When pride still matters

Chapter 76 My plus/minus value is +9, I didn’t lose
After a short intermission, Jordan signaled to Collins that he was ready to return to the game.

Collins wants to see the chemistry between Jordan and Yu Fei, and now is a good opportunity.Yu Fei is in good condition, while Jordan's condition looks average. Will the former's good condition feed back to the latter?Maybe their relationship can be improved?
With good intentions, Collins replaced Hubert Davis to rest, allowing Jordan to return to the second position for a long time, while the other positions remained unchanged.

In his previous life, Yu Fei once read on a forum that netizens said that playing basketball with leaders is a skill.Now playing with Jordan, the same principle applies.It is beneficial to Mr. Qiao's development to make him happy.

However, Yu Fei has no confidence in Jordan's condition.

After Jordan came up, he was eager to test his touch, so he asked Brown to set an off-ball screen for himself on the right side.

Yu Fei never lets Brown do any complicated screens for himself, because Brown's current offensive awareness is very weak, and his choice of cover positions is worse than Shiromine Miu's acting skills, but Shiromine Miu can use modeling to cover up the lack of acting skills, Brown has What?
He just mechanically followed Jordan's orders and threw a terrible screen.

When Lue directed the ball to Jordan, Dog could see his opponent, unaffected by the screen, looming ferociously in front of him.

Jordan, who was in a difficult situation, chose to force the shot, which was naturally impossible to hit.

What do you do if a teammate gives you a crap screen and you can't get away from the defense after catching the ball?Pass the ball back and let your teammates try again instead of taking a few steps to find an opportunity and force a shot.

The best player in history ignored the optimal solution and took action decisively.

Brown was originally 100% responsible for this offense, but Jordan took at least 75% of the responsibility for it.In the end, the goal didn't go in, and in Jordan's eyes, it was all Brown's responsibility.

"What the hell can you do on the court?" Jordan roared like a demon, "If you don't want to fight, get out and stop playing!"

Pistons backup center Zeljko Rebraca (C) held the ball in the low post and beat Jasidi White.

Reblacca is a Serbian with white skin and blond hair. He has a strong presence on the court. Perhaps this is the standard of the Pistons general manager Joe Dumas for European players. He is tall enough and looks If you are very talented, you should have blond hair. If you are not naturally blond, dye your hair blond.

Rebraka's weakness perfectly fits the American stereotype of European insiders. He couldn't stand up to White, who was a quarter taller than him, and actually chose to turn around and shoot a fadeaway jumper outside the paint area.

This kind of goal cannot be scored!
Yu Fei returned to the basket in advance, accurately predicted the landing point of the rebound, jumped up and grabbed it, and then launched a counterattack with great enthusiasm after landing.

"Slow down! Slow down!" Collins realized he was wrong.

It is impossible for Yu Fei to have any positive chemical reaction with Jordan.

Obviously no one told Jordan that he can keep his strength on both ends of the offense and defense as long as he can. Even an old man who is almost 40 years old can score the first fast break in the league. Is it what an old man should do to fight in position battles?
Yu Fei didn't understand Jordan's intentions at all. He ran as fast as he could on the counterattack and fast break.

The Pistons' attention is all on him.

After Yu Fei attracted the attention of most people, he threw the basketball back into the air.

The man who followed up was Kwame Brown.

Brown, who was severely scolded by Jordan, needed a poster dunk to regain his confidence, and Yu Fei's flying cake was just right.

Brown jumped gratefully, grabbed the ball with both hands for safety, and then dunked it firmly into the basket.

"Thank you, Da Fei!"

Brown was chattering behind Yu Fei's butt, not knowing what he was talking about.

Yu Fei smiled slightly but did not respond.

Director Lu said that he was also empty. Why could Yu Fei see Brown behind him but not himself outside the three-point line?
"Maybe it's because you run slower than Jasidi?" Yu Fei said sarcastically.

White laughed loudly, and Director Lu had no choice but to spread his hands.

Jordan pursed his lips and found that he couldn't get in.

Here, he seems to be the one who is isolated.

"Christian, Rip, Chris," Collins called out the names of the three starters, "get ready to play."

Chris Whitney had some thoughts on Collins' decision: "Frye is taking control of the situation. If we replace him now, we may not be able to maintain this momentum."

"Chris, you are all veterans who have been in the league for many years. Do you want to tell me that you are not as good as these new recruits?" Collins said sternly, "Young people have brought good momentum, and you should maintain it. Go down and don’t let down their efforts!”

After a minute and a half, the Wizards had narrowed the point difference to 3 points.

Brown, who was motivated, showed his potential on the defensive end, running from the left side of the paint to the right side and delivering powerful blocks.

