The Golden Age of Basketball

() Palo Alto High School on Sunday is always very lively.Although the school does not have classes, there are still many students who come to the school, either to participate in club activities, or to run and play on the sports field, or to chat and read books on the grass.There are always these people in twos and threes on the trails on the campus, taking a leisurely walk and enjoying the beautiful sunshine in California.

However, when Gan Guohui hurried back to Palo Alto High School from San Francisco today, he found that the campus was eerily quiet, and there was no sign of anyone in the place where many people used to gather.

Recently, Gan Guohui felt that he was so busy that he couldn't even take care of food. Because he had to apply for a university, although his credits had been completed, some practical indicators were not enough, and his resume was not good enough, so he was looking for every opportunity to give Point yourself.

Today, this week, he was definitely going to watch his big cousin's game, but his mother in Washington called him and said that he had arranged for him to practice at a community social work station in San Francisco, so that he would have to do it every week. past three times.Today is the first day.

He had no choice but to rush to San Francisco alone early in the morning without even returning home. After finishing his work, he took the car back to Palo Alto in a dusty car. It was important to watch the game.

"fuc-k, why is the school so quiet? It's not even five o'clock, and it's not time for dinner yet?" Gan Guohui felt unusually unaccustomed to the empty school after entering the school, and always felt like he was dreaming. .

But he still walked quickly in the direction of the gymnasium. For Gan Guohui, the thing that worried him most during this period was not applying for college, but his cousin's basketball game and Sony's newly released game console.

Some time ago, Sony's new game console, Playstation, was released. He bought one with the pocket money he earned from part-time jobs without telling his father, and his big wish was fulfilled.Now, what he cares most about is Gan Guoyang's game.

When he gradually walked into the gymnasium of Palo Alto High School and saw the Viking pirate ship pattern painted on the top of the arena, a loud cheer seemed to lift off the roof of the gymnasium, which made the fat man jump. , almost stumbled.

"So loud? Big cousin dunked again?" Gan Guohui thought that every time Gan Guoyang dunked in a home game, he shouted more than anyone else, and he felt that big cousin must have some wonderful performances.

"Go and see! I don't know if Chen Xing has reserved a seat for me!" Gan Guohui couldn't hold back his impatience, and took three steps at a time, trotting all the way to the gymnasium shaking his fat.

It wasn't until Gan Guohui entered the gymnasium that he realized that, not to mention that Chen Xing had reserved a place for him, even Chen Xing probably couldn't find a place for himself.Because the entire gymnasium has no place to stand except for the playing field in the middle and the vertical walls.Even the auditorium aisle was packed with people.

Gan Guohui hurried around outside the crowd. Although he was tall, no matter how tall he was, he couldn't resist the crowd in front of him.So he had to take advantage of his large weight and began to squeeze in with his head down.

When Gan Guohui pushed forward desperately and was finally able to poke his head out to see the situation on the field, an unusually strong sense of tension and oppression came over his face.

At this time, the score on the field has reached 57:59, and the Vikings are two points behind!The Vikings in green jerseys are defending with all their might!

Gan Guohui didn't know what happened in the previous game, but the feeling of tension and oppression let him know that the game must be extremely fierce.

But in fact, the competition was not only fierce, but also tragic.

At the beginning of the second half, the Vikings scored 8 points in a row, forcing the Eagles to suspend. Bellman changed his defensive tactics again and decided to strangle the Eagles at any cost!

When the overall strength of the team is poor and the talent of the players is insufficient, fighting for the defense is the most helpless but also the most effective choice.

Bellman has already seen that the Eagles were not a particularly strong team in the past, and the reason why they won consecutive victories this year is because they have No. 20 rookie Payton, just like the Vikings have Gan Guoyang.

Then strangling Payton killed half of the Eagles' offense. Therefore, Behrman made a bold decision to let Gan Guoyang defend Payton!At the same time, the small forward was replaced, and the power forward Wiggis was replaced, playing three insides!

