At the TNT broadcast desk, Marv Albert cried out, "My God! Has Popovich lost his mind? The game has just started, and they're already double-teaming Li Fei near midcourt! And it's Duncan and Robinson—the San Antonio Spurs' two iron gates in the paint!"
"This is San Antonio's attitude!" Kevin Harlan's voice brimmed with tension. "They're telling Li Fei in the most extreme way possible: you won't get the ball comfortably tonight!"
Yet Li Fei, standing at the center of the storm, showed not the slightest ripple of emotion. It was as if he had expected all of this long ago.
Just before the pincer formed by the Twin Towers could snap shut, Li Fei flicked his wrist. The basketball seemed to come alive, slipping beneath Duncan's armpit and tracing an incomparably precise bounce-pass path straight to the completely unguarded Allan Houston!
Houston caught the ball at the right-side forty-five-degree angle, with no one within three meters of him. He even had time to steady his breathing and glance at the rim before calmly rising up.
Ball up, wrist down.
The basketball drew a beautiful arc through the air.
"Swish!"
Nothing but net! 3–0!
The noise throughout AT&T Center briefly froze, like a high-speed engine suddenly seizing up.
"Beautiful! A perfect answer to the double-team!" Bill Walton praised loudly. "Li Fei's passes are as precise as a surgeon's scalpel. He punished the Spurs for their reckless gamble!"
The San Antonio Spurs went on offense.
Avery Johnson brought the ball up and, using Duncan's screen, lobbed it into the low post for the Stone Buddha.
Facing defense from the Lithuanian giant Sabonis, Duncan made no fancy moves. A solid spin move flowed into his signature bank shot.
"Clang!" "Swish!"
The ball kissed the upper edge of the backboard and dropped steadily through.