Su Xi played until the eighth minute of the first quarter before coming off the court to rest.

The intensity of an NBA regular season game was much higher than the preseason. Su Xi had been running up and down the court on both offense and defense, and his stamina bar was completely empty. He had to get back to the bench to recover. There was no point in forcing himself to stay on the court; his efficiency would drop, and he’d be more susceptible to injury.

With Su Xi off the court, LeBron James led the Cavaliers’ lineup on a rampage.

His talent was on full display.

His stats in every category began to climb rapidly.

However, by the fifth minute of the second quarter, the Cavaliers had gone from leading by as many as 10 points to trailing by 6.

The Kings’ fluid offense made the Cavaliers’ defense evaporate, and they started hitting all sorts of wide-open shots.

As a coach who built his career on defense, Paul Silas was frustrated and despairing. He had five players on the court, and they were five defensive sieves. Looking down his entire bench, only Su Xi could be considered a defensive specialist, though Diop’s defense was decent as well.

He called a timeout.

James returned to the bench to a chorus of praise. On television, Kenny Smith was hyping him up relentlessly. The fans in ARCO Arena even cheered for one of his coast-to-coast dunks. After all, his athleticism was truly incredible, and his physique perfectly suited the tastes of American fans. Most importantly, he still couldn’t beat the Kings—not like that aggressive Little Sheep Su Xi, who was constantly in their faces. Who wouldn’t love a young man so strong, so polite, and so utterly non-threatening?

points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block.

LeBron’s stat line was beautiful when he came off the court.

He reached out and high-fived Su Xi.

Su Xi told him, "LeBron, if you hadn’t gambled for that steal on Weber just now, he never would have made that dunk."

Weber had returned to the court while Su Xi was resting. With help from his teammates, he’d already scored 6 points, including a dunk.

His performance had ARCO Arena buzzing with excitement again.

"If you were the one covering him instead of Carlos, I would’ve gotten that steal easily," James said nonchalantly.

Paul Silas walked over and made new substitutions. He put Su Xi in for JR Bremer and also replaced Ilgauskas with Diop. Big Z’s stamina couldn’t hold up for long, and unlike Su Xi, he didn’t have a superhuman recovery speed.

TWEET!

The whistle blew, and the players returned to the court.

The familiar chant echoed through ARCO Arena once more: "FUCK! SU-XI! FUCK! SU-XI!"

Only this time, the roar wasn’t as deafening or intense as it had been at the start of the game.

Su Xi brought the ball past half-court and came to the top of the three-point arc, where Mike Bibby moved up to guard him. Su Xi didn’t engage him, instead calling for Carlos Boozer to come set a screen. He then drove hard to the basket. Weber tried to body him up and block his path, but Su Xi exploded with a sudden burst of speed, using his strength to simply muscle him aside.

In an instant, Su Xi was in the paint.

An aging Divac spread his arms, attempting to stop Su Xi.

But Su Xi couldn’t stop his momentum. He was like a tank with powerful acceleration but terrible brakes; trying to stop on a dime might even make him tumble over. So, he simply plowed right into him... THUD!

The brute force sent Divac staggering backward, unable to keep his footing. Su Xi, however, used the momentum to toss the ball up toward the basket... SWISH!

Just as the ball went through the hoop, the whistle blew. The referee called a blocking foul on Divac.

The basket counted, and a free throw was awarded.

Su Xi stumbled as he landed after the whistle. With the drastic increase in his speed and explosive power, his balance and coordination clearly hadn’t caught up.

But that didn’t stop Su Xi from making his free throw.

Su Xi consistently shot around 73% from the free-throw line. While not on par with elite guards and forwards, it was about average. At least it was a tiny bit better than James’s free-throw shooting.

The Cavaliers’ two current wings, James and Ricky Davis, were both inefficient scorers. According to Stephen Silas’s preseason statistical analysis handbook, James was only averaging 0.91 points per shot attempt, including three-pointers. If you only counted his jump shots, that number dropped to 0.7 points. Ricky Davis was slightly better, at 0.93 points per attempt.

Generally speaking, a team’s primary scorer should have a points-per-shot efficiency of over 1.0. Anyone below that mark who still takes more than 18 shots a game is considered an inefficient scorer. Last season’s scoring champion, Tracy McGrady, averaged 1.07 points per shot. The league’s second-leading scorer, Kobe Bryant, averaged 1.09. Allen Iverson, who was third, came in at exactly 1.01 points per shot, the same as the fifth-place scorer, Paul Pierce. The most efficient of the top five was Shaquille O’Neal, who averaged a staggering 1.52 points per attempt. While you can’t directly compare interior and exterior players, that number was still a testament to the Shark’s incredible dominance in his prime. For context, even Tim Duncan, widely considered the greatest power forward of all time, only averaged 1.34 points per shot last season.

The inefficiency of the Cavaliers’ two main scorers, combined with the friction between them, was one of the primary reasons Cleveland had blown a double-digit lead and was now trailing.

After the change of possession, Weber once again set up at the high post. The Kings ran their offense, feeding him the ball and letting him facilitate.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Su Xi switched onto him, lunging over at top speed.

Weber tried to take advantage of Su Xi’s unstable footing to catch him off guard. He took a long stride to drive to the paint, but he had barely taken a single step when Su Xi’s long arm shot out from behind and poked the ball away... SMACK!

Su Xi knocked the ball loose.