Chapter 670: Chapter 477: Dominate Chapter 670: Chapter 477: Dominate Brown’s one-on-one against Love was ugly, but his outstanding shooting percentage made it clear that Love’s defense as a center was completely inadequate.

Even as a power forward, his physique held no advantage, let alone playing as a center, which requires the most physical talent to reach the minimum standard–it was pure surrender.

However, the Miami Heat’s offensive firepower was fierce, and with the robust defense of Wade and Ariza on the perimeter, they were usually able to maintain a certain level of defensive integrity.

Now facing the Supersonics, a team with strong perimeter play that identified Love’s defensive weaknesses right away, Brown’s continuous one-on-one play cornered the Miami Heat’s defense.

As a power forward forced to play center, Love’s innate talents, both static and dynamic, were mediocre, and unlike those low-talent, doggedly determined interior players, he did not possess a competitive attitude.

Love’s strengths were his skills, and his duty was to protect the rebounds, so in defending Brown, he only made sure not to be out of position, symbolically disrupting each shot by Brown, then turned to box out.

This ensured that he was in a superior position each time he went for a rebound.

But the downside was also obvious.

Defensive efforts as half-hearted as this were only effective at the start of the game, but not at other times.

Brown kept scoring in the low post.

Halfway through the quarter, the initially strong Miami Heat were thrown off balance by the peculiar strategy of focusing on Kwame Brown from the Supersonics.

16 to 11
The Supersonics took the lead.

At this time, Miami Heat’s head coach Spoelstra was not yet the magical coach of the 2020s known for making adjustments at every timeout; he was widely regarded as Riley’s on-court persona.

Being a persona meant there was no need for personal thoughts or awareness; he just needed to stabilize the locker room, manage the timeouts well, and leave the rest to the behind-the-scenes Riley.

So when the Supersonics kept letting Brown play one-on-one, Spoelstra took a while to realize they could double-team Kwame Brown.

Given his lack of skill, Brown would certainly not be able to pass well out of a double-team.

Therefore, after the timeout, Miami Heat implemented a defensive approach to double-team Brown as soon as he got the ball in the low post.

As a result, Spoelstra was only on the first level, while his opponent was at least on the third level.

Letting Brown go one-on-one, powering up against Love, was a decision made by Yu Fei on the spot.

It was this decision that made Karl realize just how bad Love’s defense was.

If Love’s defense was so bad, why didn’t they let Little O, who had stronger low post offense, replace Brown?

Thus, Brown, who had contributed greatly, was substituted out after the timeout.

Little O took Brown’s place at center.

This was his position with the Pacers; he had lost weight to play as a power forward after joining the Lakers, but against a “pocket-sized” center like Love, who from weight to frame was entirely on the standard of a power forward, he was not afraid at all.

In addition to substituting Little O for Brown, Karl also noticed that Durant was “not very excited” and lacked enthusiasm during tactical movements, so he substituted the rookie Alonzo Gee for him.

In the past six minutes, Durant was like an invisible man, having shot only once and missed.

That meant his current score was zero points.

“Rest well, we need your energy in the second quarter,” Karl said softly.

This was what Durant had been waiting for.

The team was focusing on inside play tonight, so it was certain that Yu Fei and Roy would increase the frequency of passes to the inside.

Therefore, if he wanted to maintain his average of 18 shots per game, he had to seize the opportunities during the transition periods to take a lot of shots.

“Why am I being substituted?” Durant heard Brown’s complaint. “I’ve shot 7 for 4. What can Jermaine do? He’s practically a has-been…”
Is it possible that a half-washed-up Jermaine is better than you?

Durant had many complaints about Brown.

He felt that this egomaniac had crossed the line in many aspects.

If it were Yu Fei shouting at him on the court, okay, he had nothing to say, but Kwame Brown?

Are you serious? All because of one missed pass, there’s whining for half a day?

“Had KD made that pass, I’d be 8 for 5 by now!” Brown still remembered how Durant had ignored him.

All Durant could say was something in keeping with his persona: “My fault.”

“You are at fault!” Brown spoke in a tone of a sage, “Frye and Brandon trust me, and you need to trust me too.”

They don’t trust you; they trust the idiot Kevin Love, who can’t defend but insists on playing center to snag rebounds, and can’t guard any center!

Durant slowly realized that the voice inside him was becoming more and more violent, more and more intense, and less and less like the words he would speak.

It wasn’t something he would say, but why did they come to mind?

While Durant was lost in thought, Supersonics’ rookie Alonzo Gee, with a leap, destroyed a Miami Heat pass and then, channeling his inner Rodman, was willing to let his body kiss the floor to save the ball.

Unfortunately, his passion was misplaced.

He had the courage to go after the ball but lacked the ability to find a teammate while off-balance.

The ball ended up in Curry’s hands.

In an instant, Curry launched a counterattack.

Yu Fei caught up, but Curry was not intimidated. He executed a behind-the-back dribble with a quick stop, and right in Yu Fei’s face, hurled a chasing three-pointer.

