After Rose weaved past three defenders and finished with a sweeping, hanging reverse layup, the entire arena erupted again.
Even Wang Yi couldn't help getting to his feet and giving Rose a thumbs-up.
The Lakers players all looked like they'd just eaten shit.
If Wang Yi had pulled off those moves, they wouldn't have thought much of it. But the one doing it now was the aging, 42-year-old Derrick Rose.
This was seriously unbelievable.
To put it this way, if a boxing champion knocked you down, you wouldn't feel too embarrassed.
After all, he was a boxing champion, and you were just an ordinary person.
But if an 80-year-old man knocked you down with one punch, that would be humiliating.
On the next defensive possession,
the Lakers saw that Barton couldn't guard Rose alone, so they simply had Barton and Hield double-team him.
That finally checked Rose's offensive momentum.
But with Hield leaving his man to double-team Rose, Little Danny had room to work.
He'd accelerate and get to the mid-range in a single step.
If the opposing center didn't come out to guard him, he'd take the mid-range shot. If he did, Little Danny would pass inside to Tang or feed Mane cutting to the basket.
In short, with Rose drawing so much defensive attention, the Lakers couldn't cover everything.
Rose didn't score over the next few minutes, but because he drew so many defenders, the Kings' other players had an easy time on offense.
So when the game reached the eight-minute mark of the second quarter, the Kings still led by 11.
No one had expected that.
The Kings' starters came back in. They'd rested for three minutes in the first quarter, four minutes in the second, and nearly two minutes between quarters, giving them close to nine