Meanwhile, on the sidelines.
At the Heat's Resting Area, by the water cooler—the very end of the bench.
Stone saw what had happened. His eyes widened, and he stood there with a blank expression.
It was the kind of exaggerated look actresses in movies and TV shows put on when they were frightened.
Wang Yi shattering the backboard had shocked everyone in the arena.
From the President of the United States to the ball boys on the court, everyone had been stunned for a moment.
But no one was more shaken than Stone.
The crowd's cries of astonishment rang through the arena;
The Kings players shouted, "Holy shit, that's insane!" after their initial cries of disbelief;
And the arena DJ drew out his call.
Yet Stone was still reeling from the shock.
Stone wasn't especially talented, so he relied on his body to play basketball.
He used his physicality to intimidate opponents on the court, and his dirty tricks—which he used at every opportunity—to scare them off.
Put simply, he had modeled his style after Doug Lambier.
He had played that way ever since he was a kid.
That was exactly why Spoelstra planned to have him guard Wang Yi when Wang Yi took the court.
Because he played physically and knew the ins and outs of physical contact, he could clearly feel just how much force Wang Yi had put into that dunk.
He could easily imagine how badly things would have gone if he had been the one defending Wang Yi just then.
He probably would have been lucky to get away with only two broken ribs.
As for why Bagley hadn't suffered the same fate, it was only because he had once been Wang Yi's teammate and was like a brother to him. Wang Yi had gone