Chapter 408 407. Beijing Welcomes You

This time during the timeout, the Chinese team’s morale reached its peak!

There actually is a chance to see the devil... No, there is actually a chance to win!
Every player on the Chinese team was extremely excited. Yao Ming, who had played for half a quarter and felt exhausted, didn't feel tired at this moment! He wanted to go on the court and defeat the Dream Team immediately!

The Dream Team's deterrent power has been reduced a lot after the past three world championships, but this makes no difference to the Chinese team. The top three and the world's number one are both difficult to move for the Chinese team. Even Zhang Yang used the word "hell" to describe their chances of winning this game.

It was not until now that we really saw hope of winning. The fact that the US team had been upset in the past three world championships had a real impact on the Chinese players. At this moment, the US team's deterrent power was gone!
On the other side, the reactions of the American players varied.

James, Wade, Bosh, Anthony, Paul, Okafor, Howard: Here they come, that familiar feeling is back!

These seven players all participated in the World Championships in the island nation two years ago, and were upset by the Greek team with a score of 7 to 95 in the semi-finals.

Among them, except Paul and Howard, the other five players were unexpectedly beaten by Puerto Rico by 5 points in the first game of the group stage at the Athens Olympics four years ago.

They stepped onto the court with absolute confidence, but the course of the game was completely beyond their expectations. This was not the first time they had experienced this.

When a similar situation occurred again, this group of players did not react too violently.

Okafor never showed his emotions on his face, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

James and Howard have been fouled out for 5 fouls and there is nothing they can do.

Bosh, just want to be an ostrich at this time.

Wade and Paul, the two No. 3 superstars in the NBA, are both extremely competitive, but after fighting for the entire game, they were still overtaken by the score in the middle of the final quarter. The scenes of being defeated by Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Argentina, Greece... those opponents appeared in front of them, and they were all stunned at the moment.

As for the other five players, Kidd is the bottom supporter and is useless at the critical moment, Felton is the third point guard, and Iguodala couldn't defend the rookie Zhang Yang in his sophomore year... After Kobe entered the timeout, he saw his teammates looking at a loss, and he felt terrible.

Old Blacksmith: No, did I join the Dream Team? When did the Dream Team become like this? Before the Olympics, I boasted that we could beat Jordan's Dream Team. You guys teamed up to slap me in the face, right?
The timeout passed quickly and both teams made personnel adjustments.

Old K sent out the combination of Paul, Wade, Kobe, Anthony and Bosh, replacing the combination with the strongest firepower.

Jonas sent out the combination of Sun Yue, Zhang Yang, Zhu Fangyu, Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming, and also replaced the most powerful combination tonight.

The US team attacked. Kobe broke through with the ball, attracted a double-team, and passed the ball to Anthony. Anthony went inside and continued to compress the defense. The two took turns breaking through and compressed all the Chinese players under the basket.

Paul, Wade and Bosh are all left open on the outside!

After Anthony's shooting space was blocked, he subconsciously passed the ball to the strongest of the three players in his mind...

Wade received the ball one step inside the three-point line. He was not afraid of danger. He took a step back, exited the top of the arc, and took a three-point shot... and missed!
Seeing the little giant grab the defensive rebound, the old blacksmith said: If I pass it to you again, I’ll be a grandson!

Even if Xiao Pao and Long Neck Dragon are weak at the critical moment, when the opportunity is a long shot, you can't pass it to the cheek no matter what! You can use your own jump to shoot from close range, and the probability of scoring is higher!
This shot clearly demonstrates why Anthony is not as well regarded as Pierce in the playoffs even though he is obviously stronger than Pierce.

If we only talk about shooting accuracy at critical moments, Anthony is definitely not inferior to Pierce, but there is a huge difference in how to handle the key balls.

Pierce likes to brag and is arrogant, but when it comes to playing crucial balls, he has to have the arrogance that makes him feel like no one else can do it better than him.

In the transition from offense to defense, Yao Ming, with his adrenaline bursting, forcefully pushed Bosh into the basket, received the pass from Zhang Yang, turned around, and with Paul flying up and hanging on him, he succeeded in a one-on-two dunk.

The referee blew the whistle, Paul committed a defensive foul, and Yao Ming got a free throw!

With Yao Ming's free throw, the score was 113 to 109, and China's lead reached 4 points!
When the American team started attacking, Paul passed the ball to Kobe after crossing half court. He looked around and realized that this was the only person he could count on.

Kobe took two steps forward and was blocked by Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang's only goal was to block Kobe's long shot. He didn't care about Kobe's long shot at all. Facing Zhang Yang's sticky and effective defense, Kobe was fearless. He used his strength to force a step sideways, jumped towards Zhang Yang who immediately came back, and with his jump restricted, he made a three-point shot...hit!
112 to 113, the difference narrowed to 1 point!
In the next three rounds, the two teams were deadlocked on this 1-point difference.

First, Sun Yue missed an open mid-range shot after receiving a pass from Zhang Yang, and then Kobe tried to make the magical shot from the previous round but also missed due to Zhang Yang's interference; in the next round, Yao Ming missed a mid-range shot from mid-range, and Bosh also missed a three-pointer after receiving the ball on the sideline; in the next round, Yi Jianlian cut in, received the ball, and shot high against Kobe who was defending, but his luck was bad and the shot hit the rim. Fortunately, Kobe got one step inside the free throw line and his forced mid-range shot under the double-team of Zhang Yang, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue also missed.

