Hot Pot Feast

Wang Yi blocked Paul.

But the ball happened to fall into the hands of their center, Aiton.

After Aiton got the ball, he turned around and prepared to shoot.

Wang Yi happened to be the closest.

Before Aiton could release the ball, he jumped again.

Smack!

He swatted the ball away with a vicious block.

The ball flew straight toward Crowder of the Suns.

Crowder caught it and saw that no one was guarding the basket.

He pulled up, ready to dunk.

But with a quick lateral slide, Wang Yi appeared directly in front of Crowder at incredible speed.

Then he rose high with him.

Both hands raised overhead.

Like a volleyball block.

Crowder's dunk slammed directly into Wang Yi's hands.

After the ball fell, James snatched it.

He immediately fired off a signature long pass to Kuzma, who had already leaked out on the fast break.

Kuzma threw down a one-handed tomahawk dunk!

The arena instantly erupted like a volcano, with thunderous cheers rolling through the stands.

Even the dome of Staples seemed to tremble before the massive Cheers.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi had recorded three consecutive blocks.

He threw back his head and roared.

"Ah—"

As if venting all the emotions he had bottled up over the past two years.

Then he raised his right hand and extended his index finger.

Toward the sky, he wagged it three times.

The commentators at the scene went wild:

"Oh my God, consecutive blocks! Consecutive blocks!"

"What did I just see? African Mountain! African Mountain!"

"No, it's Asian Mountain—Wang! He's the insurmountable Mount Everest!"

Inside the Tencent NBA Live Broadcast Room.

The bullet comments flooded the screen with endless strings of 666 and "awesome."

"Brother Yi is awesome!"

"Nothing but love for Brother Yi!"

"Brother Yi's a real man, tough as iron!"

"Did you see that? Of the five Suns players on the court, four have been treated to Brother Yi's hot pot. That's Brother Yi for you!"

In the broadcast room, Ke Fan and Yang Yi also praised him repeatedly.

"Wang Yi's defense seems to have risen another level compared with the previous game."

"Yeah. He blocked Booker twice, Paul once, Aiton once, and Crowder once. It's only been five minutes, and he already has five blocks. He's only 1.92 meters tall—his shot-blocking ability is truly outstanding."

"Everyone is seeing his shot-blocking, but what I'm more focused on are those possessions where he defended Booker. His lateral quickness was so fast that Booker had no way to drive past him."

"That makes me even more excited for the rest of the game."

Just as they were saying this, the broadcast cut to the Referee.

The Referee made a T signal.

Ke Fan said in surprise, "Yo, yo, yo, what's going on? They gave Wang Yi a T?"

Yang Yi was equally surprised:

"What happened? The camera had been following Harrell on the fast break, so we didn't see what happened. Let's take another look."

Very soon, the replay came up.

It showed Wang Yi wagging his finger at the sky after getting three straight blocks.

Ke Fan suddenly understood:

"Oh, the finger wag! Wang Yi wagged his finger after those three straight blocks!"

Yang Yi shook his head as well:

"Wagging a finger? In the entire NBA, only Mutombo was specially authorized by the league to wag his finger. As for Wang Yi... his second short-term contract was worth twenty thousand dollars. This one technical would cost him twenty-five thousand. That's really not worth it."

Ke Fan said:

"I'm sure James will pay the fine for him."

On the livestream chat, the Haters who had just gone silent popped up again.

"So disrespectful."

"You can judge a person by their basketball character. With such terrible sportsmanship, he must be a terrible person too!"

"He got three blocks and his tail's already sticking up. Heh heh."

On the court.

Wang Yi had received a technical, but he did not regret it.

The NBA was a place for showing off one's personality.

If he did not celebrate after getting three blocks, then when was he supposed to celebrate?

As for what if he showed off now and got embarrassed later, he was not worried.

Were there that few people in the NBA who had gotten embarrassed?

How many had never been embarrassed?

Because Wang Yi had been called for a technical, the Suns shot free throws.

After Paul made the free throw, they continued with possession.

This time, Wang Yi swatted their shot straight into the Audience Seats with another huge block.

The arena erupted once more.

Theoretically, the Block Experience Card could raise Wang Yi's block probability to 50%.

But combined with Wang Yi's familiarity with these players' moves and habits, the probability was much higher still.

On the other end, Wang Yi drilled another three-pointer!

And because Booker had rushed in too hard, he fouled Wang Yi on the hand.

So it was a 3+1.

Wang Yi was still very steady at the line.

After making the free throw, he directly erased the Point Difference.

The First Quarter ended.

Yang Yi commented:

"The Lakers really are a magical team. They fell behind by fifteen points in half a quarter, then needed only another half-quarter to erase the Point Difference."

Ke Fan nodded.

"That's right. The Lakers finally won't have to repeat what happened in last year's G6 loss."

"Everything changed the moment Wang Yi entered the game."

"Honestly, Wang Yi has brought us surprises in every one of these three games."

Yang Yi continued:

"In the first game, his threes descended like a divine weapon from heaven."

"In the second game, besides his threes, he also brought out Deathly Embrace."

"And in this third game, he brought out his shot-blocking specialty. It's like he has an arsenal, taking out a different weapon every game and leaving his opponents unable to defend against him."

Suns Head Coach Williams encouraged his players while laying out the plan.

"Tempo. We have to slow the tempo down!"

"Play as slowly as possible. Don't give them a chance to run in transition!"

In truth, he knew the Lakers' defense was strong, so teams generally had to play fast against them.

But playing fast now led to too many turnovers, making it easy for the Lakers to get out in transition.

So he could only try to slow things down and see whether they could score through Paul's playmaking.

It was like having two bottles of poison in front of him. He had just chosen the first bottle and been poisoned to death once.

After being reincarnated, even knowing the other bottle was poison too, he still had to choose it and hope for the best.

After finishing his instructions, his gaze intentionally—or perhaps unintentionally—fell on Wang Yi at the Lakers' bench on the far side.

The Suns had been in complete control before.

Then this guy entered the game, and everything changed.

If they wanted to win, they had to solve this problem.

With that thought, he turned to look at Crowder.

A moment later, he shook his head slightly.

They would play it out first.

If it really didn't work, they would use Crowder in the Third Quarter.

As soon as the Second Quarter began, the Lakers' starters were basically all resting.

Only Schroder remained on the court with a group of substitutes.

Perhaps inspired by Wang Yi's three consecutive blocks just now, the substitutes played with exceptional ferocity.

Morris and Little Gasol both hit three-pointers.

Even Drummond managed to make a three.

On top of that, Schroder drove to the basket three times in a row.

As for the Suns, perhaps Wang Yi's three straight blocks had shaken them. Their momentum had clearly dipped.

Missing shots from outside was one thing, but they were even blowing dunks inside.

With Three Minutes left in the half, the Lakers had already taken a twelve-point lead.

At that moment, Wang Yi checked back in.

He blocked two more shots in a row.

And knocked down another two three-pointers.

By halftime, the Lakers had stretched the Point Difference to twenty.