Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

In the round where Yu Fei cooled off, the Bucks could play their usual tactics.

However, Karl found it unacceptable that Yu Fei, the main host, suddenly turned into a shooter.

With five minutes gone in the first quarter, both sides were tied at 14 points each.

Karl called a timeout proactively and communicated with Yu Fei on the sidelines, "Frye, it's time to switch up our play, you have to get the ball moving."

Yu Fei said, "Isn't Ray doing a great job?"

"Him?" Karl looked at Ray Allen with disdain, "It's you who are shooting well, almost all his assists are to you."

Yu Fei said, "That proves I have the potential to be a scoring champion."

"No, you cannot become a scoring champion, our team doesn't have enough resources to support a scoring champion," Karl said, "You need to be a versatile king, just like before."

Yu Fei's scoring desire was suppressed by Karl.

"OK," Yu Fei said, "I have no problem."

This relieved Karl.

Yu Fei was young and promising, being the youngest MVP in history was an achievement he could be proud of, but it would be a disaster for the Bucks if he suddenly felt he needed to be a scoring champion as an MVP.

With so many scorers in the Bucks' starting lineup, what they needed most was his passing. Once he became obsessed with offense, the delicate balance formed during the regular season would be completely disrupted.

Yu Fei, back on the court, called for a pick and roll again.

The Spurs had adjusted their defense against the Bucks' pick and roll tactic.

Before, Popovich had insisted on switching defenses, but now, he demanded his players firmly double-team Yu Fei.

Because in the past five minutes, every time Yu Fei called for a pick and roll, he had finished it off himself.

Bowen and Jackson moved up to double-team, and Yu Fei stopped the ball on the right, but with a higher line of sight, he found Sprewell in an open position and immediately passed the ball.

Sprewell received the ball and made a three-pointer, swishing through.

17 to 14

The Madman, after scoring, appeared very excited; this was his first shot of the night.

He was definitely one of the players on the team who most wanted to beat the Spurs because a few years ago, it was the Spurs who had dashed his championship dream. He firmly believed if the Knicks had won the championship in 1999, the fairy tale of 'once dark never back' would have elevated them to the status of the legendary Knicks of 1970.

Yu Fei could tell, Sprewell was excited.

Moreover, along with the excitement, he was hot-handed.

This could be seen during the pre-game warm-up, and after running back and forth for five minutes at the start of the game, Sprewell came back from the timeout to take his first shot, and it still went in.

Yu Fei believed he would explode tonight.

On the other side, it was Parker again.

His speed made it difficult for the Bucks to handle, even in an era when physical defense was allowed, you first had to react quickly enough to catch such a nimble and fast player.

On the Bucks' side, neither Yu Fei nor Ray Allen could keep up with Parker, and Sprewell, with the best defensive skills and experience, had been bested by Parker again and again just like the early morning traffic.

The problem for Parker was, in an era where you could be more physical inside the three-point line, he faced the terrible threat of being cut off, so rather than taking the risk of finishing the attack himself, he passed the ball to Duncan.

Duncan received the ball, backed down Mason forcefully, missed the shot, but drew a foul.

At the free-throw line, Duncan made the first shot but missed the second.

George Karl noted this moment.

Normally, if someone is out of touch, the first free throw would miss and then they would adjust and make the second. However, Duncan made the first and missed the second.

Such performance was in line with Duncan's free throw percentage so far in the playoffs: 62%.

This could no longer be described as unstable; it was demonstrably inaccurate.

A thought suddenly struck Karl.

The thought became more determined after Duncan posted up against Mason and scored again.

With the idea of the Hack-a-Duncan tactic in mind, the world seemed a little wider. Continue reading on empire

The first quarter ended, and both teams had gone from smooth sailing at the start, to a fierce tussle in the middle, and then to hard-earned points at the end, vividly demonstrating how to turn a good-looking game into a "Damn ugly" one.

24 to 22

The Bucks were leading the Spurs by 2 points.

During the interval, George Karl proposed the "Hack-a-Duncan tactic" to his players.

When Duncan initiated an attack, nearby players should give a strong double-team.

If Duncan got to the basket, foul him no matter what.

If he gets into a favorable shooting position, foul him hard.

As long as Duncan is on the court, we must play zone defense from start to finish.

