Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 743 The giant beast explodes!

Garnett's block seemed to sound the clarion call for the Timberwolves' offense. Wu Dao, Marbury and others who reacted quickly rushed towards the Lakers' half like arrows from a bow.

When a fast break opportunity appeared, the Timberwolves completed the offense-defense transition in an instant, and scoring players such as Wu Dao and Marbury started the fast break directly.

He grabbed the ball with one hand and threw it directly towards the scene.

While sprinting towards the front court, he looked back at Wudao behind him, slowed down slightly, and directly grabbed the ball in his hands.

And just as Wudao crossed the center line and got the basketball, Robert Horry seized this opportunity, quickly circled in front of Wudao, and reached out to shoot the basketball in Wudao's hand.

It is actually difficult for a martial artist to have any extra movements while moving quickly. When he hit the basketball, he had no intention of dribbling. He simply took the ball with his right hand and passed it behind his back to Marbury who was in the middle.

Marbury, who received the ball, quickly crossed the Lakers' three-point line and rushed towards the Lakers' basket. Marbury was young and had better footwork, and he easily left Nick behind.

When he received the basketball from Wu Dao and rushed into the Lakers' basket, Nick was still nearly two meters away from him and could not catch up with Marbury's fast break.

Seeing Marbury enter the paint area, Nick, who was chasing behind him, could do nothing but watch Marbury jump with the ball, and with a light layup, he gently put the ball into the basket.

The Timberwolves scored on a fast break, and the fans in the stands immediately burst into warm cheers.

At this time, there were only about two minutes left until the end of the second quarter.

But these two minutes still have a lot to offer the Timberwolves.

Robert Horry passed the ball from the backcourt to Nick, who then dribbled the ball to the frontcourt. The Lakers' offensive and defensive rhythm was exactly the same as their previous offensive rhythm. Nick controlled his team's offensive time and was not in a hurry to pass the ball to his teammates after dribbling into the frontcourt.

As the offensive time slowly passed, Marbury, who was defending him, did not make any aggressive steals. He just stood obediently inside the three-point line, guarding against the opponent's breakthrough while waiting for the Lakers' further offensive rotation.

Well, actually at this time, the Timberwolves' best defensive strategy is to put full-court pressure on the Lakers.

The purpose was to try to widen the gap between the two teams at the end of the second quarter.

But the Timberwolves did not choose to do so. The reason is actually very simple. The Lakers are not a weak team. If they rashly press a team like the Lakers full court, the opponent may seize the opportunity to counterattack. For the Timberwolves, a steady offense and defense rotation is more advantageous.

They are very confident in their team's offensive efficiency. In their view, as long as they can maintain their offensive and defensive rhythm, winning the game will not be a big problem at all.

"Dang~~"

The Lakers' offensive time was running out, and at the last moment, the Knicks chose to believe in Kobe.

The latter got the basketball with only seven seconds left in the team's offensive time. Relying on his outstanding personal ability, he directly attacked Sam Mitchell. After the ball landed, he chose to make a quick stop jump shot in the mid-range.

However, Kobe's shot hit the rim and did not help the Lakers score, and the rebound was caught by Garnett.

O'Neal was positioning himself in the interior, and his position was not intended to grab rebounds from the beginning. O'Neal, who was farther away from the basket, naturally had no way to grab the rebound over Garnett's head.

As Garnett once again got the rebound, the Lakers players became nervous and quickly started to defend.

However, the movement speed of O'Neal and Campbell is not fast at all, at least compared with the Timberwolves' outside spearheads, their movement speed is slow.

Garnett had no intention of suppressing his team's offensive speed. After getting the rebound, he once again threw the ball down the front court.

However, this time several Lakers players were well prepared. Kobe, who missed the shot, did not stay in the Timberwolves' half for even a second. He quickly returned to defense the next second after the shot and crossed the three-point line early.

Not only him, but also Nick and Robert Horry of the Lakers quickly returned to their own half of the court.

