Chapter 441: Murderous Intent
drop!
The whistle blows and the battle begins!
Yang Mo was the first to step onto the court. After Jeffries passed him the ball, he quickly sprinted upcourt. As Yang Mo reached the three-point line with the ball, the Celtics' perimeter players hesitated for a moment, surprisingly, all abandoning their double-teams. Despite their hesitation, Yang Mo didn't hesitate at all, decisively taking off from beyond the arc... Swoosh!
The basketball gave him a more decisive response, with a steady three-pointer extending the lead to eight points.
"Just because I don't score doesn't mean I can't score. Now, I'm going to show you my scoring skills." Yang Mo said coldly to Paul Pierce, who was two steps away from him, with a look of arrogance on his face.
In response to this, Paul Pierce raised the corner of his mouth with a slight disdain. He did not think that Yang Mo's scoring skills were that good. He was known as a scoring kaleidoscope and he did not think that Yang Mo had any ability worth showing off in front of him.
Obviously, Paul Pierce didn't take Yang Mo seriously, but Yang Mo did. When he returned to half court, Yang Mo immediately focused his defense on him. The tough physical contact made him feel extremely uncomfortable. He tried to get rid of it by running, but the reality was cruel. Yang Mo's footsteps were much faster than his.
Paul Pierce and his teammates felt the same way. After the substitution, the Knicks' defense suddenly seemed like a giant hand strangling their necks, making them feel suffocated.
The defense suddenly tightened, and the Celtics couldn't react quickly enough. The result was simple: their ball couldn't find the net again. Kevin Garnett's shot, barely able to get through, went wide under Milicic's full defense. Turiaf, overpowering Wallace, grabbed the rebound fiercely. He immediately passed it to Yang Mo.
Yang Mo received the basketball and quickly initiated a fast break, rushing towards the frontcourt. Rajon Rondo was chasing him relentlessly. In addition, Ray Allen, who had left the court early, also ambushed in Yang Mo's route, trying to block Yang Mo's fast break.
Faced with a formidable defense, Yang Mo didn't retreat, instead increasing his speed. Seeing Yang Mo's speed increasing, Ray Allen subconsciously gritted his teeth and tightened his stance. He was ready to collide with Yang Mo... he had to draw a foul.
Ray Allen was waiting for a collision with Yang Mo with the determination to commit an offensive foul, but when Yang Mo was coming at him at lightning speed and was less than half a meter away from him, he suddenly spun around, and with a street-style gyroscope turn that was so beautiful that it couldn't be more beautiful, he passed Ray Allen. Ray Allen only felt as if a tornado had passed by his left side. When he opened his eyes, Yang Mo had disappeared from his sight, and only Rajon Rondo was running towards him breathlessly.
At that moment, the crowd erupted in cheers that continued to grow even louder. Ray Allen quickly turned his head and saw Yang Mo already inside the three-point line. With his first step inside, he raised the basketball high... Strike! Strike! With two firm steps, Yang Mo launched himself into the air, leaping high like a cannonball. His body traced a beautiful parabola through the sky... BOOM! His left hand slammed the basketball into the hoop, sending it resounding and trembling!
The entire crowd erupted in cheers. The previous roar of applause paled in comparison. Madison Square Garden was like a pot of boiling water, seething with the most frenzied passion.
"Who made you so happy?" Yang Mo shouted at the fans, "Next season, the ticket price will be doubled!!!"
Yang Mo's roar did not calm the fans' passion: Damn it, double it, even if it's doubled, I will buy a ticket, it's so fucking cool!
Damn, what a bunch of bastards.
Yang Mo cursed softly with a laugh. He suddenly felt that New York fans weren't so abominable after all. They just acted a bit like women. He clearly wanted to yell "Yamedie" in his heart, but he kept yelling "What's going on?"
drop!
Celtics head coach Doc Rivers called a timeout. He had to react. The team was down five points in a minute, and the sheer thrill of the ups and downs was enough to make him want to take a quick-acting heart pill. Damn, even a roller coaster couldn't be this thrilling.
"Iron-blooded defense, cheetah-like counterattacks. So strong! The Knicks have unknowingly developed the spirit of a strong team," TNT commentator Collins murmured. "The Knicks used to be a completely spineless, rotten team. They lost so much that they lost even their dignity. But now, Yang Mo has given them a backbone as strong as iron. They're finally feeling like a team."
