The Golden Age of Basketball

() (This chapter has a lot of content, please collect it and ask for a red ticket!)

When the whistle blew for the end of the first half, Gan Guoyang scored two more points for the Vikings with a turnaround jumper at the buzzer.However, at this time the Vikings are still behind the Eagles, they are 33 points behind the Eagles with 47:14.

Gan Guoyang's jumper at the buzzer just now narrowed the gap between the two sides to less than fifteen points.The 47-point half-time loss is also the most the Vikings have lost since the start of the high school league, including the warm-up match.

In the previous games, the Vikings were always able to implement Bellman's tactical intentions in the first half, using slow tempo and zone defense to disrupt the opponent's offense.

Especially the existence of Gan Guoyang, his oppressive defense greatly limits the smoothness of the offense of those weak teams.

In addition, there was no offensive time limit in that era. Often after half a game, the opponent could only score more than 20 points. In this way, the opponent's entire team tended to collapse regardless of offense and defense. The second half became a time for players from both sides to attack and train.

But in Tianji High School, because of the existence of Peyton, a ninth-grade freshman, the overall offense was driven to be extremely dynamic.

And the other players of the Eagles are not mediocre either. Although Greg Foster will be a nobody in the nba in the future, he is only a ninth-grade freshman now, but any player who can enter the nba is an all-powerful figure in high school.

Foster not only brought Gan Guoyang the greatest defensive pressure since the beginning of the high school league in the matchup, but also in the offense, he was always able to provide good quality cover for his teammates and create more opportunities for his teammates.In his later basketball career, he grew to the standard center height of 6 feet 11 inches and became a soy sauce insider in the NBA.

The other players of the Eagles are better than the Vikings in terms of personal ability, especially their small forwards and power forwards, who have a fierce and flexible style of play and a very strong impact.

With the Hawks playing fast-paced games and not having a particularly high shooting percentage, their two forwards continued to use their jumping advantage to hit the Vikings' basket, picking off offensive rebounds to get a second chance for offense.

In the game against McCloud High School, the Vikings also encountered a crisis of poor backboard protection and frequent offensive rebounds. Later, Gan Guoyang perfectly solved this problem when he played.

However, in this match, Gan Guoyang was no match for two fists and four hands, not to mention that most of his energy was spent on taking care of Peyton.The entire Vikings' regional defense line was disrupted by Payton alone, and Gan Guoyang had to go around like a tinkerer to mend the leaks.

Therefore, the Vikings kept losing backcourt rebounds, and the Eagles kept getting second chances.Even if Gan Guoyang relied on his deterrence in the interior to prevent all of these second rebounds from scoring at the basket, he couldn't stand the Hawks' reorganization of the offense, which made him exhausted.

Coach Behrman also called a timeout to change the team's defensive tactics, such as switching to half-court marking.This had a little effect at the beginning of the change, but soon, the Eagles, with stronger personal abilities, began to easily tear through the Vikings' defense by relying on simple coordination and singles.

Obviously, man-to-man is not as good as zone defense, but zone defense is too dependent on Gan Guoyang. In the first half, he didn't rest for a minute except for a timeout.Bellman himself was wondering whether he should give up the game, because judging from the situation in the first half, the Vikings had already tried their best, but the Eagles felt that they played extremely easily.

Maybe it's time to let your core rest well to prevent Gan Guoyang from being overtired and injured.

"Gan, I think if it doesn't work, your playing time will be reduced in the second half. You need to rest well. After all, this is just an invitational match." Behrman said with concern to Gan Guoyang in the locker room.

Bellman knew that protecting core players was more important than winning an invitational match, although this sentence would greatly hurt the morale of the team.After all, even the coach wants to give up, how can the players go all out?

However, Gan Guoyang, who scored more than half of the team's 19 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, is obviously not someone who gives up lightly.Hearing the coach's concern for him, he stood up, shook his head, and said a word:

"Despite putting me on the field, there will be time to rest after I die, not now."

After speaking, he sat down and looked at Coach Behrman with burning eyes, as if a soldier was waiting for the general to give him a battle order.

Other players were also infected by Gan Guoyang's words of "seeing death as home". The depressed atmosphere in the locker room because of the big score behind in the first half seemed to be swept away.Everyone raised their heads and looked at Coach Behrman with the same gaze.

