Team Basketball Tutorial

To prepare for their game against the Fukuyama Flying Waves, the Jaguars arrived in Fukuyama early and went to watch the Flying Waves face the Great White Sharks.

The game had just begun when, during an offense orchestrated by Fujima, Kogure sank a three-pointer. A perfect team play gave them a great start!

The Tokyo Great White Sharks went on offense.

Nakazawa passed the ball inside to Mikami Shotaro. Mikami was slender, but his long wingspan was his advantage. After several backdowns and spin moves, he finished with an underhand layup that narrowly avoided Kubofuji's block and kissed the glass on its way in. The Great White Sharks scored on their possession as well!

"Mikami is quite a promising player. His wingspan and feel for the ball are both remarkable. He has only played two seasons so far. If he can put on some more weight, he could become a very solid skilled center!" Coach Moriyama seemed to think highly of Mikami.

Fujima took the ball and organized another offense, this time passing it to the team's forward at the top of the free-throw arc, Fujiwara Takuhe.

The Flying Waves forward, Fujiwara Takuhe, looked somewhat dazed, with yellow center-parted hair and heavily drooping eyelids that made him seem as though he had just woken up. After catching the ball, he held it high overhead. Honda Shiga, the Great White Sharks forward defending him, was much shorter, so he had no way to deal with the ball held so high. Yet Fujiwara remained there, doing nothing but waving his arms to shake off Honda Shiga's interference.

"What is that guy doing?! Look at those drooping eyelids—did he not wake up yet? Move the ball already!" Even Sakuragi was getting anxious for Fujiwara from the sidelines.

Just as Sakuragi complained about Fujiwara, Fujiwara threw the ball out. Yes, he literally threw it with a one-handed tossing motion. It was not a shot, since neither foot left the ground, nor was it a pass. The ball was headed toward the stands.

"Does that guy even know how to play basketball? Where was he passing that?!" Sakuragi asked in confusion.

"That really is a pass!" Miyagi's gaze sharpened as he made his prediction.

The moment Miyagi finished speaking, the ball spinning upward suddenly dropped, as if it had hit an invisible wall in midair and ricocheted downward!

"Ah!!!!" The Jaguars players cried out in surprise.

As the basketball descended near the rim, the Flying Waves' foreign power forward Swift soared high, controlled the ball in midair, and hammered it down with both hands!

Fujiwara and Swift had completed a spectacular alley-oop!

Just as the fans erupted in cheers, Fujiwara read the Great White Sharks' passing lane and picked off the ball. He charged straight toward the basket after gaining possession. Seeing that Fujiwara could no longer be stopped, Honda Shiga gave up on defense, and Fujiwara threw down another thunderous dunk! Those two plays ignited the crowd, who rose to their feet, applauding and cheering!

When the Great White Sharks came back on offense, Nakazawa chose to fire a three-pointer immediately. It was a rushed shot, and the ball was unlikely to go in. Fujiwara again! This time, he snatched the rebound, but instead of giving the ball to Fujima, he brought it up himself. He was not advancing very quickly, but once he reached the three-point line, Fujiwara suddenly accelerated again!

"What?! Where did the ball go?!" Honda Shiga could not believe his eyes. The ball that had just been in Fujiwara's hands had vanished!

"Behind you!!" The Great White Sharks coach's warning came too late.

The instant Fujiwara made his second burst of speed, he passed the ball backward. He had merely feinted the attack; the real scoring threat was behind him!

"Beautiful pass!" Kogure appeared at his favorite spot, the three-point line at the forty-five-degree angle, and immediately let the ball fly!

"Swish!!" This time, it was a clean make!

1:! Seeing his team begin to panic after allowing consecutive scores, the Great White Sharks coach called a timeout.

"Damn it, so those drooping eyelids were just to fool his opponents!! He is wide awake!" No one else knew, but Sakuragi had definitely been fooled by Fujiwara's sleepy-looking face.

"Fujiwara Takuhe, forward, height meters. He has a very high basketball IQ and should be an excellent fit for the Flying Waves' system. Not only is he physically gifted, but he also has strong playmaking ability and excellent rebounding instincts. I have watched several Flying Waves games before. Whenever Fujima is off the court, Fujiwara takes over the point guard's responsibilities. A forward this well-rounded is going to be a real headache for our team!" Omoki explained Fujiwara's technical characteristics to the players. From his words, it was clear that Fujiwara was a formidable opponent.

