Chapter 592: Grab the Hat
Xiao Yao covered the basketball out of the sideline, and the Western Celebrities served the sideline ball. While the group was chatting, the basketball had been given to Anthony Morrell by the referee who was standing outside the touchline. Seeing Anthony Morrell raise his hand to serve the sideline, the people on the pitch quickly ended the small talk, and each side ran to meet and follow their defenders.
Anthony Morrell tossed the basketball to Camon Blunt, a professional who had run to the three-point line, and slipped under the basket.
After Carmon Blunt received the ball, Joey Bilsa who came out of the interior did not follow very closely, and directly pulled out a jumper from outside the three-point line. The basketball crosses the air in a graceful arc and hollows into the frame.
Will Foster of the Eastern Celebrity Team picked up the dropped basketball and stood outside the baseline, and was about to pass the basketball to Xiao Yao who came back to pick it up as usual, but found Zach Haywood standing next to Xiao Yao and staring at him, so he threw the basketball to Joey Bielsa who was further away.
Joy Bielsa didn't plan to let Xiao Yao organize every goal. Since the opponent interfered with Xiao Yao's catch, Joey Bielsa simply advanced the ball to the opponent's half, and planned to organize the attack of this ball himself.
Carmon Blunt had retreated to near his own three-point line, and no one interfered with the ball of professional Joey Bilsa, allowing Joey Bilsa to dribble the ball across the opposing half.
After all the players of the Eastern Celebrities crossed the opposing half, everyone noticed that there were some changes in the defensive players of the Western Celebrities. It was no longer Brandon Brown who defended Xiao Yao, but Zach Haywood.
"Huaxia boy, I don't bully girls, and you don't bully children, let's fight one!" Zach Haywood said to Xiao Yao with a little provocation.
"Huh?" Xiao Yao looked at the white strong man in front of him with a little surprise.
Joey Bilsa, who was standing outside the three-point line on the left side, saw Brandon Brown defending Mark Doom on the other side, and wanted to throw the basketball to Mark Doom on the other side, so that Mark Doom and Brandon Brown could play one of the most interesting "grandparents and grandchildren". After hearing Zach Haywood's words, Joey Bilsa immediately changed his mind, raised his hand and threw the basketball to Xiao Yao at the top of the arc, and asked with a smile: "Young, don't pass it, play one!"
"Okay!" Xiao Yao smiled and nodded.
Although the white strong man in front of him is a professional boxer who has won a gold belt, this is a basketball court, not a boxing ring, and Xiao Yao is not afraid of him even if he fights, let alone playing basketball.
Considering that there was a boxer opposite, the upper body strength must be very good, Xiao Yao took a step back from the dribble, and slightly distanced himself from his opponent.
Xiao Yao was standing outside the three-point line when he received the ball, and now he was still retreating, Zach Haywood didn't think Xiao Yao wanted to open up space for an ultra-long-distance three-pointer, so he didn't follow closely, but opened his arms and sank his center of gravity, ready to face Xiao Yao's breakthrough.
Not to mention that Xiao Yao has not scored a point so far, and more importantly, he has not even made a single shot, but has looked beautiful on several breaks, Zach Haywood does not think Xiao Yao is an excellent outside shooter, but more like an excellent striker who can pass the ball.
Xiao Yao is not as incapable of long-range shooting as Zach Haywood thinks, but since it is a singles, Xiao Yao will certainly not choose the unstable offensive method of long-range shooting, and he is indeed ready to break through when he takes a step back. In the face of Zach Heywood, a white strong man, Xiao Yao did not make a breakthrough through the crotch like teasing a child just now, but on the side of his body, he slapped the basketball to his left front, followed by the acceleration of the start, and broke through to his left side by catching the ball with his left hand.
Zach Haywood, who had been prepared, immediately took a step to the right, blocking Xiao Yao's forward path, and at the same time straightened his chest slightly, intending to make physical contact with Xiao Yao.
As a result, Xiao Yao, who had just started, made an emergency stop, took the basketball with his left hand and slapped it to his crotch, and at the same time turned his whole body to the right, and went to his right after receiving the ball with his right hand.
Zach Haywood immediately shifted his centre of gravity and stepped back to his left rear. Due to the late start, Heywood was occupied by Xiao Yao by half of the body, and could only follow Xiao Yao's side.
However, Zach Heywood's body and upper body strength are really good. After running two steps to the basket with Xiao Yao, Zach Haywood squeezed Xiao Yao's breakthrough route to the outside with an intentional physical contact, regaining the inside position closer to the basket.
