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墨書 Inktalez
The gymnasium of Yuhai High School seems to have been renovated, giving it a completely new feel. I had never been here before. Yuhai High School's record in the group matches is four wins and two losses, having only been defeated twice by He Jiang Zhu Ke. It seems they have some strength. Both of our groups are quite uneven in terms of skill, with all four qualifying teams advancing a round early. I wonder how intense the competition is in Group D.
After we arrived, we went straight into the locker room. Kobe and Zhou Wenming were participating in their first match with our Yulin Team, so they were a bit nervous, whispering to each other. Our team only has twelve spots available, and after A Fei's injury, we had only one spot left. Therefore, we had to cut Zhang Yong, a rarely used bench player. After a brief adjustment, we walked out of the locker room and onto the court. The players from Yuhai High School were all surprised and gasped, "Isn't that the Twin Stars from Thirteen Middle School? How did they end up in Yulin..." I heard them discussing this; it's rare to see such a combination.
We started the game with me, Ouyang, Zhou Wenming, Li Kanglin, and Lu Yinghao as the starters. Kobe was ready to substitute for Ouyang. Zhou Wenming jumped against the opposing forward for the tip-off, which we won. Ouyang received the ball and passed it to me. I drove straight into the opponent's paint while Zhou Wenming quickly ran over to set a screen for me. I went up for a layup and scored. Zhou Wenming's experience is truly impressive; players like him are exactly what we need. We relied on this pick-and-roll strategy to score repeatedly, catching our opponents off guard with a quick 7-0 lead. The opposing coach quickly called a timeout to adjust their strategy. After stepping off the court, Teacher Qiu high-fived each of us, saying, "Wenming has integrated well with our team; I hope everyone maintains this chemistry. Jie, you should focus on playing from this side..." Teacher Qiu took out a tactics board to explain our strategy while our secret weapon Kobe was laughing with Tu Lei and Wei Weiwei; he seemed to be getting along well with everyone.
After re-entering the court, Domain Sea's tactical adjustments proved effective as they began to spread their offense. Our defense lacked focus on key players, allowing them to launch a strong counterattack with five players scoring in rotation. We couldn't figure out their next offensive point. We played through one quarter with a score of 76. Although we were leading, it felt unjust considering we had initially led 7-0.
As we stood up to prepare for the second quarter, Teacher Qiu turned to the bench: "Kobe, you're replacing Ouyang." Upon hearing this, Kobe stood up, nodded, took off his long sleeves, and high-fived Ouyang as he sat down on the bench. After returning to the court, the opponent had possession for their inbound play. The opposing point guard started organizing their offense after receiving the ball. I stepped forward to block him; he used a quick crossover step to drive past me while I retreated closely behind him. Suddenly he passed behind his back to his shooting guard who caught it just outside the three-point line and shot—he made it! 79—this was our first time trailing in the game.
I glanced at Kobe; surprisingly he had a slight smile on his face. After our inbound play, I organized our offense again while Zhou Wenming moved around near the paint. Li Kanglin and Lu Yinghao held off two of their inside players while Kobe lurked behind their shooting guard waiting for an opportunity. Suddenly Kobe signaled me with his eyes; I understood immediately and took two steps forward before passing directly to him. Kobe quickly emerged from behind their shooting guard and received the ball before immediately passing it back to Zhou Wenming who caught it and scored easily after three steps. I ran over to high-five him; I thought he was eager to score but it turned out he was quite selfless—the ball was just a transition for him.
In subsequent possessions, Kobe handled transitions excellently; he aimed simply to execute every offensive play regardless of whether he scored or not. The opposing shooting guard consistently misjudged his intentions thinking he would shoot instead of pass; thus Kobe frequently used incredibly realistic fakes to deceive opponents and score points. By halftime we managed to tie the score at 59-59; Kobe and Zhou Wenming only scored eight points combined that quarter but... Kobe provided five assists while Zhou Wenming recorded three blocks. At halftime I had impressive stats: 15 points, seven assists, and several steals—it felt like I was the only shining star in all of Yulin.
We entered the locker room where I sat with Kobe, Ouyang, and Zhou Wenming together. I joked, "Looks like this Jade Unicorn Three Swordsmen might need to be renamed as Yulin's Four Kings." "Yeah! We're definitely Four Kings," Ouyang chimed in while Kobe smiled knowingly: "What Four Kings? We're just here to assist you guys as vice-captains of Jade Unicorn Three Swordsmen." I admired their humble playing style; Kobe is an incredible swingman capable of playing both guard positions while Zhou Wenming can handle both forward positions due to his height—essentially we've got versatile players for all four positions.
In the second half we continued attacking their basket but Domain Sea is indeed a strong team with evenly skilled players across all positions; we struggled to widen our lead further. With three minutes left in the third quarter we led them by only five points at 76-71—this wasn't what I expected as I thought we'd extend our lead more significantly. Teacher Qiu called a timeout for adjustments as we stepped off the court.
"We're not aggressive enough," Teacher Qiu said while drawing on the tactics board: "Ouyang replaces Kobe; Tu Lei replaces Wenming—we'll continue battling them in positional warfare..." This substitution took out Thirteen Middle School's Dual Guns lineup. After returning to play they began running fast breaks; their ghost-like quick passing left us dizzy and struggling defensively. I glanced over at the bench where Teacher Qiu was having an individual session with Kobe and Zhou Wenming—both were nodding frequently as if they understood something important.
This time when I had possession ready for an attack against their point guard I executed my signature move "Lingbo Microstep," using a crossover step before spinning around for a layup as their power forward raised his hand to block me. In mid-air I tucked my body in tight under his arm and completed my layup successfully; after scoring I waved my right index finger at that power forward as if showing off my skills—a move taught by Jiang Lingfeng who said that by minimizing body size in mid-air you can increase hang-time for successful layups.
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