Volume 1: A rookie who breaks into the basketball world Chapter 15: First experience fighting with the Flash
In the summer league, priority is given to rookies, and the coaches of the two teams in this game have a tacit understanding in this regard.
The starting lineups of both teams were displayed on the big screen.
Liu Xiu and Wade, two lottery rookies, both made the starting lineup in the summer league.
For the Trail Blazers, the five players they played with started with Liu Xiu. The other four were Matt Carroll, Travis Outlaw, Randolph, and Reuben Bontjie.
The Heat sent out a starting lineup of Dwyane Wade, Kirk Penny, Caron Butler, Udonis Haslem and Lauren Woods.
Before the game started, the referee briefly but clearly explained the rules of the summer league.
The Orlando Summer League implements a points system. Each team plays 5 games. The team that wins the most games wins the championship. Ties are allowed.
The timeout rules are that each team has two 30-second timeouts in the first and second half. At the 3rd and 6th minutes of each quarter, there is an official 100-second timeout period, and there will be commercial advertisements on site.
According to the free throw rules, the game begins the free throw phase after the 10th foul in a quarter.
Each quarter lasts 10 minutes, with a 2-minute break between quarters and an 8-minute halftime break.
The rules are somewhat different from the NBA, and compared to college...it's a complete change.
But the players of both teams don’t care that much about the rules. They just deal with it after being called off. They get used to this kind of thing after being called off over and over again.
Players on both sides were sizing up the players they were about to face.
The centers on both sides are the kind of centers that look great in physique. The Trail Blazers' Reuben Bontjie is 213 cm tall and 117 kg; the Heat's Lauren Woods is 216 cm tall and 118 kg.
These two centers were both second-round picks in the 2001 draft, and their draft picks were almost next to each other...and their abilities are equally weak.
The players who have not yet received a contract, looking at these two players who have already received offered contracts, feel that this world is simply unfair.
These two people were able to get the contract purely based on their height and weight. Although it was a basic salary, it was still much higher than the income of 90 percent of the industry.
This year's undrafted rookie Haslem is in a tough spot now, as he has to face Randolph...
At the small forward position, it was the Trail Blazers' rookie small forward Travis Outlaw, who was facing a player who averaged 15+ points per game in his rookie season.
Shooting guard, both sides are undrafted rookies.
At the point guard position, Wade looked across at the last-place lottery pick in the same class.
Wade had a deep impression of Liu Xiu.
There are three upsets in the lottery this year. The biggest upset is Milicic becoming the second pick. The second biggest upset is Liu Xiu being selected in the lottery. Wade is just the last of the three upsets in the lottery.
Regardless of whether Liu Xiu's physique is too ordinary, Wade still has some expectations for Liu Xiu's strength. After all, he is the core of the back line of the NCAA championship team.
When Wade was staring at Liu Xiu, Liu Xiu just turned his head to look at Wade. Wade wanted to provoke him... but he saw Liu Xiu yawning!
The two had never communicated before, but Wade liked making friends. He got to know all the well-known players in the Orlando Summer League, but just like James couldn't find Liu Xiu, Wade couldn't find him either.
But this time, Wade almost got furious.
Wade's sharp eyes saw the tears in the corners of Liu Xiu's eyes when he yawned!
That guy wasn't provocative! He was really yawning!
…
"Healing value +33, from Dwyane Wade."
"?"
Liu Xiu looked closely and saw that the cheeks of the fifth-round rookie across from him seemed to be puffed up a little...
There was no time to think about it, at 2:55, the system prompt came.
"Talent: Great Magician (incomplete). Copy target: Zach Randolph. Copy talent: low-post post-up singles. The host is about to face the Heat in the summer league. The copy target can be changed. Do you want to change it?"
After taking a closer look, Liu Xiu silently said to himself, "Don't change it."
The Trail Blazers' summer league roster...no change!
Seeing the huge difference in judging the two techniques of Randolph's back-to-the-basket and Eric Barkley's change of direction, we can analyze the game bonus, and the difference is also huge.
It’s hard to say about the official team, but in the summer league, Liu Xiu knows it will be difficult to meet a talent as compatible with Randolph’s low-post back-to-the-basket play.
Soon, the system prompt came.
"Talent: Great Magician (incomplete). Copy target: Zach Randolph. Copy talent: Low-post post-up singles. Bonus effect: When the host uses post-up singles, strength +3; in post-up singles, if the host chooses to turn around, speed +3; when the host successfully uses post-up footwork to get a chance to shoot, layup +3, close-range shooting +3."
"Although this match bonus is limited to post-up singles, it's already very powerful!"
"Unfortunately, I have only just started learning how to post up and turn around... As expected, skills are made up of one basic skill after another. If I can master the basic skills of turning around, stepping back, and playing close... I can learn everything in a few steps like a certain No. 8 player who does not want to reveal his name..."
This time he used quick learning on Randolph's post-up play, and he felt that the choice was right.
He doesn't want to make the team overestimate his strength by adding extra bonuses, but if it is to show his talent, such as showing his learning ability, then it is necessary.
Even if his strength is improved now, how much can it add? At this stage, it is more important for him to show his talent and win the attention of the team in training.
Liu Xiu shook his head and put away his distracting thoughts, listening to the coaching staff making the final arrangements before the game.
…
At 3 pm, the referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air, and the summer league game between the Trail Blazers and the Heat began!
