This ti, during the tiout, the Chinese team’s morale skyrocketed to the peak!
Could it really be possible? This is insane... wait, it’s really possible to win!
Every player on the Chinese team was extrely excited. Even Yao Ming, who felt exhausted from playing a little earlier, suddenly felt energetic! He wanted to get back on the court to topple the Dream Eight!
The intimidating power of the Dream Team has diminished greatly after the last three world championships, but for the Chinese team, it makes no difference. Both the world’s top three and number one are towering peaks for them. Even Zhang Yang described what it would be like if they won this ga as ’seeing ghosts.’
Until now, the hope of winning has beco a reality. The USA team has been upset in the past three world championships, which finally affected the Chinese players. At this mont, the USA team’s intimidation vanished!
On the other side, the reactions of the USA team players varied.
Jas, Wade, Bosh, Anthony, Paul, Okafor, Howard: Here it cos again, that familiar feeling!
These 7 participated in the World Championship in Japan two years ago, where they were upset by Greece 101-95 in the semi-finals.
Except for Paul and Howard, the other five experienced being upset by Puerto Rico by 19 points in their first group stage ga at the Athens Olympics four years ago.
Walking onto the court with absolute confidence, the course of the ga completely surprised them. This wasn’t the first ti they experienced such things.
When a similar situation appeared again, these players didn’t react too violently.
Okafor showed no emotion, difficult to read his thoughts.
Jas and Howard, both fouled out with five fouls, could do nothing but resign.
Bosh just wanted to bury his head in the sand at this mont.
Wade and Paul, the third stars of the NBA, were highly competitive, but after playing hard throughout the ga and being overtaken in the final quarter, scenes of being defeated by teams like Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Argentina, and Greece flashed in their minds. They were dumbfounded at this mont.
The other five, Kidd was their solid rock, yet ineffective at critical monts, Felton was the third Point Guard, Iguodala couldn’t defend rookie Zhang Yang as a sophomore... Kobe saw his teammates’ bewildered expressions after the tiout, feeling terribly distraught.
Old Ironsmith: No, is this really the Dream Team I joined? When did the Dream Team beco like this? Before the Olympics, I bragged that we could beat Jordan’s Dream Team, and now you all team up against ?
The tiout ended quickly, and both teams made lineup adjustnts.
Coach K sent in Paul, Wade, Kobe, Anthony, and Bosh, deploying their most powerful lineup.
Yonas sent in Sun Yue, Zhang Yang, Zhu Fangyu, Yi Jianlian, and Yao Ming, also deploying the strongest lineup of the night.
The USA team attacked, Kobe broke through with the ball, drew a double-team, passed to Anthony, who tried to power his way inside, squeezing the defense further. The pair took turns breaking through, compressing the Chinese players under the basket.
Paul, Wade, and Bosh were all wide open on the periter!
With Anthony’s shooting space restricted, he instinctively passed the ball to the strongest among his seemingly open teammates...
Wade received the ball one step inside the three-point line, hesitated not, stepped back, moved to the top of the arc, and shot a three-pointer... missed!
Seeing the little giant grab the defensive rebound, Old Ironsmith said: If I pass to you again, I’m a fool!
In crucial monts when shooting from a distance is needed, don’t pass to Cheek just because you have no other choice, Agu! Use your jumps to take a jumper at close range, the scoring probability is much higher!
This play clearly showed why, although Anthony’s ability is superior to Pierce’s, his playoff evaluations are not as good.
In key monts, in terms of shooting accuracy, Anthony is not inferior to Pierce. But handling critical plays, he’s lacking.
Pierce is arrogant and boastful, but he indeed has that domineering spirit when hitting clutch shots.
As they switched from defense to offense, the adrenaline-pumped Yao Ming forcefully pushed Bosh under the basket, received a pass from Zhang Yang, turned around, and completed a two-handed dunk while Paul, draped across him, attempted to block.
The referee’s whistle blew, Paul’s defensive foul, Yao Ming got a chance for a bonus free throw!
As Yao Ming sank the bonus free throw, 113-109, the Chinese team extended their lead to 4 points!
When the USA team attacked, Paul handed the ball to Kobe just past half-court, surveying the field, realizing only Kobe could be relied upon at this point.
Kobe moved forward two steps and was quickly guarded by Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang’s defensive target was singular: block Kobe’s long-range attempts and ignore anything else, whatever the outco.
Facing Zhang Yang’s sticky and effective defense, Kobe was undaunted, using his strength to slide a step sideways, leaped for a shot in the face of Zhang Yang who imdiately closed back in, launching a forced, contested three-pointer with limited elevation... it’s in!
to 113, the point difference narrowed to 1 point!
In the next three possessions, the two teams were stuck on this 1-point difference.
First, Sun Yue received Zhang Yang’s pass and missed an open mid-range shot, then Kobe attempted a miracle shot from the previous play but was disturbed by Zhang Yang and missed as well; in the next possession, Yao Ming stepped out for a mid-range shot and missed, and Bosh’s three-pointer from the sideline was also off the mark; in the following play, Yi Jianlian cut in, received the ball, and shot over Kobe who was helping to defend, but unfortunately, it rimd out. Fortunately, Kobe drove down to the free-throw line, faced strong defense from Zhang Yang, Yi Jianlian, and Sun Yue, forced a mid-range shot but also missed.
