With Leonard chasing him down, Wang Yi sank a three-pointer and drew a foul from Leonard.
One free throw.
Wang Yi made the free throw.
The score was 86–86. They were tied!
They had come back from a twenty-point deficit in just half a quarter.
That kind of scoring run was terrifying.
And it had all started with Wang Yi using Deathly Embrace to shut down the opposing team's leading scorer.
His steals and several three-pointers had also opened things up for the Lakers.
The noise in the arena had reached a fever pitch.
Nearly twenty thousand fans cheered without pause.
For a moment, the Lakers had reached their peak momentum.
Wang Yi looked up at Leonard.
Leonard wore the same expressionless face he always did.
There was no sign of anxiety;
no anger at being shut down;
and no disappointment at having several three-pointers sunk over him in a row.
He was like an emotionless robot.
All he had was mechanical defense and mechanically precise shooting.
At that moment, even though Clippers coach Tyronn Lue had watched a twenty-point lead vanish in an instant, he was getting anxious too.
But he didn't call another timeout.
He had already used two timeouts in the last five minutes.
If he kept using them, he'd have none left for the crucial moments of the fourth quarter.
All he could do was shout from the sideline:
"Leonard, George..."
The two men turned to look at their coach.
But Tyronn Lue didn't say anything else.
He simply gazed at them with meaningful eyes.
The two understood what he meant: they had to figure something out.
That was Tyronn Lue's usual coaching style.
When he coached James on the Cavaliers, he'd ask LeBron about internal matters and James about external ones whenever he couldn't make a decision.
Once, when James had run out of gas in the fourth quarter and was nearly collapsing from exhaustion, Lue called two timeouts in a row.
Not to draw up a play, but simply to give James a chance to catch his breath.
Only he could pull off a move like that.
So now, faced with Wang Yi's sudden defensive prowess and three-point shooting, he was at a loss too.
All he could do was ask the team's two stars.
But while those two could take matters into their own hands, they weren't so good at finding solutions when the team was in trouble.
Left with no other choice, he turned his attention to Rondo.
Rondo had been around the league for years and was a seasoned veteran.
He was experienced and had a sky-high Basketball IQ.
The time he'd once directed Cousins to defend an empty patch of air was proof enough of his Basketball IQ.
Calling Rondo the coach on the floor was no exaggeration.
During a dead ball, Lue said to him:
"Whether we win tonight is all on you."
Rondo accepted the responsibility without hesitation.
He said nothing, just nodded and headed onto the court.
Over the next few minutes, with Rondo orchestrating the offense, the Clippers got things going.
As for the Lakers, Wang Yi's three-pointers had broken the opposing team's zone defense.
They couldn't stop the Lakers either.
The lead changed hands repeatedly.
By the end of the third quarter, the teams were separated by just two points.
Intermission.
Nearly every Lakers player came over to high-five Wang Yi.
Wang Yi felt a little stirred.
He'd spent two years drifting around the NBA. When had he ever seen anything like this?
Those players hadn't just refused to celebrate with him—they'd sometimes barely even looked his way.
Now, after just two games, nearly every player on the team had come to high-five him.
How could that not move him?
Just then, James brought over a tablet.
He gave Wang Yi a mysterious pat on the shoulder.
"Guess what your stats are right now."
Wang Yi shook his head. "No idea."
He'd been focused entirely on the game, intent on playing every possession well.
He hadn't even kept track of how many points he'd scored or how many threes he'd made.
James handed him the tablet.
Wang Yi looked at the stats on the screen.
19 points!
Nineteen points in just eight minutes!
Six for nine from three.
One for one from the free-throw line.
19 points, 2 steals, 2 assists, and 1 block!
Plus-20 while on the floor!
That was Wang Yi's incredible efficiency over those eight short minutes.
Nineteen points in a quarter wasn't much compared to the true superstars.
But his plus-minus was downright terrifying.
With him on the floor, the team had outscored its opponents by 20!
Looking at the string of stats, even Wang Yi found them hard to believe.
He'd dreamed countless times of putting up a performance like this.
But reality had punched him in the face again and again.
Today, at last, he'd delivered the performance he'd longed for.
Of course, this was only the beginning.
His ambitions were much bigger than this.
At that moment, Wang Yi looked toward the Clippers' resting area.
His eyes settled on Leonard.
He'd always heard about Deathly Embrace, but only after experiencing it firsthand today did he understand how terrifying Leonard's Deathly Embrace was.
The reason he'd outplayed Leonard so thoroughly in the third quarter wasn't that Leonard's Deathly Embrace wasn't strong enough.
He'd simply found a clever way around it.
Leonard's Deathly Embrace put immense pressure on whoever had the ball.
And Wang Yi had happened to play off the ball.
If he'd had to hold the ball and go One-on-One against Leonard, with his current abilities, he would've been defended into the ground.
He looked forward to the day when Deathly Embrace would no longer be a boost from the system, but an ability of his own.
Only then would he be able to maintain Deathly Embrace for an extended period.
Instead of just the ten minutes granted by the Experience Card.
The fourth quarter began soon after.
The Lakers had James rest.
Wang Yi didn't take the floor either.
He'd only played eight minutes, but they'd taken a heavy toll on his stamina.
On defense, he'd used Deathly Embrace against the robot Leonard;
on offense, he'd had to keep running around screens and shooting threes.
Even a man made of iron couldn't withstand that kind of exertion.
So the coach kept him on the bench for now.
Vogel also had another reason for his decision.
Based on these two games, Wang Yi had already proved himself to be a quality 3D Player.
That kind of player was best suited to playing alongside James.
So Vogel planned to put Wang Yi back in when James returned to the court.
Without James, Thick Eyebrows held the floor with a group of substitutes.
But with Coach Long directing the Clippers, their offense flowed smoothly.
The Lakers' substitutes, meanwhile, kept up their usual bricklaying.
With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Clippers gradually stretched their lead to nine points.
Then the most disastrous moment of all happened.
After blocking a shot, Thick Eyebrows suddenly grabbed his groin and began limping.
Everyone's hearts leapt into their throats.
The entire arena fell silent.
The team doctor hurried over and helped stretch Thick Eyebrows' left leg.
A moment later, he helped Thick Eyebrows to the locker room.
News soon came from the locker room.
Thick Eyebrows wouldn't return for the rest of the game.
James's expression grew grave.
He went over to Vogel, his voice carrying a hint of grim resolve.
"Coach, I'm going in!"
According to the regular rotation, this was supposed to be his rest time.
But he couldn't keep resting.
This was only a Regular Season game.
But the two teams were bitter rivals from the same city.
And the Clippers were the Lakers' biggest projected opponent in the Western Conference Playoffs.
So he had to win this game!
Before you continue