Volume 1 Western Cowboy Chapter 044 The intensity has increased
The United Center in Chicago is definitely the basketball palace in the minds of a generation.
Once upon a time, in this stadium, Michael Jordan led the NBA into its most glorious era.
Countless classic moments have been staged here and countless glorious histories have been witnessed.
But today, this place does not belong to Michael Jordan or the Chicago Bulls.
Today, there are only two protagonists in the United Center: Ohio State University and Wake Forest.
Although the number of seats at the United Center was not as many as the previous game in Las Vegas, the cheers from the audience were still deafening.
Tony Allen is from Chicago, so many local Chicago fans flocked to the stadium to cheer for the Cowboys.
On the surface, both sides are playing the game in a neutral stadium.
But in fact, today this place is equivalent to half of the Cowboys' home field.
Paul stood in the middle of the court with his hands on his hips, looking at the large groups of fans in the stands wearing orange Cowboys T-shirts. His expression was serious.
For most players, playing away games puts them under tremendous psychological pressure.
But for Paul, the more difficult the environment, the more excited he became!
Before the game started, Paul walked up to Ellis, who was about to .
"Ellis, don't hesitate when you pass the ball later, pass it as fast as possible!"
"Oh... okay." Ellis smiled bitterly. As a senior, he really had no face at all.
And in the past few days, he estimated that he was the person who was scolded the most by Paul.
Because he happens to be the power forward player, directly facing Wayne.
Therefore, Paul's requirements for him were also extremely strict.
"I understand Chris, don't worry, I won't hold you back."
"I'm not worried about you holding us back, Ellis. You're an important member of our team, so I hope you can perform better." Paul said, raising his fist towards Ellis.
Ellis smiled and lightly fist-bumped with Paul.
I guess this is why Paul was so arrogant in college and no one could control him.
Because in addition to being strict, Paul also treats his teammates as brothers.
He will not look down on any of his teammates, but will lead them towards the goal together!
Before the game started, the commentator also talked about the Illinois Three Musketeers led by Deron Williams.
"Whether the Cowboys or Wake Forest advances, their next round opponents will be championship candidates. What do you think are the chances that these two teams will continue to advance?"
"Although the March Madness tournament is a one-off game, anything can happen. But to beat Illinois, the championship candidate... it's too difficult. I guess the only one who can stop them is Connecticut."
As soon as the commentator finished speaking, he looked up and saw Paul, who was preparing at the technical table, staring at him with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Uh... Of course, let's focus on the game first." The commentator hurriedly changed the subject. It is the most embarrassing thing to be heard saying bad things about others.
"Hmph, a bunch of idiots. What's so great about Deron Williams? He's just a little stronger than me, his team ranking is a little higher, and he's a little more famous..." Paul muttered and walked onto the court.
At this time, the Cowboys' starting five were all in place.
Wayne noticed that Paul had been frowning since he entered the stadium.
Although he is a traditional point guard, Paul's physique is not much different from that of Nate Robinson, the guy with a bomb tied to his leg.
He's the kind of guy who looks like he's not easy to mess with.
Speaking of which, although Paul has always been regarded as a traditional point guard who plays with his brain, before the serious injury in 2009, his athletic ability and impact were not "traditional" at all.
The famous scene in which he successfully dunked against Howard is something that almost every Paul fan will brag about.
When he was young, Brother Pao was also a beast that could fly and hide.
After a serious knee injury, Paul's explosiveness declined significantly, and he began to move more towards floor movement.
It seems that Paul is really difficult to deal with at this moment.
As the referee tossed the ball up, the game officially began.
Wake Forest got the ball first , and Paul had just crossed half court when he found Tony Allen approaching.
As the Cowboys' strongest individual defensive machine on the perimeter, Tony Allen is almost everyone's nightmare.
He is not afraid of opponents who are taller than him, let alone Paul who is only 1.83 meters tall.
But when the two made physical contact, Tony Allen found that Paul's dribbling was still calm and was not affected at all.
He used one hand to separate Tony and continued dribbling with the other hand. Then he suddenly made a beautiful change of direction in front of his body, created a little space and completed the breakthrough!
"Here we go, Paul is really fast, he shook off Tony Allen who is omnipotent on the defensive end!"
Not only the commentator was surprised, even the old coach Sutton couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Tony Allen's defensive ability is bug-level in the NCAA, and almost no outside players can compete with him.
His perimeter defense combined with Wayne's abnormal rim protection make up the Cowboys' solid defense this year.
In the past, the Cowboys' 20- or 30-point wins were not achieved through offense, but through defense.
But Paul, a freshman, easily shook off Tony, who was about to go to the NBA.
His talent and his ability to compete are seriously inconsistent with his height.
When Wayne saw Teacher Tony being shaken off, he immediately ran to the basket to provide assistance defense.
But Wayne almost blinked an eye and Paul ran up to him.
"This speed..." Wayne broke out in a cold sweat. This was the fastest breakthrough he had ever seen in NCAA!
Is this the strength of a future NBA superstar?!
