Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 235 An Unexpected Match

The Spanish team replaced the main team, and the US team still played with the second team. They still implemented Coach Brown's previous requirements on the court, and they actively sought physical confrontation on both the offensive and defensive ends.

This method consumes a lot of physical strength on both sides. The US team's offensive play is ordinary, but the Spanish team's play is bumpy. In the three to four minutes, the two sides scored a total of 4 points. The US team 5 The Spanish team scored 2 points, but in just a few minutes, the two sides were more tired than usual after playing a quarter.

Marbury rushed to the front court, throwing the ball with a "bang" sound, and the Spanish team turned around and Navarro made a throw, and Coach Brown on the sidelines immediately called a timeout.

After the timeout, the U.S. team replaced all the main players on the field, while the Spanish team, who had already played the main game, obviously had no one to replace at this moment.

Defense is a very labor-intensive job, which is why in basketball, one's own offensive core is rarely used to defend the opponent's arrows. Individual defense is like this, and team defense becomes more dependent. The main force of the Spanish team will He is like a tired old cow, while the American team is an excited cheetah. This time, the Spanish team was beaten to pieces. In the end, Hernandez on the sidelines couldn't stand it and had to replace him. second team.

After all, the strength of the second team was much weaker. After a stalemate with the US team for a period of time, it collapsed in an instant. By the end of the second quarter, the US team had already led the Spanish team by nearly 20 points.

After halftime, both players went back to the locker room to rest. The coaches of both sides were intensively preparing for the second half of the game. In this knockout match, there is still half time left to decide who can make it to the end.

In the locker room of the U.S. team, Coach Brown did not talk about tactics with the players, but encouraged them, and at the same time reminded them of the cruelty of the knockout game. This is not a playoff with a best-of-seven series. In the knockout rounds, even if the opponent is stronger than the opponent, as long as there is a slight difference, there will be a game to go home. The so-called "one misstep and eternal hatred" is about this situation.

Brown's reminder was very effective. Originally returning to the locker room, the US team, which had already had a clear lead, obviously remembered the previous defeats against Greece and Lithuania, so they all regained their energy.

In the second half of the game, the two sides are still the main players in the opening confrontation. At the beginning, the Spanish team played more fiercely than in the first half, and Coach Hernandez obviously emphasized the inside attack. The Spanish team's offensive is very fierce, but The U.S. team is obviously not a vegetarian either. They were originally superior in individual strength, but now they have become a discus under the leadership of Anthony, and they have always firmly grasped the situation on the court.

And when the two sides entered the rotation, the substitutes of the US team resorted to the previous style of play. This time, the Spanish team did not dare to play the main force in advance, but followed the US team to play with the third team, but after a while, they were beaten. spent.

This time, the Spaniard was really miserable, and the European audience present finally realized the strength of the US team, and the depth of the bench, no country in the international arena could compete with it.

Anthony, who was sitting on the sidelines, also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the US team continues to adopt this style of play, it shouldn't be a big problem to win this national team's game.

The subsequent games also verified Anthony's guess. The US team has always firmly controlled the situation on the field, and it continued until the end without giving the Spaniard too many opportunities.

At the end of the game, the U.S. team blossomed a lot and entered the game into garbage time early at the end of the fourth quarter. Although the Spaniard refused to give up and insisted on all the main players until the end, they could not recover their predetermined defeat.

In the end, the US team defeated their opponents 92:81 and successfully entered the semi-finals in the quarter-elimination round. The Spaniard, who was aiming to win the championship and performed well in the group stage, regrettably ended up in the quarter-finals.

In this game, the U.S. team defeated the first place in the group with the fourth place in the group, which also proved its own strength again, especially the depth of the bench shown in the game, enough to make other players feel threatened.

The US team entered the top four, and the other four teams followed suit. The most surprising one was the Chinese team. They performed well in the group stage. Although they lost to Spain and Argentina, they defeated New Zealand and Italy successively. And Serbia and Montenegro entered the knockout round as the third place in the group, and beheaded the powerful Lithuanian team in the knockout round, which really broke the biggest upset in this Olympic Games.

This time, the top four teams are finally released, namely Argentina, China, Italy and the United States.

The US team's opponent is the previously upset dark horse Chinese team.

