Chapter 240: 61 Points, 16 Rebounds

Trailing by 11 points going into the fourth quarter, the game was essentially over.

Since Wade Dong joined the Suns, there had been very few instances where they entered the fourth quarter with a lead and then lost the game.

The fourth quarter began.

Seeing Wade Dong come on the court, Coach Lue sighed.

On the Clippers' side, he had to let Griffin and Paul rest for a few minutes because they had already expended a lot of energy. If he continued with Coach Gentry's tactics, Coach Lue was worried that Paul and Griffin wouldn't have the stamina at the critical moments of the game.

"Damn it, Coach Gentry has no tactics; he just needs to pass the ball to Wade Dong."

Coach Lue thought to himself.

...

Swish!!!

Facing West's defense, Wade Dong made a turnaround jump shot, easily sending the ball into the basket.

The score was now 91:78!!!

Then, Billups' pass was intercepted by Wade Dong.

Whoosh~~~

With a precise pass, Wade Dong assisted Gortat for a layup.

The lead was now 15 points.

"You two, get on the court!"

Coach Lue turned and said to Paul and Griffin.

With the game going like this, he couldn't keep them on the bench any longer; if they sat any longer, the game would be lost.

After Paul came on the court, Green came out to defend him.

After two crossover dribbles, Paul faked a pass and then made a shooting motion, similar to Wade Dong's last shot in the third quarter.

The inexperienced Green was faked out by Paul.

Paul created a rhythm difference, leaned into Green as he jumped, and then took the shot.

"What the hell, are you practicing long jump?"

Paul's move left Wade Dong a bit dazed. When Wade Dong drew fouls, he would shoot when the defender was about to make contact, but Paul intentionally leaned into Green.

"Ah!!!

Not only did Paul lean into Green, but he also made a painful sound while shooting.

Beep!!!

The referee blew the whistle, indicating a foul by Green.

This was Green's sixth personal foul, and he fouled out!

"Damn it!"

Green was very unhappy and shouted at the referee, "Are you blind?!"

The referee glared at Green, "What did you say? Say it again in English!"

"Forget it, forget it..."

Nash came over and said a few words to Green, who then returned to the bench.

As Green walked to the bench, he kept muttering to himself.

"You're an idiot!"

"Your grandma's leg~"

"Your sister's butt~"

"Stupid~"

"..."

The referee glared at Green, but Green was speaking in Chinese 'slang,' which the referee couldn't understand.

"You!"

When Green stood next to Coach Gentry, Coach Gentry opened his thermos, blew off the tea leaves on top, and said with a smile, "This season's Chinese practice wasn't for nothing."

Green had no idea what most of the words he was saying meant.

But he knew that whenever he or his teammates made a stupid mistake during team training, Brother Dong would say these words to them.

Probably... they were some kind of polite phrases.

With Green fouling out, Coach Gentry put McGrady back on the court. After all, the Suns had plenty of players to use, and he didn't mind if one or two players fouled out.

Swish!!!

Swish!!!

Paul made both free throws, reducing the lead to 13 points.

For the next three minutes, the lead hovered around 13 points. Coach Gentry would only let Wade Dong come off the court if the lead reached 20 points in the fourth quarter.

The Clippers and Warriors played for 7 minutes in the fourth quarter without making any lineup changes.

It wasn't until there were 4 minutes left in the game that Coach Gentry substituted Nash and Frye for Curry and Thompson.

This left the Suns' lineup as: Wade Dong, Curry, Thompson, McGrady, and Gortat.

After coming on the court, Curry missed two consecutive three-point attempts.

Paul seized the opportunity and assisted Griffin for a dunk, then made a three-pointer himself.

The score was now 109:100!!!

The Clippers finally reduced the lead to within 10 points.

There were only 2 minutes and 39 seconds left in the game.

The Suns had the ball, and Curry slowly dribbled to the frontcourt. Coach Gentry stood up from the bench and shouted, "Pass the ball to Wade Dong!"

"What kind of dogshit tactic is this!"

Coach Lue snorted and shouted back, "Defend!!!

At this moment...

Curry was dribbling, but West and Griffin were both sticking to Wade Dong, not letting him receive the pass.

"Do you have to do this?!"

Wade Dong kept running back and forth but couldn't break free from West and Griffin's encirclement.

Paul was defending Curry, and Curry couldn't find an opportunity to pass to Wade Dong, so he passed the ball to Thompson, who took the shot after receiving the pass!

G~~~

The ball hit the rim.

McGrady was quick to react and grabbed the rebound. At this moment, Wade Dong finally broke free from Griffin's entanglement and rushed towards the basket.

As soon as McGrady saw Wade Dong, he threw the ball into the air.

Wade Dong caught the ball in mid-air, and Jordan also jumped to try to block Wade Dong, but Wade Dong jumped so high that he dunked over Jordan!

Bang!!!

The basket was pulled down by Wade Dong by more than ten degrees.

"What the hell!!!

This dunk instantly ignited the US Airways Center!

The score was now 111:100!!!

Wade Dong's powerful dunk signaled the end of the game.

With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, leading by 11 points, the momentum was still with the Suns, and the Clippers had no hope of a comeback.

In the final minute, the Clippers started fouling.

However, this tactic was ineffective against the Suns because they had the best free-throw percentage in the entire league!

This season, the Suns had three players with a free-throw percentage above 90%, namely Wade Dong, Nash, and Curry.

Beep!!!

As the referee blew the whistle, the game ended.

The final score was 123:107!!!

The Suns defeated the Clippers by 16 points at home.

Game stats:

Wade Dong: 61 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, 3 blocks.

Curry: 19 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks.

Nash: 21 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks.

Paul: 41 points, 7 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 steals, 0 blocks.

Griffin: 33 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks.

Paul and Griffin combined for 74 points but still couldn't beat the Suns.

Wade Dong played the entire game for 45 minutes, only resting for 3 minutes in the first quarter. He made 17 out of 26 shots, scoring a game-high 61 points with a 65% field goal percentage. Wade Dong also grabbed the game-high 16 rebounds.

It had been a long time since Wade Dong played for such a long duration in a game.

In this game, the Clippers lost gracefully, and many Suns players had poor shooting performances. For example, Curry made 7 out of 21 shots, scoring only 19 points.

Another example was McGrady, who had a 'McGrady Moment' against the Warriors but was, after all, a veteran in the latter stage of his career. It was difficult for him to have such impressive performances in every game.