Almighty Coach

On the Blazers’ sideline, Terry looked like a monster who had just climbed out of hell. He shouted at the players loudly.

“Run! You better run!”

“Quickly attack, apply maximum pressure!”

“Shoot! It’s such a good opportunity. Shoot!”

“Did you not eat? It took you such a long time to get back into defensive positions. Faster. Work harder on the defense!”

In a basketball game, if the head coach scolded someone or constantly challenged referees, he could get a technical foul. He might even be expelled from the match. In addition, the referee could give on-site commands on the side of the court. As long as it did not interfere with the progress of the game, shouting was permissible.

The styles of each coach in the NBA were different. Some coaches liked to shout at the players. If they were even a tiny bit unsatisfied, they would roar like a wild beast. Some coaches were as quiet as scholars. They would sit on the bench. Never shouting loudly even if the players did not perform as expected. They would, at most, frown to express their dissatisfaction.

Terry was not the kind of coach to shout. However, now that they had reached overtime, he could not control his emotions.

Typically, during overtime, the side that was stronger had the advantage. The team with more substitutes also had an advantage. Those playing on their home-court normally had an advantage. The Blazers had all three of these advantages, so they had no need to worry. As long as the Blazers played as they usually did, they would be able to win.

Whenever Terry remembered that the Blazers were playing in overtime against a weak team being led by a layman, he felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

Terry thought that everyone who looked at him was judging him. He thought they were laughing at him for being worse than an inexperienced basketball coach participating in his first NBA match.

On the Clippers side, assistant coach Cassel kept looking in Terry’s direction. He did not expect to see Terry this agitated today.

“Terry seems very agitated. This is just a regular season match. With the Blazers’ current wins, even a loss today would not affect their ranking. Does he need to act like this?” Cassel whispered to himself and then looked at the score.

In the last two and a half minutes, there had been no change to the score. No one scored any points. The game was deadlocked.

The Clippers were weak. When faced with the Blazers’ tough defense, not scoring any points was excusable. However, the Blazers were a strong team playing on their home-court. Not scoring any points in two and a half minutes was inexcusable.

On top of that, it was overtime. For a team that was able to make it to the playoffs, not scoring during overtime was a problem.

“It seems that much of today’s match went like this. When the Blazers played well, we also played well. When the Blazers played badly, we also played badly. When they scored, we also scored. When they didn’t score, we didn’t score. The two sides seem to have reached an agreement. The rhythm of this game is quite strange.”

Cassel looked at the statistics in his hand. He scratched his head in confusion. From the data, the Clippers were not performing any better than usual. The field goal percentage, rebounds, assists, and mistakes were all completely average. A team which such stats should not be able to beat the Blazers, so Cassel was extremely puzzled.

“What’s wrong?” Dai Li asked. He noticed Cassel looking confused.

“Nothing, I just didn’t think that we could go into overtime against the Blazers. After all, the Blazers are much stronger than us,” Cassel said.

Dai Li nodded. “Yeah, we are a weak team and our lineup is not perfect. The crux of it all is that the team coach is inexperienced, so everyone thought that we would lose very badly. No one thought that the Blazers and we would be playing a first overtime.”

“First overtime?” Cassel blinked and then asked, “Coach, you can’t be thinking that this game will have a second overtime?”

“There may even be a third overtime,” Dai Li replied with a smile.

Dai Li remembered the first round of the U.S. Open where Zhen Chen played against the tennis king Basel. Under the influence of “Evenly Matched,” they played four tie-breaks. In the end, the winner was decided by an advantage set.

The gap between Zhen Chen and Basel was much larger than the gap between the Blazers and the Clippers, so Dai Li didn’t think it would be strange for the Blazers and Clippers to play two or three overtimes.

Cassel did not believe in Dai Li’. The Blazers’ starting players were stronger and their substitutes were many. They were also playing at their home-court. These advantages would be exacerbated in overtime. Cassel thought the Clippers could collapse at any time.

…

“Hwee!” The sound of the live electronic timer buzzed. It had reached zero, ending the second overtime.