The three most accurate three-point shooters in the Spurs are Steve Kerr, Manu Ginobili, and Bruce Bowen, with the former two coming off the bench and Bowen only shooting corner threes, while starters like Parker and Jackson are not accurate three-point shooters.

This is where the Bucks' confidence in decisively double-teaming Duncan comes from.

In the second quarter, Duncan, having played the entire first quarter, continued to be on the court.

In the era of small ball, concepts like managing playing time wisely, protecting the absolute core of the team simply didn't exist. Especially for the Spurs, who revolved around a single star, Duncan averaged 42 minutes per game during the playoffs.

Basically, he stayed on the court as long as the score did not pull apart.

The Bucks did slightly better than the Spurs; they had let Yu Fei rest for two minutes in the first quarter.

Then, George Karl sent Yu Fei back on the court to play in the second quarter.

The "Hack-a-Duncan" tactic was officially implemented.

Although highly targeted, Duncan remained a thorny issue the Bucks couldn't resolve.

Doubling Duncan had little effect.

What actually worked was fouling Duncan.

As Duncan was continuously sent to the free-throw line and achieved one out of two, Bill Walton, sitting courtside as a commentator, reminisced about Duncan's free-throw disaster in the playoffs so far.

In the first game against the Suns in the first round of the playoffs, Duncan missed critical free throws in the fourth quarter and went 1-for-4 in overtime, causing the Spurs to lose at home. In the first game of the semi-finals against the Lakers, the Spurs got an overwhelming 35 free throw attempts for the entire game but missed 14 of them, with Duncan contributing half of those misses.

Yu Fei thought Duncan was a hexagonal warrior.

In fact, this is an overly absolute judgment.

Duncan wasn't without flaws, and free throws were his biggest weakness.

He had briefly solved this problem in the 99-00 season—his free-throw shooting percentage that season reached 76%, but it did not last long. Soon, his free-throw percentage fell back below 70%.

However, it wasn't just Duncan's problem alone; the Spurs team in general was poor at free throws, but since Duncan was the core, if his free throws were visibly poor, the opponents naturally took advantage of it.

Karl's strategy worked.

Duncan showed evident lack of confidence as he stepped up to the free-throw line; the more he worried about missing, the harder it was to maintain consistency in his free throws.

Each time his free throw went off, it brought a fast-break opportunity for the Bucks.

This was Yu Fei's favorite moment.

By halftime, the Spurs were trailing by a difference of 11 points.

Popovich said with a grim expression, "Our free throws are poor, and this is an urgent problem that needs to be resolved."

On a night when Duncan's free throw percentage approached that of Shaquille O'Neal, the Spurs' most advantageous inside line could not rely on individual offense to dominate, which was the greatest pain point for the Spurs.

Because the Bucks would send Duncan to the free-throw line before he could complete an offensive play.

The Bucks learned the philosophy of the Spurs.

That was, to win at all costs.

The Spurs made the game ugly, and the Bucks' Hack-a-Duncan tactic completely robbed the game of its spectacle.

But who could say a single word against them?

In the second half, Duncan made a strong 2+1, as if to prove that the poor shooting form of the first half had blown away with the wind.

Then, Yu Fei brought the ball over halfway, and taking advantage of the Spurs being unsteady, suddenly raised his hand and launched a three-pointer.

"Swish!"

This shot brought the difference back to 11 points.

Then, the Spurs no longer gave Yu Fei the chance to shoot an open three-pointer from the outside.

Because Yu Fei had an extremely high shooting performance tonight, making 4 out of 5 attempts from outside, and if he went on a shooting frenzy, it would be utterly terrifying.

The Spurs' defensive intensity on Yu Fei drastically increased.

This was the reason for Yu Fei's decreased shooting percentage in the second half, but the deadlock of Duncan's inconsistent free-throw shooting remained, and the problem of not being able to maximize the advantage of offense and defense from the inside point could not be resolved, leaving the Spurs unable to turn the situation around.

Duncan was still Duncan, the genuine top player of the League who, even if he could not go for many solo plays, still dominated in defense and rebounds, preventing the Bucks from launching an offense against the Spurs' inside line.

In the end, it was the Bucks' shooters who stepped up, hitting key three-pointers one after another at critical moments, stifling the Spurs who were in the midst of a comeback attempt.

This game would bring them back to reality, drop all unrealistic fantasies; the Bucks came prepared, they were the real deal.

Yu Fei was their true representation.

They couldn't wait to end the Western teams' monopoly of the championship!