Chapter 155
For Seirin, they had no pressure to win anything since they were just a new team here, so they had the freedom to put anyone without caring about losing. However, the same couldn't be said for a powerhouse team like Shutoku that always aimed for a championship every year. They were not used to the discomfort feeling of chasing down the score, so even though this was just a sparing game, Nakatani still chose the main players when they were at a disadvantage.
And in no time, the game was evened once again, as Seirin's bench unit couldn't hold their ground against their opponent.
"Kawahara, cover up the perimeter!"
"Fukuda, don't get attracted by your opponent! Keep yourself on the paint! Protect the rim!"
"Damn! Koganei-senpai! Help!"
*Splash!*
"YOSSHAA!"
Alex who saw the last play couldn't help but sigh. She had already expected this. While Fukuda and Kawahara's basic were good enough, they lacked experience on the court, which might affect their judgment in a high-intensity game like this. That was why she gave them a chance to play right now.
However, seeing they were bullied like this, Alex also knew if this continued, it would be bad for their confidence. So, she took a decision to replace both of them with her main players.
"Hyuga-kun, Kiyoshi-kun, get up. You will join the game next."
"Sure." The two senpai rose from their seats quickly, stretching out their body a bit to prepare themselves for the game again.
"There was no change in your role. Kiyoshi-kun, your main task is to protect the rebound. Hyuga-kun, stretch out the floor and created space for Tiger-chan to drive forward. Always be ready to catch and shoot. Also, be ready to help him in defense too." Alex instructed.
"Sure." They both nodded.
"Oh, wait a sec!" Riko suddenly interrupted before they could go in. "Tell Koganei to stretch out the floor too. Tell him don't just stay in the middle and try to attract Kimura-san from the paint."
"Oh, good idea!" Riko praised the younger girl. "Just do what she said. It was worth a try."
Riko's face beamed in delight at the praise. Since Alex took over the team, her role was reduced to just a manager and physical conditioner for the players, and it made her a bit uncomfortable. To be able to contribute tactics or strategy for the team like she always did in the past, she felt the joy that she started to forget.
When the next play was over and the game was paused for the inbound pass, those two came in to substitute their kouhai. They relied Alex and Riko's instructions to the others and went to their responsible area. There, they were already waited by their respective opponent, Miyaji in the perimeter and Otsubo in the paint.
"So, the captain is back, huh?" Miyaji joked around.
"Yeah." Hyuga nodded. "Nice to meet you again, Miyaji-san."
It was still Seirin's offense chance, so Hyuga stayed on the wing silently, trying to give Kagami space to drive forward. He nodded in satisfaction when he saw Koganei do the exact same thing on the opposite wing, pulling Kimura away from the paint.
Usually, this would be good for the old Kagami who always insisted on going for a dunk. However, this was a headache for this new Kagami who started to learn how to organize the game.
On the court right now, he had Tsuchida, Koganei, and Hyuga as his teammates. One was responsible for protecting the rebound, and the three were the helpers and the executors of the play. Unfortunately, the three executors were fixed-position shooters, which means they were bad at off-the-ball movement. That made it easier for Shutoku to restrict him as he was forced to go forward for a dunk again, and it had been proven that Midorima could stop this kind of play.
Racking his brain for a whole ten seconds, Kagami gritted his teeth, finally made his move. He signaled Tsuchida in the corner area to come over and set a screen for him. Seeing the power forward move from his comfort zone, Koganei knew what he should do. He set a screen to stop Takao and Otsubo from following Tsuchida, letting his teammate escape easily.
"Good one, Koganei!"
This was the connection they built after playing with each other for a long time. After escaping from his defender, Tsuchida set a screen for Kagami to get away from Midorima. Meanwhile, after setting a wall for Tsuchida, Koganei slipped away from everyone's attention and cut from the sideline silently.
And Kagami also saw his movement. Even though Tsuchida's screen wasn't able to hold Midorima for too long, one second was enough for Kagami to scan everyone's movement quickly. When he saw Koganei in a good position, Kagami didn't hesitate to pass the ball.
"Oh! Nice pass, Kagami!"
"Finish it, Koganei!"
Koganei who was in an open position had a lot of choices. He could force his way for a layup, but Otsubo on the paint had already eyed him. He could also just shoot it from his spot right there. After the torturous training set by Riko for a full week, he was confident with his mid-range. But he could also drive forward and attract Otsubo's attention to him and slide the ball toward Kiyoshi and let the center finish the ball.
This was the first time Koganei experienced a headache due to a lot of good choices like this. However, a second later, his consciousness was back in his body again as he made a quick decision.
