After a tough 2 hour training session, Akagi calls forth everybody.
"Everyone, our first NBA match is in 2 weeks time, with the LA
Lakers(champion).
I expect everyone of you to do your best. Is that clear?"
"YES!"
"Sakuragi! Stay back!" Akagi obviously had something in mind.
"Sakuragi, the key to winning matches."
"is getting the rebounds, YESYES I KNOW GORI!"
"Against LA LAKERs, we will be facing Shaquille O' New(lol), who is taller than Uozumi. He will be getting rebounds. We must stop him."
"So, Sakuragi, I hope you realize that the NBA is no fooling around like in Kanagawa, where everything went well with you fooling."
" What!Gori!When did I ever fool around?"
Akagi ignored him totally and said, "Jokes aside, this will be our toughest enemy, even tougher than Sannoh. La Lakers are the NBA champions, you will take care of the rebounds. And stop trying to show off!"
"What! Gori when did I ever show off?" There he goes again, denying everything.
"Now, Sakuragi, you are the power forward, I believe Rukawa has taught you much, the three pointer and many techniques?"
" Who said Kitsune taught me those, I knew them all along!"
HAH! Sakuragi was still the same old immature BAKA.
Two weeks passed in a flash, and Akagi was starting his pre-match pep-talk, talking about the differences. The timeouts, the 4 quarters and others to his team. This was an eagerly anticipated encounter, at least for Japanese supporters.
The match-ups are gonna be:
Takenori Akagi - John O'Neal
Hanamichi Sakuragi - Rik Fox
Kaede Rukawa - Coley Bryant Ryota Miyagi - Lionel Hunter Hisashi Mitsui - Sam Walker
~Author : Well, Bryant is the shooting guard, unfortunately, he is the ace, so Kaede took on Bryant. SAKURAGI: "Hey why am I paired against Fox? It should have been Kaede!"
"Do' Aho."
And the match starts off at Staples Center. Now for the tip-off between O' Neal and Akagi. Akagi jumps before O' Neal, and tips the ball up higher in an attempt to swipe the ball away. Kaede had run towards the basket, Bryant was caught napping and when Akagi caught the ball, SFS(san Francisco) were 2-0 up.
PG Hunter dashed straight for the basket, but was stopped by Akagi. He threw the ball diagonally right towards waiting Fox at the 3 point line. "Swoosh! And SFS found themselves trailing.
Miyagi dribbled the ball up front, looking for a loophole in the LA defence. The impatient Hunter lunged for the ball but was turned by Miyagi who made for the basket.
He jumped up, and made a jumpshot. 4-2.
~*~*~*~*~*
"Nice job guys. We are leading. Now is the 2nd quarter, make sure we don't squander the 3 point lead."
(Ansai had gotten his Uncle's characteristics of keeping quiet in a match.)
Lakers ball, SF Walker moved towards the basket and dished out a high pass to O'Neal who timed his jump perfectly and connected with an alley-oop. The Crowd went wild after this. Little did they realize that this sparked off a huge lead for SFS. Mitsui tried for a three-pointer, but it hit the rim and bounced off, but Sakuragi got the rebound and scored, amazingly with a fadeaway!
"When did you learn that?" Everyone went to ask him.
"NYAHAHAHA!I am Tensai!" came the usual reply.
With that morale-boosting(as always, so often he does it) shot, SFS found themselves 50-39 at half-time.
There were still 2 quarters left. SFS decided to be wary of LA using Kobe as the pointgetter and decided to pit Kaede and Mitsui on Kobe. The strategy worked. Coach Paul Jackson was furious. He called another timeout, and changed his tactics. He told the team to utilize O'Neal as the rebound- getter, underestimating Sakuragi.
Again, this strategy did not work as more than half of the rebounds were Sakuragi's. This fired up Bryant's will and Bryant managed to get past Kaede time and again to claw back the points. By The third quarter, the score had been tied at 79-79.
The fourth quarter, was going to be a major deciding quarter for both teams.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Author: Whew!Finally I will end the day as thus. The next chapter will be on the amazing Fourth Quarter. I have not decided what to write yet. Maybe after reading your reviews, I would decide. So there.
