The glory of the basketball gods

Chapter 182 Rookie Challenge MVP ([-]-word chapter, two more)
This season's rookie challenge officially started in Los Angeles, and it also kicked off the 60th All-Star Weekend!
Judging from the experience of the Rookie Challenge in the past, the second-year team almost always beat the first-year team. After all, a year of experience in the NBA is enough to kill these stunned youngsters who have just entered the league.

However, the sophomores in this game are not easy at all, why?Because the first-year team on the opposite side stood three rookie players who would be first-class stars.

Yuan Man, averaging 26.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, is an all-around small forward and currently ranks first in the ranking of the best rookies.

Griffin, who missed a game due to injury last season, made his official debut this year. As a delayed rookie, he averaged 25.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.9 blocks per game. There are fewer power forward players, but considering Griffin's wingspan, it is reasonable to average nearly 1 block per game. The data of 25+11 can basically guarantee the best rookie in any rookie season, but Unfortunately, I met Yuan Man, a talented Chinese player.

Wall, the No. 19.2 pick this season, deserves his name, averaging 9.0 points and 4.0 assists per game, in addition to 1.3 rebounds, 0.4 steals and [-] blocks. As a No. [-] pick, his results fully meet the expectations of the public. It's not because the above two monsters turned out, it can only be said that Wall was born at a bad time.

When these three rookie players are combined, how terrifying the power can be displayed, all fans are looking forward to it.

"Didi~~~" With the whistle of the referee, the rookie challenge officially started!
Different from the four quarters of the usual NBA games, the Rookie Challenge takes the form of the first and second halves, with each half lasting 20 minutes.

At the beginning of the game, Cousins ​​won the ball for the first-year team. Neal picked up the ball and handed it to Wall next to him. Wall only dribbled the ball, looked up, and threw the ball forward with both hands Throw, the live broadcast camera followed the rotation of the basketball in the air, and saw Griffin jumping high from behind Gibson, catching Wall's wonderful pass with both hands, and directly staged an alley-oop!
The second-year team showed no sign of weakness. Curry showed off his dribbling in front of Wall, pulled the ball back after pretending to break through, and repeatedly dribbled behind his back. Pass the ball through Wall's crotch!

After running an air cut, DeRozan took three steps directly after receiving the pass from Curry, made a 360° turn in the air, and dunked the ball into the basket!

"Oh, good shot!" Jackson showed an exaggerated expression, "DeMar should participate in the slam dunk contest tomorrow, this is a warm-up for his performance tomorrow."

Van Gundy immediately went on to say: "Chinese player Yuan Man should also participate in this year's slam dunk contest. His name is on the list. Let's see if Yuan will show his skills today."

Just as Van Gundy finished speaking, Yuan Man dodged past Matthews' defense, and made a powerful sideways dunk in front of Blair and Gibson who were standing still!

Although the movement is not as difficult as DeRozan's just now, but it is full of domineering, and there is a feeling of overwhelming power!
At the beginning of the game, the players on both sides played offensively, and everyone's defense was almost a symbolic raise of their hands. After all, everyone knew that this was just an exhibition game.

Not long after, Curry hit three three-pointers in a row. The first goal was to dribble behind Wall's defense and take the ball to the other side of his body. Gibson just used the pick-and-roll to block Wall. , and then made a quick shot before Griffin made up the defense and hit the first three-pointer.

Then after Wall broke through for a layup and returned a goal, Curry dribbled the ball directly in a 1-on-5 manner. Before his teammates settled down, he raised his hand to meet Wall and made a chasing three-pointer. Wall I didn't expect Curry to dare to shoot like this, but the ball still passed through the net accurately!

Under Wall's defense, he hit two consecutive three-pointers. Curry was happy, chewing on his braces and shaking his head, his whole body twisted like a twitch, as if he was so happy that he didn't know what to do.

However, when Curry's eyes accidentally glanced at Yuan Man, he saw Yuan Man's squinting eyes staring at him with a playful smile on his face, which shocked Curry and quickly closed his eyes. made his own smile.

