Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

At the beginning of the second quarter, Wu Dao opened the game with a beautiful jump shot. Looking at the score on the scoreboard, the cheers in the Target Center Arena did not stop for a long time.

It wasn't until the Spurs started to organize their offense, and Duncan came up from the inside to create a pick-and-roll for Avery Johnson holding the ball, that the cheers around him began to subside.

After David Robinson left the game, the Spurs made some changes on the offensive end.Originally, Robinson was the starting point of the offense, but now, Duncan has become the starting point of the offense.

When Duncan set a high pick-and-roll, Garnett also quickly followed up. Avery Johnson used his teammates' pick-and-roll to quickly cut inside, and then made a small throw with Stanley Roberts' cover.

If the fast-moving, terrifyingly bouncing Garnett came to help defend, Avery Johnson might have to think about whether to go in on his own, but facing Stanley Roberts, he had no scruples at all. Kill directly.

"Snapped!"

Sure enough, the basketball flew quickly from Stanley Roberts' fingertips, hit the backboard head-on, and then quickly rebounded into the basket with a crisp sound.

As the Spurs quickly counterattacked, the originally noisy arena suddenly fell silent.The fans immediately fell silent when they saw their opponents retaliate so quickly.

"Kevin, don't raise your position so high!"

"If the opponent wants to shoot from a distance, just give it to them!"

On the sidelines of the court, Coach Philip loudly reminded that the Spurs use a twin-tower lineup, and the finishing points are usually two players inside. This kind of concentration of ball rights often leads to a situation, that is, the person who often plays the finishing ball. , often able to quickly adapt to the court and adapt to the rhythm of the game.

But other people on the same team often feel cold and cannot perform as well as they should.

Coach Philip doesn't mind if Duncan plays a few more goals, even if he scores a few high shots, it doesn't matter.But coach Philip did not allow other Spurs players to also play.

If the entire Spurs team is revitalized, then their next game with the Timberwolves may be very difficult to play.

Although Garnett heard what the coach said off the court, he nodded slightly in approval.

But in the bottom of his heart, Garnett did not take Philip's instructions to heart. He did not want Duncan to have too many high-post shooting opportunities.

What he was thinking about was how to completely prevent Duncan from dying!
Maybe this idea sounds a bit whimsical to others, but that's what Garnett is thinking right now.Only in this way can Garnett prove to everyone that he is the best offensive and defensive fourth position in the entire league.

The Timberwolves started to push forward after the Spurs scored.

At Martial Arts's signal, Chris Kyle began to consciously speed up the pace.Wu Dao does not want the team to maintain the current offensive rhythm. He hopes to speed up the overall rhythm.

The Timberwolves' No. [-] position is Garnett, who can easily adapt to the rhythm of a large number of rounds.As for the Spurs, although Duncan's athletic ability is also terrifying, the Timberwolves have an advantage that the Spurs do not have.

That's the physical advantage!
The physical advantage mentioned here does not mean that Garnett and Wu Dao can run better than Duncan of the Spurs. It refers to physical reserves.

Unlike the Timberwolves, before the Spurs played against the Timberwolves today, just yesterday, the Spurs played an away game against the Raptors.

In that game, the two sides played quite fiercely, and the outcome was not revealed until the middle of the fourth quarter.

Duncan and Robinson both played 34 minutes in that game, and other Spurs main players and important rotation players all played more than 20 minutes.

In that game, the playing time may not be long for an NBA-level player, but after days of flying to the game and back-to-back games, the physical condition of the Spurs players is absolutely incomparable to that of the Timberwolves, who are waiting for work.

Speeding up the pace definitely has more advantages than disadvantages for the Timberwolves.

A stupid positional battle with the Spurs?
Wu Daocai didn't have that idea. He just wanted to take advantage of David Robinson's absence to quickly open up the score between the two teams!
In just five seconds, Chris Kyle had already dribbled the ball into the frontcourt, and then quickly passed it to Wu Dao on the side.

The latter caught the ball outside the three-point line, still holding the ball with a low center of gravity. Chuck Person, who had suffered a loss, learned wisely this time and chose to block the strong and let go of the weak.

In martial arts, the left foot is the axis of the test step. Chuck Person simply spread his legs forward and backward, moved his left foot backward, and actively waited for martial arts to accelerate from this direction.

