Final-Day Game; Part-Two

The second quarter started, and Leonal switched in for Rafael.

He walked to Shun and spoke.

Leonal: "I will cross the ball past the half-court line and will get it to you inside the three-point arc, you make your plays from there.

Our players are all inside scorers, so make the defenders confused and create space for them."

Shun nodded and was about to run to take his position when Leonal spoke again.

Leonal: "Also, pass more to Gilbert, he isn't getting enough action, make use of his jumping ability more."

Shun thought for a while before nodding.

Shun: "I will do that."

-*-*-*-

Leonal crossed the ball past the half-court line, and in front of him, Antony was standing to defend him.

Team Ming was counting on Antony's speed to counter Leonal's quick reflexes.

Leonal looked at Antony and mentally sighed.

Leonal: 'Why does everybody assume that I always go for an iso-play.'

Leonal slowed down, and just before Antony was in his range, he lobbed the ball over his head towards Shun.

Antony looked at the ball, flying past him.

Antony: "Aah!"

Shun caught the ball just outside the three-point arc. His back was facing the basket and Ming, who was his defender.

Shun waited till Ming was close to him before doing a pass-fake to the left and passing him from the right.

Ming fell for the pass fake because both he and Shun saw Bruno in the pass course, and Shun took advantage of that.

Shun dribbled inside towards the basket, and just before he stepped into the paint, he passed the ball to the opposite side of the basket Gilbert.

Gilbert caught the ball and laughed.

Gilbert: "I was waiting for this!"

He ran parallel to the basket and jumped at the paint-line towards the basket.

Carlos and Roger both jumped to block him, but Gilbert brought the ball down in a double-clutch and again bought it up, and because of his phenomenal hang-time, he was still able to dunk the ball.

Shun couldn't help but chuckle at the feat of jumping.

Shun: "He sure hangs in there a lot."

Gilbert got down and bobbed his head as he ran away to defense.

Gilbert: "Woohoo! Now, that's more like it."

-*-*-*-

Of course, Team Ming wasn't going to take damage without dishing it out themselves.

And, they had the perfect person to dish out the required damage.

Ming dribbled the ball to the three-point arc and looked at Ivan and Carlos.

Ivan ran towards Ming with Gilbert on his tail, Carlos set up a screen for Ivan and boxed out Gilbert.

Ming handed the ball to Ivan and screened out Carlos's guard, Bruno, who because of the screen, decided not to follow after Ivan, and retreated towards the basket, to prepare for a drive to the basket.

Ivan didn't drive to the basket and ran along the three-point arc and shot a three-pointer that landed into the bucket smoothly.

The competition between the teams grew as Shun and Ming decided to exploit Gilbert and Ivan even more.

-*-*-*-

Carlos had just stolen a ball, and he passed it to Ming, who threw it even further towards Ivan, who was running for a fast-break play.

Ming smiled as he saw Ivan catch the pass, but his smile fell when he saw Gilbert sprinting past him, chasing after Ivan.

Ivan jumped for a simple layup, but just as the ball left his hand, he saw Gilbert smacking the ball against the backboard.

Gilbert: "Get that out of here!"

-*-*-*-

In Team Leonal's possession, Leonal decided to go for a fast long-pass play.

From near the basket, he threw the ball to Shun, who was at the half-court line.

Shun caught the ball and immediately relayed it to Gilbert, who caught it and sprinted to the free-throw line.

Gilbert: "Be prepared to be amazed!"

He stepped on the free-throw line and took flight.

Shun placed a hand on his forehead as if to look somewhere faraway and whistled.

Shun: "Oooh, a jump from the free-throw line."

In mid-air, Gilbert passed the ball between his legs, brought up the ball up to the highest point his hand could reach, and then jammed the ball into the basket.

Gilbert grabbed the rim with one hand and swung on it till his momentum didn't die down.

He got down and pumped his fists in the air.

Gilbert: "Did you see that! A dunk from the free-throw line. Hahahaha!"

-*-*-*-

In the next possession, Ming passed the Antony, who relayed it to Ivan.

Ivan caught the ball and faced his defender Gilbert.

Ivan moved to the left with Gilbert following him, but suddenly Ivan stopped and pivoted to the right.

Gilbert wasn't able to stop in time and end up opening a space between them.

Gilbert: "Get back here, dammit!"

Ivan was about to pass from the right, but he had to stop because Shun had sprinted to hinder Ivan from escaping.

Shun: "Yosh, now you're trapped."

Ivan's expression didn't show any change, and he simply pivoted back to his original direction.

Gilbert, who was finally moving towards the right direction, was stunned when he saw Ivan moving towards the left.

Gilbert: "What the hell!"

Ivan dribbled two steps to make ample distance between himself and Shun and Gilbert and shot a three-pointer.

Shun clicked his tongue.

Shun: "That was a smooth transition. I was pretty sure he would colliding into me."

-*-*-*-

Shun dribbled his way into the paint and jumped for the basket to lay in the ball.

But, his reflexes blared as he felt Carlos just behind, so he changed the layup into a pass, to Gilbert, who was standing near the baseline.

