1/

"It must have run out of time."

"How do you know?"

When Durant threw the basket in the middle of the whistle, the Oracle court was filled with jubilation and roaring. Most of the Rockets' players have made it straight into the tunnel and are ready to accept the bitterness of the loss brought by the opponent's great finisher. Only a few players, including James Harden, remained on the field, waiting for the referee to review the video replay and confirm that the goal was valid. Yu Xiaochun and Yang Yiming stood in the audience near the away team's player area, also raising their heads together, waiting for the replay of the big screen on the dome.

"Definitely... I shouldn't have made it. Durant adjusted his aim before shooting, and that was the moment when he shot late. Yu Xiaochun just heard Yang Yiming say that Durant's killer shot was overtimed, thinking that it was just a good wish from the same position of the Rockets as him, but he didn't expect Yang Yiming to really come to this conclusion after judgment.

Yu Xiaochun couldn't help but be curious, verifying Yang Yiming's assertion at this time seemed to be a more interesting thing than whether the ball was scored or not.

A replay of the lore ball was broadcast on the big screen overhead.

From the ball to the basket, rewind it back to before Durant made a shot, and play it frame by frame. Just by looking at the arc of the basketball in the air, you can see that this is a perfect mid-range shot at a zero degree angle. In the final moments of the blood-pumping moments, Durant, the most terrifying scorer in history, was still able to fully stretch out, almost calmly and calmly do the entire shooting action, throwing such a soft shot. In the replay, the basketball slowly flew back into his hand, soft and resolute, without noisy background sounds, quiet and obedient like a baby. However, by the time the basketball baby was fully back in Durant's palm, the clock above the rim had reached exactly 0.0 seconds — and it was too late.

It was played in order and slowed down. Durant caught the ball in the air, dribbled to the baseline, raised his arms, and made a shot. When the clock finishes and turns red, the basketball is not completely out of the palm of your hand.

Void!

The noise in the entire arena just now suddenly turned into a unanimous sigh.

“Yes！ Win! Yu Xiaochun saw the referee waving his arms crossed, signaling that the goal was invalid, and excitedly slapped Yang Yiming on the side.

"I'll just say it's invalid." Even so, Yang Yiming could not suppress the excitement in his words, "Won last year's championship - rocket might!" ”

James Harden, who was also waiting for the video results on the bottom line of the court, jumped up when he saw the referee confirm that the stunner was invalid. He scored 27 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists in a quasi-triple-double in the whole game, and helped the Rockets bite tightly in the fourth quarter. A cameraman wanted to capture his expression after his victory, and came up to him. This bearded man, who is quite talented in acting on and off the field, couldn't help but clap his chest and roar when he saw the camera, and his face looked quite hideous.

“Go Rockets！” Facing Harden, Yang Yiming shouted loudly, a book in his mind.

James Harden, who was in front of the camera, heard the seat shouting at Yang Yiming and nodded approvingly, and Yang Yiming responded with his fist on his chest. “Come on Julius！” Harden's celebration on the road didn't last long, and he waved Yang Yiming back to the locker room with him.

Yu Xiaochun followed them closely.

"So how do you know the timeout?" Walking in the long black player's tunnel, the noise and sighs of the stadium behind him gradually faded away, and Yu Xiaochun, who was still immersed in the excitement of winning the game, finally calmed down and remembered the conversation before the replay began.

"I can see it."

"See?" Yu Xiaochun was a little puzzled, "What do you mean, you can see that when you shoot, the time has come?" ”

"yes, that's right."

"How is that possible? It was a moment! Yu Xiaochun exclaimed.

"It's me, when I watch him shoot, it seems like he's... Slow down. Yang Yiming explained, but he didn't seem to know how to explain it most accurately.

"What do you mean? Like watching slow motion? ”

"It's not that slow, but... Almost, that's what it means. ”

"You do the same when you play on your own?"

"Hmm."

Yang Yiming snorted lightly, but Yu Xiaochun, who heard the answer, was so surprised that he unconsciously slowed down and fell behind.

"I guess athletes are like that, practice." Yang Yiming added.

Yu Xiaochun did not respond. But he knows that not every athlete can do that. He had previously read an article on LeBron James, the league's No. 1 man, by a sports science team. By observing and measuring his optic nerve and brain wave activity, one of the important conclusions the research team came to is that the reason why a historical Hall of Fame-caliber player like LeBron can dominate the court in an instant is his superhuman sports image processing ability. In other words, he can slow down the high-speed movement on the court by a few microseconds, and it is this inconspicuous few microseconds that will give him a huge competitive advantage on the court!

