The crowd followed Su Wan’s outcry, sending even crazier boos towards the referees, along with:
"referee sucks!"
"referee sucks!"
"referee sucks!"
The three referees faced Su’s confrontation without a fxxk to give.
One of the main characters of this game was Su Wan. If they ejected him, then what the hell would be the point of watching?
Moreover...
After ejecting Artest and Little O’neill, the point difference actually increased from 10 to 16.
If they ejected Su Wan and still couldn’t win, LeBron and the Cavaliers would be even more embarrassed.
They didn’t think that was the result David Stern wanted.
David Stern was actually watching the game, witnessing how Su Wan once again dominated LeBron James, the "cowardly lizard," in a 1v1, revealing a wry smile.
For the League’s commissioner, this was probably the worst-case scenario!
He wanted to carve out a rivalry between Su Wan and LeBron, not because of Nike, but from a practical standpoint, considering their discord within the Cavaliers and their similar ages. He loved fostering these confrontations; it’s been evident in the Christmas Day battles every year since the "OK" breakup.
But now, LeBron, who entered the League a year earlier, couldn’t reciprocate with Su Wan.
Like those few rounds just now on the court, it was supposed to be LeBron’s best chance to prove himself straight-up against Su.
Instead, it turned into a one-man show for Su Wan.
Bane...
Somehow, this word popped into David Stern’s mind.
LeBron and the Cavaliers had actually improved significantly this season and were very competitive in the Eastern Conference. They only recently ran into some trouble, but their ability should not have resulted in this kind of disparity against the Pacers.
David Stern believed that the gap between the Cavaliers and the Pacers could be bridged.
To make the game more exciting, that’s why he had given some instructions to tonight’s group of referees.
As a result...
Let’s not even talk about the on-site referees; his own face was burning hot.
To be safe, during the first half of the second quarter, Rick Carlisle didn’t immediately send Little O’neill and Artest back on the court. During this time, Su Wan alone held the fort, opting not to trigger "Full Power" as he had in the last minute and a half of the first quarter; otherwise, he feared he would collapse on the bench before Little O’neill and Artest could return.
Switching back to the regular "The Zone" state, his performance was no longer as stunning.
But at this time, the entire defensive focus of the Cavaliers was on him, giving the other Pacers players room to perform.
Foster kept slamming dunks consecutively under the basket.
Tinsley’s "physical play" even forced Mike Brown to bring on "Big Z" ahead of time.
The Lithuanian’s entry reactivated LeBron’s favorite "pick-and-roll breakthrough."
During this period, the "Chosen One" finally had some presence.
However, with about 6 minutes and 34 seconds left in the second quarter, Rick Carlisle gradually brought back Little O’neill and Artest.
Just when LeBron had escaped the trap, he was ensnared all over again.
The Cavaliers’ offense was constipated once more.
They reached a point where they could only score through LeBron standing on the free-throw line.
By the midpoint of the third quarter, following Su Wan’s block on Zhu Fangyu’s shot and the ensuing counterattack, the Pacers extended their lead to 23 points.
Su Wan had turned off "The Zone" with over 2 minutes to go in the first half and had been looking for mismatch opportunities ever since. He didn’t shoot much afterwards but was highly efficient. Bill Walton felt that every time Su Wan took a shot, the ball ultimately dropped into the basket.
He reviewed Su Wan’s last 10 minutes of shots and was startled to see a remarkable 5 out of 4.
For the entire game up to that point, his shooting percentage was at 14 shots and 10 hits, 3 free throws and 3 hits, racking up 23 points, along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.
With that shooting percentage, anyone uninformed would think Su Wan played inside!
Looking at LeBron, so far with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, 2 steals, and 2 blocks, it seemed his stats were not far off from Su’s.
Even as the Cavaliers were trailing by over 20 points, he could still shout, "The team lost but I wasn’t asleep!"
But the reality was...
shots taken, only 4 made, and his trips to the free-throw line tonight totaled 16 times, with 11 made.
Meaning, out of his 19 points tonight, 11 came from free throws. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Barkley, watching him at the free-throw line tonight, was nearly vomiting from the sight and incessantly griped:
"The Cavaliers have given up, but the referees haven’t!"
"I suspect that whistle is about to blow smoke!"
"Honestly, this just shows the gap between LeBron and Su Wan. Tonight, Su Wan demonstrated his explosive power, LeBron... showed us his explosive ’free-throw’ power."
...
Ultimately, the game ended and LeBron’s free-throw attempts froze at 22, setting a new personal record for his career.
But as far as Su Wan knew, LeBron’s free-throw "explosive power" had far more potential than shown tonight.
They say Wade is the first-generation "Porcelain King" before James Harden, but in fact...
LeBron James has always been at the top of those lists.
In his 7 seasons in Cleveland, 5 seasons he averaged more than 9 free throws per game, 3 seasons more than 10.
"Porcelain" like Wade, in the first 7 seasons of his career, he only had 2 seasons average more than 10 free throws per game.
"Porcelain King" is just to meet his threshold!
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)