Almighty Coach

Chapter 620: Good Luck

There were many consecutive pick-and-rolls and alternating runs. The ball s.h.i.+fted between the Warriors players seamlessly.

The Clippers players also kept switching their defensive targets. Switching the defensive target immediately when screening fully compressed the Warriors players’ s.p.a.ce to release the shot. As long as they did not allow the Warriors players any s.p.a.ce, they would not have suitable opportunities to shoot.

After a screen and a corresponding defensive switch, Vincent was faced with a young man named Dale.

Vincent was no stranger to this young man. He was a two-time MVP of the regular season. He had made it into the starting lineup of the Western Conference All-Stars five times and was one of the three best NBA three-point shooters in the current era. He could be considered the best point guard at the moment.

Vincent knew that when facing this young man, he had to concentrate. Even if paying full attention, he still might not be able to prevent Dale from scoring.

The 24 seconds the Warriors had for the attack was almost up. Just as he thought that it was a successful defense, Dale, who was in front of him, suddenly released the shot.

He was still two and a half yards away from the three-point line. This was an extremely impressive three-point shot.

Vincent’s reaction was also quick. He immediately rushed forward. It was impossible to try and block the shot now, but he could try and disturb it.

Swoos.h.!.+ The basketball went directly into the basket. The crowd, which was already full of pa.s.sion, erupted into roars. It sounded like mountains were collapsing and seas were roaring. The entire Staples Center trembled.

From a defensive point of view, this defense was faultless. They had held them for 24 seconds. It had come down to the last possible moment. Their opponents were forced to shoot far away from the three-point line.

Looking at the result, however, they had failed since the opponent scored a three-pointer.

Vincent knew that there was nothing wrong with his defense. No one could have stopped this fairy ball.

He did not except that, however. He thought that it was just an excuse.

I can do better! I can definitely do better! I have to do better! Vincent’s heart repeated. He knew that if he failed to restrain Dale and allowed him to continue making three-point shots like that without any pressure, it would be difficult for them to win this game.

…

Dale dribbled the ball quickly, but he noticed that he could not get away from the defender in front of him. He instinctively pa.s.sed the ball to his teammate, hoping to use that to break apart the opponent’s defensive line.

His teammate, however, also faced strong defensive pressure.

d.a.m.ned unlimited defensive switch! Dale complained internally.

This sort of unlimited defensive switching was the kind that he hated the most. The opponent’s unlimited switch would make it hard for the Warriors to find any s.p.a.ce to shoot. Every player was tangled with a defensive player and every shot faced an opponent who might disturb it.

Naturally, a three-point shooter would want to have the opportunity of shooting in an empty s.p.a.ce. They did not want to face a defensive player every time they took a shot.

After a run, a pick-and-roll, a screen, and a pa.s.s, the ball returned to Dale’s hands. As a point guard, he was responsible for organizing the attack.

This, however, was the third time Dale touched the ball in this attack. This meant that the previous two attacks had failed because the ball kept coming back into his hands.

The previous pick-and-roll had generated another defensive switch. He was once again faced with Vincent or, perhaps, he should call him “Uncle Vincent.”

Dale’s father had also been an NBA player. He had been a shooting guard and had won the Best Sixth Man Award. He was a master sharpshooter. He had scored 1,245 three-pointers in his entire professional career. He was also the New Orleans Nets’ lead scorer. Dale’s accurate three-point shots were certainly, at least to some degree, inherited his father.

The last three years of Dale’s father’s professional career had been spent with the Raptors. Back then, Vincent had only just started playing in the NBA and he had also been on the Raptors. Dale’s father had been Vincent’s teammate for three years.

When he had been just a boy, Dale would often train at the Raptors training ground and would watch the Raptors’ games. His deepest impression of the Raptors was the man who played basketball flying! Every time that man flew, Dale would open his mouth in awe.

Now, this man still played basketball. In fact, he was standing in front of him!

The most impressive thing was that he still played basketball like he was flying!

After two attempted attacks, there was not much time left for their attack. The Clippers’ defense still followed them closely. The five players on the Warriors did not have any good opportunities to shoot.

In the end, I’ll still have to shoot by myself! Dale’s eyes s.h.i.+ned as he snuck a glance at the basket. Although he was still some distance from the three-point line, this was within his shooting range.

In the next moment, Dale raised his hands. His movements were very sudden.

Vincent’s reaction, however, was even faster. At the moment that Dale moved his hands to make the shot, Vincent rushed forward to disturb it.

Dale leaped and took a jump shot.

Vincent leaped to block it.

The moment the ball was released, Dale suddenly saw Vincent as he seemed to fly in the air.

Subconsciously, Dale wanted to open his mouth like when he was young. Still, he had to deal with Vincent’s block. Dale adjusted the angle of his shot. He did not have any deep thought process; it was an instinctive reaction to a defender.

