Coach Dako had assumed that after Wang Yi made that statement, he would go to the front office—or even the owner—after the game and pressure them into keeping all the substitutes off the court.
But by now, neither the front office nor the owner had said anything to him about the substitutes' playing time.
There were two possibilities. The first was that Wang Yi hadn't gone to the front office to bring it up.
The second was that the front office had some sense. Wang Yi had gone to them, but they hadn't agreed to let him run wild like this.
So, as the head coach, he had to make the lineup changes in the most sensible way.
He absolutely couldn't let Wang Yi have his way again today.
Wang Yi seemed to have guessed what the head coach was thinking. He didn't say much in the locker room, simply going about his pregame preparations in silence.
As for the substitutes, every one of them wore a gloomy expression.
They had been plotting over their playing time for a long while.
And after the previous game, Wang Yi and the coach had clashed. Now was the time for them to give the coach and the entire team a warning.
With everyone preoccupied by their own thoughts, the locker room was unusually quiet as they prepared for the game. But the calm felt like the hush before a storm, leaving everyone uneasy.
Just as the whole team was about to leave the locker room and head to the court, Wang Yi finally spoke his first words of the day:
"When you all get on the court today, do everything you can to conserve your energy. If you don't think you can last until the end, just focus on defense. Leave the