For Gan Guoyang, the game has not really begun yet.
Since the pre-match warm-up of both sides, Gan Guoyang has been observing his opponent Lihua Middle School.
The average height of the team is not high, but they are well-organized and have uniform hairstyles. They are obviously a well-trained collective team, and they will most likely play fast.
If you want to completely defeat such a team, you must destroy their collective nature, and it is best to fall into fighting on their own.
Five minutes after the game started, Gan Guoyang observed that the opposite No. 5 point guard Wang Tianduo was the core of Lihua Middle School's offense.
He is very experienced in controlling the ball, astute in defense, and even tricked Gan Guoyang with a pass from behind.
Everyone else follows his lead and is the unquestionable brains of the team.
Gan Guoyang has already set his sights on him.
But before dealing with Wang Tianduo, what Gan Guoyang did in the first five minutes was to build confidence in his teammates and eliminate nervousness.
In 5 minutes, he did not take the initiative once. Instead, he kept giving Chen Xing, Xu Xun and others opportunities to take action. He was responsible for providing offensive rebound support.
With Gan Guoyang's continuous rebound control in the interior, Chen Xing and others gradually no longer feared and hesitated, but boldly took action, regardless of whether he scored or not, someone could grab it anyway.
Gan Guoyang showed his huge advantages in speed, strength and agility.
He remembered that when he was developing characters in 2K, rebounding was the next improvement after strength, shooting, and blocking.
In addition to physical fitness, rebounding is actually the most important thing is the brain and the desire to rebound.
Anticipation before taking action and flexible and precise positioning are more important than bounce and height.
Gan Guoyang seemed to be able to predict the direction of the ball. He was always able to position himself in advance and control the offensive rebounds in the hands of two or three opponents.
This is due to his observation of his teammates, Chen Xing, Daxiong, Xu Xun, Gan Guohui... Gan Guoyang knows their shooting characteristics well.
Who tends to shoot big, who tends to shoot short, whose arc is relatively straight, and who always hits the front basket.
These all affect the direction of the ball, and in turn affect Gan Guoyang's position.
Everything happened silently in his mind, and no one knew how he found the ball's landing point.
Most people would think that it is just because he is the tallest, has long arms and is strong.
Consecutive losses of backcourt rebounds were a huge blow to the morale of Lihua Middle School. The advantage they had with two steals and successful counterattacks in the opening game was quickly lost after they lost rebounds again and again.
The coach of Lihua Middle School kept reminding the players to grab rebounds and get in position in advance, so as not to let No. 11 get the rebound easily.
But Lihua's two insiders knew in their hearts that No. 11 was not only tall and had long arms, but he was also very fast, extremely agile, and had an unusual sense of rebounding.
"He is not a player of the same level as us at all. He is playing with us."
The senior players from Lihua Middle School, who had a clear mind, watched a lot of football, and were relatively experienced, already had a premonition that they would not be able to beat Beiqiao in this game.
In a high school team, a highly capable insider is decisive. No matter how you resist, it will be difficult to be your opponent.
Of course, players who are younger and have drive and passion in their bones think that the game is still early and has just begun.
This is what Wang Tianduo thinks. He is a sophomore in high school this year. He is 15 years old. He started playing basketball in elementary school and entered Lihua High School to become the core of the team.
His ideal is to enter the University of San Francisco and become a Chinese college player who can play in the NCAA.
He has also heard about Gan Guoyang recently. He has never watched Gan Guoyang play. He only knows that everyone is amazed and says that this man is the hope of Chinese basketball.
Young people are always unconvinced on the court. He listened too much to others before the game. He got bored and wanted to defeat Gan Guoyang.
After the confrontation between the two sides, he discovered that Gan Guoyang was really strong.
He has already blocked two shots in the paint. This guy blocks shots very well, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a chance.
"Hey! Wang Tianduo, did you hear what I said? We need to be more patient when attacking."
Wang Tianduo nodded, but he didn't listen to what the coach said. He was just thinking about how to deal with Gan Guoyang on the court later.
The timeout ended and the game continued. Xu Xun stood on the free throw line and made two free throws. Beiqiao already led 10:6.
Wang Tianduo dribbled the ball across half court to organize the offense.
In the 1980s, when there was no three-point line, positional offense was very small.
Outside players generally dribble with a higher center of gravity, which is suitable for pull-up jump shots and back-turn attacks.
His dribbling skills are also unpretentious. He habitually turns sideways and protects the ball with his butt, because the defender can reach out to interfere.
Breaking through is a difficult thing. There will always be a big man standing there under the basket. It is not easy to challenge him.
Street crossovers, wide swings, and continuous crotch dribbling were not carried into campus games, and coaches did not allow players to play like that.
In Gan Guoyang's view, these players from Lihua Middle School are too slow. From center to defender, he can easily keep up with anyone.
He can even deliberately leave the basket, leaving a gap for the opponent to break into the basket, and then suddenly intervene to reward the opponent with a big block.
This is fishing defense.
But when he showed his flaw this time, Wang Tianduo used the screen to get to the basket, used his speed to get rid of Gan Guoyang's defense, and succeeded in a layup!
After scoring the goal, Wang Tianduo breathed a sigh of relief. He seized the gap and was not afraid of Gan Guoyang's block.
Gan Guoyang looked normal, serving silently, and then continued to act as an offensive rebounder in the offense.
Beiqiao's offense is very simple. When Gan Guoyang doesn't attack in the low post, Chen Xing and Xu Xun take turns rushing in with the ball.
If he rushes in and scores, he scores. If he fails to score, Gan Guoyang will grab offensive rebounds, tip-in or pass to his teammates.
Others would throw half a basket when they had the opportunity, but if Gan Guoyang didn't score, he would still steal it.
