Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

As soon as the game between the Timberwolves and the Lakers started, the atmosphere became tense because of the tit-for-tat between Garnett and O'Neal.

The fans of both teams in the stands poured their passion into the stadium, cheering for their respective teams!
On the court, the players of the Lakers and Timberwolves saw their teammates full of fighting spirit and adjusted their own offensive and defensive systems tacitly.

The Lakers are fine, they haven't made any major system changes on the offensive end.

Because the Lakers have always been a team built around O'Neal, almost all of their offensive tactics revolve around O'Neal.

But the Timberwolves are different. After Wu Dao joined the Timberwolves, the Timberwolves' offensive system began to operate with Wu Dao as the center. Garnett's position in the team is the defensive gate, and on the offensive end he is just an auxiliary offensive role.

Coach Philip did not develop any offensive tactics specifically around Garnett.

However, these Timberwolves players are old teammates who have worked together for nearly a year. They are all NBA-level players. Even if there is no supporting tactical system, they can play a better offensive rotation relying on the players' on-the-spot performance.

What's more, now it's just giving the ball to Garnett for a one-on-one game, which is not difficult in terms of execution.

After O'Neal scored, the Timberwolves quickly launched a counterattack.

After dribbling the ball into the frontcourt, Marbury immediately chose to pass the ball to Garnett, who was in the mid-range position with his back to the basket.

Maybe Garnett felt the pressure of facing O'Neal under the basket.

This time, the position he chose to receive the ball was nearly 3 meters away from the basket, and Wu Dao was standing outside the three-point line on the same side as Garnett received the ball.

The NBA's three-point line is more than seven meters away from the basket, but the players on the field are all tall and strong. From the perspective of the fans in the stands, although Wu Dao and Garnett are separated by more than three meters and nearly four meters, this distance does not seem far.

"Hey, relax, don't be nervous."

At this time, Wu Dao was standing outside the three-point line, with his hands on his hips, and he did not look like he was going to join the team's offensive system.

Wu Dao glanced at the nervous Eddie Jones in front of him and said something comforting with a smile.

Facing a player of Eddie Jones's caliber, Wu Dao acted unusually relaxed.

However, unlike Wu Dao's relaxed state, Eddie Jones, who was in charge of defense, was facing a powerful enemy. He lowered his waist, looked at Wu Dao seriously, and was not moved by the opponent's words at all.

Wu Dao saw Eddie Jones' serious look and had no intention of laughing at him. He just silently withdrew his gaze and looked at Garnett who was holding the ball in the mid-range.

O'Neal, who had never been able to pull his defense out of the basket, actually raised his defensive position for the first time today.

The huge O'Neal pressed his chest against Garnett's back, raised his hands slightly relaxed, and stared at Garnett, showing great concentration.

"Come on, Kevin!!!"

"Break him!"

It is rare for Timberwolves fans to see Garnett's one-on-one match in the playoffs. Compared with the Timberwolves last season, this season's Timberwolves play more as a team and in a more organized manner.

The player with the most singles in the team is Wu Dao, followed by Marbury.

Although Garnett's personal statistics have improved significantly compared to last season, he has rarely played singles this season.

Most of the time, Garnett would shoot from open mid-range positions, or sometimes he would score under the basket. However, nowadays, there are relatively few one-on-one matches between him and his opponents.

The Timberwolves fans actually have a lot of affection for Garnett.

Before Budo came, they thought Garnett was the future star of Minnesota.

This idea actually did not change with the arrival of Wu Dao. Fans believed that Garnett could grow into the inside pillar of their Timberwolves and assist Wu Dao in winning the championship.

"Snapped!"

The basketball in Garnett's hand fell, and he did not use his body to test O'Neal's strength. Garnett turned around immediately after a blast, trying to pass through O'Neal's side and go straight to the basket.

O'Neal is worthy of being the most dominant center in the league. Although he is huge in stature, his reaction speed is also very fast, and his lateral movement is not slower than Garnett's.