The opponent's defensive pace was also noticed by Wu Dao. He quickly made a stabbing step towards his right front, causing Chuck Person to shift his center of gravity. Wu Dao made a quick back-hip dribble, and then quickly moved towards the ball after a blast. He stepped sideways to the left, directly opening a distance of nearly 1.5 meters from the opponent, and then made a three-pointer.

A series of smooth movements caused Chuck Person to stumble and almost fall to the ground.

Chuck Person only had time to turn around and saw the basketball draw a beautiful arc in the air and then land firmly in the basket with a crisp sound.

three-pointer.

Martial Arts opened his arms and retreated to defend while accepting the calls of the audience.

On the sidelines of the court, Popovich saw how easily Wu Dao scored consecutive points on the Spurs. It was obviously the winter season in November, but there was some sweat on his forehead.

"Is the heating in the Target Center arena so powerful?"

Popovich grabbed the collar and pulled it, and couldn't help but whisper.

In the stadium, many Spurs players couldn't help but take a few more glances at the Timberwolves rookie after Wu Dao scored.At this time, they all had an ominous premonition.

Professional players are probably familiar with this kind of scene.

Timberwolves, this is about to start!

During the alternation between offense and defense, the Spurs made mistakes in their own offensive round. After Duncan sent out an offensive signal in a high pick-and-roll, the basketball was passed to the hands of Will Perdo, who was in a key position inside. The latter singled out Stan under the basket. Leigh Roberts, however, missed a layup, and the basketball was taken into the hands of Garnett who came back to defend.

The moment he grabbed the rebound, Garnett saw Chris Kyle and Wu Dao sprinting towards the frontcourt. Without thinking, he threw the ball directly towards Chris Kyle in the frontcourt.

Under the pursuit of Spurs guard Avery Johnson, Chris Kyle quickly entered the Spurs' paint area. Facing the empty basket and Avery Johnson chasing behind him, Chris Kyle There is no blind choice to go on your own.

Then he sent a pass to Budo who was following up from behind.

As Wu Dao jumped high, he received the pass from his teammate in the air and directly poured the ball into the basket with both hands.

"Boom!!!"

The explosive alley-oop slam dunk once again detonated the Target Center Arena.

After falling back to the ground, Wu Dao also high-fived Chris Kyle who looked excited.On the sidelines of the court, the Timberwolves players also waved towels and cheered, watching the numbers on the courtside scoreboard jump.

Not long after the second quarter started, Budao scored 7 points in a row, which once brought the point difference between the two teams to 9 points.

Facing the double-digit point difference, Spurs coach Popovich was also annoyed. He looked at the game time and wondered whether he should replace David Robinson in advance.

But soon, the players on the court immediately gave Popovich a reassurance.

This time, Duncan did not offer his teammates a pick-and-roll, but asked for the ball in the low post.After the basketball was quickly passed to the inside, Duncan quickly followed up after a confrontation and half-turned to feint the ball. His action directly deceived Garnett.

Then with a slight leap, the ball protector blocked Garnett in the air and hooked the ball toward the basket with his left hand.

"Shh!"

As the basketball entered the net, Garnett, who had obvious forward movements when defending, also made physical contact with Duncan.It was an obvious foul, and even the Timberwolves' home referee was embarrassed to "eat" the opponent's free throw when the team was leading.

A sharp whistle also sounded in the field.

Duncan, who stood on the free throw line, steadily scored the extra penalty, chasing the difference between the two teams to 6 points.

"This defense is really blinding me." "You can jump as long as you want. What's going on with your moves?"

"A hungry tiger pounces on food, right?"

"Is Duncan some kind of good-looking girl? Worthy of your pounce?"

When the Spurs retreated, Wu Dao couldn't help but complain about Garnett's defensive actions just now. His words not only made the veins in Garnett's neck pop, but also made Duncan, who was returning to defense, slip his feet and couldn't help but look back. He glanced at martial arts.

Good guy!
This first-year rookie's trash talk is much more lethal than that Garnett.

Duncan couldn't help but take a few deep breaths and suppress the anger in his heart.

Although Garnett was angry, the strange thing was that at this moment he chose to shut up.

As a player, what is lost on the court must be found on the court.Although Garnett has a bad character, he also knows this truth.

Deeply influenced by neighborhood culture, he will never say a word of nonsense when he does something wrong.

If you don't regain the court yourself at this time, do you have to show your hands to the referee?
On the court, Garnett, who quickly entered the frontcourt, quickly sank into the low post, leaned his back towards Duncan, and immediately raised his hand to ask for the ball from defender Chris Kyle.

