Chapter 45: Fighting wits and courage
Not only Anderson, but the rest of the CAL felt that something was wrong, although they had a hard time believing that sending a small guard on the opposite side would weaken their own ace. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info but being beaten twice in a row made UCLA's advantage even further, and Holland sat firmly on the sidelines on the Diaoyutai in stark contrast to CAL's head coach Braun. He sat on pins and needles in his seat, rubbing his forehead vigorously with both hands, and his expression was bitter.
Braun is well aware that according to UCLA's rotation of defenses, Anderson will always play against their backcourt players if he pulls to the perimeter. It's just that the opponent uses scheduling to let No. 13 defend Anderson, even if it is not his turn to match up at all. However, Braun still admires the Asian kid opposite, not everyone can ignore the height difference to prevent the big one. Although he did steal Anderson directly with his speed and agility the second time, the first time he really made Anderson's long-range shot useless, and he didn't give the referee a chance to blow the whistle.
But Braun didn't plan to call a timeout, of course he was in a hurry, but he hadn't come up with a good way yet, and the opponent completely relied on switching offense to play two rounds in a row, and the timeout couldn't even affect their hand. The only thing Braun is looking forward to now is a few guys on the court who are fighting a little bit and finding a way to turn the tide on their own, at least not to let UCLA score easily. Unfortunately, he was fired after this season, and Mike Montgomery took over as the team's head coach, I don't know if it was because of his direct dumping of the pot on the players that caused him to lose his job.
It has to be said that Anderson still has two brushes, and after he found that he couldn't take advantage of the outside, he simply returned to the inside hand-to-hand combat. He was afraid of Ye Feng, this kid was simply ghostly, and the blind-covering defense also made him miserable. In the final analysis, his projection is not at the top level, and if his vision is obscured, he can only rely on Meng.
Seeing that Anderson had changed his style of play, Westbrook secretly gave Ye Feng a thumbs up, looking at the shape of his mouth, obviously saying, "You kid can do this, you can do this?" Ye Feng returned his middle finger, and also lip-smacked and said: "Get out, Lao Tzu is tired to death, next time I will replace you!" Westbrook understood what Ye Feng meant, pursed his lips, and concentrated on defending Randle, who was on the opposite side.
Ye Feng smiled, he was not complacent, because he knew that Anderson was a very powerful player, but it was the first time he had encountered such a strange defensive style. However, with his current level, the close defense should be able to adapt quickly, but if he wants to break the blindfolded defense, he can only pray that it is not Ye Feng who is in the position with him, after all, even if others know this method, they can't be familiar with it immediately.
Sure enough, soon Anderson got the opportunity not to play against Ye Feng, he stood outside the bottom corner three-point line with the ball, and in front of him stood Bamot, who is also UCLA's outside defensive giant. Bamot himself is full of confidence, he thinks that he already knows the trick of defending this big man, and compared to Ye Feng, his height gap with Anderson is smaller, and he should be able to defend this guy's outside shooting.
But soon Anderson told him with practical actions that some things were good to think about. He took a tentative step and forced Bamot to step back, then withdrew his foot and threw it. This chin Mott is unwilling: Are you underestimating me? But by the time he reached out, Anderson had already set up his scope, and no matter how tightly he covered it, he couldn't stop the basketball from falling into the hoop.
Bamot's face turned red instantly, this was a slap in the face in public, and it was crackling, why couldn't he keep up with Anderson's movements? Bamot said the problem was unsolvable. In fact, his technical movements are no problem, but the biggest flaw is that his reaction is not as fast as Ye Feng, and his agility is not as high as Ye Feng. Since he can't do it, he can only watch Anderson score another three points under his own defense.
Seeing Bamot's depressed face, Ye Feng shook his head: It seems that I can't escape this game, and the coach will definitely let me defend Anderson. Sure enough, soon Holland called a timeout, he didn't take out the tactical board, but said directly to the players: "Everyone has also seen it, and now a very realistic situation is that it is difficult for us to find players who can defend Anderson except for Ye, I know that the interior players can, but if they pull out to defend, it means that the empty door is wide open, which is not something I want to see." So then I hope you can play smarter and try to create a matchup between Anderson and Ye, and of course, if he doesn't pull outside the three-point line, the defensive task will still fall on Kevin and Josh. Do you have any questions? ”
The question is bigger, what is the effort to cause me to be in line with that guy? If you want to throw the pot at me, just say it, okay? Ye Feng secretly complained in his heart, but on the surface, he still shook his head with everyone. Nonsense, although defending Anderson is tiring, but if you lose, you will be in a bad mood, in order to make yourself feel better, who will go to hell if I don't go to hell? But if I can still lose the game if I carry this pot, you guys will wait to fight me one by one!
