Chapter 479: Semi-Finals (Part 3)

Klay Thompson was in a hurry and immediately called a timeout.

"When defending against Wade Dong, don't rush to fill the gap, otherwise you'll give him the chance to score!"

"Remember, you're facing the strongest player on the planet. You can't beat him with just one or two people. If we want to beat the China men's basketball team, we have to play as a team."

Batum and the others nodded simultaneously, "Understood, coach."

"Go out there and extend our lead, boys!"

"Come on! Come on! Come on!"

...

The timeout was over.

The F country men's basketball team's mindset had also been adjusted.

Batum missed his shot, and Gu Qi grabbed the defensive rebound. When Wade Dong had the ball again, the F country men's basketball team's defensive strategy was clear.

But after Wade Dong got past Batum, Fournier came to help defend... Wade Dong turned around and got past Fournier again, then flipped the ball and took a fadeaway jumper!

Pietrus rushed over...

This time, the defence perfectly disrupted Wade Dong's shooting angle. If Wade Dong wanted to avoid being blocked by Pietrus, he would have to increase the arc of his shot, but that would affect his accuracy.

Perfect!

"Dong..."

Gu Qi called out to remind Wade Dong to pass the ball to him, but the basketball had already bounced off Pietrus' foot and into Gu Qi's hands.

"Dunk!"

Gu Qi jumped from his spot and dunked the ball with both hands, scoring!

47:53!!!

"He's a god, even this kind of pass can come out!"

Deng Hua smacked his lips, he had been nervous for two and a half quarters, and now he could finally open his thermos and take a sip of hot water.

This was the difference between Deng Hua and Gentry. If it was Gentry, he wouldn't have felt nervous in this situation, and by now he would have probably had Varrick bring him two cups of hot water.

The F country men's basketball team wasn't weak either. Fournier hit a mid-range shot, further extending the lead to 8 points.

"It's time for Dong Ge's performance..."

Curry noticed a change in Wade Dong's eyes, and felt inexplicably excited, "I feel like I'm about to see Dong Ge's scoring performance."

Sure enough...

The F country men's basketball team's zone defence was excellent, so Wade Dong simply didn't enter the paint.

In the next six minutes, Wade Dong made 7 out of 9 three-pointers, scoring 21 points in a row. Not only did he take the lead, but at this point, the F country men's basketball team was already trailing by 6 points.

"I can't accept being beaten by one person!"

Collet's knuckles were already white, as he had been clenching his fists.

The third quarter was over.

73:67!!!

The F country men's basketball team went from leading by 16 points to trailing by 6 points, losing the third quarter to the China men's basketball team by 22 points, while Wade Dong scored 31 points in that quarter alone.

This was an international game... each quarter was only 10 minutes long, and some fans even felt that if Wade Dong had been given two more minutes, he could have scored 40 points in the third quarter.

...

"The game is basically over."

This was the sentiment of the China fans, who felt relieved to see Wade Dong single-handedly make up a 16-point deficit.

Of course, the F country men's basketball team wouldn't give up either.

Collet said, "Wade Dong's three-pointers are too unreasonable, there's nothing we can do about that. What we can do is make sure we score every shot we should make!"

Batum said, "It wasn't easy to get to this point, coach, don't worry, we won't give up."

"I believe in you."

Collet nodded, "There's one more quarter left, go and make up the deficit."

...

On the China men's basketball team's side.

Wade Dong reminded Gu Qi again, "Don't let anyone get past you on defence! Especially in the paint, Pietrus isn't a good free throw shooter, so if he's posting you up, if you can't stop him, foul him."

"I know, Dong Ge."

Gu Qi replied casually.

Wade Dong's eyes narrowed, "You don't know shit! If you foul, do it hard, don't let Pietrus score after you foul him."

...

The fourth quarter began.

Wade Dong caught the ball outside the three-point line, used the 'Bow to Buddha' move to shake off Batum, then broke through to the three-point line, noticing Fournier coming to help defend, Wade Dong took a small step forward, then took three consecutive steps back to the three-point line.

"Swish!"

The three-pointer went in.

"Wade Dong travelled!"

"Wade Dong travelled!"

"Wade Dong travelled!"

Fournier, Collet, and Pietrus all pointed at Wade Dong and shouted at the referee.

The referee hesitated for a moment, then crossed his arms and signalled a travel, the shot didn't count!

"What the hell was that travel?!"

Wade Dong spread his hands, he had just taken three steps back, and the ball was in a state of being held or not, so even if he had used the Lingbo Microsteps, it couldn't be considered a travel.

But the referee had already called it... Wade Dong didn't bother to argue.

The F country men's basketball team had the ball, and after one bad call, Wade Dong had some anger in him. He intercepted a pass from Fournier to Diaw, then dribbled straight to the frontcourt, and jumped from the free throw line!

"Dunk!"

Wade Dong slammed the ball into the basket.

"Wow!"

"Wade Dong!"

The arena erupted! A slam dunk from the free throw line in a real game! There were a few fans who had seen this kind of performance in person, and there were even a few girls who were so excited by Wade Dong's dunk that they almost fainted.

"Was that not a travel?"

After the dunk, Wade Dong didn't forget to tease the referee.

"No!"

The referee shook his head.

Wade Dong was quite vengeful... but after the travel call, the referee also felt a bit of regret, and decided to watch Wade Dong's backpedal three-pointer again after the game.

The momentum of the game was no longer in the F country men's basketball team's control.

In the seventh minute of the fourth quarter, Wade Dong hit another super long-range three-pointer.

97:82!!!

The F country men's basketball team trailed by more than 15 points for the first time.

With only three minutes left, trailing by 15 points, even if it was Wade Dong, he might not be able to catch up, let alone the F country men's basketball team, who didn't have a single star player.

...

"Beep!"

With the sound of the main referee's whistle, the game was over.

103:89!!!

The China men's basketball team won the semi-finals and advanced to the World Cup final.

The game's stats:

Wade Dong: 61 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 steals, 3 blocks.

Huang Yu: 17 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 block.

Wang Dalin: 1 point, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 10 steals, 0 blocks.

Batum: 21 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks.

...

Up to this point in the World Cup, Wade Dong had scored 50+ points in three games, and 40+ points in one game. Although there were also a few games where he only scored in the teens, that was only because the opponents were too weak and didn't need Wade Dong to perform, but the high scores in the World Cup mostly came from Wade Dong.