Hansen couldn’t hold it in this time, and he walked over to Kuzma to give him a warning.
It wasn’t to remind him to watch his words or actions, but to be wary of James’s revenge.
After all, he’s been through it; in the finals back then, James had stepped on his foot, and it was only because of his ’Steel Bones’ that he wasn’t afraid of James’s tricks.
But Kuzma is different. A slight mistake and he’ll end up in the ’role’ of Hayward in ’history.’
Kuzma nodded vigorously.
He’s pretty smart, actually.
Anyone else, knowing they’d offended James before, would try to avoid him when facing James on the court.
But he knew there’s no way to dodge it, so he decided to strike first.
Hansen’s advice was already on his mind because if you don’t know James, how could you be a qualified Jamestscher, right?
Sure enough, when James turned around to attack, he used his elbow on Kuzma again, and this time it was even more blatant, aiming right at Kuzma’s head.
Kuzma fell to the floor, and the referee called an offensive foul on James.
Hansen immediately went up to hold back James, and James was also visibly agitated, with players from both sides quickly confronting each other, leading to chaos on the court.
The referee’s sharp whistles eventually separated the players, and the game went into a technical pause.
During the video replay, a huge hubbub rose among the crowd.
As it turned out, the replay showed that Kuzma had dodged in advance, pulling off a bit of acting with his fall.
Hansen laughed wryly after watching the replay; no wonder James was so agitated, this guy’s acting fooled even him.
This kid has a lot of ’potential.’
After the pause, possession was with the Cavaliers.
Even though Kuzma’s fall was a flop, NBA rules meant that the whistle wouldn’t be rescinded once it was blown.
But as the game resumed, Hansen noticed James giving him a vicious look.
Did he really take offense over just a neck hold?
Hansen didn’t know that James’s look was not directly related to the neck hold earlier.
It’s just that he was too familiar with Kuzma’s tricks; Hansen had done the same thing back then!
No need to say more, Kuzma’s actions were definitely orchestrated by Hansen behind the scenes.
Now that Hansen’s famous, he isn’t getting his hands dirty, using his underlings to mess with him from behind? Read complete versıon only at 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝓷𝓮𝓽
What a sinister move!
Unaware of the blame on his shoulders, Hansen continued to handle the ball, executing a pick and roll with Covington, planning to pass out after being double-teamed, but suddenly noticed Kuzma cutting towards the basket after shaking off Moore.
This guy was playing very actively and aggressively.
Hansen threaded a pass through the gap directly to Kuzma, who caught it for a diving layup.
However, he quickly experienced a ’welcome to the NBA’ moment when Davis, who was near the free throw line just a moment before, rapidly returned to defense, and swatted his shot against the backboard.
Kuzma tried to grab the rebound, but his jumping speed and wingspan were no match for Davis, who snatched the ball with a combined grab and block.
The Pelicans launched a fast break, and James, who had already ditched Covington, scored on a fast-break layup after receiving the ball.
14-all, the two teams were locked in a tight contest.
The Pelicans were an underestimated team.
Even in history, without James, after going through some adjustments, this Pelicans team made it to the playoffs.
Even with Cousins sidelined for the season after only playing half of it, they were just one win shy of the third-seeded Blazers in the West.
The poor performance last season was more about the adjustment period.
Back on the other end, Hansen started posting up in the low post.
The last offensive turn made him notice something: to counter him and Jokic’s pick and roll, the Pelicans had been using Davis to defend against Jokic.
Although their pick and rolls had been effective before, they were hard-fought.
The combination of Huoledi and Davis was one of the rare defensive pairings in the league that could match up directly with their pick and roll.
So at times like these, having Jokic pull Davis to the perimeter was the better option.
Moreover, low post plays could reduce energy consumption.
Huoledi’s defense was impressive, he attempted to front Hansen, but Hansen’s excellent posting technique and strength advantage ultimately thwarted him.
Jokic’s pass came precisely at this moment.
Hansen backed down Huoledi, and with a passing motion to push back the Pelicans wings’ help defense, he spun for a fadeaway after the post-up.
Huoledi was grounded by Hansen’s backing pressure, and when he saw Hansen jump, he could only make a symbolic leap.
The basketball went over Huoledi’s head, straight through the net.
The arena buzzed with excitement.
After returning to Cleveland, Hansen adapted to Malone’s One Star and Four Shooters system, attacking more from the face-up position.
But that was just a choice; Hansen, at his career’s peak, could switch between face-up and back-to-the-basket play styles and maintain his dominance.
Seeing this change from the sideline, Gentry was forced to tighten their defense in the next defensive possession.
And this played right into Hansen’s hands.
In a sense, it was a low post version of One Star and Four Shooters.
Davis moved from the free-throw line to provide help defense for Hansen, and Hansen passed the ball to Jokic.
Fearing Jokic’s passing, the Pelicans didn’t switch help defense immediately, relying instead on Davis’s recovery.