NBA villain

Chapter 525 Fighting Lithuania
European basketball teams like Lithuania are strong because they are not afraid of physical confrontation, and at the same time can complete various offensive tasks assigned by the coach, with strong tactical execution.

What's more, Lithuania is the most basketball-loving country in the world.

Basketball in the United States is just one of the sports that many Americans like, but it can't be called the favorite.

Lithuanians love basketball, which has even caused a peculiar phenomenon in the country's ratings survey: as long as there is an international basketball competition in a year, the Lithuanian team's games will be the champion, runner-up and third place in the ratings that year.

The high enthusiasm has brought about a considerable number of participants. According to EuroBasket estimates, the total number of registered and non-registered basketball players in Lithuania is 14, which is half of Russia and one-fifth of Germany, and half of them are youth players.Although the absolute number is still not much, the average quality of Lithuanian basketball players should be higher than that of the surrounding sports powers. The reason is simple: Lithuania has invested most of its sports resources in basketball.Although the population is less than 300 million, it has 17 basketball stadiums that can accommodate more than [-] people.

In September 91, Lithuania broke away from the Soviet Union. In the following year, Lithuania participated in the Barcelona Olympic Games.

Sabonis led the Lithuanian team to defeat the CIS team to win the bronze medal. At that time, Sabonis said with emotion: "In Seoul, I won the gold medal (for the Soviet Union), but the bronze medal in Barcelona is the soul of our Lithuanians."

During the match between Yang Di and the Lithuanian team, it was found that the overall level of these players was very high.

Although there is no particularly strong individual, they are willing to share the ball, transfer the ball, and make some three-pointers. The score even surpassed the Chinese team from the beginning.

At the end of the first quarter, Lithuania led China 22 to 19.

"Protect the rebound!"

Yang Di, Wang Zhizhi, and Yi Jianlian said that these two were the inside line of his partner Yang Di at the beginning of the second quarter. Yang Di decided to start from the outside line, but he was very worried about the protection of rebounds.

Sure enough, the Lithuanian team grabbed the offensive rebounds from the fierce Yavtokas, Jannas and others, and the Lithuanian team immediately took a 5-point lead.

"Don't let them bypass you easily. If he dares to come over, you let him go. He is very fierce. You must be more fierce than him. This is a battlefield, not a practice!"

Yang Di was very angry and yelled at Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi. Yi Jianlian was better, but Wang Zhizhi couldn't hold back his face, and his heart was full of anger.

After the offensive and defensive transition, Yang Di held the ball from the outside.

The three-threat made a fake shot directly, then stepped to the right, and slammed in.

At this time, the Lithuanian team's striker Jassitis was defending him. After Yang Di stepped in, he raised his elbow in the second breakthrough and secretly hit him on the chest.

The referee didn't see Jacetis slowing down in pain.

Yang Di stepped on the restricted area line, shouted loudly, and jumped up recklessly.

At this time, Yavtokas, who was 2 meters in the middle, was still defending in front of him. He turned his head and saw the flying Yang Di, with a look of horror in his eyes.

"shit!"

"Bang!"

Before he had time to react, a body like a big truck hit him, and he still couldn't help but staggered a few steps towards the basket. The explosion above his head made a loud noise.

The audience gasped. When have they seen such a powerful dunk?
Yang Di clenched his fists and roared angrily, and when he landed, he gave Yavtokas a look, as if to say: "Grab the offensive rebound again, and be more arrogant!"

Yi Jianlian only felt a surge of hot blood rushing from his spine to his head, and his whole body had goosebumps.

"Defense!"

Yang Di clapped his hands, retreated, and called the players of the Chinese team to retreat.

At this time, the bench was already boiling, and Yao Ming was the most excited one. He stood up, clapped and waved the towel, and yelled like Yang Di.

Morale suddenly skyrocketed.

Guard Gustas broke through with the dribble and passed the ball to Janus, who jumped up and prepared for a layup.

Yang Di flew over like a magic soldier from the side, and slapped the basketball out of Janus's hand with one slap, and rolled to the frontcourt.

Sun Yue and Yi Jianlian shuddered, their eyes turned red, and an unprecedented force exploded in their bodies, and they rushed forward at a speed exceeding the usual limit of 120 points.

Like two white lightning bolts, Sun Yue took the lead to get the basketball, and he even felt unprecedentedly skilled at handling the ball.

He was in the frontcourt, passed the ball across, and handed it to Yi Jianlian who was plugging in.

Yi Jianlian took a big step, raised the basketball with both hands, gliding in the air, and then smashed the ball into the basket heavily, hanging from the basket with his whole body, floating forward along the inertia.

A wave of 4 to 0, the Chinese team chased the point difference to only 1 point.

The Lithuanian team called a timeout immediately.

Yang Di hooked Yi Jianlian's shoulders and walked to the bench, "Is it okay to play like this? It's the same in the NBA. No one encourages you. You have to encourage yourself. Every NBA player will find excitement for himself." Only those who are excited can defeat their opponents, after all, not everyone is Tim Duncan."

Back from the timeout, Yang Di hit a mid-range jumper to help the Chinese team overtake the score.

Yao Ming replaced Wang Zhizhi, and Yang Di teamed up with Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming. The interior rebounds were under control, and he made a strong shot from the outside, causing many fouls on the Lithuanian team.

At the end of the first half, the Chinese team overtook the Lithuanian team by 43 points 40 to 3.

In the second half of the game, the Lithuanian team's three-point shooting percentage dropped. Yang Di and Yao Ming controlled the rebounds, and the offense was mainly the low-post attack of the two.

The Chinese team gave up the pick-and-roll attack to reduce turnovers. The low post Yang Di and Yao Ming took turns to bomb, and the Lithuanian team had nothing to do.

CCTV5's commentary is very simple: "Give the ball to Yao Ming, Yao Ming turned low, and the ball scored! Give the ball to Yang Di, Yang Di turned low, and the ball scored again!"

At this time, it would be much better to have an insider with an NBA starting level, such as Ilgauskas. Unfortunately, Big Z did not participate in this World Championship.

Two top insiders stormed, Lithuania double-teamed, and the Chinese team had a greater chance of going outside.

In the end, the Chinese team defeated Lithuania 81 to 73 and entered the quarterfinals.

Yang Di and Yao Ming scored 53 points and 22 rebounds together, accounting for more than half of the points and rebounds.

Yao Ming hugged Yang Di excitedly. This World Championship was the most relaxed one he played since joining the national team.

He averaged 25.9 points per game, but his scoring efficiency was not low at all. No one dared to double-team him easily.When going around the front, the other players of the Chinese team gave the ball to Yang Di. Yang Di attacked from the side, and going around the front would become a nightmare for the defensive team.

"Don't get too excited, Spain and Serbia and Montenegro are not very easy to deal with. If either of the two teams appears, we will have to spend more energy than today. If it is Spain, it will be a hard battle. , the key to breaking through the historical record in this year's World Championships."

After getting to the knockout stage, Yang Di became calmer, because he had no idea about whether he could beat Spain.

(End of this chapter)