Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 726 Dominance in a different sense!

O'Neal received the ball under the basket and headed over Stanley Roberts for a strong score.

His goal also made the Timberwolves players realize what Eddie Jones' ultimate intention was when he provoked Garnett.

In this shot, Garnett, who was so excited, completely forgot what he should do on the court. Until O'Neal successfully scored the ball, he was unable to react and return to the basket.

Looking back at Eddie Jones who was smiling, Garnett reacted belatedly.

"Why don't you fight yourself, you piece of shit?"

Although he already knew in his heart why Eddie Jones provoked him, Garnett still did not spare Eddie Jones and mocked him directly.

"Assists are also statistics, aren't they?"

In response to Garnett's ridicule, Eddie Jones spread his hands and said to Garnett with a smile. Garnett's level of ridicule was too low-level for him and had no effect at all.

Garnett was so choked by Eddie Jones' words that he was speechless. After pondering for a few seconds, Garnett could only vent his anger by using trash talk.

Stanley Roberts had already reached the baseline with the ball. After passing the ball, the Timberwolves players all ran forward.

Until his team's offensive round, Garnett still followed Eddie Jones, chattering and harassing his opponent with trash talk. Although Eddie Jones is a player with good self-control, he frowned slightly under Garnett's continuous trash talk bombardment, showing a little impatience.

If someone spits shit on your face, you may be able to tolerate it once or twice, but over time, no matter how good your temper or mentality is, you probably won't be able to tolerate it.

Garnett knew that he had suffered a small loss, so he wanted to get back at Eddie Jones at this time. His trash talk was not only dense but also dirty.

Not to mention Eddie Jones himself, even all of Eddie Jones's relatives and friends have been criticized by Garnett. Not a single good word came out of Garnett's mouth.

As expected of a black player who came from the streets, Garnett is much better than Eddie Jones in this regard.

In terms of trash-talking ability, perhaps only martial arts that have been baptized by the Internet in later generations can compete with him.
Eddie Jones was being chased and scolded by Garnett. In order to divert his attention and not let his emotions be affected by Garnett's trash talk, Eddie Jones quickly looked at Marbury who was advancing with the ball after returning to the court.

Only in this way can he possibly avoid being affected by Garnett's trash talk.

As Marbury dribbled the ball into the frontcourt, Eddie Jones quickly left from the wing and rushed towards Marbury who was running forward. His action was somewhat beyond Fisher's expectations. Seeing Eddie Jones's action, Fisher also quickly looked at Garnett running towards the wing.

This kind of defensive rotation had never been practiced in the training game, but Fisher still made the wisest choice at the moment.

Garnett used trash talk to drive away Eddie Jones, who was supposed to defend him. During the Lakers' defensive rotation, Garnett quickly crossed the three-point line and asked Marbury for the ball with both hands.

Although Fisher's defensive action was very quick, there was a big height difference between him and Garnett. Marbury sensed the opportunity on Garnett's side and threw the ball over Garnett.

As the basketball fell, Garnett, who had already crossed the three-point line, jumped up and grabbed the ball directly behind him.

Fisher also jumped with all his strength, trying to steal the pass from the Timberwolves, but he seemed to have overestimated his height and jumping ability. Not to mention affecting Garnett's catching the ball, even if Garnett didn't jump to get the ball, Fisher couldn't touch the basketball at that height.

When Garnett got the basketball, he had no intention of going to the basket with the ball. He even omitted the adjustment movement. He just raised his hand and threw the ball. The basketball flew directly over the heads of the Lakers players and then fell steadily into the basket.

A clean mid-range shot directly helped the Timberwolves get two points.

When the Minnesota fans in the stands saw Garnett score the goal, they immediately burst into applause and cheers.

Minnesota fans are already very familiar with Garnett as a player, and they like Garnett's energy on the court.

Although Garnett's average points per game in previous games were only around 17-19 points, Timberwolves fans all know that Garnett is an indispensable inside pillar for their Timberwolves.

