Chapter 240 Wolverine Rules

On this day, a deal took place in the NBA and McGrady was traded to the Rockets.

After Yao Ming heard the news, he was overjoyed and shouted in front of He Zhongqiu that he wanted to advance to the second round.

"Is this all you can do?"

He Zhongqiu said with disdain: "Dayao, if it were me, I would definitely shout out the slogan of killing the Spurs, defeating the Mavericks, and making it to the finals."

"I'm not as crazy as you." Dayao said with a grunt.

"Hey, Yao Ming, you got McGrady here. Does this mean you're getting a helper or a boss?" He Zhongqiu asked curiously.

Dayao continued to grunt: "What do you mean by boss or not?"

"Tsk! Looking at your attitude, you don't seem to be domineering at all. You are not a qualified leader. Your ability to lead a team is limited and you will never amount to anything." He Zhongqiu criticized.

"Don't try to hit me. In this Olympics, it depends on your performance as a leader. You can brag about it after you get the card." Yao Ming said unhappily.

On August 10, the men's basketball team and several other sports arrived in Athens.

On that day, the American Mid-Autumn Film and Television Company posted five clips of He Zhongqiu's film The Iron Eagle King on its official website.

These five clips immediately caused a stir on the Internet. In just two hours, the average number of clicks and searches reached tens of millions.

On the 11th, the NBA issued a rule.

This rule is very strange. It is called the no-claw rule, which explicitly prohibits the use of Eagle Claws for defense in competitions.

The Eagle Claw Kung Fu in the rules is even written in both Chinese and English, as this is to prevent He Zhongqiu from understanding it.

The league also gave an explanation, pointing out that if He Zhongqiu used the Eagle Claw Kung Fu, which has great lethality, in the game, it would pose a threat to the attacker's life, thereby gaining unfair benefits, so it is prohibited.

This rule was also called the Wolverine Rule by the media.

"Ha ha……"

After seeing this rule, Yao Ming laughed so hard that he couldn't stop.

On this day, the American men's basketball team, known as the Dream Team 6 by the media, arrived in Athens.

The head coach of this US team is Larry Brown, and the members are Duncan, Odom, Okafor, Stoudemire, Anthony, Boozer, Jefferson, Marion, James, Wade, Iverson, Marbury,

This time the men's basketball team is divided into Group A and Group B, and the Chinese team is in Group A.

Group A: Spain, China, Serbia and Montenegro, Argentina, Italy, New Zealand
Group B: United States, Greece, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, Australia, Angola
According to media analysis, each team in Group A is very strong, but China has the NBA's top center He Zhongqiu, as well as two NBA-level centers Yao Min and Wang Zhizhi, and its chances of qualifying rank first in Group A.

On the 12th, after He Zhongqiu had dinner, he started wandering around the Olympic Village again.

Wherever he goes, there are a lot of athletes from all over the world surrounding him and asking for his autograph. The title of Hollywood action superstar and Kung Fu King is not false.

It just so happened that the trailers for his Iron Eagle King came out, and in less than two days, the total number of hits for the five trailers reached 300 million.

In a word, Iron Eagle King is still being filmed, but it has already become a global hit.

No. 13, opening ceremony.

As China's most famous superstar, He Zhongqiu served as the flag bearer.

On August 8, the men's basketball team faced its first opponent, the European powerhouse Spain.

China fielded Yao Min, He Zhongqiu, Zhu Fangyu, Li Nan and Liu Wei in the starting lineup.

They still used the double tower tactics, with Yao Ming sitting under the basket and He Zhongqiu playing at the power forward position, responsible for sweeping and assisting in the outside defense.

The core of Spain is Gasol, a center with very comprehensive skills.

At the beginning of the first quarter, He Zhongqiu successfully jumped the ball, then took the ball in a high position, attracting the Spanish defense. Yao Ming took the opportunity to cut in from the low post on the left wing, received the ball and dunked for a score.

Spain was attacking, Yao Ming was defending Gasol alone, and his block affected the opponent's shot. He Zhongqiu rushed down to grab the backcourt rebound.

This time, Yao Ming was in the high position and He Zhongqiu entered the basket.

During last year's Asian Championships, He Zhongqiu did not have the ability to shoot from mid-range, and the high-post double-tower tactics were greatly restricted.

But now that he has a mid-range shot, the high-post double-tower tactics are very effective.

He and Yao Ming take turns playing in the low post, which distributes physical energy more reasonably and makes it more difficult for opponents to defend.

As soon as he reached the low post, he pushed Gasol directly into the basket. Facing his strength and confrontation, Gasol was unable to resist.

"boom!"

Next, Yao Ming passed the ball, and He Zhongqiu turned around forcefully after receiving the ball, completing a fierce two-handed dunk that made Gasol pale.

"The Sharks can't even beat Zhongqiu now. Gasol is totally not good enough." Commentator Xu Jicheng laughed.

Sun Zhenping said with a smile: "Gasol and Yao Ming can still play, their strength should be comparable, but in front of the Mid-Autumn Festival, they are really not good enough."

0:4, Spain attacks.

This time, He Zhongqiu followed the Spanish power forward out of the penalty area, and Yao Ming defended Gasol in the penalty area.

