March 11, 2010, Bank of Oklahoma Center (BOK Center), Tulsa, Oklahoma, America.
In the second round of the C-USA League playoffs, the Memphis Tigers vs. the Houston Cougars.
Under the dazzling lights, in the huge bright basketball court, a group of gorgeous cheerleading girls are dancing hard to the music...
The stadium was buzzing with people, and the sound of DJ music flooded into Li Kaiming's ears, constantly impacting his eardrums.
At this moment, he was sitting in one of the best seats in the game, at the end of the Tigers' bench, holding a blue and white Memphis-themed towel.
Li Kaiming, a former ESPN five-star high school student, ruptured his Achilles tendon in a high school game. Since then, he has suffered numerous injuries and has been reduced to a drinking fountain.
Two steps in front of him, a group of players wearing the same color jersey as him were surrounding a white man in his thirties.
This is new Tigers head coach Josh Pastner, who was brought in at the last minute this season.
Pastner was holding a tactical board and spraying spittle frantically at the surrounding players. His hand holding a pen kept waving in the air, and his face turned red from shouting too hard.
Clearly, he was in a very disturbed mood.
Li Kaiming raised his head and glanced at the score on the big screen.
At halftime, 30:35, the Tigers trailed by 5 points.
The NCAA game is only divided into two halves, each of 20 minutes, and each attack time is 35 seconds, so it seems to be only 5 points behind, but it is not easy to catch up!
Moreover, the Tigers are ranked second in the C-USA regular season this season, and the opposite Houston Cougars are only ranked seventh in the league. Although there is a fluke factor that determines the outcome, if they lose, it will be a disaster for all members of the Tigers. What a shame!
To make matters worse, just five minutes before the end of the first half, the Tigers' starting inside lineman, 209-foot-tall Angel Garcia, sprained his knee during a layup and unfortunately exited the game.
This makes the Tigers' situation even worse!
The main reason why the Tigers fell behind in the first half was that they couldn't guard against the arrow figure on the opposite side, the 188cm tall Aubrey Coleman!
Even though Coleman is less than 1.9 meters tall, he leads the NCAA scoring list with an average of 25.6 points per game this season. He is a real scorer!
The Tigers, who lost Garcia, were helpless in the face of Coleman's violent attack on the basket. Just five minutes after Garcia came off the court, the score was overtaken.
The balance of victory is gradually tilting towards Houston...
Pastner is very upset. With the current team configuration, no matter how the tactics are designed, they can only be changed on the offensive end. However, on the defensive end, without the center as the defensive core and the last barrier to protect the frame, there is no way to stop it. A breakthrough from the opposite side!
"Lack of height, what to do..." Pastner muttered.
The assistant coach Wesley Wilson next to him suddenly had an idea, "Josh, don't we have a guy on our team who's 2.1 meters tall? Why not let him go up and give it a try!"
Pastner's eyes lit up, "You mean, that yellow-skinned boy?" But then he shook his head, "How can you let a water-cooler player after a serious injury appear on the stage in such an important game? It's too risky. !”
Wilson shrugged helplessly, "Do we have any other options? With his height, standing in the penalty area is a threat without jumping!"
Pastner glanced at Li Kaiming, who was sitting at the end of the bench, chewing his nails, hesitated, and finally waved to Li Kaiming.
"Lee! Come here!"
Li Kaiming was stunned for a moment, and saw Pastner waving to him, and then he ran to the coach with the envious eyes of his teammates at the water dispenser next to him!
Seeing Pastner's hesitant and expectant eyes, Li Kaiming raised a question mark on his forehead, "Coach, what did you call me for?"
Pastner patted him on the shoulder, "Lee, go warm up, you start the second half! We need to protect our penalty area!"
Li Kaiming's eyes widened in disbelief!
Since the injury, his market price has been declining. In the end, only the Memphis Tigers reluctantly accepted him due to a sudden change in the offseason and insufficient manpower, but they only used him to fill the team roster.
This is the first time he has played in regular time since coming to the Tigers, and it is such an important game!
His body was shaking a little. Although injuries had smoothed his edges, he was once a brilliant genius. How could he be waving a towel on the bench with peace of mind?
Ding! Congratulations to the host for appearing at regular time, the system has been activated! It has been detected that the host's body has been severely injured, and the system has modified the host's body!
A gentle female voice suddenly sounded in his mind, scaring him to the core!
Damn it! What the hell!
At the same time, a warm current washed over his whole body. He only felt that his whole body was warm, as if he was soaking in hot spring water!
After the warm current passed, he was surprised to find that his fragile Achilles tendons, knees and other parts had recovered as before, and were even stronger than before!
A feeling of full strength came from every part of his body, and every muscle cell became extremely strong and powerful!
This feeling was something he had never felt before!
As his body recovered, the lost confidence returned to him.
He looked at Pastner firmly and nodded, "Don't worry, coach!"
Looking at Li Kaiming with his head held high, Pastner was also infected by his confidence. He nodded subconsciously and suddenly had an unrealistic idea in his heart: The person in front of him would help him win this game!
Then he shook his head mockingly.
How can it be! Instead of pinning your hopes on that Chinese boy, it is better to pray more to God!
beep!
The referee on the sidelines blew the whistle and the second half began!
Li Kaiming's appearance immediately attracted the attention of the commentator and the University of Houston!
The on-site commentator Calvin said to the guests next to him with a puzzled tone, "Memphis replaced a two-meter-one big man in the second half, Chinese player Li Kaiming No. 34! Is Pastner going to admit defeat?"
The black guest next to him joked, "Maybe Pastner thought the cheerleading team's performance was not exciting enough, so he asked him to come up and perform acrobatics!"
The interaction between the guests filled the entire arena with a cheerful atmosphere.
University of Houston coach Tom Penders shouted to Nick Mosley, the No. 4 player on the court, "Nick, pay attention to that Chinese boy!"
Mosley agreed nonchalantly!
Just kidding, it’s not like he doesn’t understand the Tigers’ players. That yellow-skinned boy is just a water dispenser. If he was really a master, would he be willing to take it out now?
The second half of the game begins!
The Tigers serve, and player No. 5, team point guard Willie Kemp, controls the ball and drives the ball to the frontcourt under the opponent's pressure!
When Li Kaiming saw Kemp waving to him, he moved up to block Kemp's defender, allowing Kemp to use his pick-and-roll to reach the free throw line.
Mosley, who was guarding him, completely retreated and chose to let him go to double-team Kemp.
Li Kaiming stood at the top of the arc and clapped his hands at Kemp! "Hey!"
Seeing that there was no chance for Kemp to make a layup, and other teammates were also on tight defense, Kemp passed the ball to Li Kaiming, preparing to reorganize the offense with a hand-off.
But what no one expected was that Li Kaiming, who received the ball, did not hesitate. Under the eyes of tens of thousands of people in the audience, he raised his hand and hit a three-pointer!
