The Staples Center fans had barely begun celebrating when their revelry came to an abrupt halt.
James scored six straight points and posterized Morris, putting on quite a show.
But everything settled down once Link returned to the court.
People had not forgotten just how explosive the guy who had scored 21 points in 12 minutes had been.
Link bounced twice on his feet. To be honest, his body still felt a little heavy.
But if all he wanted was to score, he had more than enough left in him.
The ecstasy James had felt vanished instantly, though he still held onto a sliver of hope.
Link's stamina would definitely get worse with each quarter. And scoring 21 points in a single quarter was simply too absurd, even for Link.
He might be able to do it once or twice, but there was no way Link could drop around 20 points in every quarter of all four quarters, right?
If someone said Link could keep putting up around 20 points every quarter, James definitely would not believe it.
An average of 20 points per quarter meant... 80 points in a game!
How many people in NBA history had ever scored 80 points in one game!? Excluding the ancient-era Wilt Chamberlain, there had been one and only one!
Maybe 40, 50, or even 60 points in a game had become commonplace in today's era.
But 80 points in a single game was still a record that was virtually impossible to break.
Some time ago, when James appeared on a show, the host had asked him what he thought was the hardest individual record to break in NBA history.
James answered bluntly, "The hardest is Jordan's 41-point Finals average from 1993. The second hardest is Kobe's 81 points in a single game."