Carlos was indeed behind Shun and had jumped with to block Shun's layup. He stunned with the sudden pass, he looked at Shun and thought.

Carlos: 'His court vision is a serious troublesome asset.'

Gilbert caught the ball and charged parallel to the basket towards the basket.

In his way, Roger arrived to block him, both of them jumped and collided in mid-air.

Roger: 'Yes! He will not be able to score now.'

But, his eyes widened as he saw that Gilbert was so much above him in the air, and he was only coming to Gilbert's chest.

Gilbert's ball hand was clearly above the rim, and he bought it down to slam the ball into the bucket.

The force knocked Roger down, and he fell to the ground, while Gilbert stood tall, and roared in celebration.

Gilbert: "Hell, Yeah!"

-*-*-*-

The score out continued with Ivan becoming even more competitive.

He received the ball at the three-point arc and charged in immediately.

In front of him, Gilbert was ready to defend him, but the moment he stepped in Gilbert's range, Ivan stopped and passed the ball between his legs, and made some gap between them.

In the next move, Gilbert saw Ivan going to the left and moved the left, but it was a fake as he crossed over from the right.

Gilbert tried to chase, but his ankles slipped, and he ended on the ground.

Gilbert: "Oh, SHIT!"

Ivan was about to charge from the right, but suddenly a serious face Leonal emerged from the space Gilbert had left open.

Ivan simply stopped once more and shot a two-pointer with a smooth looking step-back, which rendered Leonal's defensive attempt useless.

-*-*-*-

Of course, Gilbert wasn't all about dunks, his jumping ability would be wasted on just dunks.

So, he had trained himself sufficiently in the art of rim-finishing.

An example of that was the next play, where Gilbert showed how much he could control himself in the air.

Leonal ran straight to the front of the basket and passed the ball to the left side of the basket to Douglas, who wanted to score, but Ivan stood in front of him, giving him no space to score.

He frowned and passed the ball to Gilbert, who was running to the basket.

Gilbert caught the ball, and after taking two steps, he made a mighty jump and spun for a 360-degree dunk.

Ivan, who was defending against Douglas, moved the moment Douglas passed the ball and jumped in front of Gilbert to block him.

Gilbert collided with Ivan before reaching the basket, and his back was to the basket, but he didn't panic and hooked the ball without looking.

The ball followed a short and sharp arc and swished into the net.

Gilbert and Ivan got to the ground to see the basket falling from the net.

A wild grin surfaced on Gilbert's face, and he pounded his chest with his fist.

Gilbert: "YEAH!"

-*-*-*-

Ivan Petrovic had an extremely competitive personality, so when Gilbert was scoring with excellent skills and flair, he wasn't going to be outscored.

Ivan and Gilbert stood near the top of the key with the ball in Ivan's possession.

Gilbert was currently shining with confidence, whereas Ivan was still wearing his indifferent expression.

Ivan, who had not taken the ball to the basket, and had scored from the outside, charged towards the basket with Gilbert in tow.

Shun furrowed his brows and spoke to himself.

Shun: "He is not at running at his maximum speed."

Ivan and Gilbert reached the basket at the same time and jumped at the basket.

Gilbert was above Ivan, completely covering the ball's path to the basket.

Gilbert: "You're not scoring, you stone-faced bastard!"

Ivan then surprised the cocky Gilbert by bringing the ball hand down in a double-clutch, switched the ball between his hands, twisted his body, so it escaped Gilbert's extended hand, and dunked the ball with the switched hand from the side of the basket.

Gilbert looked at Ivan with his mouth slightly opened in shock.

Both of them got to the floor, and Ivan stared at Gilbert with his chin slightly raised, as if looking down on him.

A vein bulged on Gilbert's forehead after seeing Ivan's look. He stamped his feet on the ground as he looked at the retreating Ivan.

Gilbert: "Damned stone-faced pretty boy pisses me off!"

Shun jogged near Gilbert and patted him on the shoulder.

Shun: "Don't mind it. I will give you a lob pass, you just alley-oop it into the basket.

That will cheer you up."

Gilbert took in a deep breath to calm down and looked at Shun.

Gilbert: "Yeah, do that."

But, then Gilbert's hand, shaped into a claw headed towards Shun's head to grab it. Shun reflexes warned him, and he retreated one step.

He looked at Gilbert and asked loudly.

Shun: "Why?! I was trying to cheer you up!"

Gilbert harrumphed and said.

Gilbert: "I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, but I am not dense enough to notice the tone that you used was that of a mother promising her child candy to calm him down."

Shun blicked once, twice, and then knocked his knuckle on his head and said.

Shun: "Hehe, I was caught."

Gilbert felt his irritation rising back up as he stepped towards Shun, who retreated two steps.

Gilbert: "Get back here, Shrimpy!"

Shun got into a running stance and said.

Shun: "How about, No."

Then, Shun ran with Gilbert chasing him.

Albert had to threaten them with a foul if they didn't stop, which calmed both of them down.

None of them wanted to get into trouble with Albert and certainly didn't want a foul for something this stupid.