Chapter 207: Performance? Not anymore!
A goal from outside the NBA three-point line helped her team take a full 20-point lead. With Scott Pippen, a former NBA All-Star, and Vignarie, an active pro, the Eastern Conference Celebrities winning is a breeze.
At this point, there are only three minutes left until the end of the NBA Masters. The suspense of the game has been lost, and the fans are no longer agitated. From this moment on, everyone's thoughts have been on the rookie challenge that will start later.
Meanwhile, at the Staples Center's underground training grounds, first- and second-year rookies have already begun acclimatization on two separate fields.
The All-Star Game is an exhibition game that is not intended to win or lose, but simply to please the fans. Therefore, there are generally no complicated tactics set up for the sake of victory. More often than not, coaches are just "decorations". It's just a matter of deciding who should play and who should go. Therefore, the training content is not too complicated, just the players get to know each other.
But that's not the case for the first-year rookie team. This year, the high-spirited 10-year rookie is not only desperate to upset the sophomore, but everyone wants to be the brightest person on this team and win the Rookie Game MVP.
So, before the game started, Wade smelled a thick smell of gunpowder in the training hall. It seems that this year's Rookie Challenge will be more interesting than expected.
Yiyang wasn't interested in the rookie MVP, but he didn't want to lose to anyone else, especially the two big men with bad intentions, Cousins and Griffin. So in training, I also worked very hard.
Wade smiled, believing that on the other training field, the sophomore rookies must have thought it was just an easy show. "The Flash" can't wait to see the surprised expressions of the sophomores.
"These guys are so energetic! It's nice to be around young people! "Mike. Budenholzer, Popovich's assistant coach, is the coach of today's first-year team. He crossed his waist on the sidelines, looking at the young people who were actively preparing for the game, and his face was full of smiles.
"Young people, everyone wants to win, everyone wants to be the best. I don't think the relationship with Griffin and Cousins is too good, and in the game, will you let the three of them work together for a long time? Wade, who had more contact with the players, began to brief Budenholzer.
"When you say that, I really want to see what happens when these three young people, who are arrogant and don't like each other, are present at the same time for a long time. Let's do this Dwayne and put those three little guys together for a long time. I think it will be fun! Budenholzer smiled sinisterly, which may be the perk of being the head coach of the rookie team. How to match these guys, you have the final say!
An hour later, the eagerly awaited group of first-year rookies finally stepped onto the court. The game hasn't started yet, it's just a warm-up, but in the stands, it's already flashing!
"The rookies are finally on the scene! I think a lot of people, like me, have been looking forward to today's Rookie Challenge for a long time! "On the commentary bench of TNT, Charles. Buckley spoke first. The broadcast of the Rookie Challenge has also officially begun.
"Welcome to TNT, I'm Charles. Barkley, to my left are Kenny Smith and Reggie. Miller, on the right is Chris. Weber. Today, we're bringing you the All-Star Rookie Challenge! ”
TNT TV has four leading commentators at a time, which is the luxurious commentary configuration of the all-star event.
"Today, we're going to see two champions on the same team. Seriously, Griffin's dunk and Wall's pass, I can't guess what kind of show the two champions will bring us! "Kenny. Smith opened up a topic for his partners, one that fans were most interested in.
"Wall's judgment on the court was very accurate, and today was also a warm-up before the Griffin Dunk Contest. I think we should be able to see a lot of wonderful buckles. But I'm looking forward to the connection with Griffin more than Wall. Flip and throw the ball out to Griffin? And those elusive passes, I'm really looking forward to it! "Reggie. Miller clearly prefers Yiyang, who has indeed performed better than Wall so far this season.
"Hehe, don't forget Cousins and Yi. If you want me to say, thank God these two rivals are not fighting on the court! ”
"Hahaha, I think so Chris, hey, do you think Cousins and Yi can play for a long time......"
The commentators mobilized the emotions of the fans on the commentary platform, and on the court, every first-year rookie seemed particularly serious. It's more of a civil war among the first-year rookies, and the second-year rookies seem to have a lot less presence.
Vignary, who had changed her clothes and taken a shower, also sat in the stands, and later, he would record every wonderful moment of Yiyang.
The warm-up on the court was still exciting, Yiyang and Wall compared shots, and Griffin and Cousins dunked from time to time to attract the audience to exclaim. And Gary. Neil, the Spurs' undrafted pick, was even more nervous to sit in a chair, and could only relieve pressure by chatting with the security aunt.
Just a warm-up, fans and reporters were already fascinated. And when the game officially began, the dome of the entire Staples Center seemed to be about to be overturned!
Vignali didn't look like a celebrity at all, mingling in the middle of the fans, throwing her arms up and screaming for the yellow-skinned guy.
Cousins, Griffin, Yiyang, Wall, these four high-profile guys stepped onto the court at the same time, and the atmosphere was pushed to the first climax.
And the New York Knicks' Californian Landry. Fields, on the other hand, became one of the least popular starters on the first-year team.
The starters of both sides took their positions in their assigned positions, and the spotlights on the pitch spread out and the whole field became bright. The referee stood in front of Cousins and Bryan and threw the much-anticipated basketball into the air!
