Chapter 21: Tian Ji's Horse Racing?

  Although his own walk was broken through by Wu Fengtao, Yan Lingfeng's expression did not fluctuate at all. Basketball is not like soccer, it's impossible to prevent the opponent from scoring, and the way to defeat the opponent is simple, that is to score more points than the opponent.

  The ball was passed to Yan Lingfeng by Zhao Senming, although there were no pre-match hype about the king's duel, and even most of the spectators on the sidelines were unfamiliar with this tall and thin No. 11, but in the hearts of Zhao Senming and others, only Yan Lingfeng could match Wu Fengtuo in Class 8.

  Yan Lingfeng skillfully dribbled the basketball, while Wu Fengtao lazily pretended to defend. However, this didn't mean he underestimated No. 11. Although he had easily broken through on the previous attack, his subconscious told him that No. 11 was a very dangerous player. By showing weakness, he could catch him off guard. Wu Fengtao's reputation wasn't built on brute force alone.

  Yan Lingfeng dribbled the ball at a moderate pace, and Wu Fengtao's defense might have seemed loose to others, but Yan's eyes could clearly see the tightness behind the looseness. It wasn't easy to break through Wu Fengtao's defense.

  "Drink!" Yan Lingfeng let out a low growl, suddenly exerting force, his left shoulder forward, but his right hand pulled out a very exaggerated arc, his right foot about to follow up and complete the breakthrough. Such defense would be completely ineffective if he were facing a basketball novice, but someone who has been immersed in basketball for a while will not wait until the defender is at a loss before reacting, they will predict the direction of the breakthrough based on the opponent's shoulder movement.

  Wu Fengtao was also deceived by this strange breakthrough, but his rich experience allowed him to quickly make up for his mistake. His footsteps, which were moving towards the right side of his body, suddenly stopped, and with his right foot as the axis, his left foot drew a semicircle, while his left hand stretched out flat, unbelievably blocking Yan Lingfeng's breakthrough direction.

  "Damn it!" Yan Lingfeng cursed under his breath, pulling back his right hand and slamming the basketball to the ground with his left. Even though his physical condition wasn't at its best, as long as he could perform at a normal level, he could have easily left Wu Fengtao in the dust before he even reacted. But the red flag raised by his body, which had gone without rest for an entire night, made him fail to break through and return empty-handed.

  Wu Fengtao smiled slightly, he didn't know Yan Lingfeng's current physical condition, but just this one unsuccessful breakthrough made him believe in his judgment, this game is getting interesting, a master is lonely, it has been a long time since he met such a high-level basketball player in the small town of Shuixiang.

  One shot is not made, Yan Lingfeng did not fight back, his physical condition only allowed him to complete one intense exercise in a short period of time. He sighed helplessly and pushed the basketball flatly to Sun Feiyang who came forward to receive it, empty-handed and moved to the right side of the three-point line to wait for an opportunity.

  The outdoor basketball court does not have a timer, and the water cloud middle school basketball game is timed by a special referee. When there are 3 seconds left in the attack time, a reminder will be given to the players on the field. Now Sun Feiying has not received the referee's prompt, that is to say he has enough time to complete this attack. For a fast shooter, 5 seconds is enough.

  Defending against Sun Feiyang, Zhang Peng, No. 10, has a beautiful shooting technique, but his physical quality is quite ordinary. His glasses make him look refined and elegant, like a gentleman on the basketball court. Sun Feiyang continuously dribbled past Zhang Peng, almost knocking off his glasses. Zhang Peng's glasses were just an ordinary type, not professional sports goggles. He couldn't let his junior see him being overly refined, so he instinctively reached out to adjust his glasses. For a brief moment, the referee's reminder that there were only 3 seconds left on the shot clock and Sun Feiyang's whooshing sound as he sped past him simultaneously occurred to Zhang Peng, filling his mind with regret. If he had ignored everything and stuck close to Sun Feiyang, perhaps this freshman class's first offense would have ended with a shot clock violation?

  There is no antidote for regret in the world. At the moment Zhang Peng was regretful, Sun Feiyang had already successfully stepped into the three-point line. There was no one defending in front of him, just like a vast ocean. Sun Feiyang jumped up calmly, his gentle eyes staring at the basketball, and softly moved his wrist. He muttered to himself, "Go, my baby!"

  The ball indicated that it was very naughty, and after spinning around the rim twice, it rolled out playfully. Sun Fei, who had fallen to the ground, flapped his hands in frustration. How could this ball possibly not go in? Was God playing a joke on him?

  Liu Ba's massive body held off Han Dengyun, while Fu Zijun and Li Kun were completely outdone in their contest. Although the two men had similar physical conditions, Li Kun had already taken up a favorable position early on, his long arms relaxed as he cradled the ball in his embrace, not rushing to launch an attack, patiently waiting for Bi Xiangyang to come up and receive the pass.

