If you want to achieve something on the court, skill and confidence are indispensable.

No matter what kind of competition, the improvement of skills is only part of your strength after years of accumulation, but when you are against the pinnacle of the competitive stage, confidence is the real core that determines your state and performance.

As for rebounding, since he just had some shallow knowledge of basketball, Sakuragi Hanamichi has never lost his self-confidence.

The foundation learned from Old Earl, the confrontation with the NBA-level interior players such as the SuperSonics for more than a year, and the heart knot that has opened since the first quarter, Sakuragi has reached a peak at this time.

Sink your waist, press your legs, lower your center of gravity and control your power point.

LeBron exerts force, and Sakuragi's body naturally overcomes rigidity with softness, and responds with changes and rhythms of the center of gravity.

LeBron relented slightly, and he immediately used more solid positioning skills to grab the advantageous position.

It's just a one-second battle, which makes LeBron feel extremely uncomfortable, obviously he has the strength to squeeze this kid away, but he was pressed by Sakuragi's ultra-low center of gravity, and the force from the bottom to the top lifted him up half of his legs.

The force rose from the ground, and this time it failed to jump.

When the basketball popped up in the frame, he was jumped up and grabbed by Sakuragi, bent his legs when he landed, and made a gesture of jumping to attack the frame, and actually lit up LeBron, who had just adjusted his center of gravity and was eager to block him, and then jumped up a half-step shot with a face frame.

Goal in, 54:30!

When the margin came to 24 again, the Cavaliers were obviously starting to lose their breath.

Lin Dong, who is regarded as their biggest enemy, has not yet been played, but the loss of points is still continuing!

Knights ball possession.

At the critical moment, you have to look at Wade, who lost points one after another, and did not score one after another, Wade rushed to the basket against the bag of Payton and Watson, and scored a fairy ball, breaking the scoring drought of the Cavaliers.

But the supersonic side immediately returned a 2-point overall offensive time of only 6 seconds.

56:32。

The outside pinching made Wade miss 3 points, LeBron scrambling for rebounds, but in front of Sakuragi Hanamichi, who has 'unlocked the seal', LeBron's rebounding skills are really rough, and he has been practicing ball control and other basics since the World Championships to make up for his weaknesses, but he never thought that he would have to rely on himself to play center to grab rebounds.

Supersonic anti-counter fast attack successful, 58:32.

I can't fight for rebounds with that guy anymore, compared to his sudden ability to fill the position, this Japanese kid is like he was born for rebounds!

The offense can't fight Lin Dong, and the defense can't fight this Japanese kid.

Wade patted LeBron on the shoulder as he stepped back and signaled him not to care.

LeBron smiled and nodded.

If this was before, Wade's comfort would be useless, but just now, just that slap and that look had already pulled back LeBron, who was starting to be a little up, in time.

After experiencing ups and downs, LeBron feels that his biggest gain now is 'nameless', without fame, he doesn't have to carry a lot of things, and he will have a lot of choices when he encounters problems.

Unlike when you once stood on the top of the peak, you don't have to fight hard.

My stage is so big now, and I only have so much time on the stage, so I can't waste time fighting with others.

There is really something about the SuperSonics' run-and-bomb lineup, and before the teams in the league have not obtained more data from it, have not carefully studied it, and analyzed it, not only the Cavaliers, LeBron feels that all teams in this league may have to be deflated!

Therefore, now there is no need to think about whether the team wins or loses, perform in the field that you are good at, score points, and do your best to fight until the last second, even if you lose, Paxson can't throw the pot directly on his head.

…………

The Cavaliers possessed the ball, LeBron no longer forced the inside, but signaled Boozer to go in at the same time, he pulled to the outside and Wade made a block, followed by a 3-point shot after the dislocation.

Ball in, 58:35.

The supersonic outside line that turned around missed, and the basketball bounced off the frame.