I expect everyone of you to do your best. Is that clear?"
"YES!"
"Sakuragi! Stay back!" Akagi obviously had something in mind.
"Sakuragi, the key to winning matches."
"is getting the rebounds, YESYES I KNOW GORI!"
"Against LA LAKERs, we will be facing Shaquille O' New(lol), who is taller than Uozumi. He will be getting rebounds. We must stop him."
"So, Sakuragi, I hope you realize that the NBA is no fooling around like in Kanagawa, where everything went well with you fooling."
" What!Gori!When did I ever fool around?"
Akagi ignored him totally and said, "Jokes aside, this will be our toughest enemy, even tougher than Sannoh. La Lakers are the NBA champions, you will take care of the rebounds. And stop trying to show off!"
"What! Gori when did I ever show off?" There he goes again, denying everything.
"Now, Sakuragi, you are the power forward, I believe Rukawa has taught you much, the three pointer and many techniques?"
" Who said Kitsune taught me those, I knew them all along!"
HAH! Sakuragi was still the same old immature BAKA.
Two weeks passed in a flash, and Akagi was starting his pre-match pep-talk, talking about the differences. The timeouts, the 4 quarters and others to his team. This was an eagerly anticipated encounter, at least for Japanese supporters.
The match-ups are gonna be:
Takenori Akagi - John O'Neal
Hanamichi Sakuragi - Rik Fox
Kaede Rukawa - Coley Bryant Ryota Miyagi - Lionel Hunter Hisashi Mitsui - Sam Walker
~Author : Well, Bryant is the shooting guard, unfortunately, he is the ace, so Kaede took on Bryant. SAKURAGI: "Hey why am I paired against Fox? It should have been Kaede!"
"Do' Aho."
And the match starts off at Staples Center. Now for the tip-off between O' Neal and Akagi. Akagi jumps before O' Neal, and tips the ball up higher in an attempt to swipe the ball away. Kaede had run towards the basket, Bryant was caught napping and when Akagi caught the ball, SFS(san Francisco) were 2-0 up.
PG Hunter dashed straight for the basket, but was stopped by Akagi. He threw the ball diagonally right towards waiting Fox at the 3 point line. "Swoosh! And SFS found themselves trailing.
Miyagi dribbled the ball up front, looking for a loophole in the LA defence. The impatient Hunter lunged for the ball but was turned by Miyagi who made for the basket.
He jumped up, and made a jumpshot. 4-2.
~*~*~*~*~*
"Nice job guys. We are leading. Now is the 2nd quarter, make sure we don't squander the 3 point lead."
(Ansai had gotten his Uncle's characteristics of keeping quiet in a match.)
Lakers ball, SF Walker moved towards the basket and dished out a high pass to O'Neal who timed his jump perfectly and connected with an alley-oop. The Crowd went wild after this. Little did they realize that this sparked off a huge lead for SFS. Mitsui tried for a three-pointer, but it hit the rim and bounced off, but Sakuragi got the rebound and scored, amazingly with a fadeaway!
"When did you learn that?" Everyone went to ask him.
"NYAHAHAHA!I am Tensai!" came the usual reply.
With that morale-boosting(as always, so often he does it) shot, SFS found themselves 50-39 at half-time.
There were still 2 quarters left. SFS decided to be wary of LA using Kobe as the pointgetter and decided to pit Kaede and Mitsui on Kobe. The strategy worked. Coach Paul Jackson was furious. He called another timeout, and changed his tactics. He told the team to utilize O'Neal as the rebound- getter, underestimating Sakuragi.
Again, this strategy did not work as more than half of the rebounds were Sakuragi's. This fired up Bryant's will and Bryant managed to get past Kaede time and again to claw back the points. By The third quarter, the score had been tied at 79-79.
The fourth quarter, was going to be a major deciding quarter for both teams.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Author: Whew!Finally I will end the day as thus. The next chapter will be on the amazing Fourth Quarter. I have not decided what to write yet. Maybe after reading your reviews, I would decide. So there.