Long Shot - Mike Lupica [35]
It was Ned against the world.
Being the man.
Coach left him in with the second unit, but Pedro just did what Dave had been doing when Dave was at the point, which meant giving Ned the ball and just getting out of the way.
At the half, the Knights were ahead, 36-24.
Ned had twenty of the Knights’ points.
“It’s like he’s trying to prove some kind of point,” Joe said to Pedro.
“Yeah,” Pedro said. “Lots of points.”
For this one half of basketball the guy Pedro used to think was the ultimate team guy had become a one-man team. But nobody on the Knights was complaining one bit, mostly because it was sure working for them.
Until Ned went cold.
He had briefly come out passing at the start of the third quarter, maybe as a way of throwing the Warriors off. But Jeff missed a wide-open look and then missed another after Ned had drawn most of the coverage to himself. Jamal missed one in the lane, a wide-open layup. In the same stretch Kyle hit two fast baskets for the Warriors, then made a couple of free throws, Dave having fouled him as he went for a third.
Just like that, the lead was cut in half, only two minutes into the quarter. Suddenly the Knights were playing tight. Not only had the momentum of the game changed, but you could see the Warriors feeding off it. After Nate got loose for a couple of easy baskets, the Knights were only ahead by two.
Usually Ned could change the momentum of a game all by himself, by the force of his own game. Just not today. His shooting touch was gone.
He had torched the kid guarding him, Josh Watson, the whole first half, but now Josh was dogging him all over the court, putting a hand on him off the ball sometimes just to annoy him—and it was working. Ned kept missing.
The Warriors were up a basket. Coach Cory put Pedro back in with two minutes left in the quarter, telling him to get everybody back involved in the dang game. But no matter how much he tried to swing the ball, once it got to Ned, it stopped, nearly every time.
Ned was pressing now, forcing shots, like he was letting everybody know he was going to shoot his way out of this, no matter what.
Only he couldn’t. He kept missing. It was why Coach Cory finally took him out at the start of the fourth quarter, saying he wanted to give him a rest. But as cold as Ned had been, the Knights still looked lost with him on the bench, and the Warriors quickly built their lead to eight.
Coach Cory knew he had no choice, and after a couple of minutes that he hoped had cleared Ned’s head, he put his star right back in the game. Trouble was, Ned really had needed the rest. And still needed it. He had tried playing one-on-five for way too much of the game and now it wasn’t just that he’d lost his shooting touch, he’d lost his legs, too.
Even with that, the rest of the guys on the floor treated him like their best option.
He was the man for them even when he wasn’t.
There were four minutes left when Coach Cory came down to where Pedro was sitting. The Knights were down by ten now, and fading fast.
“You’re the only one I have who can do this,” he said to Pedro.
“Do what?”
“Turn us back into a team.” He smiled. “Go save him and go save us.”
Nate was getting ready to shoot two free throws when Pedro subbed in. Before he did, Pedro quickly called everybody around him.
Ned had been trying to send Pedro a message all season. Now it was Pedro’s turn.
“Five playing as one the rest of the way,” he said. “Five as one. Now let’s do this.”
Nate made one of two free throws. Wilton was up eleven, 53-42.
That was when the Knights made their stand. Joe got a wide-open look at a three-pointer and buried it after Pedro barked at him to shoot. Then Pedro stole the ball from Kyle Sullivan and fed a streaking Jamal for an easy layup.
53-47.
Just like that, the momentum was back with the Knights, as if someone had thrown a switch. Pedro could feel it, he knew his teammates could feel it. They were the ones playing with energy now, the best kind