Slam Dunk: I'm the Glasses Brother

Chapter 265: Xiangbei vs. Touou: Entering the Top 8

Huh~ Huh~" The third graders of Xiangbei only played for more than a minute, but the players of Touou felt as if they had played for 10 minutes. The pressure Xiangbei put on them was really too great.

"Everyone listen to me." Teacher Kitano still had a calm attitude on his face, which immediately calmed down the Touou players who seemed a little nervous because of the score deficit.

"I know that everyone is tired both physically and mentally, but this is a cruel elimination match. Whoever can persevere to the end will have the chance to win." After encouraging everyone, Kitano continued, "You are intimidated by Akagi's reputation, but you overlooked one point. While you are afraid of the opponent, the opponent is also afraid of you, and that is our advantage, speed."

"They are afraid of our speed." After hearing Mr. Kitano's analysis, Nan Lie and the others' feeling of powerlessness at the time of being suppressed by Xiangbei on the court just now suddenly disappeared. All that was left was absolute confidence and courage, and they were full of energy.

"Everyone should keep running after entering the court. Since we can't defend inside, we should just give up defense and protect the backcourt rebounds. On offense, continue to make three-point shots and two mid-range shots at 45 degrees."

"Also, Nan Lie, Kishimoto, you guys with strong offensive power should attack the inside more often when you have the chance. Don't be intimidated by the tall inside players of Xiangbei. Their footsteps are definitely not as fast as yours. After you rush to the basket, make a layup when you have the chance. If you can't make it, make them foul. Stopping the clock and shooting free throws is the best way for a team that is behind to catch up."

"In terms of offense, I believe you won't lose to any team, including Sanno."

After Mr. Kitano finished analyzing and encouraging, Coach Jin Ping stood up, clapped his hands vigorously, and shouted to everyone: "Do you understand?"

"clear!!"

"What are you waiting for? Get on the stage!!"

“Yes!!” Then all the players of Touou stretched out their right hands and placed them on the back of Nan Lie’s outstretched right hand, and shouted together: “Down with Xiangbei!!”

The Xiangbei bench and the enthusiastic Touou bench are two completely different concepts.

"Haha, I know Kitano very well. He will definitely play fast. We still stick to our rhythm and don't care about their score. As long as our score exceeds theirs, we are still the winners, and Touou's momentum won't last long." Coach Anzai said this and stopped talking.

The one-minute timeout ended quickly and players from both sides returned to the court to continue the game.

First, Nan Lie made a fake shot outside the three-point line to move Hasegawa's center of gravity forward, and then he immediately broke into the inside, causing Akagi who was in the substitute position to foul and made two free throws.

Then after Akagi scored 2 points in the paint for Xiangbei, Nan Lie made a long shot from outside the three-point line.

De Nan's hook shot failed to hit the target, and Kishimoto risked his life to grab the rebound. Toyotama counterattacked, and Kishimoto used his flexible footwork to cause De Nan to foul. He made a layup and got 2 points, and also had to take an additional free throw. Kishimoto made the free throw, 80:73

In this attack of Xiangbei, Mitsui's three-pointer missed. Iwata defeated Akagi for the first time and grabbed the backcourt rebound, passing it to Nan Lie, "Let's counterattack and score another goal." Nan Lie pushed forward and passed the ball to Itakura to organize the attack. Itakura got the ball and said, "Hmm, what a coercive defense." He clearly felt that the Xiangbei ace guard opposite him had a qualitative change in defensive momentum. Mu Mu stared at Itakura in front of him with full concentration, stuck to Itakura, stretched out his arms to cover Itakura's face, and interfered with Itakura's long-range shot.

Itakura tried several fake moves, but Murasakibara was not fooled at all, so Itakura had to choose to pass the ball. However, at the moment he passed the ball, Murasakibara had seen through his intention and reached out to steal the ball. After Murasakibara stole the ball, he did not rush to launch a fast break, but pushed forward steadily. After Akagi and De Nan were in position, after several passes, Mitsui took advantage of Yagami's lack of attention in defense and made a sudden shot from outside the three-point line. The orange-red basketball successfully passed the net's blockade, 83:73, Xiangbei once again narrowed the gap to 10 points

After Murasakibara, Mitsui and Hasegawa strengthened their defense on Itakura, Shiyu and Nanlie, the Touou players could no longer cross positions easily. Even if they ran a little distance through off-ball screens, the Touou players, who had just experienced a fierce physical collision, obviously could not control and regulate their breathing well.

Look, after Shiyu passed the off-ball screens of Kishimoto and Iwata and ran from the right side to the left three-point line to receive the ball, although Mitsui was blocked more than 1 meter away, Shiyu failed to control and adjust his breathing and shooting rhythm well, and the basketball shot from outside the three-point line failed to hit the center of the basket, but hit the basket and bounced out.