The ball was kicked out of bounds.

The situation was looking good for the Wizards. At this time, the technical desk reminded: "Wizards make substitutions!" Hamilton, Laettner, and Whitney replaced Yu Fei, Brown, and Lue.

"Replace us? Did you make a mistake?!" Brown said dissatisfiedly, "We are fighting vigorously!"

Maybe it was because we were playing too hard that we had to change.

Yu Fei looked at Collins with subtle eyes. It was obvious that he was a smart man and he could see what Collins was thinking.

Yu Fei isolated Jordan on the court and played at his own pace regardless of whether Jordan was on the court or not.He would not look at Jordan twice on the offensive end. It turned out that even without Jordan's participation, the Wizards' point-chasing momentum remained unchanged.

Collins will not tolerate this happening.

For him, Jordan's interests are greater than the outcome of the game.

This person can no longer be called a coach, he is just a slave who was taken out of the TV station by Jordan to protect him.

"You played well and brought vitality to the team. Keep it up. This is very important to the team!" Collins said to the three people who were substituted with a smile.

Yu Fei laughed.

It's really interesting, what Collins said is like the host on a news show who starts by saying hello to you and then starts telling you what bad things happened and will happen in the world yesterday, today and tomorrow.

After Yu Fei and the others came off the court, the Wizards' game returned to its original state.

It's slow-paced, very formulaic, and every offense has to revolve around Jordan and Hamilton.

Laettner's non-threatening high post support stems from his own poor offensive end.

NBC commentator Cotton Fitzsimmons expressed confusion about the Wizards' substitutions: "If fast-paced games are effective, why do they actively switch to slow-paced games? Such a style of play in the first place Sections have proven to be ineffective. Slow-paced games play into Detroit's favor, as evidenced by DC's opening deficit."

Fitzsimmons predicted the Wizards' subsequent decline.

After switching back to the original starting lineup, the Wizards' pursuit momentum was interrupted. Stackhouse entered the state again at this time, looking even more terrifying than the period when he defeated Hamilton in the first quarter.

And Jordan has never been able to find his shooting touch.

Without Yu Fei, the Wizards lack the answer to the big problem.

Can't make a shot, can't break through, can't defend.

After halftime, the Wizards went from trailing by only 3 points to ending the first half with a 14-point deficit.

In the second half, when Yu Fei came back, his condition was not as good as in the first half.

On the contrary, the Pistons relied on Ben's defense and Stackhouse's unsolvable personal offense to completely activate Dana Barros on the outside.

They couldn't solve Stackhouse in the first half, and they couldn't prevent Barros' three-pointer in the second half.

In the whole game, 107 to 79, the Wizards lost miserably to the Pistons on the road, ending their three-game winning streak.

Post-match interview
"Let's not sugarcoat it, it was a bad game for us tonight, we couldn't find the basket and then we couldn't make the shot - we have a tendency in games to complicate everything. All of that. It all leads to us getting slaughtered, and that's what happened tonight. We got beat up." - Jordan's evaluation of the game

"He played great. Made a lot of shots, and he had a lot of luck tonight." - Jordan on Stackhouse
"We have established an advantage in the first half, so I want to help my teammates score more in the second half. We are already so far ahead, and it doesn't matter who scores." - Stackhouse responded to his lack of scoring in the second half. The problem
"No matter how many points we lose tonight, we have to move forward and make sure we don't end up in a situation like this again for the rest of the season. The Pistons showed a lot of energy and we didn't get that tonight Their level. That's why we lost." - Collins on Wizards' upset loss
"I thought to myself, maybe keeping Frye on the court at that moment would have changed the outcome of this game, but who knows? We have a lot of experienced players and they were a little bit off tonight, but that doesn't mean that decision was Wrong, give me another chance and I will still do it." - Collins' response to the question of substitutions in the first half

"Michael is still the same Michael, he just needs a little time. Frye Yu's performance is impressive, if it were me, I would let him play a few more minutes in the first half." - Carlisle on Wizards players
"I don't like No. 44 (Yu Fei). His mouth is too fragmentary, full of arrogance and disrespect." - Da Ben commented on Yu Fei

"Fry, this is the first game you lost in the NBA. How do you feel?"

"What does it have to do with me?"

"Well obviously, the Wizards lost and you were a part of the team."

"I only played 18 minutes tonight and my plus-minus was +9. Do you know what that means? It means we were nine points ahead of our opponent when I was on the court."

"Can I take it to mean that you are complaining about how little playing time you have?"

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't lose. We won when I was there. Whoever loses the game is the one you go to."

——Yu Fei’s post-game interview
(End of this chapter)