Chapter 600: Tied for MVP

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, both sides fielded the same lineups as they did at the beginning of the first quarter.

In this lineup, Xiao Yao and Kevin Donovan of the Eastern Celebrities are on the field at the same time. When attacking, it is still organized by Xiao Yao playing point guard. On defense, Kevin Donovan played against Robert Foden, the opposing point guard, and Xiao Yao played the power forward position at the No. 4 position, defending the interior with Abber Lawrence.

Although the two female professional players under the basket have a considerable advantage in height, they both play "classic ball" and are not particularly active. Xiao Yao was in a position of the inside line when defending, closer to the basket, and naturally became the main force in the fight for rebounds.

In the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, Xiao Yao grabbed two backcourt defensive rebounds. With more than eight minutes left before the end of the game, Xiao Yao's scores, assists and rebounds all reached double digits and got a triple-double.

In addition, in the attack, Xiao Yao also continued to contribute. Although he didn't shoot to score and only had one assist, with his sharp breakthrough and reasonable passing, the Eastern Celebrities still played a better offensive performance than the Western Celebrities in more than three minutes, extending the lead in the score to 8 points.

On the court, the Western Celebrities got a free throw opportunity, and when the game entered dead time, the Eastern Celebrities replaced Xiao Yao along with two professional players, Abbie Lawrence and Kevin Donovan. The Western Celebrities have also replaced professional players Carmel Norton and Robert Foden with two non-professional star players.

For the next period of time, there were no professional players on either side, and there were no good offensive playmakers, so everyone became much simpler and more direct in their attacking style. The pace of the game has increased a lot, the number of rounds in the same time has increased, and the scene looks a lot more lively, but in terms of efficiency, it has decreased a little.

During this period of time, the players of the Western Celebrity Team, who were obviously behind in the score, played more aggressively and hard, but after all, they were all non-professional players, and the difference in strength was not very big, and they did not recover much from the score.

Although it was an exhibition match, since it was a match, no one wanted to lose, at least not without resistance.

With just over five minutes left in the game, the Western Celebrities were the first to make a change. Taking advantage of a dead-ball opportunity, the Western Celebrities reintroduced Robert Foden, and several amateur players with good hands, such as Scott Carr, were also replaced.

After the substitution, Robert Foden of the Western Celebrity Team did not slow down the pace of the game on the court, but chose to attack. And in the first two rounds of three offenses (grabbing an offensive rebound), all of them chose long-range shots from beyond the three-point line.

In basketball, the best way to chase points is undoubtedly the three-point shot. This adjustment of the Western Celebrity Team is obviously to give it a go and make a fuss outside the three-point line.

Robert Foden and Scott Carr each hit three three-pointers to score six points. But since the Eastern Conference Celebrities' two offenses were also scored by Rita Mitchell's mid-range shot and Ben Scour's turnaround shot, the difference was only reduced by two points.

Although the margin was not narrowed too much, the Eastern Celebrity Team reacted quickly. After the Western Celebrities missed their fourth three-point shot in a short period of time, and the Eastern Celebrities' Tom Casey won the rebound, the Eastern Celebrities' coaching staff called a timeout.

This timeout, the coach of the Eastern Celebrity Team made a layout, and when he came back from the timeout, he also sent Kevin Donovan and Xiao Yao on the court again.

After Xiao Yao came on the court, he still played the point guard position when attacking. After receiving the sideline ball from his teammates, Xiao Yao quickly dribbled to the opponent's half, but did not rush to pass, break or shoot, but stopped at the top of the three-point arc and slowly dribbled the ball, slowing down the rhythm of the game.

After seven or eight seconds of attacking time, Xiao Yao beckoned Kevin Donovan on the wing to come over and play a pick-and-roll with him. Taking advantage of the gap in the opponent's substitution defense, Xiao Yao passed the ball to Kevin Donovan, who cut to the inside after blocking and dismantling. Kevin Donovan received the ball and spun around, but passed the ball to Rita Mitchell in the open space before the opposition could get between the two defenders. Rita Mitchell received the ball and hit a straight shot to score two points on another shot.

After coming back, Xiao Yao did not receive the basket to play inside when defending, but pushed to the outside to defend the opponent's best three-point professional player Robert Foden, and Kevin Donovan went to target Scott Carr, another excellent outside shooter on the Western Celebrities.

Robert Foden took a step with the ball, made a breakaway feint and quickly retracted his leg to shoot straight from beyond the three-point line.

Xiao Yao then moved his center of gravity back, and after watching Robert Foden shoot, he immediately raised his arm and jumped up to block. Xiao Yao's reaction speed and bounce were reflected at this time. Although he jumped after Robert Foden, his raised finger poked the basketball thrown by Robert Foden. Although it was not a complete block, the basketball was touched by Xiao Yao like this, turned into a hollow outside the basket, and fell into the hands of Ben Scout under the basket.