These Chinese outside players are also afraid of the Timberwolves' fast break and don't want to give the Timberwolves any chance to fast break.

However, even though Garnett had already seen clearly that the Lakers were prepared to deal with fast breaks, he still chose to pass the ball in this way.

Marbury received the ball in the frontcourt and quickly dribbled towards the Knicks' defense.

The Lakers' defense was very sophisticated. Marbury only had one player, Nick, while Kobe and Robert Horry came to Wu Dao early. One stood in front of Wu Dao, and the other stood between Wu Dao and Marbury, blocking the passing route between the two.

As Kobe approached Marbury, he kept looking back to pay attention to Wu Dao's position.

Marbury noticed something and without any hesitation, he directly threw the ball with his left hand and tried to force his way through the Knicks.

However, this time, Nick, who was well prepared, was not easily broken through by Marbury. Marbury chased Nick's body forward a few steps, but his attack speed was suppressed by the opponent and his impact force was greatly reduced.

At this moment, Wudao on the wing suddenly made a move. Without the ball, he leaned his body against Robert Horry, pushed his opponent away, and went towards the Lakers' basket.

Kobe Bryant also noticed it and quickly cut to the inside from the middle, encircling Wu Dao.

The opportunity was not very good, but Marbury still chose to pass the ball at this time.

Compared to Kobe and Robert Horry, martial arts has an advantage that neither of them can match.

Marbury quickly threw the basketball in his hand towards the basket.

His passing route was a bit high and the speed was not very fast. In the eyes of the players on the court, Marbury's passing route was very clear.

Kobe, who was moving towards the inside, also noticed Marbury's pass and looked up at the basketball above his head. Wu Dao, who was moving, also noticed Marbury's intention and slowed down his pace to adjust his rhythm.

As the basketball fell, Kobe Bryant jumped up and tried to intercept the ball, but surprisingly, Kobe was unable to catch the basketball above his head despite jumping with all his strength, and could only watch the basketball fly past his fingertips.

The next second, Wu Dao, who had sprinted to the basket, jumped up immediately, ignoring Robert Horry who was chasing him from behind. After jumping high, he actually grabbed the basketball that Kobe could not reach with one hand and slammed the ball into the basket.

As the basketball was poured into the basket by Wudao, his body inevitably hit Kobe, causing Kobe to stagger forward as he fell back to the ground, before he could barely keep his footing.

As for Robert Horry, who was chasing after Wu Dao, he didn't even try to jump up to block the ball, and just watched Wu Dao score with an alley-oop slam dunk.

The Minnesota fans flooded the court with loud cheers.

The media reporters on the sidelines also pointed their cameras at Wu Dao who had just scored a slam dunk.

If the Timberwolves can successfully beat the Lakers today, then the alley-oop between Marbury and Wu Dao will probably become the headlines of major media. The Timberwolves' continuous scoring like a storm put great pressure on the Lakers players. The difference between the two teams was obviously not very big, but the Lakers were resting at this time, and the rest were shrouded in a shadow.

The substitute players seemed to have run out of strength and had no intention of cheering for the players on the field at this critical moment.

Their head coach Harris remained silent, looking frequently at the scoreboard on the side of the court. At this moment, he only hoped that time would pass faster and the second quarter would end soon.

Coach Del Harris had sensed something was wrong.

The Timberwolves' momentum is rising rapidly under the leadership of Wudao and others, and the strong momentum that the Lakers have just established has been weakened a lot under the repeated attacks of the Timberwolves.

On the court, Nick, who received the ball in the backcourt, became more cautious due to the Timberwolves' consecutive scoring.

But in the opinion of coach Del Harris, the caution shown by the Nick on the court at this time was like a nail poked in a balloon, and its main function was to deflate the Lakers.

They made fast breaks one after another without caring about how much time was left in the game; on the other hand, the Lakers were cautious in every attack, and this rhythm seemed to be a sign of timidity to the fans.

It seems like the Lakers are very afraid of the Timberwolves.

