Chapter 710: Chapter 490: The Dragon King Returns, Everyone Move Aside_3 Chapter 710: Chapter 490: The Dragon King Returns, Everyone Move Aside_3 The great Japanese sleaze artist Yoshimura Taku once said, “I’m the kind of man who deteriorates if I don’t use it.”

Actually, this is the truth of the competitive world.

If a person gets used to slacking off and doesn’t have the mentality of a protagonist, over time, they will just coast through life like a slacker because no matter how much or how little they do, life remains the same.

Chris Bosh’s degeneration on the Miami Heat was a subjective choice, willing to become a slacker for the sake of winning games. This trend was evident even before Roy’s injury on the Supersonics.

After Roy’s injury, the Supersonics’ ball distribution was reassessed, and the loss to the Lakers made Yu Fei realize that Bosh’s performance could be the key.

Therefore, Bosh couldn’t afford to be a slacker; he had to become the deciding factor in the game.

This change started tonight in the first quarter.

The Lakers’ power forward position was their weakest, so it was time to let Bosh return to his Raptors’ days and aggressively target the Lakers’ four spot.

Yu Fei played five rounds of a 1-4 pick-and-roll in quick succession.

Aside from the first time when he chose to use his individual ability to break through, for the next four times, he passed the ball to Bosh.

The first time Bosh scored with a shot; the second time, feeling confident, he began to dribble and attack the basket; the third time, Pau Gasol thought he couldn’t let Bosh have his way anymore, so he took a risk leaving DeAndre Jordan and stepped up to defend him, which led to a shot for Yu Fei since Gasol couldn’t completely let go of Jordan and still maintained a certain distance from Bosh; the fourth time, the Spaniard decided not to regard Jordan at all and moved away from the basket.

As a result, Bosh did an interior pass, and DeAndre Jordan dunked it hard.

“Come on!!!” Bosh roared with excitement after DeAndre Jordan’s successful dunk, “Come on!!!!”

It was as if he was saying: Try ignoring me again!

Leveraging the inside advantage, the Supersonics quickly took a 9-point lead and even forced the Lakers to call a timeout.

Bosh gave Yu Fei a powerful high five.

Having been in Seattle for half a year, this was the first time he felt like it was his team and the first time he felt like he performed like a star.

It felt too good.

If given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be a star?

“I guess they will move Ron Artest back to the four,” Coach Lu analyzed, “and let LeBron go up against KD.”

Kevin Durant, having exploded past LeBron’s defense in the Christmas battle, confidently said, “I will not lose to him.”

“LeBron won’t be treating you like a kid this time,” Coach Lu reminded him.

And Karl believed that regardless of who the Lakers put at the four, Bosh’s advantage was significant.

“Chris, exploit your advantage to the fullest!” Karl suddenly embodied Rivers, “All of us have got your back!”

Bosh nodded vigorously; the feeling of being trusted was wonderful.

Before heading back onto the court, Yu Fei said to Durant, “You’re not yet a match for LeBron, but you have your strengths.”

Durant nodded, “I won’t clash head-on with him.”

Returning from the timeout, the Lakers indeed made a strategic change, Jackson substituted Artest for Luke Walton.

LeBron also stopped relying on his star power to dominate and started to play the Triangle Offense meticulously.

Pau Gasol’s impact in the low post began to show.

Once caught up in the traditional post play, DeAndre Jordan had limited advantage against Gasol.

His talent was suppressed by Gasol’s strength, making it difficult to perform.

When it came to Gasol’s low post one-on-ones, the Supersonics were clear in their stance: they would never double-team, no matter what.

So Gasol had to go all the way.

The first ball coming up, Gasol scored with a hook shot after backing down his opponent.

Back on the Supersonics’ end, Bosh’s advantage over Walton was too great.

He didn’t need much help from anyone and easily scored one-on-one.

Suddenly, both teams entered a traditional offensive rhythm.

All offense started from the inside.

Gasol against DeAndre Jordan, Bosh against Walton.

The difficulty of these one-on-ones was not on the same level.

No matter how significant DeAndre Jordan’s power disadvantage was, he was still a center with enough height and wingspan, but Walton could hardly be considered a standard NBA power forward.

“`
Bosh simply overpowered him.

