Chapter 56: Teaching Well (Part 1)
The second day of the NBA All-Star Game is noticeably more focused than the first, with many events such as Shooting Stars, Skill Challenge, and many other events going on on this day, but it's the three-point contest and slam dunk contest that really attract fans.
Last year, the big man Nowitzki won the three-point title, and Nate Robinson, who is only 1.75 meters tall, won the dunk title, both of which made fans addicted.
Tang Tian exchanged the positions of the first row for the two positions in the second row, and at this time he and Swift sat left and right.
The sudden arrival of the new star attracted a wave of onlookers from the fans next to him, who signed autographs and took group photos, and Tang Tian became a background board from time to time.
But when the game started, Swift was intently watching, she was full of curiosity, and from time to time she asked him something, looking more like a babbling child.
Looking at Swift's attentive appearance, Tang Tian suddenly felt that it seemed good to bring her here.
Maddie and Novak, who were sitting in the front row, looked back at the two of them from time to time, with surprised expressions, as if they had discovered a new world.
After a series of events, the fans cheered excitedly, and the long-awaited event finally began.
Three-point competition, this event invited a total of 5 top three-point shooters in the league to participate.
Nowitzki, the champion of last year's three-point contest.
Jason Terry, the Mavericks' three-point leader, and the Jets are shooting 43% from three-point range this season, and it is his outstanding play that has made the Mavericks currently second in the league behind the Rockets at 34-9.
Arenas, Agent 0, continued his role as the league's second-best scoring guard this season, averaging 8.1 three-point attempts per game this season, leading the league.
Capono, the favorite to win the tournament, is averaging a career-high 12.6 points per game this season with Walker and Posey being dropped by Riley, and his three-point shooting percentage is an impressive 56.8%!
Novak, a rookie, is a Rockets rotation player who shoots 50.4 percent from three-point range, which is his only bright spot.
The three-point contest is divided into two rounds, one preliminaries and one final, and the top three with the best results in the preliminaries enter the finals to determine the final champion.
There are no major changes to the scoring rules as before, they are all 5 points in one minute, 5 balls per point, and the last ball is a suit, and the full score is 30 points.
As Tang Tian said to Novak before, the one-minute time limit makes players have to shoot quickly, the so-called fast and accurate, which is a very big test, and the previous scoring record was 25 points set by Bulls player Hodges in 1986.
Before the start of the race, 44-year-old Charles Barkley from TNT's "Big Mouth" and NBA "Whistle" Dick Bavita, 67, had a lively switchback race.
The 44-year-old led the race with ease, and when it came to the round-trip stage, Barkley began to run backwards, drawing laughter from the audience.
Swift even laughed and hugged Tang Tian's arm, and his whole head was lying in his arms.
Bavita was quite desperate, and at the last moment he came to the ground to grab the line, but unfortunately it was Barkley who won in the end.
Bavita was applauded by the fans, and Barkley later announced that he would donate all of the $50,000 he received from his win to charity.
This entertaining session drove the atmosphere very well, and when the three-point contest was about to start, the fans were already restless.
The first to take the stage was Arenas, who drew cheers from the fans.
"The General" just set a new career high in January, scoring 60 points, which is quite popular.
With a whistle blowing on the sidelines, Arenas made a quick shot.
He had a pretty good hand, the first three points were almost out of the box, and he scored a full 23 points in the end!
The crowd cheered and Arenas raised his hands to the sky in his trademark gesture of celebration.
Tang Tian watched from the sidelines with a lot of emotion, the scene when Arenas turned around without looking at the ball can be called an NBA classic.
Arenas got off to a good start to the three-point shootout, followed by Terry.
Perhaps it was Arenas who put a bit of pressure on him, and Terry played very erratically, and he only scored 10 points in the end.
The fans had "what's the situation" on their faces, and Terry himself smiled and shook his head off the field.
Terry was followed by Capono.
There was a deafening cheer from the crowd to see Cappono on the pitch, and it seemed that Terry's misplay made them expect a lot from Cappono.
Capono took a deep breath and made a quick shot after the whistle blew.
Tang Tian also set his eyes on Capono at this time.
In terms of shooting skills alone, Capono is not inferior to Novak, but it is similar to Novak's situation, poor defense and slow movement speed in official games are their Achilles' heels.
However, it may be that the pressure from the audience is too great, and he played a little abnormally at the first point, scoring only 2 goals out of 5, not including the flower ball.
It wasn't until the third point that he gradually regained his touch, and finally with the help of the last three points, his score was fixed at 19 points.
After Capono came Novak.
Novak took a deep breath and unconsciously glanced back at Tang Tian.
Tang Tian cast an encouraging look at him.
Novak nodded, and then appeared.
In the previous life, Novak was similar to Capono, and may even be a little worse, but this season started from the killer shot against the Heat, Novak's self-confidence and ability have been greatly improved under Tang Tian's coaching, and the current Novak is stronger than Capono.
"Toot!"
As the whistle blew on the sidelines, Novak received the ball and shot quickly.
Under Kerr's tutelage, Novak's three-point shooting speed is much faster than before, and he uses a tiptoe shot to prepare higher.
In the first point, he got four of his five balls, including the final flower, and scored five points.
The audience looked excited.
Novak was the most unremarkable of these players, but he threw the best start.
On the second point, Novak's mentality is still very stable, scoring 4 goals in 5 goals, and it is a pity that the final flower ball did not score, and only scored 4 points.
"He's so accurate." Swift turned his head and said.
"That's right, I taught well." Tang Tian said with a smile.
"Haha~" Swift was amused by Tang Tian's words, and unconsciously leaned his head on Tang Tian's shoulder.
Novak's third point was still accurate, scoring three of five, including the flower ball.
The fans at the scene were already uncontrollably agitated.
In the last two points, Novak still played very steadily, only conceding 3 balls.
In the end, he finished with five points and scored a game-high 24 points in the preliminaries!
The audience cheered.