"Fine, fine, if you say it's not, then it's not." Link spread his hands with an expression that said he couldn't be bothered to argue, which left McGrady fuming.
McGrady's hot streak continued, but he was the only strong offensive point for the entire Magic Team. Although his scoring was potent and truly "hurt" his opponents, he couldn't "kill" the game. To be precise, he couldn't kill the current Washington Wizards.
It was another two-man game. McGrady saw Mike Miller eating Link's dust and came over to help on defense once again. However, this time Laettner didn't give the ball to Link, but instead passed it to the Masked Man, Hamilton.
"Great pass!"
"Wow..."
"As expected of a former member of the Dream Team I, Christie didn't pass to Link after seeing McGrady collapse into the paint. At the same time, he noticed Armstrong's defensive rotation was closing in on Connet Alexander..."
"Christie immediately got the ball to Hamilton..."
"But unfortunately, he didn't capitalize on this great opportunity."
The Masked Man wasted a brilliant pass, but that's quite normal. No matter how accurate a shooter is, they can't make a wide-open shot 100% of the time. Moreover, the Masked Man's Three-Point Shot was actually quite average.
The Magic Team relied on McGrady's extraordinary individual scoring ability to desperately chase the score.
Meanwhile, the Washington Wizards played like a cohesive unit. Link, through his off-ball movement, dissected the Magic Team's defense like a master butcher.
The first three quarters ended!
81 to 65, the Washington Wizards still held a 16-point lead.
In the final quarter of the game, the Magic Team's morale visibly plummeted, and the players inwardly wanted to give up.
Usually, when a game reached this point, McGrady himself would choose to give up.
But tonight's opponent held a different significance for McGrady.
The god of basketball, Michael Jordan.
And the one the media called the strongest high school number one draft pick in history—Link.
McGrady held the ball at the top of the arc and once again blew past Link by more than half a body length in a single step. With his large stride, explosive power, and incredibly fast overall speed, Michael Jordan, who had checked back in, came over to help on defense. At that moment, before the help defense and double-team could completely close in, McGrady chose to take a pull-up jumper.
With a "swish," it went in again. McGrady's individual score reached 32 points, nearly half of the Magic Team's total.
"rookie, do you dare to answer back?" McGrady switched directly onto Link.
Link didn't say anything. It was no easy task to break down McGrady one-on-one.
But Link quickly responded with action. He caught the ball with his back to the basket in the elbow area. *Thud.* He began backing him down. McGrady was slightly stunned, thinking, "Is this kid crazy? You dare to post me up from this far away?"
In terms of strength, Link was stronger than McGrady, but not by much. At such a distance, he would be exhausted halfway through backing him down, so Link naturally wouldn't do that. First, he leaned into him, using his back and thighs to sense the opponent's Center of gravity. Then, he suddenly transitioned into a spin. McGrady's reaction was also very quick, using his body to block the path. Having lost his angle, Link only pushed in one step to reach the low post area before his momentum was nearly spent. At that moment, Link suddenly pivoted on his right foot and performed a turnaround fadeaway...
*Whoosh!*
McGrady seemed to have anticipated Link's move and jumped with him. Before leaving the ground, he initiated physical contact, preventing Link from jumping normally. His Jumping Height was severely compromised, and just as he was about to be blocked, Link tucked his core in mid-air and "dumped the ball" forcefully to Haywood under the basket. The Magic Team's Center was distracted at that moment, and Haywood caught the ball, went up strong, and easily scored off the glass.
"rookie... that was quite a dump-off..." McGrady stared at Link with his sleepy eyes and teased.
"Tracy, remember this: basketball is a team sport. You can't achieve great things by playing alone." Link, despite being a rookie, lectured McGrady like a veteran.
While leaving McGrady bewildered, Link couldn't help but think with lingering fear: "Damn, it's a good thing I have [Relief Passer]. With my long arms and large palms, I definitely would have been blocked otherwise."
"Damn, Magic McGrady... is he really this terrifying?"
Over the next four minutes, McGrady faced off directly against Link and Michael Jordan several times.
In one-on-one battles, Link was indeed no match for McGrady, but he still had some tricks up his sleeve. Using the Euro Step and the "foul-drawing" technique he learned from the Hundred-Point Battle with Harden, he got an and-one on McGrady.
Meanwhile, McGrady hit two jumpers over Link.
As for the aging Michael Jordan and McGrady, they each had their own strengths.
Old Dan... his current Stamina distribution and management were excellent; the fourth quarter was his main battlefield.
During the first three quarters, not only was his playing time drastically reduced, but his usage rate also dropped significantly. This was partly to save Jordan for the final push and partly to develop the team's newcomers. After all, Michael Jordan wouldn't be playing for more than a couple of years.
92 to 75!
Halfway through the fourth quarter, a 17-point deficit wasn't impossible to overcome, but once this Magic Team fell behind, they lost their fighting spirit. No matter how strong McGrady was alone, it was to no avail.
When it came to leading and inspiring his teammates' fighting spirit, McGrady was too green.
The game ended.
108 to 82!
The Magic lost to the Washington Wizards again by a margin of 26 points.
...
...
McGrady scored 41 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists in a losing effort, while the rest of the Magic Team combined for exactly 41 points. Aside from McGrady, nobody else reached double digits; the second highest was Armstrong with 14 points. Meanwhile, Mike Miller, who was primarily guarded by Link, shot 2-for-8 tonight, finishing with only 5 points.
Both his shooting percentage and scoring were below his season averages.
However, because Mike Miller's status was too low, fans didn't pay attention. They just felt that Link was still bullied by McGrady and failed to see Link's improvement on the defensive end.
The Wizards saw another balanced scoring attack. Tonight, three players scored over 15 points: Michael Jordan with 22, Hamilton with 17, and Haywood with 18.
Uh...
As for Link, although he didn't even score 15 points tonight... he delivered 17 assists.
15 points, 17 assists, 7 rebounds, and 1 Steal!
These stats...
Definitely "God of Point Guards" level stats.
After the game.
The front-line reporter sent by Tianchao Sports to the NBA, was the first to approach Link and said, "Link, congratulations on another hearty victory tonight."
"Thank you," Link said with a smile.
After interviewing Link, he immediately went to interview Brendan Haywood.
Haywood, who stood 213 cm tall and weighed 120 kg, discovered during the interview that he had been gifted a nickname by the chinese fans.
"Biscuit King?"
"What does that mean?"