Brad won this round. He jumped behind Akagi, stretched out his long arm to grab the ball first. Although he didn't jump very high, he landed quickly. Coupled with his habit of shooting high, his second attack was swift and decisive, and he scored steadily, helping the Chariot recover two points.
Takenori Akagi picked up the bounced basketball, shook his head in frustration, and clutched it tightly. Hanamichi Sakuragi, on the other hand, leaned over and calmly said, "I haven't seen Gorilla hotpot in ages!"
Hanamichi Sakuragi patted Akagi's arm and shouted, " Gorilla, let's teach them a lesson!"
Takenori Akagi never imagined that he would one day be comforted by Hanamichi Sakuragi. It wasn't that he thought Sakuragi wasn't qualified; he had already acknowledged Sakuragi's strength during the national tournament, and when Shohoku won the national championship...
Although Takenori Akagi always maintained the airs of the top player of Shohoku, it has to be admitted that Hanamichi Sakuragi has surpassed him in many aspects. If the two of them were to have a serious one-on-one match, it's really hard to say who would win.
Therefore, in Akagi's mind, Sakuragi's strength was beyond question. However, the "turn of the day" refers to Sakuragi's unpredictable nature. Everyone in Shohoku knew that Sakuragi's emotions came faster than a barrage of three-pointers. Forget about comforting people; getting him to calm down for even half a minute was considered a blessing.
But what about now? Sakuragi is facing off against Hoffmann and is clearly at a disadvantage, but instead of getting angry, he's comforting Akagi? No, encouraging him? Takenori Akagi's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. His surprise is no less than when Sakuragi stubbornly held off Kawata's 570 back then.
Takenori Akagi opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word—he had never expected these words to come out of Sakuragi's mouth.
Sakuragi tossed out a "Let's attack!" and dashed towards the frontcourt like a greased rag doll. Akagi stared at his retreating figure and suddenly felt that the figure looked particularly reliable, even a bit like a captain.
Akagi couldn't help but smirk, cursing "bastard" in his mind, but he couldn't hide his smile—sometimes you don't have to shout to ignite passion; a smile is enough.
Akagi let out a long breath, his eyes instantly igniting with fighting spirit. The offense and defense continued, and the intensity of the confrontation increased accordingly.
Shirasawa dribbled the ball past half-court, and the Chariot's defense immediately changed. They stopped using their usual zone defense and switched to half-court man-to-man marking. But Wagner wasn't the only one marking Shirasawa; others were also keeping an eye on him from the sidelines.
As soon as Shirasawa breaks through Wagner's defense, someone immediately fills the gap. To put it bluntly, it's a zone defense specifically designed to counter Shirasawa. The Chariot is already tall and has a long reach, so it doesn't need to crouch down to defend. It can switch defenses at any time and intercept and double-team faster than anyone else.
Shirasawa's current treatment is nothing short of world-class. Even if the Chariot does manage to turn the tide and win, Shirasawa's fame will soar even higher, and he will definitely be someone the whole world is watching in the future.
Shirasawa had broken through Shoyo's triangle zone defense, Kainan's Box-and-One Defense, and even Sannoh's full-court press. But in his eyes, none of them were as difficult to penetrate as the current defense of the Chariot. It wouldn't be easy to break through.
In previous games, Shirasawa scored a lot of points, mostly through breakthroughs, and also delivered many good passes to Hisashi Mitsui. Neither Hoffmann nor Brad could stop him.
Although Brad didn't get dunked on like Hoffmann, Shirasawa still gave him plenty of 2+1 plays. The last time their interior defense was this bad was in the previous game against the Cheetah, when Alex tore a hole in their interior.
The injuries are recurring far too quickly. He just took a sword strike, and now he's being slashed by a large blade. That's why the Chariot adjusted its defense in the penalty area. They absolutely cannot let Shirasawa keep charging like this. If it gets too bad, they'll have to pull him down!
Shirasawa figured out their tactics after just one attack. This time, he neither shot nor passed, but dribbled the ball out. Chariot saw that the defense had worked and was extremely relieved.