The ball was not blocked and flew towards the basket. The shot angle had been adjusted, however, and the ball hit the rim of the basket.

Kw.a.n.g! The basketball bounced off the rim. Three Clippers players rushed towards the point where the ball would fall to at the same time and won this defensive rebound.

It had been an extremely successful defense.

Fairy b.a.l.l.s. Humans would never be able to defend against them, so they had to leave them to the “half-human and half-G.o.d” to defend.

This old man, he’s almost 40 years old now. He can actually still fly. Just how does he maintain himself? I’m still far from the last year of my contract with the team, should I start playing basketball like he does. Crazy thoughts started appearing in Dale’s mind.

…

The game was still very close. A satisfied smile, however, appeared on Dai Li’s face. The game had proceeded as he expected.

Taking off the s.p.a.ce-creating power forward, Noel, and playing the guard, Vincent, instead had been an excellent choice. That was what the excellent draw had told him to do. After thinking about it carefully, Dai Li knew why the Prophecy Request Box had given him this answer.

Noel owned a champions.h.i.+p ring. He actually had two of them.

Vincent was different. He did not have a champions.h.i.+p ring. He had also made a lot of sacrifices in pursuit of one.

The other four players in for the Clippers were the same as Vincent. They had never won the champions.h.i.+p before.

People always worked harder for something they had yet to attain. The champions.h.i.+p ring was the item that they all desired most in their hearts.

The game had progressed to the stage where that pa.s.sion mattered. Both sides had done their best to defeat the other side; they had played all their cards. Both sides knew just how strong their opponent was. The game was now more like a mental battle. The fight was to see which side would be the last one standing.

At that time, the desire for the champions.h.i.+p was the best stimulant, it was the motivation needed to help the players persevere.

Draw, comeback, and then another draw again. Then, the game finally reached its climax.

The last two minutes of the game. Both sides had already played 20 minutes. The battles on the court had become ridiculously intense. There was a lot of physical contact and the referees had no choice but to keep reviewing the match recordings to determine the possession of the ball.

It was the Western Conference final. Each team had many stars. One whistle and the bunch of star players from both sides would surround the referee, putting pressure on him. Faced with this kind of situation, even the most experienced referee would be as cautious as possible and try to avoid making an error.

The NBA was like that. Star players could, from time to time, complain a little to the referee. Sometimes, they could even request that the referees review the video. If a newbie tried complaining, just a few words would get them a technical foul.

…

The score was 102-102. There were 28 seconds left in the game. Theoretically, each side had one opportunity to attack left.

The Warriors had the ball, and they had multiple styles of attack to choose from. They could choose a two-point or three-point attack. The most important thing to them was time management.

28 seconds. No matter what offensive method the Warriors used, the ball would return to the hands of the Clippers. Even if they exhausted all 24 seconds, the Clippers would still have four seconds of offense. With a timeout, they would be able to restart the game in the other half court. Two pa.s.ses after that and they would be able to shoot.

“Don’t wait until the last second before you shoot. Our opponent has the ability to kill the game at the last second. Whether you give them four seconds or 14 seconds, the effect is the same. There is a possibility for us to lose to a buzzer beater.” The head coach of the Warriors paused before saying, “Our next attack will be the same as always. Whoever has the opportunity will shoot. We need a three-pointer. With a three-point advantage, we’ll be in a position where we can’t lose. The worst that could happen is to play overtime!”

The Warriors players returned to the court. They did not show any panic and moved between screens and covers like always, playing entirely according to their tactics.

Swoos.h.!.+ A three-point shot was released. It was a gap created by a pick-and-roll. The shot was released instantly. Strictly speaking, it could not be considered a good opportunity to shoot a three-pointer but, under the intense defensive pressure of the Clippers, it was considered a great opportunity to shoot.

There was no shortage of amazing shooters in the stadium. The moment they saw the path of the ball, they knew that it was going in.

As they expected, the basketball entered the basket without touching the rim. The basket fully displayed the Warriors exceptional three-point ability.

The Warriors led by 105-102 and only 12 seconds were left in the game. The Clippers immediately called for a timeout.

There was a 3-point gap. The Clippers had to make at least a three-point shot in their next attack. The best situation was to score a buzzer beating three-point shot without giving the Warriors a chance to get the ball back. With the ability of the Warriors being what it was, a few tenths of a second for them was enough for them to kill the game.

The Clippers played superstar-style basketball. In situations like this, the only script they could use was for everyone to spread out outside the three-point line and attempt to make a three-point shot regardless of who held the ball after the game restarted.

As for whether or not they could make the basket, they also needed to rely on luck.

