Chapter 510 The Strongest Defender!

He was actually defended by a No. 4 player with skills... The opponent didn't even use strength to push him.

Kobe's eyes flashed with surprise and a hint of shame.

What a shame...

"Ball!"

Doug Christie just walked to the baseline to pick up the ball, and heard Kobe's voice asking for the ball.

Snap!

Whoosh!

Kobe received the ball, Sakuragi pushed it, and the two of them were facing each other again in the blink of an eye.

Snap!

Without any hesitation, Kobe, who received the ball, started his body in an instant and went directly into attack mode.

The continuous changes of direction just now have made Kobe realize that the No. 10 in front of him is definitely different from those inside players who rely on strength in his imagination. After all, he is Lin Dong's teammate. Maybe this guy is facing Lin Dong every day. His defensive skills are also accumulated in the one-on-one duels with Lin Dong for many years, right?

No wonder his super low-body breakthrough and change of direction were useless, because if we only talk about these two moves, Lin Dong is undoubtedly better than him, and the No. 10 in front of him has experienced countless singles with Lin Dong, and he is too familiar with these moves.

Kobe is definitely not the kind of person who believes in luck. It is enough to suffer a loss once. Thoughts such as "He must have been lucky just now, I can try again" never appear in his mind.

This guy has delicate defensive skills that big insiders can't reach at all. If he faces Lin Dong's change of direction skills in training every day, then it is undoubtedly a show of skill to use his skills to seek a breakthrough in front of this guy.

Then go to the extreme! Fight with real strength!

Bang!

In a flash of thought, the two bodies have already touched.

Kobe protects the ball with his left hand, and his left arm directly blocks Sakuragi Hanamichi when he lowers his center of gravity to sprint. While protecting the ball, he also protects his breakthrough route. His body moves sideways and rushes towards the right front.

This is not a pure power confrontation, nor is it a simple skill, but a combination of power, speed and skill.

The power of the sprint inertia after starting is enough to make up for the difference in pure strength between the two, and the simple right rush can also maximize the weakening of the opponent's defensive experience, because at this time you don't need experience at all, what you compete with each other is the burst, speed and even will and determination at this moment.

Swish!

The moment of starting is fast, and Kobe Bryant rushed to the left of Sakuragi Hanamichi like an arrow from a string.

Sakuragi Hanamichi's pupils shrank slightly.

So fast!

Brother Gao has two tricks that are the most difficult for him to defend: unpredictable rhythm and extreme speed.

The former requires not only the physical fitness and endurance of not slowing down and changing direction, but also sufficient prediction of the defender's actions. Sakuragi occasionally has the luck to collide with Lin Dong once or twice when encountering this.

But this extreme speed is the only thing that cannot be defended.

After all, Sakuragi's biggest advantage on the defensive end lies in his instinctive intuition and prediction, which makes all skills pale in front of him, and only the extreme speed is his flaw.

Sakuragi Hanamichi's speed is not slow. The 3/4 sprint is 2.98 seconds, which is already at the level of some top guards in the NBA. However, he is 209 cm tall and weighs 118 kg. However, that is mainly the ability after the sprint. In terms of instant starting speed, he is still not as good as the smaller players, let alone facing players of Lin Dong and Kobe.

At this time, although his eyes followed Kobe's breakthrough and his brain instinctively analyzed the opponent's intention, his body was half a beat slower and was instantly bullied into the defensive position by Kobe Bryant.

—— Hanamichi! Defend it, Hanamichi!

—— Sakuragi! Come on!

—— Wow wow wow!

In the stands, the voices of the Sakuragi Army and Akagi Haruko, as well as the voices of Sakuragi Haruko, who was held by Haruko and was scared to tears by the roar of the mountain in the stadium, were drowned in the larger wave of fans.

—— Defend that No. 8, the rebounding king of the supersonics!

—— Sakuragi Hanamichi, it's up to you!

All the fans in the God Arena were cheering for Sakuragi Hanamichi, but...

Kobe Bryant's mouth curled up slightly. The absolute advantage of playing small against big is the starting speed. If he was bullied into this position during the breakthrough, even Michael Jordan at his peak would not be able to stop him.

Over!

Kobe's eyes were already looking at the basket, but he didn't notice Lin Dong's half-smiled face a few meters away.

As expected of Kobe Bryant, he immediately found the only "loophole" in Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense as soon as they fought.

But, since both he and Sakuragi knew that it was a loophole in his defense, would he let the loophole exist...It's not that simple.

