Chapter 35: 2 consecutive losses, start a new winning streak

Since the victory over the University at home, the players of USC have cooperated more and more tacitly with each other, and the overall strength of the team has also improved to a higher level.

The tactical cooperation between the players has become more and more mature.

Especially after Lian Dao's speed increased, although he still suffered a bit against the nimble small forward, he was able to complete most of the defense through strength and positioning.

Although the 69-point CIC is not very stable, it also plays a big role at critical moments.

Lian Dao can be regarded as taking off the label of "no CIC" and replacing it with the label of "CIC is unstable".

From January 14th to February 14th, the team played against the Arizona Sun Devils, Arizona Wildcats x 2, Washington State Pumas x 2, Stanford Cardinals, and California Golden Bears.

In those eight games, USC has a record of 6 wins and 2 losses.

Among them, they defeated the Arizona Wildcats and Washington State Cougars at Galen Center at home, and lost the game by a small margin in the away game.

The second game against USC's arch-enemy was held at Pauly Arena, USC's home court. USC completed its season double play.

Coach Ben Howland was on par with USC in the first half, but in the second half, Lian Dao mentioned the 4th position, and after playing a defensive counterattack, he directly entered a state of defeat.

In particular, Lian Dao developed a mid-range shot in the fourth position, which made Ben Howland shake his head again and again.

Aside from colleges, the biggest problem for USC is the Arizona Sun Devils.

Except for James Harden and the Arizona Sun Devils, only Jeff Ayers was a player who entered the NBA later.

There are no other outstanding players.

And it is such a team that, under the leadership of James Harden, actually played a 14:2 start record.

Looking at James Harden without a beard at first, Lian Dao was a little uncomfortable, but Lian Dao could tell that he had started to grow a beard.

There was already a circle of not particularly long down on his face.

But looking at James Harden now, he doesn't feel like a college student, but a bit like a high school student.

If he actually went to nightclubs with his current face, I guess all the nightclubs in Arizona would not let him in.

This guy didn't grow a beard to go to nightclubs, did he?

USC didn't underestimate James Harden just because of his looks.

Last season, he led the Arizona Wildcats to a record of 21 wins and 13 losses. This year they retained the lineup from the previous year, and they have run in even better.

USC is all about the Arizona Wildcats for a few years.

But in the end, he still suffered from this guy. With his breakthrough and shooting fouls, he got 6 free throw opportunities in the first half.

In the second half, Lian Dao and Demar switched defenses. Lian Dao relied on his height and wingspan to give him a wider defensive range.

But Lian Dao's speed was at a disadvantage against Harden.

As a result, this guy keeps breaking through and drawing fouls.

In the last ten minutes, Vucevic was put on the bench because he had committed five fouls.

At this time, the scores of the two teams were evenly matched. At the last moment of the game, Lian Dao completed the lore with a super long three-pointer.

And the University of Southern California also created the best start, 17 consecutive victories!

Although the winning streak at the beginning made all the players very excited, the pressure on all the players is also obvious.

All the team members were already tired, but they all held their breath and dared not relax.

After training, everyone will stay in the training hall for additional training!

The head coach Tim is both happy and worried. What he thinks about is that everyone is working hard to expand the winning streak; what worries him is that once the team loses, the players will be discouraged, which will lead to the team losing streak.

Finally, against the Washington State Cougars with Klay Thompson, the prolonged pressure and the opponent's defense made the USC team feel nothing in the first half.

Clay, a freshman, is far less powerful than he was when he was in the Golden State Warriors in later generations, and he has not yet practiced the Buddha's light.

But at this time, his three-pointers had begun to take shape, and what impressed Lian Dao most was not his three-pointers, but his running position.

At this time, Clay has developed his own way of running.

He can use the screens of opponents and teammates to run out of space, and then shoot cold arrows from the outside.

Except for Clay and their point guard, the main players of the Washington State Cougars are all over 203 cm tall.

In the game at Freer Court, USC had no hands.

Especially the Washington State Cougars double-teamed Lian Dao at the beginning of the game. Their team has a three-point shooter, and they are too aware of the power of a three-point shooter.

This also caused Lian Dao to have no good shooting opportunities outside the three-point line. He forced two shots and found that the confrontation consumed most of Lian Dao's physical strength, which caused him to have no shooting touch.

Lian Dao is not obsessed with getting back his touch, but keeps assisting his teammates by passing the ball.

But in the first half of the game, it seemed that all the pairs had been cut off from the shooting sights, and everyone's shooting percentage was terribly low.

At the end of the first half, they were directly behind by 26 points.

It was hard to find the shooting feeling in the second half, but the hole dug in the first half was too big.

And when both teams have three-point shooters, the point difference depends on the shooter's shooting percentage.

Unfortunately, Lian Dao's shooting percentage in the first half was really low.

So the game lost to the Washington State Cougars on the road by 7 points.

After losing to the Washington State Cougars, USC lost to the Arizona Wildcats.

Two consecutive defeats!

And against the Stanford Cardinals, the California Golden Bears and the Arizona Wildcats at home, the University of Southern California stopped the losing streak and went straight to a three-game winning streak.

And when they played against the Washington State Cougars at home, Southern California led by a big score and achieved four consecutive victories!

On February 14th, the second game between the University of Southern California and the Washington State Cougars, this time the University of Southern California played at home, with revenge and full of fighting spirit.

At the beginning of this game, Lian Dao played without the ball, and got open opportunities through teammates' screens or opponents' screens. Daniel Hackett was also always ready to pass the ball to Lian Dao.

As long as Lian Dao has a chance, Daniel Hackett will pass the ball in time.

In this way, the University of Southern California, playing at home, established a 13-point advantage in the opening 10 minutes.

In this game, Lian Dao also showed his powerful scoring ability to everyone.

Three-pointers, breakthroughs, mid-range shots, and dunks.

The Washington State Cougar forward of the same height couldn't prevent Lian Dao from breaking through in disguise.

Every time, Lian Dao's fake dribble moves out of his position.

Lian Dao, who has a feeling of shooting, even the CIC has a good shot The University of Southern California maintained a big lead in the game until the end of the game.

In this game, Lian Dao got the highest equal score so far.

42 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds.

He made 12 of 18 three-pointers.

The three-pointer is also only three points away from tying the NCAA single-game record for the highest three-pointer.

In 1996, Keith Pooh set the record for 3-pointers in a game between Marshall and Morehead State: 15 of 25.

At the end of the game, Klay Thompson stopped Lian Dao.

"Can we swap jerseys?"

Exchange jerseys? Wish it was the second NCAA player besides Griffin to exchange jerseys with Lian Dao.

"Of course, I'm honored!"

"Don't think that I was defeated by you, I just want to beat you in the next match!"

Klay Thompson worried that Lian Dao might misunderstand the purpose of exchanging jerseys, so he explained to Lian Dao while taking off the jersey.

"Of course not, I'm waiting for your challenge, but the premise is that you will enter the playoffs of the Parker 10 League."

"I'll be waiting for you in the playoffs!"

It is believed that the Washington State Cougars can enter the playoffs, but it is not known how many rounds they can survive.

The two unfolded each other's jerseys in front of each other, looked at each other and laughed.

Probably the sympathy between the shooters!

And it was this scene that Hadland captured with a camera, and it became a photo that was later talked about by fans of the two.

College basketball is like this, passionate and pure; it is possible that two strangers who have never met before will become sympathetic friends because of a basketball game!