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

Masako crossed her arms and stared coldly at the Kaijo bench. Over there, Xiangyang noticed Masako's gaze, raised his water bottle, and gave her a toast.

"That bastard..."

Yako bit her lip. Although she knew that Xiangyang was deliberately trying to provoke her, she still couldn't help but get angry. After all, Xiangyang's ability to make sarcastic remarks was truly exceptional.

"Murasakibara."

Masako turned her head and looked at Murasakibara with a serious expression: "If this continues, we will be in great danger."

At this moment, only two points have been scored in the second quarter, and the difference between the two teams is only three points, 32-29, with Haichang leading.

The point difference may not seem like much, but everyone on the Yangquan team knows very well that if Haichang is allowed to use the "slaughter tactics" like this, and given that Ziyuan is not making free throws, the point difference will eventually widen.

Murasakibara took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and solemnly said, "I understand, Coach. Leave it to me."

If those bastards keep using this tactic on me, then I'm going to make those free throws!

Just as Murasakibara was making a silent vow in his heart, the whistle signaling the end of the pause rang out.

However, this time, Hai Chang's decision once again surprised Yang Quan.

The two players from the Kaijo atmosphere group did not continue to play. Instead, Moriyama and Tanaka, who had been substituted off earlier, were brought back on the field.

This means that Haichang does not intend to continue the "cutting the mound tactic".

"What are you doing? What wicked scheme are you plotting now?"

Murasakibara frowned and asked Xiangyang, who looked blank and asked in return, "What's wrong? We're going to play, aren't we allowed to make substitutions?"

As he spoke, Xiangyang blinked repeatedly, as if he hadn't understood Murasakibara's meaning.

Seeing Xiangyang's expression, Murasakibara's face twitched several times. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but then swallowed his words back. In the end, Murasakibara could only turn away angrily, leaving Xiangyang with his back turned.

"You finally mentally prepared yourself for the free throws, but when you get on the court, you find that you don't have to shoot any. Doesn't that feel like punching a pillow, Murasakibara?"

Xiangyang licked his lips, watching Murasakibara's departing figure, a knowing smile appearing on his face.

He wasn't naive enough to think he could take down Yangquan with just a few tricks. Even if Murasakibara's free throw shooting was inconsistent, there was still a limit.

If they commit too many fouls, allowing Murasakibara to get into a shooting rhythm, it could backfire.

"So, we still need to rely on real skill."

Yangquan's right to kick off

When the pause ended, Murasakibara was clearly seething with anger, especially after seeing Xiangyang make fun of him; this anger reached its peak!

After receiving the ball at the high post, Himuro executed a simple pick-and-roll with Murasakibara, who then received the pass and immediately scored two goals.

He strode into the paint and slammed the ball into the hoop with a tomahawk dunk, scoring the first basket since the timeout!

As Murasakibara landed, cheers erupted from the Yangquan fans. However, amidst the cheers, Xiangyang immediately ran out of bounds and, before the Yangquan fans could react, made a long pass across the court, sending the basketball into Yuki's hands.

In a mere three seconds, Yuuki, like a bolt of lightning, dashed from midcourt to the basket in Yangquan's half of the court. With a quick stop, she took two steps and leaped, unleashing a powerful, one-handed, fiery dunk! Yuuki's dunk was different from Murasakibara's style, but equally explosive in its fast break!

Before the cheers from the Yangquan fans had even finished, the cheers from the Haichang fans had already begun. With such a fast-paced game, everyone in the stands was focused on the match, afraid of missing a single exciting moment.

Thus, with Haichang temporarily setting aside its "cutting the block" tactic, Yangquan and Haichang seemed to be recreating the scene from the first quarter, but this time, there were some differences.

During a round of offense by Kaijo, Moriyama accidentally passed the ball too low, causing it to hit a player's foot. Due to the rebound force, the basketball flew directly into an unoccupied area. Xiang Yang, quick-witted and agile, was the first to react and rushed towards the ball.

Xiang Yang thought he had the ball in his grasp as the person closest to the basketball, but to his surprise, Yangquan's point guard Chang Zhe rushed over the same moment he moved, and the instant Xiang Yang touched the ball, Chang Zhe leaped up and knocked the basketball out of bounds.

As the referee blew his whistle, Xiang Yang stared at Chang Zhe in shock. He had never expected that this mediocre guy would have such drive when it came to winning the loose ball.

Not every player can put their own safety aside during a match.

In addition, Himuro and Yuki also began their match in the second half of the second quarter.

After a period of reflection in the first quarter, Himuro found his rhythm first and unleashed his "zone" mode, successfully suppressing Yuki. However, his good fortune didn't last long. After Higashi shared the "zone" mode with Yuki, the duel between the two suddenly became intense.

Himuro used his "Kagerou Shot" as his core technique and successfully broke through Yuki's defense with his incredibly stable core strength. Yuki, in turn, showcased her lightning-fast first step to the fullest with the support of "Zone" mode.

The one-on-one duel between the two even overshadowed the rivalry between Murasakibara and Xiangyang, since a duel between two players in the same position is arguably the most popular thing for the audience.

The game continued until the end of the first half, with both sides trading wins and losses in the offensive and defensive battles. The final score was 54-51, with Haichang in the lead.

During halftime, in the Haichang locker room

"They're more troublesome than I thought, Xiangyang."

Takeuchi stroked his chin, his brows furrowed slightly, as he flipped through the tactical board in his hand.

Xiang Yang pondered for a moment, then replied, "Their determination to compete is very strong, compared to..."

Compared to previous encounters, Yangquan is probably at his strongest today.

For some reason, the momentum of the Yangquan team has not weakened at all as the competition has progressed, and it even seems to be getting stronger.

