173 No Defense

For the first time against this team, we had won a jump ball as Garret, who was previously on the bench, passed me the ball right away. I laughed and gave it to Paige because she was our point guard. I wanted to get a feel of what An had changed from the last time we met. We replaced our center and power forward starters with the bench ones.

Garret and Blackpool were now in the game as Blackpool ran towards the post, Paige noticed and tossed the ball up towards him. Just when Blackpool was about to dunk it, Li China's Center came out of nowhere, threatening to block his dunk. Still, he had made a mistake as he had left the Garret open, so using that opportunity, Blackpool sped around Li and passed it to Garret, who was up in the air ready for the ball, as he grabbed it and dunked it hanging on the rim.

The crowd got excited from this play right off the bat. We were showing what we could do. I was honestly impressed with that play, as I was not expecting that. It seems like the training that the coach had them go through was a success, and I couldn't wait to see what other new things they had learned.

Boa, China's point guard brought down the ball as Paige was guarding him. Boa tried to blow by Paige, but Paige stayed in front of him, causing Boa to slow down and look for an open man. He passed it over to An who I was guarding. An stepped a little bit behind the three-point line and took the shot. I was honestly too lazy to stop it as the ball went into the hoop, giving them three points.

I smiled a little bit but didn't get too excited. Yet, I wanted to see more of what he could do, so Paige brought down the ball once again; she passed it over to Blackpool. Blackpool wasn't too far from the hoop, so he decided to take it straight in; as he backed it into the post, he did a turnaround shot. It went in; it reminded me of Kobe's post-up shots.

We took the lead once again. This time Li brought down the ball, which surprised me naturally. Centers wouldn't bring down the ball, but I was a little annoyed by this and wanted to make him regret doing that. I froze time and quickly stole the ball from him. By the time the time unfroze, I was already down the lane as I jumped up from the post and did a 360 dunk. I landed back on my feet and roared at the sky, getting myself and my team excited.

Rasta looked at the last play I just made and shook his head, "saying this guy seems like he has gotten better, and he's even dunking with style. Now the NBA will be in serious trouble when this guy gets in there". Everybody around him nodded in agreement.

My previous teammates from college and high school were all there as they looked in amazement at how much better I had gotten during my stay with the military. An couldn't believe that his play didn't work, but he had no time to think about it as he kept it moving.

The game score was going up and down, but it was quite an exciting game. Li was giving Garret quite a hard time, but Garret was standing his guard and did what he could to contain him. By the end of the first quarter, the score was tied, and everybody except for me seems to be tired from continually running up and down. It was a run and gun show, and nobody played any defense in this game except for the centers who only played defense once somebody came within their territory.

An would come down with the ball and pop a three, and I would return the favor by doing the same. On one of the plays, I had fake to the left but went to my right quickly, giving him the shake off as his power forward came towards me to guard me. I spun him off trying to go in for the dunk, but Li came out of nowhere and was about to block me when I went up and under the hoop. I tossed it up from behind me without even looking, and it went straight up in the air and came back down swish.

The crowd erupted at the fancy acrobatic moves I had used during that possession. An could not help but shake his head as he thought that he was playing to my pace, but deep down inside, he knew that he was enjoying this game and having fun, but once the 4th quarter hit, all fun and games were done, and we both knew that we would turn it up to the next level.

The clock ran down as the first quarter was about to end. I decided to give the guys a show as we were down by two points. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary, so I ran down the lane. I usually would never blow by my defender, but this time I did. Li, their Center, of course, was waiting for me there. He seemed like he was extra focused as I have been playing tricks on him all game, but this time I came straight at him, he held his hands to the side as if he was flapping his wings.

That didn't matter to me as I charged, then I jumped up as if attempting to dunk on him. He laughed when he saw this as he thought this little guy was trying to dunk on the 7 ft center. This should be interesting, thought Li. Of course, when I got up to my limit, I used a time freeze to step on his stomach to give myself an extra boost. As I jumped even higher. I unfroze time as I witnessed him being pushed down while I continued to rise higher.