It was China's turn to attack. Yao Ming took a few turns and then dropped to the low post to play with his back. After attracting double team attacks, he passed the ball to Sun Yue. Sun Yue did not shoot but waited for a moment before passing the ball...

Zhang Yang used Yi Jianlian's screen to get to the right side of the top arc, received the pass from Sun Yue, faced Anthony's switch defense, stepped back and shot a three-pointer... It went in! Finally scored!
116 to 112, the Chinese team once again widened the gap to 4 points!
Old K was in a bad mood. If James or Howard had not been fouled, this ball might not have been defended, but it would have definitely caused greater interference to Zhang Yang.

James can move around the defense faster and keep an eye on Zhang Yang; Howard protects the rim, and Bosh plays power forward to defend off-ball screens. They are much more motivated than Anthony. At least they will not stop pressing forward like Anthony did when they see Zhang Yang stepping back to make space. Even if they cannot interfere with the defense with their hands, pressing forward can force Zhang Yang to pass the ball faster.

Zhang Yang broke the scoring drought for both teams. When it was the US team's turn to attack, Kobe also made a quick stop jump shot, bringing the score to 114 to 116.

It was China's turn to attack again. Yao Ming continued to go to the low post to attract double-teaming and passed the ball to Sun Yue.

This time Anthony finally became active in switching defense and successfully completed the process of going around Zhang Yang after he got the screen, but this time Sun Yue did not pass the ball. He saw Anthony spread his arms and took a step sideways, cutting off the passing line while pressing towards Zhang Yang, then he turned around, jumped, and made a mid-range shot... which also went in!

It was the American team's turn to attack. Seeing that there was only a little over a minute left, Paul became a little anxious.

Yi Jianlian has left Bosh open and is ready to double-team Kobe with Zhang Yang at any time.

Anthony is just like when he was in the club, with strong ability in key shots, but Iverson wanted to attack at the critical moment and Anthony just watched stupidly on the side. It was the same tonight, Kobe took the lead and Anthony shouted 666 on the side.

This reminded Paul of the playoffs last season, when Kobe played against Iverson and Ray Allen. In an interview after the game, Anthony said, "It was a pleasure to watch them play against each other." Paul was puzzled at the time. Seeing that, shouldn't he have thought about beating up Kobe with Iverson and Ray Allen? Why did he enjoy watching?

Just like now, what Paul is thinking about is that Kobe is being closely guarded, Anthony is not competitive enough, the Chinese team is collectively shrinking and Wade can't score, and Bosh is unreliable in key shots... He, Brother Pao, is ready to step up and solve the problems!
Paul played against Sun Yue. After a series of quick dribbles, he suddenly moved to the left, turned around to receive the ball, and made Sun Yue take a few steps back. Then he jumped sideways and shot a three-pointer...

Paul played this ball resolutely and decisively. Kobe, who didn't receive the ball, didn't seem to be dissatisfied. Instead, he cheered in his heart, clenched his fist and watched the flying ball... and hit the rim.

Yao Ming blocked Anthony's rush, grabbed the rebound while standing, turned around and made a long pass...

Kobe, who had just watched the whole game and missed all the shots, cried out inwardly when he saw this action. He didn't even care about why the poor Pacer missed the key shot so badly. He turned around and tried to catch up... but it was too late.

Zhang Yang decided to take a gamble and started a fast break as soon as Paul threw the ball!
But it's not that no one noticed him. Wade rushed out from the left side at a 45-degree angle at the first opportunity. As soon as Zhang Yang received the ball outside the three-point line, he was stuck by Wade!

The three-pointer was gone, and Zhang Yang did not stop, but went straight to the inside under Wade's close defense.

Wade was unable to rush in front of Zhang Yang, not because he was not fast enough, but because he wanted to better defend Zhang Yang's three-pointer. However, this also resulted in him being unable to stop Zhang Yang's advance, and he could only follow closely.

Zhang Yang rushed to close range, grabbed the ball, and made a layup.

Wade suddenly jumped up and flew to block the shot... and hit Zhang Yang's arm!
The referee's whistle and the sound of the ball hitting the net reached Wade's ears at the same time. He fell to the ground with his butt and didn't want to get up!
It's so embarrassing. In one round, three NBA superstars wearing No. 3 jerseys, two of them became an eye-catcher and served as the background for the other No. 3 superstar!
Paul ran over and stretched out his hand, and Wade got up from the floor.

At this moment, after high-fiving Yi Jianlian who followed him, Zhang Yang turned to the two No. 3s, opened his arms, and said:
"Chris, Dwyane, Beijing welcomes you!"

After saying that, Zhang Yang turned around again and walked to the free throw line amid the cheers of the fans.

More than 3 fans at the scene were cheering, and suddenly someone started shouting "MVP", and others followed suit, from chaos to unity!

Paul and Wade looked at Zhang Yang's handsome face with smugness, feeling helpless and furious.

At this moment, music started playing, the theme song of this Olympic Games... The live director saw Zhang Yang's lip movements in the close-up and immediately switched to this song!
Paul and Wade's mentality exploded on the spot. They have been hearing this song every day in the more than one month since they came to China. They asked the name of the song, and it was exactly the trash talk Zhang Yang had just said to them!

(End of this chapter)