Slam Dunk: Muguro

Chapter 209 Matsumoto Minoru's Highlight Moment
Miller pushes!
Mu Mu recognized it at the first sight.

Of course, Miller's push had not yet appeared in this era, and it would take a few years for it to appear.

In 1998, in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, Jordan was defending Miller closely. In a hurry, Miller used a pushing action to break through the defense and hit a fatal three-pointer.

In the post-game interview, Jordan was asked about being pushed away by Miller. Jordan's answer was that since the referee did not whistle, it was not a foul!
Not only did Jordan not complain, he even thought it was normal.

Maybe for him, Miller is far behind the Bad Boys.

It was not until many years later that Miller publicly admitted in his Hall of Fame speech that he did push Jordan away and thought it was a foul.

This is only the case for Jordan. If it happened to Goat, he would definitely kneel down to get further attention from the referee.

As we all know, as long as Goat makes a shocking kneeling move, the number of free throws he and the team will take will definitely increase significantly in the next period of time.

With that kneeling, even the great road was wiped out!

Since Goat's kneeling, the Lakers have had 25 more free throws than their opponents in the next 263 games.

At the same time, the Lakers' average fouls per game are ranked last in the league!

This kneeling is really worth a thousand gold!

On the court, Matsumoto Masaru tried his best to rush towards Kashima Kaede, but it was too late.

However, perhaps because of his guilty conscience, the power of this three-pointer was not strong enough and hit the front of the basket.

The basketball bounced straight out of the paint area. Matsumoto Minoru was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He rushed forward and steadily caught the rebound in his arms.

Without hesitation, Matsumoto Minoru raised his hand to shoot.

With three seconds left on the shot clock, Buri's point guard subconsciously jumped up and instinctively raised his hands to try to stop Matsumoto Minoru from scoring.

Unexpectedly, Matsumoto, who was skilled and courageous, did not jump immediately.

When the Buri branch guard was at the highest point, he immediately adjusted his posture and took the initiative to meet him.

Seeing Matsumoto Minoru's move, the Buri guard was shocked. He instinctively wanted to adjust his defensive posture, but it was too late.

The balance of fate began to tilt at this moment!

Seeing that a foul was inevitable, the guard Buri became ruthless and swung his hands hard, hitting Matsumoto Minoru's arm hard.

Beep~
At the same time, the referee's whistle sounded in time.

In mid-air, Minoru Matsumoto's body completely lost balance, but he did not give up.

At the moment when his body was about to fall, his eyes were still fixed on the basket, and then he used up his last bit of strength to throw the basketball in his hand.

shuh~
The basketball drew a perfect parabola in the air and went straight through the net, making a crisp sound.

Hua Hua Hua~
The next moment, the stadium erupted in thunderous applause and cheers because they were fortunate enough to witness this wonderful moment.

Not only did Matsumoto Minoru complete the shot while his body was off balance, he also successfully caused the opponent to foul, with only ten seconds left in the game.

If he makes another free throw, it would be a near-game winning shot.

It was undoubtedly a brilliant performance.

The next moment, Matsumoto Minoru was surrounded by his teammates.

"Well done, Matsumoto!"

"awesome!"

……

Teammates praised Matsumoto Minoru's performance.

Among them, the Kashima maple frost is the best.

After being pulled up from the ground by Fukatsu, Matsumoto Minoru showed a bright smile on his face.

When he shot the ball, he wasn't very confident, he just tried his best and left the rest to fate, and it went in.

I have to say that sometimes, luck is also a reflection of strength.

At this time, Matsumoto Sheng stood in front of the referee, pointed at Kashima Feng Shuang and said, "Referee, this guy pushed me before shooting!"

Kashima Fengshuang felt a little guilty and pretended not to see it.

If he had been as thick-skinned as G0at, he wouldn't have missed that three-pointer.

"I did not see!"

The referee rejected Matsumoto Masaru's appeal without hesitation.

The two referees certainly did not see it, and the key point is that there is no replay mechanism for this kind of game.

To take a step back, even if there is a replay mechanism, the referee will not easily change his or her decision.

Therefore, Matsumoto Masaru's appeal was of no effect at all.

"But……"

Just when Matsumoto Masaru wanted to continue speaking, Watanabe Masao pulled him away, fearing that the referee would issue a gem card to Matsumoto Masaru.

Soon, Matsumoto Minoru stood at the free throw line.

"I missed the free throw, I missed the free throw!"

"Matsumoto, your shoelaces are untied!"

"Matsumoto, your pants are ripped!"

"If you miss the penalty, you will be a sinner of Sanno Industry!"