In this day and age, a power forward who can average nearly 20 points per game is hard to come by, not to mention that Garnett is very young, and compared to his scoring ability, Garnett's defensive ability is more outstanding and excellent.

If Garnett's scoring ability can only be regarded as the top inside players in the league, then his defensive ability can definitely be called the best in the league.

Garnett is a player with the potential to compete for DPOY (Best Defensive Player of the Year). Fans have watched many Timberwolves games and they know very well how big the gap is between the Timberwolves' defensive ability with Garnett and without Garnett.

Although Garnett's status in the team is not as good as Martial Arts, who is the main scorer, after all, in this era, scorers will always get more attention than other types of players.

However, in terms of the team's tactical position, there is actually no strict distinction between Garnett and martial arts.

If both Wu Dao and Garnett were unemployed at the same time and were looking for jobs in the league, Garnett's adaptability to other teams might be much stronger than Wu Dao.

A player like Garnett would be a perfect fit for almost any team in the league.

But it’s different for Wudao. If other teams want to fully bring out Wudao’s personal abilities, they need to rebuild the team with Wudao as the core.

After the Timberwolves scored, the Lakers quickly counterattacked. After several rotations among the Lakers players, the basketball was given to O'Neal in the interior.

Although Garnett was angry because he was fooled by Eddie Jones, he was still able to clearly judge the situation on the court. The moment before O'Neal received the ball, Garnett decisively let go of Jones, whom he was supposed to defend, and rushed directly towards O'Neal in the inside.

Garnett's Jiaji also made O'Neal, who was trying to attack the basket, decisively give up such an idea and quickly passed the basketball in his hand back to Eddie Jones on the outside. After passing the ball, O'Neal turned around and trapped Stanley Roberts, who was a little slower, behind him, occupying the best position to grab the rebound.

In his early days, O'Neal was actually a very team player. As a guard, he actually had a very broad vision when attacking.

An inside finishing point like him who possesses terrifying dominance can often average around three assists per game in the playoffs, which shows how strong his assist ability is.

You know, the shooting accuracy of these outside players matched with O'Neal is not that high.

Under such circumstances, he can still get such assist data, which also shows his personal ability.

Although the Timberwolves were able to suppress O'Neal's personal scoring through the three inside players, it was actually difficult to control his impact on the entire Lakers team.

When the Timberwolves decided to focus most of their energy on suppressing O'Neal's scoring, they had already anticipated that the Lakers' other outside players would get more open shooting opportunities.

At this point, the Timberwolves could only pray that the Lakers' point guard would not score. As the basketball passed from O'Neal's hands, Garnett, who was rushing towards O'Neal, quickly turned around and pounced on Eddie Jones who caught the ball in the middle distance.

Although Garnett knew that he could not block Eddie Jones' open shot with his speed of movement, he still made defensive efforts, thinking of using this method to interfere with Eddie Jones' shooting accuracy.

Garnett's defensive attitude is unquestionable.

"Dang~~"

I don't know if it was because Garnett put enough defensive pressure on Eddie Jones, or because Eddie Jones himself didn't have a good touch. In short, this time Eddie Jones's open attempt hit the rim and bounced out, and he didn't score a goal.

“Bang!!!”

Just as the Timberwolves players gathered towards the inside to try to grab the rebound, Shaquille O'Neal, who had already occupied the rebounding position early, jumped up directly, relying on his terrifying strength to knock Stanley Roberts behind him away, grabbed the ball with both hands, and dunked the ball directly into the basket.

There was a loud bang in the court, and the Timberwolves' basketball stand suddenly fell down. The entire basketball stand made a "creaking" sound. Outside the baseline, several reporters who were relatively close were also shocked by O'Neal's terrifying dunk momentum and involuntarily took a step back.

It was not until O'Neal let go of the basket and it fell back to the ground that the reporters breathed a sigh of relief, returned to their cameras, and then pointed the cameras at O'Neal, who was beating his chest and growling.

"Can you stop me?!"

"Your dad Shaq is going to show off his power!"

O'Neal is a foul-mouthed guy. The powerful tip-in made his adrenaline soar. Excited O'Neal pounded his chest and roared at the Timberwolves players.

