Chapter 758: 504 Chapter 758: 504 Coach Lu asked helplessly, “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“No,” Dantley said, “The problem isn’t with us, it’s with KD. According to our original setup, Frye is now just like Brandon Roy back then. However, KD can’t play Frye’s role from that time. He has his limitations, and his strong suit is playing iso, but nothing disrupts the system more than iso play.”

Perhaps this is a case of an ill person turning into a good doctor.

Dantley, who as a player loved iso play, understood better than anyone the destruction it brought to a system.

Even more so, Dantley could comprehend Durant’s craving and infatuation with iso play.

Dantley gave Coach Lu an answer he already knew.

To Coach Lu’s surprise, the seemingly unhelpful Dantley was actually a very insightful person.

After all, he was the most consistently scoring small forward from the group of 1980s small forwards who “knew nothing but scoring”. Also, he was the one who went the farthest among those small forwards. He battled in the finals as a member of the Detroit Pistons, unfortunately losing to the prime Lakers. Later, he was considered a disruptive element in the team by the Pistons management due to his addiction to iso play, reluctance to move the ball, and his complete opposite choice at the time when Isiah Thomas was setting up the locker room culture(1).

The first half ended with SuperSonics clearly ahead.

The Spurs had underestimated Durant’s in-game adjustment capabilities.

But the SuperSonics were already used to that.

There’s a reason why Durant is called the ultimate offensive machine; scoring is just too easy for him. Unless the opposition manages to maintain pressure all night long, even if he has a terrible first half, he can still readily stabilize his shooting percentage in the second, and by the end, you’d find that despite a seemingly poor performance, his efficiency still looks okay.

This ability to forcibly correct his state is a result of talent.

His shooting combined with his height, arm length, and the exceptional coordination for his size, created his stable scoring ability.

Apart from Durant’s recovery, Yu Fei put out a half expected by fans with a triple-double–19 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Points and rebounds aside, getting 10 assists in the half felt like a slap in the face for the Spurs coaching staff.

Their game plan was to seal Yu Fei’s teammates and let Yu Fei fight alone, and yet Yu Fei got 10 assists by halftime.

“We let them make too many threes,” Popovich concluded as the reason for being behind in the first half.

Whereas Coach Lu emphasized the performances of Yu Fei and Durant.

As the first half’s lead was substantial, SuperSonics were not pursuing a flamboyant offense in the second half.

Coach Lu said to Yu Fei, “Big Fei, we need to take this game steadily!”

So Yu Fei continued to test “which year’s Kobe possessed Durant.”

Yu Fei controlled the pace of the game, then passed the ball to Durant.

The good form from the second quarter gave Durant the confidence to play iso.

Also, the remaining time in this play wouldn’t allow for any effective tactics to be organized.

This gave Durant the backing to go on the offensive.

Iguodala, on the other side, had mixed feelings. How could a player he had under control in the first quarter change so dramatically in the second and third?

Durant’s signature sequence of between-the-legs dribbles followed by a pull-up jumper.

Iguodala didn’t lose his position, but Durant’s release point was too high, and the accuracy of such a shot depended entirely on his own touch.

Durant’s jump shot swished through the net.

The distinct sound of the ball rippling through the net heralded the result of the night.

Yu Fei continued to pass to him, but Durant didn’t opt for iso on every play.

This selected approach to iso indicated the state of Durant’s game.

Yu Fei, who passed the ball a lot but scored little, was still short of 20 points, while his assist count soared continuously.

By the fourth quarter, his stats were even showing 19 points and 20 assists.

Then, Coach Lu requested Yu Fei to draw a shooting foul, ideally making one of two free throws, or else many people wouldn’t sleep easy tonight.

Yu Fei agreed, but not entirely.

Before leaving the court, he drew a defensive foul from Duncan.

Duncan gestured in disbelief to the referee like he suffered a great injustice, while Yu Fei stepped to the free-throw line and nailed both shots, clocking uneven stats of 21 points and 20 assists before Coach Lu subbed him out.

From that point, the game entered garbage time.

The SuperSonics’ lead stretched to as much as 24 points, leaving the Spurs with no chance of a comeback.

At the end of the game, Popovich still didn’t know what they had done wrong.

They indeed had successfully sealed Durant in the first quarter, but strangely enough, even without Durant, Yu Fei still managed to carry his teammates.

Sealing Yu Fei’s teammates wasn’t easy or rather, to make an opposing team’s core player fight alone, it requires highly unconventional methods to make the role players miss even open shots.

But the Spurs didn’t bring that level of defense tonight.

After all, it was SuperSonics’ home court, and they wondered if they could deploy extra physicality against the owners of Key Arena.

The conservative defense left the Spurs completely passive after executing the first strategic step.

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But in the end, they simply underestimated Yu Fei.

Even though they had rated his abilities highly, they found out in the end that his impact on the game exceeded even their wildest imaginations.

“Every point they scored was too relaxed,” Popovich told the reporters, “This won’t happen again.”

Coach Lu, on the other hand, praised the Spurs’ defense.

He thought their defense was strong, but the SuperSonics were just better at adapting. Why were their adaptations so good? He didn’t say, but usually, in-game adaptations depend on the coaching staff.