I defended Nash not only because Nash was the engine of the Lakers, but also because I used Sakuragi Hanamichi to lock down Kobe who was already on the rise.

Because maybe even Sakuragi didn't know that his defense was stronger than his!

Especially for the attacker at position 3, even if he was facing Sakuragi now, he had to do his best and go all out in 4 states!

At this moment, even Lin Dong couldn't help but be a little distracted.

Think about the guy who was still shouting on the court a few years ago, "Brother Gao, what is the strong side and weak side?"; think about this guy who hid in the toilet after training every day to learn more from Payton and waited for everyone in the gym to leave; think about the scene where he cried and shouted "Thank you everyone, I love basketball the most" at the draft; think about this guy who was guarding Rodman's video in order to defend O'Neal and Yao Ming, and asked himself with a confused face, "Brother Gao, what should I do?"...

This guy has grown into one of the strongest defenders in the history of this league with his love for basketball and his always positive and optimistic heart!

What defensive power forward, functional inside line... For the tactical needs of the Supersonics, this guy worked hard in the inside line for three years.

And today, it's time for them to open their eyes!

…………

The super-fast breakthrough made Sakuragi Hanamichi's cells seem to swell up at this moment. If there were detailed shots, I'm afraid you can see his hair standing up.

The extreme concentration of attention and the rapid operation of thinking made the whole world seem to slow down a little at this moment.

Sakuragi Hanamichi moved sideways quickly at this time, and at the same time pressed his elbow down, and instantly entangled with Kobe's left arm that was protecting the ball and blocking him.

At this time, Kobe had entered the edge of the steel wire that was about to get rid of Sakuragi's defense. The raised left arm was both protecting the ball and suppressing Sakuragi Hanamichi's starting speed. When he broke through to this position, this arm could have been retired. As long as he pulled it away, he could rush out.

But at this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi held him back, which restricted his final breakthrough and escape. Not only did he slow down Kobe's speed a little, but he also held Kobe tightly like a rope.

The entangled arms may only last for one or two seconds, but it was enough for Sakuragi Hanamichi to pull the offense and defense back to a balance, making Kobe feel that he was hung again.

Unexpectedly, he couldn't get through!

Kobe was surprised to find that although he had sneaked into Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense, he was only one breath away from getting through, but he was hanging there, and he couldn't get through no matter what.

Toughness?

No, that guy has more than just toughness.

In a glimpse, Kobe saw the calmness and concentration in Sakuragi Hanamichi's eyes, and even a hint of teasing.

At this moment, Kobe thought of Lin Dong.

This doesn't look like blind confidence, but more like Lin Dong's return to nature, perhaps only limited to the defensive end, but it is enough.

A guy like Lin Dong... The Supersonics actually have another one!

The two of them were desperately rushing towards the diagonal direction, and in the blink of an eye they had crossed the center line.

At this time, the offense and defense of each other were like a needle against a wheat spike, pulling a steel wire, you can't break me, and I can't break you.

Obviously, neither of them could achieve their complete intentions.

What Kobe wanted was to rush out and get rid of Sakuragi's defense, while Sakuragi wanted to move his defense sideways, constantly pushing him to the side and blocking him in the second half.

But the result was that although Kobe successfully rushed through the midfield, he was blocked by Sakuragi Hanamichi near the right sideline.

Kobe Bryant tried to change direction and tried to rush from the left again, even if he was forced to the left sideline by Sakuragi Hanamichi again? At the same time, he could rush to the attack position and connect with Yao Ming and others in the front court.

But this turn found that he couldn't rush through at all.

Because of the attack on the right side just now, Sakuragi Hanamichi's right side was already in a "half-lost" state, which made his defensive center of gravity relatively left, which greatly increased the difficulty of Kobe's change of direction to the left.

If he continued to rush to the right, the sideline restricted Kobe's offensive route.

He was blocked! And it happened to be in this position where he couldn't go up or down, and couldn't go forward or retreat.

Going forward means going out, and going back means returning to the court... Kobe suddenly realized that the offensive and defensive battle seemed evenly matched, but in fact he had no chance from the beginning.

Rather than saying that this guy's defense is like Payton's death coil, Lin Dong and Jordan's suppression defense, or Rodman's predictive defense, it is more like a kind of "wire defense"!

Stepping on the edge of the wire, using the limit loophole that seems to be almost broken through, luring the attacker to go all out in a certain direction, and then using his wire toughness to force the attacker to have no way out!

