October 19, 2017 Beijing time, the second day of the season.

The Houston Rockets won back-to-back games with the Kings at Arco Arena in Sacramento with a score of 105-100.

Yang Yiming made his debut for the Rockets.

He played six minutes and had four points, two rebounds and one assist as a report card for his debut.

1/

At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Rockets, who had just started a big game with the Golden State Warriors the day before, and had been exhausted, had not been able to open the score. Yu Xiaochun, the team's "staff", although there is no Yang Yiming who has been transferred to the player bench by his side, is still arranged in a nearby field seat, ready to be on call at any time.

His current identity is Yang Yiming's assistant and "translator".

Although Yu Xiaochun felt that with Yang Yiming's English level, it would not be a problem for him to communicate directly. As a result, his focus was more on the course of the game. With 3:33 left in the third quarter, the Rockets' hard-earned double-digit lead was instantly wiped out as the Kings' George Hill scored four straight points and Buddy Hield hit another long-range shot. At 68:68, the two sides are back on the same starting line.

Yu Xiaochun stared at the venue, looking nervous, but suddenly felt a bright light flickering in the corner of his eye. He thought it was a reflection of the light somewhere on the court, and he didn't pay much attention to it, but he didn't expect the frequency of the light to shake faster and faster, he turned his head to look, and found that the light came from the audience on the second floor behind the home team's basket, and a dazzling white light source was shaking, shooting straight in his direction. Because of the distance, the light is very dazzling, and it is not clear who is making trouble behind it.

Maybe it's a child who is bored watching the game and is playing a prank.

Yu Xiaochun thought so, turned his body 45 degrees, and covered his face with his palm. Sure enough, the light only flickered for a moment before disappearing.

On the court, the 36-year-old Rockets center Nene Laofu chatted about juvenile madness, broke through the violent dunk, hit both free throws, and then unexpectedly hit a three-point shot, scoring seven points in a row to help the Rockets re-establish their advantage. This wave of offensive, seeing Yu Xiaochun's blood boiling, he couldn't help but stand up and shout and cheer.

Who knows, at this juncture, the annoying dazzling light has started again!

2/

Yang Yiming's playing time all occurred at the beginning of the second quarter, when the team's lineup rotated.

The two points on his stat sheet and a defensive rebound came from the same overall. At that time, the Kings tried to shoot one step from beyond the three-point line, and the ball was in a straight direction, but the power was just a little greater, and it hit the back edge of the basket, commonly known as the "neck of the basket", and popped out of the range above the restricted area.

Under the basket, Nene was entangled with the opposing center, Willie Caulistan, with his arms twisted, ready to occupy a favorable position in advance before the basketball fell. However, the basketball smashed the basket and flew with great force, and Stan, who was standing farther away from the basket outside the restricted area to avoid a three-second violation, had a better chance of competing for the long rebound.

Yang Yiming, who was on the same side of the falling direction, saw this scene, took the first small step, reversed to the edge of the three-point line, separated his defender with one arm, and turned to run a big step, jumping high towards the landing point of the ball, and stretching his arm into the air. Before the basketball was touched by Stan, Yang Yiming flicked his fingertips, changed direction, and flew to the open space between the restricted area and the three-point line. And Yang Yiming's defenders, because he was in advance just now, had not yet had time to get closer, and after landing, the rebounding ball was caught in his arms!

And just when everyone thought that Yang Yiming would hold the ball for a few seconds, wait for the situation to be clear, and then hand the ball to the point guard for processing, he had already seen Ariza in the top arc position and was ready to start and push the ball out with one hand. Ariza received the ball and advanced quickly, dribbled a few big steps, and was already under the opponent's basket to face the Kings' rookie guard Fox one-on-one. Does Ariza want a dunk? No, he saw that Fox was about to get closer to block, changed the direction of the dribble slightly, withdrew to the left side of the paint area, and sent a pass from behind his back, Yang Yiming, who was still scrambling for the rebound just now, had already rushed to the ball at this time, catching the ball and dunking to score!

In the second round, he bypassed teammate Anderson near the baseline, forming a misalignment with the opponent's small guard Mason, easily backing the single, and scoring two more points on a jumper.

This goal is very similar to the impression that Yang Yiming left on Yu Xiaochun in the National Games.