We have to make a buzzer-beating three-point shot in order to push the game to overtime. We need some good luck right now! Dai Li immediately looked at his watch.

There’s still five minutes of cooldown left before I can activate the Lucky Horseshoe! A sense of dread flashed past Dai Li’s face.

The skill cooldown time was 30 minutes. When using the Prophecy Request Box, Dai Li used the prayer skill once, 25 minutes ago.

After the NBA removed the rule about long and short timeouts, all timeouts were standardized to be 75 seconds. Although games would not strictly adhere to it and most timeouts lasted longer than 75 seconds, the referees would definitely not allow a five-minute timeout.

Biiiii! A lengthy buzz sounded, signaling everyone that the timeouts were over. The players had to return to the court.

The Warriors players moved swiftly. They quickly walked on to the court with the clear intention of trying to set up their defense perimeter in advance.

The cooldown of the prayer skill isn’t over yet. I need to delay! I need an actor right now! Dai Li looked to his bench and finally rested his gaze on Karaby.

“Karaby, I need you right now!” Dai Li said.

Karaby stood up in excitement. He did not know the coach would have so much faith in him during such a critical period.

Dai Li lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “You get on the court and act as if you’ve slipped and injured yourself. Lie on the ground for at least three minutes!”

“What? Slip? Injured? Injured what?” Karaby asked dumbly.

“Decide yourself. Regardless, make it as real as possible! I don’t believe that the best defensive player like you doesn’t know how to act!” Dai Li grunted coldly.

In the NBA, an excellent defender not only needed a strong physique, great determination, a positive att.i.tude, and incredible defensive awareness, he also needed acting skills. Many defensive experts in the NBA were actually first-cla.s.s “actors.” If their acting skills were not good enough, they would not be able to get fouls from the referees.

As the saying went, “One touch to the s.h.i.+rt causes a giant fall.” One would fall down after a simple touch of the s.h.i.+rt. For players with a frail-looking body, this trick was very effective.

Karaby was exactly that kind of frail-looking player. He once received the Best Defensive Player Award and was in the best defensive lineup of the NBA. Apart from his height and a wide wingspan, his ability to create fouls naturally came from his individual talent. His “acting” skills were, of course, first-cla.s.s.

This was the reason Dai Li chose Karaby.

Karaby was a boorish looking fellow, but he had played in the NBA for more than a decade. He had become a scheming b.a.s.t.a.r.d, so he naturally knew that Dai Li wanted him to waste some time. Although he did not know why Dai Li wanted to waste time, the coach had a request, so he naturally had to oblige.

He walked on to the court and walked straight towards the defensive players of the Warriors. He then intentionally looked for physical contact.

On the sideline, the referee was about to pa.s.s the ball to the Clippers players responsible for restarting the game. Suddenly, Karaby staggered and fell straight to the ground. At the same time, he screamed loudly, intentionally attracting the attention of the referee.

The referee looked towards Karaby and saw Karaby had an anguished expression, hugging his legs rolling on the ground.

Beside him, a Warriors player had an innocent expression on his face.

I didn’t touch him at all, why did he fall!?

In crucial moments like this, the physical battles between players were very intense. To get to a decent position, it was normal to begin pus.h.i.+ng around before the ball came back into play. These occurrences were common to the referees. When a player was injured before play resumed, that meant that the game could not continue. The referee immediately blew his whistle and walked over to check it out.

After the whistle was blown, everyone, both Clippers and Warriors, gathered around.

Karaby’s acting skills were indeed decent. He was biting down hard on his lip. He looked to be in extreme pain. It was really convincing.

“Karaby is 38 years old. He’s a veteran, why are they messing with him? Look at him now, he’s injured. Someone’s gonna blame you after the game!” Dale said to the innocent Warriors player.

“I didn’t touch him! I really did not touch him! We simply walked and faced against each other. He walked past me and fell!” The person argued. From the expressions on the faces of those around him, no one believed him.

The Clippers’ doctor had already moved beside Karaby. They had already received Dai Li’s instructions to waste as much time as possible, so they had prepared all kinds of medical checks and procedures.

As for the Warriors, head coach Nicholas looked at the big screen in the stadium, waiting to look at the video replay.

Finally, the broadcaster replayed the scene. It showed that Karaby and the Warriors player walked towards each other and faced each other. Karaby turned around and the shoulders of both players seemed to have vaguely touched. Karaby then fell instantly to the ground.

“There isn’t any physical contact at all. Karaby fell himself. Yup. It’s more like he slipped when he turned around. Was the ground very slippery?” Nicholas could not help to look towards the ground. Later, he shook his head.

The staff members had already wiped the floor during the timeout. They had already wiped off the sweat on the ground. The shoes of the players were also not just decorative, they were basically slip-proof. He was also not running or involved in intense physical battles, so his fall was very weird.

