After scoring, Ryota Kudo landed slowly, deep in thought. When Bateer serves as his team's offensive centerpiece and has to be heavily involved in the offense, leaving him unable to get into defensive position right away...
His tremendous defensive presence, especially his ability to contain a speed-based wing like me, is greatly reduced.
Perhaps Bateer was most frightening as a pure blue-collar player.
This discovery gave him a clearer understanding of how to handle this type of interior player.
The rest of the game practically became a showcase for Ryota Kudo and Eiji Sawakita.
They did not force their way into the basket guarded by Bateer.
Instead, they used their advantages in speed and shooting to fire away repeatedly from midrange and beyond, or drove and dished off pick-and-rolls to move the opposing defense around.
Eiji Sawakita's unstoppable isolation game worked its magic again. His pull-up jumpers and driving layups made life miserable for his defender.
Ryota Kudo continued to serve as the offensive organizer, threading passes through the defense, sometimes knocking down open shots himself and sometimes assisting his teammates.
Although Bateer still displayed powerful dominance inside, grabbing plenty of rebounds and overpowering Hiroshi Morishige for several baskets.
Basketball was a five-man sport, but under the three-on-three format, the terrifying offensive firepower of the two superstar perimeter players, Ryota Kudo and Eiji Sawakita, was enough to make up for their slight disadvantage inside.
In the end, Ryota Kudo's team defeated Bateer's team relatively comfortably, 15-9.
After the game, Hiroshi Morishige and Bateer exchanged a look, both their eyes filled with dissatisfaction and an even stronger fighting spirit.
In this matchup, Hiroshi Morishige had suffered from a disadvantage in strength, but displayed astonishing leaping ability and defensive potential;
Bateer had held the advantage in strength, but also exposed his weaknesses