Paul figured Wang Yi held too much sway over his teammates. If he went to Wang Yi and brought this up out of the blue, Wang Yi might resent him, and the other players might turn against him too.
So he would wait until after they lost the game to hash it out with Wang Yi. By then, no one would think there was anything wrong with what he had to say.
Using a loss to bring Wang Yi back to his senses was acceptable.
Paul took the floor first in the fourth quarter.
As soon as he came on, he sank a three-pointer, stretching the lead back to 12 points.
But in exchange for that three, the Grizzlies unleashed a barrage of threes.
Jones and Bane were as hot as if they'd just come out of the microwave. There was no stopping their shots from beyond the arc.
With their threes falling, it became much easier for Mitchell and Morant to drive inside.
The Grizzlies were firing on all cylinders, inside and out.
By the time James came on with two minutes gone in the quarter, the Grizzlies had cut the lead to five.
Paul couldn't help glancing over at Wang Yi on the sideline.
Wang Yi seemed to have taken a little interest in the game.
Paul knew Wang Yi found it boring because they had such a big lead and there wasn't much competition.
He just had to keep messing around, didn't he? Wouldn't be happy until they lost one.
With eight minutes left in the fourth, Wang Yi came on too, replacing Paul and James so they could rest.
They were both getting on in years, after all, so they needed a little more time to recover.
Wang Yi played for two minutes, and the Grizzlies