Spurs' Dejuan. Blair is a second-round pick, although the Spurs have a strong ability to search for low-pick talents, but as a second-round pick, Blair does have some hard injuries.
As a center forward, Blair's height of only 2.01 meters after wearing shoes is naturally one of the reasons why his order fell so low. Play the number three, he's too slow and has no range. Playing inside, he is too short to effectively protect rebounds. If it weren't for Duncan's perennial "wiping his ass" by his side, perhaps Blair's performance would not be so good.
In the scrum, Cousins, who had the advantage in height and bounce, tossed the ball into Wall's hands. Wall advanced quickly with the ball, and the performance of the first-year rookies officially began!
Cousins is aggressive and wants his college teammates to pass the first ball to him. Wall didn't embarrass Cousins either, with a light hanging, sending the basketball inside.
Blair is different from Cousins, this guy is just playing in the rookie, and only a guy like Cousins, who plays in a rebuilding team, has the heart to think about what the rookie game MVP is. Blair and Yiyang are the goals of these people, but what about NBA championships!
Seeing that Blair's defense was not strict, Cousins turned over and jumped directly.
Cousins felt like he had a good hand with the ball, but the basketball slid out after a lap in the frame!
Sophomore team starting power forward Tate. Gibson wasn't too vigilant and was ready to pick up the defensive rebound.
Just as the No. 22, who was wearing the red jersey of the Bulls, was about to take off, a gust of wind suddenly blew, and the yellow-skinned guard wearing the blue jersey of the Mavericks jumped up from Gibson's side. The height of the No. 1 jump was terrifying, which made Gibson a little unbelievable Yiyang's complexion!
Yiyang caught the basketball before Gibson, and then dunked the ball into the basket with both hands!
"Boom!" The audience exploded, and the fans were already full of expectations for this rookie game, but Yiyang's first performance did not disappoint the fans' expectations!
"Ho Ho Ho, although he is a point guard, but also a dunk often appears on the regular season court. Just now, he brought the stunt to All-Star Weekend. This beginning must be very satisfying to everyone! ”
Kenny. Smith was wrong, although Yiyang's deduction won a full house, but not everyone was satisfied.
Cousins, who is now running towards his own half, is one of the very unhappy ones. His shots came out of the frame, and the limelight was all stolen by Yiyang. Can this kind of thing make Cousins feel comfortable?
The second-year team attacked, and Yiyang belonged to the same Bill. Duffy's Jennings borrowed a pick-and-roll to break through Wall and prepare for a layup.
At this time, Cousins has been pulled into the mid-range position by Blair, and according to the scale of the All-Star Game, Jennings believes that Cousins should not go all out to make up for this ball, and he just needs to perform a dunk for the fans.
Just as Jennings jumped high and stretched his body fully in preparation for the slam dunk. The basketball he put in the back of his head was pressed by a huge force!
Cousins, who came from mid-range, slapped Jennings' inevitable dunk hard, making the Bucks hopefuls lose face!
Cousins doesn't care so much, but it doesn't matter if it's an exhibition game or not. Just now he missed and was robbed of the limelight by Yiyang, and now he has to use defense to get it back!
"This kid is really a tendon!" Off the court, Anthony, the assistant coach of the sophomore team, shook his head speechlessly at Cousins, could it be that today, the two sides will get serious in advance?
After the basketball was blocked, Cousins sent the ball to Wall, who had already started with a precise long pass. Wall didn't go straight to the basket, but threw the ball to the rebound, and Griffin came from behind, jumped high, and slammed the rebounded basketball into the frame!
"Yay!" This time, the cheers at the scene were louder than when Yiyang made up the dunk just now, and the much-anticipated Griffin dunked so early, which was indeed beyond everyone's imagination. And Griffin's powerful and sinking buckle is indeed shocking enough!
"Hey, mind your stupid big guys, okay? If he wants to do this again, we'll do it for real. Jennings walked over and patted Yiyang on the shoulder and said, Yiyang just spread his hands, if I could control that guy, he wouldn't have eaten so many technical fouls.
Then, the second-year team attacked again. James was selected to start in place of the injured Evans. Harden held the ball in front of Yiyang, and the two formed a single situation.
Yiyang didn't take his defense very seriously, and he also knew that he shouldn't embarrass others today, at least not in the first three quarters of the game. So after Harden did a series of dazzling crotch dribbles, Yiyang was "broken" by Harden.
After the breakaway, Harden went straight to the basket, thinking that this goal would undoubtedly open the scoring for the sophomore team, but unexpectedly, it was Cousins again.
That guy rushed out diagonally and viciously knocked Harden to the ground, although the All-Star Game was a big penalty scale, but with such a serious collision, the referee had to interrupt the originally smooth game.
Seeing this completely unnecessary scene, the eyes of everyone in the second-year team changed. This group of 10-year-old boys is planning to kill them all!
Cousins raised his hand disapprovingly to signal for a foul, while Yiyang sighed to himself. The sophomores won't be so slack off after that, because Cousins, a "good teammate," has managed to annoy the other team.
It seems that the real game will be staged in advance this year.
These four interesting starters of the 10th rookie are really not fuel-efficient lamps!