Chapter 113: Not Wasting Time ③
He didn’t know what kind of boys Nie Qiu liked, but Li Kai was the type of boy many girls would like: handsome, rich, a little mischievous, and the class monitor. It would be hard not to like a boy like that, right?
At least, in his opinion, there were quite a few girls in the class who secretly liked Li Kai.
The basketball game was a full court match, with five players per team and divided into four quarters, each ten minutes long. For Class 1, a fast-break team, Class 10 chose to play defense. Both teams didn’t score much in the first two quarters, and the game was in a stalemate.
The players from Class 1 brought the ball to the frontcourt at the fastest speed, but that was it. No matter how they passed or broke through, they were firmly blocked by the players from Class 10. Class 1’s fast pace had no effect on Class 10. Although they weren’t on the school team, they were an experienced team when it came to playing basketball, especially since they all loved to play.
Class 10 maintained their steady defense, while Class 1 became somewhat impatient. Midway through the third quarter, Class 1 started substituting players, with Ge Bai and Zhang Qidi being brought onto the court. After they entered the game, Class 10 noticed something was wrong, but they couldn’t find anyone with enough tacit understanding to substitute for them, let alone play as well.
Due to Zhang Qidi and Ge Bai’s presence on the court, the chances of losing the ball during fast breaks were significantly reduced.
During the timeout in the third quarter, Class 10 was trailing Class 1 by eight points, with Class 1 having forty-two points and Class 10 having thirty-four. This meant that if they didn’t catch up in the final quarter, they would lose. Li Kai looked at Nie Qiu, who was standing not far from the scoreboard talking to Huang Yan, and took a deep breath. He said to Zhang Haiyang and the others, “Since they’re playing fast breaks, we’ll play fast breaks too. We can’t just defend anymore; we need to catch up.”
“Also, fast, we need to be faster than them,” Luo Xu added. He didn’t have grand ambitions, but for people their age, losing was the most hated thing. In their studies, it was understandable that they couldn’t compare to Class 1 because they loved to play, but in basketball, he didn’t think their skills were inferior to Class 1’s. “Listen, we have to win.”
Yes, faster. For the first three quarters, they had focused primarily on defense with offense as a secondary strategy. While this had its effects, they hadn’t played better than Class 1, meaning their scores weren’t higher than Class 1’s.
The five of them, if not having played together since childhood, had at least played basketball together for three years. Of course, they had tacit understanding, but it was all in play. When the opponent shot, they would block, steal the ball, and then shoot to score themselves. This meant that unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn’t pass to teammates. Their play was casual, with no set strategies; they played however was fun, exhilarating, and free. However, in a real match, ordinary tacit understanding wasn’t enough; cooperation was also needed.
Wuxia novels often contain a saying: “In all martial arts, only speed is invincible.” We can’t verify the truth of this statement, but when applied to basketball, it holds a certain logic.
Our cooperation isn’t good? Our defense isn’t good? We have many loopholes? But we are fast!
We don’t need excellent cooperation, we don’t need powerful defense, and our loopholes disappear before you can even find them.
