How to Defend Against Li Fei? Li Fei's Date with Julie!

Late that night, TNT urgently added a late-night talk show with only one topic—"The Lee Conjecture": How do you defend Li Fei when he plays small forward?

The studio was brightly lit, but the atmosphere was unusually grave. Three veteran commentators—Kevin Harlan, Marv Albert, and Bill Walton—had gathered together.

"Gentlemen, I think we all watched the postgame press conference."

Harlan spoke first. "Larry Bird and Reggie Miller, two Hall of Fame-caliber players, both expressed the same despair. Marv, if you were the head coach of an NBA team right now and your team was about to face the Knicks next game, how would you set up your defense?"

Marv Albert adjusted his glasses, his expression more serious than ever. "Kevin, that's a multimillion-dollar question. First, I'd abandon any fantasy of guarding him one-on-one. Reggie Miller is already one of the league's best off-ball movers and shooters, yet he barely got any clean looks. So you have to double-team him—aggressively, from the moment he crosses half court."

"But that creates new problems."

Albert raised two fingers. "First, the Knicks' roster construction is simply too balanced. Sabonis is one of the league's best passing centers, Allan Houston is a lethal mid-range shooter, and they have a chaos-maker like Sprewell coming off the bench. Double-team Li Fei, and you're handing everyone else a four-on-three advantage. Second, Li Fei's height and court vision mean ordinary guard double-teams are meaningless against him. He can move the ball with ease. So you need a big man—say, your power forward—to trap him together with his primary defender."

Bill Walton shook his head and rebutted him. "Marv, your idea is too conventional. Conventional tactics can't deal with a god. I think we need to do the opposite. We can't passively defend him—we have to attack him proactively!"

"How