Toyotama, which originally planned to catch up by increasing the pace, seems to be accelerating its death.
Touou's coach Mingshan Muramasa was extremely anxious when he saw that the players on the field did not slow down their offensive speed as the score gap gradually widened. However, he still did not choose to call a timeout at this time, but quietly watched the players struggling on the court.
The players of Touou were too arrogant. Even when facing a team like Xiangbei, and even though they were behind by nearly 20 points, their players were still full of fighting spirit, and their offensive speed did not drop at all. Mingshan Muramasa knew very well that if he called a timeout at this time, it would discourage the Touou players.
Given the current state of the players, even if a timeout is called, these players will not listen to him properly after returning to the rest area. They may even complain that he, the coach, called a timeout at this time to interrupt their "counterattack".
As for whether Touou can really counterattack, it is not important. What is important is that the Touou players themselves feel that they are counterattacking!
Touou has the ball. On the court, Nan Lie takes advantage of Kishimoto Minoru's high pick-and-roll and successfully gets a chance to shoot. Jinguji Takeshi is slightly blocked by Kishimoto and fails to follow up immediately. He can only watch Nan Lie shoot from a high position.
"Shua!" With a slight sound, Nan Lie made a shot. After successfully scoring the ball, Nan Lie quickly called on the players to start returning to defense.
Jinguji Wudao didn't care about the gain or loss of a ball. After all, even Wudao couldn't hold Nan Lie scoreless. After all, the boy was smart and didn't have the guts to force his way through Wudao's defense. After losing two goals at the beginning and realizing the gap between them, Nan Lie knew how to call for help from his teammates.
"Come on, hit this ball back!"
Miyagi Ryouta controlled the ball and slowly advanced to the front court, shouting to his teammates as he walked. Miyagi Ryouta, who had been concentrating on the court, did not realize that he was almost replaced by Coach Anzai. At this time, in the Xiangbei rest area, Mumu Gongting, who had just finished warming up, had already sat back on the bench.
Coach Anxi had no intention of substituting him.
With Budo's reminder, Xiangbei began to consciously control the speed of their attack. It took Miyagi Ryouta six or seven seconds to bring the ball across half court, and then he chose to pass the ball sideways to Mitsui Shou.
Mitsui Shou who had the ball was not in a hurry, he was waiting for the gap in attack with the ball. Wudao saw that Mitsui Shou had no intention of passing the ball, so he ran to his side to help set a pick-and-roll.
With the pick-and-roll by Budo, Mitsui Shou was even less anxious to break through. With the help of Budo's screen, he moved along the three-point arc to the top of the arc. Seeing that the opponent was unable to defend him immediately, he shot directly from outside the three-point line after reaching the top of the arc.
Touou's defense was a bit of a mess in Budou's opinion. They used a standard 23 zone defense with only two defensive players on the perimeter. However, Shohoku's perimeter offensive players were Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Hisashi. No matter who they were, they could easily beat their opponents in a one-on-one confrontation.
Now the two even started to screen each other, which gave the offensive player with the ball plenty of time to adjust his shooting posture, and Mitsui saw Toyotama concentrate his defensive power inside, so he had no intention of rushing to the basket, choosing a long-range shot as the finishing method.
"Swish!" With a slight sound, the basketball flew across half of the court and fell into the net.
After Mitsui scored a goal, Budo celebrated with a high-five from the opponent with a smile, and then began to retreat quickly.
"If the game continues like this, it will be easy to win."
"Xiao San has already started shooting, and Nan Lie has suffered a loss at my hands before, so he won't let me go to defend Xiao San."
"As long as we continue to use this style of play, Mitsui Shou's offensive power will be completely unleashed."
"Relying on his firepower, it is enough to support Xiangbei!"
Wu Dao thought in his heart and began to direct his teammates to move. Without the opportunity for a fast break, Feng Yu continued to dribble the ball across half court, and then the basketball was passed to Nan Lie.
As soon as Nan Lie caught the basketball, Jinguji Budou appeared in front of him, blocking Nan Lie's sight with one hand and raising the other hand in a defensive posture.
"Damn... this bastard!"
Nan Lie was somewhat annoyed by Wu Dao's defense. Although he scored a few goals with the help of his teammates, he had not scored a few points against Wu Dao so far. When he played in the county tournament in Osaka, his average score was 36 points per game, but today's game had already lasted more than ten minutes, and he only scored 5 points in total.