'Screw it! A complicated play is not my thing. Let's keep it simple.'
Koganei stopped dribbling three steps away from Otsubo and sent a floater from his spot, not giving the opponent's center to close down the distance and disturb his form.
*Splash!*
"Yeah!"
"Nice floater, Koganei!"
"Damn, since when did you have that in your arsenal?!"
"Haha!"
While all the Seirin players celebrated with each other, Otsubo scolded his teammates due to their carelessness.
"Kimura, Takao, always communicate with each other when you see your opponent is about to set a screen. Midorima didn't even know he would be screened until the last moment."
Midorima nodded silently, agreeing with what his captain said.
"Ahahaha…" Takao could only rub the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Captain. This wouldn't happen again."
Seeing Takao who was still in the mood to laugh, Otsubo sighed tiredly. He knew defense was a boring and tiring job and not everyone liked it. And since this was just a sparing game, Takao's attitude was clear the point guard wouldn't give his best in defense.
'I just hope he wouldn't bring back this attitude to the official game.'
A second later, the game continued with the ball is on Takao's hand. Midorima didn't act as an organizer and ball handler again since the main players were there. Now, he just stood on the wing silently, waiting for the ball to come while recovering his stamina.
"So, you are reduced to a mere role player, huh?" Kagami snorted mockingly. Midorima didn't bother with Kagami's words, knowing for sure Takao would go for him when the point guard saw he was open.
He took a deep breath, making eye contact with Kimura on the low post. The power forward nodded silently, mobbing away from his spot to attract Koganei from the paint. It was a subtle movement that only Midorima and Takao noticed. So, before anyone could pay attention, Midorima ran directly to the spot that was left by Kimura a few seconds ago.
Even though it was a surprise for Kagami to see Midorima go to the paint instead of taking a three, he still followed the green-haired boy's movement closely. However, instead of filling the spot on the low post, without reducing his speed, Midorima ran back to his starting position, doing a V-cut movement to create space for himself.
"Takao, here!"
"DAMN!"
In a second, the ball was already in Midorima's hand. And the shooting guard shoots the ball immediately, not giving Kagami any chance to stop him.
*Splash!*
"YEAH!"
"Nice three, Midorima!"
"Good one!"
As all the Shutoku players celebrated with each other, the green-haired boy looked at Kagami coldly before saying, "Reduced to a mere role player? Please, I am not you."
And he went back to his own area without looking back at the fuming Kagami.
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"Calm down, Kagami-kun." Hyuga tried to appease his hot-headed kouhai. "It is just one play. You can avenge it later."
Kagami took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. "Don't worry, Senpai. This wouldn't affect my performance."
To be honest, what made him furious was not the trash talk, but how he was getting outdone by Midorima at every turn. Counting from the beginning, Kagami had defended the green-haired boy at least more than five times, yet he wasn't able to stop the shooting guard even once.
Even though Midorima also couldn't stop his new playing style, since it involved in using himself as the bait and organizing the play to let his teammates execute the ball, Kagami felt this was too cowardly. Compared with Midorima's head-on style who won the battle against him whether from the outside of the three-point line or when the shooting guard attacked the rim, Kagami was not satisfied with his performance.
However, he knew that his new playing style was effective. And as the old wisdom said, no matter how ugly something was, if it did the job perfectly, there was no need to change it.
Kagami took a deep breath, trying to adjust his mentality. He decided to watch the next play from the sideline to observe his teammates more. Since his new playing style was resolved around his teammates, he needed to know their habits immediately.
Since Kagami didn't hold the ball, it fell to the second ball handler on the team, Kiyoshi. However, he was surrounded by Otsubo and Kimura quickly, didn't have a chance to do anything specific. Being targeted by the two big men, Kiyoshi didn't have a choice but to kick the ball out toward Hyuga on the wing.
Unfortunately, Hyuga was not in a good position, as he was being guarded tightly by Miyaji.
'Tch. He knows my playing style well.'
"What happened captain?" Miyaji mocked him, still with his hand actively preventing Hyuga from taking a shoot. "Cannot do anything? Are you really worthy of being captain? Just give that title to that red-haired brat, he deserved it more than you."
A thick vein popped up on Hyuga's temple. Usually, he wasn't easily provoked like this. But saying the immature Kagami deserved to be the captain over him or any other second-year players was outrageous. His mind was clouded with revenge as in a triple-threat position, he suddenly remembered something.
'I thought I could save this move until the official tournament. But it seems I couldn't do that. Well, whatever. Let's see how effective this was.'