This...

At this moment, Kobe can no longer think about the strength of Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense,

Got to pass the ball!

But at this time, just past the midline, there was no village in front and no shop behind. The Lakers' frontcourt players obviously hadn't reacted to respond for a while. Odom was under the basket. Although Yao Ming was outside the left three-point line, Rukawa Kaede was defending him. The height, arm span and strength gap between them gave Yao Ming absolute space to receive the ball.

But Sakuragi Hanamichi was not only blocking the left side, but his 209cm body and 223cm wingspan almost blocked all the routes for Kobe to pass the ball to Yao Ming.

Kobe had to look back.

Doug Christie was being entangled by Iguodala with all his strength, and Christie was not good at controlling the ball and had no organizational skills. Passing to him was risky and meaningless.

What about Nash? Although that guy was targeted by Lin Dong, but...

"Kobe!"

Just when Kobe thought of this position that he was most reluctant to pass the ball to, after all, it was Lin Dong who was defending Nash, but before he could look back, he heard Nash's shout, and at the same time, a strong wind blew behind him, and someone rushed towards him.

Double-teaming himself? Steal the ball? Lin Dong? !

Sakuragi Hanamichi, Iguodala, Rukawa Kaede, Chandler were all in Kobe's sight at this time, and the only one who could rush up from behind was Lin Dong.

In front of him was Sakuragi Hanamichi's terrible entanglement defense, and behind him was the threat from Lin Dong, and there was no passing space in any direction. Even a strong man like Kobe couldn't help but feel confused at this time.

Feeling that a big hand behind him had already cut off his ball path, Kobe had to pass the ball and turned a step to the right to avoid the cut behind him and see who was coming.

It was indeed Lin Dong!

When Lin Dong's face just appeared in Kobe's eyes, the side referee's whistle had already sounded.

Beep!

Stepping on the line!

Kobe's face couldn't help but sink slightly, and the firm look in his eyes couldn't help but waver a little at this moment.

Mistakes, mistakes again!

Since Lin Dong chose to defend Nash in the second half, Kobe thought he could finally release his offensive power, but what greeted him was two consecutive mistakes!

This...

"Hi! Brother!" Lin Dong ignored Kobe's complicated expression, but smiled and looked at Sakuragi, looking at this guy who has completely grown into a towering tree: "Remember, you are the strongest defender in the world!"

The strongest...

Sakuragi Hanamichi was stunned.

Plop, plop, plop...

At this moment, he felt that he could hear his own heartbeat.

Whether defending O'Neal or Yao Ming, facing those top centers in the league, although he can fight, he is actually always at a disadvantage. After all, the difference in strength and height is too big, and he was beaten by Lin Dong in various ways during team training...

All of these have made Sakuragi have a wrong perception.

I am just a little brother of Brother Gaoren. Without Brother Gaoren's protection, I am nothing.

So even though he is an All-Star and a first-team player, he still does not have enough confidence. He often demands of himself, "I must complete the coach's requirements" and "I must not disappoint Brother Gaoren's expectations."

But... the strongest?

I am the strongest defender in the world?

Sakuragi Hanamichi has never thought about this kind of thing, and he has never even had a trace of such cognition in his mind.

But at this moment, when facing the No. 3 position who is touted as one of the best offensive players on the planet, when even Brother Gaoren had no good way to deal with this guy on the defensive end in the first half, he once started, relying only on instinct and concentration to force the opponent to commit two consecutive fouls!

Especially, when Brother Gaoren, whom he respected and admired the most, said in person, "You are the strongest."

——Sakuragi Sakuragi! Put the ball into the basket fiercely, that is a slam dunk!

——Sakuragi! Controlling the rebounds is equivalent to controlling the court!

——Sakuragi…

The past flashed through his mind, and he walked through it in a daze. Even in the face of endless darkness, he kept rushing forward.

He never even thought that one day he would walk out of this darkness, and his motivation to rush forward was definitely not from wanting to see the end of the road... But now, it seems that he suddenly saw it, saw the light, saw the magnificent temple at the end of the road!

Sakuragi Hanamichi couldn't help but feel mixed emotions at this moment.

He rubbed his eyes hard, then raised his hands and clapped his hands hard with Lin Dong.

"Roar!"

He roared loudly, as if it was a catharsis, and also as if it was a declaration: "Down with the Lakers!"

Lin Dong laughed and said: "Get our fourth consecutive championship."

"Come on!"