He raised his eyes, sweeping his gaze over every teammate. "Starting in the second quarter, turn up the defensive intensity. Let them know Madison Square Garden isn't a place for them to put on a circus act."
The second quarter began, and everything changed.
The Sacramento Kings still tried to run their fluid team offense, but they soon discovered that the Knicks before them had seemingly transformed in an instant from an offensive powerhouse into a pack of demons that had crawled out of hell.
Li Fei stopped fixating on guarding Webber one-on-one. Instead, he roamed the interior, using his terrifying wingspan and extraordinary anticipation to cover the entire paint.
Webber held the ball at the high post and was just about to pass to a cutting teammate when a dark cloud formed by Li Fei's arms appeared before him.
Li Fei bent down and picked off his signature bounce pass!
After the steal, Li Fei charged upcourt with the ball like a heavy truck accelerating at full throttle.
The Sacramento Kings players barely had time to react. They could only watch as he threw down a thunderous Tomahawk Dunk!
"BAM!"
The rim groaned in agony, and the entire arena erupted.
That successful defensive stop and fast break served as a signal.
The Knicks' defensive intensity rose by more than just a notch.
Sprewell hounded Peja like a rabid dog, giving him no room to receive a pass.
Allan Houston stayed glued to Doug Christie.
Though the aging Sabonis moved slowly, he used his body and experience to cause Divac enormous trouble in the low post.
The Sacramento Kings' offense, once as fluid as a violin concerto, suddenly grew sluggish and disjointed, as though a string had snapped halfway through the performance.
Their passes began going astray, and their off-ball