Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Although the Lakers are strong because they leave opponents with a deadly multiple-choice question, which of the two poisons known as "O.K." to take, taking Kobe out and playing entirely around Shaquille O'Neal is still a universally applied tactic.

In the era of zone defense, O'Neal couldn't demand the ball and attack as freely as he used to, even if the person defending him was Gadzuric, he faced many restrictions in getting to the deepest position.

Because of his bug-like physique, O'Neal experienced the phenomenon of "reverse star treatment." To promote perimeter stars, the league might instruct referees to be protective when calling fouls, yet in O'Neal's case, they feared his power was too overwhelming, hence he was heavily restricted for many years.

Therefore, it wasn't realistic to rely on strong post plays for every possession, but just by standing under the basket, O'Neal was a threat, and every move he made pulled on the Bucks' defense.

No matter how Yu Fei named targets on the offensive end, throughout the whole quarter, it only hurt their flesh without touching their bones.

In the next quarter, the Lakers brought Kobe back in.
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Frustrated from sitting out half the game, Kobe burst onto the court like a tiger out of its cage, attacking so fiercely that Devean George gasped for air.

"Dude, take it easy!" George hoped Kobe wouldn't treat him like the angry youth in Eagle County waving "You are the criminal" banners.

Relax? The word didn't exist in Kobe's game.

"DG, you look like you haven't grown at all," Kobe said coldly, mocking George before tearing the Bucks' baseline defense apart with off-the-ball movement, catching the ball for a layup.

Kobe's dominance put the Lakers ahead of the Bucks by 11 points at home.

After watching Kobe's performance, Yu Fei had a question.

Why didn't the '04 Lakers win the championship in history?

Honestly speaking, as a post-millennial time traveler, he couldn't immediately recall which team won the 2004 championship.

He had to think hard before he vaguely remembered it was the Detroit Pistons.

But that Pistons championship came a year before his birth, so it held no significance to him in his previous life.

Now, having played several games against both F4 Lakers and the Pistons—even though not against the post-big trade Pistons—it was indeed hard for him to believe that those Pistons could defeat the Lakers.

Not to mention the boost Rasheed Wallace brought to the Pistons, was there a stylistic restraint between the Lakers and the Pistons?

Big Ben was the only center who could resist O'Neal head-on.

Rasheed Wallace was an all-around star power forward with an unpredictable temperament.

And the rest... Yu Fei's mind flashed with the defense style of the Pistons.

They favored aggressive man-to-man defense but would leave those players with lower shooting percentages unguarded, then clog the space around the opposing team's star players, forcing them into the toughest one-on-one offense.

This defense seemed tailor-made to stifle Kobe, but what about O'Neal? Even with his high individual offensive efficiency, the Pistons had many ways to limit his ball-reception.

Plus the O.K. conflict, Kobe and O'Neal barely interacted on-court...

Yu Fei was so absorbed in thought that he didn't hear Karl calling him to the court.

"Frye?"

"Are you feeling all right?"

Yu Fei said, "What's the Lakers' three-point shooting percentage tonight?"

Karl gave a straightforward reply, "Apart from Kareem Rush, all are below the league average."

Whether the Pistons' defense could be effective against O.K. depended not so much on O.K. themselves but on how the unguarded players responded.

If they couldn't release the pressure from O.K., naturally an uncooperative O.K. couldn't break through the Pistons' Iron Bucket Formation.

The Lakers had already proven in history that they couldn't break it; Yu Fei was concerned whether the Bucks could adopt the same strategy.

Because if they were pursuing a repeat, F4 Lakers was an inevitable opponent they had to face.

Yu Fei made a suggestion to Karl.

Karl thought they lacked the Pistons' defensive tenacity and chemistry, after all, the Bucks were an offensive team.

"We can try it, but we'd have to wait until the second half," Karl said, "I'll handle this matter, right now what we need to do is increase their defensive difficulty, try to catch up before the end of the first half!"

Then, Yu Fei returned to the game.

With O.K. taking turns to exert their strength, the Lakers gained a double-digit lead, but an 11-point gap wasn't a pressure-inducing difference for the small-ball playing Bucks.

In the first play after Yu Fei entered the game, the basketball passed through the hands of all five players on the Bucks, eventually returning to Yu Fei.

Rick Fox saw Yu Fei standing one and a half meters outside the three-point arc and let his guard down.

That lapse was bound to cause trouble.

Yu Fei lifted his hand for a long three-pointer from the arc, swishing through the net!

The Lakers missed in their half-court set, but Yu Fei grabbed the rebound and passed it to Ray Allen, who nailed another chasing three-pointer.

In less than a minute, the lead shrank to 5 points.

Phil Jackson had no choice but to bring O'Neal back in early, and immediately the Lakers faced targeted tactics from the Bucks.

Now well-versed with pick-and-roll tactics against big men lacking mobility like O'Neal, Yu Fei was especially adept at handling them.

The most important aspect was not just breaking down his defense; it was about breaking the opponent's will to fight back.

O'Neal constantly saw Yu Fei in close proximity, tossing up jump shots or even straight-arm shots.

Each time a shot was made in his presence, Yu Fei's commentary on his defense followed promptly.

O'Neal had managed to respond offensively that night, unlike his previous struggles against the Bucks.

However, as the game wore on, it was a test for O'Neal's stamina.

To save O'Neal's energy, Jackson replaced him with Kobe as the lead was about to be erased.