Chapter 80: Hope Westbrook is OK

Day two, San Antonio, Texas.

The morning sun shines into the room through the glass windows, falling right on Stevens' face.

Butler University took a flight to San Antonio yesterday after resting for the night after their victory over UNC.

Two days later, at 4 pm on April 5, they will compete with UCLA in the first semi-finals to determine the first place in the finals.

At 9 p.m., the University of Memphis and the University of Kansas will compete for another final spot.

Stevens slowly opened his eyes, turned his head to avoid the slightly glaring sunlight, sat up and stretched.

"Brad, are you awake? I brought you breakfast, here, your favorite hot dog." Zhang Yu heard the sound of him getting up, turned around and said something, pointing to the food on the table .

Stevens got out of bed, got dressed, washed up, picked up the hot dog, and came behind Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu is studying UCLA game video.

On the laptop screen, in the game against Xavier University, Westbrook squeezed through the double-team of two people, rushed to the inside, and dunked.

Stevens exclaimed:

"Beautiful! Westbrook's talent is too dazzling. It's hard to imagine a point guard with such amazing athletic ability, and his passing is also very good."

"Yes, he should participate in the draft this year, and he will definitely be selected at the top of the list." Zhang Yu nodded in agreement.

In the next round, Xavier University attacked, and Westbrook defended the point guard on the opposite side, forcing him to retreat step by step, and almost succeeded in stealing.

The fly in the ointment is that after the opposing point guard passes the ball, he cuts from behind Westbrook, and Westbrook is looking at the ball holder, not noticing his running, allowing him to cut inside and receive a pass from his teammate Easy layup.

click.

Zhang Yu pressed the space bar and looked sideways at Stevens:

"Brad, what do you think of Westbrook?"

Stevens swallowed the sausage in his mouth, thought for a moment, and said:

"With great athletic ability, he's very aggressive defensively, and he's excellent in isolation...but he's too focused on the ball holder and doesn't pay much attention when defending off the ball."

"is it?"

Zhang Yu smiled slightly, turned the progress bar back a little, stopped at the moment when Westbrook made the steal, and said:

"Look at his defensive moves."

Stevens took a closer look and suddenly realized:

"You mean, his actions are too risky?"

In the picture, Westbrook's body is leaning forward very much, and one hand has been extended to the opponent's side. If his opponent's dribbling skills are better, he can easily throw it away with a dribble behind him.

Zhang Yu dragged the mouse again, found several defensive images of Westbrook, and said slowly:

"He likes to gamble steals very much, and with his physical fitness and athletic ability, even if he loses his position, he can quickly make up for it, so it seems that his single defense is very good."

"You mean...you can let Stephen take advantage of this to better break through his defense?" Stevens' eyes lit up.

Zhang Yu smiled slightly:

"Use? No, I want to teach him a good lesson, let him experience the beatings of society in advance before entering the NBA!"

Stevens looked at Zhang Yu's "mild" smile, and inexplicably felt pity for Westbrook in his heart.

Hope Westbrook is okay.

...

In the morning, at a local arena in San Antonio, all members of the Bulldogs gathered here for simple recovery training to prepare for the semifinals two days later.

Zhang Yu stood in front of the team members and said:

"Two days from now, we're going to change the starting lineup...Ben, you replace AJ."

"Ah? Coach, are you talking about me?" Ben Slaton said with a surprised expression.

Since Curry entered Butler University, he has not started a game. He never thought that Zhang Yu would let him start at such an important moment in the semifinal

"What? You don't want to start?" Zhang Yu laughed.

"Think, why don't you want to!"

Ben Slaton nodded abruptly, then hesitated again:

"Coach, can I really start..."

Due to the life-and-death game system of March Madness, each team will only give the substitutes very little time.

If it weren't for the players, it would be difficult to play the whole game under such high-intensity confrontation. The head coaches of each team would like to let the five starters play the full 40 minutes.

Ben Slaton only played a little over 20 minutes in the first four games. He was worried that not only would he not be able to help the team, but he would drag his teammates down.