But at this time, Coach Del Harris couldn't stand up and ask Nick on the court to speed up his offensive and defensive rhythm.

After all, if you rashly speed up your attack and defense rhythm, the final consequence may be accelerated death.

The Lakers and the Timberwolves have different team lineups. Because the Lakers, with two big centers and a swingman, are not suitable for fast-paced offense and defense transitions, a steady positional battle is a more sensible choice.

But sometimes, the so-called wise choice may not bring much benefit to the team.

The Lakers are currently facing this kind of situation where they are stuck on both ends.

Maintaining their own rhythm will make their momentum seem a little weak. After all, after the Timberwolves scored so strongly, if the Lakers cannot respond with the ball in the first time, it is inevitable that their momentum will be weakened.

But the Lakers had no way to speed up their offense, after all, the lineup did not allow it.

This situation of being blocked on both ends has also created the Lakers' current predicament.

After Nick brought the ball into the frontcourt, he pressed the offensive time and chose to pass the ball to O'Neal who was in the paint. There was no other way. Whenever the Lakers encountered difficulties, the most correct choice was to give the ball to O'Neal.

In other words, for the Lakers players, the tactical requirement assigned by the coach is to give the ball to O'Neal when facing difficulties and let O'Neal solve the problem.

The most important role of all star players is to help the team solve problems when they are in trouble.

A player without ultimate offensive ability cannot be called a superstar.

The basketball came into O'Neal's hands, and the Timberwolves' defense changed quickly.

Garnett chose to let go of Campbell at the first moment and went straight to O'Neal, which was a blatant illegal defense. However, in the playoffs, the referee would not call this kind of defense.

O'Neal blew the ball and turned around, his body directly collided with Cherokee Parks's. The huge impact force made the white center's breathing stagnate. His upper body tilted, and he was actually knocked to the ground by O'Neal.

Cherokee Parks, who was lying on the ground, had no intention of standing up immediately. Instead, she spread her hands and looked at the referee, apparently intending to commit a foul.

But the referee at the baseline ignored him and didn't blow the whistle.

O'Neal, who easily knocked over Cherokee Parks, immediately jumped up with the ball. Although Garnett arrived in time and jumped high to press his hand on the basketball in O'Neal's hand, he still couldn't stop O'Neal, the furious beast.

Neil actually managed to dunk the ball into the basket despite Garnett's defense.

"Dangdang!"

As the loud noise of the dunk exploded in the stadium, the Minnesota fans in the stands froze in disbelief.

After a brief silence, the Lakers fans immediately cheered for O'Neal in the stadium.

"Fuck!"

Although Garnett was defending O'Neal head-on, Wu Dao, who was standing on the outside at this time, could still clearly feel the strong sense of oppression emanating from O'Neal.

Wudao's physical fitness is probably even better than Garnett's, but Wudao also knows clearly that if he were to defend this ball, his fate would probably be no different from Garnett's.

O'Neal's powerful dunk made Wu Dao couldn't help but utter a curse. Once this historical-level monster entered his sweet spot, not everyone could stop it.

Obviously, for the Timberwolves, Cherokee Parks' decision to draw a foul was a wrong decision.

In fact, this is also because Cherokee Parkes does not have much playoff experience.

The NBA playoffs and regular season lack standards and are completely different. They are basically like two different leagues.

In the playoffs, the referees' calls will be much more severe.

This is actually an important guideline given by the league to NBA referees.

Let the players decide the direction of the game instead of letting the referee dictate the direction of the game.

Although there are still many and obvious shady dealings in NBA games, it is rare to see a "game-winning free throw" in the NBA playoffs.

Reggie Miller's buzzer-beater after pushing Jordan away was one of the most famous scenes in the NBA.

O'Neal's dunk at this time showed his superstar style and also stabilized the team's momentum.

O'Neal's outstanding performance also kept the suspense of this game.

The Timberwolves' plan to seize the last moments of the second quarter to completely crush the Lakers' momentum failed at this moment.

(End of this chapter)

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