It can’t be that he fell intentionally? Why? Could it be that he wants to waste some time so that they can plan for a new tactic? As Nicholas thought that, he looked at Dai Li. Dai Li did not even speak to anyone, he only continued looking at his watch.

They are not making any new plans, is it just to purely waste time? What the heck is Dai Li doing? Could it be that he feels that wasting some time will help him score a buzzer-beating three-pointer? Nicholas shook his head. After that, his gaze rested on Dai Li’s wrist.

That’s a good watch! A new model! That’s expensive! I’m so envious! Nicholas’ eyes glimmered as he lamented.

On the other side of the bench, Dai Li did not even worry about Karaby’s condition, he kept staring at his watch.

Finally, Dai Li let out a breath.

“It has been 30 minutes. The cooldown of the prayer skill has ended!” Dai Li raised his head and looked at Karaby who was still doing his best to act in pain on the ground. Then, he began repeating in his heart.

“Heavenly Karaby is the best. Heavenly Karaby is the best…”

Karaby had faked his fall but, when he acted, he had to go all out. He had to be supported until he returned to the bench.

The game resumed. The Clippers had 12 seconds left. It was enough to organize a full attack.

All five Clippers players spread outside the three-point line. The Warriors, on the other hand, defended one-on-one. They did not dare to double team, in fear of leaving any gaps for a three-point shot.

After several pa.s.ses, there were still no opportunities for a three-point shot. The ball finally fell into the hands of Raymond.

Raymond dribbled and before time ran out, he straightened his body and made a pull-up shot!

The Warriors player immediately leaped to block but did not dare to leap forward as he was worried about committing a foul.

The modern-day NBA was stricter when it came to calling for fouls on shots. Many intentional attempts at cheating their way into getting a “two-and-one” or a “three-and-one” would be treated as fouls before the shot by the referees. The referees did not regard those actions that tried to intentionally get fouls as genuine attempts at shooting.

As for Raymond’s pull-up shot, even if he were to lean forward when he leaped off the ground, his body would remain straight. This sort of jump shot technique required a strong waist. As such, Raymond was always plagued with back injuries.

This type of pull-up jumper, however, was not the type of jump shot that could not be “touched” entirely. It was because the body was always straightened, so as long as the defender touched Raymond’s body, even if it were a simply a light tap, it could be regarded as a foul on the cylinder of the shooter. The NBA has always been very strict in calling for fouls on actions that violated the cylinder of the shooter.

Raymond’s hang time in the air was impressive. His point of release was also very high. When the defender committed a foul, the ball in his hands might not have even left his hands. This meant that he had the chance to adjust the power and angle of his shot in midair, making “two-and-one” and “three-and-one” situations possible.

In the past, countless defenders had been beaten by Raymond’s pull-up shot. It was not because they were dumb and intentionally gave fouls away, it was because they could not help it. NBA rules on cylinder violation were made that way.

On that, the defender of the Warriors was smart. He knew that defending against this sort of pull-up jumper involved huge movements, so he might even need to intentionally avoid them while defending.

The defender had to avoid the attacker. This might sound a bit funny, but it was an undeniable truth.

This sort of “avoidance” defense could rarely effectively disrupt the opponent. So the moment Raymond released the shot, the Warriors could only pray for Raymond to miss the shot.

While the ball was still in midair, the red buzzer surrounding the basket had already sounded. The number on the timer had become zero, which meant that the game had already ended.

Immediately after that, the basketball flew and hit the rim of the basket.

Oh no, I used too much strength! Raymond’s face tightened. As the shooter, he was the first to perceive a problem.

Poom! The basketball hit the top of the small square on the board.

It did not go in! The Warriors players looked delighted and were about to celebrate.

The basketball bounced, however, and entered the basket.

A buzzer-beating three-pointer! It was even a shot that bounced off the board!

The entire Clippers team breathed a sigh of relief. As for the Warriors, whether it was the players or the fans, they looked sad.

“A three-pointer off the board, our luck is rotten!” The head coach of the Warriors lamented with a sigh.

…

“A three-pointer off the board, our luck is good!” Ca.s.sel raised both his hands joyously. He wanted to hug Dai Li, but he was pushed away by Dai Li with both hands.

The current Dai Li just sweat out a bunch of cold sweat. If it were not for the good luck provided by the prayer skill, the ball was definitely not going in.

A three-pointer off the board was more difficul than a normal shot off the board. Many players trained to score off the board for normal shots, but if they were to practice shooting three-pointers off the board, it would be torture.

The distance and angle of three-pointers made it so that it was difficult to score off the board. Even a top NBA shooter needed luck to score a three-pointer off the board.

Based on this lucky ball, both sides played to a draw. Now that the game went into overtime, it was like the match was starting all over again.