Chapter 74: Negative Eleven
Xu Ling’s explosive first quarter firepower established the advantage for the team, with the Grizzlies leading the Nets 28-19.
Entering the second quarter, Xu Ling came off for rest. The Grizzlies sent out their second lineup led by Darko Milicic, Mike Miller, and Rudy Gay, while the Nets countered with Jason Kidd leading Richard Jefferson.
Without Xu Ling’s defensive pressure, Jefferson quickly regained his form, whether shooting from outside or driving with the ball, he was unstoppable. If not for Darko Milicic’s timely help defense, Jefferson’s impact alone would have been enough to shred the entire defensive line.
In contrast, Rudy Gay, though gifted with talent, had nearly blank defensive awareness, solely focused on isolation plays on offense to save face.
But once it turned to half-court offense, Gay’s old problems were fully exposed—he possessed physique and acceleration speed like Tracy McGrady, yet was limited by poor dribbling coordination. Facing a defensive stalwart like Jefferson, he struggled even to create shooting space, and his shot selection was often extremely poor.
Such inefficient and selfish isolation plays not only failed to score points but continuously damaged the team’s overall offense.
In just a few minutes, the Grizzlies’ 9-point lead was whittled down to just 4 points. Marc Iavaroni had no choice but to call a timeout urgently and hurriedly bring Xu Ling back in.
As soon as Xu Ling checked in, he quickly stabilized the situation. He first delivered a precise assist for Darko Milicic’s inside isolation score, then tried to direct the rotation on defense. However, Gay again lost his man on Vince Carter, and Kidd, like a hacker keenly spotting a system flaw, relentlessly exploited this weakness, repeatedly passing the ball to Carter.
Carter charged to the basket without hesitation and dunked for points.
On the fast break, Xu Ling received the ball on the outside and immediately faced a double team from the Nets. He didn’t force an aggressive attack but keenly spotted the open Rudy Gay, delivering a quick cross-court pass right into his hands.
However, Gay, in absolute open space, took a three-point shot that clanged off the back rim and flew out of bounds.
Before Xu Ling could say anything, Gay defended himself first: “I’m not a robot, I can’t make every open shot!”
In the next possession, Xu Ling responded swiftly with action. On defense, he stuck tightly to Jefferson, who had just found his touch, completely disrupting his offensive rhythm with aggressive footwork and precise anticipation.
Jefferson was forced into a high-difficulty fadeaway jumper, and the ball bounced out.
Darko Milicic grabbed the defensive rebound and immediately found Xu Ling. After receiving the ball, Xu Ling pushed forward quickly, but facing the Nets’ set defense, he didn’t force an isolation play. Instead, he calmly passed to Jarvis Jackson, ran to the frontcourt, slipped into the left low post, while Darko Milicic spaced to the other side.
The one tasked with defending Xu Ling in the low post was none other than Vince Carter.
Carter hadn’t anticipated Xu Ling choosing to receive the ball in the low post, let alone that he’d be so decisive upon catching it—a direct spin move into a step-back jump shot, the ball tracing a clean arc and banking in perfectly.
As one of the “Big Four shooting guards” of the early 2000s, Carter’s peak popularity was beyond doubt, but he always carried some controversy of “fame greater than strength.” Simply because he was a dunker more spectacular than Jordan, Raptors fans wishfully thought they’d gotten their “Air Jordan II.” Even as Carter repeatedly stressed he wasn’t the next Jordan, when he couldn’t lead the team further and injuries came knocking, he still became the scapegoat for all failures.
Carter had endured a plight similar to his time with Pau Gasol on the Grizzlies. But undeniably, it was his presence that allowed the Raptors to truly take root in Toronto. Now over thirty, the world no longer held unrealistic expectations for him. He’d shed his youthful arrogance, simply pressing on toward faintly visible goals, quietly watching generations of rookies flood into the league.
Not long ago, the Nets had faced the SuperSonics, and Carter had high praise for Kevin Durant, believing his potential was enormous but that he was still in a rapid growth phase. Xu Ling, however, gave him a completely different feeling.
Clearly the same age as Durant, yet in terms of steady personality, technical maturity, and control of the game, Xu Ling clearly had the edge. Look at everything this kid had been through lately—how many rookies could stay focused amid such turmoil?
Carter never believed those outrageous rumors; he only trusted what he saw. Beneath Xu Ling’s nearly expressionless face clearly brewed a storm. And unfortunately, tonight’s Nets were right in the eye of it.
Carter knew exactly what kind of power that was. When he was as young as Xu Ling, he’d also harnessed such a storm, dropping 50 points in a playoff game.
So, he sincerely said to the young man passing by him, “Good shot.”
Xu Ling paused his steps—this was the warmest thing he’d heard in days.
“There’s better.”
Xu Ling replied calmly yet confidently.
The rest of the game devolved into a chaotic tug-of-war.
