At that moment, one player's value became clear.
On the court, Durant drove into the paint with the ball. When Chris came over to help, Durant, just as expected, didn't pass right away. Instead, he pulled up for a jump shot.
And with Chen Xi right on his heels, Durant didn't try to fade away. Of course, with his height and wingspan, he didn't need to fade away for most players to have no chance of reaching the ball.
But Dwyane Wade burst in from the side and leaped high. Before Durant's shooting arm reached its highest point, Wade swatted the ball away.
Caught off guard, Durant couldn't hold on to it. The ball slipped free and landed right in Chen Xi's hands as he caught up.
Chen immediately turned and pushed the ball upcourt. Near midcourt, he launched a long pass across nearly half the court, setting up an alley-oop.
The athletic Grant had already made it close to the basket. He saw the pass, jumped, and slammed it home.
Chen Xi's lead pass gave Grant plenty of room to work with, and he soared smoothly through the air for the dunk.
The spectators beside the basket were treated to quite a show.
By then, Durant had only just crossed half court. Seeing what happened, he turned around and ran back again.
On the way, he took a longer look at Wade.
As the best shot-blocking guard in league history, Wade's strength wasn't just his height and wingspan.
Now that his physical abilities had declined, he couldn't explode off the floor like he used to.
But that hadn't affected his shot-blocking much.
He had always relied on his incredible instincts and defensive anticipation. (Flash Wade: number one among guards in blocks, number one among guards in dunks. Calling him