This is not good news for Haichang.

Takeuchi glanced around the locker room, then leaned close to Xiangyang's ear and whispered, "It's about time, isn't it?"

Xiang Yang's eyes flickered, and he laughed, "Of course, at this critical juncture, if we keep it hidden, it won't be a trump card, but a joke."

Xiangyang cracked his neck a few times, then stood up and cleared his throat lightly.

Although the noise was not loud, the originally noisy Haichang changing room seemed to have been switched on and immediately became quiet.

Xiangyang's voice came from the middle of the locker room.

"In the second half, Tanaka and Moriyama should both go off the field for a rest."

"Fukuhara, Shimamura."

Xiang Yang looked over and asked, "Is everything alright?"

Fukuhara rolled up his sleeves, rubbing his nose as he chuckled, "Of course! I've been waiting for this for ages!"

"We've trained for so long, but we haven't used it in an official match yet!"

Compared to Fukuhara, Shimamura's reaction was much calmer. He simply nodded slightly and said to Mukayo, "Senior, I will do my best."

Just then, the whistle blew to end the halftime break.

Xiangyang withdrew his gaze, stretched, and then held out his palm to the air.

At that moment, all the members of Haichang instinctively placed their palms together above the sun.

Xiangyang blinked and looked around at his teammates, each of whom had an expectation of victory on their face.

"Seriously... I really don't feel interested in doing this kind of plot that only happens in cartoons."

Xiangyang's lazy voice came from the dressing room, but it was immediately followed by a strong and powerful voice.

"Haichang!"

"Championship!"

……

……

"Welcome to the special episode of Basketball Talk, exclusively sponsored by the Akashi family conglomerate. The game is now officially in its second half!"

Inside the organizer's live broadcast room, Bobo held the microphone in one hand and enthusiastically explained the event to the audience.

"Let's take a look at the personnel changes on Yangquan's side...emm, it's exactly the same starting lineup as in the first quarter. It looks like Yangquan is determined to win today."

Popovich glanced at the stats panel on the scorer's table and continued, "So far, Yangquan's star player, Murasakibara Dun, has racked up a spectacular stat line of 20 points and 13 rebounds. It looks like his scoring breakthrough of 30 points is a sure thing until the end of the game."

"As for Yangquan's second star and core outside player, Himuro Tatsuya, he scored 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, which is also quite impressive."

"Let's take a look at Kaijo's side. In the second half, Kaijo chose to substitute two first-year students and brought on two other first-year students, namely Fukuhara Toshihide and Shimamura Toshihiro."

At this point, Popovich frowned slightly, instinctively sensing something was amiss. However, as a top-tier basketball blogger and commentator, his excellent professionalism compelled him to continue.

go with.

"So far in this year's competition, all four first-year students from Kaijo have achieved good results. Fukuhara also played in the last game against Shutoku. He averaged 7.1 points and 5.4 rebounds, and he is a great asset to Kaijo... Wait, am I seeing things?"

Bobo was stunned for a moment, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the broadcast again. The next moment, a look of shock appeared on his face, and he screamed, "My God, what am I seeing! Haichang's starting lineup for the second half has no center!"

"Center? Look, isn't he over there?"

On the field, Himuro also noticed the problem and subtly hinted at it to Hikaru. However, when Hikaru heard him, he simply pointed to Ohara and showed no intention of pausing to make a substitution.

Himuro froze, staring at Ohara, and couldn't help but mutter to himself: This guy... I remember he's been playing power forward since last year, right?

In fact, there are no very clear divisions among the five positions in basketball. If a player has a wide range of abilities, then as long as his technical skills meet the requirements, he can even switch between the five positions from point guard to center.

The most typical example is Teppei Kiyoshi, the big man who played like a point guard at the center position.

On the surface, it doesn't seem like there's much of a problem for Hiroshi Ohara, who is nearly 1.95 meters tall, to play center in high school tournaments, since the previous year's champion center, Hiroshi Kobori, is about the same height as Ohara.

However, the real problem lies with the fourth position in the Kaijo family.

When Takeuchi handed his team's starting lineup for the second half to the technical table, one of the staff members looked at him with a "Are you crazy?" expression.

When Ohara switched from the power forward position to the center position, Kaijo also substituted the only player on the team who was over two meters tall (Tanaka). This meant that among the two players who came on the court, only Fukuhara, who was 1.91 meters tall, looked somewhat like a power forward.

Yangquan, a team known for its tall interior players, has an average height of 2.05 meters for the other three starting players, excluding Bing Shi and another starting player.

“You know what, buddy? If I went to my buddies right now and told them there’s a basketball team whose tallest player is only 195cm, but they’re going to play against a bunch of players who are all nearly 2 meters tall and still want to win… they’d think I’m crazy.”

The staff member held the starting lineup for Kaijo in his hand and spoke to Takeuchi with a strange look on his face.

To the staff's "well-intentioned advice," Takeuchi shrugged and said, "Just watch, my players will deliver a fantastic performance."

On the court, Murasakibara stood next to Ohara. He looked at Fukuhara and Shimamura, who had just entered the game, and couldn't help but say to Xiangyang, "You're not going to use a tactical foul to send me to the free-throw line again, are you? I'm warning you, I won't be affected by your little tricks now."

Xiang Yang paused for a moment, looking at the serious expression on Murasakibara's face, and couldn't help but chuckle: "You know what, it really does look like we're going to continue with the 'cutting the mound' tactic."

"But you've guessed wrong, Murasakibara."

... "

Xiang Yang smiled and shook his head, saying meaningfully, "Next, you might experience a fate worse than death."

……

……

"Players, please take your positions."

"Beep—The match begins!"

In the third quarter, Hai Chang had the first attacking opportunity.