Chapter 64

Just three and a half minutes into the first quarter, the Bobcats were beaten 10-2 by the Pistons, leaving their head coach, Larry Brown, fuming in frustration. It must be disheartening for anyone to see their usually strong defense crumble completely against the Pistons. “Time out!” he quickly called for a timeout, his face twisted in anger. “How are you playing?! How hard is it to understand? DJ Augustin takes the ball, Gerald goes in, then Polis steps up to block and cuts back. If DJ sees an opportunity, he should shoot inside. What we need now is accuracy! Accuracy—do you understand?! I don’t want to see you standing there like statues on the court; move! Get active!” Larry Brown shouted at his players. However, the game didn’t go as Larry Brown had hoped. With Zhou Yi assisting McGrady for a three-point shot, the score became 15-3, and the Pistons led the Bobcats by 12 points even before half of the first quarter was over. “Damn it!” Seeing such a large deficit, Larry Brown could only stand on the sidelines, pacing frantically. Since he had already called one timeout earlier, calling another would surely affect the team’s morale. But if he didn’t call a timeout, those guys… Larry Brown slumped in his coaching seat and glanced in the direction of Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan had no expression on his face, simply watching the game while chatting with the person sitting next to him. Zhou Yi slowly dribbled across half-court, stepped under a defender, and passed the ball to McGrady. McGrady took on Stephen Jackson alone and hit a backdoor jump shot. 17-3—the Pistons led by 14 points. Bobcats’ Polis Diop drove past defenders and passed to Gerald Wallace, who was waiting just beyond the three-point line. After catching the ball, he adjusted his stance and shot from three. With a thud, just as everyone thought it would be another miss, the ball bounced up and dropped through the net. “Phew,” Gerald Wallace sighed in relief. So far, he had taken four shots and only made one. On the Pistons’ side, McGrady received a pass from Zhou Yi and tried a mid-range shot, but this attempt missed. Gerald Wallace grabbed the defensive rebound. Amid the cheers of the home crowd, Gerald Wallace hit another three-point shot.

17:9, the Bobcats narrowed the score gap to single digits.
Zhou Yi drove with the ball, made a clever pass to Greg Monroe, who faked before dunking with both hands.
With a thud, Gerard Jackson took a shot near the free-throw line, trying to score again, but missed.
Tayshawn Prince secured a defensive rebound and passed it to McGrady.
McGrady controlled the ball and drove fast for a fast break, while Zhou Yi rushed toward the opponent’s half. At that moment, DJ Augustin was the only one defending. McGrady and Zhou Yi kept passing the ball back and forth, with Zhou Yi finally completing the fast break.
Zhou Yi got a defensive rebound after DJ Augustin’s layup missed, then broke through his defense in one move and scored another 2 points with a layup.
Zhou Yi contributed again—he accurately read Gerard Wallace’s passing route, intercepted it, and rushed to near the opponent’s free-throw line in front of DJ Augustin, hitting another jump shot.
DJ Augustin glanced at Zhou Yi helplessly, thinking, “This guy isn’t going to do it again like last time, is he? He’s still this strong? Ugh…”
But DJ Augustin couldn’t do much; sometimes when the opponent was in good form, it was terrifying.
DJ Augustin controlled the ball and organized the offense, passing it to Gerard Wallace after half a court. After getting the ball, Gerard Wallace rushed inside. Tayshawn Prince failed to defend him, and Greg Monroe rushed out to try to stop him, but Gerard Wallace easily passed the ball to Nazr Mohammed. Facing an open basket, Nazr Mohammed didn’t hesitate and scored 2 points with a layup.
After Greg Monroe’s strong drive inside drew a double team, he quickly passed to Tayshawn Prince on the outside, who shot a three-pointer that also went in.
Then Stephen Jackson tried to answer with a three-pointer, but missed. Ben Wallace secured a backcourt rebound and passed it to Zhou Yi.
Zhou Yi drove with the ball and passed it to McGrady, who drove and passed it back to Zhou Yi. Zhou Yi was in an open position, so after catching the ball, he shot immediately—only for it to clang off the rim. Gerard Wallace grabbed the defensive rebound.

After driving past the half-court line, DJ Augustin passed the ball to Gerald Wallace, who broke through and passed to Stephen Jackson. Stephen Jackson was nearly forced into a 24-second violation by Teyshawn Wallace, who rushed to contest the shot as the 24 seconds neared their end. The outcome was predictable—Teyshawn Prince grabbed the defensive rebound. Teyshawn Prince passed to McGrady, who drove hard and passed to Greg Monroe. After catching the ball under the basket, Monroe scored 2 points with a hook shot. At 5:15 in the first quarter, Greg Monroe not only scored another layup but also forced a foul on Gerald Wallace. At that moment, the Bobcats’ head coach, Larry Brown, called a timeout. After the timeout, the Pistons’ Zhou Yi was replaced by Will Bynum, McGrady was replaced by Ben Gordon, who had been out due to injury but returned today, and Ben Wallace was replaced by Samuel Dalembert, leaving only Greg Monroe and Teyshawn Prince as the starting players. On the Bobcats’ side, Gerald Wallace was replaced by Gerald Henderson, Terrell Thomas replaced Nazr Mohammed, and Derrick Brown replaced Stephen Jackson. The game resumed, with Greg Monroe hitting his free throw and then a second one. After receiving the pass from the backcourt, Will Bynum rushed toward the Bobcats’ half-court. “This guy is not easy to deal with; we need to be careful,” DJ Augustin muttered. After passing the half-court line, Will Bynum accelerated and suddenly stopped to take a jump shot, successfully making it. DJ Augustin carefully controlled the ball, blocking Will Bynum with half of his body, then passed sideways as he hit the ground, the ball flashing as it was thrown to Derrick Brown, who had just entered the game. Derrick Brown shot easily from inside the three-point line, scoring 2 points. “Greg!” Will Bynum used his body to block DJ Augustin, creating space, and threw the ball to the upper right corner of the basket. Greg Monroe, who was rushing up behind, suddenly leaped high and caught Will Bynum’s pass mid-air for a alley-oop. After Greg Monroe scored 6 points in a row, the score suddenly became 30:16, with the Pistons leading by 14 points, with only two and a half minutes left in the first quarter.