……

When Matsumoto Minoru was taking a free throw, some Buri players and spectators began to verbally disturb Matsumoto Minoru.

A female Buri fan standing opposite Matsumoto Minoru even made a move to take off her clothes.

Call ~
Matsumoto Minoru took a deep breath, his eyes became firm, and he began to concentrate, ignoring the distractions from others.

The next moment, Matsumoto Minoru threw the ball.

shuh~
Amid the sighs of Buri players and supporters, Matsumoto Minoru made the free throw and successfully reversed the score.

"Press defense!"

At the first moment, following the order from Kashima Kaedeshimo, Sanno Industries immediately launched a tight defense.

Not long ago, Sanno Industrial also used tight defense, but Buri was obviously prepared for it, resulting in not very good results.

The most admirable thing was the Watanabe brothers. Somehow, the two of them controlled the ball like backcourt players and caught Sanno Industrial off guard.

In addition, the Watanabe brothers are in sync with each other and have very good cooperation. The key is that they have an obvious height advantage, which leads to the fact that the effect of pressing defense is not very good.

To put it bluntly, pressing defense is just a common tactic.

The reason why Sanno Industrial's pressing defense is so effective is mainly because they have a strong enough lineup of players, that's all.

But once they meet a team of the same level, the effect will be greatly reduced.

Led by Kaede Frost of Kashima, the Sanno players once again launched a tight defense.

Just delay for the last ten seconds and you can achieve your goal.

Since the timeout was over, Buri could only serve from the baseline.

With the advantages of height and arm span, Watanabe Masao successfully passed the ball to Watanabe Masayasu.

Ohkawada immediately stuck close to Watanabe Masayasu and prevented him from speeding up.

Kashima Kaede and Matsumoto Minoru were obviously prepared. They stood very close to Watanabe Masayasu and rushed over at the first opportunity.

As a result, before Watanabe Masayasu could pass the ball, he was double-teamed by three people.

Masayasu Watanabe subconsciously wanted to lift the ball above his head and use his height and arm span to pass the ball.

slap~
At the critical moment, Matsumoto Toshio suddenly had a sudden inspiration, as if he had predicted Watanabe Masayasu's actions, and successfully intercepted the ball.

"Oops!"

At this moment, all the Buri players were shocked and subconsciously wanted to counterattack.

In the chaos, Matsumoto Minoru grabbed the basketball first and was immediately surrounded by Buri players.

Matsumoto Minoru jumped high without hesitation and threw the ball based on his feeling.

In order to delay more time, he deliberately threw the ball very high.

bang~
The basketball hit the rim and bounced off.

drip~
Masao Watanabe overpowered Ito Yu to grab the rebound, and just as he was about to make a move, a long whistle sounded, signaling the end of the game.

"Won!"

The Sanno players burst into deafening cheers and hugged each other tightly to celebrate this hard-earned victory.

After a long and fierce confrontation, they finally won at the last moment.

On the other side, the Buri players had depressed faces. Some of them even couldn’t believe the result in front of them, their hearts filled with regret and unwillingness.

In the last minute of the game, they were still leading their opponents and victory seemed within reach.

However, the opponent's tenacious resistance and key points completely shattered their hopes.

They were just one step away from victory, but fell in the final sprint.

The atmosphere on the court was completely different, with laughter and frustration on one side and loss on the other.

In the audience, Mu Mu looked at Matsumoto Minoru who was thrown high into the air by the Sanwang players and said softly, "I never expected that!"

He originally thought that Kashima Kaede Frost, who used Miller's shot, would be able to complete a near-game winning shot like Miller, but the result was the opposite of what he expected.

Fortunately, at the last moment, Matsumoto Minoru came like a god.

He first grabbed the frontcourt rebound, completed 2+1, and then contributed a key steal.

Thanks to the outstanding performance of Matsumoto Minoru, Sanno Industries had the last laugh.

This also became a rare highlight moment for Minoru Matsumoto!

All along, Murasakibara had thought that the student whose performance was second only to his among the freshmen would be the 'Star of Aichi' Moroboshi Dai.

After the game, he found that Matsumoto Minoru's performance was even better than Moroboshi Dai, which surprised him very much.

As we all know, Matsumoto Minoru was ranked outside the top ten in SD, but now he is performing so well.

"It is very possible that Matsumoto Minoru has suffered setbacks in the future, which has hit his confidence, or that his potential has been exhausted."

Murasakibara thought of two reasons. For players, mental attributes are also very important.

After this game, the top four teams of the winter competition were finally decided, namely Sanno Industrial, Hakata, Shohoku and Aiwa Gakuin.