Zhang Yu said:

"Ben, the team needs you..."

"I'm fine, Coach!" Before he finished speaking, Ben Slaton's heart warmed up, and he nodded heavily.

Who doesn't have a dream of standing under the flashing lights and enjoying the attention?

Ben Slaton has already imagined the scene where he was ordered in danger, shined brilliantly, and was enthusiastically cheered by the fans.

"...pass the ball according to the usual training." Zhang Yu said the second half of the sentence.

"...Oh, I see." Ben Slaton said weakly, disillusioned in his heart.

Let me pass the ball, that's all right.

Zhang Yu looked at Butler again:

"Jimmy, it's up to you to defend Westbrook. I don't ask you to guard him, but make it as difficult as possible for him to score. You can let him shoot, and the main defense breaks through. It's best to use trash talk." To provoke him, understand?"

"This... I'll try my best." Butler hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

No matter who Zhang Yu asked him to guard against, he was fearless.

But let him talk trash...

Butler, who grew up on the streets, said the job was difficult.

He talked trash on the field, either to greet the other party's female relatives, or to talk about reproductive organs... and these must not be used on the field.

"Stephen, you also try to annoy Westbrook with trash talk, can you do it?" Zhang Yu said to Curry instead of caring about Butler's ugly face.

Curry scratched his head:

"My mother is very strict, I don't talk trash..."

"Hahaha!"

Everyone laughed, Zhang Yu said helplessly:

"Then you score a goal and celebrate wildly in front of him, in every way you can think of!"

"I'm good at this, boss, don't worry!" Curry said confidently.

Zhang Yu smiled mysteriously:

"Very good. In addition, you have a separate training content these two days. You must practice well before the competition..."

...

Two days passed in a flash.

San Antonio, AT&T Center.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the atmosphere in the arena that had just been renamed in January 2006 was hot, and the tickets had already been sold out. More than [-] fans came to this small town from all over the United States to watch the game.

The explosive Westbrook and the agile and elegant Curry have a large number of loyal fans all over the United States. In order to watch this battle, they did not hesitate to spend high prices to buy tickets from other people, which caused the ticket prices to skyrocket, reaching nearly Thousands of dollars, almost comparable to the price of tickets to the finals.

"Welcome to the audience to watch the first game of the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Butler University played against UCLA. This is the first time that Butler University has reached the semifinals in history. UCLA is the team that has won the most championships in NCAA history. This is a duel between a super dark horse and a top giant!"

"And Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook are the key players of the two teams. Although they have the same position, they have very different styles. I don't know what kind of sparks they will collide with. CBS is honored to invite the legendary star and the current Pacers. General manager Larry Bird as a guest... Larry, what do you think of the matchup between the two teams?" Jim Nantz's passionate voice sounded, and CBS still chose him as the commentator of the game.

Larry Bird laughed and said:

"You should know my answer, as a Hoosier, of course I support Butler University ... Of course, as a commentator, I can only say, I don't know. Butler has Curry and Butler, oh, this It's a mouthful to say, let him go ... and UCLA has Westbrook and Kevin Love, and I think they're evenly matched."

"So this game will be very intense?" Jim Nantz said.

Larry Bird shook his head:

"No, I feel that Coach Z will arrange some targeted tactics, which will tilt the balance of victory to the Bulldogs, and if Curry maintains the touch of the last game, then we can only pray for the Bruins, I don't think anyone can beat Curry in that state, and neither can I."

It's a pity that Zhang Yu couldn't hear Larry Bird's words at the game site, otherwise he would definitely feel that he had met a confidant.

He looked at the other side of the technical table, Westbrook, who was so high-spirited that he seemed to burst out of his eyes, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Turtle, don't blame me, I have no choice but to win...

On the UCLA bench, Ben Holland looked at the 10 players on the field, and his brows wrinkled unconsciously.

What is Coach Z up to?

