Chapter 537: Incident. (1/2)

(TLN: This is an alternate world based of our own, that’s what I’m telling myself because the rules of the NBA here seems to be different, or the author is just that dumb. Generally in the playoff, the team ahead in the standing would play the first two games at their homecourt before playing the next two games at the other team’s court, then alternating each game following it until game seven.)

Two days later at the Moda Center in Portland.

The 20k seat arena was filled.

There were 15k Blazers fans and also 3k Lakers fans as well as 2k Chinese oversea students.

Chen Huan couldn’t help but feel the pressure when he saw them wear the national flag colored clothes and chanted his name in unison.

Before the game started, Charles Barkley heard them and said to his broadcaster partner Kenny Smith, “Look at that, this is how popular Chen Huan is! There’s so many Chinese in the US!”

“And this is Portland, if this was a big city like New York or Los Angeles, the Chinese could literally fill the arena.” Kenny Smith said, “They would do this even if he was an average player, let alone after his great first game.”

“Well, whether Chen Huan is a short peak or has really the potential of a NBA superstar, we still have to continue to observe, one game can’t decide it all.” Barkley waved his hand.

“The company also thought so and that’s why they sent us here.” Kenny laughed.

The two were a golden pair from TNT and were responsible for analyzing the best games.

They were commentating on the Cavs previously but were urgently transferred to here.

This also could represent the public opinion of the US recently.

Although Chen Huan was stellar in his previous game, there were many people that put insane stats in the NBA.

Let alone in a single game, some did it for an entire season!

The key point was whether they could last!

Superstars like MJ, Kobe, Iverson, Duncan and Lebron had maintained their super high competitive state for more than a decade so it was something highly admired and sought after.

It wasn’t a place where people bragged after a game or two… it wasn’t like football where people started calling you the next Messi etc… after scoring a goal.

So US sport media praised Chen Huan for having a godlike performance two days ago but it wasn’t that highly covered.

Their focus was still on the super teams like the Warriors and the Cavs.

Even if the Lakers ended up third in the Conference, not many people believed they could make it to the finals.

After all, the spot for the Western Conference was occupied by the heavy favorite Warriors.

The Lakers had to defeat the Warriors but they were the team who broke the regular season record as well as last year's champions, which was a very tough team.

But all of this didn’t affect the lively atmosphere in the Moda Center.

The Blazers fans were upset by their team loss in the first game and felt they were just caught off guard by the Lakers.

Now that they knew better and knew that Chen Huan was very good, they could definitely turn it around if they made the necessary change.

They couldn’t see that the two main players from the Lakers, Kobe and Iverson, completely couldn’t play in the intensity of the game.

They would be able to win as long as they restrained Chen Huan!

Actually, it was also because of Kobe and Iverson's passive state that made the public not optimistic about the Lakers.

No matter how great Chen Huan was, even if he was a fusion of MJ and Pippen, he wouldn’t be able to lead the Lakers to the win.

Kobe, Iverson and Chen Huan must do it together to have hope of winning it all.

Now that Kobe and Iverson were obviously gassed out after the regular season, how could they lead the team?

Before the game started while they were waiting for the jump ball, Chen Huan saw the Blazers team staring at him.

When Hibbert slapped the ball forward like last time, the Blazers didn’t all fall back but instead sent Ed Davis to block him.

Chen Huan wanted to make a detour but Davis just came up to him and tried to push him away.

But Chen Huan didn’t even look at him as he accelerated directly past Davis and grabbed the ball before Crabbe.

*Bam!*

The sound of Davis falling to the ground came.

Allen Crabbe had his full focus on him and after seeing Chen Huan grabbing the ball, he spread his hands widely and reached for Chen Huan.

Chen Huan took this opportunity to pass away the ball before he rushed toward the basket.

Crabbe was taken aback by this.

What was going on?

Why are you charging at the basket when you passed the ball away?

Then the next moment, he saw Russell jumping high catch the pass before throwing the ball on the Blazers’ half of the court.

Looking at the trajectory, it was going straight toward the basket.

At that moment, Plumlee already went back under the basket and turned his head to see the ball flying toward him.

“Mason!”

He heard Lillard yell at him.

Right after, Plumlee saw in the corner of his eyes a purple and golden figure approaching quickly.

“AH!”

Plumlee yelled as he jumped after seeing where the ball was going and stretched both of his hands to catch the ball.

Chen Huan also made it near the basket and his jump was faster and went higher than Plumlee.