As soon as Shiyu shot, he knew the ball might not go in, so he quickly ran to the inside and tried to grab the rebound. However, after he shot, Mitsui didn't even look back to see where the basketball went. Instead, he ran straight to Shiyu and blocked Shiyu's route to the rebound.

Itakura and Nan Lie also suffered from the interception of Mu Gu and Hasegawa, and could only watch from outside as Iwata and Kishimoto were held tightly behind by Akagi and Tokuoka. In the end, the rebound was easily grabbed by Akagi.

The moment Akagi grabbed the rebound, Hasegawa and Mitsui immediately broke away from the entanglement with Nan Lie and the others, turned around and ran towards Touou's half. They ran along the sideline at the fastest speed, one on the left and one on the right, while Murasakibara lagged behind a little and was always observing Akagi's situation, ready to respond.

However, Iwata, who is 9 cm shorter than Akagi and half the size, obviously did not put much pressure on Akagi. When Akagi got the rebound in the air, he turned his body to face the rebound of Touou. When he landed, he held the basketball tightly with both hands behind his head. As soon as he stood still, Akagi's muscles, which were like iron lumps, exerted force and threw the basketball from behind his head to Touou's half court in the manner of a shot. As soon as Murasaki received the ball, he passed it to Mitsui as soon as he landed. After Mitsui got the ball, he looked at the three-point line under his feet and did not choose to layup. Instead, he directly shot a three-pointer.

"Three-pointer? Why not choose a safe layup?" The audience was a little confused, but soon Mitsui told them with the sound of the three-pointer going into the net, "Brother is so confident!" 86:73, the score that Touou had just recovered was instantly pulled away by Shohoku again. The morale of Touou's players seemed to be greatly affected. Touou served the sideline ball, but Itakura was intercepted by Murasakibara the moment he received the ball, and Murasakibara directly made a layup and scored!

The Fengyu team members looked at the gap in scores, becoming more and more confused. At this time, an old voice came into their ears.

"Have you forgotten? When you first entered Touou, when you first learned basketball, why did you practice basketball? Was it just to win a game? I remember I told you that my basketball philosophy is 8 points offense and 2 points defense. But the most important thing is that we have to play happy basketball, make ourselves happy, and make you and the fans who come to watch the game happy through continuous offense."

Kitano's words reminded the players of Touou of their happy past. They forgot the current situation of being behind on the field and the huge psychological pressure brought to them by the strength of Xiangbei. Their young and tender faces were full of confidence, and their youthful mouths were once again covered with bright smiles.

"I understand, teacher. We will play the most exciting and beautiful basketball." Nan Lie took the lead.

"Us too!!" Kishimoto and the others also expressed their thoughts to Mr. Kitano.

He noticed that Nan Lie and the others were completely different from the tense, depressed, uneasy and anxious expressions they had just had. Instead, they were quite relaxed. Yes, very relaxed, as if a person who was full of obsessions had suddenly let go of all his burdens and became a Buddha. Kitano nodded with satisfaction and sat back down on the bench.

"Teacher Kitano, is this arrangement okay? Without an enterprising spirit, how can we win the game?" Coach Jin Ping couldn't help but ask Teacher Kitano beside him.

"Haha, Jinping. Do you have a tactic that can defeat Shohoku?" Teacher Kitano's question left Coach Jinping speechless.

"And don't forget that they are still just children. It is not a good thing for them to be burdened with too much utilitarian thinking of adults and to be too obsessed with winning or losing. Of course, if they can defeat strong opponents through hard work, it can certainly cultivate their character of not fearing difficulties. But if even our coach feels that they have no chance of winning, and still want them to play under pressure, this is not a good thing." Teacher Kitano said in a loving tone as he looked at Nan Lie and others who were running on the court.

After hearing what Kitano said, Jin Ping was moved by Kitano's spirit of caring for the players. He stood up, left the bench, stood on the sidelines, put his hands in a trumpet shape to his mouth and shouted: "Toyoma! Come on!!"

"Touou! Come on!!" All the players on the Touou bench stood up and cheered for the team loudly.

"Kitano, you have brought out a great team!" Coach Anzai exclaimed when he saw the changes in the Toyotama players.

Nan Lie and his teammates on the court unloaded all their burdens and went into the game lightly, no longer obsessed with the gains and losses of a ball. They ran freely and enjoyed the happiness that basketball brought them.

The players of Xiangbei were more or less affected by Nan Lie and his team's emotions. They unconsciously stepped up their offense and became lax on defense.

Without the pressure, the Touou players burst out with unprecedented energy, and Nan Lie even performed a flying slam dunk in front of Akagi.

Their performance is as gorgeous as summer flowers, although their ending is as quiet and beautiful as autumn leaves.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the score was 113:99 and Xiangbei won.