Under such circumstances, Behrman was already "riding a tiger", and could no longer speak of frustration.

"Okay, ladies, in this case, let's fight. There is still half time, we are 14 points behind, there is still plenty of time, but we have to change our strategy..."

The 20-minute break passed quickly, and the gymnasium was still crowded with people.Although the Vikings were behind by a big score, there was really plenty of time at halftime, and every audience was waiting for a big comeback.

Throughout the first half of the game, the Vikings gradually slowed down after experiencing a slump in the opening game, but they were still under pressure by the Eagles in general, relying on Gan Guoyang alone to support them.

Before the second half started, the Eagles and the audience found that the Vikings' starting lineup in the second half had changed.

维京人的内线首发一向是6尺9的中锋甘国阳搭配6尺8的大前锋维吉斯，而6尺10的原首发中锋斯坦利则成为了替补内线。

Stanley's height should be said to be quite good in the high school league, but his talent is very average, with a large weight, slow lateral movement, and average jumping.Basically, it will be difficult to enter a higher level of basketball league in the future.

Since Gan Guoyang became the starting center of the Vikings, Stanley has neither been able to realize Gan Guoyang's "wide range, fast movement, high pressure" function in defense, nor can he replace the offensive ability possessed by the Vikings, so he plays Time is running out.

But now, Bellman put him in the starting lineup in the second half, partnering with Gan Guoyang to form a twin tower.

"Another stupid guy? Haven't you eaten enough ashes behind my ass?" Payton couldn't help but taunted when he saw the big center Stanley, the Vikings.

In the first half, he scored 12 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. The most important thing is that he revitalized the Eagles' offense and made the team bloom more, which cannot be reflected in the statistics.And in defense, he put great pressure on the opposing point guard, making it impossible for the Vikings to play a smooth offense.

"We will catch up and kick your ass right away." Although the Vikings were behind in the score, Gan Guoyang did not fall behind in terms of personal performance and mouth.

"Then wait and eat my stinky fart."

"Beep!" With the whistle of the referee, the second half of the game began, and the Eagles served first.

Payton was still shaking his head and dribbling the ball through the half court, and then began to direct the team's offense from the perimeter, while talking dirty in his mouth.This scene will be repeated on the basketball court for decades to come.

"Look at the kid, pay attention to your feet, I'm talking about your feet. At what second do you think I'm going to shake your ankle off? I've always been about killing and not burying." Peyton said Observe the running position of his teammates, while using trash talk to stimulate Dipenbrock who is facing him.

In a high school game with no shot clock, he had plenty of time to show off his tongue on offense.

But Dippenbrook was unmoved. He suffered a double blow to his spirit and performance in the first half, and he did not surrender.Although he knew that with his own talent, he couldn't catch up with this guy who was only in the ninth grade, but Gan Guoyang once told him, "If you give up lightly, then the game will end early."

"The game has just begun!" Dippenbrock shouted in his heart.

Payton observed the Vikings' defense and found that it was completely different from the first half.

In the first half, the Vikings mainly used a 2-1-2 defensive formation. With Gan Guoyang as the defensive core, the oppression on the outside line was very strong. It could not only defend the breakthrough, but also make up for the fear of the opponent's outside line defense to a certain extent. Cannon disadvantages.

But the biggest disadvantage of this defensive formation is that it doesn't protect the basket enough, and the Eagles' forward line is full of vitality. Gan Guoyang alone can't choke the Eagles' continuous offense.

After the readjustment of the midfield, Bellman sent Stanley to form the twin towers with Gan Guoyang.In this way, the Vikings' defensive formation has become a 2-3 zone defense, relying on heavy centers like Stanley to fill the inside and resist the impact of the Eagles.

Seeing this, Payton knew that in the face of this kind of defense, the tactic of cutting the baseline and grabbing rebounds that was applicable in the first half would no longer be useful, so he felt that he could use his own breakthrough to solve the problem.

So he adjusted his footsteps a little, made a hand-over dribble, and suddenly changed direction to the right, trying to break into the inside line from the right.

At this time, Williams, who was in charge of the defense from the bottom line on the right to the 45-degree area, posted decisively to block Payton's breakthrough route.

However, his blocking made the bottom line leak out.

If the Vikings use a 2-1-2 defense, then it will be their inside line to block Payton, so that the bottom line will not leak, but the inside line will be empty.Once the bottom line defense is weak, the inside line will be completely exposed.