It’s the Chinese team’s turn to attack, Yao Ming eased through a few plays, once again fell to the low post for a back-down play, attracted the double team then passed out to Sun Yue, Sun Yue didn’t shoot, instead, he waited a bit before passing the ball...
Zhang Yang moved to the right side of the top arc using Yi Jianlian’s screen, received Sun Yue’s pass, faced Anthony’s defensive switch, took a step back for a three-pointer... and made it! Finally scored!
to 112, the Chinese team widened the point difference to 4 points again!
Coach K was not feeling well. If Jas or Howard hadn’t been fouled out, this ball couldn’t say for sure it could be defended, but it would have definitely disrupted Zhang Yang more.
Jas could circle the post faster and hold onto Zhang Yang; Howard protected the rim, Bosh played power forward defending off-ball screens, his enthusiasm was much higher than Anthony’s, at least Anthony wouldn’t watch Zhang Yang take a step back to make space and not press up, even if the hand wouldn’t be able to disrupt, pressing up would force Zhang Yang to release the ball quicker.
Zhang Yang broke the scoring drought for both teams, it ca to the U.S. team’s attack, Kobe urgently hit a pull-up jump shot, bringing the score to 114 to 116.
It’s the Chinese team’s turn to attack again, Yao Ming continued to fall to the low post to attract double teams, passed out to Sun Yue.
This ti, Anthony finally was aggressive on the defensive switch and successfully fronted Zhang Yang after the screen, but Sun Yue didn’t pass, seeing Anthony stretched his arms to block the passing lane while pressing up towards Zhang Yang, he directly turned, took a mid-range jumper... and made it!
Back to the U.S. team’s offense, with the ti ticking down to just over a minute, Paul was getting a bit anxious.
Yi Jianlian had already left Bosh unmarked, ready to double-team Kobe with Zhang Yang at any ti.
Anthony, like at the club, has a strong ability for clutch plays, but at crucial monts Iverson had to be the main attacker, Anthony just foolishly watched from the side, and tonight’s the sa, with Kobe attacking, Anthony was on the side shouting "666".
This reminded Paul of last season’s playoffs, when Kobe had a showdown with Iverson and Ray Allen, and Anthony said in an interview after the ga, "Watching them duel was a pleasure," Paul was bewildered at the ti, seeing the situation, shouldn’t he have thought about joining Iverson and Ray Allen to fiercely hamr Kobe? How could he enjoy being an onlooker?
Just like now, Paul was thinking, Kobe was heavily defended, Anthony’s competitive spirit wasn’t enough, the Chinese team was collectively shrinking Wade couldn’t penetrate, Bosh wasn’t reliable for crucial shots... he, the Cannon brother, prepared to stand up and solve the problem!
Paul went one-on-one with Sun Yue, dribbled rapidly, then suddenly launched to the left, retracting the ball and shaking Sun Yue into stepping back, then took a side-step, shot a three-pointer...
Paul played this ball with determination and firmness, even Kobe who didn’t get the ball didn’t have any dissatisfaction, but rather cheered internally, clenched his fist watching the ball fly... and it bounced off the neck of the basket.
Yao Ming blocked Anthony who was rushing in for the rebound, stood still and grabbed the rebound, turned around and threw a long pass...
Kobe, who had just witnessed the missed shot, called out oh no at the movent, even couldn’t care about how the Cannon brother’s crucial shot was so off the mark, turned around to chase with all his might... too late.
Zhang Yang decided to take a gamble, the mont Paul launched his shot he initiated a fast break!
But he wasn’t unnoticed, Wade also charged out from a 45-degree angle on the left side at the first mont, Zhang Yang just received the ball outside the three-point line, only to be tightly glued by Wade!
The trailing three-pointer was gone, Zhang Yang didn’t stop, drove into the inside with Wade pressing closely.
Wade couldn’t rush ahead of Zhang Yang, it wasn’t due to a lack of speed, but rather to better cover Zhang Yang’s trailing three-pointer, but this also led to not being able to block Zhang Yang’s breakthrough and could only closely follow.
Zhang Yang rushed to close range, picked up the ball, and went airborne for a layup.
Wade suddenly sprang up trying to block... hit Zhang Yang’s arm!
The sound of the referee’s whistle and the ball swooshing through the net reached Wade’s ears simultaneously, landing on his butt on the court and didn’t want to get up!
Too embarrassing, a play featuring 3 NBA stars wearing number 3 jerseys, but two of them beca the backdrop for another number 3 star’s highlight!
Paul ran over to extend his hand, only then did Wade climb up off the court.
At this mont, after a high-five with the trailing Yi Jianlian, Zhang Yang turned around to face the two number 3s, spreading his arms and said:
"Chris, Dwayne, Beijing welcos you!"
After speaking, Zhang Yang turned around again and walked to the free-throw line amid the cheers of the on-site fans.
More than 30,000 fans cheered, suddenly soone began shouting "MVP", and others followed along, from chaotic to neat and uniform!
Paul and Wade looked at Zhang Yang’s smug handso face, seething in impotent rage.
At this mont, the the song of this Olympic Gas rang out... seeing Zhang Yang’s lip shape in the close-up on the live broadcast, the director imdiately cut to this song!
Paul and Wade’s ntality exploded on the spot, this song, since they ca to China for more than a month, they heard it every day, they asked about the song’s na, it was exactly the trash talk Zhang Yang had just said to them!
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