Timberwolves head coach John Smith kept his eyes fixed on the screen.
A moment later, when he saw the Lakers miss shot after shot—and even blow dunks—he shook his head in disbelief.
"The Lakers players must've run into ghosts. They definitely ran into ghosts. Not just the players, either—even their coach, JJ Redick, ran into ghosts."
"I've never seen anything like this in my life."
At the arena, the Lakers players came off the court looking utterly dejected.
They were more dejected than ever before. They had never felt this low in their lives.
Big Ball slumped into a seat.
Second Ball walked over to a chair and punched it, knocking it to the floor.
LaMelo Ball raised his foot and kicked an advertising board.
Luckily, the referee didn't see him. If the referee had caught him kicking the board, he would have gotten another Technical Foul.
The other players were just as dejected.
They'd all been playing basketball for quite some time, and each of them had experienced a few stretches on the court when they couldn't make a shot no matter how hard they tried.
But in those so-called five-minute slumps, they usually missed shots from mid- or long range.
They occasionally missed layups, too, but that was usually because they were trying to make them under defensive pressure.
Missing an uncontested layup was much rarer.
But today, things were seriously cursed. Forget three-pointers—even their mid-range shots and floaters near the rim wouldn't go in.
They missed layups, and even their dunks wouldn't go in.
Worst of all, every missed shot, layup, and dunk had happened while Wang Yi was the only one guarding inside the three-point line.
In other words, they couldn't get the ball into the basket no matter what, even when they were practically unguarded.