  Bixiangyang's speed is not very fast, but his dribbling gives people a sense of stability. He slowly brings the ball to the front court of Class 8, and Yanlingfeng's defense is not very tight, so Bixiangyang easily finds Wufengtao. Wufengtao is the core of Class 11 in Grade 3, and his current hand feeling looks pretty good too. As an organizing guard, passing the ball to one's own strongest point is a necessary quality.

  Yan Lingfeng felt his eyelids were almost glued together, and the fatigue of his body combined with the consumption of his energy made him spend a lot of energy on every step he took. Wu Fengtao's simple feint caused Yan Lingfeng to stumble, almost falling to the ground. Wu Fengtao had a smile at the corner of his mouth, and now he couldn't see through this opponent at all. According to common sense, his fake move that couldn't be more fake should not have any effect on him, so why did it work?

  Wu Fengtao took a light step forward, leaving Yan Lingfeng behind, and jumped up with three points to shoot the ball. The basketball drew a beautiful arc and scored again, emptying the net. The game had just begun, and Class 31 of Grade Three had already shown their amazing strength, especially No. 1 Wu Fengtao, who made two high-altitude jump shots after scoring, leading Class 31 of Grade Three to start with a score of 4-0.

  It was very rare for the members of Class 8, Grade 1 to feel a kind of pressure they had never felt before, and this pressure did not just come from the game.

  The score, the must-win mentality of Class 11 of High Three, and the strong momentum made these freshmen a little intimidated.

  Zhao Senming walked onto the court with a ball, his face expressionless. In his eyes, the strength of the enemy was not what was scary; what was scary was that his own teammates were surrendering without a fight. The basketball court was like a battlefield, and momentum was the key factor in determining victory or defeat.

  His gaze swept across his teammates' faces: Han Dengyun was ignorant but fearless, Liu Ba was serious and struggling with an opponent in the paint, Fu Zijun's face was cold and stern as he blew air onto his palms, Yan Lingfeng was calm as water, but a strong killing intent shone through in his eyes. Sun Feiyang was filled with regret; he and Wu Fengtao had almost simultaneously made the same move, and although it was only a 4-point difference, it was enough to make Sun Feiyang, who was usually proud and arrogant, feel somewhat unacceptable after one round of play.

  Zhao Senming made a gesture to hint that Fu Zijun should come forward and block for him, while carefully protecting the ball and observing the situation on the court. In any case, they must score this ball, otherwise the consequences might be unacceptable to them.

  Fu Zijun shook off Li Kun and came to Bi Xiangyang's side, putting his hands together in a standard blocking motion. The two had been working together for a long time, and even before Fu Zijun was in position, Zhao Senming had already started moving the ball. Bi Xiangyang wasn't flustered at all, completely trusting Li Kun's ability to complete the supplementary defense.

  One block, one steal, one run and one pass, this is the essence of the pick-and-roll tactic. Fu Zijun ran in the opposite direction towards the three-point line as Zhao Senming shook off Bi Xiayang, Li Kun and Bi Xiayang were also partners who had been cooperating for many years, they didn't even need to exchange eye contact, Bi Xiayang switched defense on Fu Zijun, while Li Kun closely guarded Zhao Senming.

  Zhao Senming relied on his speed to take the lead by half a body length over Li Kun. Unexpectedly, he did not choose to break through the inside line. Fu Zijun made a few fake runs before running towards Zhao Senming again, blocking the defender at the top of the arc three-point line for Zhao Senming once more. Li Kun and Bi Xiangyang were apparently caught off guard by this move, and for a moment, they didn't have a good solution. The two men stood still on the spot, allowing Zhao Senming and Fu Zijun to flash past them.

  "Terrible." Wu Fengtao didn't expect this classmate to come up with such a complex tactic. He knew the power of Fu Zijun's three-pointer, but compared to the two evils, he chose the lesser one. He glanced at Yan Lingfeng beside him, who looked harmless. Were they playing some kind of trick? Fu Zijun was already in position on the right side of the three-point line, opening his arms and waiting for Zhao Senming's pass. Wu Fengtao gritted his teeth and pounced towards Fu Zijun's position. Compared to the flashing knife and an unknown danger, he knew what choice to make.

  Zhao Senming suddenly laughed, laughing very strangely. Yan Lingfeng's three-point shot may not be as good as Fu Zijun, but it's still trustworthy, isn't it? Kobe's three-point shot can't compare to Ray Allen, but how many times did he use a three-pointer to kill his opponents in his career?

  Yan Lingfeng steadily caught Zhao Senming's pass with both hands, shook his head vigorously to clear his mind, raised his arm, aimed at the basket, and slowly rotated his wrist to send the ball flying out.

  "Huh?" "Haha."

  The audience on the side of the basketball court simultaneously let out incredible shouts and mocking laughter, Yan Lingfeng stared at the ball as it slipped through the hoop and fell directly into Liu Ba's hands. His brain was buzzing like an explosion, Three no touch! It was actually three no touch! The ball that had carried the hopes of all the students in Class 8 of High School Year 1 had been thrown out by him with a three no touch!