Fighting Sakuragi for this rebound is Boozer, who is undoubtedly taller than LeBron, weighs more, and has more solid skills under the basket.

Unfortunately, the results don't seem to have changed.

In the rush of power, an elbow from the old Earl True Biography dragged Boozer, who was already in a more advantageous position and was about to jump, Sakuragi won the rebound again, followed by Iguodala who helped the outside, and also scored 3 points.

61:35！

…… McMillan and Bob on the sidelines were stunned.

Frankly speaking, before the start of this game, their biggest expectation of Sakuragi Hanamichi was just to integrate into the team and not make mistakes.

As long as he can do that, with Sakuragi Hanamichi's visible talent and growth ceiling, Bob will never use him as an addition to trading Battier.

I didn't expect it......

As soon as this kid got the hang of it, he didn't just 'fit in with the team'? It's a direct skip and a shift from fitting into the team to leading the team.

If at the beginning, Sakuragi's various fills were only thought to be coincidental, then when Sakuragi is now playing more and more handily and can accurately make up for the loopholes in the team's positioning, this doubt has completely disappeared.

Once or twice you can talk about luck, and every time you do it, then it's not luck at all.

And what's even more surprising is that this kid actually played his rebounding ability.

Several rebounds in the second quarter against LeBron and Boozer were quite crucial, not only allowing the team to continue to widen the score difference, but more importantly, disrupting the deployment of the Cavaliers, which is of strategic significance.

This...... Super sense of complementing, enough to compete with the rebounding strength of the first-class big forward, this is the best puzzle to make up for some of the shortcomings of the SuperSonics' current run-and-bomb lineup.

Send away?

Looking at the guy who is becoming more and more comfortable on the court and extremely focused, McMillan is already thinking about whether to start this guy in the next game at this time.

After all, wearing your own legend number, it's not a thing to always play a substitute......

The point difference widened to this point, and the Cavaliers were becoming more and more anxious at this time, Lucas made a substitution, replacing Davis, who did not perform well in the second quarter, and sacrificed Zashinas as a center again, reorganizing the interior twin tower lineup.

In the face of the run-and-gun team, the only solution is defense, which is a conclusion that the league team has long come to the conclusion, and the reinforcement of the interior line by the twin-tower lineup is the only way to curb the run-and-bomb, especially to limit the rebounding of that Japanese kid.

It's a pity...... Not very useful.

Although the interior twin towers strengthened the defense under the basket and the protection of rebounds, Sakuragi, who had just grabbed all the rebounds, only grabbed one rebound in three rounds.

But the supersonic rhythm of running and bombing has always been a problem that the knights cannot completely solve.

Your inner line is enhanced, and the outside is empty, supersonic 5 to 4, in fact, more often than not, you still see whether supersonic itself is accurate.

And with a 26-point lead in his hand, the huge psychological advantage makes the supersonic more and more relaxed, and the outside line is frequently blooming.

Although the Cavaliers have the cooperation of LeBron and Wade, plus the advantage of the inside, there is not much problem on the offensive end, but first, the scoring efficiency is not as good as that of the SuperSonics, and secondly, the score difference is still too big after all.

At 8 minutes and 34 seconds in the second quarter, the score of the electronic scoreboard had reached 76:49, a difference of 27 points.

Supersonic substitutions, Payton, Watson, Desmond down, Lindon, Pedrag, Chandler on.

There's no need to run and bomb, the tactical rhythm has to change with the situation all the time.

The current rhythm is that the Cavaliers want to play fast, because they have to chase points, and compared to bombarding them, at this time, using the Knights' impatience and strengthening the interior to do a good job of defense, it is easy to effectively control the loss of points, and at the same time let Lin Dong use his personal ability to solve the offensive problem, which is a better and easier way to continue to open the score.

Knights twin towers, supersonic on the direct three inside line.

The trio of Pedrager, Chandler and Hanamichi Sakuragi, the first two were still fresh forces after most of the quarter, and they snatched back half of the initiative under the basket as soon as they got on the court.