At the same time Garnett was turned around and broken through, O'Neal also slid and instantly caught up with Garnett's movements.

The bodies of the two strong men collided with each other, and the confrontation of muscles also caused Garnett's breakthrough action to be slightly deformed, and he couldn't help but stop his advance.

"Kevin, you can move a little more vigorously!"

"Your opponent is not a weak sissy. Are you afraid of hurting Shaq by your timid movements?!"

Outside the three-point line, Wu Dao couldn't help but shout loudly when he saw Garnett's slightly restrained breakthrough move.

I don't know whether Garnett was afraid of physical confrontation with O'Neal or whether Garnett didn't like physical confrontation. In any case, his breakthrough did not seem resolute from a martial arts perspective, and gave people the feeling that he was timid and restrained.

Garnett, who had stopped walking, changed his expression and made up his mind after hearing Wu Dao's shout. While he blocked the ball with his left hand again, he pressed his right auxiliary hand directly on O'Neal's chest and actively exerted force with his body.

Hmm. There is some suspicion of foul play.
Garnett's movements were so large that they actually reached the critical point where a call could be made or not.

The referee on the sidelines blew his whistle and was not moved by Garnett's advance. On the defensive side, O'Neal did not complain about Garnett's rough move, but instead showed an excited smile on his face.

O'Neal likes this feeling!

Garnett's tough breakthrough is the offensive method that O'Neal is most familiar with, and he is very good at dealing with such breakthrough actions.

It’s nothing, I’ve encountered it many times.

"boom!!!"

There was no unnecessary movement of O'Neal's hands. Facing Garnett's attack, O'Neal slid forward and pushed forward with his chest.

There was a slight pain in his chest, but that pain did not make O'Neal restrain his pursuit and defense. Instead, it made his adrenaline surge, his blood boil, and he became extremely excited.

The powerful force pressed Garnett's raised arm back to his chest. Under the fierce physical confrontation, Garnett, who was rushing forward, was actually suppressed by O'Neal.

Garnett, who had pushed O'Neal to the basket, realized that he could not get any closer to the basket. He quickly gathered the ball, caught it with his left hand against O'Neal's defense, and made a simple lob and shot.

You would never have thought that he, a power forward, could shoot with both hands near the basket.

O'Neal obviously did not expect that Garnett actually had this offensive method. Although he rushed forward to defend at the first moment, he only caused some interference to Garnett's shot.

Garnett was in excellent form today. Perhaps it was the one-on-one match against O'Neal that gave him confidence, and this time he actually managed to put the ball into the basket smoothly.

"Shh!"

As the basketball went into the net, the cheers of the Forest Island fans quickly filled the court. "Good job, Kevin!"

"That's awesome, Kevin, just hit him like that, beat him up!!"

"Oh-"

The fans cheered and shouted, and the atmosphere in the arena was pushed to a climax by Garnett's goal. Although it was a shot, Garnett was able to score the ball despite O'Neal's defense, which showed his toughness.

"Kevin, the power is not strong enough!"

"He was staggering after being pushed by Shaq."

When all the fans were cheering for Garnett's goal, Wudao ran to Garnett's side, patted Garnett's back, and poured a basin of cold water on the opponent in time.

When everyone was pessimistic about Garnett, Wu Dao chose to encourage him, and when everyone was cheering for Garnett's goal, Wu Dao chose to help Garnett calm down.

In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see the gap between Garnett and O'Neal.

It was just that Garnett's goal made the fans temporarily ignore the difference in strength between the two. If it was just the fans who ignored the difference, that would be fine, but the worry was that Garnett got lost in the cheers of the fans and forgot who his opponent was in the excitement.

To deal with an opponent of O'Neal's level, Garnett must be fully focused and not relax at all.

Only in this way can Garnett occasionally seek a scoring opportunity over O'Neal's head.

Were these two goals a coincidence? Not entirely, but there is definitely an element of coincidence involved.

As a bystander, Wu Dao saw it very clearly, and he also hoped that Garnett could clearly realize his own strength.

"I won't do that next time. I'll walk him like he's a dog!"

