No game felt bigger, at least so far, than the one against the Jazz. They were undefeated too. They had a great point guard, a kid tall enough to play center named Corey Tanner. Lucas remembered Corey—all too well—from sixth-grade ball. The Jazz had just missed making the playoffs last year. So the Wolves had only played them once. It hadn’t been pretty for Lucas, even though the Wolves had ended up winning by a point. It was the one time last season when he’d felt totally dominated by the guy he was matched up against.

“He’s a bigger version of me,” Lucas was saying to Billy while they warmed up. “Taller and better.”

“No,” Billy said. “He’s just taller.”

“I still can’t get last year’s game out of my brain,” Lucas said. “He shot over me every time he wanted to. I couldn’t get my shot over him.”

Ryan came by and heard them. “Today’s a do-over,” he said. “Like my paper.”

“Thought we weren’t going to talk about that,” Lucas said.

“We’re not,” Ryan said.

They actually hadn’t been talking about the paper, once Lucas had told Ryan that he couldn’t help him this time around. Lucas didn’t even know if Ryan had stayed with his tennis coach as his subject, or picked another one. He’d have to wait to find out.

“All I want to talk about today,” Lucas said, “is acing this test against the Jazz.”

It turned out to be one of those great days. Everybody brought their A games. Corey was as good as Lucas remembered, and just as long and athletic. But Lucas and Ryan were running their pick-and-rolls so well that Ryan kept getting open, either to drive the ball to the basket or on what Gramps liked to call the pick-and-pop. When Corey would switch on Ryan and Max Barrett, who had been guarding Ryan, would end up on Lucas, Lucas would make him pay. Max was just as long as Corey, but not nearly as quick. Lucas stepped back for a couple long jumpers, and drove by him a couple times in the first half.

At the other end, Ryan was helping Lucas out on Corey every chance he got. Corey was still knocking down shots. Just not the way he had last season. The Wolves ran every chance they got. The Jazz did the same. At halftime the score was 30–30, the most total points in a Wolves game all year. Going into the fourth quarter, the game was still tied at 42.

The Jazz finally went to a zone as a way of trying to attack the way the Wolves were moving the ball and spacing the court and making their shots, especially inside. The zone worked. Suddenly the Wolves weren’t getting as many easy points, because of the way the Jazz were packing the middle.