Kidd always spotted flaws in the Grizzlies’ defense amid the crowd, delivering lethal passes or, when tactics failed, precisely “ordering up” Rudy Gay. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, leaned almost entirely on Xu Ling’s wings, with him dominating every offensive possession like a commander.
The Nets’ defensive strategy against Xu Ling kept escalating: double team as soon as he had the ball; help defense in place the moment he started driving.
However, tonight’s Xu Ling might truly have entered the “Zone” state Kobe once described in a documentary. He could clearly sense the surging power within him and fully control it; his opponents’ movements seemed slowed down in his eyes.
Thus, even facing heavy swarming, he remained fearless—decisive shots when attacking, calm passes when sharing the ball.
Still, after a flurry of exchanges, possession changed hands again. The on-court situation seemed to tilt gradually toward the Nets—the Grizzlies’ offense overly reliant on Xu Ling’s isolation plays, while the Nets, under Kidd’s composed organization, ran a smooth, orderly offense, always finding the most rational shot opportunities.
Marc Iavaroni stood on the sideline, brows furrowed.
He keenly observed a harsh reality.
At this stage, Rudy Gay’s presence was almost a huge burden on Xu Ling. He lacked reliable defense, his outside shooting was extremely unstable, and he was a typical possession black hole—once the ball reached him, don’t expect it to be passed out.
In a sense, this was precisely the root cause of the SSOL system’s total failure on the Grizzlies: it required selfless sharing and quick decisions, while Gay’s style ran directly counter to it.
Then, a bold idea began to take shape in Iavaroni’s mind.
At halftime, the Grizzlies held a slim 59-56 lead over the Nets by 3 points.
Anyone with eyes could see their offense overly depended on star isolation plays, lacking the Nets’ fluid team collaboration, with defense riddled with holes. Without developing a stable second scoring option and piling all offensive pressure on one man, the team would struggle badly in the second half.
Head Coach Marc Iavaroni walked to the locker room heavy-hearted, pondering adjustments, only to find someone more impatient than him.
“12 for 4, plus-minus -11?” Xu Ling looked at the statistics in his hand, incredulous. “Rudy, are you sure you’re an NBA player? I don’t want to focus on your shooting percentage, because you’ll definitely say ‘nobody can make every shot.’ Fine, let’s say you had a bad touch tonight, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with a good one.”
Xu Ling looked up, staring him down: “But we led by 9 after the first quarter, only 3 at halftime, and you managed a -11 plus-minus? That means even if you’d sat on the bench the whole game, things wouldn’t be worse than now!”
Gay clenched his teeth in silence. He knew Xu Ling was gunning for him, and he’d indeed left himself open.
At this point, Kyle Lowry chimed in softly: “That… in the first quarter when we got momentum, Rudy wasn’t even on the court.”
“Why wasn’t he?”
Lowry was instantly speechless—could he say it was because Gay had been chewed out by you in the first quarter and hid in the locker room?
“Forget it,” Xu Ling sneered. “I just had a sudden thought—maybe it was precisely because he wasn’t out there that we played so smoothly? Because after he returned in the second quarter, not only did we lose 6 points, but our rhythm completely fell apart.”
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Gay shot to his feet, face twisted in anger: “Fine! You think I’m holding you back? Think you’d be better without me? Then don’t put me in, damn it!”
Xu Ling looked at him like a slab of dead meat on the cutting board: “What did you say?”
“If you think I’m in the way, have the coach take me out! Bench me from starter, don’t let me play! I’ll see what kind of bullshit ‘team basketball’ you play without this ‘cancer’!”
Before Xu Ling could respond, a loud voice rang out from the locker room door: “I agree!”
Marc Iavaroni strode in, expression stern like a fair referee: “Eli, I disagree with your assessment of Rudy. He’s absolutely not the team’s problem—he’s a very, very, very outstanding player!”
“But since the conflict between you two can’t be reconciled, and I absolutely won’t tolerate the locker room splitting further—if you insist Rudy is this so-called ‘cancer,’ then I’ll remove him from the starting lineup in the second half. Let basketball settle it; let the game outcome prove your words!”
“I’m putting it out there, Eli: if the result proves you wrong, you’ll apologize to Rudy publicly.”
Xu Ling was slightly taken aback. This was exactly the outcome he wanted, but why did it feel like Iavaroni was even more eager to make it happen?
“No problem.” Xu Ling looked at Gay. “You?”
Gay sat in the corner, face seemingly angry, but a twisted glee rose in his heart.
He’d finally waited for this moment. Without him holding down the three position, he’d watch this group crumble under Kidd and Jefferson’s assaults. Xu Ling’s 25 points in the first half were flashy, but so what? The Nets weren’t a weak team; once they swarmed full force, the so-called genius would be exposed.
He could already picture Xu Ling struggling in the second half, bricking shots left and right, while Iavaroni had to beg him humbly to return and save the game.
At the thought, he could barely suppress a cold smirk.
“Fine!” Gay nearly roared. “Do it your way! Let’s see how far this arrogant Chinese guy can go with his team basketball!”