This defensive tactic can be said to have greatly exceeded the expectations of opponents, spectators, and even the Vikings' own players. Let the No. 5 center defend the opponent's No. 1 point guard?Isn't this letting the bear chase the mouse?

However, Bellman knew that Gan Guoyang was different from ordinary centers, such as Stanley.His lateral movement speed, reaction rate, and judgment ability have far surpassed the average high school inside player and reached the guard level.This is why Gan Guoyang can not only suppress the outside line, but also return to protect the inside line in time.

But this time, the Eagles' perimeter engine was really troublesome, so Behrman decided to ask Gan Guoyang to give up the interior protection, focus on the perimeter defense, and lock Payton!

So when the timeout ended and returned to the field, when the Eagles launched an attack from Payton, they found that Gan Guoyang was standing in front of Payton. Everyone was surprised, including Payton.

What surprised everyone even more was that Payton had no way to deal with the big spider Gan Guoyang.

Payton's own speed is not particularly fast, and after becoming famous in the future, he is not good at speed either.Instead, he became famous for his size of a normal No. [-] point guard, excellent rhythm control, good back feeling, and a big mouth that can't stop talking.

But now Payton is only in ninth grade, he is only 6 feet 2, his rhythm control has not been perfected, his back has not been developed, and even his trash talk has lost its effect, because he is facing Gan Guoyang.

No one thought that Gan Guoyang could not only keep up with Payton in terms of speed, but also that Payton's rhythm changes and foot movements were completely seen through by Gan Guoyang. It was as if his frequency code had been cracked, and Gan Guoyang could always stick to Payton every step of the way.

In this case, not to mention organizing an offense, whether the ball can be passed is a problem.

The other Vikings players defended a zone defense, so the entire Vikings resorted to a 1-4 zone defense, which was to strangle Payton to death.

Gan Guoyang did it, and the Eagles' offense was completely disrupted. Payton went from being an offensive engine in the first half to a porter who dribbled and handed over the ball in the second half.

Without Payton's go-between, the offense immediately dropped to a notch, and they can only rely on the personal abilities of other players and some small cooperation to attack piecemeal.

At the same time, Bellman also sent Wiggis, a power forward, to make up for the vacancy caused by Gan Guoyang's pull to the outside, to protect the rebounds in the backcourt with all his strength, and not to give the Eagles a second chance to attack.

However, this style of play has two disadvantages. One is Gan Guoyang's physical problems. As a 6-foot-9 center, he pulls to the perimeter and defends Payton all the time.

The second is the problem of offense, because Virgis came on and replaced the small forward, so the Vikings formed a strange formation with three inside and two outside.The Vikings' outside firepower and breakthrough impact have been greatly affected, and the entire team's offense has lost its three-dimensionality.

The only thing they can rely on on offense is Gan Guoyang.

Therefore, Gan Guoyang did the work of three people alone, acting as a point guard in defense, and a small forward and center in offense.

In the second half, the Vikings' offense had only one offensive routine except for a few defensive counterattacks-that is, to give the ball to Gan Guoyang for singles.All the other players put their main focus on defensive hand-to-hand combat and offensive rebounds, and all the shooting tasks were left to Gan Guoyang.

This can be said to be the ultimate use of star players, and it can even be said to be squeezing players.In the memory of Gan Guoyang's later generations, only Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett in the 2004 Western Conference Finals was even more terrifying than him, because Garnett played all five positions in one game .

But Gan Guoyang loves the feeling of resisting the team's progress. He has never forgotten his promise of "as a center, he must die inside".

When Gan Guohui arrived at the school, Gan Guoyang faced the three insiders of the Eagles in the interior, shot and robbed himself, and after shaking away two defenders, he pushed the ball into the basket against the third person and caused a foul by the opponent , Additional penalty, hit three points!

It was this goal that made the audience boil, made the Vikings' bench jump for joy, made the stadium seem to be about to be torn off, and made Gan Guohui almost fall.

After the extra penalty hit, the score was chased to 58:59, and the Vikings were only one point away!So far in the second half, the Eagles have only scored 12 points, while the Vikings have scored 25 points!Among them, Gan Guoyang contributed 18 points alone, and the total score has reached 37 points, which is close to two-thirds of the team!

