After the Houston Rockets lost 105-108 to the Toronto Raptors, the first place in the East, at the Air Canada Center, ending a seventeen-game winning streak, Yang Yiming suddenly felt tired like never before.

In 5.4 seconds, he received the ball inside the sideline, pushed the defender to hand the ball to Ariza, Ariza dribbled to the top of the three-point arc, and Harden started a little slower, and had to go around two steps beyond the three-point line to receive the ball. Yang Yiming was ready to receive the ball at 45 degrees on the right side, but Harden still chose to force his shot. Seeing the basketball come out of the basket, Yang Yiming took a step back and sat paralyzed on the technical table on the sidelines.

1/

"Yiming, let's go." The Raptors players who defended their home court celebrated wildly in the center of the court, and no one bothered to greet each other with the Rockets, Paul saw Yang Yiming sitting on the technical table, so he came over to him first and said, "It's just a regular season game, we will win it back." ”

Yang Yiming didn't speak, his eyes stared at the timer red bell in a daze.

"What's wrong? Blame James (Harden) for not passing the last ball to you? If it were me, I would have chosen to pass. Paul was standing in the bottom corner of the same side as Yang Yiming, he should have clearly seen the vacancy exposed by the other party, and he thought that Yang Yiming was staring straight in the direction of the basket, regretting that he did not receive the chance to kill the ball.

Yang Yiming shook his head. He held the technical table with his hand, trying to support his body to stand up, but he didn't expect that as soon as the ball of his right foot touched the ground, a sore numbness passed all the way up the soles of his feet and twisted into a tendon in the abdomen of his calf. He let out a low howl and fell back onto the tech table.

"Cramps?"

Yang Yiming gritted his teeth and nodded, cold sweat oozing from his forehead.

He wasn't really sure if it was a leg cramp because he didn't have any past experience to refer to. In the past, when the intensity of domestic training was high, there were always teammates who cramped and fell to the ground, but he just never cramped. Whether he was born with divine power or has a superhuman physique, in short, he has always been curious about what the mysterious thing is that makes his teammates grin with pain. But it seems that he also learned today. This tastes unpleasant!

Paul greeted Yu Xiaochun in the player area, who quickly ran over, holding his phone in his left hand, Gatorade, an energy drink in his right hand, and a sweat-absorbing towel on his shoulder.

"It's very well equipped." Paul joked about Xiaochun's outfit, and then asked Yang Yiming, "Does it still hurt?" ”

He nodded, trying to squeeze a few words out between his teeth: "Legs... I can't move..."

"Hmm." Paul motioned for Yu Xiaochun to hand Gatorade to Yang Yiming, and said, "Let's drink saliva first." Koharu, you help him slowly untie the basketball shoes and take them off. ”

Yu Xiaochun did so. He tiptoed to untie the laces of Yang Yiming's basketball shoes - today he wore a pair of lake blue Nike Hyperdunk with a high upper, although Yu Xiaochun had tried to move as gently as possible, but when he took off the shoes from his heels, Yang Yiming couldn't help but squeak at him.

"Okay, okay, haven't you had cramps already?"

Yang Yiming shook his head vigorously. Here Paul beckoned to teammate Capela again, asking him to hold Yang Yiming's squeaky socket from behind, and he himself used his left foot to support him, and slid down the technical table to the floor to lie flat.

"Bear with me, it might hurt a little. But right away. Paul personally went into battle, put Yang Yiming's right foot against his abdomen, asked him to straighten his leg, and then pressed it in the opposite direction of the arch of his foot.

A burst of force that was more sore, numb, than the cramp just now, spread throughout Yang Yiming's body. He pressed his hands to the floor and held back without making a sound. After the soreness and numbness, the soles of the feet, which were numb and unconscious just a moment ago, returned to their original state, and the feeling of comfort and freedom spread.

"Okay, Chris (Paul), that's cool. Thank you. Yang Yiming struggled to sit up from the floor. Let the boss of the team press his feet, he always feels weird.

"Wait a minute, don't worry!" Paul motioned for him to lie flat and skilfully massage him from the Achilles tendon to the abdomen of his legs.

"Thank you. Chris, let Koharu come. Yang Yiming became more and more embarrassed.

"It doesn't matter. He can't move you. Paul pretended to glance at Yu Xiaochun condescendingly, and Yu Xiaochun was also a little at a loss. He ran back to the Rockets' rest area, found another towel, and waited next to Paul.

"Feels better, Chris."

"Not numb?"

"Well, the legs are back. I didn't know what was going on just now, but all of a sudden..."Yang Yiming covered his stomach and said with a smile.

