You had to understand that LeBron James was already great enough.
Before Wang Yi came along, ranking James first in history would have been extremely controversial. But ranking him second? That would have drawn far less debate.
You could say that more than half of people agreed he was the second greatest player in history.
Yet even a player like him had admitted that the gap between himself and Wang Yi was enormous.
That showed just how strong Wang Yi was.
The two teams traded offense and defense after that.
But Wang Yi's side always got back on defense quickly, preventing the Pistons from launching the fast breaks they wanted.
The Pistons' greatest strength this season was the fast break.
They scored around 40 points per game on fast breaks.
They were the team that scored the most fast-break points in the league.
That showed just how much of their offense depended on the fast break.
They spent nearly a quarter of every game on the break.
Watching them play usually gave people the impression of: whooshwhooshwhooshwhoosh...
But this game gave people a completely different impression.
They came rushing in, but they just couldn't get through.
Because whenever they were about to break through, a figure always appeared between the ball and the rim.
With four seconds left in the first half, after the Raptors made a three-pointer, the Pistons started a fast break.
This time, their three players, unusually, didn't spread out into three lanes. Instead, they all sprinted upcourt in a straight line.
Connie Connie passed the ball to Dute, who then passed it to their center, Mashat.
Wang Yi raced back from the sideline and positioned himself between Mashat and the rim.
When Mashat was about three meters from the basket, he leaped.
At the same