As soon as Ben Scout received the basketball, he threw it into the opponent's half court and launched a fast break. After landing, Xiao Yao and Rita Mitchell, who was the most active in the fast attack, immediately wanted to rush to the opponent's half.

Ben Scour didn't look at anyone at all when he passed the ball, and threw it a little too big, and Xiao Yao, who rushed very fast, caught up with the basketball when he was near the baseline. At this time, Xiao Yao was already about to break out of the bottom line, and it was impossible to brake while receiving the ball to stop the momentum of the forward rush. So Xiao Yao jumped up immediately after receiving the ball, turned his body in the air, and passed the basketball to Rita Mitchell, who followed behind him.

Rita Mitchell, who had already rushed to within three seconds, received the ball and threw the basketball away, which hit the rebound and fell into the hoop.

Bill Justin, who had come back with Rita Mitchell, caught the ball that fell from the hoop and walked outside the baseline, ready to quickly deliver the ball.

After landing, Xiao Yao didn't have time to celebrate with Rita Mitchell, and immediately stood at the bottom line of the opponent's basket, facing Bill Justin and waving his arms outstretched, interfering with the opponent's serve. At this time, the opponent has a numerical advantage in the opposite half, and if Bill Justin passes the basketball directly to his teammates with a long pass, it will undoubtedly be extremely disadvantageous for his own side.

Xiao Yao is taller than Bill Justin, stretching his arms and waving, and at the same time, the whole person is also jumping constantly, which really interferes with Bill Justin. Bill Justin was afraid of making mistakes, but in the end he didn't choose to go fast, and waited until Robert Foden returned to his own half, and then took advantage of Xiao Yao's jump to pass the ball to Robert Foden with a ground-hitting pass.

Robert Foden returned to his own half when he received the ball, and it was not very far from Xiao Yao. After Bill Justin passed the ball, Xiao Yao immediately abandoned Bill Justin outside the baseline and turned to follow Robert Foden. Xiao Yao didn't press too hard or wanted to reach out to cut off Robert Foden's ball, and just followed the opponent all the way back to his own half.

The Western Celebrities' offense was still making a fuss on the outside, but Robert Foden didn't directly single Xiao Yao again, but waved Bill Justin to come over and help him make a one-stop cover.

When Bill Justin blocked Xiao Yao from the side, Xiao Yao didn't mean to switch defenses with Rita Mitchell at all, and he was about to squeeze past Bill Justin.

Robert Foden took a step to the left side of the dribble with Bill Justin's one-block screen, and jumped up from beyond the three-point line to face Rita Mitchell's defense. I don't know if it's because Robert Foden shot outside the three-point line this time, Rita Mitchell didn't choose to grab Robert Foden's arm and foul directly, but raised her arm and jumped up, trying to interfere with the opponent's shot as much as possible.

Rita Mitchell is more than a dozen centimeters shorter than Robert Foden, and her bounce is much worse, and the raised palm has not yet reached the elbow position of Robert Foden's shot, so the interference with him is really limited. However, when Robert Foden took a shot, another palm suddenly appeared next to him and touched the basketball in the air again.

After the basketball in the air was touched by Xiao Yao, it changed direction and landed near the bottom line on the left side of the court. This time, it was Zach Haywood who caught the basket.

Ben Sculll of the Eastern Celebrity Team immediately raised his hands to Zach Haywood to defend the opponent's basket offense. Zach Haywood turned his back to the basket and dribbled Ben Squill with his back, as if ready to attack under the basket.

When Zach Haywood dribbled and turned under the basket, Will Foster, near the bottom corner, turned to the basket to help defend and let go of Anthony Morrell, who was being marked.

Zach Haywood saw Will Foster turn to defend himself and immediately threw the ball towards Anthony Morrell who was released from beyond the three-point line in the bottom left corner.

However, halfway through the ball, it was stopped by a hand. The pass was intercepted by Xiao Yao, who was defending Robert Foden at the top of the arc just now.

Although Xiao Yao's defensive target is Robert Foden, on the one hand, there are now three people at the top of the arc, Zach Haywood's may not be able to accurately pass Rita Mitchell to pass the basketball to Robert Foden's hands, and Will Foster is away from Anthony Morrell, and the pass is much less difficult. On the other hand, Anthony Morrell was in front of Zach Haywood, while Robert Foden was on the side of Zach Haywood. Zach Haywood won't necessarily see Robert Foden, but he can't see Anthony Morrell.

After Xiao Yao landed on the ground, he saw Will Foster let go of Anthony Morrell under the defensive basket, so he gave up the defense of Robert Foden, quickly moved to the baseline, and sure enough, intercepted Zach Haywood's pass to Anthony Morrell.

However, Zach Haywood's pass was not small, and Xiao Yao was also able to rush to the passing route, and he couldn't copy the basketball in his hand, but just hit the basketball a little.