What he puts out is the regular starting lineup of the Bruins-Westbrook in the backcourt, Darren Collison, small forward Luke Mbah a Moute, power forward Kevin Love, and center Real. The Bruins' strongest five.

But the Bulldogs changed their starting lineup. The backup point guard Ben Slaton replaced the starting shooting guard Graves. The other lineups of point guard Curry, small forward Butler, power forward Campbell, and center Drew have not changed. .

But Ben Holland has carefully studied the tactics of the Bulldogs in the past few days, and knows that once Zhang Yu comes to Ben Slayton and forms a lineup of two point guards, there is a high probability that Curry will be able to play without the ball.

He beckoned to Westbrook, and after he came over, Ben Holland urged:

"Curry may run without the ball, you have to follow him, don't worry about other people, remember?"

Westbrook nodded, Ben Holland was still a little worried, he hesitated to speak, and finally waved his hand:

"Tell the others, switch if Curry runs the screen, keep someone in front of him at all times, don't leave him open, go for it!"

Watching Westbrook run away, a worried look appeared on Ben Howland's face.

As the coach who has coached Westbrook for two years, why doesn't he know the shortcomings of his disciples' lack of concentration in defense against the ball.

But Westbrook is the best defensive perimeter player in UCLA and the best defense against Curry. Ben Holland can only pray that he can focus once in the big game.

"Di-"

Soon, the referee blew his whistle and the game began!

"Drew loses to Real on jump ball, basketball goes to Westbrook, UCLA goes on offense! Westbrook dribbles upfield, he passes to Love in the paint ——Stable pass! Love singles Campbell, a beautiful shoulder shakes, and then turns around——Love breaks through to the inside, and the small hook ball is scored!" Jim Nantz opened and closed his mouth quickly, and his voice was cadenced.

0: 2.

When Love played low post singles, Butler and Westbrook stood at the top of the arc and watched the show.

Butler recalled the trash talk that Zhang Yu taught him last night, and suddenly said to Westbrook:

"Do you dare to shoot a three-pointer?"

Westbrook gave him a puzzled look and ignored him.

"Where is the fool." Westbrook thought to himself.

"Do you dare to shoot a three-pointer?" Butler said persistently.

At this time, Love happened to score, Westbrook didn't even look at him, and retreated directly.

Butler blinked suspiciously, this trash talk doesn't seem to work, does it?

No, I'll try again later, the boss said, it's only useful if you keep talking.

The turn turns and the Bulldogs attack.

As Holland expected, Curry did run without the ball.

When Westbrook was chasing the defense, the Bulldogs players set up numerous obstacles. Curry successfully got an open opportunity and easily hit a pass from Ben Slaton.

3: 2.

When Curry retreated, he shook his shoulders very proudly next to Westbrook, causing him to look Curry up and down for a while.

Are you really a primary school student, just scored a goal, so happy?

Westbrook wondered, he felt that there seemed to be few normal people on the Bulldogs.

Looking back, Love singled Campbell inside again, but Zhang Yu waved his hand, Butler went up to help defend, completely ignoring Westbrook, Love could only return the ball.

When Butler saw Westbrook receiving the ball, he was not in a hurry to return to his position. Instead, he stayed inside and beckoned to him:

"Do you dare to shoot a three-pointer?"

Westbrook felt a surge of anger, and immediately... rushed inside.

He really didn't dare to shoot a three-pointer.

This season, he's shooting just 30.6 percent from three.

Before the game, Holland also urged him in every possible way to try to reduce his shots and attack the inside more.

But Butler was waiting for him at the free throw line, with plenty of reaction time, completely blocking his drive.

Westbrook could only carry him into the penalty area, barely made a shot under Butler's interference, and the basketball bounced out of the frame.

Fortunately, Love grabbed the offensive rebound and made a second offensive hit.

ps: Playing UCLA is mainly about Westbrook. After all, he will be one of Curry's main opponents in the west in the future, so the foreshadowing will be longer, but the game will not be too long.

　　Finally, I still ask for recommendations~