If we can contain Shohoku's killer weapon, the others will be easier to deal with. There's still time; a comeback is possible! Wagner breathed a rare sigh of relief. He had been thoroughly exhausted by Shirasawa in this match, and the pressure from public opinion if they had lost was daunting.
Only victory can dispel all sorrows. Most of the time, victory can cover up all shortcomings, and even if you are completely crushed by the opponent, time and victory can dilute everything. But losing is different; everything can be magnified a thousand times.
Take Wagner's performance in this match, for example; calling him a war criminal wouldn't be an exaggeration. Now that he sees Shirasawa's offensive being blocked, he can finally breathe a sigh of relief. If he can contain Shirasawa, there's still hope in the match!
Just as Wagner was secretly rejoicing, Shirasawa, who was standing on the three-point line, suddenly took a step back while holding the ball, instantly widening the distance between himself and Wagner, and then pulled up for a shot!
The movement was quite stylish, but the timing and manner of the shot were definitely not a wise choice. Wagner jumped up and reached out to grab it, but the ball still grazed his fingertips and flew towards the basket.
Wagner yelled, "Get ready to grab the rebound!" Shirasawa is strong, but judging from his playing style, three-pointers don't seem to be his regular weapon; he usually shoots long-range step-back shots, which would be difficult even for Shohoku's number 14. So Wagner thought that Shirasawa was out of options and just threw the ball randomly!
Then the basketball shot into the basket like a cannonball! A three-pointer! Wagner's mouth hung open for a long time.
Shirasawa had no intention of stopping; he changed his approach and continued to beat them. He could dunk over defenders on offense and launch long-range three-pointers on defense. Not only Wagner, but the entire Chariot team was on edge—did this guy have no weaknesses?
That meticulously planned and targeted defense was just dismantled by Shirasawa like that?
Whether a player is truly strong or not isn't determined by their own boasting, nor by what their teammates or the media say; the only ones with the real authority to judge are their opponents. However, there are two types of opponents: one type says you're strong out of politeness after winning against you, and also to make themselves seem more impressive; the other type says you're strong because they're afraid of appearing too weak after losing, and have to give you face.
But Shirasawa's opponents were different. For example, Wagner from the Chariot Team, and all the members of the Chariot Team, looked at Shirasawa with genuine fear. No need to say anything else, their eyes alone clearly revealed Shirasawa's strength.
It's not that Shirasawa could single-handedly defeat them—that's simply impossible. But against them, Shirasawa could attack almost however he wanted; their supposedly formidable defense was as flimsy as paper.
Just like that line from the Kanagawa Chronicles, "The scariest thing about Shirasawa isn't that he has a hundred ways to beat you, but that even if you prepare a hundred strategies to defend against him, he can still pull out the hundred and first one to crush you."
To put it bluntly, no matter how hard you rack your brains, Shirasawa can always find a way to break the deadlock. This is also why some teams simply gave up on specifically defending against Shirasawa during last season's national tournament. Since they couldn't defend against him anyway, they might as well focus their energy on other players. Even if he killed them, they would accept it, as long as he couldn't kill them, they would be the ones who died. Unfortunately, so far, no one has been able to defeat Shirasawa without dying.
The rest of Shohoku didn't falter either. In this game, Hisashi Mitsui went into overdrive, overwhelming the Chariot Team; Hanamichi Sakuragi also made Hoffmann suffer. Now the game has been going on for almost forty minutes, with only five minutes left before the end of the match. The Chariot Team has to admit that the Shohoku led by Shirasawa is on the same level as them, or even stronger.
If they lose in the end, they have nothing to complain about. They didn't make any major strategic mistakes, no one threw the game, and they were actually trying their best to catch up. But they just couldn't get close to winning.
At this moment, Shirasawa once again led his team to withstand the Chariot's counterattack. He made a brilliant pass, Takenori Akagi caught the ball under the basket and slammed it into the hoop, instantly making the score 89-77, with Shohoku leading by twelve points. In the current situation, for the Chariot to take the lead in the last five minutes, Shohoku would have to suddenly lose their composure, or their team would suddenly have a superhuman player.