Xiao Yao suddenly slowed down in the middle of the sideline of the three-second zone, and Zach Haywood, who was shaking with all his strength, shook his body with all his might, but did not jump and shoot immediately, but slowly took a step back with the ball.
Zach Haywood, who had adjusted his posture, saw that Xiao Yao didn't take advantage of his unstable center of gravity to shoot, and felt that Xiao Yao's shooting accuracy was average. Thinking that he was almost completely shaken away by Xiao Yao just now, Zach Haywood not only did not follow Xiao Yao to pounce at this time, but instead retracted half a step back and got closer to the basket.
Seeing this scene, Xiao Yao took a step forward, raised his speed, and started directly with the ball.
Zach Haywood saw Xiao Yao take two steps with the ball, and then immediately jumped up with his arms raised. However, what he didn't expect was that Xiao Yao jumped far higher than he imagined, and Zach Heywood could only lean forward to knock Xiao Yao away.
In terms of body thickness and upper body strength, Xiao Yao is indeed worse than Zach Heywood. But Xiao Yao sprinted, Zach Haywood jumped vertically, Xiao Yao took advantage of some inertia, and did not suffer too much when he collided with Zach Haywood in the air, but the momentum of the forward rush was blocked. Xiao Yao had already tried the power of Zach Heywood when he broke through just now, and this situation was also expected by him. Although Xiao Yao's forward momentum was blocked, the height at the time of the jump was enough. Taking advantage of the pause of this collision, Xiao Yao raised the arm of the basketball and swung it down fiercely, smashing the basketball into the basket.
"O~" An exclamation rang out from the audience.
"yes~" Dean and the others on the sidelines raised their arms and stood up.
"Awesome!" Zhao Rui, Zhou Zhihao and others also raised their arms and stood up and shouted loudly.
“yes!” Everyone on the bench for the Eastern Celebrity Team jumped to their feet, waving their fists or towels and shouting.
“eon!” Joey Bielsa laughed and turned to run back, looking up at the audience and waving his arms upwards to signal the audience to scream louder. Under his greeting, the audience let out another burst of excited cheers and screams.
"Beautiful! Xiao Yao completed a wonderful dunk under Heywood's defense!" Li Jun on the commentary seat said excitedly, and his voice trembled a little with excitement.
"The dunk in the Celebrity Game is quite rare, and the dunk of non-professional players is even less, almost a slap can be counted, and last year's Celebrity Game was even less than a dunk!" Zhang Yuan also said excitedly, "I didn't expect that in this year's Celebrity Game, the first dunk was completed by our Chinese star, which is so beautiful!"
Xiao Yao himself wasn't too excited, and after he landed, he didn't clench his fists and look up to the sky and howl or anything, he just ran back with a smile.
But just because he's not excited doesn't mean the rest of the people on the field aren't excited.
During yesterday's training session, Xiao Yao mainly showed the basic skills of dribbling, passing and shooting, and did not dunk, except for Joey Bielsa, other teammates did not know that Xiao Yao could dunk. Xiao Yao also shocked those teammates of the Eastern Celebrity Team. Will Foster ran over excitedly and slapped Xiao Yao hard, shouting, "Brother, that's great!"
Will Foster ran away quickly after high-fives with Xiao Yao, and on the way back to defend his own half, Rita Mitchell took the initiative to run to Xiao Yao's side and high-five him to celebrate, and said with a smile: "Hey, you're amazing! I want you to be a guest on my show even more now." ”
"Okay, if time permits, I'll definitely go!" Xiao Yao said with a smile, still not saying anything.
After the Western Celebrity Team attacked, the position on the court changed a little. This time, it was not the boy Brandon Brown who was driving the ball, but the professional Camon Blunt, and the right corner forward was replaced by Anthony Morrell and Zach Haywood.
The defensive strategy of the Eastern Celebrities is to add markers in the zone, as the second height on the court, Xiao Yao's defensive position is in the middle of the right baseline, mainly defending opposing players near the bottom corner of the right side, while taking into account the defense under the right basket. The Western Celebrity team's adjustment is to replace the player opposite Xiao Yao from Anthony Morrell to Zach Haywood.
