Kuroko's Basketball: I'm not the boss?

But... there's a chance!

In an instant, Akashi moved, alternating between his left and right hands as he dribbled past his crotch, his center of gravity lowered as if he were an eagle flying close to the ground!

With his incredible speed and unpredictable angles, in a sense, just looking at the offensive threat alone, Akashi, possessed by a dual personality, is almost on par with Nash!

However... even if Nash himself were to face Xiang Yang, he wouldn't dare say he could score 100% against him.

Just as Akashi's body was about to pass by Xiangyang, Xiangyang suddenly crouched down and, taking advantage of the moment when Akashi switched hands and sped up, swiftly swung his right hand and successfully sliced ​​the basketball!

beep—

Haichang is out of bounds, Luoshan has possession.

The referee's whistle blew, and the fans in the stadium cheered!

In the first individual attack of the game, Xiangyang successfully cut off Akashi's attack, giving Kaijo a winning start!

"Tsk! What a pity."

"The angle was terrible; otherwise, we could have easily intercepted and launched a counter-attack."

Xiangyang looked very regretful, but he secretly glanced at Akashi out of the corner of his eye.

His words had no other purpose than to mess with Akashi's mindset!

Regardless of the player, if they choose to go one-on-one in the first attack of the game and are directly cut out of bounds by the defender, their mentality will be affected to some extent.

Unfortunately, the phrase "any player" here doesn't seem to include Akashi.

"Put away those manipulative tactics you used to win people over. I'm not the same person I was last year."

Akashi calmly said to Xiangyang, just as he said, if it were last year's "Akashi Seijuro" and his attack opportunity had been contained by Xiangyang, he would most likely have already entered a state of "rage".

However, by now, Akashi has long regarded Hikaru as an opponent of the same level, so even if the latter manages to steal the ball from him, he will not feel frustrated.

Looking at Akashi in this posture, Xiangyang clicked his tongue and exclaimed, "Wow... you look really scary right now."

"But I'm not the same person I was last year. That defensive black hole is gone forever!"

Xiang Yang pointed to himself with his thumb and said with a smug look, "Let me reintroduce myself to you, the defensive bulwark of Haichang—Xiang Yang!"

Akashi glanced at Xiangyang and, unusually, didn't refute him. Instead, he acknowledged, "I admit that your current defensive level is frighteningly high."

"However... if you think I'm like Aomine, someone who only solves problems with one-on-one attacks, then you're sorely mistaken!"

As soon as Akashi finished speaking, Reo passed the ball to him again. This time, Akashi did not choose to go one-on-one, but instead called Hirakawa to set a screen for him.

Xiang Yang felt as if there was a wall next to his side, and couldn't help but frown. He tried to back away from Pingchuan's block, but suddenly found that the latter's body moved slightly and blocked his body again.

"Moving pick and roll??"

Xiang Yang was taken aback, but he immediately reacted after realizing that the referee had not blown the whistle. He took two or three steps back to completely avoid Pingchuan's screen.

However, it was too late. Unable to provide timely defensive assistance, Xiangyang could only watch helplessly as Akashi took on Ohara Hiroshi one-on-one, making a nimble mid-range jump shot and scoring the first point of the game.

"I'm sorry."

Ohara gestured, but no one blamed him. After all, it seemed like he shouldn't be the one to defend Akashi.

Kise patted Ohara on the shoulder to comfort him, then turned his gaze to Xiangyang and questioned, "What are you doing, Xiangyang? Why are you so slow on defense?"

For Kaijo, this kind of tactical switching footwork is already commonplace. Even the weakest player on Kaijo's bench would not be slow to get around the screen, let alone Xiangyang. In Kise's eyes, this was already a mistake.

Xiang Yang scratched his head and explained, "Didn't you guys see that guy move to set the screen? It's strange, the referee didn't call it?"

"

(Basketball trivia: Moving screen refers to a player's excessive leaning of the body and footwork during a screen to create an illegal offensive advantage for the team; this is a foul.)

"What? A moving pick and roll? You mean Hirakawa?"

Kise paused for a moment, then pinched his chin with one hand and thought carefully before saying, "No, I don't think I saw him move when he set the screen?"

"Hey Xiangyang! Are you trying to make excuses for your defensive mistakes?"

Kise looked at Xiangyang with suspicion, clearly still resentful about his earlier loss of position.

Hearing this, Xiangyang's expression remained unchanged as he raised his hand and delivered a karate chop to Kise's head. Seeing the latter's unconvinced expression, Xiangyang crossed his arms and said irritably, "Do you think I'm that kind of person? I've always been open about admitting mistakes!"

"Anyway... let's serve first, and I'll observe for a while longer."

Possession returned to Haichang, and Xiangyang dribbled the ball slowly across half-court and began to organize the attack.

Since Yuki had already demonstrated her full potential during the Summer Tournament, Xiangyang has not restricted her performance on the court since the start of the Winter Cup.

When Kise and Yuki each stood on one side of the field, Rakuzan's defense was immediately in a bind!

Looking to the left, Kise needs at least two defenders. Looking to the right, Yuki is also in a situation where one person can't defend her alone. Finally, looking to the middle, Xiangyang is standing there with an innocent look on his face.

It can be said that when these three players are on the same team, even a strong defensive team like Yangquan simply cannot contain each of them!

"During Haichang's offensive round, we can see that Haichang's new trident has taken up positions at the top of the arc! Wow, just seeing those three standing there, you can clearly feel that Luoshan's mood has started to waver!"

Inside the live stream, Bobo continued to professionally explain the match to the viewers.