"This guy is a fucking genius. I probably will never meet such a genius again in my life!" Bellman, who was nervously pacing back and forth on the sidelines, sighed again as he watched Gan Guoyang's performance.

At this time, there were less than 2 minutes left before the end of the game. In the first 18 minutes of the second half, the two teams scored only 37 points, which was even less than the Eagles scored 47 points in the first half.And judging from the current trend, it must not be surpassed.

It can be seen how fierce the two teams fought in the second half and how low the shooting rate was, but the Vikings made the Eagles' shooting rate even lower.

Just when Gan Guohui poked his head out from the crowd to see the situation on the field, Gan Guoyang already relied on his height and footwork advantages, and with the cooperation of Dipenbrook, he pushed Payton to the dead end of the midfield line.

The two corners of the midfield line and the two corners of the bottom line are minefields for attackers with the ball. Once they are forced in, they either make a mistake or make a random pass, and the team's offense will most likely be disrupted.

"Hey, work harder. If you work harder, you can break through my defense. What's wrong with you, little mouse shit, you have to work hard, we are about to catch up with you and kick your ass." Gan Guoyang forced Payton, while The mouth is not idle.

At this time, Payton didn't have the mind to confront Gan Guoyang. He had been forced to a corner and had no way to retreat. He had to use a high throw pass to pass the ball to the teammate who came to meet him.

However, Gan Guoyang's tall body and ape-like wingspan affected his vision and passing route, and Payton had to throw the ball very high in order to cross Gan Guoyang's Wuzhishan.

In this way, the passing route of the ball becomes curved and slow. Before the Eagles' responder can get the ball, a black shadow rushes out from the slanting stab and leaps up to fight for the ball in the air. It is William Si!

Although Williams is not tall, he has a strong continuous jumping ability. In addition, he made a surprise attack from behind and took the lead. Therefore, after two jumps, Williams grabbed the ball.A very critical steal!

Williams was like a wild horse running towards the opponent's basket with the ball, which is likely to be the game-tying ball!

But at this moment, the Eagles will not let the Vikings fast break to score. All the Eagles quickly returned to the defense and came to the basket to defend before Williams entered the paint.

After all, Williams is only a defender and not a striker. He lacks height, strength and speed. Seeing that the opponent has returned to the defensive position, he slows down, protects the ball in his hand, and prepares to organize a positional attack-although the Vikings are at this time The positional offense is to hand the ball to Gan Guoyang for singles.

At this time, Gan Guoyang had followed the Eagles' defenders, but he did not enter the inside line, but stopped at 45 degrees on the right wing.

There is a big gap there, because the entire eagle's defensive center of gravity has shrunk to the inside line, and only some obstacles have been set up at the top of the arc, while the 45 degrees and bottom corners are completely empty.However, the Vikings did not focus on the low-efficiency long-range shots from the outside because of this. Gan Guoyang's inside singles were their only reliance.

But now, Gan Guoyang stopped here, opening his hands to catch the ball.

Williams didn't think much about it. Now other Vikings players have formed the habit of passing the ball to Gan Guoyang whenever he wants the ball, no matter whether Gan Guoyang is inside or 20 feet away from the basket.

Gan Guoyang received the ball without anyone interfering, because no one thought he would shoot directly here, and everyone thought he was just here to help Williams make a transition, and then continue to enter the inside to attack.

But many people have forgotten that Gan Guoyang made a long shot in the first half and even mocked Payton for it.

There is one person who has not forgotten, and that is Dipenbrook. He knows that every day when Gan Guoyang stays, one of the extra training content in the training ground is that he must make 100 long-range shots, otherwise the training will not end.

"Gan! Shot (vote)!" Dippenbrock shouted, and he knew that this was the time for Gan Guoyang's sweat to pay off.

Gan Guoyang didn't hesitate, he gently bent his knees, raised his arms, bent his elbows, aimed, and shot!