If he were a marginal role player, getting five points would be very good, but he is not a role player, he is the main scorer of Touou High School, and he is the team's ace with the most ball possession. So what does it mean to only get 5 points
Moreover, at this point in the game, Nan Lie has clearly realized that if he cannot rely on his own strength to score against Jinguji Budo, the defeat of Touou High School is only a matter of time. He will never allow this to happen!
He also wanted to use the run-and-gun tactics to lead Touou to win the national championship to clear the name of Coach Kitano. He would never allow Touou to lose here, in the second round of the national competition.
"If you're brave enough, come and try to defend yourself!"
Nan Lie became determined and quickly broke through. At the same time, his breakthrough movement became bigger. He dropped the ball with his right hand and raised his elbow with his left hand, which was not a very obvious movement. If the referee was not standing too far away, this action would definitely be called a foul. Unfortunately, the referee was standing a little far away and did not notice Nan Lie's small movement.
Nan Lie's original intention was to use this action to force Wudao not to pursue and defend at the first time, but just as he dropped the ball and broke through, Jinguji Wudao's figure quickly appeared in front of him.
"Bang!"
With a dull sound, Wu Dao, who was calm and composed, was hit in the chest by Nan Lie's elbow. At the moment when the huge force poured into Wu Dao's chest, the powerful recoil was also transmitted to Nan Lie.
Nan Lie's dribbling rhythm was affected, and Wudao rushed forward to try to steal the ball, but the alert Nan Lie hugged the ball in his arms, stood firm and quickly passed the ball.
“This guy... he was clearly hit by my elbow just now! How is he still able to catch up with me?” Nan Lie looked at the dark and plain Jinguji martial arts in front of him, his heart trembling.
He originally just wanted to scare Wu Dao, hoping that the other party would not follow up immediately, but what he didn't expect was that Wu Dao seemed not to notice that he raised his elbow. Not only did he rush up without any hesitation, but he almost completed the steal. This was something Nan Lie never expected.
"Irregular basketball... I experienced it when I was in junior high school."
"Besides, your level is too childish, Nan Lie!"
Wu Dao seemed to have noticed Nan Lie's surprise. While watching Kishimoto Miri who was coordinating the attack with his teammates in the distance, he stood in front of Nan Lie to prevent him from getting the ball.
He was not a skinny young man like Fujima. If Fujima was the one defending Nan Lie, he might have been hit in the head or chin by this elbow and lost his fighting ability. But Wudao was much taller than Nan Lie, and his hidden elbow could only hit his chest at most.
And to be honest, the elbow strike just now seemed very powerful to Nan Lie, but when it really hit Wu Dao, it was not even as powerful as Shigong Tianye's standard back strike.
The way that guy was beaten was truly terrifying. If we only talk about strength, every time the opponent attacked from behind, the force was much stronger than Nan Lie's elbow. That bastard Sigong Tianye could only push Wu Dao away and couldn't make Wu Dao afraid of physical confrontation. Nan Lie wanted him to retreat with such an elbow attack? How is this possible!
Nan Lie did not respond. He glanced at Wu Dao and remained silent. He stood aside and watched the players attack.
"Ding!" As Touou's center missed the shot against Akagi's defense, the rebound was taken by Chiba, and Shohoku started to counterattack.
During the counterattack, Xiangbei no longer suppressed the speed of attack, and it didn't take long for everyone to rush to the frontcourt. The basketball was passed from Miyagi to Wudao, who received the ball and ignored the pursuit of Nan Lie and others, cut into the basket and easily scored a layup.
His jumping ability and height far exceeded Nan Lie's. Even if Nan Lie returned to defense immediately, he would not be able to have any impact on Wu Dao who had already gathered the ball.
As the basketball went into the net, cheers broke out from the audience.
Nan Lie glanced at the scoreboard, which was dark and gloomy.
After switching from offense to defense, Touou High School started attacking again.
As they entered the front court, the basketball once again came into Nan Lie's hands. This time, there was no hesitation on Nan Lie's face. Jinguji Budo's words not only angered him, but also made him completely lose his scruples.