But now the Vikings use a 2-3 zone defense, the bottom line leaks out, but Stanley, the last line of defense, sits inside.

Payton's breakthrough speed was not fast. As soon as he was blocked, he immediately made a sudden stop and turned sideways, away from the double-teaming of the two, and observed the positions of his teammates on the field.

He found a hole in the Vikings' bottom line, and immediately passed a lob pass to the cutting small forward. At this time, Stanley had already gone outside the three-second zone to prevent the opponent from rushing to the basket.

The Eagles' small forward didn't force an attack after receiving the ball. After all, he was still very scared to see the 6-foot-10 Stanley standing under the basket.

So facing Stanley, he made a change of direction, trying to bypass Stanley and attack the basket directly from the front side.

After all, Stanley's movement speed is slow. Even if he tried his best to defend, he still showed a gap, and was half-stretched by the opponent, and this half-position was enough for a layup.

The Eagles' small forward barely broke through Stanley's block by relying on speed and change of direction. After two big strides, he leaned against Stanley and prepared to forcibly throw a shot from the front.

However, even though Stanley was passed half a body by him, Stanley was tall and strong after all, and he still had physical contact with him, so the Hawks small forward's take-off height was not enough.

Just when he pushed Stanley away with all his strength, and was about to end the attack with a one-handed throw, "Boom!" He felt a huge resistance from his hand, and he couldn't throw the ball at all.His shot was blocked!

At this time, Stanley did not take off. In this case, the blocking of the takeoff is likely to be a foul.

Therefore, it was not Stanley who missed the ball, but Gan Guoyang, who blocked the opponent with insufficient take-off height cleanly from the side and rear!

Gan Guoyang's block was not only clean and free of fouls, but also had just the right amount of strength.He wiped the ball and pulled it off the back of the opponent's head, so that the ball fell right in front of Gan Guoyang.

After landing, Gan Guoyang stretched out his long arms, and fished the ball away in front of the Eagles who came to fight for the ball.And after getting the ball, he didn't hand it over to the point guard as usual, but shot the ball forward like an arrow!

This ball is like Gan Guoyang's long pass against McCloud High School in the first warm-up. It accurately reached the small forward who had already rushed to the opponent's basket, and he easily passed without defense. The basket scored two points, 35:47!

This beautiful goal once again exploded the stadium, and amidst the cheers of the audience, a loud voice shouted especially loudly, "Gan! You come to our fucking football team!"

Hearing this voice, Gan Guoyang looked up and looked around, only to realize that this somewhat familiar voice turned out to be Halleck!

It turned out that the football match between Palo Alto High School and Skyline High School was over. Palo Alto, who played at home, easily defeated their opponents and won the invitational game.

Halleck, who had settled his feud with Gan Guoyang, ran to the gymnasium to watch the basketball game in the middle of the field, only to find that his school's team fell behind by a large margin!But in the second half, Gan Guoyang's first pass showed the demeanor he had shown on the football field. Halleck couldn't help but joked loudly, and also wanted to encourage Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang looked at the guy who had been subdued by him, and found that he was quite cute, so he shrugged with a smile, and then stayed in his own half to wait for another attack by the Eagles.

Although this offensive and defensive transition is very beautiful, no matter how beautiful the goal is, it will only count as two points, not three or four points.Moreover, this kind of ball can only occasionally hit the opponent by surprise, and it cannot become the main offensive method.

However, this ball was a good boost to the morale of the Vikings, and it also made a good start for the team's counterattack in the second half, and only the Vikings players knew that their new defensive tactics should have worked. The opponent has not discovered the mystery.

A fast-break goal is not a problem for the Hawks, they still hold a 12-point lead, so they take their time to invest in the next attack, trying to get back one.

The main weakness of the 2-3 zone defense is still in the two 45 degrees. By transferring the ball in a wide range, a large gap can be created at this angle.However, there were no three-pointers in high school and college games at that time, and the price-performance ratio of outside shots was not high.

In the last round, Payton felt that the opponent's 2-3 zone defense did not seem to protect the area very well, and his own feint made the opponent leak out of the bottom line.

Payton believes that on the one hand, this is due to the lack of training of the opponent, because the zone defense requires a high degree of tacit cooperation, and it is normal for a weak team like the Vikings to not train well; Stanley, with his lack of movement, couldn't make up the hole in time.