Wayne raised his hands reflexively, but Paul did not force it. Instead, he passed the ball directly to Ellis who was left open by Wayne without turning his head.
A decisive pass without looking at the opponent!
Even though Paul usually scolds harshly, he still trusts his teammates very much on the court.
Ellis has a certain ability in mid-range shooting, and he quickly shot after getting the opportunity.
But I don’t know if it’s because the game just started and my hands are not warm yet, or if it’s because I’m too nervous.
Ellis's mid-range jump shot, which was almost not difficult at all, actually hit the rim and bounced out.
Whoever misses a wide-open shot will be embarrassed.
"It's over!" Ellis was panicked when he saw the basketball being rejected by the basket.
Now, he could already imagine Paul's murderous look.
But in fact, Paul has no intention of blaming his teammates at all.
The moment the basketball bounced out of the hoop, Wayne and Paul ran towards where the basketball landed almost at the same time.
Wayne jumped up with all his might, ready to protect the rebound as he always did.
But as soon as his feet left the ground, he felt as if something was holding him back, and his body could not continue to rise.
When he looked down, he found that Paoer, who had jumped with him, had grabbed his jersey directly!
And because this little action was very secretive, the referee did not notice it.
"Fuck, I know it's a cunning old man the moment I start to play!"
What makes you so "mature" when you are only a freshman?
Of course, due to the huge height difference between the two, even though he was pulled, Wayne still grabbed the rebound.
After landing, Wayne was very smart and raised the basketball high, not putting the ball below his chest.
Sure enough, Paul's first reaction after landing was to jump up and grab the ball!
Fortunately, Wayne raised the ball high enough so that it was not pulled down by Paul.
But unfortunately, Paul's palm failed to hit the ball, but hit Wayne directly in the face.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Paul ran away after taking the shot.
Wayne looked at the referee innocently. Why isn’t he going to blow the whistle?
I can only say that in this era, whether it is the NCAA or the NBA, the scale is still very large.
In addition, the referee probably didn't pay attention to the confrontation under the basket, allowing Paul to escape.
If this happened in 2020, even Pao would be given a technical foul.
There was no way out, Wayne had to swallow the loss, pass the ball to Lucas, and prepare for the attack.
It's so frustrating to suffer such a loss!
Although the Cowboys' defense was successful in the first round, it also allowed Wayne to experience a completely different intensity of confrontation than before.
Paul's desire to win was fully released at the start of the game, and he fought for every ball.
John Lucas slowly controlled the ball and approached the three-point line. Facing Paul's defense, he felt extremely oppressive.
But soon, this feeling of oppression disappeared.
Because in the next second, Paul suddenly reached forward and accurately knocked the basketball out of Lucas' hand, ending Lucas' pain.
"The basketball was poked away, and Lucas turned back to chase it. Can he prevent the mistake from happening?!"
John Lucas also knew that he had made a big mistake, so he turned around to chase the ball the moment he was intercepted.
To steal the ball from someone else, it usually consists of two steps, and it is not possible to grab the ball into your hands all at once.
The first step is to knock the basketball away and make the opponent lose control of the ball.
The second step is to find a way to grab the ball that has lost control.
Generally speaking, many players can take the first step, but few can actually grab the ball.
So in basketball games, averaging more than 2 steals per game is already a lot.
But Paul is obviously an expert in this area. After slapping Lucas' basketball away, he immediately gave Lucas a rough confrontation to prevent him from speeding up.
After leaving Lucas half a body length away, Paul jumped directly, fell to the floor and hugged the basketball tightly!
"This is Chris Paul, this is his style! He wants his teammates to do their best, but the premise is that he himself will first explain what it means to do his best!"
As the commentator shouted, Paul, lying on the ground, passed the ball to Justin Gray, another guard of Wake Forest.
The latter drove straight in and easily ended the fast break with a layup.
After watching his teammate score a goal, Paul stood up from the ground. At this time, Wayne happened to walk by Paul, so he started to complain again.
"This is war, boy! This is a real game! Don't worry, I will teach you slowly."
Wayne was speechless. It was bad enough that he slapped me in the face at the beginning, but now he is still calling me a kid.
You are the brat, your whole family are brats, I am obviously your senior!
“Ding~”
At this moment, Wayne suddenly heard a sound in his ears, which scared him.
Come to think of it, isn’t this the reminder sound for the mission?
Yeah, it seems like there haven’t been any new missions for a long time.
"The temporary mission on the court has been triggered: Fight to the end!
Goal: Recover more loose balls than Paul.
Mission reward: a B-level lucky draw package."
"This... there will be a sudden temporary mission? Is this the legendary surprise?"
Wayne curled his lips. It didn't matter whether he was assigned to a task or not. The main thing was that he got a headache when he saw the lucky draw package...
But today, Paul really went too far.
He was extremely arrogant from the start.
Even if there is no mission, we must fight him to the end!
Wayne was very alert and determined to let this freshman experience the dangers of society today.
Paul's performance is over, and now it's Wayne's turn.