"Kogure mentioned him to me before. Do not be fooled by that sleepy face—he is extremely focused on the game!" Akagi recalled Kogure's words.

After the timeout, the Great White Sharks went on offense.

Nakazawa ran a pick-and-roll with Mikami and passed him the ball. After receiving it, Mikami began dribbling again like a center, but Kubofuji's defense did not change at all. Mikami could only hand the ball to Honda Shiga, who drove toward the basket with a crossover and went up for a layup against Swift.

"See you!" Swift barely seemed to jump before directly swatting away Honda Shiga's floater.

"Great pass!" Rather than a block, it was more like a steal and a pass combined. Like spiking a volleyball, Swift slapped the ball straight ahead in midair, and the descending ball fell directly into Fujima's hands.

Fujima raced forward with the ball. Nakazawa was not slow either and was still barely keeping up with Fujima, making it difficult for Fujima to finish easily.

But Fujima acted as though he were going up for an uncontested layup, slowing down as he calmly prepared for a three-step layup.

"Is he passing?!" Nakazawa caught sight of Fujiwara trailing behind from the corner of his eye. He gave up on cutting off Fujima's layup path and instead sealed off the passing lane between the two!

"You are overthinking it..." Seeing Nakazawa suddenly leave an opening, Fujima pulled back the ball that he had been about to pass, as though it had all been a fake, and finished the layup!

"Fujima's passing fake was incredibly realistic. Only that could completely fool the defender. If Fujima had forced his way up, Nakazawa might have stopped him. If he had really passed, the ball could easily have been stolen. Fujima chose the best option. It seems that not only is their teamwork outstanding, their individual ability is exceptional as well!" Coach Omoki analyzed.

The Great White Sharks attacked again.

Nakazawa used his individual ability to force his way inside and drew a foul on center Kubofuji. Nakazawa made both free throws, and the team finally scored again.

Fujima brought the ball up and once again gave it to Fujiwara to facilitate the offense. This time, Fujiwara did not survey the floor for long before passing inside to Swift. Swift went one-on-one against the Great White Sharks' foreign power forward, Larry Foni. Swift merely assumed a backdown stance without making any move, also watching and waiting.

"Here!"

Kogure suddenly broke free from a teammate's screen and cut down the middle. Swift fired an extremely well-concealed underhand pass directly into Kogure's hands.

Although Foni reacted half a beat too late, he still turned and attempted to block Kogure's layup. Kogure did not back down either, leaping up to finish against Foni's defense. Just as their bodies collided in midair, Kogure passed the ball out from his chest.

"Watch me!"

Kubofuji, who had been waiting nearby for a long time, caught the ball and slammed it home with both hands to finish the possession!

"This is practically a team basketball tutorial!" Omoki exclaimed at the sight of that offense.

"During that possession, all five Flying Waves players touched the ball, and the ball movement was incredibly smooth. Their offensive spacing was stretched wide as well! Every one of them had a chance to shoot, yet they remained so patient and ultimately passed to Kubofuji, who was completely wide open. In contrast, when the Great White Sharks attack, the Flying Waves' rapid rotations in the half court, along with their strong help defense and recovery awareness, make it extremely difficult for the Great White Sharks to get anything going. They can only rely on individual ability to force shots. That is probably the gap between these two teams." Sakuragi had been gesturing and commenting earlier, but now he obediently listened to Omoki's explanation.

The rest of the first half continued at that pace. The Great White Sharks had no ability to fight back at all, while the Flying Waves' offense became smoother and smoother. By halftime, the Flying Waves held a commanding 68:45 lead.

"I did not expect the Flying Waves to be this strong. Just watching from the sidelines gives me a huge sense of frustration. Their balance between offense and defense makes it hard to find any weaknesses!" Mitsui said, breaking into a cold sweat.

"Come on, Mitsui, do not panic. These Great White Sharks are too weak. When we faced them before, did we not win easily even without Honda Shiga playing?" Sakuragi clearly was not afraid of the Flying Waves.

"Coach, are we watching the second half? It does not seem like there is much suspense left," Miyagi asked.

"Whatever you want. If the Flying Waves keep playing like this, most of the second half will probably turn into garbage time!"

"Then I will leave first..." Upon hearing that, Rukawa Kaede got up and left without hesitation.

"That guy always has to do his own thing..." Sakuragi simply could not stand Rukawa Kaede's independent ways!

"There is still another half to play. I wonder what else the Flying Waves can show us..." Although there was little suspense left in the game, Coach Omoki was still looking forward to it.