It's so simple and crude, but it has always dominated Lihua Middle School and maintained an advantage of about 5 points.
Gan Guoyang looked a little tired from playing like this and kept grabbing rebounds, but the offensive efficiency of his teammates was really not high.
For Lihua Middle School, Wang Tianduo became the player with the highest offensive success rate in the team.
He repeatedly made layups inside and scored 8 points in a row, helping Lihua Middle School hold on to the score.
During a timeout in the first half, Bellman asked Gan Guoyang: "Keep an eye on that No. 5. You have been jumped by him several times. How is your speed?"
Gan Guoyang said: "He can pass the ball, and I have to keep an eye on his teammates."
"Seal it completely, you have the ability!"
"I know, I will do it, don't worry."
When Bellman faced Gan Guoyang, he felt like his fist was hitting cotton.
This is the first time he has coached such a player. It feels like he listens to you in everything, but in fact he doesn't listen at all.
He didn't understand why Gan Guoyang didn't attack on his own and why he didn't lock down his opponent defensively.
At the Excel in basketball training camp, when training within the team, as long as he is willing, the opponent's offense will completely stop.
Lihua High School is indeed well-trained and has pretty good players, but it is a third- or fourth-rate school in San Francisco and does not have very talented players.
Bellman glanced with his eyes and knew that none of them would play in the NCAA Division I in the future, let alone the NBA.
Oh, if that No. 5 grows taller, he might be able to play in the second level of college.
At the end of the first half, Beiqiao Middle School led Lihua High School by 5 points at 29:24.
Gan Guoyang scored 11 points and grabbed 21 rebounds, including 12 offensive rebounds...
Bellman took the statistics in the dilapidated locker room and said to Gan Guoyang: "If you attack the basket directly with these 12 offensive rebounds, the points you get will be twice as high as now!"
Gan Guoyang shrugged and said: "What about my teammates? Besides, what is the difference between winning by 100 points and winning by 1 point?"
Bellman had nothing to say. He felt that the game seemed to be under Gan Guoyang's control.
At this time, a mouse ran out of the locker, startling everyone.
The guy who was afraid of the mouse even screamed, but Gan Guoyang stepped forward and stepped on the mouse's tail.
After letting it struggle for a while, he picked it up and threw it out of the locker room.
"Let it go, I won't eat it either," Gan Guoyang said.
And a thought flashed through Behrman's mind:
Gan Guoyang is like a cat, playing with the mouse he caught.
Lihua Middle School is that mouse.
And this is just the first official game of his career.
At the beginning of the second half, Gan Guoyang decided to end the game.
He once again exposed a flaw in his defense and vacated the three-second zone to lure Wang Tianduo for a layup.
Wang Tianduo scored a team-high 13 points in the first half, 2 points more than Gan Guoyang, but only had one assist.
He believed that this game was a duel between the two of them, a battle between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Irving.
When he reached the basket with the ball again, this time his layup was firmly blocked by Gan Guoyang.
The ball was still in his hand and he didn't make a move. He was knocked down from the air while carrying the ball and fell heavily to the ground.
The referee did not call a foul, it was a good ball, and Gan Guoyang snatched the ball away.
Gan Guoyang did not pass the ball to Chen Xing this time, but dribbled the ball through half court himself.
He was very fast, like a speeding heavy truck, and no one dared to stop him.
Dribbling breakthroughs throughout the game, he reached the basket and succeeded in a one-arm gliding dunk!
Kezar Stadium erupted in thunderous cheers, and even the students of Lihua Middle School couldn't help but exclaim.
After scoring, Gan Guoyang silently ran back to the backcourt and directed his teammates to defend.
Wang Tianduo's head was buzzing. He didn't believe in evil. When he saw a gap under the basket, he rushed in again. This time he slowed down, adjusted sideways, and continued to fake shots, but he did not deceive Gan Guoyang.
The ball was dead, Gan Guoyang immediately came up, and Wang Tianduo could only pass the ball out.
When his teammates attack, he has no feel at all when shooting and misses.
Their collective offense was destroyed, and there were no decent positional battles in the first half.
Gan Guoyang got the backcourt rebound and gave it to Chen Xing, indicating that he wanted to hit one.
After halftime, Gan Guoyang blocked the defender in the low post, received the ball, and reached the position very close to the basket.
Chen Xing made a timely lob pass, caught the ball, turned around and dunked the basket with both hands without any resistance from the defender.
There is no way to resist, the power gap is too big.
Although Gan Guoyang did not practice strength after training to prevent excessive strength training from causing the bone seams to close and grow low.
But his talent made his strength second to none. Only then did the defenders feel that the first half was just a joke.
Wang Tianduo refused to give up. He didn't realize this, so he held the ball and rushed towards the flaw for the third time.
This time he chose a pull-up jump shot from close range, and then a big slap came closer and closer, knocking off his shot in the air.
Then the ball dropped and fell into the hands of Gan Guoyang. He made a super long pass to the frontcourt with one hand. Chen Xing rushed to the basket to catch the ball and made an easy layup.
At the beginning of the second half, Beiqiao Middle School beat Lihua 6:0, and Lihua requested a timeout!
Only then did Wang Tianduo realize that the consecutive breakthroughs in the first half were nothing more than a trap for his opponent, a psychological trap.
He thought he could compete with them based on his personal ability, but he ended up neglecting the team organization.
Their original tacit understanding gradually turned into a mess due to lack of cooperation.
In the second half, as soon as Gan Guoyang exerted his strength and raised his hand, they were about to be blown away in the wind.
For a 15-year-old boy, he was gradually breaking down mentally.
He realized that this No. 11 was a monster that he could not look up to on the court.
