When James heard Pachulia slandering Wang Yi, he shook his head and said, "I can't agree with you. You have no idea how much power that guy has inside him."
Pachulia let out two mocking chuckles. "I saw how much his skills had declined during the Basketball World Cup. He was averaging only around twenty points a game. It was obvious during the preseason, too. I'll say it right here: if he averages more than 25 points a game this year, I'll bow down and apologize to him the way people do in China."
James knew the guy was just trying to attract attention.
But he still had to argue back.
"You're just like Nicholas and Bales. Get ready to have Wang Yi prove you wrong."
The Starting Lineups for both teams appeared on the big screen.
Hornets Starting Lineup
Backcourt: Murray, LaMelo Ball;
Small Forward: Zion Barry;
Power Forward: Bagley;
Center: Wemby.
The Kings had made some major changes to their starting lineup, too.
Point Guard: Little Danny;
Shooting Guard: Wang Yi;
Small Forward: Danny;
Power Forward: Towns;
Center: Bond.
This lineup put Tures on the bench.
Towns and Bond formed a twin-tower lineup.
In today's small-ball era, that was an unusually bulky, cumbersome lineup that went against the trend.
But Wang Yi insisted that the coach use it.
He explained his reasoning to De'Anthony: "I think the small-ball era is about to end. The Warriors' small-ball style has been falling short in the Playoffs year after year, and it's not as popular as it used to be. Plus, two elite centers will enter the league in next year's draft. The league might return to the big-man era after that."
De'Anthony asked, "You have that much faith in those two kids?"
Wang Yi nodded. "That's right. They could very