"Hikari has the ball at the high post, let's see what he chooses. Kise comes over and makes a handoff to him. Oh! Fake pass and drive, Hikari drives towards the paint! Rakuzan reacts quickly and double-teams him. Hikari passes behind his head without looking and gets to Yuuki! Yuuki gets the ball and passes it again! Kise receives the ball on the wing, a wide-open shooting opportunity, Kise shoots... and it goes in!"

Popovich slammed his fist on the table in front of him in an emotional outburst, and not only him, but all the fans in the stadium were also going wild, as if they were on drugs!

Haichang's attack was so smooth that even "pleasing to the eye" couldn't describe the beauty of the three of them working together!

"A very interesting statistic: since the Winter Cup this year, when Xiang You, Kise, and Yuki are all on the court at the same time, Kaijo's overall shooting percentage is 11 percentage points higher than usual!"

"The highest score achieved by all three of them together was 92 points! This surpasses the highest record in the national tournament to date, but unfortunately, this score was achieved during the preliminaries, so it cannot be included in the record..."

On the court, the three players from Xiangyang, who had just completed a brilliant teamwork, gave each other a high five. However, soon after, Akashi led Rakuzan to attack with the ball once again.

Xiangyang waved his hand to signal Kise and Yuki to take their positions, while he stood at the top of the arc waiting for Akashi to attack, but his attention was mostly on Hirakawa Takeshi.

What exactly happened with that pick and roll just now?

Xiang Yang narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Show me again...you annoying guy."

Chapter 213 It's better to make a mistake than to do nothing.

"plain!"

Akashi let out a low growl, and Hirakawa immediately understood, running to Xiangyang's side to set another screen for Akashi.

This time, Xiangyang had spotted Pingchuan in advance, but instead of retreating to make a screen-out move, he waited patiently for Pingchuan to complete the screen before taking action.

Xiangyang stepped back, his hands gently brushing against Pingchuan's back. This was his little trick for getting around screens. By using his hands, he could not only better sense Pingchuan's body position, but also use subtle force to speed up his follow-up.

However, this time, Xiangyang's attempt to bypass Pingchuan was still delayed.

As if it were a mini-version of the previous round, Akashi once again switched his attack to face Hiroshi Ohara and easily scored two points.

Xiang Yang frowned. He looked at the referee on the sidelines, but there was still no sign of him blowing the whistle. He then turned to look at Kise, who shook his head at him. Even Kise couldn't see that Hirakawa intended to move and set a screen.

"This is really troublesome..."

Xiangyang rubbed his hair in frustration. Aside from the possibility that Akashi had bribed the referee to control the game, there was only one other reason that could explain the current situation!

That's Takeshi Hirakawa, whose talent in pick-and-roll is extraordinary!

This sounds a bit unbelievable, after all, basketball has developed for so many years, and the definitions of various rules are already very rigorous.

Especially for the "pick and roll" technique, those strict referees will even judge any slight movement of the screener as a "moving pick and roll"!

In the development of basketball, the "pick and roll" technique has become a kind of innate talent. Players with broad frames and large builds naturally possess extremely high pick-and-roll quality. On the other hand, players with smaller builds are unable to provide good "pick and roll support" for their teammates.

"I never expected that pick-and-roll could be turned into such an elaborate game. This is the damn world of Kuroko's Basketball."

Xiang Yang scoffed and, holding the basketball, charged towards Luoshan's half of the court once again.

[The referee and everyone else don't think he moved to set a screen, am I the only one who thinks so? So... his feet didn't move?]

"Senior Kogoro, come up and block one of them!"

Xiangyang waved to Xiaojue, but he was still pondering Pingchuan's strange pick-and-roll technique.

Could it be that he subtly tilted his body towards us? But that doesn't make sense; the referee couldn't have missed it...

Through "overthinking," Xiangyang was able to multitask on the court, thinking while simultaneously cooperating with Xiaojue to complete a pick-and-roll.

Kobo, rushing towards the paint, didn't disappoint Xiangyang's pass. With a hook shot under the basket, he cleverly dodged Genwu's help defense and scored.

"Yoshia!!"

Kobori raised his hands in a bodybuilder pose, and his excited posture after scoring a goal is already well-known.

"Nice, Kohori-senpai, your biceps are amazing!"

Kise pointed at Hori and praised him, but his unintentional remark startled Xiangyang.

Xiang Yang stared blankly at Kobori, who was still posing in the middle of the Luoshan field. Due to his exertion, his muscular biceps were...

The muscles pulsate subtly under the light, telling a story of the unique beauty of fitness enthusiasts.

Xiang Yang turned to look at Ping Chuan again. This tall forward, who was good at ball control, also had some impressive physical qualities. Even through his jersey, Xiang Yang could see the sharp lines on his body.

A utterly absurd idea popped into Xiangyang's mind.

"This kid... is he using his bulging muscles to block me, or what??"

……

The first quarter was nearing its end.

The battle between Haichang and Luoshan has only just begun.

Haichang leads 33-30.

With Xiangyang as the tactical hub, extending to the offense of Kise and Yuuki, the offensive approach was practically unstoppable. Even with Xiangyang deliberately distributing his shot attempts evenly, both Yuuki and Kise scored 10 points. Xiangyang, on the other hand, scored 6 points, but his stat sheet showed 5 assists.

Overall, Haichang played a great first quarter.

On the other hand, although Rakuzan did not fall too far behind Kaijo in terms of score, more than half of their points were scored by Akashi in combination with Hirakawa.

Through numerous encounters and observations, Xiang Yang has finally figured out the reason behind Pingchuan's "pick and roll".

Just as he expected, this muscular guy would subconsciously tense all his muscles when setting screens, thus making his body appear larger without him even realizing it!

To outsiders, Pingchuan still looked exactly the same as before, but Xiangyang, who was in a flanking position, could keenly perceive this.

Fortunately, there are solutions.