The basketball that was hit by Xiao Yao flew outside the bottom line, and Xiao Yao immediately took a step, kicked the ground, and jumped outside the bottom line. Xiao Yao, who was jumping in the air, grabbed the basketball, twisted his waist in the air, and threw the basketball to Will Foster in front of him.

When he rushed forward, he forcibly twisted his waist in the air and turned around to pass the ball, Xiao Yao naturally couldn't maintain his center of gravity and body balance in the air, and when he landed, he fell directly to the crowd of photographers with cameras outside the bottom line, which frightened several photographers to quickly dodge to both sides.

Will Foster received the ball, immediately turned and threw the basketball towards the opposing half. However, with the experience of Ben Schull last time, Will Foster didn't throw the ball too much, and he watched the pass. As the basketball flew near the halfway line and the left sideline, it landed in the hands of Kevin Donovan, who was on a fast break.

This time, Rita Mitchell, who was at the top of the arc, rarely ran to the opponent's half with a fast attack, but first looked back at the baseline of his own half. After seeing Ben Squill walk to the sidelines and pull up Xiao Yao in the crowd, Rita Mitchell turned and ran to the opponent's half to meet Kevin Donovan's fast attack. As a result of this hesitation, she was instead run to the front by Will Foster, who immediately followed up on the fast break after passing the ball.

Robert Foden had already run back to defend before Kevin Donovan received the ball, and Bill Justin, who was closest to his own half, quickly followed back to defend, plus Scott Karl, who was behind Kevin Donovan, and soon formed a three-defense and one-one posture.

Kevin Donovan was rushing to the basket with the ball when he was caught by Robert Foden and Bill Justin and threw the ball to the perimeter. The one who received the ball from the outside was Will Foster, who followed up on the fast break. Scott Carr, who was behind Kevin Donovan, immediately turned to defend Will Foster, who received the ball.

Will Foster is not good at long-range shots, and was about to dribble past Scott Carr's defense, when he suddenly saw a figure wearing the same color jersey as himself running in front of him from behind him, and immediately passed the ball out.

Coming from behind Will Foster was Rita Mitchell. When Rita Mitchell received the ball, she had already run to the middle of the right sideline of the three-second zone, and with no one around her, she jumped up and shot without hesitation, and the basketball fell into the basket safely.

Thanks to Rita Mitchell's six straight points, the gap between the two teams widened to double digits, to 12 points.

Although there were more than four minutes left in the game, these few goals seemed to knock the momentum of the Western Celebrities down. After that goal, the Western Celebrities called a timeout, replacing Robert Foden, a former professional player, with his friend Brandon Brown, and actress Jesse Cambuur for Anthony Morrell, seemingly accepting the result of the defeat.

After seeing these two changes from the Western Celebrities, the Eastern Celebrities then replaced Kevin Donovan and Will Foster in a dead ball, and replaced "Boss" Mark Doom and "Actor" Jason Danfol. However, Xiao Yao was not replaced, but was still left on the field.

The next few minutes almost became the "garbage time" of the game. However, in these few minutes of "garbage time", the field is not without highlights.

The Western Celebrities know that there is no hope of winning the game, and the MVP player of this game will certainly not be produced on their team. However, they can't get the MVP themselves, and they don't really want to see the MVP of this game taken by a Chinese star.

Xiao Yao's triple-double stats are very beautiful, and except for the score, everything else is the highest in the game, but it is precisely the scoring that seems to be the most important statistic, because the players of the Eastern Celebrity Team who are eligible for MVP are higher than Xiao Yao.

The top scorer of the match was Rita Mitchell. She has scored 18 points, along with two assists and a rebound. At this time, the only one who has hope of competing with Xiao Yao for MVP is Rita Mitchell.

So in the next few minutes of the game, there was a more interesting situation on the field. It's obviously garbage time, but the Western Celebrities' defense of Xiao Yao is not relaxed at all, often two people pinch him, and the other defensive player who usually participates in the pinch defense is against Rita Mitchell, and their clipping defense is only to defend Xiao Yao's breakthrough and shooting, and does not interfere with his passing much.

Xiao Yao didn't care much about this. When the team is ahead, he rarely faces strong defenses, and when he sees Rita Mitchell having an open opportunity, he always passes the basketball as soon as possible, seemingly completely unaware that the opponent has scored more than him and is the only threat to win the MVP.

When the game time timer sounded to zero, the score was 78-65, and the Eastern Celebrities won the game by 12 points.

In the final four minutes, Rita Mitchell added five more points to bring her total to 23 points, the only player to score 20+ points.

After the game, the players from both sides returned to their respective benches after high-fives or hugs to each other, and after several referees left the court with basketballs, the host returned to the court with the microphone.

The host announced the scores of the two teams, led the audience to thank the coaches and players of the two teams with applause, and congratulated the Eastern Celebrities, and finally announced the MVP winner of the game.

As a result, Rita Mitchell, who scored the highest score in the game, and Xiao Yao, who got a triple-double, won the joint MVP of the game.