Steve Smith has been coaching at Oak Hill High School for almost forty years, nearly two thousand games, and player after player, and there's nothing he hasn't encountered.

Even so, the team's performance and the situation on the field in the first half still upset him, and even regretted that he should not have traveled so far to Los Angeles for this game.

He had been in Oak Hill for so long, from the youth when he graduated from the art academy to the gray hair now, and he was about to retire. He feels that the young players are becoming more and more elusive, their personalities are becoming more and more prominent, they understand more and more, and they are exposed to a bigger and bigger world, but on the other hand, their basketball world is getting smaller.

In terms of talent, the players of this class of Oak Hill High School are not superb, there are no Wizards like Anthony and Durant, but they are also among the best in the United States when combined, but in the first ten minutes of the first half, no one can stop - even the No. 18 guard opposite.

Steve Smith knew it wasn't normal, either his own players were out of shape or the defender on the other side wasn't right.

When Wilson High School stretched the margin to five points, Smith called a timeout, in which he couldn't contain his anger and yelled at the players.

Smith is not a coach who likes to lose his temper and swear, and it is impossible for a coach who likes to lose his temper to curse in a team for 40 years and still achieve a super high winning rate of more than 90%.

But as long as you are a basketball coach, there will always be times when you lose your temper and curse, and Smith scolded everyone during this long timeout, not only for this game, but also for the various performances that have dissatisfied him with the players recently, and Blake James is no exception.

The son of a basketball superstar, Blake James shone at the McDonald's All-Star Game last week, and at Oak Hill High School, he's a true star, always surrounded by all sorts of media people.

This time he came to Los Angeles, and his dad came with him, so he didn't live with his teammates. That's not a good thing for a traditional, conservative school like Oak Hill.

Something similar happened to other players, coming to Los Angeles, full of scouts, agents, sports reporters, who circled around the players at Oak Hill High School like cats that smelled fish.

In Virginia, Oak Hill High School is tucked away in the mountains, two hours away from the nearest city, and they have classes on Saturdays, and they have control over the phone, the Internet, all kinds of electronic devices.

This is an important means to maintain the "purity" of the players, and it is also a guarantee of team unity and single-mindedness.

Now, they're in Los Angeles, and after a few days, it's as if they've been contaminated.

On the contrary, it was the defender opposite, "pure" like a block of ice, not his character, but his technique.

"Lock him up, I say it again, lock him up. If you can't, lock yourselves up. ”

Smith gave an ultimatum to the players on the field, then he looked at Blake again and said, "Do what you have to do and don't overthink it." ”

Smith still likes Blake as a child, and although he is always in the shadow of his father, he still works very hard to get rid of the label that others have put on him - the son of James.

Blake had just been scolded by Smith, and now that Smith was encouraging him, his eyes lit up again, and he nodded vigorously.

Back to the game, Blake wanted to look back at his father who was sitting on the sidelines, but he held back, he fixed his eyes firmly on the opposite side, staring at Lu Yuan on the opposite side.

…………………………

The whole Wilson High School team was in a state of excitement, and Lu Yuan's performance gave everyone a shot in the arm, and they actually took the lead.

However, Hart still seemed to be very calm, on the one hand, he seized the opportunity of the pause, let Lu Yuan sit on the stool to rest, assigned Luciano to hand Lu Yuan water, and used a towel to fan the wind for him;

Hart actually discovered that today's Lu Yuan is not the same as usual, you can see from the eyes that he is calm and resolute, like a blacksmith.

He sat in his seat and drank a lot of water, not saying a word, as if saying a word would waste a trace of energy.

The timeout ended quickly, the two sides returned to the field, and as soon as Lu Yuan appeared on the stage, cheers rang out now.

However, Lu Yuan didn't notice this, he only noticed Blake's gaze shooting from the opposite side.

The duel at the heart of the two sides is about to begin.

With less than ten minutes to go before the end of the first half, the score was 22-17 and Wilson led by five points.

Blake began to take over the offense at Oak Hill High School, and he calmed his feverish head, having just missed two consecutive offenses, and the ball fell out in a circle on the basket, obviously too impatient.

Now he is back in playmaking mode, easily tearing through Wilson's defense, and splitting the ball into the hands of Ott inside, who opens Noel's hands and dunks vigorously.

Then, in the defense of Oak Hill High School, three people surrounded Lu Yuan, causing a passing error, and Blake quickly counterattacked with the ball and dunked again.

Oak Hill immediately reduced the gap to one point, and they stopped the decline.

But Lu Yuan was not ready to end his fiery state.

Next, Lu Yuan stopped holding the ball, and the possession of the ball returned to Pan Sen's hands, and he had found his form and was no longer nervous.

