God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 57

The game arrived as scheduled. Seeing McGrady warming up on the field, Smith looked suspiciously at Carter beside him, and asked in a low voice, "Vince, is this what you said? I don't see anything wrong with him. ah!"

Carter shook his head blankly, and muttered to himself: "It's impossible, he was still standing there in a daze when I left! Maybe it's because it's just warming up now, and he won't be so calm when the game starts. .”

Smith nodded dubiously. Now he can only believe Carter's explanation, and the reporters from the major media are already seated, and there is no chance to make an outside move. If Carter is still allowed to "chat casually" with McGrady, then Combined with the state of McGrady's game, it is still unknown how much the media will stir up this topic.

In this game, Smith basically followed the starting lineup of last season, obviously with a taste of shame.Point guard Salmond, small forward Carter and power forward Jamison are solid starters. Last season's starting shooting guard Zwick has already participated in the draft. His replacement is second-year player Ed Guetta, Okuraja Still sits at the center position.

It can be said that this is a replica of North Carolina's strongest lineup last season. They were eliminated by Villanova in the national championship with this starting lineup before. Now Smith once again offered this lineup, and his intention is self-evident.

Contrary to North Carolina, Villanova's starting lineup has nothing to do with last season. Point guard Brown, shooting guard McGrady, small forward Battier, power forward Brand, center Allen .Among the starting five tigers, only Brown has the experience of confronting North Carolina before. The other four are all newcomers to North Carolina. But from another perspective, North Carolina doesn’t know much about them, so It is also impossible to say who has the advantage and who suffers.

From the point of view of the starting matchup alone, McGrady has a great advantage. Coulthard, who replaced Zwick as the starter, is only 1.88 meters tall, but McGrady is a guy who can swing to the third position. On the other hand, it is basically rolling.But Rappers also knows that with Smith's seasoned experience, he will never let Coulthard directly face McGrady, but he doesn't care too much. The team's playmaker tactics have been practiced very well. It is good to adapt to all changes with the same.

Sure enough, it was Carter, not Coulthard, who was standing next to McGrady during the jump ball. Obviously Smith believed that McGrady was a bigger threat, but speaking more deeply, he might hope that Carter would continue to suppress McGrady as before.

Okuraja is a pocket big man, not much higher than Jamison, and far less than Allen, who Rappert deliberately puts in the starting lineup to help Brand guard the inside, and the latter easily puts the ball It was allocated to Battier who did not encounter defensive pressure, and Battier immediately gave the ball to McGrady who got rid of the defense.

After seeing McGrady take the ball, Carter waved his arms while letting his teammates quickly return to defense.He thinks he knows this cousin very well. In the past, as long as McGrady got the ball at the beginning, he would definitely rush to the opponent's basket at the first time. At this time, it seems to be a good choice to let him get out of touch with his teammates and complete steals or blocks.

But Carter was disappointed. After McGrady dribbled the ball across the midfield, he lowered the tempo of the game.He stopped two steps away from the three-point line, turned sideways to protect the ball on the side away from Carter, and although he did not direct his teammates to move, his eyes were always on the position of every player on both sides.

The NCAA has an offensive round of up to 35 seconds, and there is plenty of time for players to run more subtle and complex tactics.Suddenly, McGrady saw Brand move to a high position, and pulled Jamison out by the way, Battier quickly ran back to the basket, and Brand used his thick body to block both Coulthard and Jamison. behind.

Looking at Carter who was waiting in front of him, a smile appeared on the corner of McGrady's mouth. After making a very realistic tentative step, he suddenly raised his right hand and threw it casually.Carter turned around in a daze, and all he saw was Battier's figure falling from the basket, a beautiful alley-oop!

The entire arena was silent, and then a deafening applause suddenly broke out.Although this is the home court of North Carolina, and most of the fans who come here are North Carolina fans, they will still applaud loudly for every wonderful scene in the game. This is the simplest and most persistent thing about basketball. pious.

The alley-oop from Villanova just now undoubtedly conquered their critical eyes. Brandela went to the high position and made an off-ball screen for Battier. In the right position, Battier leaped high and completed an extremely stretched crotch change-hand dunk.

Of course, other people are not without contributions in this process.Allen blocked Okuraja from the side of the three-second zone to prevent him from going to the basket to interfere with Battier's offense; Brown has already filled in Battier's position at the bottom corner of the outside line. If the latter is going to pass the ball, he can shoot threes.

Carter opened his mouth in surprise. He didn't see the cooperation between other Villanova players, but was simply surprised by McGrady's choice of passing.When did this guy get so willing to share the ball?According to his usual style, shouldn't he hold the ball and force a breakthrough in the round just now, and then complete the attack by himself?

He began to doubt whether this was the real Tracy McGrady. In any case, Carter couldn't believe that a person could change his style of play in just one summer.No, this is no longer the style of play, but a personal character, which can make a guy who is obsessed with fighting alone learn to pass the ball to his teammates. Is Villanova really so incredible?
But soon Carter realized that his brain was too big, and McGrady was still the same McGrady as before.Shamond's pass to the inside Okuraja was directly intercepted by Brand at the right time, and McGrady had already sprinted towards North Carolina's half court with long legs.Although Jamison is back on defense and Battier is open on the weak side, McGrady still throws a three-pointer against Jamison's defense, which makes Carter crazy. It hit!

Looking at the high-spirited McGrady, Carter really didn't know what expression he should use to face the head coach.An unconstrained assist, a strong shot ignoring the defense, it is obvious that McGrady was not affected by what he said yesterday, and he quickly entered the game state.Carter expressed his helplessness about this: You couldn't be pretending to be dazed yesterday, right?
(End of this chapter)