Assistant coach Wen Yan suddenly understood, then asked Popovich, "So what should we do?"
Popovich replied, "Our players didn't sleep well, so we'll have to shorten practice and let them make up for the lost sleep at noon. And don't assume that just because Wang Yi didn't pull any stunts on the first day, he won't do anything on the second. I know what he's like. He spent a fortune buying this hotel, then spent even more to set up those 3D projections and other effects. There's no way he wouldn't make a big deal of it here."
"So we still need to be on our guard tonight. But let's be clever about it. We don't want to interfere with the players' rest, so our support staff and public-relations people will have to put in a little extra work. Let the players sleep normally, while the rest of us do a few extra rounds tonight."
The assistant coach nodded. "Yes, Coach. You're right."
That night, Popovich told the players to sleep easy and said he'd assign people to patrol. That made them feel a little more at ease.
The Spurs went to bed at 10:00 p.m., though some players who'd already been spooked by Wang Yi were still wary.
They were afraid someone would pull another stunt in the middle of the night.
So they didn't fall asleep until two or three in the morning.
The next day, Popovich asked the night patrolman about the previous night. The man said nothing unusual had happened.
That only made Popovich more confused.
In fact, the previous night was when he'd been most worried. The Kings and Spurs were playing that evening, and he'd thought Wang Yi would definitely pull something the night before. But everything had gone on as usual.
Popovich couldn't