"It's okay, you've all happened to us. I've been sick for a long time myself. Paul slowly lowered his leg to the floor and let go, and Yu Xiaochun hurriedly presented CP3 with a towel.

"Take a break, and see you in the locker room later." Paul wiped his sweat and cared. On the other side, Capela couldn't help but joke, "Can it work?" Do you want me to stay and observe, so that I don't have to pump my other foot again when I leave the field..."

"Let's go! You'll wait for me for a while, and practice shooting! ”

Capela pretended not to hear Yang Yiming's challenge, caught up with Paul and his Rockets teammates in front of him, and disappeared into the tunnel of players.

2/

After resting on the floor for about a minute, Yang Yiming felt that his right leg was fine, and he also stood up and prepared to leave.

In the stadium, the Rockets players and staff were almost gone, the Raptors players who had just finished celebrating were about to leave, and the noisy fans began to slowly leave the court. But seeing Yang Yiming get up again from the floor, many fans who were leaving the stadium stopped and gave him a round of applause. Yang Yiming looked up and looked around, and found that he was applauded not only by the large number of Chinese in Toronto, but also by white and black faces.

The Raptors' main general, No. 10 DeMar DeRozan, took the initiative to walk up to Yang Yiming and high-five him.

"It was a good fight. The defense was great. DeRozan was the main target of Yang Yiming's strict defense today, scoring 23 points and 7 rebounds in the game, and his shooting percentage and points were not as good as usual. DeRozan praised Yang Yiming while letting him stay by his side, and the two walked to the locker room together.

Yang Yiming lowered his head and replied, his tone was a little annoyed: "Ah... But your last shot, I still didn't guard against it. ”

At that time, Harden had just stepped back and shot to equalize the three-pointer, and when DeRozan came back to hold the ball alone, it was Yang Yiming who executed this key defense. He created a lot of obstacles for DeRozan outside the left penalty area, using his body to top and digging the ball with his hands, and the latter dribbled with his back and changed direction continuously without deceiving Yang Yiming, and even almost lost the ball at a certain moment. But he didn't expect that in such a limit, DeRozan still turned over at the bottom line position and leaned back to make a move, Yang Yiming's fingers were about to poke his eyes, but the ball was still like a precision-guided surface-to-air missile, drawing an arch outline and hollowing into the net.

DeRozan didn't reply, just smiled faintly. He changed the subject:

"What's wrong just now, did you have cramps?"

"Hmm. I don't know what's going on, it hasn't happened before. Yang Yiming pointed to his right foot and took a step to confirm that his leg was fine. But he didn't expect him to jump in the dark corridor, and when he raised his head, he actually felt a little dizzy, and stopped to help DeRozan to stabilize his body.

"I'm sorry." Yang Yiming, who was standing firmly, quickly withdrew his hand.

"It's okay, you're probably tired. It's not easy to come to Canada, you're a newcomer, just get used to it. ”

DeRozan's relief does have some justification, the Rockets' road trip from Houston, first deep into the heart of the United States, Oklahoma, and then back-to-back to Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan, only one day of rest before crossing the north to land in Toronto, and finally stepping on the Texas neighbor Dallas before returning home. Not only is the distance long and the schedule is tight, but every opponent is still a hard nut to crack. Nina will also walk with them on the usual road trip to help Yang Yiming recover his physical strength, but this time she refused to "fall" from the warm Houston to the cold Toronto, originally Yang Yiming also thought that her physical strength was enough to support the whole process, but she didn't expect...

It seems that Coach D'Antoni is really necessary to take care of his "taoguang and obscurity" plan.

"Well, the intensity of the NBA is really high, but I'm going to get used to it."

"I'm sure you will." DeRozan and Yang Yiming walked to the end of the aisle together, and the locker rooms of the two teams were on either side, and they stopped and were about to part ways.

"See you next time."

"Hopefully before this summer!" After DeRozan finished speaking, Yang Yiming was stunned at first, but immediately reacted again. DeRozan said that he hopes that before the summer, the two sides can meet again on the stage of the finals this season.

"It's a deal!"

Yang Yiming looked at the back of the "King of the North" and walked away, and read softly in his mouth. The Raptors made an exception today to wear a special edition jersey with black and gold edges, and the No. 10 jersey was on DeRozan's dark skin, which looked quite like the vibranium jersey of the Black Panther in the latest Marvel movie. Yang Yiming touched his right leg, thinking "I must not let it drag me down", and then thinking "I should let Nina and I meet in Dallas", and finally thought to himself, "I shouldn't have met the rookie wall".

But in the end, he got rid of these distractions, a fire raged in his heart, and he turned and walked back to the visiting dressing room.