Hyuga suddenly lowered his stance as if he was about to drive forward. Seeing that, Miyaji was also prepared to turn around and follow his movement. However, a second later, instead of driving forward, Hyuga took a quick step back, leaving his defender far behind.
"SHIT!"
Even though Miyaji tried his best to cover up the distance between them, he was one step too late as the ball had already been released from Hyuga's hand. And as it went smoothly through the nets, all the Seirin players couldn't help but feel excited.
"Oh! Is that it?!"
"Barrier Jumper!"
"That was so cool, Captain!"
Midorima could only twitch the corner of his mouth in annoyance as he saw all the Seirin players celebrate crazily.
"What the hell is a barrier jumper? Is that a normal step-back three-point shoot?"
"Of course, you would say that, Shin-chan." Takao looked at him with complicated eyes. "You don't understand that it was men's romance to have a cool signature move like this."
The green-haired boy was speechless at his teammate's answer. To be honest, he didn't understand a lot about ordinary players' thoughts. Being in a super team for so long, it was like living in a bubble, not knowing how a normal player should act. So, hearing what Takao said, he seemed to believe it.
"Well, if you say so."
Midorima didn't bother with this topic again, preparing himself for the next play. However, to his surprise, it was not just Kagami who guarded him this time. He could see even though Tsuchida was guarding Takao, the power forward was two steps closer toward him, ready to help Kagami in the defense next.
And it wasn't just Midorima who was surprised. All the Shutoku players were taken aback by the sudden high-intensity defense by Seirin. Except for Midorima, Seirin used zone defense, letting the three-point area loosen while guarding from the inside attack.
This was the first time Seirin used this kind of strategy. However, the players on the court were able to support this system. With Koganei, Hyuga, Tsuchida, Kiyoshi, and Kagami there, they all had the ability to guard players from any position.
And it worked pretty well right now.
When Takao was about to shoot, Tsuchida closed up the distance quickly, forcing the point guard to abandon his idea and drive forward to the paint area. After that, the defense switched quickly with Koganei responsible for covering Tsuchida's spot.
When Takao noticed Kimura was open, he was about to pass the ball. However, he abandoned his idea again when he saw from his peripheral vision Tsuchida recovered from his position and was ready to defend Kimura. With not a lot of choice, Takao decided to kick the ball out and let Midorima do the rest.
However, what he didn't expect was for Koganei to abandon him and help Kagami double-team Midorima quickly. This prevented Shutoku from taking an easy three again.
'Tch. Their defense is like a yo-yo. One come, another cover, and so on. And the speed is quick, not allowing us to score easily.' Takao clicked his tongue. 'How annoying.'
Seeing Midorima was cornered by two players, Takao ran back to the middle to give the shooting guard the option to pass.
"Shin-chan! Here!"
Midorima who was about to be pushed into the sideline had no choice but to pass the ball to Takao. But right the moment the point guard received the ball, Seirin's defense switched again as now, it was Hyuga who defended him.
'Damn! Isn't it a bit too fast?' Takao cursed.
Facing Seirin's captain, Takao decided to play safely and passed the ball quickly to Miyaji who was about to sneak and do a backdoor cut. However, in the chaotic situation where all the position was shambled like this, he was too anxious to send the ball away and didn't notice that the last Seirin player who shouldn't have appeared suddenly popped up in front of him.
'WHAT THE-?!' Takao widened his eyes in shock at the sudden double team. 'Why the fuck is he here?! Should he be in the paint and defend Otsubo-senpai?!'
Yeah, the one who was helping Hyuga was Kiyoshi, the player who was responsible for protecting the rim. The center didn't let Takao think too much as he snatched the ball forcefully from the point guard's hand. Takao resisted for a while, didn't want the ball to get stolen easily. Once he lost it, they wouldn't be able to stop Seirin's fastbreak.
Fortunately, his last effort was successful enough, as when he and Kiyoshi were busy fighting for the ball, the referee blew his whistle and announced,
"SEIRIN #7, SHUTOKU #10, JUMP BALL!"
There was a silence that followed the announcement. To be honest, this wasn't a surprising decision by the referee. Of course, he could wait for a few seconds until Kiyoshi was able to snatch the ball from Takao's hand. However, the referee could also see even though Takao had already lost his balance, the point guard didn't have the intention to let the ball go easily.
This was just a sparing game. Instead of letting such a fifty-fifty confrontation like this happen and risking an injury for both players, the referee decided to stop before it got escalated.
This was a fine play by Takao. The point guard took a relieved sigh for a moment. However, when he realized he was about to fight a jump ball against Kiyoshi, he could only smile wryly.
'Well, this is not good for us.'
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Author note :
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You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 175 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 36 too.
Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-