3/

"Yang—he's your friend?" The fifty-year-old man standing in front of Yu Xiaochun had Einstein-esque exploding silver hair, his eyebrows were still black, and the tortoiseshell glasses on the bridge of his nose were crooked, and they were broken in the middle, wrapped in medical tape, and continued to be used. Looking at him like this, Yu Xiaochun felt that even the thick glasses at the bottom of his beer bottle looked much more fashionable in comparison.

"That's what I'm going to ask about?" The old man was the initiator of Yu Xiaochun's dazzling light on the sidelines just now, and he was inevitably angry.

"My name is Kalonsky II." The old man took a small pentagonal mirror in his hand into his jacket pocket—I must have used it to reflect the light into my eyes just now," Yu Xiaochun thought to himself—and took out a business card and handed it over. Yu Xiaochun received it, and only three lines of words were printed on it: Scott Karonsky II - presumably the name of the old man; data strategist; At the bottom is a phone number.

"Scott?" Suspicious that Kalonsky was long and awkward, Yu Xiaochun chose his name to read.

"Call me Karonsky II. Family glory, you know. The old man corrected him in English with a thick Eastern European accent.

"And who is I?"

"Old Scott, my dad. Karonsky I. The old man quickly introduced, "And Scott Kalonsky III, that's my son." ”

"Oh." Yu Xiaochun was not interested in the genealogy of this strange old man.

"You'll see them soon," II muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Data strategist? What does this do? Yu Xiaochun wanted to find out as soon as possible.

"Scout, we're Scott."

"Huh?" There is only one letter between scout in English and Scott, and it is normal for Yu Xiaochun to be unable to hear it clearly when it is pronounced by Kalonsky II's Eastern European accent.

"We are scouts who rate the players." The old man leaned on the guardrail of the top stand, turned his head, and motioned to Koharu to look at the playing field in the central area, "How many points do you think your friend, Yang?" ”

4/

Yang Yiming's offensive rebounds and assists in the last group were actually the most exciting.

It was a positional battle for about five minutes in the second quarter. At that time, Eric Gordon dribbled to organize the offense, and Yiming crossed sideways, pretending to make a pick-and-roll with him, but in fact, Gordon had taken advantage of the defender's hesitation, accelerated and hit the three-point line and made a frontal basket.

Standing in Gordon's way were teammate Nene and the Kings forward who was defending him.

Seeing that the Kings forward was ready to step forward to block and give up Nene who was closest to the basket, Gordon threw the ball and prepared to do an aerial relay basket with Nene!

Pity!

The Kings forward, who stepped forward to block, although he lost his defensive position in the interior, jumped up and reached the basketball with his fingertips. The basketball slowed down, and None, who had jumped into the air, was disrupted, and only received the basketball when his body was falling, unable to complete the dunk, and the shot that was barely shot was too strong, and the ball bounced to the other side of the penalty area.

said that it was too late, and Yang Yiming, who was still pretending to block outside the three-point line just now, had quickly whipped around the basket and picked up this offensive rebound. And his defender also quickly withdrew to the restricted area, clinging to it, blocking any line where he might make a basket!

Unexpectedly, Yang Yiming didn't choose to shoot, he seemed to have long eyes behind his back, and he didn't look at it after getting the ball, so he sent it lightly with his left hand, and handed the ball from under the open and blocked arm to Eric Gordon, who had just passed the ball and was now straight into the basket. The latter catches the ball, scores with both hands in the basket under the empty basket!

"Based on today's performance, I think I can get a 70 points." Recalling this wonderful goal just now, Yu Xiaochun replied to Karonsky II half-answered.

"So, I'm going to call you up."

"To such a high place?" After successfully attracting Yu Koharu's attention with the reflected beam for the second time, Kalonsky II folded the light towards the pedestrian passage of the stadium, sweeping from the court seats on the first floor to the grandstand area at the highest point on the third floor, and so on and so forth, up and down several times, like an index conveying some kind of mysterious path.

"That's right." Kalonsky II, an old man with the temperament of a Frankenstein, turned his head at this time, looked at Yu Xiaochun with interest, and said, "Only then can you see clearly." ”

On the court, when the score was tied in the fourth quarter, James Harden hit a shot from outside the three-point line against a defender's block.

- What did he want to tell me? Yu Xiaochun was full of doubts.

"For example, he can score 95 points. That's the standard for a superstar. ”

The old man was obviously talking about Harden, who had just scored.

"And Yang, your Chinese friend, has at least 78 points."

Well?

"Top 10 of all rookies this year!"

Yu Xiaochun was shocked!