This time, Chris Kyle did not give the ball to Budao, but after changing direction in front of a body, he quickly hit the ball to the inside.

Chris Kyle knows Garnett's character very well.

If you don't give him the ball at this time, you don't know what kind of trash talk is waiting for him.

"Snapped!"

The basketball started, and Garnett's face showed some excitement. Once the ball was blown, Garnett leaned half sideways on Duncan, and then after another blow, Garnett gave another Physical confrontation, at the same time, the right hand also quickly grabbed the ball, and hooked the ball to the basket with a small hook.

It is true that Garnett's unique skill is the "iron-blooded jump shot", but this does not mean that he does not have other scoring abilities.

Garnett's biggest shortcoming on offense is not his lack of face-up skills.

For a No. 4 position who is accustomed to catching the ball in the low post and short-to-medium distance, it is best if he has the skill to face the basket, and it is not a problem if he doesn't.

His biggest problem is that he is accustomed to using "iron-blooded jump shots" to solve problems.

As a fourth position, Garnett's low post skills are actually very comprehensive, and of course he can catch this kind of small hook.

"Snapped!"

"Shh!"

The basketball hits the board at a 45° angle and enters the net.

"Look at me! Bastard!"

"How can you defend if you don't look at people?"

Garnett excitedly pumped his fist and said towards Duncan.

However, in the face of Garnett's trash talk, Duncan grinned slightly, showing an expression that was half-smiling but didn't say a word.

Trash talk requires someone to confront it and cooperate with the "hit".

This is equivalent to when you are hanging out in Zaun, trash talk often needs to be paired with solo kills to be effective.What can make your mood even higher is that the opponent is still dissatisfied even after being killed by you and talks back. At this time, giving the opponent a gorgeous solo kill is the most enjoyable time.

Now Garnett is only halfway done, and Duncan didn't give him a chance to continue to stack up his emotions.

It's like you reward yourself half way, and you don't want to experience that feeling a second time.

"Hurry up and get back on defense!"

"Keep this goal."

"In the second quarter, we completely widened the point difference!"

A first-year martial artist actually loudly encouraged his teammates on the court. Roberts, Chris, and Mitchell, who were defensively positioned early, also responded loudly without any sense of violation.

In their hearts, Wu Dao has become the leader of the team from unknown time.

On the sidelines of the court, Coach Philip saw this scene and his eyes were slightly surprised, but he quickly calmed down this emotion.

"This kid has established a reputation on the team so quickly."

"Sure enough, scoring goals is the best way to prove one's status."

"However, the better his performance, the faster we must send Tom away."

"This matter must be resolved before the conflict in the locker room completely breaks out."

Phillip thought this in his mind and couldn't help but look down at Tom sitting on the bench.Tom had a sullen face at this time, staring at the martial arts in the stadium, with quite complicated emotions in his eyes.

As martial arts performed in the Timberwolves, Tom also felt that his status was beginning to waver.

He originally thought that even if this rookie could play well, it would take 3-5 years.In this case, Tom wouldn't mind leading this young man as a senior.

But it is a pity that the growth rate of martial arts is too fast.Tom and the peak of martial arts actually overlapped.

Under this situation, Tom understood that he had to perform better and suppress the martial arts. Only in this way could he maintain his current low position.

In the past few games, the team gave Tom a chance, and Tom worked very hard and achieved very good results.

But seeing the martial arts that were now scoring points wantonly on the court, Tom suddenly felt that what he had done before might have been in vain.He tried his best to score the goal, but in Martial Arts, it seemed so easy to score.

On the court, the Spurs' offense failed. Duncan, who received the ball in the low post, was double-teamed by Wu Dao when he attacked the basket. Although he passed the ball in time, it was a pity that Chuck Person failed to seize this open opportunity. (In the 97-98 season, this guy shot 35% from the field)

The Timberwolves quickly launched a counterattack.

Wu Dao received the ball from the outside, feinted with the ball and then quickly stepped back and shot. Then, after mobilizing Chuck Person's center of gravity, he directly dug forward and accelerated, and directly drove into the basket from the side, with lightning speed. The ball was smashed into the basket.

Until Wu Dao scored, Duncan was still fighting with Garnett for position. He never expected that his teammate could not even delay and was directly passed by.

As the basketball entered the net, the atmosphere of watching the game in the Target Center Arena was also pushed to a climax.

Undifferentiated singles.

As coach Philip said, no Spurs outside player can resist the edge of martial arts!

(End of this chapter)