At the offensive end, when the Raptors couldn't get out on the fast break, they relied on Wang Yi to run their half-court offense.
The Raptors were at their most dangerous in transition, but their half-court offense was no slouch either.
Come on—could a team with Wang Yi really be weak in the half court?
And this year, they had the Tsunami Brothers: one player would take a three, then another would take one.
More often than not, their opponents simply couldn't keep up.
Wang Yi hadn't taken a single three in the first quarter, but Mad Tiger Tagore had hit two, and Zhang Yu had added two more.
That alone had kept the Raptors' offense roughly even with the Lakers'.
And every so often, the Raptors would stop the Lakers and suddenly launch a counterattack.
That meant the Lakers gave up at least two points, while the Raptors picked up at least two.
As Director Zhang put it, that was a four-point swing.
So the lead kept growing.
By the time the starters were due for a rest, the Raptors had stretched their lead to 15 points.
Everyone had expected the sharpest spear to meet the sturdiest shield. No one had expected the Lakers to fall 15 points behind in just nine minutes.
The two-thirds of the crowd rooting for the Lakers looked rather grim.
Even the Lakers' mascot seemed a little down during the on-court show at the official timeout.
The two American commentators watched the scene and shook their heads helplessly.
One of them said:
"We thought this would be a close game, but the Raptors have built a 15-point lead in just nine minutes."
The other commentator said:
"But I believe the Lakers can fight their way back, especially when the Raptors' starters come off the