Cassel looked at the score of 118-118. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

It is as predicted by Coach Li. There is going to be a third overtime. Cassel sneaked a look at Dai Li. He felt that Dai Li’s body was emitting some sort of invisible, mysterious aura.

Coach Li said that there would be a third overtime. I thought he was joking, but there really will be a third overtime. Is this just a coincidence? Playing three overtimes is not common in the NBA. If it is a coincidence, then it really odd. It is so coincidental that I can’t believe it!

Before, during the third quarter, he didn’t call a timeout. He said that the players would be able to get back the scores. He was right. Was that also a coincidence? How could it be possible that everything is so coincidental?

Is this coach Li’s professional judgment? He doesn’t know basketball. How can he make such accurate judgments? I have been a basketball coach for over a decade and I couldn’t tell that this game would have three overtimes. I also didn’t think our players would be able to catch up when we were behind by 15 points.

Maybe Coach Li actually understands basketball, but he has been pretending to know nothing. He is deliberately playing dumb to catch his opponent off guard! He wants to make everyone feel that he is a layman and let his opponents lower their guard. Then, he gives his opponents a fatal blow.

Cassel thought of this possibility and looked at Dai Li involuntarily.

Dai Li noticed that Cassel was looking at him, so he smiled.

From Cassel’s point of view, there was a knife behind this smile.

…

On the Blazers’ bench, Terry had mentally collapsed.

He had wanted a big victory without suspense. He had wanted to crush his opponent easily. However, this was the third overtime and the winner was still undecided.

The Blazers were now two points behind.

Although it was only two points, it made Terry feel very helpless.

Are about to lose to the Clippers?

Terry’s self-confidence was shaken.

On the court, the Blazers’ players became anxious. They were now two points behind in a third overtime in a game that they should have easily won. It was impossible for the players to be calm.

As for the audience at the home-court, they became quieter and quieter. Some fans had begun to leave early. The excitement in the home-court had dropped significantly.

In an average 48-minute NBA game, it took about two hours to finish the game. With two overtimes already passed, the fans were getting tired. Those who cheered for their team lost their voices. In the third overtime, most were not be able to shout anymore.

Portland was located on the West Coast, so other time zones were already late into the evening by the time the game started. Although everyone lived in the Pacific standard time zone, not every fan lived near the Moda Center. Many fans drove dozens of kilometers to see the game. They had to work the next day. It was impossible for them to stay at the stadium very late. If it had just been one overtime, they could have waited it out. With three overtimes, some fans weren’t able to wait any longer.

This game was also not very enjoyable to watch. Although it reached three overtimes, the opposing team was weak. The Blazers were also slacking. They did not perform well. In the eyes of the fans, it was meaningless to spend time watching a boring game.

In fact, many fans were disappointed with the performance of the Blazers. The Blazers were ranked third in the West Conference and the expectations were high. Many fans looked forward to the Blazers reaching the Western Conference finals and maybe even reaching the finals of the playoffs. However, the team wasn’t scoring against a bad team, so the fans were naturally disappointed. Some fans even began to accuse the Blazers of playing badly.

The players’ mentalities and the atmosphere had both become detrimental to the Blazers. The situation that was created by “Evenly Matched” seemed to have changed.

…

“Bong!”

The basketball hit the rim and bounced back out. Three Clippers’ players rushed over and protected from the rebound.

At this point, the Clippers still had a two-point lead there were less than ten seconds left. This meant that, even if the Clippers did not attack, they would win the game.

The Blazers’ players hesitated. They did not immediately commit a foul. It was clear that their concentration was off.

“Commit a foul!” The Blazers head coach, Terry, shouted at the players.

Only then did the Blazers’ players rush forward, but the ball had already passed from the players inside the three-point line to the point guard.

According to the rules of the NBA, fouls that were committed towards players who were not holding the ball in the last two minutes would be considered technical with two free throws given. This was to limit the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy.

Now that the ball was in the point guard’s hand, the Blazers could only commit fouls towards the Clippers’ point guard and give the point guard free throws.