  Yan Lingfeng was still in a daze, while Liu Ba quickly passed the ball to Bi Xiangyang. On the other side of the court, Wu Fengtuo had already sprinted down to the 8th grade half-court, receiving Bi Xiangyang's long pass and scoring an easy layup to rewrite the game into 6-0.

  Yan Lingfeng walked to the edge of the field like a lost soul, and collapsed on the ground like a lamp that had run out of oil. Zhu Yao patted his shoulder and said, "Qingyun, it's your turn."

  Xiang Qingyun's worried gaze fell on Yan Lingfeng, who was lying on the ground. He took off his jacket and walked firmly onto the court.

  "Ling Feng, get up and sit properly. This is bad for your body." The pig demon slowly said as it fetched a bottle of water.

  "Teacher, I want to play! I want to go on the court! But why? Why does fate like to joke with me so much? First, it made me get injured and miss most of the games, then came the bad news about my grandfather, and now in the final we're up against Wu Fengtao, a legendary player. I'm not afraid of him, but I didn't sleep all night, I'm exhausted! Teacher, I was wrong, I shouldn't have come here, I should be at home with my grandfather."

  Yan Lingfeng's voice was choked with sobs, and by the end, his voice was almost inaudible.

  "Heaven will not give great responsibilities to a person, without first making his heart and spirit suffer, his bones and muscles be weary, his skin and body be empty. Yan Lingfeng, come on, you can do it!" Xiang Ziyuan sat in the front row, softly comforting him.

  "Zi Yan, you're just a cheat. Many people have suffered and struggled, do they all have great missions? I think Ling Feng must be nervous when facing Wu Fengtiao." Tian Hui retorted heartlessly.

  "I'm not nervous! Why should I be nervous? What about Wu Fengtuo? If it weren't for the fact that I didn't sleep all night and my body is tired and weak, I would have killed him!" Yan Lingfeng shouted loudly, with tears in his eyes.

  "What's with the hesitation, like a little girl cowering on the ground, afraid to face anyone? If you're not afraid of him, then rest well and recover quickly, Fei Ying and the others are all waiting for you on the field!"

  "You're right! The final is divided into four quarters, I have at least an hour of rest time. I'll go back to the dormitory and take a nap first. When the fourth quarter starts, Xiaoguang, you come to the dormitory to wake me up. Don't forget, Tianhui, tell Feiying that I will fight with them to the end, let them wait for me!" Yan Lingfeng threw down this message incoherently and hastily turned his head towards the dormitory.

  Yan Lingfeng temporarily left, the game on the field continued. Under the unfavorable situation of falling behind by six points at the beginning, Class 18 of High School finally broke through and scored their first point today with Sun Feiying's breakthrough and layup. However, in the subsequent attack by Class 31 of High School, Wu Fengtao easily broke through Xiang Qingyun's defense, took a step forward, jumped into the interior line, dodged Han Dengyun's giant palm, and scored again with his low hand, pulling the score difference back to 6 points.

  After Yan Lingfeng left the field, Class 18 of High School No. 1 moved the ball more smoothly on the court, and their attacking efficiency also improved significantly. Although they still had no way to deal with Wu Fengtou, Sun Feiyang, Fu Zijun, and Han Dengyun found their rhythm one after another in the offense, closely biting the score. At the end of the first quarter, the difference between the two teams was still 6 points.

  14 to 20, the exhausted players of both teams walked to the sidelines after the referee's whistle, one by one pouring water into their bodies like cattle drinking, because it was the final, so both teams gave their all on the court, and their physical exertion far exceeded that of an ordinary match.

  Han Dengyun only scored 2 points with a hook shot in the first quarter, grabbed 2 rebounds, and spent most of his time wrestling with Liu Ba. The two men were pushing and shoving each other on the inside line, colliding and defending each other, having a great time. After their large buttocks touched the chair, a string of water droplets quickly flowed down from the legs of the chair.

  Tian Hui was innocently wiping the sweat from Sun Feiyang's forehead with a towel, looking like a virtuous wife and good mother. As the basketball game heated up, the two people's relationship gradually became more open. Although Zhu Yao was right next to them, for the sake of her year-end evaluation, she repeatedly endured the anger in her heart, telling herself that it wasn't too late to settle accounts after autumn.

  "Ling Feng has gone back to his dormitory to rest. He said, let you all wait for him, wait for him to come back and fight together until the end." Tian Hui said.

  "Haha, I knew it, this guy isn't going to give up that easily. Brothers! Did you hear? When Ling Feng comes back and sees us losing by a big margin, what kind of feeling do you think he'll have?"

  No one responded to him, and Handen Yun looked at him like a fool and said, "Nonsense."

  "Alright, I won't say anything more either! Our school team dream, our championship dream, go for it!"

  "Go for it!!!!!!!!!!"

  This time, the response was earth-shattering, including all team members, all classmates, even the pig demon, and... Yan Lingfeng, who was still asleep.