Not long after, the Xiangbei players left the gymnasium with the crowd and began to prepare for tomorrow's game.

……

The next afternoon, Kasumigaoka National Athletic Stadium!
Both semi-finals were held in the afternoon, with the order of matches being determined by draw.

First up, the second group's match was between Hakata and Aiwa Gakuin.

In the audience seats, Murasakibara looked at Rukawa and Sakuragi in front of him in surprise.

"That means Rukawa paid for your fare!"

Rukawa nodded silently and said, "Well, as a price, he has to be a caddy for three days!"

The thing is, after learning that Shohoku had advanced to the semi-finals, Rukawa decided to go to Tokyo, not wanting to miss the exciting game.

When they were almost at the station, Rukawa met Sakuragi by chance.

After learning that Rukawa was going to Tokyo to watch Shohoku's game, Sakuragi said without hesitation that he wanted to go too.

Although Rukawa seemed to dislike Sakuragi, he did not refuse.

However, when he entered the station, Sakuragi took out his pocket and found that he only had a pitiful 500 yen and could not afford the ticket.

As we all know, Sakuragi is shameless.

So, after a "corridor" exchange, Rukawa had to agree to lend money to Sakuragi.

In addition to the taxi fare, Rukawa also paid for Sakuragi's other expenses.

As a price, Sakuragi has to be Rukawa's caddy for three days.

And so, the two embarked on a journey to Tokyo together.

"Sakuragi, a man without faith cannot stand. Since you promised Rukawa Kaede, you must keep your word."

Murasakibara knew Sakuragi's character very well. If nothing unexpected happened, this guy would definitely default on his debt.

To put it bluntly, Sakuragi was a bad boy before he cut his hair, and only after he cut his hair did he start to look like a normal person.

Sakuragi looked at Murasaki in surprise. He didn't expect that the other party knew him so well.

However, out of respect and trust for Mu Mu, he put his hands in his pockets and muttered, "Don't worry, I will definitely do what I say!"

"I can rest assured that!"

Rukawa shrugged and prepared to watch the game.

Soon, the game finally began.

The audience watched with bated breath, looking forward to the exciting showdown that was to follow.

In the initial stage of the game, the two teams mainly focused on probing.

The situation on the field seemed relatively balanced, and the gap between the two sides was not obvious.

When the test was over, the affiliated schools of Hakata University of Commerce began to show their advantages.

They are like a sophisticated machine. Every player knows his or her responsibilities on the court and can always perform dazzling coordination at critical moments, accurately and quickly, making it difficult for opponents to predict.

On the other hand, Aiwa Academy relies more on the personal abilities of their star players.

Hirogen Takeshita is a flexible center with comprehensive skills, but unfortunately, he met Nobisuke Suzuki.

Among the four major centers, Hiroyuki Takeshita's confrontation ability can be said to be the weakest.

Although he tried hard to break through Suzuki Nobita's defense with his flexible footwork, the effect was not ideal.

Even though Nobisuke Suzuki could not completely lock down Hiroyuki Takeshita's scoring, under his targeting, Hiroyuki Takeshita could only shoot from the outside most of the time, and his scoring efficiency can be imagined.

On the other hand, Nobisuke Suzuki's performance on the offensive end almost left Hirogen Takeshita helpless.

In this way, the winner is immediately clear!

In this situation, Aiwa Academy can only rely on Dai Moroboshi to score steadily.

Under the leadership of Dai Moroboshi, the situation on the field remained stalemate and Aiwa Academy was not completely left behind by the opponent.

However, Zhu Xingdai is not made of iron after all.

As time went on, especially after entering the second half, Zhu Xingda began to encounter a physical crisis.

Bodo naturally seized this opportunity, further increased its defensive efforts, and gradually widened the score gap.

Although the Aihe players tried hard to catch up, they seemed powerless and could not narrow the gap.

However, blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone.

During a defensive move, Dai Moroboshi ignored the danger and confronted Nobisuke Suzuki head-on, but was knocked away by the opponent.

Although he successfully made Nobita Suzuki commit a foul, Dai Moroboshi still did not stand up.

"This guy is really brave. Does he like to confront the center so much?"

Looking at Dai Moroboshi being carried away on a stretcher, Murasakibara didn't know what to say.

I can only say that he is worthy of being called the stretcher god!
In the plot, Dai Moroboshi was injured because he confronted Mori Shigehiro who was about to slam dunk.

After Moroboshi's death, the morale of Aiwa Academy plummeted and collapsed.

Boda naturally did not miss this opportunity and eventually defeated Aiwa Academy and successfully advanced to the finals.

(End of this chapter)