The point guard’s free throw was reliable. He shot two free throws and both of them went in. The gap widened to four points. This was a safe lead. The Blazers needed at least two plays to catch up.

The Blazers had no more overtime, which meant that they would need to run from the back of the court to the front of the court quickly in order to shoot. With the time that was left, they were unable to mount two offenses.

“We won! We actually won against the Blazers!” Although the game was not over, the Clippers’ bench was celebrating in advance.

Dai Li also let out a long breath.

After using “Evenly Matched”, the result of the game was out of my control. The last time I used “Evenly Matched” was when Zhen Chen was playing against Basel in the U.S. Open. Zhen Chen eventually lost. I got lucky this time. The Clippers actually won against the Blazers. I hope that I will be as lucky in the next game.

…

“Three Overtimes. An Upset in the Clippers v. Blazers Matchup.”

The next day, people who saw this headline in the news couldn’t help but want to read the article.

The Clippers were a weak team and they had just gotten a new boss and coach. The Blazers were a strong team in the league and they had had good odds. The Clippers had actually won a contest between the two of them. People were driven by curiosity. Everyone wanted to find out what had happened.

Three overtimes was rare for the NBA. An entire season could pass without a game going into three overtimes. For the fans who had seen the game, it was dull watching three overtimes. When the same thing was in the news, it became a point of interest.

A weak team beating a strong team was not uncommon in the NBA. There had been cases where the team ranked at the bottom beat the team ranked in first place. The Blazers and Clippers were not teams that received a lot of attention. Besides the fans of the two teams, this game was only another report in the news. It did not set off a big shockwave.

There were many NBA games every day. A team played 82 games in a regular season. This was not a crucial event so it would not be particularly memorable. Most people forgot about it after they saw the result. They wouldn’t even be able to recall the scores.

For the Clippers, this game was the first victory after the team changed leadership. As for Dai Li, this was his first victory as a head coach in the NBA.

Typically, after a victory, a team should celebrate. However, this was only the first of the Clippers’ four games as the away team. They had to play another three away games, so there was no time to celebrate this long-awaited victory. Instead, they traveled nonstop to New Orleans to challenge the New Orleans Pelicans.

New Orleans was located in Louisiana. If one were to open a map of the United States, they would think that Louisiana was located more in the eastern part of the United States. In actuality, three teams in the Western Conference were located relative to the east: the Pelicans, the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves. They were geographically closer to the teams in the east.

Flying from Portland to New Orleans meant flying from the northwestern United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Even planes took a long time to make the trip. So, after the game against the Blazers, the Clippers did not return to the hotel. They got on a private plane and flew directly to New Orleans.

The Pelicans were also a playoff-level team. In the fiercely competitive Western Conference, as long as a team was able to make it to the playoffs they were not weak.

Therefore, the Pelicans were much stronger than the Clippers.

In the face of opponents who were stronger, Dai Li could only use “Evenly Matched” again.

Dai Li got lucky again. After three overtimes, the Clippers won again.

The Clippers then flew to Indiana to challenge the Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers were ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference. They had a winning percentage close to 60%. The Pacers had always been known for their perseverance. Although the Western Conference was stronger than the Eastern Conference, the Pacers were not afraid of the teams from the other conference.

The Pacers were also stronger than the Clippers. Dai Li still used “Evenly Matched.”

This time, luck was not on Dai Li’s side. After they played four overtimes, they lost to the Pacers.

For Dai Li, the two wins and one loss was acceptable.

Dai Li had calculated in his head that if he used “Evenly Matched” and had a 50% chance of winning, then the probability of winning two consecutive games was 25%. This was actually a very high probability. It was equivalent to choosing the correct answer to a multiple-choice question with four choices. Many people had encountered such a situation before.

The probability of winning three consecutive games was 12.5%. The possibility of this happening was much lower.

What Dai Li cared about was the win rate, while others focused on the overtimes.

In the last three games, a total of ten overtimes were played. The Clippers had become the “Kings of Overtime” to their fans.