Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1132 - 626 It’s Time_3

Chapter 1132: Chapter 626 It’s Time_3

On the contrary, they let out loud booing.

It’s no wonder, the rise of the Warriors Team was thoroughly interrupted by Yu Fei.

He has eliminated his opponents in the playoffs for three consecutive years.

Although Leonard and Lillard have made obvious progress, are they now able to challenge the Clippers?

The supporters of the Warriors Team don’t have confidence.

Before the game started, Yu Fei learned that Hu Jinqiu was pushed to the starting line-up due to recent injuries of the Warriors Team’s frontcourt players, and joked, “Good job, little Hu, you’ve finally made it to the NBA starting lineup.”

Hu Jinqiu smiled shyly.

In fact, he was just a nominal starter, responsible for doing the dirty and tiring work on the court and using up all six fouls.

In terms of talent, Hu Jinqiu could only be considered average in the NBA frontcourt, with no particularly outstanding strengths, but fortunately, he had no glaring weaknesses and was very ambitious. Reminded by Yu Fei, he had been intensively practicing three-point shots since his campus days, which was now in line with the NBA trend.

He might not achieve much in the NBA, but there is a great chance for him to establish himself here.

This is vital for Chinese basketball; Yao Ming can’t play for many more years, Space Easy has already taken his talent back to the CBA, and the once NBA Chinese wave has become the tears of an era. In the next decade or so, what’s most important isn’t to relive Yao Ming’s glory, but to survive in the NBA.

That night, the battle between the Clippers and the Golden State Warriors was continuously tense.

Leonard really seemed to be transforming into a superstar, and Lillard’s deep three-pointers were gradually coming along.

Antetokounmpo got held down by Leonard, while Jokić was targeted by Lillard; after a setback in morale, the young Clippers needed the veterans to step up.

Yu Fei timely took over the ball, but didn’t change the situation with a personal ability outburst like before.

He first hit a three-pointer, then assisted Thompson in the low post, and connected with Jokić, gradually restoring the young players’ confidence and the team’s offensive firepower.

In contrast, Leonard’s offense and defense quality wasn’t as good in the second half due to the decline in his stamina, while Lillard began to lose his accuracy under the switching defense strategy of the Clippers.

The Clippers’ advantage in the paint began to show.

To maintain height in the paint, the Warriors Team changed how they used Hu Jinqiu, beginning to have him watch his fouls.

But for a rookie, especially a foreign rookie, controlling his fouls is one of the hardest things in the NBA.

Hu Jinqiu’s last foul was on Yu Fei.

Yu Fei, through a pick-and-roll, wanted to pin Lillard, but Hu Jinqiu directly clamped down, pressuring the Greatest of All Time with a professional attitude.

Yu Fei caught the ball and jumped, pushing off the opponent’s body, and scored with a high-difficulty layup off the backboard.

Hu Jinqiu received his sixth personal foul, and left the game full of presence with 6 points and 4 rebounds in this focus battle.

“Keep playing like this!” Yu Fei said to him, “No matter who is in front of you, you have to play like this!”

Hu Jinqiu paused for a moment, then left the court under Yu Fei’s gaze.

His departure led to a complete collapse of the already weak Warriors Team’s interior.

They began missing defensive rebounds, and with overwhelming talent inside, the Clippers moved at will, dominating the boards which made their shots much easier.

The Clippers’ perimeter shooting percentage also went up.

Even the shots they missed, a considerable part was rebounded by themselves.

The Warriors Team fell behind from single digits to double digits in just two minutes.

Afterward, the game turned into garbage time.

This is the charm of Space Basketball; the explosive scoring power is evident, as a few mishandled possessions can lead to a double-digit gap.

However, the Warriors Team didn’t come away empty-handed.

At least they confirmed the strength of Leonard and Lillard, both of whom have indeed climbed a big step in skill level, and what’s most needed now is waiting for Griffin to return.

The fierce battle with the Warriors Team was the last tough match before the All-Star weekend arrived.

Read latest chapters at freёweɓnovel.com Only.

Afterward, the NBA announced the starting lineup for the East and West All-Stars.

Yu Fei was selected as usual, Westbrook, with an average triple-double, and Harden took the Western starting backcourt spots, with the remaining two Western frontcourt starting positions awarded to Antetokounmpo and Leonard.

Following the announcement of the reserve lineup, Thompson and Jokić were listed among them.

This meant that the Clippers still had four players selected for the All-Star game this year.

The only difference was, Jokić replaced Yao Ming.

From Yao Ming’s start as a substitute last season till now, it’s been a season and a half.

Missing the All-Star is an expected outcome for the outside world.

The only ones angry about this were Yao Ming’s fans, who believed that the league changing the voting rules was targeting them.

Yao Ming seemed to know how the fans would react, and on the day the results came out, he shared a few photos of him and his family enjoying Miami on his social media.

“The weather is pretty good, going out for a walk, how do you plan to spend your vacation?”

He wrote this on Twitter.