Wang Yi's block startled Gobert.
And that was with his stamina already badly depleted.
Who knew how monstrous this guy would be at full strength?
After Wang Yi dribbled into the frontcourt, he saw Durant reaching out to foul Pang Bo. So he immediately fired a pass to Zhang Yu on the left wing, just beyond the arc.
When the opposing players saw Wang Yi pass the ball, they stopped trying to foul Pang Bo.
That was exactly what Coach Parker had instructed them to do.
Coach Parker had said to foul Pang Bo whenever Wang Yi had the ball. If someone else had it, they could let them play.
After all, the others were nowhere near as likely to score as Wang Yi.
But the very next moment, France paid the price for that decision.
Zhang Yu caught the ball with a little space, though Wemby's long arm was already reaching over to try to disrupt him.
But Zhang Yu didn't hesitate. He rose and shot.
The ball traced a very flat arc.
Thump!
It dropped through the hoop again.
The lead was down to just three!
At that point, France's head coach, Tony Parker, began to panic, and the French players were growing anxious too.
Their 17-point lead had dwindled to three in what felt like an instant.
What terrified them most was that now, in addition to Wang Yi, Zhang Yu's three-point shot had caught fire.
During the last few minutes, the other players had either been shut down by France's defense or were afraid to shoot.
Only Wang Yi had been left struggling on his own.
France had stood a good chance of winning if they focused all their efforts on double-teaming Wang Yi. But now that Zhang Yu was hitting threes, they had no choice