The Perfect Shot

Throughout the next week, the team does their best to support Julius and keep him from exploding and getting into trouble. When they play against the Blazers that week, though, Julius cannot contain his anger when a Blazers player taunts him. Coach Guilford has no patience for Julius’s attitude, and he yells at him during halftime. The other team members approach Coach Guilford and explain what happened to Julius, thinking that he will go easier on him and be protective of him the way their old coach would have been, but Brian knows this won’t work. When they go back to the court for the second half, Coach benches Julius after his next foul. They lose the game, and Brian returns home feeling discouraged.

When Brian turns on the news, he learns that Mr. Daine took the stand and said that it was true that he had had affairs with other women. However, he did not murder his family and wants to find out who did. He believes that whoever killed his family did it out of revenge from his time on the police force—possibly related to the drug bust he was part of the previous year.