Tyreus Thomas pulled up from the paint to set a pick and roll for DJ Augustin, who quickly rushed to the basket. At the same time, Tyreus Thomas also cut back toward the basket. Immediately afterward, DJ Augustin suddenly stopped and took a jump shot on the left side of the free-throw line, but Will Bynum quickly realized it was not a shot but a pass.
“Greg, behind you!” Will Bynum shouted at Greg Monroe.
But by the time Monroe reacted, it was too late. Tyreus Thomas, who had cut back toward the basket, leaped with all his might, caught the pass from DJ Augustin, and dunked violently with both hands, causing the basket to shake violently.
“This guy is still so violent!” was Will Bynum’s first thought.
The Pistons made more substitutions—Tayshaun Prince was replaced by James Posey, and Greg Monroe was replaced by Charlie Villanueva.
James Posey initiated play from the baseline, and Will Bynum took the ball to organize the team’s offense. After several attempts at breaking through, Will Bynum failed each time.
Charlie Villanueva quickly provided a screen, and Will Bynum used it to break into the paint and score 2 points with a backdoor cut.
The Bobcats attacked; Gerald Henderson received a pass from DJ Augustin and tried to drive to the basket, but missed. James Posey secured the defensive rebound.
Will Bynum took control of the offense, and DJ Augustin tried to steal the ball while Will Bynum was distracted. But instead of succeeding, he committed a defensive foul.
James Posey started play from the sideline. After receiving the ball, Will Bynum passed it directly to Ben Gordon, who had just returned from injury. Perhaps because he hadn’t yet found his rhythm after returning, Ben Gordon’s open mid-range shot missed, and Tyreus Thomas grabbed the defensive rebound.
Derrick Brown and Gerald Henderson set up a pick and roll, after which Gerald Henderson cut back and tried to drive to the basket after receiving a pass from Derrick Brown, but missed again. Tyreus Thomas secured the offensive rebound, and his follow-up shot also missed, with Samuel Dalembert competing for the defensive rebound.
Using Charlie Villanueva’s screen, Ben Gordon ran straight to the corner three-point line. Then Will Bynum passed the ball to him. After catching it, Ben Gordon adjusted slightly before taking a three-point jump shot.
With a swish, the ball went through the net!

With only 22 seconds left in the first quarter, the Bobcats’ offense was determined to use up every second to prevent the Pistons from getting another chance to attack. Indeed, DJ Augustin carefully controlled the ball, holding it firmly despite constant interference from Will Bynum. After half the time elapsed, DJ Augustin didn’t pass the ball right away but continued to waste time. It wasn’t until 10 seconds remained that he took action. Using one hand to block Will Bynum, he drove with the other. Suddenly, he made a move to the right before pulling back sharply, breaking toward Bynum’s left. Caught off guard, Bynum was deceived by DJ Augustin. Having successfully shaken off Bynum’s defense, DJ Augustin took a shot from the baseline with help from teammate Derrick Brown, and the ball went in. The Pistons had less than 3.5 seconds left. After receiving the pass, Bynum quickly handed it to Ben Gordon, who was already near the midcourt. As soon as Gordon shot, the buzzer for the first quarter sounded. Just when everyone thought the shot wouldn’t go in, it actually made it through the net. The sound caught everyone’s attention. Even Gordon was surprised—his casual shot had gone in; what luck! The Pistons’ players rushed over to hug Gordon and happily headed to the bench. Bobcats head coach Larry Brown was pale with anger—he was furious at the outcome of the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the Pistons led 38–20, an 18-point advantage over their opponents. No wonder Larry Brown was so angry—losing 18 points in the first quarter was utterly disheartening and humiliating. Moreover, the Bobcats were a highly defensive team, and this was their home court, yet they allowed their opponents to score 38 points in just one quarter. Larry Brown no longer had the mood to scold his players; he simply told them to pay more attention to defense in the second quarter. The Bobcats players were also surprised. Normally, after such a poor performance, head coach Larry Brown would be furious. Unexpectedly, instead of getting angry, he calmly discussed defense with them.

What they didn’t know was that Larry Brown had already given up on them to some extent. On the Pistons’ side, the bench was in high spirits; everyone was chatting happily, and John Kuester was also engaging in pleasant conversations with the players. The Pistons took a 18-point lead, 38-20, over their highly defensive opponent right from the first quarter, and this was even on back-to-back road games. It had to be said that the Pistons were extremely arrogant. But they indeed had reason to be arrogant. The second quarter started quickly, with both teams sending in all their bench players. Pistons: Will Bynum, Ben Gordon, Austin Daye, Taylor Hansbrough, and Samuel Dalembert; Bobcats: Sean Livingston, Derrick Brown, Gerald Henderson, DeSagana Diop, and Shelon Collins. Sean Livingston drove fast across half-court, with Will Bynum quickly closing in. Seeing Bynum coming, Livingston calmly threw the ball to the side. Suddenly, a Bobcats player appeared from nowhere where there had been no one before. Bynum glanced over and saw it was Derrick Brown. Brown caught the ball and immediately took a jump shot, hitting it. Will Bynum could only sigh in frustration—the Pistons’ bench defense indeed had issues and was clearly no match for the starters.