The fourth quarter, the decisive moment.
The two teams began a close battle.
Jim Jackson, whose mental defenses had long since crumbled after being repeatedly double-teamed by Sam Cassell and Garnett, now had bloodshot eyes and his defensive movements were completely distorted. Meanwhile, Dallas Mavericks veteran Derrick Harper, having reached his physical limit, had been substituted back to the bench.
It was Boston's turn to reap the rewards.
The final four minutes were a Boston positional battle.
Garnett moved up from the low post and set an incredibly solid off-ball screen for Sam Cassell. The instant the defense switched, Garnett's sharp tongue was already ready to unleash its fury.
While using his long arm to pin Jim Jackson down, he grinned and unleashed a torrent of trash talk at Jackson: "Hey! Jim! Why are you so weak tonight? Is it because Jason didn't pass you the ball? Or did Toni drain all your energy at the hotel?"
Jackson's brain went blank for a second. Before he could push Garnett away, Sam Cassell had already slowly dribbled the ball to his side and delivered the fatal blow with his head tilted to the side.
"I heard you recently got a new car, Jim? Want to borrow it after you finish playing ball tonight? After all, I'm a much better driver than Jason, no wonder people don't want to ride in your car."
This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
"Fuck you! I'll kill you!"
Jackson completely lost it. All the humiliation, anger, and frustration from the locker room strife that had been building up all night erupted like a volcano in that instant. He didn't care about defensive positions at all, he didn't even notice the basketball lying to the side, he took a step forward and threw a heavy punch with a whistling sound, slamming it hard into Sam Cassell's face!
However, what happened next showed the 20,000 Dallas fans what "the survival wisdom of a top-notch veteran" really meant.
Just a fraction of a second before Jackson threw his punch, Sam Cassell, who had been all bark and no bite with provocation, showed no sign of panic in his eyes; instead, a look of absolute calm flashed across his face.
"Referee!"
Sam Cassell didn't even bother to retaliate. The moment the punch hit his cheek, the championship point guard, who had seen it all in Houston, leaned back with remarkable realism thanks to Jackson's force. With a thud, he collapsed solidly onto the floor, clutching his head in his hands, perfectly embodying the posture of an innocent victim.
Kevin Garnett, who had just been yelling at Jackson like a mob boss, reacted with a speed that can only be described as historic.
The instant Jackson threw his punch, the 20-year-old power forward slipped away with lightning speed. With a nimble step back, he created a safe distance of two meters, raised his long arms high to indicate that he was completely unprepared, and shouted at a volume loud enough for the entire arena to hear.
"Oh my God! Someone's committing violence live on air! Referee! Throw him out! This guy's insane!"
What should have been a bloody brawl on the court turned into a clumsy one-man show thanks to the "instant calm" of those two Celtics bastards.
Jackson missed his punch and was about to rush up and kick Sam Cassell, who was lying on the floor, when the piercing whistle blared like a death knell.
George Carl and Adelman on the sidelines both changed their expressions.
However, even more absurd scenes were yet to come.
Seeing Jackson get into a fight on the court, Jason Kidd, the Dallas Mavericks ' starting point guard, not only didn't rush to help his teammate break up the fight, but instead stood coldly near the center circle with his arms crossed and let out a sarcastic laugh.
Jackson, who had finally been embraced by the head coach and security personnel, looked up and saw Kidd's amused expression. All the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Sam Cassell and Garnett was instantly transferred to this locker room rival.
"What the hell are you laughing at?!"
The disheveled Jackson had completely lost his mind. He shoved aside the people trying to break up the fight, turned around, and shoved Kidd hard in the chest. Kidd wasn't one to back down either, and immediately slapped him back across the face.
In an instant, the situation was completely out of control.
Twenty thousand Dallas fans stared in disbelief at the center of the court... The Celtics players didn't even suffer a scratch, while the Dallas Mavericks ' two star players broke out in a fierce fight in their own half, grappling more violently than they would with outsiders!
The entire Celtics bench on the sidelines immediately stood up.
Garnett had retreated to the very front of the bench. Once he was sure he was safe, he reverted to his usual reckless self, wildly waving a towel and yelling off-key, "Hit him! Hit him to the left! Jason, use your right hook!"
Sam Cassell, the instigator of this commotion, had already been pulled up from the ground by Mutombo. The alien, while brushing the dust off his jersey, tilted his head and hid behind Mutombo's Mountain- like body, wearing his signature roguish grin, and even turned to whistle at Lin Qi behind him.
"Lin, did you see that? I told you long ago that kid's car engine was unreliable; it exploded the moment he stepped on the gas."
It took the referee a full five minutes of pulling and tugging to separate the two Dallas Mavericks.
Ultimately, the referees issued the following rulings: Sam Cassell and Kevin Garnett each received a technical foul for verbal provocation, while Jim Jackson and Jason Kidd were both ejected from the game for serious on-court brawl.
The Dallas Mavericks have completely fallen apart.
The remaining minutes of the game became garbage time; without their two core players, the young Texas team collapsed completely.
The final whistle blew, Celtics secured a comfortable victory on the road.
At the post-game press conference, media from Toronto and Dallas practically crammed the Boston Celtics ' locker room with their cameras and microphones. Reporters relentlessly pressed Sam Cassell and Garnett about what they had said to Jackson on the court.
Sam Cassell ripped the towel off his neck, revealing his signature sly grin. "I didn't say anything, man. I just asked to borrow his car keys. God knows why Dallas people are so temperamental? Maybe their car just happened to break tonight."
Meanwhile, Garnett, chewing gum, innocently shrugged at the camera and said, "We're civilized people, we only talk about basketball. We were discussing car engine displacement; Jackson was just being too sensitive, really."
The following day, this darkly humorous interview and the video of the complete breakdown in the Dallas locker room became the focus of frenzied broadcasts on sports news across the United States.
In the general manager's office, Lin Qi leaned back in his leather chair, looking at the Dallas Morning News in his hand, and couldn't help but laugh out loud. On the side page of the newspaper, there was a rumor that the Dallas Mavericks' management was in a panic and was desperately looking for a new team to trade for Kidd.
Lin Qi casually tossed the Dallas waste paper into the trash can.