The Budding of a Deal

The ball had barely left Korver's hands when Westbrook darted in from the side and snatched it away, then raced upcourt.

The entire Hawks team immediately scrambled back on defense, but clearly, no one could catch up to that absurdly fast Ninja Turtle.

BOOM!!!

Westbrook finished with his signature C-shaped Tomahawk Slam Dunk.

The Thunder were starting to dictate the pace.

Schroder brought the ball upcourt again, hesitating for a moment. After the ball swung between several players, none of them found a decent shot. With no other choice, they gave it to Millsap in the post to back down Little Sabonis, but his shot clanged off the rim.

Westbrook grabbed the defensive rebound and quickly pushed upcourt. Seeing no good opportunity for a fast break, he settled into the half-court offense and ran another pick-and-roll with Chen Xi. He stepped past his defender, faced Sefolosha, and used a Sam Good to create space before following with a soft layup for two easy points.

Once Westbrook entered Scoring Mode, stopping him was incredibly difficult, especially without a capable interior help defender.

Budenholzer reluctantly called a timeout, hoping it would disrupt the Thunder's rhythm. After all, he had no better way to limit Westbrook.

A hundred seconds passed in a flash, and the game resumed.

The Hawks' stalled offense still couldn't find a way through. After passing the ball around for a while, Schroder ended the possession with a contested shot from the Top of the Key.

With a sharp clang, Chen Xi collected the rebound that had dropped in front of him, then immediately handed it to Westbrook before sprinting upcourt.

To Budenholzer's dismay, Westbrook's shot hadn't gone cold. If anything, he seemed even hotter. A simple burst of speed took him past Bazemore, and his pull-up Mid-range jumper went in.

They couldn't score, and they couldn't defend.

When a team found itself in this situation, it usually needed its Leader to step up and show what a star could do. Unfortunately, the Hawks had no one.

Buden was starting to miss Howard. Howard didn't have the skill to create a shot and rescue the team in a crucial moment, but his excellent Rim Protection and enormous help-defense range would surely have limited Westbrook. It might not have been enough to turn the game around, but at least the Hawks would have had a chance to compete.

Unfortunately, Howard wasn't even on the sidelines. He hadn't traveled with the team to Oklahoma City for this game.

The helpless Hawks could only watch as Westbrook drilled them, one shot at a time.

49 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists!

Another monstrous triple-double.

Over the past two months, no one across the League had come close to matching Westbrook's performance except James Harden, over with the Rockets.

As of December 20,

Westbrook was averaging 32.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 11.4 assists, leading the team to a 21–8 record and Second in the West. He was far ahead of most of his rivals in the MVP race. Only James Harden, his childhood friend, was close behind, averaging 29.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 11.2 assists. His team's excellent 20–8 record put them just half a game behind the Thunder, in third place in the West.

For a moment, it was hard to believe.

Add in the Warriors, in first place in the West.

The Thunder's Big Three of old had scattered like stars across the sky. All three were leading teams in the top three spots in the West, making for a remarkable story.

It also made people love and hate Thunder Management. Their eye for talent was incredible, but their decisions were a disaster.

As time passed, December slowly drew to a close.

The Thunder surged through their final games of the month, beating the Celtics and Timberwolves in succession to rack up a five-game winning streak. They stayed hot on the Warriors' heels and traded places with the Spurs for second in the West.

The League's criticism of Durant grew more intense than ever.

After beating the Timberwolves that night, it was December 25—Christmas in America, and one of the less-watched Christmas Day battles. The Thunder had blown the game wide open early.

After the game, Chen stayed behind at the arena and chose to put in some extra work.

His teammates and girlfriend had all gone to spend the day with their families. Chen didn't celebrate Christmas, of course, and since he had nothing else to do, he figured he might as well get in some more practice.

The sounds of dribbling and shooting filled the empty arena. Chen Xi repeated a variety of moves without thinking: catch-and-shoots, crossovers into pull-up jumpers, midair adjustments on layups, hard dribbles into step-back fadeaways...

He enjoyed having the arena to himself, enjoyed playing basketball alone, enjoyed the thrill of getting stronger on his own.

In the end, only passion could provide lasting motivation.

On Christmas night, beneath the bright lights, Chen Xi trained alone until nearly midnight before driving home.

But when he opened the door, he was surprised to find a beautiful woman fast asleep on the crowded room's old, drab-colored couch.

"Nika?" Chen Xi walked over and gently shook her.

"Mmm... Chris, you're back?"

"Didn't you say you were going to spend today with your parents?"

"Hehe, after dinner, I slipped away on my own. I wanted to surprise you. Where did you go? Why did you get back so late? I waited until I fell asleep."

Chen Xi looked at his bleary-eyed girlfriend, speechless.

"I don't celebrate Christmas. I had nothing to do, so I went to the arena to practice. If you were waiting for me, couldn't you have called? What a dummy."

"But if I'd called, it wouldn't have been a surprise."

The woman smiled and stuck out her tongue.

"Come on, before the night's over, let's have a drink. I brought some wine my dad bought." She pointed to the glasses on the table.

Chen Xi looked fondly at Nika, who was acting like a little kid, and poured the wine into a decanter.

"Go wash your face first. Look at you—you can barely keep your eyes open."

"Hehe, carry me."

"Okay, okay." Chen Xi picked up Veronica and carried her toward the bathroom.

"Chris, you're so good to me." The woman in his arms gazed at him, her eyes growing hazy.

After Christmas passed, everyone returned to work.

No one knew that, beneath the Thunder's impressive run, the team's management had quietly begun contacting the Bulls and Pacers.

Presti was trying to trade for the star forwards of two teams with disappointing records: Paul George or Jimmy Butler.

Despite having Wade and Butler, the Bulls had struggled this season, with only 15 wins and 17 losses, barely clinging to ninth place in the Eastern Conference. It was undeniably disappointing.

After trading away the injury-plagued Derrick Rose and Paul Gasol last season, they had signed Dwyane Wade to a big contract and made Butler their centerpiece. The Bulls had expected to accomplish great things, but so far, they looked worse than they had the season before.