Chapter 117: Maybe Next Time

With countless people eagerly awaiting it, the fourth quarter officially began.

The Clippers opened on offense. Cassell once again brought the ball up while He Xinghui moved without it.

There was no helping it. James and Alexander were clinging to him relentlessly.

Even without the ball, he could barely shake the two of them. If he had been holding it, he would not have had even the slightest room to dribble.

To get free, He Xinghui ran straight out of bounds, circled around Alexander beyond the sideline, and then sprinted back onto the court.

Cassell, whose attention had remained fixed on He Xinghui, immediately passed him the ball. Without making any adjustment at all, He Xinghui leaped and shot.

Because the motion was so fluid, it looked almost like an unconventional alley-oop.

A shot taken so casually had no business going in.

But there were always so many incredible things happening on a basketball court.

The ball went in.

75–83. The Clippers led by eight, and He Xinghui had scored 64 points by himself.

Since they were practically leaving the Cavaliers undefended, Cleveland had scored quite a few points as well. He Xinghui was unable to continue his feat of outscoring the entire opposing team on his own.

But hardly anyone cared about that. Sixty-four points alone were already astonishing enough.

And besides, the miracles were still unfolding.

On the Clippers’ second possession, He Xinghui used a series of screens from his teammates to find an opening.

“Stay with him!”

James shouted anxiously from the court, directing his teammates to provide help defense.

But things on a basketball court had always been fleeting.

By the time he finished shouting, the ball was already in He Xinghui’s hands.

Once again, the shot left his hands like a blade being drawn, and the three-pointer found its mark.

77–86. He Xinghui had 67 points, breaking his own career record.

“Is twenty-one points a lot? Is twenty-one points difficult? It’s only seven shots.”

On TNT, Barkley suddenly became more smug than anyone.

He had learned a new trick: using someone else’s achievement to show off.

Strangely enough, the audience loved hearing him talk like that.

“It’s only seven shots.”

Those words ignited the crowd’s anticipation. After Barkley put it that way, everyone suddenly felt that He Xinghui’s goal was not difficult at all.

The Cavaliers brought the ball up.

Snow dribbled back and forth, occasionally sending the ball between his legs. He dribbled from left to right, then from right to left. In short, he simply refused to shoot.

For the team that was trailing, playing like this was humiliating beyond words.

And even that was not enough for Snow. He now hated the twenty-four-second shot clock with every fiber of his being.

If this had been the ancient era, before such a rule existed, he could have wasted time like this until the game ended.

Unfortunately, the rule existed now.

So, with four seconds remaining, he passed the ball to James and left him to finish the possession.

“What are you pretending for? If you don’t want to play, just surrender. Wouldn’t that stop me from scoring?”

He Xinghui taunted him.

Anger flashed across James’s face. He exploded forward and drove past his defender.

But this time, He Xinghui stopped him, forcing a turnover. The ball was lost.

Having gone without rest for so long, James was finally showing signs of fatigue.

Mobley recovered the ball, while He Xinghui had already taken off toward the Cavaliers’ half of the court.

He was moving just as fast as he had at the start of the game, when he was still at full strength.

At that moment, despair overcame James. He lowered his head and spread his hands helplessly.

It was impossible to tell whether he was blaming himself or his teammates.

Alexander gave chase, but once again he failed to catch up.

With no one left defending the Cavaliers’ basket, He Xinghui chose to shoot a three-pointer.

That was how confident he was.

The ball went in. Seventy points.

“MVP! MVP! God!”

This signature He Xinghui fast break sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Before He Xinghui, no player had ever chosen to shoot a three-pointer in a situation like that.

Only He Xinghui repeatedly broke convention in such fashion, until the move became his trademark fast-break finish.

On TNT, Barkley remarked, “James has been beaten into submission. He’s simply given up struggling. The way he’s complaining—he looks like a child.”

“You can’t say that, Charles. Cousin is simply on fire tonight. James’s frustration is understandable. Put anyone else in his place, and they couldn’t have done any better.”

Smith offered a fair assessment.

He Xinghui was not playing at a normal level tonight. Every player experienced moments when they seemed to transcend the game.

When that happened, the defender assigned to them could only accept his bad luck.

Of course, Kobe would never have agreed with Smith’s opinion.

Even if it meant playing until his legs broke, he would never give up at a moment like this.

“Useless! Useless! The entire Cavaliers team is useless…”

Kobe was raging in the room, while Vanessa could only worry helplessly outside.

“Rob, is he going to be all right?” Vanessa asked anxiously.

“Don’t worry. It’s good for him to let it out,” Rob Pelinka sighed.

At first, Kobe scoring 81 points had seemed to him like an outstanding promotional opportunity.

He had never imagined that such a powerful disruptor as He Xinghui would suddenly appear.

On the court, the game continued. He Xinghui had not yet reached his goal.

The Cavaliers attacked, but James moved as though his soul had left his body, vanishing entirely from the game.

With no alternative, Big Z took up the offensive burden.

He scored two points beneath the basket, but in the eyes of most people, it meant nothing.

When the Clippers took possession, the fans immediately began to roar.

He Xinghui did not disappoint them. Another three-pointer went in.

Seventy-three.

He had made four in a row.

“Seventy-three! He has surpassed David Robinson, tied David Thompson, and moved into a share of third place in NBA history!”

Barkley howled.

Seventy-three points in a single game! Even Jordan had never scored that many.

A score this high required the perfect combination of timing, circumstances, and opportunity.

But seventy-three points were not the end.

With the Cavaliers having completely lost their will to fight, He Xinghui could take whatever he wanted from them.

Another three-pointer.

Then another.

And another.

Before Klay Thompson hit nine consecutive threes, the world had never witnessed such a breathtaking three-point performance.

When He Xinghui hit his seventh three of the fourth quarter, everyone in the arena rose to their feet.

Even the star haters were forced to stand amid the frenzied atmosphere around them, afraid that refusing to do so might bring trouble.

The game was stopped. This was a moment worth commemorating.

Although the game was not yet over, the giant screen was already showing highlights of He Xinghui’s shots from the night.

Yet no one found anything inappropriate about it.

The outcome of the game no longer mattered.

The most important thing now was to let basketball fans around the world enjoy this moment.

“Do you want me to score a few more?” He Xinghui asked the fans.

Eighty-two was not the end. The ancient legend’s hundred points were still waiting for him.

“Yes!”

The entire arena cried out as one.

“Next time.”

He Xinghui answered with a faint smile and an equally faint voice.

The feeling was like someone inviting him to dinner, only for him to politely decline.

It was not that he could not go, nor that he was afraid to go. He simply could go whenever he wanted, so there was no need to go this time. Next time would be just as good.

The impression he gave was that scoring eighty-two points was as easy for He Xinghui as eating or drinking.