The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball
Chapter 644 - 312 "Devil" Riley_2

Chapter 644: Chapter 312 "Devil" Riley_2

Stepping off the bus, Hansen ran into the Heat Team just as they were finishing their practice.

Hansen proactively sought out Wade for a chat.

He had gleaned some information from Wade last year and saw this as an opportunity to do some subtle probing.

But some of Wade’s words left a deep impression on Hansen.

"Han, I’ve been waiting for this day every moment of the season!"

Last year, the Heat’s loss to the Cavaliers haunted him more than all the losses they had in the Finals.

After all, it was a series that seemed impossible for them to lose and was the closest they had come to a championship.

"Me too."

Just as he had previously thought, if the Cavaliers wanted to win the championship this season, the Heat was the hurdle they must overcome.

Before the start of the division finals, the League announced the season’s All-NBA Teams.

Apart from Hansen securing his spot on the first team, Irving was also selected to the third team for the first time in his career.

The Irving of last season was a player more famous for his name than his skill, but this season he had truly lived up to his reputation.

In addition, Jokic had also been selected to the All-Rookie First Team due to his outstanding performance.

"Nikola, looks like I won’t have to buy you a horse." With these honors, Jokic would land quite a few endorsement deals over the summer.

"Songbor’s horses are expensive." Jokic certainly didn’t share Powell’s views of saving money for Hansen.

Of course, Hansen wouldn’t go back on his word, but besides a horse, he felt that if the Cavaliers really could win the championship, he should give the "little fatty" something even more valuable.

The next evening, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals kicked off.

After the game started, Wade and Irving took the lead with breakthroughs that opened up the game for their respective teams.

Followed by Hansen and Durant, who began scoring with mid-range shots.

Both teams showed Finals-level offense and defense right after the opening.

The eyes of the Heat fans in attendance were filled with surprise.

For the Cavaliers had grown shockingly, with Irving’s bold plays a far cry from the raw young player who only knew how to break through last year, while Jokic and Big Gasol’s matchup didn’t seem at all like a rookie’s.

The Heat was fierce in firepower, but the Cavaliers stood toe-to-toe with them during the starting period.

But then the development of the game took everyone by surprise.

Theoretically, the Heat had more players capable of playing this season and should have used their deeper roster to expand the rotation.

But Riley not only shrank the rotation, with Chalmers barely playing 2 minutes in the first half, but also extended the starting players’ minutes.

This move was baffling.

However, one direct effect was that Malone had to extend his starters’ minutes as well.

Otherwise, the Heat would take the lead in one fell swoop on the court.

And an indirect effect was that the Cavaliers couldn’t employ their small line-up to play a fast-paced game in the third quarter.

Continuing to do so would leave them drained for the fourth quarter.

Even without that, when the game reached the decisive moments of the fourth quarter, there was a clear watershed.

On the Cavaliers side, only Hansen could score, while the Heat’s offense continued unabated.

This led to their ultimate defeat with a final score of 116 to 126.

When the game ended, the Heat players were wildly celebrating around their head coach, Riley.

Just like Wade had said before the game, they had waited all season for a moment like this, a moment of vengeance.

After wrapping up Game 1 that night, Hansen got their G1 game footage against the Heat.

After reviewing it repeatedly, he noticed something he hadn’t realized before, neither in the previous preparation nor during the game.

Looking at the roster, the Heat’s changes from last season were just replacing Vucevic with David West, and adding Joe Johnson.

In terms of morale, they were indeed very eager for victory, but the Cavaliers’ resolve was no less strong.

But apart from the roster and morale, the biggest change in the Heat lay in their execution on court.

Throughout the game, the Heat made almost no mistakes, and they seized almost every scoring opportunity that came their way.

It wasn’t just players like Durant and Wade, but also their role players like West and Joe Johnson coming off the bench.

It was not merely a matter of player capability – take Johnson, for example, his average score for the season at the Brooklyn Nets was only 11.8 points, with a 40.6% shooting rate, arguably the worst competitive state of his career.

But after arriving at the Heat, his shooting percentage climbed to 51.8%, even his three-point shooting hit 41.7%.

Including David West as well, last season he averaged 11.7 points per game at the Pacers, and his shooting percentage was also a career low of 47.1%.

But this season, his shooting percentage at the Heat soared to 54.5%.

Strong teammates at the Heat could give them better opportunities, and indeed their scoring efficiency could improve, but not by that much.

The greater reason for this change came from Riley.

Riley’s moniker as an executive was "Divine Calculator," but his nickname as a head coach was "Devil"!

Here, "Devil" doesn’t refer to how terrifying he is as a person, but to his training methods.

The intensity of his training sessions was something most players simply couldn’t withstand.

O’Neal’s complaints and his decisive escape when he had the chance is the most vivid proof.

To put it plainly, it’s related to Riley’s understanding of basketball.

In his view, in low-stakes games, it’s the strength of the roster that counts, but in high-stakes games, during the critical moments, it’s about the players’ instincts.

Whether your core players can score the critical points, whether the role players can seize the open opportunities, it all comes down to instinct.

And such instincts are born from regular training.

This coaching approach has its pros and cons.

The downside is that most superstars are unwilling to put up with this kind of regimen.

After all, fundamentally speaking, the relationship between players and teams in the NBA is cooperative, not one of employment.

The advantage, as Hansen is now seeing, is that the more it comes down to the wire, the stronger the Heat become.

Moreover, since a loss for the Heat meant no next season, even the stars were willing to endure.

Thus, this Heat team was far stronger than last season’s.

In fact, as long as they could make it to the finals, whether facing the Warriors or the Lakers, their chances of winning were very high.

After watching the footage, Hansen went to the gym to practice extra.

Originally, he thought that with the growth of the Cavaliers’ players, playing the Heat would be easier than last season.

But now, it seemed he had to do better than last season to stand a chance.

While he was halfway through his training, his phone rang; it was a call from Malone.

After telling him where he was, he continued with his training.

By the time he finished, Malone had just arrived at the gym.

The two sat down at the side of the court to chat.

"That guy really is a ’Devil,’" Malone remarked.

Clearly, he must have noticed what Hansen had observed.

Hansen looked at Malone and sensed bewilderment in his eyes.

Now, the gap between the Cavaliers and the Heat wasn’t in the players’ abilities or in tactical details, but in the philosophy of basketball.

Could the iron-blooded style that Riley had forged over a whole season be changed by adjustments made from game to game?

Hansen pulled his gaze back.

Frankly, he didn’t know how to beat this Heat team, but having gone through many similar experiences, he knew how to handle his mindset in such moments.

"Mike, when facing the ’Devil,’ what humans need is courage."

While that didn’t necessarily mean one could defeat the ’Devil,’ it could unleash the greatest energy within a person.

As stated in "The Three-Body Problem," courage is the grandest hymn to humanity.

This was also the maxim Hansen had carried throughout his entire professional career.

Malone turned and looked at Hansen for a long time, then finally nodded thoughtfully.

There was always something about Hansen that made people believe the impossible could become possible.

Two days later, the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cavaliers and the Heat continued at the American Airlines Arena.

The Cavaliers had made adjustments to their starting lineup.

Irving, JR, Hansen, Tucker, Jokic.

Right from the start, Malone had played the Cavaliers’ trump card.