City Derby: Lakers vs. Clippers

That afternoon, Wang Yi went to James's luxurious villa in Los Angeles.

James's private doctor, Dr. Karen Jobbert, gave Wang Yi a systemic check-up.

He was a very meticulous and serious doctor.

The examination took over half an hour.

Finally, he said to Wang Yi:

"According to my diagnosis, it's acute traumatic synovitis of the wrist, with possible fluid accumulation. My recommendation is at least ten days of rest and treatment, and no more weight-bearing on your right hand. Otherwise, the injury will worsen drastically, potentially affecting your career."

Wang Yi listened and gave a wry smile:

"If I rest, my career will only end sooner."

James understood Wang Yi's current predicament. After thinking for a moment, he said:

"Wang, can you shoot with only your left hand on the court?"

Wang Yi nodded, "Of course."

The System's reward was "Three-point accuracy increased to 45%," and he could achieve 45% accuracy regardless of which hand he used to shoot.

James said to his private doctor:

"Karen, he can use only his left hand on the court. When he's not playing, he can come to my house every day. Can you help treat him?"

Karen was a very principled person.

He was clearly a bit agitated and shook his head repeatedly:

"That won't do. I have to be responsible for my patients. He's injured, so he should rest and receive treatment, not risk his career by playing through the injury!"

James glanced at Wang Yi and said to Dr. Karen:

"Karen, come here for a moment."

The two then went out to the balcony.

It's unknown what they discussed.

More than ten minutes later, they returned to the living room.

Dr. Karen examined Wang Yi's wrist again, and finally nodded:

"You can play, but you must come for treatment immediately after every game. And it's best not to practice shooting or dribbling, or any other actions that put pressure on your wrist, each day."

Wang Yi nodded, "Thank you, Doctor."

Next, Dr. Karen performed some treatment on Wang Yi's wrist.

Wang Yi felt his wrist was much more relaxed.

The pain had also significantly decreased.

That night, Wang Yi stayed at James's house.

After all, James's house had as many as five guest rooms.

The next day was game day, and the System didn't issue any training missions.

The team only had morning practice.

Wang Yi followed Dr. Karen's instructions and did not participate in any drills involving the ball.

He only did some simple physical conditioning.

At 8 PM.

The Lakers' game against their city rivals, the Clippers, was about to begin.

The players from both teams were warming up before the game.

On the Clippers' side, their guard, Mad Dog Beverley, proactively asked the Clippers' coach to guard James:

"Coach, I'll take LeBron."

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue nodded without hesitation, "LeBron is yours."

Mad Dog Beverley's eyes immediately lit up.

It was as if a hound had spotted its prey.

Although Mad Dog Beverley wasn't tall, he possessed endless fighting spirit.

Once on the court, he would tear into the opposing team's core players like a hound.

Even the formidable Durant the Grim Reaper had been shut down by him before – they had canceled each other out and were both ejected.

Therefore, Beverley was usually used to defend the opponent's main threat.

Of course, the Clippers' other defensive anchor was Leonard, who possessed Deathly Embrace.

However, as the team's core player, Leonard needed to conserve his energy.

So, under normal circumstances, Tyronn Lue wouldn't have him defend the opponent's main threat.

In his opinion, James was already old and there was no need to use Leonard's Deathly Embrace.

Soon, the game began.

Wang Yi was still sitting at the very end of the bench.

He paid attention to the situation on the court while also focusing a portion of his attention on head coach Vogel.

He was afraid of missing the signal from the head coach telling him to go on the court.

The two teams were evenly matched, and the game was bound to be intense.

In this situation, the head coach would basically not risk sending Wang Yi out.

But as a professional player, he had to be ready at all times.

This was the professional attitude of a professional player.

The game started, and the two sides exchanged blows.

The Lakers had a huge advantage in the paint, so they focused on attacking inside.

The Clippers had strong three-point shooting, so they played to their strengths and shot more threes.

Meanwhile, in the Tencent NBA Live Broadcast Room.

The commentator was the well-known domestic media personality Su Qun.

Another host was Wang Meng.

And there was also a functional female anchor: Meina.

Meina was a fan of James, and she basically hosted every Lakers game.

Wang Meng was the first to pose a question:

"In the last game, our player Wang Yi made nine three-pointers in the last five minutes, scoring 28 points. That was amazing! Teacher Su, do you think he will play in this game?"

Su Qun flipped through some documents with a smile:

"His performance last game truly amazed everyone. The Lakers have already renewed his 10-day short contract, clearly valuing his three-point ability. However, this game the teams are evenly matched, and it's likely to be a close one, so his chances of playing should be slim."

Wang Meng said, "Teacher Su's analysis makes a lot of sense. But we still look forward to seeing another explosive performance from him."

On the bullet screen, many fans' voices had already appeared:

"I'm looking forward to it too!"

"Hope he gets to play."

"After Da Yao retired, I stopped following the NBA. Yesterday, I saw our player score twenty-eight points in five minutes, and I was shocked."

Of course, the number of haters far exceeded the number of fans.

"It was just that one game, and they still didn't win. If you can't win, even if you score 100 points, you're just a stat-padder."

"He was just lucky last game, no one was defending in garbage time. If someone defends him this game, let's see if he can still be so explosive."

"Don't worry, it's not even certain if he'll play in this game."

At this moment, Wang Yi, who was at the scene, didn't know about these comments.

And even if he did, he wouldn't care.

In the past two years, how much abuse and slander had he suffered from domestic trolls?

So his mentality had long been tempered to be incredibly strong, completely immune to verbal attacks.

On the court, Mad Dog Beverley was sticking to James like glue.

He was constantly spewing trash talk and his actions were aggressive.

James was older now, and his playstyle was increasingly geared towards conserving energy.

So he generally didn't attack much in the first half.

He basically stood at the top of the arc and distributed the ball.

Fortunately, the Lakers' three-point shooting was decent today.

They shot 5 out of 11 from three-point range in the entire first half.

At the end of the first half, the score difference was only two points.

However, in the third quarter, the situation on the court changed dramatically.

James had originally planned to drive to the basket in the third quarter and attack with penetration and kick-outs.

But the Lakers' three-point shooting fell back into its usual constipated state.

They missed three consecutive three-pointers.

In contrast, the Clippers made four consecutive three-pointers.

The score difference instantly widened to fourteen points.

Coach Vogel quickly called a timeout, emphasizing defense against the opponent's three-point shooting.

However, just emphasizing defense was not enough; the Lakers themselves had to be able to score.

But that wasn't the case.

After the timeout, the Clippers hit two more three-pointers.

As for the Lakers, their three-point shooting was off.

The Clippers adopted a strategy of a collapsed zone defense.

James couldn't drive in either, so the Lakers could only look for opportunities from the perimeter.

But that's often how things go; the more anxious you are, the less likely you are to succeed.

With six minutes left in the third quarter, the Lakers were already down by twenty points.

Despite his intelligence, Vogel was helpless.

Everyone in the world knows the best way to break a zone defense is to shoot threes.

But if you can't make them, it becomes a real problem.

The atmosphere for the entire Lakers team began to turn somber.

At this moment, Caruso remembered what Wang Yi had said yesterday.

"You can completely trust me."

With that thought, he whispered something in James' ear.

James' eyes lit up, and he looked towards Wang Yi.