In the second quarter, with only 3 and a half minutes left, he made 3 of 3 3 points, 2 of 2 free throws, scored 11 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound and 1 steal, and fixed the score on the electronic scoreboard at 89:53 before the whistle at the end of the first half.

The 36-point half-time margin sent the game into garbage time without suspense.

In the third quarter, the Cavaliers who had just come up obviously wanted to resist a little more, but LeBron scored a 3-pointer, Lin Dong immediately responded to one, Wade forced an inside line, and Lin Dong did the same.

The role of a superstar is to extinguish the fire and extinguish your last hope.

After trying his best to fight for a few rounds, the score was not pulled in, but was pulled wider and wider under Lin Dongshen's 3 points.

And when the last ball, Lin Dong hit a 3-point iron, and Pedrager and Chandler under the basket held the Cavaliers' two interior lines, allowing Sakuragi to pick up a cheap rebound for nothing again, Lucas finally replaced all the Cavaliers' main players.

The stadium was filled with jubilation.

In order to protect the main players, reduce the risk of injury, and also give more opportunities for substitutes and newcomers to practice, it is not uncommon in the regular season to give up early when the score difference is too large.

But after all, the opponent is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are now ranked first in the league and maintain a seventeen-game winning streak, and they lost the home team by 36 points in the half, which is enough to ignite the passion of the whole court in any home stadium in the league.

"I feel like we have the potential to win this year!"

"That's it, this lineup is too fierce to attack, and the defense is also in a different way, and the effect is surprisingly good!"

"Lin Dong's score in this game seems to be ...... low again"

"After all, I only played for ten minutes, and I didn't play half the whole game."

"Speaking of which, that No. 10 is good, that guy grabbed a lot of frontcourt boards, and a few steals!"

"11 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 block...... Hahaha, this kid seems to be a nervous type, either the performance is terrible, or the fierce will make people's hearts tremble, I hope there will be this performance in the end. ”

"Wow wow, ikebana is finally back on its feet!"

"What is that guy doing? Are you nervous again? Isn't it time to cross your waist and laugh twice 'I'm a genius'? ”

"Hey, Hanamichi, you'll die if you laugh!"

The game was not over yet, the fans in the stadium were full of heated discussions, and the Sakuragi Army in the fan stands were chattering and shouting at Sakuragi Hanamichi.

Sakuragi ignored it.

Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock......

He sat on the bench, and most of the stadium noise seemed to be automatically blocked out in his ears, and he could hear his own heartbeat.

Today's performance should not be sent away by the team again.

Happiness is certain, but my heart doesn't seem to be as excited as I was when I imagined this picture last night, but I was unexpectedly calm.

This calmness made all the things, burdens, and so on that he had been struggling with suddenly seem to be distant, and instead of what appeared in his mind, it was just what had happened on the court just now.

Every choice, every detail, naturally reviewed, analyzed, and summarized in the mind.

And in the end, all these images slowly disappeared, turning into a basketball lying quietly on the floor, which made his heart completely calm.

Basketball is not money, fame and fortune, not the cheers of the audience and the envy of others, basketball is basketball.

If you insist on adding something to basketball, Sakuragi Hanamichi thinks that the only thing that can be added is growth.

Maybe the way of expression is different, maybe I will no longer write that kind of blood and love on my face, hang it on my lips, or shout it out at Haruko.

But in fact, it has already penetrated into the bone marrow, and as long as you find it, you will no longer be as confused as before.

It was only at this moment that a faint sense of joy welled up from the depths of Sakuragi's calm heart.

It's not the excitement of the wine pond and meat forest, but like the breeze on the edge of the field and the birdsong in the valley, it is simple and pure, but it makes people enjoy and comfort from the heart.

A smile appeared on the corner of Sakuragi Hanamichi's mouth, and he clenched his fists tightly.

The new season has just begun!

(End of chapter)