Lu Yuan began to wander and run on the outside, and the only role of the other three in the attack was to make stakes for Lu Yuan to block people.

Lu Yuan's running position is still so agile and nowhere to be found, but he and Pan Sen have a good tacit understanding.

Although the players defending Lu Yuan had followed very closely, Lu Yuan still found a gap, Pan Sen passed, Lu Yuan received the ball and jumped out directly.

Steve Smith on the sidelines was shocked by the simplicity and grace of Lu Yuan's jump shots, without a trace of superfluous small movements, and even without adjusting the movements, so that it seemed a little stiff, as if there was not enough time to practice.

But the ball still fell into the basket, he was too fast, and the opponent didn't have time to interfere.

With two more points, the Poly Arena was jubilant, Lu Yuan's heat continued, and now the audience wanted to see how hot this kid would be.

Hart felt a little incredible when he saw Lu Yuan's jump shot, in daily training, Lu Yuan did have an outstanding jump shot, but it was not so powerful, especially the opponent's defense was so tight, Lu Yuan's shot was really confident and extremely resolute.

Confidence and determination not only boost your own shooting and the morale of your teammates, but also undermine your opponent's confidence, especially defensive tenacity.

Lu Yuan's consecutive goals are undoubtedly a blow to the players of Oak Hill High School, because they have tried various methods, but they can't stop him, so they will have a black hand, but the players of Oak Mountain will not play a black hand.

After breaking through the Oak Mountain into a sieve, Lu Yuan started the performance of the mid-range catch-and-jump shot again, he received the ball quickly, jumped fully, and shot decisively, even if the posture looked a little stiff, but the "swish" goal sound was pleasant enough to the ear.

On Oak Hill's side, Blake has completely calmed down, controlling the team's offensive tempo, breaking through, splitting the ball just right, and also contributing to the team on the rebound.

Under the leadership of their respective core players, the two sides entered the white-hot battle.

After all, the overall strength of Oak Hill High School is a lot higher, and it slowly overtakes the score, but every time he wants to open the score, Lu Yuan will stand up and score two points to stop the bleeding for the team.

And he can also pass the ball, Noel who is standing on the outside, and Luciano, who comes on the court later, can score three points as long as they are given the opportunity.

Wilson High School is indeed a garbage team, but it doesn't mean that the players in it are all garbage, each of them has their own strengths, but there are too many shortcomings to cover up the advantages. However, Lu Yuan alone today covered up their shortcomings, at least in the first half, which gave them the opportunity to play to their advantages.

No matter how Steve Smith changes his defensive strategy, if he sends more troops to encircle and intercept Lu Yuan, he still scores goals steadily and hits jumpers steadily.

The defensive competition is not only about skill and physical fitness, but also about psychology, and Lu Yuan seems to be indestructible in front of the opponent's various defenses, no matter how the opponent deals with him, he is extremely calm and resolute.

The game was fierce and suffocating, until the last minute of the first half, Oak Hill High School was still 3 points ahead of Wilson High School, Wilson High School had one offensive opportunity left, Pan Sen dribbled past half court, and Oak Hill had sent two players to wrap Lu Yuan in advance.

But Lu Yuan still got rid of the bag, Pan Sen passed the ball to Lu Yuan's hands, Lu Yuan took the ball, looked at the basket, four or five steps away from the three-point line, and then looked at the timer, there were less than 5 seconds left, there was not much time, the player who defended him took a step back, and glanced back at the others, obviously preventing Lu Yuan's breakthrough and passing.

But Lu Yuan didn't break through, nor did he pass the ball, but adjusted it and shot three points directly on the spot!

Everyone was stunned, because this was Lu Yuan's first three-point shot in this game, and people thought that this kid wouldn't shoot three-pointers, but he came to such a long-distance three-point shot!

The ball flew to the basket like a cannonball, then smashed into the white frame of the rebound, bounced into the basket, and the ball actually hit the board!

The Poly Arena was almost overturned by cheers, and if those who didn't know thought it was the Bruins playing inside, they were actually cheering for the unknown players of an unknown high school team.

Three-point shot, the score was 43:43, the two sides tied in the first half, and Lu Yuan scored 30 points alone, relying on his own strength to pull Wilson to the same level as Oak Mountain.

The teammates rushed forward and hugged Lu Yuan like crazy, as if they had already won, and in fact, judging from the first half, they did win if they could beat Oak Hill High School like this.

In the last 1 second, Oak Hill High School missed the attack, and at the end of the first half of the game, Lu Yuan, like Tang Seng, was coaxed back to the locker room by his teammates like a little monster, leaving the audience who were still unfinished, waiting for the start of the second half of the game like a lost soul.