Carmon Blunt took the ball beyond the three-point line and raised his hand to Zach Haywood in the bottom right corner. Xiao Yao stood in the middle of the bottom corner and the basket, far away from Zach Haywood, unable to intercept the pass, but when Zach Haywood received the ball, Xiao Yao immediately pounced and stood in front of Zach Haywood's defensive position.
"Heywood!"
Xiao Yao just dunked one on Zach Haywood's head, and immediately Zach Haywood held the ball to face Xiao Yao. Seeing such a-for-tat scene, there was a burst of drumming in the audience, and some spectators shouted Zach Heywood's name to cheer him on.
Many players on the bench of the Western Celebrity Team also stood up and waved to cheer for Zach Haywood, but Zhuo Zhiyuan was the only one who sat motionless in his seat, and couldn't help but bow his head and reach out to cover his forehead.
Seeing that Zach Haywood was going to single Xiao Yao, Joey Bielsa smiled silently, not only did not move closer to Xiao Yao's basket, but also moved a step away from the basket.
Amid the cheers of the audience, Zach Haywood slapped the basketball to the ground and wanted to break through Xiao Yao's right hand. Xiao Yao did not retreat, but sank his center of gravity down again, and at the same time his right hand quickly stretched forward.
"O~" The cheering sound at the scene suddenly turned into an exclamation. It turned out that Zach Haywood had just started dribbling when Xiao Yao's hand copied the basketball that bounced off the ground.
Zach Haywood had just taken a step forward when he suddenly found that the basketball in his hand was gone, and he was also shocked. But fortunately, his reaction was fast enough and his body was thick enough, so he immediately turned around and blocked Xiao Yao behind him, regaining control of the basketball that Xiao Yao pointed behind him.
With the experience of almost being broken, Zach Haywood didn't plan to break through head-on, so he simply turned his back to Xiao Yao and dribbled the ball to the basket.
Xiao Yao was not ambiguous, and immediately posted it, and slowly retreated to the basket with Zach Haywood's back cut. Xiao Yao didn't use brute force to keep against Zach Heywood, and the strength on his body was constantly releasing and receiving. When Zach Heywood pushed back, Xiao Yao was forced to retreat, and when his strength was old, he pushed forward again, basically taking a step back and pushing back half a step.
When he exerted his strength, there was no force behind him, and when he ran out of strength, he felt the power of the other party to return to the top, and Zach Heywood was almost made unstable by Xiao Yao, and his steps were messed up. Although Zach Haywood finally squeezed into the basket, it took more effort than originally expected, not to mention, the whole person was also extremely uncomfortable.
Seeing the right shooting position under the basket, Zach Heywood sank his weight, leaned back again, and then quickly turned around and threw the basketball to the basket. Because he didn't feel Xiao Yao's body collision at the last moment, Zach Haywood still had a heart when he shot, straightened his arm and threw a one-foot jumping hook throw.
Xiao Yao accurately judged the timing of Zach Haywood's shot, and the last step back did not make physical contact with Zach Haywood, but took a diagonal step. When Zach Haywood turned, Xiao Yao was standing right on his side. As Zach Haywood raised his arm to hook his hand and shoot, Xiao Yao also raised his arm and jumped.
Although Xiao Yao's height is not much taller than Zach Heywood, but with the dunk just now, Zach Heywood knows that Xiao Yao must be much stronger than himself in terms of bounce, so he adopted such an offensive method.
But there is a premise that hook is difficult to defend, and that is that the defender is in front of the offensive player. At this time, Xiao Yao appeared on the side of Zach Heywood, and this advantage was not so obvious.
Xiao Yao, who jumped high, didn't straighten his arm and blocked his palm in front of the basketball that Zach Haywood was lifting. As soon as Zach Haywood's basketball left his palm, Xiao Yao's palm arrived.
This time, Xiao Yao did not slap the basketball out, but swung back slightly after touching the basketball with his right hand, and then quickly pressed down, and at the same time stretched out his left hand and hugged the basketball thrown by Zach Haywood.
“ohmygod!” Seeing that Xiao Yao actually caught Zach Haywood's hook shot directly, there was a huge exclamation in the audience, and some viewers hugged their heads in disbelief.
"Unbelievable! Unbelievable!" On the commentary seat, two well-known commentators who have been commenting on the American professional basketball game all year round and are also the official commentators of this time widened their eyes in disbelief and exclaimed again and again.
"Xiao Yao grabbed Haywood's shot out of the air!" Li Jun exclaimed excitedly, his face flushed.
"This is a cap!" Zhang Yuan exclaimed with the same excitement.