“Swish!!!”

“Stephen fearless of Frye!”

“Frye is right, Stephen is special!”

“What’s most special about him is that every single technique he excels in is mainstream for this era!”

Curry’s performance ignited discussion among all the major television networks.

This was his first NBA face-off against Yu Fei, and he was not at all intimidated and performed exceptionally well.

Perhaps it was because he had already seen many similar performances by the opponent during the Dream Team times, so now, seeing the rookie Curry showcase such outstanding skills in front of Yu Fei, he seemed unsurprised.

Compared to Curry, Yu Fei was more concerned about Alonzo Gee.

“Having aggression is good,” Yu Fei said, “but your aggression is clearly over the top; the game hasn’t reached that stage yet.”

Gee understood what Yu Fei meant.

There was no need to dive to save the ball at this moment; such feats should be kept for more meaningful occasions. Besides, his heroic act had not yielded good results.

Having played four years of college basketball, Gee certainly knew when to exert himself for the best benefit of the team. But now, his underdog mentality took over his conscious mind.

This mentality led him to believe he “must go all out for every ball.”

Therefore, he remained silent to Yu Fei’s counsel.

Yu Fei knew that he had heard him but hadn’t truly taken it in; if there were to be a next time, he would dive out all the same.

No one should dislike a player who plays fearlessly in a game.

“I heard you’ve been practicing corner threes lately?” Yu Fei asked after receiving the pass.

Gee answered, “Right-side corner threes, Anthony has been teaching me for a while.”

“I’m still not very accurate.” Gee added quickly, not wanting Yu Fei to expect too much from him.

Yu Fei said with anticipation, “We’ll soon find out whether you’ve been practicing them specifically.”

Gee was somewhat surprised; did this mean that Frye would be passing the ball to him?

He was right.

Yu Fei brought the ball past half court and raised his hand to direct his teammates’ movements.

Gee moved through the crowd; the Miami Heat didn’t take his shooting threat to heart, focusing more on preventing Roy and Moro from receiving the ball.

Suddenly, Collison came up to set a pick for Gee.

Gee sprinted along the right corner.

One step, two steps, three steps… Based on what Yu Fei knew, it took six steps from that position to reach beyond the three-point line, but Gee only took five steps.

Maybe his stride was larger, or maybe he had no clear concept of positioning for the catch and shoot, just going by feel.

Yu Fei passed the ball in an instant, and in the moment of release, he glanced at Gee’s feet.

Sure enough, he stepped on the line.

Yu Fei had been teammates with some of the greatest shooters in history–Ray Allen would always take six steps to sprint from under the basket to the baseline; it was the perfect rhythm and the most suitable number of steps to create an ideal sense of timing and catching for the shooter.

Alonzo Gee didn’t understand this; his systematic practice of threes started only after joining the NBA.

So such a low-level mistake was acceptable.

“Bang!”

Gee’s long two-point shot, with his foot on the line, was unsuccessful.

Love grabbed the defensive rebound and then showcased one of his most lauded skills–passing.

Love secured the rebound and then accurately threw a long pass with both hands.

He almost created a direct scoring opportunity for Ariza.

But Yu Fei was too quick to react.

From the moment Gee’s shot failed, he had been running back, so when Ariza caught the ball, the two were not far apart. In such a moment, Ariza had a daring thought–if he could seize the opportunity to dunk over Frye, might this become his “Starkhouse face-off with Michael” moment?

Ariza could foresee how much fame such a dunk would bring him.

It helped him overcome his fear.

Reaching the front court, Ariza cried out, leaning against Yu Fei, trying to use him to gain momentum. However, the moment their bodies collided, Ariza was horrified to discover that Yu Fei’s body had not moved from the impact.

Not only did he fail to gain force, but due to underestimating the physical contact he stumbled, resulting in a jump that was far too low.

“It’s over…”

Ariza wailed inside; he knew Yu Fei.

He would not miss any opportunity to defend his position.

Just as Ariza predicted, Yu Fei jumped higher than him, aggressively grabbed the ball with both hands, and forcefully snatched it from above Ariza’s head, causing Ariza to fall on his back.

A tremendous roar erupted from the crowd.

It was as if a deity had revealed true form in front of a billion believers.

The players at the center of the court could clearly feel Key Arena becoming sweltering, the cacophony deafening them from all directions.

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Yu Fei quickly brought the ball up the court, with Curry mismatched on defense.

But Yu Fei had no intention of making any superfluous moves; he simply disregarded Curry’s defense and launched a pull-up three-pointer right over the opponent’s head, giving him no time to think.

Swish!

The ball went through the net, and Spoelstra made the right decision, calling a timeout immediately after Yu Fei released an “I am the dominator” pressure.

“Stephen might become a special player in the future, but he will inevitably live in the shadow of Frye,” Doug Collins said exaggeratedly, “Frye’s wings envelop the league, and each feather is a symbol of domination!”