He had to break the connection between the two of them; otherwise, this game would only become a one-sided rout by Ryonan.
Over at Aiwa Academy.
The players walked off the court with their heads hanging. Tanabe Kenichi offered no unnecessary comfort and spoke bluntly. "The situation is very unfavorable for us right now. I don't need to spell it out—you all know that they've completely shut down our outside game. So I've decided to abandon the perimeter entirely and shift our offensive focus to the paint."
The moment he finished speaking, Lei Tianzhenglun abruptly raised his head, his eyes full of disbelief.
"Abandon the perimeter?"
"Then our previous tactics—"
"Our previous tactics are useless now." Tanabe Kenichi cut him off, drawing the interior area on the tactics board with his finger.
"Although their center can lock down Koizumi, their number 8 is Ryonan's weakness. Long Zeduo, your next task is to stick to number 8. Koizumi, you'll keep their center occupied under the basket. As long as you can create pressure in the paint, you can disrupt Ryonan's defensive rhythm."
As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward Zhu Xingda and Lei Tianzhenglun, his tone stern. "Zhu Xingda, Lei Tianzhenglun, switch positions."
After saying that, he looked at Nakajima Tsugito, who had remained silent. "Nakajima, go assist Lei Tianzhenglun. Focus on limiting their number 9. You don't need to completely shut him down. Just cut off his connection with number 7."
Finally, Tanabe Kenichi's gaze returned to Zhu Xingda. "Zhu Xingda, you'll handle their number 7 for now. What we need to do isn't take the lead—we need to stop the gap from widening any further. Do you understand?"
Zhu Xingda took a deep breath and nodded solemnly. "I understand, Coach."
Tanabe Kenichi nodded, then said, "Good. The timeout