In the second quarter, Wang Yi had put up an utterly terrifying defensive performance, while his offensive firepower remained undiminished.
With four minutes left in the second quarter, he had already scored 12 points in the period.
His total for the game had reached 42.
He was just three points away from 10,000.
Lakers head coach Snyder watched Wang Yi on the court and shook his head helplessly.
For the first two months of the season, Wang Yi had played pretty casually, usually scoring around 40 points a game and calling it a day. For anyone else, averaging 40 points was already absurd, but for Wang Yi, it really was casual.
Before the game, Snyder had told his players during the pregame pep talk that they had to hold Wang Yi below 40 points. They couldn't let him score his 10,000th point against the Lakers.
And how had that gone?
The game wasn't even half over, and he already had 42.
Was Wang Yi doing this on purpose?
Had he been playing so casually just to save the chance to reach 10,000 points for a game against the Lakers?
By then, the big screen had also announced that Wang Yi was just three points away from 10,000.
All 17,500 fans in the arena stood up to watch.
They were all waiting for Wang Yi to hit the milestone.
But the Lakers had the ball.
This time, they ran the offense through Thick Eyebrows, who passed the ball to their No. 1 pick, King Arthur.
With the ball in his hands, King Arthur was determined to score.
With Wang Yi guarding him, he had gone 0-for-11 from the field and scored only seven points from free throws.
It was a far cry from his usual performances.
Now Wang Yi had just