The cheers of Lakers fans flooded into the stadium. On the sidelines, the Lakers' substitutes also jumped up from their seats, waving towels and cheering for O'Neal on the court.

This is the ability of Shaquille O'Neal. He can often use his strong personal ability and powerful dunks to boost the morale of the team when the team needs it most.

O'Neal's influence on the court is actually difficult to fully reflect with data.

If there is Joe, choose Joe; if there is no Joe, choose Shark.

There is certainly some truth to this.

"Be aggressive when you're rebounding, don't let your guard down."

"Even if the opponent misses the shot, be wary of their second attack."

On the sidelines, Coach Philip shouted to the players on the field. At this time, Ben Wallace also took the ball to the baseline and passed it to Marbury.

The Lakers players were so motivated by O'Neal's tip-in that the Timberwolves had to fight back.

The player who executes the response ball naturally has no second choice.

After Marbury crossed the midline, he passed the ball to Wu Dao on the wing. After passing the ball, Marbury did not intend to help Wu Dao with a pick-and-roll or run into an open space. Instead, he slowly moved to the left, leaving the entire right half to Wu Dao.

As for the response ball, you naturally have to use a strong one-on-one approach to achieve the effect of the response ball.

The game had only just begun, and maintaining the team's momentum was much more important than simply scoring points.

After the ball was in play, I noticed Marbury's movement. As Marbury stepped back, Fisher, who was defending him, was also moved to the left by Marbury.

In the entire right half of the court, the defensive players that Wu Dao had to face, besides Rick Fox in front of him, were Robert Horry on the edge of the paint area on the same side and O'Neal under the basket.

It is foreseeable that once Budo breaks through Rick Fox's defense, he will most likely face backup from O'Neal and Robert Horry.

Just as the Timberwolves defended O'Neal closely, the Lakers also defended the Timberwolves' martial arts closely.

When it comes to the task of defending Wu Dao, the Lakers can also devote most of their team's defensive strength to curb Wu Dao's scoring.

Wu Dao noticed this and quickly turned his back to the basket. Even when he was still outside the three-point line, he had already started to use the back-to-the-basket method, with his body leaning closely against Rick Fox.

The tremendous force pushed Rick Fox back, and Wu Dao, who got the gap, also shortened the distance between the two. With just two consecutive back-to-the-basket shots, Wu Dao successfully crossed the three-point line.

Although Wu Dao was young, his physique was much stronger than Rick Fox. His lower limb strength was what he focused on when he was working out. As Wu Dao pushed Rick Fox back across the three-point line, Robert Horry, who was under the basket, could not hold back and quickly moved to the extended free throw line, ready to come up to defend at any time.

"Pay attention to the backup defense." Communication between players on the court is very important. At the same time Rick Fox left the basket, Wallace immediately spoke out to remind him.

At the same time when Ben Wallace's reminder reached Wudao's ears, Wudao quickly turned around with the ball in his right hand. The moment he faced the basket, he changed hands at low altitude and directly switched to his left hand.

After turning around and changing direction, Wudao put his right hand directly on Rick Fox's body and thrust forward. Wudao's breakthrough action also forced Rick Fox to exert all his strength and rushed to Wudao to try to block Wudao's forward path.

But at the moment when Rick Fox accelerated, Wudao's left hand dropped the ball and he actually took a step back diagonally, and then took another step back after passing the ball, instantly creating a distance of nearly two meters between him and the defensive player.

Wu Dao successfully retreated to the three-point line without any adjustment and directly shot a three-pointer.

The continuous double retreat allowed Wu Dao, who was holding the ball, to be in an open space, and the three-pointer he shot successfully fell into the basket under the watchful eyes of many players on the court.

“Ohhhhhh——”

The moment the ball entered the net, the cheers of the fans also poured into the stadium.

Although there was no dunk as powerful as O'Neal, the superb martial arts skills still aroused the emotions of Minnesota fans.

Getting rid of the defensive player in an instant, this martial arts technique is also a kind of "dominance".

(End of this chapter)