"Sabonis" ranked first on Twitter's trending list.
"The Knicks' first NBA Finals win" ranked second.
"Li Fei's forty-two points" ranked fifth.
On Reddit's NBA forum, a post had been voted onto the front page. Its title read, "Sabonis's performance tonight was one of the greatest veteran performances in NBA Finals history."
The post listed Sabonis's stats—twenty-eight points, twelve rebounds, ten assists, and three blocks, shooting seventy-five percent from the field and a perfect ten for ten from the free-throw line.
The most upvoted reply in the comments read, "Thirty-five years old, with bad knees, bad ankles, and a bad back. The final season of his career, Game 1 of the NBA Finals, facing Shaquille O'Neal. He scored fourteen points against O'Neal, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out four assists. He isn't human. He's an alien from Lithuania."
Another comment read, "The Lakers were a little unlucky to lose tonight. It wasn't because they played badly. It was because they never expected Sabonis to go off. Their defense was focused entirely on Li Fei—doubling him, bringing help, denying him the ball, denying him shots. Then Sabonis came up behind them and blindsided them. This won't happen a second time. In Game 2, the Lakers will tighten their defense on Sabonis, and the series will get back on track."
Someone else wrote, "Sabonis's performance tonight reminded me of Bill Walton. Not Bill Walton with the Trail Blazers, but Bill Walton with the Clippers. Also thirty-five, also playing with bad knees, also putting together a great game at the tail end of his career. But Sabonis was luckier than Walton, because he did it on the NBA Finals stage."
Others were discussing Game 2. "Game 2 won't be like this one. The Lakers' loss tonight was a little unlucky, a little bizarre—something nobody