Everything in the stadium is still, only the basketball in the air is flying, following a smooth and gentle curve, with a spin, falling towards the Eagles' basket.

"Shua!!" This is the most beautiful sound in the Palo Alto stadium, and it is also the detonator of the sound bomb in the Palo Alto stadium.

Go in!

Overtake!

Crazy!

Gan Guoyang raised his arms high, like a king, enjoying the cheers from his subjects, enjoying the rain of flowers and flying white doves.All the Vikings players wanted to rush forward to hug Gan Guoyang, this king-like man.

But at this time, there is still one person who is sober, and that is coach Behrman.

"Fuck me back to defense! Back to defense! The game is not over yet! Back to defense, back to defense!" Bellman roared loudly. 1 minute is enough for the two sides to fight back and forth!

After being equalized, the Eagles did not call a timeout, but seized the moment when the opponent was immersed in the joy of overtaking the score and relaxed, and quickly served the ball from the backcourt.After receiving the ball, Payton didn't care about 21 [-], and rushed straight to the opponent's half, trying to chase the Vikings.

Before Gan Guoyang could react from the joy of making a go-ahead goal, he found that a black shadow had passed him with the ball and ran towards his own basket!And Bellman's roar also reminded him that the game is not over yet!

"Never let the victory in your hand slip away!"

Gan Guoyang was the first to react among all the Vikings players. Like a train starting, he strode towards Payton in front of him.

Payton obviously felt that someone was chasing him from behind.Although he was defended miserably in the second half, he only relied on free throws and one shot to score 5 points, but did not have any assists.But he is worthy of being a future superstar, and he is unusually calm at this time.

He knows that he is not fast, and he will definitely be chased with the ball in his hand. At that time, he may take a risk.If you stop to protect the ball at this time and reorganize the half-court offense, then such a good fast break opportunity will be wasted.

So Payton took a bold chance, slowing himself suddenly but instead of changing direction, he continued to drive toward the rim.

In this way, when Payton entered the three-second zone, Gan Guoyang had already caught up.

But Payton did not choose to layup, but stopped suddenly when he was close to the basket, protecting the ball with both hands, waiting for Gan Guoyang to pounce.Obviously, he wanted to rely on fake moves to cheat Gan Guoyang's foul. If he could score, he would hit a three-pointer, not only to overtake again, but also to lead by 2 points.

If you fail to score, then there are still two free throw opportunities. Only one free throw can be scored to equalize the score and return to the same starting line.

It's a pity that although Gan Guoyang doesn't have much experience in playing games, he may have more experience in watching games than anyone else present, because there will be various live broadcasts in later generations.

When he saw Payton slowing down suddenly, he already guessed that this cunning guy wanted to cheat a foul so that he could remain invincible.

Therefore, when Gan Guoyang saw Payton raised his hand and pretended to shoot at the basket, he didn't jump at all, but rushed forward with his whole body, covering Payton!

Payton made three fake shots in a row, but none of them fooled Gan Guoyang.Gan Guoyang blocked Peyton like a big spider, never jumping up casually, never reaching out and digging.

"Beep beep!" At this time the whistle sounded, the referee stretched out three fingers, and then pointed at Payton, attacking for three seconds!

Payton stayed in the paint for too long and was whistled for a violation by the referee, which resulted in a turnover by the Eagles.At the same time, the Vikings have to make free throws.

The hearts of the audience were relieved once again, the twists and turns really frightened people.

When Gan Guoyang stood on the free throw line, the Eagles players felt that it would be difficult to turn the game over again.Only Payton was still nagging on the sidelines, trying to influence Gan Guoyang's free throws.

But Gan Guoyang didn't hesitate, and quickly shot the free throw. Before the ball flew to the basket, he turned around and left the penalty area, and ran to his backcourt.

At the same time, he said to Peyton, who had been yelling and cursing him behind him: "I wish you a good fucking day in Palo Alto."

"Swipe!" As soon as Gan Guoyang finished speaking, the ball went into the net hollow.

Payton knew the game was over.