The Chinese created unprecedented history in the Olympic Games. At this time, there was already an uproar in the country. Originally, they had already created a new history by breaking into the quarter-finals. They did not expect that they would go one step further and kill them abruptly. The semi-finals, which makes many Chinese sleepless at night.

And just before the start of this game, in addition to the Chinese team's outstanding performance that made the Chinese excited, their opponent is the US team is also very exciting. Although the opponent is very strong, but against the star-studded US team, obviously It is what the fans want to see the most. Even many fans who hadn't been to the scene to watch the game, after seeing the game, they rushed to Greece non-stop.

For a while, Greece, which was already crowded because of the Olympics, became even more crowded now, and most of the new faces here were Chinese.

This much-anticipated match finally started on August 8th, and the arena was still full, but compared with the previous match against Spain, this time, there were almost as many faces in the arena as Chinese.

This unprecedented scene made the Chinese team feel as if they had returned home.

During the warm-up before the game, Anthony was practicing on the court when the staff on the sidelines suddenly told him that a Chinese reporter was going to visit him.

At this time, Anthony originally didn't want to be interviewed. Although he was a Chinese before crossing, and he was proud of this country, but before the game started, he didn't want to be distracted. Thoughts about him too.

But just when he was about to refuse, Coach Brown came over and asked him to be interviewed, and when he saw that the interviewer was an old acquaintance Yang Yi, he finally passed.

Before starting the interview, Anthony and Yang Yi said a few words of courtesy, and then entered the whole.

It's still the old-fashioned opening statement, and Anthony didn't know how many changes he heard before the time travel.

"Everyone knows that in the next game, the Chinese team will face the US team in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. Here, I am also honored to invite the players of the US team, the NBA superstar we are most familiar with, Carmelo Anthony came for our interview."

After Yang Yi finished his opening remarks, he moved to Anthony's side and said, "Melo, first of all, you are very welcome to accept our interview. We all know that you are very popular in China now. You Do you want to say hello to the Chinese fans first?"

Anthony is used to this kind of thing. In fact, it is difficult for him to say hello to a camera. However, thinking of the strong support of Chinese fans in the All-Star voting, he finally won the vote. Despite his intimacy, he still showed his most charming melon smile, and then made a picturesque greeting to the camera.

Although Anthony couldn't see it, the Chinese fans waiting in front of the TV were screaming with excitement. Now Anthony's popularity in China is completely comparable to that of Yao Ming. It's true that a foreigner has such a high popularity. It's incredible.

"Thank you very much Melo, then the two sides will start the match soon, Melo, who do you think is more likely to win the match between the Chinese team and the US team?" Yang Yi followed up with the second question. .

Anthony also dealt with the problem of deja vu before crossing very easily. He said with a smile: "The Chinese team showed strong competitiveness in the previous games, especially in the quarter-finals when they defeated the Lithuanian team. I also know that we have lost this team in the group stage, so I believe that the Chinese team must be in a very good state at this time, but our team's goal is also to be the champion of this tournament, so I believe that no matter who wins in the end, It’s going to be a great game.”

Anthony's answer was very clever, and Yang Yi was overwhelmed by his answer for a while. He couldn't find a place to ask, and was about to start the third question. At this moment, the referee on the sidelines signaled that the game was about to start. Yes, he quickly changed the subject: "Thanks to Melo for accepting our interview, and I hope he will have a wonderful performance in the next game."

After accepting Yang Yi's interview, Anthony ran back to the bench directly, and at this time, Brown had already begun to arrange the opening tactics.

For the Chinese team, the head coach Harris is also nervously making arrangements. He actually did not expect to lead such a team that is not particularly well run and break into the semi-finals, and it is against the US team. Although he knew that there was little hope of winning, they, who had already created a miracle, obviously hoped to continue to create another miracle.

Soon, players from both sides appeared on the field.

For the American team, apart from letting Odom start instead of James, the other players have not changed. On the Chinese team, Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming are on the inside, Zhu Fangyu and Du Feng are on the outside, and Liu Wei is starting on the point guard line. , Players from both sides stood on the halfway line. This game, amidst the cheers of the fans at the scene, was about to start.

(End of this chapter)