When Raptors Head Coach Dako was about to take Wang Yi out, Wang Yi shook his head and said to him:
"No. I need to pad my stats."
Coach Dako couldn't help laughing as he pointed at Wang Yi's collar.
"Could you be a little less honest? You're wearing a microphone tonight."
Wang Yi shrugged. "All right. Actually, I'm doing it for the team's win. I have to pad my stats a little."
Everyone burst out laughing.
Over the next two minutes, Wang Yi kept padding his stats.
As for his scoring, he hit a three-pointer during those two minutes, bringing his point total to 10.
On the boards, he grabbed two rebounds, bringing his total to nine.
When it came to assists, he kept telling his teammates to shoot whenever they received the ball from him while open.
And his teammates followed his instructions to the letter.
Basically, whenever Wang Yi passed them the ball and they had even the slightest bit of space, they immediately took the shot.
Based on past experience, when their leader said something like that, their shooting percentage as a team was bound to be high that night.
And they were bound to feel really good about their shots.
It might have seemed a little mystical, but that was simply how it worked. So what did they have to hesitate about?
And so...
Over those two minutes, Wang Yi added three more assists.
That brought his assists for the quarter to 14.
Add in the 10 points he'd scored himself...
That meant he had been involved in almost every point the team scored in the first quarter.
That was an astonishing share of the team's possessions.
And the score?
42–30.
The Raptors had taken a 12-point lead.
The sizeable gap dampened the crowd's energy