The Best Point Guard

The Knicks couldn’t stop Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, but the Cavaliers also couldn’t stop Su Xi and the Knicks’ cohort of inside shooters.

The gap between the two teams didn’t seem as wide as the media was making it out to be.

Isaiah Thomas and Mike Brown both stuck to their game plans. They each firmly believed in their own tactical systems.

Mike Brown had faith.

Isaiah Thomas’s faith was Su Xi.

BEEP!

As the whistle blew, the second quarter began.

Larry Brown was still on TV, saying things about how the Cavaliers would definitely win, but in reality, the Cleveland fans watching at home would rather he just shut up.

Not only did his comments fail to cause any harm or worry to Knicks supporters, they actually made them more certain: since Larry Brown said the Knicks couldn’t win, what reason did the Knicks have to lose?

Even if his reasoning was sound, the sounder it was, the more likely the Knicks were to win.

When had Goat Su Xi ever needed to be reasonable with an opponent?

He *was* the reason!

He was the ultimate truth in the basketball world today.

The game continued. James drove into the restricted area and, with a screen from O’Neal, finished with a dunk.

Then, Su Xi hit a pull-up jumper from mid-range.

The two teams were still evenly matched.

The Knicks’ shooting cooled off slightly, but Su Xi increased his isolation plays. Su Xi’s touch was on point tonight. It’s a terrifying thing when a player who averages 40+ points a game is feeling it.

No one on the Cavaliers stepped up to challenge Su Xi.

If James were a die-hard competitor, he would have stepped up to face Su Xi. But he didn’t. He knew he couldn’t stop Su Xi, just as he knew he couldn’t stop Kobe.

Besides, when guarding Kobe, his physical advantages were still in play.

When guarding Su Xi, those physical advantages were gone.

Su Xi’s offensive technique and polish might have been slightly inferior to Kobe’s, but his offensive threat was far greater. He had many other ways to score—the very methods that worried James the most.

The game continued, with both teams trading baskets.

The Cavaliers gradually gained an advantage through their higher offensive efficiency and second-chance points under the basket. Although the progress was slow, they were steadily pulling away.

The Knicks couldn’t muster a strong counterpunch.

This was because the Knicks couldn’t create opportunities inside the restricted area. Neither David Lee nor Channing Frye had that ability. And while Su Xi could drive into the paint, he was ultimately a perimeter player.

Larry Brown was gloating on TV, launching into a long-winded speech.

He declared that the Knicks’ downfall was imminent and that Little Sheep Su Xi’s legendary career was about to take a nosedive.

BEEP.

The second quarter came to an end.

The Cavaliers led the Knicks 65-60, a five-point lead.

Su Xi had scored an astonishing 30 points in the first half, accounting for half of the team’s total.

Given Su Xi’s hot hand and the state of the other Knicks players tonight, he had a good chance to continue this scoring tear in the second half. If so, he would very likely break his personal single-game scoring record.

If last season was about Kobe Bryant’s scoring explosion, then this season was undoubtedly about Su Xi’s rocket-like scoring rampage!

The Knicks players returned to the locker room, the mood subdued.

They felt terrible, frustrated that they couldn’t help Su Xi more. They knew exactly how the Cavaliers would verbally attack Su Xi if they won. In their eyes, Su Xi was the greatest player in the league today.

If the Knicks lost this game, it definitely wouldn’t be Jack’s fault. ’It’s because we aren’t playing well enough.’

So, during the team’s session of criticism and self-criticism, almost every player who saw court time said they hadn’t worked hard enough, that they hadn’t played well enough.

But Su Xi didn’t see it that way. He thought everyone was already playing well enough.

Moreover, he believed the Knicks still had a chance to win tonight.

Yes, that’s what Su Xi believed.

However, if you were to ask Su Xi if he was confident they could beat the Cavaliers in a seven-game playoff series, he would say at best that it was 50-50.

This was an indisputable fact.

Pat Riley had been too ruthless. He had sent Shaquille O’Neal to the Cavaliers for free. The Cavaliers got O’Neal without giving up any core assets, receiving a cheat-code-level upgrade.

Just their twin-tower lineup of him and Ilgauskas was ridiculously overpowered.

Ilgauskas was the second-tallest center in the league, a huge tactical threat in his own right. Just by standing there, he was a barrier. After O’Neal’s arrival, his role became setting screens for James and then taking catch-and-shoot jumpers from the free-throw line.

There was no way to stop him.

O’Neal was also hard to contain in the paint. He was still at the tail end of his prime.

Add to that LeBron James’s powerful drives.

And Mike Brown’s tactical system, plus a cast of supporting role players.

In contrast to the self-criticism in the Knicks’ locker room, the atmosphere in the Cavaliers’ locker room was relaxed. O’Neal was cracking jokes, and a group of players were laughing along. James wasn’t one to put on airs in the locker room either; he also liked to joke around.

Mike Brown had often remarked, "This is the most harmonious the team atmosphere has been since I joined the Cavaliers."

It seemed James had finally cleared away the dark clouds that had been hovering over his head. He could finally see the sun.

If they beat the Knicks in this game and continued their winning streak...

...then for James, it would undoubtedly be a chance to finally break the surface and take a deep, satisfying breath.

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