and wingspan the most.
The referee’s urgent whistle separated them.
They didn’t add any more whistles because fundamentally, Hansen didn’t do anything excessive, not even more than hurdling.
Of course, it wasn’t very harmful but extremely insulting.
Moreover, what was more critical was that after the ball possession changed, Hansen not only still stood in front of James but also gestured ’come on’ to signal him for a one-on-one.
The crowd started to boo.
Clearly, Warriors fans felt Hansen’s actions were too much.
James had no intention of going one-on-one with Hansen; forcing a tough play knowing it’s a bad one is called stupidity in basketball.
But Hansen’s next words pushed him to act like an idiot.
"Are they booing you?"
Honestly, James got elbowed by Hansen, then taunted with a gesture but didn’t dare to attack, and ended up being booed by the home crowd, closing yet another logical loop.
James signaled for Pachulia’s screen.
Although furious, he hadn’t lost his mind entirely.
He knew that with Pachulia’s ability, it would be hard to screen Hansen effectively, so he prepared to make a quick start and dash through a timing gap.
After all, no matter how good Hansen was at maneuvering around screens, he couldn’t completely avoid Pachulia’s delay.
To achieve this goal, he even pushed the ball forward at the moment of the screen and then charged forward.
But to his surprise, Hansen chose not to rush forward but used Little Dog Steps to bypass the defense, sending the ball straight into his hands!
When James reached out to grab the ball back, Hansen seized the chance to change direction and leaped past him.
The audience was dumbfounded.
Was James really an undercover agent for the Cavaliers?!
Actually, Irving often pulled off such plays, especially splitting the opponent during a double-team, making it hard to trap him; with exceptional ball control, even if opponents anticipated it, he could seamlessly transition into a crossover.
But James’ ball control compared to Irving wasn’t just slightly worse—it’s worlds apart; he ended up merely parodying Eastern Beauties.
At this point, the Warriors were too late to chase Hansen, and James was still standing there, regretfully slapping his hands.
Hansen rushed to the frontcourt, and upon seeing no one in the backcourt, he tossed the ball off the backboard, executing a self-alley-oop windmill dunk.
The dunk carried with it both a show element and an insult, causing an uproar on the scene.
Cole quickly called a timeout.
When the game resumed, James and Thompson were swapped out by Cole again, and Curry and Green were brought on.
Upon seeing this, Malone also subbed Hansen off for a rest, bringing in Jokic.
Green’s abilities are apparent, especially finding his three-point touch during the playoffs, boosting his confidence tremendously.
At the top of the arc, he coordinated traffic, feeding the ball to Curry with higher synergy than even James.
Of course, without Thompson on the court, Curry found it naturally harder to create shot opportunities compared to the starting lineup period.
On the Cavaliers’ side, Jokic, like Hansen back in the day, excels inside and out, displaying great adaptability.
His pick-and-roll with Hansen made the strongest combo, and the pop-out when setting screens with Wade produced excellent results too.
Moreover, there’s an unignorable detail, Jokic’s three-point shooting in the playoffs wasn’t significantly better than the regular season, largely due to a tactical shift to low post play. His improvements are more evident in low post offense.
However, one cannot overlook the influence brought by his game-winning shot against the Celtics in the Eastern Finals Game 6.
First impressions are not only for fans; players have them too.
So after the Wade-Jokic pick-and-roll, they immediately obtained a mismatch opportunity.
Regardless of whether it’s Pachulia or McGee, they couldn’t effectively defend Wade in mismatches.
Eventually, Cole had to once again use Green to block Wade. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵
Judging solely by the matchups with the Cavaliers, Green seems to be more crucial to the Warriors than even James.
By halftime, the score was 58 to 51, with the Cavaliers leading by 5 points to end the first half.
Jokic scored 16 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists in the half—his best performance in this year’s playoffs during a finals game.
As the game entered halftime, both teams’ players gradually returned to the locker rooms to rest.
On the way back to the locker rooms, Wade wanted to greet Hansen, only to find that Hansen ignored him.