However, the possibility of Shohoku losing power is practically impossible. Ever since Shirasawa started firing from the outside, the Chariot's defense has been completely thrown into disarray, unable to cover both the inside and outside. Shirasawa seized the opportunity, using his ability to draw defenders to constantly feed the ball to his teammates, and this time the beneficiaries were Sakuragi and Akagi, the two inside players.
The two brothers seized the opportunity and even executed a clever teamwork, scoring consecutive points. The Chariot dared not defend against them too closely; after all, if given the choice between defending Shirasawa and these two, they would definitely go for Shirasawa. They thought these two were "the less toxic poison," but in reality, they were the most deadly—one striking the vital point directly, the other slowly slicing them to pieces.
Since they were going to die anyway, they figured they might as well end it all quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't know enough about Shohoku. Faced with death, they still wanted to live a little longer—what if? What if a miracle happened?
Looking at the Chariot's offense, the old saying goes that the best defense is a good offense, but they didn't do a good job on defense, so their offense was naturally affected. Every point they conceded increased the pressure on their offense. They were originally playing a positional game, but now, in order to quickly tie the score, coupled with their anxious mindset, their offensive rhythm was completely disrupted.
Gone was the patience and determination to drive to the basket he had before. He was now focused on ending the possession quickly to buy more time for the defense and catch up. With his mindset in disarray, it was no wonder his offensive efficiency plummeted. Hoffmann was guarded by Sakuragi for three consecutive possessions, and his playing style completely reversed.
Sakuragi, on the contrary, became the most steady and experienced one. Hoffmann got anxious and subconsciously tried to avoid Sakuragi's "black face". He used various movements to connect his fadeaway jump shot for three consecutive rounds. The process was indeed smoother than before. Sakuragi couldn't figure out his movements. He had avoided his mental block.
But what was the result? Mentality, physical fitness, and defense were all dragging him down. He only made one of his three shots, achieving the feat of "three shots down, two shots off". Both rebounds were won by Shohoku, and Brad even committed a foul.
Statistically, Brad won his matchup against Takenori Akagi, but in this crucial moment, Takenori Akagi was the more reliable player. The once domineering Black Gorilla has now become more diplomatic in his playing style.
Compared to before, Takenori Akagi has truly reached a new level. Don't underestimate this level; Shota Sugiyama and head coach Kazuo Karasawa of Fukazawa Sports University are currently squatting in the stands, their eyes practically glued to him.
Shota Sugiyama slapped his thigh, nodded to Karasawa beside him, and said in a low but firm voice, " Takenori Akagi must come to Fukazawa!"
Actually, it's no secret that Takenori Akagi was being targeted by Fukazawa. Don't think Fukazawa just picked anyone randomly; they even turned down several promising interior players to poach him.
Both Sugiyama and Karasawa considered Akagi "not for sale," and they were both certain that the child would obediently return to Fukazawa's arms.
Speaking of which, Akagi's spot has already been reserved in Fukazawa's recruitment list for the new season, which is equivalent to locking him into a special spot in advance.
The two men's confidence stemmed from two main points. First, Fukazawa's reputation was strong, and Shota Sugiyama was the dream idol of most interior players, so Takenori Akagi was, to put it bluntly, his die-hard fan.
Secondly, based on the first point alone, the vast majority of universities simply cannot compare to Fukazawa. Unless Akagi has lost his mind, he would definitely choose Fukazawa —in the world of college basketball, there are very few teams stronger than Fukazawa, and only a handful of them are top-tier. Fukazawa is also the only team that relentlessly focuses on the center position.
This creates a vicious cycle: those inferior to Fukazawa are beneath Akagi's notice; those superior to Fukazawa are looked down upon. Shota Sugiyama was well aware of this, remaining calm and believing that Akagi had already stepped into Fukazawa's doorstep, and that Akagi had to offer himself up.
After all, when Sugiyama talked to Akagi, he was very high-handed. We have better inside players than you, but we think you are the best fit for Fukazawa. To put it bluntly, Fukazawa is not begging you to come. We just think you are good after routine screening. If you come, play well and team up with us.
But who could have imagined? As the number of matches increased, more and more people discovered Takenori Akagi's potential. Those strong teams that Sugiyama and his team had previously eliminated were now all eyeing Akagi.