The ball was passed to Gasol in the low post on the left wing.

The next moment, He Zhongqiu, who was outside the right waist position, turned around and pounced on Gasol, double-teaming him.

Gasol received the ball and turned around to slide to the bottom, but was blocked by He Zhongqiu under the basket.

"Oh!"

He slammed into He Zhongqiu's body, and the reaction force was so huge that he fell to the ground, and the ball lost control and rolled out of the baseline.

"Di!"

The referee immediately signaled a switch in offense and defense.

"Beautiful! Since last season, Zhongqiu's assist and backup defense have been getting better and better. Maybe he can make it into the NBA's best defensive team next season." Xu Jicheng said with a smile.

"With Yao Ming and Zhong Qiu, there will be no problem with our offense. They take turns playing, and with the outside shooting, we have a chance to beat Spain with our offense," said Sun Zhenping.

Yao Ming was in the high post, the ball was given to him first, then he passed it to He Zhongqiu. Spain immediately double-teamed the basket. At this time, He Zhongqiu passed the ball, and Yao Ming made an open jump shot in the high post and made a shot.

"It's so easy! Haha, 0:6, leading by 6 points." Xu Jicheng laughed.

"Whether it is Yao Ming or Zhong Qiu, they both have the ability to attract double-teaming under the basket, which is very suitable for the double tower tactics." Sun Zhenping said excitedly.

At this time, Spain's outside line opened fire, and its small forward hit a three-pointer, narrowing the gap to three points.

The Huaxia team launched a fast break, and Zhu Fangyu was not willing to be outdone. He made a three-pointer, which was considered a return of the ball to the opponent.

"Snapped!"

The Spanish shooting guard took another three-pointer, but unexpectedly He Zhongqiu rushed over, flew out from behind Li Nan, waved his hand and blocked the shot directly.

"Oh ho!"

Red flags immediately flew in the stadium, and countless Greek fans immediately gave very warm cheers.

"boom!"

At this time, He Zhongqiu personally held the ball and made a fast break. Gasol did not return to defense in time from the basket, and the others did not dare to go up. He broke into the restricted area from the left elbow area, jumped up and made a one-arm big loop dunk, which blew up the Spanish basket.

"Oh ho!"

Warm cheers rang out in the stadium again.

"This has become our home court." Xu Jicheng laughed.

Gasol attacked with the ball again. After a series of dribbles, he was about to turn around and hook shot, but unexpectedly He Zhongqiu came to assist again and directly intercepted his ball.

"Beautiful! Zhongqiu succeeded in assisting defense for the third time." Sun Zhenping shouted excitedly. Fast break started again, He Zhongqiu used his speed to shake off Gasol, rushed to the basket first, and received Liu Wei's pass and jumped up.

"boom!"

A one-handed slam dunk once again ignited the stadium.

After the first quarter, 13:26, the Huaxia team led by 13 points.

Yao Min played for 8 minutes and scored 5 points on 3 of 6 shots.

He Zhongqiu played the entire quarter, made 7 of 6 shots, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 14 points.

The two combined to score 20 points, defeating Spain on the offensive end.

On the defensive end, the two teamed up to prevent Gasol from making only 6 of 1 shots, making it impossible for Spain's low-post offense to work at all, and they had to rely solely on outside offense to hold up their sights.

However, Spain is indeed strong. In the second quarter, they launched a counterattack while He Zhongqiu was resting on the sidelines. Relying on their firepower from the outside, they narrowed the gap to 7 points.

But with He Zhongqiu coming on the court, the Huaxia team launched a 20-to- attack wave, widening the score difference to points before the end of the second quarter, thus securing the victory.

At the end of the game, the score was 65:92, Hua Xia won by 27 points and won the first group match.

The next day, on the 16th, the United States played against Puerto Rico.

The media unanimously believed that the Dream Team 6 would win a landslide victory. He Zhongqiu also thought so. He was even too lazy to go to the scene to watch the game. A group of players huddled together to watch TV.

However, the result made everyone drop their jaws, 73:93, the Dream Team 20 lost by points.

"This damn American team is just a paper tiger!"

He Zhongqiu suddenly realized and shouted to Dayao and others: "Brothers, if we don't fight for the championship this time, we will be sorry for ourselves!"

For a moment, everyone was excited.

After calming down, Yao Ming analyzed: "The Dream Team 6 does not have a proper center. This is our advantage and we should make good use of it."

He Zhongqiu said excitedly: "We are not as good as them on the outside, so we will play low-post offense with them, and you and I will take turns to beat them.

They only have one Tim Duncan in the paint, and I'm here to defend him, but he can't get into the paint, and the others are not good enough."

The players' restlessness immediately alarmed the Basketball Center, and then the Chinese Athens Olympic Committee.

Although the IOC's external publicity was very low-key, the men's basketball team's goal this time was only to get into the top four, but the internal goal was to be in the top three and strive for medals.

Hearing that the players were eyeing the gold medal, the top brass were excited but also very worried. From the Chairman of the IOC to the Director of the Basketball Management Center, they all came over to calm the players down.