This is the legendary talent that everyone envies, but it is indescribable.

Seeing Yang Yiming's tall shoulders moving in the dark passage, James Harden in front of him bouncing and chanting, Yu Xiaochun was in a trance.

As the first person on the team, Harden undoubtedly has such talent, perhaps it is from his "slowed" world that he saw Kevin Durant's shot a few milliseconds late, so he deliberately stayed on the sidelines to confirm the result.

And it could be this big Chinese man...

After a moment of confusion, the players' tunnel had come to an end, and a light appeared, and the sound of stomping, cheering, and the celebration from the Rockets players drowned them out.

2/

But the game, the initial cheers weren't dedicated to them.

Located in Auckland's Oracle Stadium, the arena with a capacity of nearly 20,000 people is full. From 10:30 a.m. Beijing time on October 19, 2017 to the start of the NBA opener game against the Houston Rockets, there was a full half hour of cheers, all dedicated to the home team, the defending champion Warriors.

This summer, their already league-only squad has been bolstered again.

That is, Nick Young shot from the Lakers, and scored 23 points in this game.

Jordan Bell, a rookie with amazing physical fitness, also contributed a number of dunk performances, scoring 8 points.

The rest of last season's championship-winning lineup, including Curry, Townsman Green, and Durant, who was sentenced to overtime in the final killing, all received glittering championship rings during the 30-minute championship award ceremony.

Yang Yiming and Yu Xiaochun, who went to the away team with the team, watched the award ceremony in the locker room.

"You can't play this game yet, are you going to Auckland with the team?" The day before, after signing the rookie contract, Morey, the general manager of the Rockets, who was sitting across the desk, said that as a new international player, the team needs to declare to the league first for Yang Yiming.

"We know you've just arrived, and you're still jet lag. You can go to Sacramento with the team a day later. Coach D'Antoni added, "Meredith is here and she'll help you book your flight. ”

"I'm going along." Yang Yiming, who has just officially become a member of the Rockets, said categorically, "I can watch the game from the sidelines." ”

D'Antoni exchanged glances with Morey and nodded in approval, "Meritis, let's put Yiming on the same flight as the team." ”

"Good!"

Even though Yang Yiming, who moved from the locker room to the field seat to cheer for the team more than two hours after the award ceremony, was overshadowed by the cheers of the home team's fans, who led by a double-digit margin for most of the time, his enthusiasm for taking the initiative to ask for help in the general manager's office the day before still seemed undiminished. At the beginning of the third quarter, as two-time regular season MVP player Stephen Curry first dribbled the ball behind his back, broke through the backhand layup, and then received Draymond Green's point shot from outside the three-point line, and hit a hand-shot, the Warriors took a 15-point lead and forced the Rockets to call a timeout again.

"Do you think there is still a drama in this game?" Yu Xiaochun leaned back in the chair, lacking confidence.

"It's hard to say. The Warriors played a lot of people and played reasonably, but we played effectively. Yang Yiming, who was standing in the outer circle of the Rockets players, answered him while listening to the tactical arrangement.

"Take turns and come up with some real defense! If you have a chance to hit the inside, you can split it out when you don't have a chance and find three points. Coach D'Antoni was surrounded by the players in the innermost, but even Yu Xiaochun's command from the little old man was heard very clearly, "Remember the ring they wore today." Remember, stay! We're here to take power! ”

"I think we still have a chance." After the timeout ended and the players returned to the game, Yang Yiming, who sat down, whispered in Xiaochun's ear.

"Why?"

"The coach lifted the ring - did you just see the championship ring?"

"I see. It's the size of a conch, and it's served out like a dish on a jewelry plate, which is too domineering. "This year's championship ring is really impressive, not only is it huge and shining, but it also has the Golden State Warriors' crest in gold and diamonds, and the last name and jersey number of each champion are engraved on the side of the ring with a sapphire border.

"Who wouldn't want a championship ring like that?"

"You think so too?" Hearing Yang Yiming, who had just landed in the NBA and was still sitting on the sidelines watching the game, spit out such a bold statement, Yu Xiaochun was inevitably a little surprised, "You want to win the championship?" ”

"It's like this game, if you don't try, how do you know."

Between the understatement answers, the corners of Yang Yiming's mouth raised, revealing a subtle smile.