890: A Man Who Stood by His Friends
Durant was on fire, and it looked as though he'd entered his Personal Domain too. D'Antoni had already sent Barnes to switch onto Durant, but it made no difference.
At times, they even double-teamed him, but that still had no effect.
Against a player who had entered his Personal Domain, the only way to stop him was to double-team him in the frontcourt.
Otherwise, once he crossed half court, he was already in range.
Fortunately, Wang Yi was still in his Personal Domain too. You could say he and Durant were trading blows in a full-on shootout.
Durant finished the third quarter with 27 points, while Wang Yi scored 31.
That brought Wang Yi's total to 106 points.
He was on the verge of breaking his own record of 109 points in a single game.
What amazed everyone was that every one of the Kings' points had come from Wang Yi. Not a single other player had scored even one.
The Nets had scored more as a team in the third quarter than the Kings had.
Besides Durant, several other Nets players had chipped in 13 points in the quarter.
The Kings ended the third quarter leading the Nets 106–100.
Their lead had been whittled down to just six points.
At that moment, the official NBA Twitter account posted:
"In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Kings player Wang Yi has exploded for 106 points through three quarters. If nothing unexpected happens, he'll soon break the all-time single-game scoring record of 109 points. Amazingly, every point scored by the Kings has come from Wang Yi, and no other player has taken a shot."
The news sent fans across the United States into a frenzy.
At a brightly lit construction site, a man