Seeing that the Supersonics weren’t concerned about Pau Gasol’s one-on-one, the Lakers moved people to the high post,
hoping to take advantage of Walton’s outside shooting to force Bosh away from the basket.

But the change came before the plan again, Walton was so hindered by Bosh that he lost all sense of feeling in his hands,
and even when he had opportunities on the perimeter, he couldn’t make the shots.

Yu Fei grabbed the rebound and initiated a defensive counterattack, and with the Lakers just a step too slow,
they lost 2 points.

The intensity was high, the tempo fast.

Yu Fei jogged back to the backcourt.

It was only when he took his position at the very front that the relevant Lakers personnel realized
that the most dangerous player of the Supersonics hadn’t yet made his mark.

He had some highlights, but as of tonight, up to now, it had been the Supersonics’ inside line that were the protagonists.

The impact of Bosh alone was enormous.

Perhaps it was because the Lakers’ power forward position was too weak, Bosh’s dominance wasn’t just the usual advantageous matchup
but gave the impression of a terrifying dimensionality reduction strike.

Moreover, every time he did something on the court, he would be spitting and shouting, his emotion could infect his teammates.

At the end of the first quarter, the Supersonics were riding the wind and waves, scoring 34 points in the quarter
while the Lakers only managed 23.

George Karl said to his assistants, “If one day I suddenly go crazy and think about using Chris at the five to increase flexibility and space,
you must knock me out!”

Yu Fei walked off the court for a rest without any pressure.

He played the entire first quarter, but his presence wasn’t very strong, though the statistics seemed as if he was everywhere.

7 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, that was just one quarter’s stats.

Bosh was on a rampage, grabbing 15 points and 4 rebounds in a single quarter, imposing a suffocating dominance on the Lakers,
forcing their coaching staff to reflect on their own power forward’s performance.

“CB (Bosh’s initials), you have this ability, why didn’t you show a few tricks before?”

Brown asked.

Bosh, like an energizer on the court, became calm once he came off: “If they let Luke Walton play at the five,
you could do it too.”

“Makes sense!” Brown nodded.

At the start of the second quarter, the Lakers let James lead the second string, the Supersonics had Durant lead their second string,
with Nike’s two most powerful rising stars clashing, each showing their traits in these minutes.

Durant was good at and enjoyed offense, and when Yu Fei wasn’t on the court, he had complete freedom. Because he focused on individual offense,
he often maintained the minimum with his second unit but didn’t have a high ceiling.

James also liked leading the second unit, and to allow him to do so, the Lakers would let him rest the last three to four minutes of the first quarter.

With James’s strength, appearing in that connection phase was an incredible deterrent to the opposition.

This deliberate staggered rotation by the coaching team perfectly utilized James’s characteristic
of having a high ceiling when leading an ordinary lineup.

However, the Supersonics’ second string was not weak, and so the Lakers’ staggered strategy failed to be effective.

James was extremely vigilant against Durant, as they were competitors within Nike,
and scenarios like being blown out by the opponent in big games, if they occurred a few more times,
might lead to a mistaken assessment within Nike.

Therefore, Durant faced a James who was sparing no effort on both offense and defense.

In the first three minutes of the next quarter, Durant went 2 for 5, while James on the other side went 3 for 3, all from breakthroughs.

Fortunately, the Supersonics’ firefighting captain Shaun Livingston stabilized the situation
when Durant was bewildered, with a beautiful low-post turnaround jumper.

Afterward, veterans like Michael Finley played their part.

James couldn’t close the gap in one go.

It wasn’t until the fifth minute of the second quarter that both sides brought on their full starters.

The problem of Chris Bosh was again posed to the Lakers.

The Lakers coaching team believed the problem couldn’t be solved with the current lineup,
so they decided not to solve it.

The power forward position continued to be manned by Ron Artest, and although he wasn’t an inside man,
his physicality wasn’t inferior to Bosh’s, barely holding his own.

Read latest Chapters at WuxiaWorld.Site Only

The rest was up to the performance of Kobe and LeBron.

Trust in the stars came more quickly than both sides had anticipated, with the Lakers having Kobe and LeBron,
the Supersonics having the poised Yu Fei and the supernatural Bosh.

And the biggest variable was Kevin Durant, who had a rough start to the second quarter.

He told himself he couldn’t just give up.

“`