On the next attack, Curry seemingly carelessly dribbled the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt, one step away from the three-point line, and made a direct shot. The ball flew into the basket while everyone was stunned!

"The scene is completely like Stephen's home field!" Mark Jackson said excitedly.

It seems that Curry's three-pointer completely mobilized the enthusiasm of the fans on the scene, including the two live commentators.

Curry, who scored the third three-pointer, looked at Yuan Man from a distance, as if saying, come on, I'm not afraid of you!Whether you have the ancestral lineage of the legendary Chinese old military doctor or not
The secret recipe for my head wobbling, and that's what I'm going to do on the court.

Curry's head swayed even more, as if it was about to fall off his neck at any moment.

"Hey, Yuan, Blake, let's get started." Wall's voice came from behind.

Yuan Man looked back and saw Griffin saying, "I also don't like Stephen's bravado."

"Come on, let's do it!"

Although in the regular season, the three were their masters and enemies, but in this game, all three were playing for their first-year team, and they were close teammates!

After Curry made the third three-pointer to widen the gap between the first and second graders, the strangely fast Wall quickly passed the half court with the ball, followed by Griffin, facing the defensive DeRozan, Wall did not forget to perform during the breakthrough process, passing the ball backward from his crotch, and Griffin flew straight into the air after receiving the ball!

Taj Gibson didn't want the morale of his team to be wiped out by the opponent, so this time he made a real move and slapped Griffin with his big hand.

Judging from the situation at the time, it was impossible for Griffin to cross Gibson's body with his arm and dunk the ball into the basket, because his jumping position was really far from the basket, and when everyone pinched for Griffin While sweating, this guy actually threw the ball up again while his body was falling!

"What is Blake doing?" Even Van Gundy didn't know what Griffin was doing on the court.

At this moment, a black shadow took off from behind Griffin, jumped high, and caught Griffin's pass with one hand in the air. Like a shooting star, a beautiful rainbow crossed the sky, The ball dunks hard into the basket!

This huge destructive force caused Blair, who was standing under the basket to go forward to block the block, to take a few steps back involuntarily until he was a few steps away from the basket. The momentum of the smashing dunk just now has lingering fears.

Although there were grievances with Cousins ​​and Griffin on the court, but on the All-Star stage, the three were still able to talk and laugh without any discomfort.

After Yuan Man completed the three-person cooperation between Griffin and Wall and contributed a wonderful dunk, these guys all embraced and gave Yuan Man a high-five to celebrate.

After Curry played tricks and showed off a three-pointer, Wall seems to be determined to play the role of delivering shells.

In the first half alone, Wall sent out 12 assists, of which 6 were given to Yuan Man, 5 were given to Griffin, and 1 was given to Cousins. The first-year players were invincible and energetic , each playing in the air, leaving second-year floor players like DeJuan Blair and shot-blockers like Serge Ibaka and Taj Gibson awestruck.

Compared with Yuan Man and Griffin's majesty on the court, Cousins' role is to be funny.

In one attack, Cousins ​​succeeded in dunking under the basket. Cousins ​​turned around and kissed the back of the head of Blair who was defending him. But when he touched the back of his head with his hand, my mother, it was wet, and the disgusted expression on his face immediately became real.
Another time, the ball went out of bounds and fell into the hands of a beautiful spectator on the sidelines. Cousins ​​immediately pulled away Neil, who was closest, and took the initiative to get the ball.After getting the ball from the beautiful woman, Cousins ​​was so focused on chatting with the beautiful woman that he completely forgot about the game and ignored the referee who kept reaching for the ball.It wasn't until the referee snatched the ball from Cousins' hands with both hands that Cousins ​​realized that he was still participating in the game.

"This guy" Jackson covered his face with his hands, with a disgusted expression on his face, as if Cousins ​​was hopeless.

However, although Cousins ​​was full of funny qualities on the court, he still scored 10 points and 7 rebounds in the first half.