So Payton chose to break through from the oblique side again, this time he chose to go from the left side, which is the side that Gan Guoyang is in charge of.He wants to attract Gan Guoyang's replacement, so that Gan Guoyang has no way to take care of others.

But when he broke in from the left, Gan Guoyang didn't come up to block the area at all, but kept a close eye on the Eagles defender who was on the bottom line.

After Payton broke through to the inside, Stanley stood in front of him like a wall. For Payton, who was not fast, it was difficult to find a breakthrough gap.

At this time, he can only pass the ball back, because the teammates' positions are all in the position of breaking the zone defense.

But the moment he passed the ball, he realized that the opponent's perimeter defense turned into man-to-man!But the ball has been passed.

Under man-to-man defense, the passer must pay attention not to pass directly to the receiver's hand, but to pass around the receiver, and then the receiver moves to the ball's landing point, that is, It is said that there is a judgment in advance, so that the pass will not be destroyed by the defender who pesters him.

But in the face of zone defense, there is generally no such problem, because the defender is marking the zone and not the man. Whoever gets the ball to my zone, I will defend him. Otherwise, what do you like to do.So Payton's pass went straight to the person.

This time, the unsuspecting Eagles players were caught off guard by the sudden labeling of the Vikings.Dippenbrook, who was at the right corner, stood in front of the opposing player, jumped up and intercepted the pass in the air!Another steal!

The point guard made a steal, and the Vikings immediately launched a three-line fast break. Gan Guoyang went straight from the left side of the backcourt to the frontcourt, and rushed towards the basket from the right (if he changed direction, the left and right would also change, this must be understood).And there was only one player from the opponent who returned to the defense in time, forming a three-on-one situation in the frontcourt.

In this case, the only defensive player could only focus on one thing and lose another. Dippenbrook made a fake pass under the basket and passed the ball to Gan Guoyang.Gan Guoyang is like a tiger descending the mountain. After catching the ball, he leaps high, holds the ball with both arms and bends backwards, and uses both hands to forcefully fill the basket to complete another quick attack!

37:47!The Vikings chased another two points and narrowed the point difference to ten!

The atmosphere in the stadium gradually heated up with the Vikings' two fast breaks, because the audience also saw the vikings' offensive and defensive momentum at the beginning of the second half, and there was a faint hope of a comeback.

"You idiot will never figure out what's going on with our defense." Gan Guoyang returned to the backcourt, preparing for the next defense, and he said this when he passed Payton.

Payton's mind was indeed a little confused. He didn't expect that the Vikings obviously used zone defense just now, but they suddenly defended another man-marking!

"Could it be that they can temporarily change the defensive formation according to our offensive method?" Payton pondered in his heart, this is a very difficult technique, which requires a very high degree of tacit understanding and tactical literacy of the players, which can only be achieved by ordinary professional players .

In fact, Payton is thinking too much. According to the level of the Vikings players, he can't play such an ability at all.

What Bellman arranged for the Vikings in the midfield was not a 2-3 zone defense at all, but a double-team rotation defense. At the same time, Stanley defended the basket and protected the rebound.

Specifically, once Payton transfers the ball, the nearest players will double-team him, and other players must pay attention to rotation and make up defenses at any time, so that people are faster than the ball.

If the Eagles are aggressively running and cutting repeatedly, then this defensive strategy will undoubtedly die.It's a pity that the Eagles misjudged and attacked with a fixed position that broke the zone defense. There was only Payton on the field, and he was flanked by the Vikings.

In this way, the Vikings relied on a small trick on the defensive end and a quick counterattack on the offensive end. They caught the Eagles by surprise at the beginning of the second half and returned the Eagles 8:0!The score on the court came to 41:47, and the point difference suddenly narrowed to 6 points.

The Eagles had to call a timeout, and the coach had to make new adjustments to the team's offense.

And the Vikings can't sit still, their moves are old, the opponent must have thought of a way to crack them, and now it's time to rearrange their tactics.

"Boys, you have to remember that defense is our foundation. No matter we are leading or trailing, as long as we don't allow our opponents to score, we will have a chance." Bellman once again emphasized the importance of defense, and then began to arrange specific tactics for the following games arrange.

The time for the decisive battle is approaching.