The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 73, ’BOAT Quotations’ Article 7

Pierce had no idea what Hansen meant by "different," he just felt Hansen’s showboating was asking for a beating.

The Celtics’ offense didn’t involve Pierce taking Hansen on one-on-one with the ball as Hansen had expected, but instead, Pierce also used Garnett’s screens to run plays.

Garnett set quality picks and, crucially, had the mobility to set them at just the right moments.

This time, Hansen failed to navigate around it, and Pierce, receiving Rondo’s pass, hit a mid-range jumper.

"Rookie, that’s the Truth for you," Pierce taunted Hansen after scoring.

"So the Truth is only worth a mid-range jumper," Hansen retorted with a smile.

Pierce was left speechless again; he didn’t understand why a rookie like Hansen was so skilled in talking trash.

Are you here to play in the NBA or to prepare for a graduate exam?

On the Cavaliers’ offense, Hansen continued with the off-ball plays, and James passed the ball to him once again.

This time Pierce was focused but increasingly baffled.

How could Hansen, who had been on the trading block, hold such a strategic role in the play when just a month ago, during their last match-up, Hansen hadn’t shown such prominence?

From the stands, the satisfied Cavaliers’ general manager nodded his approval.

The game against the Celtics was a marquee matchup, but after all, it was just a regular-season game.

The outcome was important, but even more crucial was fulfilling the promises they had made before this game.

On this point, James and he agreed.

Brown executed perfectly, and Hansen seized the opportunities well.

Hansen, seeing Pierce lunge aggressively, faked a shot and then drove past Pierce into the lane.

Hansen’s offense was limited and his overall ability wasn’t as exaggerated as what he had shown in previous team scrimmages, but his planning was perfect.

We often mention a term called "inside-outside threat," meaning when others guard you against the shot, you can drive; and if they guard against the drive, you can shoot.

Even in the NBA, not many players excel at both because most are good at either driving or shooting but not both.

Once a player poses a sufficient threat in both areas, defending against him becomes difficult.

Conningham pulled Garnett to the weak side, Perkins immediately stepped out to defend the perimeter at that moment.

Seeing this, Hansen lobbed the ball above the basket.

The pass was of average quality, a bit behind, but luckily it was O’Neal, not Jackson, under the hoop this time.

Big Shark soared and finished with a one-handed alley-oop dunk.

Who is it that proclaimed from the ramparts that Lian Po is old?

The moment ignited Quicken Loans Arena.

O’Neal strutted his dominant walk under the basket, while Hansen looked toward Pierce and said with a smile, "Was that alley-oop worth two Truths?"

"Shut up!" Pierce was immediately thrown off his game.

Before the game, Hansen claimed he was the real Truth, was he trying to steal Pierce’s nickname?

Actually, that wasn’t the case.

Just as O’Neal had previously given him the nickname "terminator," which he later found out belonged to Reggie Miller, it didn’t really catch on, even though it suited O’Neal quite well.

In essence, unless your influence greatly surpasses the original, it’s pretty hard to take a nickname that belonged to someone else.

The same applied to "The Truth"—while Pierce wasn’t strictly considered a true superstar, his influence grew after the 2008 championship.

For Hansen to take that from him, as things stood, would be difficult.

So "taking" wasn’t his aim, his goal was what he initially thought—to pull Pierce’s hatred toward him.

He had indeed drawn that, but just after exchanging trash talk with Pierce, he thought of another method that could infuriate Pierce even more.

This method came from what he revered as the Anti-Fans System Treasure, the "BOAT Quotations."

Rule number seven stated, the most efficient way to anger someone is to belittle what they cherish most to nothing.

To render that thing worthless, the most effective way is to make it utterly worthless.

This isn’t an idiom; it’s just how things are.

Before James proclaimed himself the GOAT, nobody would associate the term GOAT with anyone other than Jordan.

But James did it, and his widespread use made the term GOAT commonplace.

Even a minor figure like Kai Jones dared to claim he was the GOAT.

It even became prevalent in various industries.

So that’s exactly what Hansen was doing now.

During the Celtics’ offense, Pierce continued to play pick-and-roll with Garnett.

Although he was fired up, Hansen’s defensive strength was something he had already learned well from their last encounter; one-on-one wasn’t the most effective approach.

This time, Hansen intercepted early, and Garnett’s moving screen was called for an illegal block by the referee.

Garnett is strong, but at 33, it’s inevitable for an older player’s footwork to decline, which is even more pronounced among big men.

Of course, the most important point is that Garnett isn’t on the Cavaliers; the Cavaliers’ illegal screens aren’t called.

The ball changed hands, and this time Hansen didn’t run off the ball.

Due to time constraints, the tactics designed for him by the Cavaliers were quite limited, mainly off-ball pick-and-roll plays.

Moreover, the Celtics’ defense was different from the Cavaliers’; they didn’t have a clear target like O’Neal for Hansen to exploit when handling the ball on pick-and-rolls.

Therefore, the Cavaliers mainly used him as a tactical terminator.

The series of off-ball tactics on the weak side at the start of the game was one such example.

But a single tactic cannot be used continuously as it’s easy to be targeted.

Then, Hansen moved to the corner to create space, while James and Conningham played pick-and-roll before James drove to the basket.

Garnett quickly switched, but James, like a bull in a china shop, brute-forced his way past Garnett into the paint.

When no one on the perimeter could stop James’s acceleration, he became ferociously unstoppable, especially since he had put on some weight this season.

The Celtics’ defense was forced to collapse, with even Pierce having to retract to the basket.

But before the Celtics’ defensive net could form, James flicked the ball straight to the corner.

This pass was clearly different from the previous forced ones; it was a strategic assist.

Hansen even had time to adjust after receiving the ball.

After his adjustment, he shot the three.

"Swish!"

The basketball once again went through the net.

Just like the feeling before the game, his shooting touch was indeed quite good tonight.

Moreover, this three-pointer was almost effortless compared to his previous one.

After making the three-pointer, Hansen stretched out four fingers towards Pierce as he turned back.

Yes, based on the earlier exchange rate, he had scored 4 truths.

Pierce finally couldn’t hold it in.

With his back to Hansen, he called for a play, then started to post up aggressively.

Pierce’s back-down was fierce, and it was clear that he was genuinely angered after something he cared about was demeaned to worthlessness.

Hansen gave no ground either, the two clashing body to body.

However, during their struggle, Garnett had stealthily moved from a blind spot to Hansen’s side.

Taking the chance, Pierce spun towards the free-throw line, and Hansen found it was too late to squeeze by. freewёbnoνel.com

Pierce, facing Conningham’s help defense, scored with his signature step-back jumper.

After making the shot, Pierce looked up at Hansen, about to deliver some trash talk.

"No need to say it, I know, you’ve scored 2 truths as well," Hansen nodded in acknowledgment.

"..."