The 76ers' head coach was at his wit's end. He hurriedly called another timeout, hoping to halt the Kings' momentum.
But it was clear that he'd failed.
For the rest of the second quarter, the Kings stuck to the same strategy: the Big Three drew the defense, then kicked the ball out for Danny or Anthony to shoot threes.
Danny needed no introduction. His shot was falling beautifully tonight, and he went five for six from three in the second quarter alone, scoring 15 points. Gallo Anthony also knocked down two threes.
And that was with Wang Yi barely taking any threes himself.
With Wang Yi's 50% three-point percentage, the 76ers would have had even less of a chance if he'd started shooting.
The 76ers' inside game was pretty good in the second quarter, too. Embiid kept scoring around the rim.
But if you scored two points and they scored three, there was no way to keep up.
So when the second quarter ended, the Kings were actually up by seven.
The crowd was getting excited.
In the earlier preseason games, the Kings had usually been trailing by seven or eight points by the second quarter. Today, not only were they not behind, they were up by seven. How could the fans not be thrilled?
Meanwhile, Xu Jingyu was holding forth in the China livestream.
"Now that's more like it. You don't have to force the Big Three to work together. The other guys have to get involved, too. Basketball is a five-man sport, after all."
"But I believe De'Anthony wouldn't come up with this in a million years. It's not that he can't think of it; he just doesn't dare sit either Paul or James. They're making thirty million, after all. Would you be happy if someone benched a