Garnett did not show any anger or dissatisfaction in the face of Wu Dao's cold words. Instead, he showed a confident smile.

Although he was still as arrogant as ever, it was gratifying that Garnett was still relatively clear about his own advantages. At least he knew to use his speed advantage instead of blindly using his body to attack O'Neal.

"Okay, I'll wait and see."

Wu Dao laughed when he heard this. After returning to the court, he said to O'Neal who was running over:

"Kevin said he would take you for a walk later and walk you like a dog."

Wu Dao kindly helped Garnett repeat his words to O'Neal. When he said this, O'Neal heard it and Garnett heard it too.

When O'Neal looked at Garnett, the boy not only did not deny it at all, but raised his chin and looked at O'Neal with a provocative look on his face.

As expected of someone who dared to challenge Jordan, Garnett showed no fear at all when facing O'Neal.

"f**k!"

Garnett's words and his current attitude completely angered O'Neal. After cursing, O'Neal quickly ran towards Garnett, but encountered Garnett's defense on the side of the paint area and stopped involuntarily.

O'Neal was in a position with his back to the basket, with some distance between him and the basket.

Fisher noticed this when he was holding the ball and approaching the three-point line. He waved to O'Neal who raised his hand for the ball, signaling him to move closer to the basket.

Perhaps because he was blinded by anger, O'Neal himself did not seem to realize that the position where he asked for the ball this time was somewhat different from the previous positions.

After receiving a signal from his teammates, O'Neal also noticed this. He leaned towards Garnett, gently pushed his feet inward, and actually easily pushed Garnett away from behind and got close to the edge of the paint area.

The terrifying power also caused the reporters under the basket to exclaim in surprise.

Facing a strong young man like Garnett, O'Neal was able to easily crush his opponent with his strength. This terrifying force was also one of O'Neal's important weapons for dominance under the basket.

The basketball flew out of Fisher's hands and was about to fall into O'Neal's hands, but a figure suddenly jumped out from the side and directly picked the basketball in the air in front of O'Neal's slightly astonished eyes.

"What?!"

"Helper? How can you have helper?"

The basketball was intercepted. O'Neal looked at Wudao who suddenly appeared in front of him and asked subconsciously. This question was addressed to both Wudao and Garnett.

Isn't it a one-on-one match inside? !

Why did you jump out to grab the ball?

"This is a competition! What are you doing?!"

Wu Dao tilted his head, glanced at O'Neal behind Bai, quickly dribbled the ball towards the front court, and started a fast break.

The Timberwolves players immediately followed Wu Dao's footsteps. Although the Lakers players realized it later, they immediately started to rush back, trying to stop the Timberwolves' counterattack.

O'Neal's eyes twitched slightly, knowing that he had said something stupid, and he lowered his head and accelerated, trying to make up for his mistake.

However, the Lakers are still a beat slower than the Timberwolves.

Wu Dao successfully stole the ball and dribbled into the Lakers' half of the court. He drove directly to the basket against Eddie Jones who was chasing him, and scored a layup.

Wu Dao's goal caused the fans in the stands to remain silent for a few seconds before they finally reacted and cheered for Wu Dao.

A basketball game is a basketball game after all, there is no such thing as soldiers versus soldiers, generals versus generals.

If the Lakers' passing could prevent the Timberwolves from seeing any chance of stealing the ball, then perhaps Wu Dao would not choose to double-team O'Neal after he received the ball.

Because doing so would make Garnett appear to be showing weakness.

But stealing and double-teaming are different.

The basketball was stolen because of the Lakers' own conduction problem, not because Garnett is worse than O'Neal.

This is actually very easy to understand.

It's just that the Lakers players were stunned by Garnett's continuous attack and ignored this point.

What Bu Dao did was just to make the Lakers players alert again, so that they would not foolishly pass the ball which could be easily intercepted.

I think after being intercepted by Wu Dao, the Lakers will learn their lesson. O'Neal will not be so deep when receiving the ball.
(End of this chapter)