Different from the first-year offensive method that mainly attacks the basket, the second-year team mainly relies on the outside shots of Curry, Harden, Jennings, DeRozan and Matthews to score. The second-year team performed best in the first half. Not Curry, but James Harden who came in because Tyreke Evans was injured. Harden made 9 of 6 shots in the first half, including 4 of 3 three-pointers, and contributed in the first half 15 marks.

At the end of the first half, the first-year team unexpectedly led the second-year team by 71-69. The scores of both sides are very high. The main reason is that both sides are only attacking but not defending.

"It looks like the freshman is going to win this time," Van Gundy said at halftime, and it seemed his hunch was right.

"No wonder." Jackson still did not shake the belief of the second-year team in winning, and said, "The second-year team is only behind by 2 points, and the difference of 2 points is not considered to be behind. I think the serious second-year team will overtake the score in the second half."

In the second half, Wall continued to rack up his assists. As Van Gundy said, as long as the trio of Wall + Yuan Man + Griffin was on the court, they almost swept all the team's points, and almost every offense would It's amazing and applauded.After all, anyone who sees Yuan Man and Griffin taking off again and again with Wall's help and destroying each other's basket can't help applauding!
In this rookie game, the atmosphere was a little tense until the last moment. Since the second-year team was still behind the first-year team at the end of the game, and the second-year team had won the rookie game in the previous 8 years, so this game, The second-year team did not want to lose. Under the leadership of Harden and Curry, the second-year team scored three consecutive three-pointers again at the end of the game, playing a wave of 9-0, narrowing the score gap to only one point in one fell swoop.

At the critical moment, Yuan Man used his signature technique-dry jumper to hit the key ball twice in a row, stabilizing the final situation of the game.

In the end, the first-year team did not give the second-year team a chance to turn defeat into victory, and scored 77-71 again in the second half.In this way, the game ended, the first-year team won the rookie challenge 148-140, and also ended the record of eight consecutive games between the first-year team and the second-year team!

For the sophomore team, Stephen Curry had 24 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists, James Harden had 30 points, and DeJuan Blair had 15 rebounds.

For the first-year team, DeMarcus Cousins ​​scored 33 points and 14 rebounds, performing well. John Wall, who has been delivering shells for Yuan Man and Griffin, also scored 22 assists. Finn was injured last season and healed soon this season, so the Clippers restricted Griffin to only play halftime, so Griffin only played 20 minutes and scored 16 points and 6 goals. rebound.

Yuan Man played almost the entire game, scoring 32 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks. In addition, he scored 2 key goals at the end of the game, helping Yuan Man to create a new era for Chinese players in the NBA. A new record, a feat that even Yao Ming failed to accomplish, won the MVP trophy of the 2011 Rookie Challenge!

Yuan Man won the MVP trophy, Wall and Griffin had no objection, and they gave Yuan Man a very generous applause.

But one person is not happy, and that is Cousins, who scored 33 points and 14 rebounds. Why is he scoring and rebounding a bit higher than Yuan Man, but the other party won the MVP trophy? Cousins ​​is not convinced!

In the face of the season reporter's interview, Cousins ​​directly said, "I think I should be the MVP. Look at my statistics. Without me, the first-year team cannot compete with the second-year team. And"

Just as Cousins ​​was talking, Yuan Man suddenly appeared beside Cousins. Yuan Man, holding the MVP trophy in one hand, put his hand on Cousins' shoulder and said in Cousins' ear What a whisper.

"Really?" Cousins' originally unhappy face showed surprise and anticipation.

"Of course it's true." After Yuan Man finished speaking, he went to greet other players.

Returning to the reporter interviewing Cousins, he seemed to be a completely different person, "Yuan Man deserves the MVP, and I, DeMarcus, were the first to express my approval!"

The reporter looked surprised. Did Nima himself interview a schizophrenic player?How to write this report?
Just now, Yuan Man said in Cousins' ear: "I know you feel a little bit aggrieved, how about this, when this season is over, I will help you ask Stacy Kebler."

(End of this chapter)