"Don't you think the Knicks just now are very similar to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2001? The 76ers played in the same style back then, with iron-clad defense and a bloodthirsty offensive wizard." Charles Barkley said very seriously.
"You mean, Young can lead the Knicks into the finals and face the Los Angeles Lakers? Replicate the legend of that year?" Kenny Smith said quietly.
"How is that possible?" Barkley was very self-aware. Even though he was a die-hard fan of Yang Mo, he also knew that times had changed. "How can the Eastern Conference back then compare to the Eastern Conference today? The 76ers' strongest opponent in the playoffs back then was the Raptors led by Vince Carter. If that Raptors team were back this year, they wouldn't even be able to make the playoffs."
"So do you think the Knicks have a chance of winning tonight?" Kenny Smith continued to ask.
"Of course, Young is on a killing spree right now," Barkley said confidently. "I've said it before, as long as Young wants to score, no one can stop him. No one can deny that he's already a great scorer. You can find 10,000 of his offensive flaws, but he can always put the ball in the net over your head. This is brute strength, unreasonable hegemony."
"Well, what if there is nothing?" Kenny Smith began to dig a hole for Barkley to jump into.
Upon hearing this, Barkley slammed the table and said, "Kenny, are you planning to continue betting with me?"
"No, no, no." Kenny Smith shook his head and waved his hands quickly when he saw that Barkley was serious. He didn't want to be insulted again. His spirits had just improved a little, and he couldn't be stimulated again.
Relatively speaking, Kenny Smith was lucky enough to avoid any psychological trauma, perhaps due to his blackness and tendency to be more relaxed. Van Gundy, a sensitive white man, wasn't so lucky. After appearing on a show wearing a woman's wig, he was filmed entering a psychiatrist's office three times. Clearly , he couldn't accept his own image, even though he looked a bit better in a wig than bald.
Kenny Smith readily admitted defeat, while Doc Rivers racked his brains for a better strategy. He had gone astray from the start of the night, and now he wanted to correct it immediately. Unfortunately, the other Knicks players had already fully opened up, leaving him with only two options: either block Yang Mo or let him go.
In the end, between these two options, he chose to let Yang Mo play alone. After all, the danger of one Yang Mo is always less than that of four Knicks players scoring in double digits.
Doc Rivers's idea was logically sound, but Yang Mo wasn't something that could be completely understood through logical reasoning. When he was fully unleashed, even if the Celtics double-teamed him, they wouldn't necessarily be able to stop him completely. Unless the Celtics dared to use a quadruple or even a five-man double-team, stopping Yang Mo would be a fantasy.
After emphasizing the need to cut off Yang Mo's connection with the rest of the Knicks, Doc Rivers decisively substituted Perkins to strengthen the defense and rebound. He also wished Pierce the best of his ability to contain Yang Mo and prevent him from completely opening up.
Doc Rivers still has some confidence in Pierce's defensive ability. He did a very successful job defending Kobe Bryant in the Finals last year, which is why he eventually won the Finals MVP.
However, Yang Mo and Kobe Bryant have completely different styles. Kobe is more of a technical player, while Yang Mo is a physical player. Besides his physicality, his technique has also improved significantly. Pierce's physicality might be advantageous against Kobe's more technical style, but he's really helpless against a more physical opponent. James always scores 40-50 points against him, Artest also has considerable experience playing against him, and even Carmelo Anthony can easily score 30 points against him.
drop!
When the whistle blows, the game continues.
Through the adjustments made by Doc Rivers and the adaptation from the previous ball, the defending champions finally played some cooperation after the timeout. After they steadily executed a tactic, Ray Allen finally got a chance to cut to the basket by using Perkins' screen through a back-up run. Garnett, who was in the middle, quickly passed the ball to him. He made a reverse layup to avoid Milicic's block and put the ball steadily into the basket, scoring two points for the Celtics and narrowing the gap to within ten points again.
The Knicks didn't care that he had scored two more points, but quickly passed the ball to Yang Mo. After receiving the ball, Yang Mo slowly moved forward, not hurriedly or at all.
When he was one step outside the three-point line at the top of the arc, Yang Mo suddenly stopped and hooked his finger at Paul Pierce: "I said I would let you see my scoring method. Come on, this time I will defeat you with my skills."
Humph, arrogant!
The thing Pierce was least afraid of in his life was technical skills. When Yang Mo mentioned the word "skills", it sounded like a show-off and self-humiliating act in his ears.
So he rubbed his hands and quickly pressed forward.