"Snap!" As the basketball fell, Nan Lie stood up and broke through. His ball protection was no longer a problem of irregular movements. Instead, he blatantly raised his elbow, raising it high and hitting Jinguji Takeshi's face hard.
However, to his surprise, the sudden elbow strike during his breakthrough did not hit Wu Dao. It was clearly about to hit the opponent's face, but Wu Dao's head suddenly tilted back and easily avoided his elbow strike.
Although the elbow attack was unsuccessful, Nan Lie also got the opportunity to break through and moved towards the inside with the ball. Before he even got close to the inside, he couldn't wait to shoot.
However, just as Nan Lie raised the basketball above his head, the figure of Jinguji Takeshi suddenly appeared in front of him. He jumped up and grabbed the basketball with a slap. Takeshi in the air suddenly lowered his eyes and looked at Nan Lie. He could have easily caught the basketball in his hand, but he slapped it away.
And the place where the basketball fell was exactly where Nan Lie had just thrown the basketball!
"Bang!" Nan Lie was caught off guard and hit on the head by the basketball. The huge force made his proud head lower.
After landing, Jinguji Budo ignored Nan Lie, and directly passed him, picked up the basketball that fell in the distance, and ran towards the front court. Budo, who had completely accelerated, was like entering an empty space, ignoring the Toyotama people who were chasing and defending, and dunked the ball in the front court, pouring his anger on the Toyotama basket.
Once again, the people of Touou finally showed a bit of dejection on their faces after watching Budo score a goal. They had tried very hard, but the score gap was not narrowed, but widened by Xiangbei instead.
Nan Lie, who failed to hit the opponent with his elbow and was hit on the head by the basketball, just stood there in a daze.
A little confused.
“Why….Why?!”
Nan Lie shouted in his heart, his face gloomy and somewhat distorted.
"Beep!" With a long whistle, the referee's voice rang out in the field.
"Touou High School, requesting a timeout!"
When everyone in Touou heard their coach call for a timeout, they all looked towards Naoyama Muramasa. Naoyama's coach had a serious look on his face. He noticed that Touou's morale had been shaken by Jinguji Budo's repeated blows.
He also knew that the time for a pause had finally arrived, but this time came a little too late!
Nan Lie seemed not to have heard his coach's request for a timeout. He was staring at Jinguji Takeshi in the distance, with flames in his eyes. If looks could kill, Jinguji Takeshi would have been killed by Nan Lie hundreds of times by now.
After hearing the timeout, Wudao walked off the court. He felt the gazes behind him, turned his head and saw Nan Lie staring at him, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Although I don't hate bad kids, malicious elbows and small actions are still different."
"Going for defense and going for injury have different starting points."
"Nan Lie, if Coach Kitano is watching your game, he will probably be very disappointed!"
Wu Dao looked at Nan Lie from afar, thinking secretly in his heart, and then returned to the rest area with his teammates.
Nan Lie on the other side was also pulled back to the rest area by his teammates. Toyotama's coach Mingshancunzheng looked around at the dejected players and couldn't help but sigh softly.
He was feeling a bit complicated. Just before the timeout, he was also examining his behavior. Should he have called the timeout earlier? The score difference was so big now. Was there really a chance for Toyoda to make up the score? If he called the timeout regardless of the possibility that his teammates might scold him, would these players listen to his advice
"At this point, there's no point in thinking about this anymore."
"Play every ball well, that's what we need to do next!"
As the Touou players walked back to the recreation area, Touou's coach Mingshan suppressed his guilty conscience and stopped thinking about it.
However, the players had just returned to the rest area, and the words that came out of their mouths did make Coach Mingshan's guilt suddenly disappear.
"Hey! Why are you calling for a timeout all of a sudden?!"
"Can't you see we are trying to catch up?"
"You called a timeout now, don't you think we're lagging behind too much and want to teach us a lesson?!"
"Tell you, you are not qualified!"
Although Kishimoto Miri was only a sophomore, she was not polite at all in front of Coach Meishan and shouted directly at the coach.
These words blurted out made Coach Mingshan frown in displeasure.
"Boy, if you still want to win, shut up!"
"You little brats, it's because of your temper that Touou High School can't get any closer!"
"Unknown small fish like Xiangbei have put us in trouble."
"Even now, you still don't have any reflection?!"
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