Where the Heart Leads, the Body Follows

On the sideline inbounds for the Demon Deacons, Michael Drum's pass was anticipated and deflected out of bounds by Danny Green, nearly resulting in another steal. Wake Forest retained possession, but with less than ten seconds remaining on the shot clock, there wasn't enough time to run a full set. In the stands, the Wake Forest fans could hardly bear to watch. Even though they understood the points Ian Eagle had made, knowing it intellectually and living through it on the court were two completely different things. The Demon Deacons lined up to inbound the ball again, this time with Russell Westbrook handling the pass. Stephen Curry came off Kyle Visser's screen to catch the ball, took a single dribble, and immediately pulled up for a three-pointer! The decision stunned everyone in the arena. While little time remained on the shot clock, it hadn't yet reached the point of forcing up a desperate heave. Curry had clearly rushed it. "Curry's shot selection on this play..." Eagle began. A missed three would likely yield a long rebound, allowing the Tar Heels to push another transition attack. At a moment like this, the Demon Deacons should have been attacking the rim. *Swish!* Yet with a crisp snap of the net, Curry's shot went down! "...was absolutely the right call! Hansbrough is strong, but his ability to defend the pick-and-roll is mediocre at best. That right there is high basketball IQ!" Eagle pivoted without missing a beat. The swift reversal left Williams beside him thoroughly dumbfounded, feeling as if his mind were expanding with every passing second. UNC went back to feeding Hansbrough in the post on their ensuing possession. This time, Wake Forest collapsed with a double-team, and Hansbrough quickly kicked the ball out. A rapid sequence of drive-and-kicks on the perimeter soon forced the Demon Deacons into long, scrambling closeouts. With a small-ball lineup, Wake Forest could sustain high-intensity defense through double-teams and unlimited switching, but their conventional lineup clearly struggled to keep up with the Tar Heels. Wayne Ellington eventually found an open look from the left wing, rising up and knocking down an immediate answer ball. At 7–3, the Tar Heels remained firmly in control of the game. Westbrook brought the ball across half-court. Curry had barely reached his spot on the wing before calling for the pass. The moment he caught it, Curry didn't hesitate. After a single triple-threat jab, he fired right in Ty Lawson's face! Lawson froze for a split second. Was Curry abandoning the offense entirely? That brief hesitation cost him dearly. The ball sailed clean over his head, followed by another sharp snap of the nylon behind him. Back-to-back threes for Curry! After the shot fell, Curry kept his face completely devoid of expression, but the arena erupted into deafening roars from the Wake Forest faithful. Those two three-pointers were an absolute lifeline! The Demon Deacons' spirits were instantly reignited. Digging in on defense with relentless rotations, they finally shut down one of the Tar Heels' half-court sets. UNC's transition defense was swift, however, denying Wake Forest an easy break and forcing both sides back into a half-court battle. Curry took the ball again on the perimeter. When Visser stepped out to set a high screen, the Tar Heels' defense was forced to stretch. Hansbrough and Lawson both lunged out toward Curry, while Brandan Wright dropped back to protect the rim. Right then, Curry delivered a decisive pass! Instead of hitting Visser, he fired the ball to a cutting Westbrook on the weak side. Westbrook took flight the moment he caught it. Wright rose to meet him, stretching out his enormous wingspan, but Westbrook slipped the ball midair right behind Wright to Ibaka. Ibaka caught it, took one gather step, and threw down a ferocious two-handed slam, rattling the rim. 7–8—the Demon Deacons took the lead! The Wake Forest fans could no longer stay in their seats, springing to their feet with pumping fists and triumphant cheers. The broadcast camera cut immediately to Curry. Without him, UNC would have blown the game wide open from the start. "What a beautiful assist!" Eagle marveled once more. He began to realize that Curry seemed different tonight. During the early-season tournaments, Curry had staged an impressive bounce-back, capped later by that legendary deep game-winner against Duke. Over the course of the season as a whole, however, his play hadn't been overwhelmingly dazzling. Particularly after the Demon Deacons pivoted to a transition-heavy identity, Westbrook had emerged as the focal point, outperforming Curry by a wide margin over the past two rounds. Yet tonight, Curry looked like an entirely different player, shouldering the team on his own. "Defense! Defense!" The chants from the Wake Forest fans shook the rafters. Hansbrough came up to run a pick-and-roll with Lawson. Lawson drove, then kicked the ball to Ellington slashing in along the wing. Despite surrendering the lead, UNC, much like Duke, was a team of supreme tactical discipline. Facing Ibaka's help defense, Ellington opted to pass as well. Unlike Westbrook, however, he didn't rifle a direct feed, instead lobbing a high alley-oop toward the basket. It was a display of absolute faith in Wright's physical gifts; Wright wasn't merely long, but exceptionally explosive. Ellington's assessment of Wright was accurate, but he had underestimated Ibaka's athleticism. Ibaka leaped with everything he had, getting fingertips on the ball before it sailed over his head. The deflection sent the basketball directly into the hands of Westbrook, who was pursuing the play behind Ellington. Westbrook secured the ball, turned, and sprinted on the break. Drawing a double-team, he whipped a pass across to Curry on the opposite wing. Curry pushed the ball ahead, with Lawson hot on his heels. In terms of pure foot speed, Lawson was substantially faster than Curry, and running without the ball only amplified the gap. Curry had to use his body to shield the lane and stay in front. The two converged in the frontcourt. Curry established position one final time before rising toward the basket. Lawson jumped with him, and contact came midair. The momentum knocked Curry past the baseline, but not before he released a high-difficulty scooping reverse layup. *Thud!