Coach Smith compromised with Li Wu, and after the referee's whistle blew, Li Wu still brought the substitute players on the field.

The first offense after the timeout was executed by the Lions, and Li Wu did what he said during the timeout, starting a quick run, using the double block of Vos and Chris to shake off Lyles' pursuit, and then passed through the middle of the two big men, Downs and Cauley Stein, quickly ran to the center of the wing and bottom corner, took a pass from Kyle, and quickly shot to hit a three-pointer.

70-54, the Lions trailed by 16 points.

When Kentucky was attacking, when Booker took the ball and entered the three-point line, Kyle made a foul directly on Booker without saying a word, which was deliberately done by Kyle, and he felt that he could not live up to Li Wu's trust, so his confrontation was bigger.

Booker was slapped on the hand by Kyle, but now the Lions have not yet reached the foul count, and can only execute the sideline serve.

Coach Calipari saw that the Lions were still on the bench and decided to rest his main team and asked for a substitution.

Lyles was replaced by backup small forward Alex Perisrees, Andrew was replaced by his twin brother Aaron, and power forward Cauley Stein was replaced by power forward Marcus Lee. Now Kentucky has only two starters on the court, Booker and Towns.

After Kentucky sent a sideline ball, Aaron used the block of substitute power forward Marcus to kill the inside, and in the face of Voss's defense, a dashing European step layup was successful, and the score was rewritten to 72-54.

In the next round, Li Wu held the ball and faced the bag of substitute small forward Alex and Booker to pass to Kyle, and then ran quickly sideways, and Kyle came to a hand-to-hand cooperation, and after receiving the ball, he jumped and shot at a position about one meter away from the three-point line, and Booker and Alex, who were chasing the defense, could only watch this Li Wu shoot.

"Brush!" Three-pointers go in again.

The cheers on the court were deafening, and Barkley couldn't help but say, "This kid reminds me of Stephen Curry this season!" Their three-point shots are accurate! ”

O'Neal shook his head and said, "If you look at the shooting percentage, Lee is much higher than Stephen Curry, and he doesn't shoot a lot at all, if he enters the NBA with this kind of shooting percentage, then I might think that three-point shooting can really kill the game." ”

"Man, you know it can't be. You and I both know very well that the defensive intensity of the NCAA and NBA regular seasons is not at the same level at all, and the defensive intensity of the NBA playoffs is not at the same level as the regular season. CJ McCollum and JJ Redick are both NCAA scoring champions, but they don't have a dominant performance in the NBA. Barkley expressed a different opinion.

72-57, Kentucky executed the offense.

Booker was limited by Li Wu for the entire first half, and after facing Kyle, he immediately started to go crazy, constantly holding the ball and playing alone, many times his shooting opportunities were not good, but he did not choose to pass, so he could not guarantee that every goal would be scored later.

For example, this offense, Booker used his body to press Kyle to the right after getting the ball, and then used his tonnage to insert diagonally into the basket, Vos came out in advance to make up for the defense, blocking in front of the reasonable collision zone, Downs stood on the left edge of the reasonable collision zone at this time, it stands to reason that Booker could choose a ground-hitting pass for Towns to complete the offense, but he didn't.

Facing Voss, who is 216cm tall, he chose to force a layup, obviously wanting to beat Voss a 2+1.But Voss weighs 213 kg, and when he stands in front of the reasonable collision area, Booker's impact is obviously not enough to make him retreat, so Booker's layup not only did not score, but also paid a foul.

For Booker's choice, Downs reluctantly spread his hands and turned his head to look at the Kentucky bench.

His meaning was clear: 8 minutes was almost up! And in those 8 minutes, he executed a lot of switchback runs, which annoyed Downs, the top pick, as a proud boy who had been in the spotlight since high school, and he didn't allow himself to run for a lottery show prediction player.

So, when Li Wu once again used his erratic running and slippery body to shake off the entanglement and shoot a long two-point shot, Downs smashed the ball to the ground and caught it again to vent his frustration.

But Booker turned a blind eye to this, and still chose to single Kyle, Li Wu saw that Booker fell into the obsession of singles, and when Booker chose to break through, he directly let go of Lyles, carried out a wrap-around defense, successfully cut off Booker's ball, and then threw it to the next point guard Franksky, allowing the latter to complete an easy layup.

The Lions went on a 5-0 spurt to get back to 72-62, just 10 minutes behind, and now the second half has been played for seven and a half minutes.

Coach Calipari immediately asked for a timeout, as a respected coach, the NCAA's highest-paid coach, he knew he had to keep his word, although he really wanted Towns and Booker to play a little longer, but he agreed to the two, so he still chose to fulfill his promise.

After the timeout, both the Lions and Kentucky made lineup changes, with the Lions changing their starting lineup and Kentucky changing their starting lineup, but the difference was that center Towns and Split Booker did not play, and the two were replaced by backup center Dakari and substitute Aaron.

"What's going on? Downs and Booker are out? I don't understand what tactic this is! Barkley said incredulously.

"Man, didn't you see two guys in the audience talking to the bench in Kentucky? I don't think Towns and Booker will be on the court, at this time, the injury is not worth it, in fact, the Lions have been looking for a confrontation in this game, although their confrontation is really soft. O'Neill said with a smile.

"So in their eyes, the NCAA championship is nothing, isn't it?" Barkley asked, surprised.

"I don't know what they think, but in my opinion, whether or not I win the NCAA championship doesn't affect my development in the NBA." O'Neill said with a smile.

O'Neal said this with a hint of humor, as Isiana State, which he played for three years in college, never made it to the NCAA Final Four.

"You have a point!" Barkley also laughed, like O'Neal, he played for Auburn University for three years and did not reach the NCAA Final Four, so he agreed with O'Neal's words, after all, both of them are great players in NBA history.

"But if I could turn back the clock, I think I'd still like to put together an NCAA championship trophy for Auburn." Barkley then added.

The meaning of this sentence is obvious, he does not agree with the approach of Downs and Booker. And in his opinion, the choice of the two will inevitably be the turning point of this game.