Lauren Woods of the Heat won the jump ball with her height and wingspan advantage, and the Heat attacked first!
Wade received the jump ball and quickly advanced to the frontcourt. During the process, he saw Liu Xiu's nonchalant expression as he moved to the top arc, and he got angry!
Really angry!
As a rookie in the same class, although they had never played against each other, Wade had heard during his junior year that Liu Xiu could always make his opponents angry.
Wade thought Liu Xiu was the type who loved to provoke or anger his opponents in other ways. Now he understood that Liu Xiu's way of angering his opponents was not that complicated...
Wade took a big step outside the top arc and then accelerated to the left!
Wade has very strong confidence in his speed, and his first step is the strongest!
However, just when Wade accelerated to break through, he was surprised to find that Liu Xiu had moved in advance and predicted the right direction!
Fortunately, although Wade was confident, he was not careless. Before Liu Xiu moved in advance and the two were about to confront each other, Wade made a beautiful lateral pull, changed direction, and broke through from the right side.
Liu Xiu had no choice. He had already done his best and left the rest to his teammates... teammates... Liu Xiu saw Wade rushing straight to the basket and violently slammed the ball into the basket with one hand!
Randolph followed Haslem in the mid-range, and Reuben Bontger moved, but Wade had already dunked before Reuben Bontger retreated to the basket.
Strong! Awesome!
Wade's explosive first step made Liu Xiu know what the Flash is.
The fans at the scene gave Wade warm applause and cheers, although only one-third of the seats were occupied, the cheers seemed sparse.
But the fans who were almost passing by were able to cheer, and it was obvious that Wade's strong attack at the beginning was very beautiful.
The offense and defense switched, and the Trail Blazers attacked.
Liu Xiu received the serve and pushed forward. When he reached the center line, Wade pressed the defense in the half court!
This is Wade's strong point, but it didn't work.
No matter how fancy Wade's pressure defense was, Liu Xiu relied on his sturdy body to hold up Wade, and used the simplest and most plain advancing movements to steadily advance to the outside of the three-point line.
The five-man group started to run, and according to their agreement, Randolph moved to the left side of the three-second zone within the mid-range shooting range and leaned against Haslem.
Liu Xiu passed the ball to Randolph, and cut from the middle to the inside. Ruben Bontjie helped Liu Xiu block at the free throw line. Randolph passed the ball from a high position. Liu Xiu received the ball in one step inside the free throw line, attracting the Heat's defensive flow and passing the ball to the wing...
The tactic was well executed, the ball moved well, and the ball was finally successfully delivered to the pure scoring point Matt Carroll, a white shooting guard.
However, Matt Carroll almost missed his three-point shot when Wade was in position to defend!
This shot was definitely enough to send Wade flying , but he actually threw it backwards. It was a bit outrageous...
The first attack of both teams at the beginning of the game was a microcosm of the start. The Heat clearly had the upper hand. As for the Trail Blazers, Liu Xiu and Randolph were leading the team very seriously, making good use of Randolph's threat and Liu Xiu's passing accuracy... But halfway through the first quarter, at the second official timeout, the Trail Blazers were 9 points behind the Heat at 9 to 18!
In the last timeout, Kevin Pritech, who was actually coaching the Trail Blazers tonight, did not make any substitutions. This time, Liu Xiu and Randolph were both replaced. Matt Carroll, Travis Outlaw and Reuben Bontjie were not replaced. They were replaced by sophomore Quintelle Woods and power forward Ken Johnson from the 2001 class.
In fact, in the starting stage, although the Trail Blazers were behind, they played very methodically. On the contrary, every round of the Heat's play seemed basically different, and they just played randomly.
When it came to the rotation stage, Caron Butler of the Heat team was replaced, and Wade led the team alone. Both sides started to play randomly... At this time, Quinter Woods caught up with the score!
Just when the score difference was about to reach double digits, Quinter Woods made up for it with a few random shots!
From the second half of the first quarter to the first half of the second quarter, the Trail Blazers and the Heat were trading points with a difference of about 5 points.
Quinter Woods has played very well recently, playing more minutes than starters Liu Xiu and Randolph.
After the official timeout at the 3rd minute of the second quarter, Quintel Woods was still not replaced. Randolph was replaced, but Liu Xiu was not.
Morris Cheeks, who was slacking off, sat down next to Liu Xiu.
Liu Xiu asked: "Coach, what's the matter?"
Stan Van Gundy, the head coach of the opposing Heat team, came to coach this summer league and he really did a good job. Maurice Cheeks didn't do anything specific when he came.
But that doesn’t mean he is really idle. Look, it’s time for teaching!
The reason why Kevin Pritchard let Quinter Woods play more and let Liu Xiu sit on the bench more was not because he wanted to keep Liu Xiu in the cold after the opening 9-18 wave, but because he wanted Liu Xiu to watch, listen and learn more.
Maurice Cheeks was very satisfied with Liu Xiu's politeness and said, "Jace, are you confused as to why you played well and organized the team's offense well, but the score was behind, and Quinter went up and played randomly, but the score was reduced?"
"Confused? No! I realized it when I was substituted. My teammates are not good enough. I can take advantage of the opponent's chaotic defense to get the ball to the right place, but my teammates don't have a good ability to score a goal..."
“???” Morris Cheeks looked confused.
This shouldn't be the answer! He's here to teach!
