It had been three weeks since Slam Dunk entered the game against Sannoh.
After all the buildup, Sannoh Team's players and fans had more or less gotten a feel for them!
This week's episode was basically all about the first half of Shohoku's game against Sannoh.
In the original Slam Dunk story, Sannoh had actually performed fairly ordinarily in the first half!
The main reason was that Sannoh's ace, Sawakita, was a slow starter, much like Sendoh!
If he didn't face a formidable opponent, he tended to play basketball with a rather casual attitude!
So although the story showed Sannoh's center, Kawada, overpowering Akagi, and his younger brother, Xiao Kawada, using his height and weight advantage to crowd Sakuragi Hanamichi and keep him from getting to rebounds,
you could say this week's story was basically all about the battle for rebounds in the paint between Sakuragi and Xiao Kawada. It went from a contest of strength, to Sakuragi scoring a jump shot that showcased the results of his special training, to Akagi repeatedly getting the better of him taken by Kawada. He couldn't get anything going and was completely suppressed by the opposing center.
But the rest of Shohoku Team had helped out a lot, so Shohoku was actually still leading by a small margin.
Honestly, fans thought this part of the story was pretty good, but after watching it, they were left with a strange feeling.
So the strongest team in the All-Island Tournament, Sannoh, whom they'd been hyping for weeks, was just this?
Sure, the Kawada brothers' physical abilities were absurd. Even Sakuragi, a freakishly strong guy, had to give it everything he had just to keep up with Xiao Kawada, while Akagi was completely dominated by Kawada!
But with the help of Sakuragi's special training, Mitsui Hisashi's