* The ball banked off the glass, spun along the rim, and dropped through the net! The UNC fans held their heads in sheer disbelief. How in the world did that go in?! On the other side of the arena, the Wake Forest fans went wild. Tonight, Curry was playing as if blessed by the basketball gods! To their dismay, the referee's whistle never blew. It should have been a highlight-reel and-one play, but that was just Curry's luck with the whistle. Even without the foul call, the basket dealt a massive psychological blow to the Tar Heels. UNC's half-court offense visibly unraveled, and multiple attempts to run sets failed to produce a clean look. With the shot clock ticking away, Hansbrough stepped up when it mattered most. Facing a double-team in the low post, he powered his way toward the basket, absorbing Ibaka's help contest to muscle in an and-one! The bucket drew a deafening, thunderous roar from the UNC supporters after a prolonged silence, and even Roy Williams pumped his fist. Just like Curry's earlier three-pointer, it was a timely, crucial answer! Hansbrough sank the ensuing free throw to tie the game once again. With that conversion, the Tar Heels stabilized their footing, quickly bringing the chaos under control. Behind Green's help-side strip, they executed a crisp transition break. As Lawson finished the fast-break layup, UNC took the lead back, 12–10! "What a thrilling game! Stephen Curry gave the Demon Deacons a fighting chance, but the Tar Heels responded immediately with their firepower. The question now is: can anyone else on the Demon Deacons step up?" Eagle's voice brimmed with excitement. Just as he had noted from the outset, he respected the Demon Deacons' talent, but hadn't believed they were truly ready to go toe-to-toe with the Tar Heels. Now the reality on the court was defying expectations. As a commentator, who wouldn't want to call a classic? Yet his question remained pertinent: could anyone else on Wake Forest step forward? Beating the Tar Heels on Curry's shoulders alone was practically impossible. "Defense! Defense!" The UNC fans chanted in unison. Having strung together consecutive baskets, the momentum tilted back toward the Tar Heels. UNC's defenders dialed up their intensity well beyond where it had been at the opening tip. Curry tried twice to get open on the catch without success, leaving Westbrook to settle for a pull-up midrange jumper off a Visser pick-and-roll. The look was decent, but Westbrook couldn't get it to fall. Though his training was targeted and relentless, his profile meant developing a consistent jumper would inevitably be a long, bumpy road. Fortunately, Ibaka read the bounce off the rim. While unable to haul in the rebound cleanly, he managed to tip it out before Wright could secure it. Curry reacted instantly, diving forward to corral the loose ball. No sooner had he gathered it than Lawson closed out hard, leaping high in anticipation of an immediate shot. Perhaps because the earlier contact hadn't been whistled, Lawson lunged with fierce aggression. A more seasoned veteran might have paused, baiting Lawson's overcommitted contest into an easy three-shot foul. Curry didn't bother. He acted as though drawing a whistle were entirely beside the point, pulling up directly into Lawson's flying contest. *Smack!* Lawson's hand caught Curry across the forearm with an audible snap. This time, the whistle finally blew. Curry might rarely get the benefit of the cylinder rule, but blatant contact couldn't be ignored forever. To everyone's astonishment, Curry had still managed to release the shot through the foul—and the arc was dead true! *Swish!* When the net rippled, the Wake Forest fans went completely delirious, and even Eagle's eyes popped wide. The one stepping forward for the Demon Deacons wasn't anyone else. It was Curry again! Less than half a quarter in, Curry already had 11 points, with a free throw to come! Roy Williams couldn't sit still any longer. He leaped off the bench, calling a timeout. Coming off the floor, Curry looked utterly energized. Before taking his seat, he walked over to Yang Shuai and slapped hands with him in a sharp, resounding high-five. A performance like this could no longer be explained merely by having a hot hand. Was this truly destiny? Yang Shuai wavered for a split second, only to dismiss the thought just as quickly. If destiny were real, then Curry, Westbrook, and Ibaka never would have ended up at Wake Forest in the first place. He thought of the well-known psychological concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy: people unconsciously act in ways that align with their beliefs, ultimately willing those expectations into existence. Or, put more plainly: Where the heart leads, the body follows!