On the other hand, Braun also gave a thousand instructions to his players, and his requirements were diametrically opposed to Holland's, or in other words, to restrain Holland's tactical arrangement. He asked Randle and the other four to do their best to create opportunities for Anderson to play against other UCLA players except Ye Feng, because only then can the team have a chance to survive. If even Anderson is prevented, or even just a drop in shooting percentage, then the game is basically lost.
It has to be said that Braun saw it accurately, but seeing it accurately does not mean that he can decide the direction of the game. In terms of ball quotient and tactical comprehension, it may be that the five people on the CAL side are not as tall as Ye Feng alone. When Ye Feng saw that Anderson was probably hiding from him every time, he probably guessed the other party's thoughts, and his response was very simple and rude, that is, to change the joint defense to a human mark.
Westbrook couldn't understand it at all, because he didn't notice anything wrong, so angry that Ye Feng punched him in the shoulder. Westbrook grinned and gasped as he asked dissatisfiedly, "Why are you hitting me if you have nothing to do?" "Ye Feng, that's called a gritted teeth, you don't see anything as the captain of the team, what's the use of you? But he lowered his voice and explained, "Don't you see that they are consciously or unconsciously letting Anderson avoid my defense every round?" Obviously, the CAL manager wasn't in vain, we wanted to create a matchup between me and Anderson, and they wanted to avoid it. That's why I said that if you change to human marking, stupid people, one-on-one marking, even if they dodge, we can still defend in the shortest possible time, right? ”
Westbrook scratched his head and said, "It seems to be such a reason...... Ye Feng was almost angry with him, and roared: "What do you mean?" Obviously it makes a lot of sense, right? Westbrook smiled awkwardly and quickly told the other three to keep an eye on what they were defending. At this time, the five people in CAL were eager to scold, but they could only watch Ye Feng take the initiative to meet Anderson, and the balance of victory gradually tilted towards the other party.
Under Ye Feng's full defense, Anderson completely lost the hot hand of the first half, fortunately his temper is not bad, if he changes to a short-tempered one, it is estimated that he will soon get a technical foul on Ye Feng. Of course, Ye Feng can't completely seal Anderson, after all, the height gap between the two exists objectively, but he knows one thing very well: if he tries harder, the other party will have to spend more effort to deal with it. In other words, if you can't prevent you, you will be disgusted to death, not to mention that in the process of defense, Anderson's physical strength is greatly consumed.
Anderson is strong, but he lacks the spirit of gritting his teeth and working hard, which also causes his shooting percentage to be negatively affected by his fitness. In stark contrast to the first half, Anderson hit a series of iron in the second half, shooting 3-of-9 from beyond the three-point line, while on the inside, he was taken care of by Loew and Shipp in turn, and the shooting percentage was also not high. After strangling this point, CAL's offense is like a tiger with teeth extracted, and it does not pose any threat to UCLA at all, after all, after Ye Feng sticks to Anderson, Bamot and Shipp are both big and small, and it is difficult to bargain with the players who are in position with them.
Although Anderson scored 36 points alone in the end, he basically didn't bring any help to the team in the second half, whether it was statistical or tactical. Due to Ye Feng's defense, his ability to open up space was greatly limited, which also made it difficult for other players to make a difference inside the three-point line, except for Christopher's 15 points and Randle's 12 points, no one else scored in double figures, and it is understandable that the team eventually lost by 15 points.
On the UCLA side, everyone's scores are very average, but compared to others, Ye Feng's statistics can only be regarded as bland, with 15 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, which is comprehensive, but it does not meet his super offensive ability. But Ye Feng delivered 5 steals and 3 blocks on the defensive end, which is rare for a guard, and it is precisely because he focused most of his energy on the defensive end that UCLA retreated on the road.
If everyone was impressed by Ye Feng's offensive ability before, then this game fully demonstrated his defensive ability and comprehensiveness. Anderson's spatial No. 4 position has always been a headache for many opponents, but Ye Feng has limited his opponents almost single-handedly, which has also provided valuable experience for other teams.
Of course, Ye Feng himself didn't care about other teams or players imitating his routines, and the victory in this game was also expected by him. Now his main concern is not the next game, but the upcoming Christmas.