The next second, Artest sighed: "No wonder people always say that the NBA is a place that only teaches people to get worse."

Even though he had already fully sensed that Qin Yue was learning to get tougher when he evaluated Qin Yue's one-on-one defense before,

tonight's Qin Yue still opened Artest's eyes.

Unlike Qin Yue's previous defenses that only escaped fouls due to star whistles covering for him...

Tonight, Qin Yue was clearly using his star whistle and the permissible defensive scale by the referees to proactively disrupt Gasol's offense.

One passive, one active.

Artest knew very well that Qin Yue's desire not just to be a defensive stat padder meant he was destined to grow into a true interior defense master in the future.

After halftime, the Warriors still entrusted Qin Yue with the primary defense against Gasol.

Unlike Kobe, who even in front of Artest had the "right to call heads or tails"...

Gasol, who had always chosen to avoid confrontation in offense, lost his previous flair in successive attacks.

The Staples Center fans began to show discontent with Gasol.

On the sidelines, Lakers "mascot" Jack Nicholson looked puzzled and said after Gasol passed up a low-post opportunity: "Hey, Paul... You can't always pass."

Traded to the Lakers this summer, Gasol clearly underestimated what it meant for the Lakers to defeat this Warriors team at home.

If it were an ordinary regular season game, Gasol evading confrontation could be overlooked.

After all...

Even avoiding confrontation, Gasol could still help the Lakers with his passes and mid-range shots.

But in tonight's game that went into war mode from the start, where was the room for Gasol to evade?

On the court, during the Warriors' offensive round, forcing past Odom and dunking the ball in Gasol's face as he arrived for help defense...

The entire arena instantly erupted in cheers that brought immense joy to Qin Yue.

Then, with a commanding posture that mirrored Cantona's style, Qin Yue gazed arrogantly across the court, in this moment wishing he could play at Staples Center every night.

Without a doubt, each conquest of Los Angeles brought a different kind of fulfillment for Qin Yue.

Especially the never-yielding attitude of the Lakers, which made Qin Yue want to crush them mentally time and again.

He relished in the Lakers fans' growing frustration.

Savored the feeling of Kobe wanting to devour him alive.

The more the Lakers resisted, the more exhilarated Qin Yue became.

As he retreated on defense, glancing at Monta Ellis who was sidelined with an ankle injury and unable to play for the Lakers, Qin Yue didn't forget to remind this Kobe fan: "Remember to heal well so you can play with your idol next time and lose together."

Ellis was instantly furious.

And as the star player of this Lakers team, Kobe couldn't tolerate Qin Yue's hideous grin.

But even in this high-intensity game, not even Kobe could consistently maintain his touch.

On the Lakers bench, Phil Jackson anxiously commented: "If only we had a center who could provide low-post defense."

Jackson knew very well that Qin Yue's unsolvable nature lay in the fact that he was a player with two bottles of poison.

One named outside cunning.

The other named inside dominance.

The previous Supersonics game had successfully blocked Qin Yue's inside dominance with their zone advantage, yet they still had to swallow the other poison named outside cunning.

And tonight, thanks to Bavita's lenient officiating and Odom's relentless defense...

The Lakers were the exact opposite.

They stopped Qin Yue's outside cunning but couldn't restrict his inside dominance.

And most fatally...

On the contrary, Qin Yue bullied Gasol on defense, forcing him to flee the paint.

In the third quarter, during the Lakers' offensive round,

an increasingly breathless Kobe managed to score two points with an unreasonable turnaround jumper.

But it wasn't a good offense.

With Gasol's power cut, Kobe had taken on too much of the offensive burden.

Remember why Kobe can't always post up and back down on the court?

Because even Kobe's exceptional back couldn't withstand such a high frequency of post-ups.

Especially in a game like tonight where Kobe had to carry the output load.

Throughout the third quarter, unlike the exhausted Kobe, Qin Yue only took three shots.

On the court, as Richardson switched from the wild card to the ace card, Qin Yue immediately took advantage of his previous suppression of the Lakers' perimeter to quickly switch to the commander-in-chief mode.

Artest, becoming more harmonious with Qin Yue, willingly took on those necessary ball-carrying offensive plays.

The battle-weary Warriors didn't give the Lakers a chance to catch up in the third quarter.

After three quarters, 78 to 71.

They still led the Lakers by seven points on the scoreboard.

Early in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of Qin Yue resting on the bench, Jackson hurriedly organized for Gasol to regain some confidence on the court.

This was the suggestion from Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, after all, constantly getting beat up on the court...

Kept this way, Qin Yue might soon become Gasol's mental demon.

At Staples Center.

This successful off-peak outing finally allowed Gasol to feel warmth against Biedrins.

Those were three magnificent low-post moves.

Though it only added six points on paper for the Lakers, it let Gasol experience the genuine affection in the world.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.