Chapter 44: Injured
"Players on both sides come on the court." The referee reminded that the time-out time for players on both sides has come.
"Okay, everyone is on the game!!!" Xiangbei and Hainan players came on the court one after another.
Hainan players who re-played, indeed strengthened Amu's personal breakthrough, and other players always mentioned helping Amu block people at high positions.
This change made Yokoze's defense more difficult. Finally, after Amu broke through Xiangbei's defense and dunked into the inside and scored a foul after three consecutive teammates.
2+1. Amu made a free throw and chased 3 points in a row.
10:7. The difference has narrowed to one goal.
Yokozawa carefully protected the ball and passed the half. He passed the ball to Mitsui who was standing at the top of the arc on the left side of the three-point line, and Mitsui passed the ball to Rukawa Kaede on the right side of the three-point line.
Every time Yokoze passes the ball, he consciously sends the ball to the side away from Amu, which can not only prevent Amu from assisting defense but also reduces the pressure on Xiangbei offensive players.
Rukawa Kaede faced Kiyoda Nobunaga's defense after receiving the ball.
Kiyota's attack on Rukawa Kaede was naturally excited: "Come on Rukawa, let me defeat you first, and then deal with that Yukisawa. At that time, the chief newcomer of Kanagawa will be the one who will be the one who will be."
"Hmph! I won't care about this kind of thing!" Rukawa Kaede's answer annoyed Kiyota.
"What did you say?! You don't care about the honor of the players at all." Kiyoda suddenly reached out to Duan Rukawa's ball in his hand.
After seeing Kiyoda's movement, Rukawa Kaede dribbled behind the ball and handed the ball from his right hand to his left hand to break through Kiyoda's defense.
Kiyota found that he had been broken through by Rukawa, and actually fell backwards and reached out to get the ball in Rukawa's hand, but he tripped Rukawa.
"Beep~~~~~ White No. 10 blocking foul." The referee's whistle rang in time.
"Big idiot!" Rukawa Kaede, who was lying on the ground, complained.
Shoki, who kicked off again, still handed the ball to Rukawa Kaede to attack.
"Qingtian, don't be freed from him!" Amu reminded Qingtian loudly.
"Don't worry!" Kiyota chased Rukawa Kaede closely.
Unexpectedly, Rukawa Kaede made a quick stop and jump shot into the ball.
12:7. The difference in points returned to 5 points.
Hainan attacked, Amu missed the shot under the interference of Yueze.
Akagi got the rebound above Takasago and Muto Masato.
"Akagi is doing well!" Shobei players were immediately excited when they saw Akagi grabbing rebounds from the siege of Hainan players.
Rukawa Kaede broke through with the ball without completely getting rid of Kiyoda. He forced his shot but failed.
"It's too forced!" Just when everyone thought Rukawa's shooting was hasty, Akagi grabbed the frontcourt rebound again.
"Akagi's rebound is very strong!"
"It turns out that Rukawa is the one who trusts Akagi's rebounding and dares to shoot unscrupulously!"
"Yes, Hainan's inside pressure is very high. If Akagi cannot be restricted, Hainan will be in trouble!"
~~~~~~~~~~
Akagi, who grabbed the frontcourt rebound, passed the ball to Mitsui on the outside.
Mitsui hit a three-pointer.
15:7.
Just as the people in Xiangbei were cheering, they found Akagi lying on the ground covering her ankles.
It turned out that Akagi stepped on Takasa’s feet when he landed on the ground.
"???!!!!" Everyone was shocked to see Akagi falling to the ground. Everyone knew what Akagi meant to Xiangbei! If Akagi was injured, Xiangbei's inside pillar collapsed, and Xiangbei's substitute center was useless at all. Hainan's inside will change from weakness to strong point. In addition to Amu's super ability in the outside, Hainan will be able to play both inside and outside, and it will be difficult for Xiangbei to fight.
"Beep~~~~~ The game was suspended." The referee blew the whistle when he saw someone injured.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone in Xiangbei helped Akagi back to the bench.
"Hey Akagi, can you stand up?" Mitsui asked anxiously.
"Take off your shoes first, take a look." Yueze reminded.
"Ah! It's so swollen!" Everyone exclaimed when they saw Akagi taking off their shoes.
Akagi walked to the locker room for treatment with the help of the Xiangbei substitute player.
"Things are not good in Hunan!"
"Yes, if there is no Akagi......"
Coach Anxi did not make personnel adjustments until Akagi walked into the locker room:
"Next, we have to face the situation where Akagi is not present. You are the position of the small forward on the court, while Sakuragi and Rukawa play center and power forward respectively. Sakuragi, Sakuragi, you will leave the inside of Shokuki. You must protect the defense and rebounding. Can you do it?"
"Don't worry! I will definitely guard the inside." Sakuragi, who saw Akagi leaving the field with injuries, recognized him rarely.
"Okay, everyone should come on stage! You must remember that you are very strong!!!" Anxi finally encouraged.
“Yes~~~”
Coach Gaotou is also arranging the game's tactics:
"Akagi was injured and ended up in the game. This is our opportunity. Losing Akagi, the spiritual pillar and defensive core, is a big blow to Xiangbei, especially emerging teams like Xiangbei, which have insufficient foundation. We should take the opportunity to catch up with the score and even throw them away in one fell swoop. Amu passed the ball more to the inside in a while."
"Okay coach." Amu nodded and replied.
"But coach, isn't it open enough to attack their weaknesses when the opponent's players are injured?" Kiyoda Nobunaga said.
"Idiot, the basketball game is about capturing the opponent's weaknesses and attacking. We didn't deliberately hurt Akagi. What's wrong with being open and honest enough?" Gao Tou roared.
"Amu, you don't have the childish idea of Kiyota, right?" Coach Gaotou turned to ask Amu.
"Of course not, what I want is victory." Amu said in a deep voice as he looked at Xiangbei's direction.
"Player replacement, Xiangbei No. 5 player Kyona Kiki replaced No. 4 Akagi Takaki. Players from both sides are required to play." The technical station announced.
After the game started, Hainan team continued to attack the inside line according to the coach's tactics, and the score was slowly narrowed.
But what Hainan could not imagine was that Sakuragi slowly adapted to Hainan's offense during the game, and was highly focused, and he actually played better and better. Although the defense could not completely block Takasa, it could also cause great interference to the opponent. The most important thing was that he was very active in rebounding and grabbed several backcourt rebounds in a row. In addition, because Akagi was not around, he was more attentive to rebound than usual, and he gradually became stalemate with Hainan in the inside.
"Oh!!! I didn't expect that the red-haired guy performed very well after captain Akagi got off the court."
"Yes, it's so surprising."
"Come on, the red-haired boy."
"Yes, you must guard the inside."
Sakuragi is a typical person who comes crazy. The more people cheer him, the better he performs. He can slowly grab the frontcourt rebounds in the offense.
Sakuragi's performance was greatly beyond the expectations of Coach Takato.
The game has been going on for 12 minutes, and Xiangbei is still leading Hainan by 4 points at 38:34.
Chapter completed!