The fouls on Croatia’s inside players are increasing, making Croatia’s head coach anxious.
If we keep fouling like this, we’ll soon have to face free throws, and there won’t be anyone available on the bench.
The score gap between the two teams fluctuates between 10 and 15 points.
China Team is resilient, but Croatia always manages to score and widen the gap.
China Team is persisting, gritting their teeth, refusing to change their defense strategy, letting them shoot.
We’re determined not to let Croatia play inside, not to let them fast break; if we’re going to be shot to death, let it be by shooting.
The game progresses to the final stage, with five minutes remaining, and China Team is still trailing by 10 points.
points in five minutes; it’s enough, but both defense and offense need to catch up.
Gan Guoyang also feels fatigued because he hasn’t rested for even a minute during the match.
Jiang Xingquan specifically called a timeout to let Gan Guoyang sit down and drink some water, catch his breath.
At this point, Gan Guoyang has already scored 37 points, grabbed 20 rebounds, and made 5 blocks, keeping China Team hanging by a thread.
60:70.
After the timeout, returning to the court, Petrović, who had been resting off the court for a while, also came back.
Before the ball was released, Gan Guoyang suddenly said to Petrović: "Pete! Wanna have a three-point contest?"
Petrović’s heart tightened hearing this, he glanced at Gan Guoyang without saying anything.
Sweat kept streaming down.
A three-point contest is a project that Trail Blazers players practice extra on after daily training.
As the two who practice the hardest in the team, Gan Guoyang and Petrović often stay in the training gym for three-point contests.
Whoever hits 100 shots first wins the competition.
No one to fetch balls, positions not fixed, no one to count scores.
Often only the two of them are on the court’s two ends, endlessly shooting, fetching balls, running, then shooting again.
After half a day of training, the body is very tired, but such practice greatly helps improve three-point ability, although it’s very painful.
In three years, the two have had nearly a hundred such contests, with Petrović’s record being 1 win N losses.
And Petrović knows well that the one time he won, he cheated.
Since there’s no referee, they rely on themselves to count; whoever reaches 100 first finishes the shooting and wins, relying entirely on their own honesty.
After losing continuously, Petrović finally couldn’t bear it and during one duel, he declared victory without hitting 100 shots.
At that time, Gan Guoyang happily treated Petrović to dinner, but Petrović felt bad because such a false victory didn’t truly make him happy.
Later he no longer falsely reported hit counts, faithfully made shots, yet was still no match for Gan Guoyang.
He lost not just in accuracy, but mainly in stamina; Ah Gan’s stamina stability was abnormal.
So, when he heard Gan Guoyang mention "three-point contest," his pores stood up.
He immediately reminded Francovic, "Keep an eye on Ah Gan, his three-point shots are very accurate, mark him tightly!"
Francovic hadn’t reacted yet, and Gan Guoyang had already received Sun Jun’s sideline ball, looking to shoot a three at the arc.
Francovic rushed to block, but Gan Guoyang faked, bumped into Francovic, drawing a three-point foul.
Petrović cursed inwardly, calling him "old trickster," Ah Gan liked pulling tricks like this, faking and being real.
Stepping onto the free-throw line, Gan Guoyang intentionally stepped back, resembling Wilt Chamberlain of old times.
Chamberlain stood far because it was more accurate than standing close, whereas Gan Guoyang was adjusting his feel; he wouldn’t randomly shoot threes.
After adjusting his breathing, he calmly made all three free throws, narrowing the gap to 7 points.
China Team’s zone defense tightened even more, Petrović attempted to break through, distributed the ball, teammate got the ball and broke again.
"Beep beep!"
The referee’s whistle sounded again.
Ma Jian fell on the ground, he drew an offensive foul from the opponent on the baseline!
Beautiful foul drawing, probably Ma Jian’s most important play tonight.
China Team quickly threw the ball from the backcourt, distinctly different from the previous sluggishness; Gan Guoyang got Hu Weidong’s pass and dribbled the ball across half court himself.
At this point, Croatia Team had no one marking him, Francovic was already too tired to run back and stand in defense.
Only Petrović responded, ran to mark Gan Guoyang, but Gan Guoyang effortlessly pushed Petrović aside, used a KIKI-step on the left side, stepped back for a three-pointer!
From this distance, in the NBA it would be a mid-range shot.
Exceptionally smooth footwork and shooting, the ball swished through the net!
After the shot, Gan Guoyang shouted to Petrović: "The contest starts now, Pete, come on!"