On the 17th, the Chinese team defeated New Zealand by 55 points with a score of 95:40 and won the second group match.

On the 18th, the US team defeated Greece 77:71, but only won by 6 points.

On the 19th, the Chinese team faced their third group stage opponent, Argentina.

Facing the inconspicuous Argentina, whose biggest star was only Ginobili of the Spurs, the Chinese team did not take it seriously, and the media generally believed that the Chinese team would win the game easily.

However, in line with the principle of caution, the top management came to the men's basketball team's base the night before to do ideological work. In a word, we must not be careless and must do our utmost like a lion fighting a rabbit.

After the game started, we encountered difficulties as expected.

In the 7th minute of the first quarter, under Ginobili's continuous breakthroughs, Yao Ming committed two fouls and was replaced by Wang Zhizhi.

The score at this time was 12:17, with the Huaxia team leading by 5 points.

"Yao Yao has an old problem and can't control his fouls. In this respect, he is not as good as Zhongqiu." Xu Jicheng said.

Sun Zhenping nodded and said: “In the 02/03 season, when I first commented on the game of Zhongqiu, he couldn’t control his fouls. At that time, he was still a rookie who had just started professional basketball.

But after only two seasons, he has already controlled his fouls very well, which is indeed better than Yao Ming and worth learning from."

He Zhongqiu returned to the five position, sitting under the basket, and was responsible for following out and defending.

But then Argentina played a full-court pressing tactic, causing the Chinese team to make consecutive mistakes. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 18:19, and the Chinese team was only leading by 1 point.

"We need to pay attention to this. There were too many turnovers from the outside. There were 8 turnovers in the whole quarter, two from the inside and 6 from the outside. That's too many." Sun Zhenping reminded anxiously.

"Yes, if it weren't for Zhongqiu's high offensive efficiency, he made 5 of 4 shots and 4 of 3 free throws, scoring 11 points by himself, and also had a block and a steal. We would have fallen behind." Xu Jicheng said.

Sun Zhenping said: "We should focus on inside offense and reduce mistakes, and we should focus on defense outside, because their outside offense is too strong."

Xu Jicheng said: "Their perimeter defense is strong, and we made too many mistakes on the perimeter. Fortunately, our interior defense is good and we didn't let them launch a big attack wave, otherwise it would have been bad."

Sun Zhenping nodded and said, "Every time it was the inside defense and the mid-autumn offense that interrupted their attack waves in time and prevented Argentina from showing its momentum."

At this time, the second quarter begins.

He Zhongqiu and young player Yi Jianlian teamed up, he was responsible for guarding the basket, and Yi Jianlian followed him out.

"With Yao Ming not playing, Yi Jianlian's speed is actually average, especially his lateral speed," said Xu Jicheng.

"Let's see the results. With Zhongqiu's defense, there is no need for Yi Jianlian's assistance. Yi Jianlian just needs to defend his own position. The same goes for other positions." Sun Zhenping said.

Argentina attacked, all five players were pulled out, there was no one in the penalty area, and then Ginobili started to break through.

With his irregular European steps, he quickly broke through the double-team of Liu Wei and Zhang Jinsong, broke through Yi Jianlian's second line of defense, and made his way into the penalty area very sharply.

At this time, He Zhongqiu had already returned to the restricted area. Ginobili stopped suddenly in front of the basket, then changed direction and made an upward jump shot.

He Zhongqiu stepped forward and blocked the shot, forcing Ginobili to adjust his shooting angle. The basketball slipped over his fingertips and he turned around immediately after landing.

"Bang!"

It was a little short, and the basketball hit the rim and bounced back, and was caught by him.

"Alas, when playing against Argentina, China couldn't launch fast breaks. Our ball control ability was far inferior to that of the opponent, and the slightest pressing could result in mistakes." Xu Jicheng sighed.

Sun Zhenping nodded in agreement, "When the Knicks played against the Lakers, fast breaks were a powerful weapon that made the Lakers suffer."

Argentina tried to press the entire court again, and He Zhongqiu and Yi Jianlian supported the team all the way to avoid any mistakes.

Del Harris' offensive tactics are quite simple. When Yao Ming is not there and only He Zhongqiu is on the court, he will pass the ball directly to the basket and let him play.

Liu Wei saw He Zhongqiu enter the basket and immediately lobbed the ball in.

The Argentine players turned around and rushed into the penalty area like sharks smelling blood.

"boom!"

But He Zhongqiu's strength under the basket was too outstanding. Even under a three-team situation, he completed a two-handed slam dunk after receiving the ball, causing a foul by the opponent's center Oberto, and even directly dunked over his opponent.

Oberto is 208 cm tall and weighs 111 kg. He also wants to play in the NBA. The Spurs have contacted him and he is confident in his abilities.

However, He Zhongqiu's attack made him realize that the strength of the NBA's top center was not something he could contend with.

Argentina attacked and Ginobili broke through with the ball again.

"Double-team faster."

Gong Luming yelled loudly on the sidelines.

This time, after Ginobili broke through the double-team of Liu Wei and Zhang Jinsong, he was blocked by Yi Jianlian. Then He Zhongqiu rushed forward again. He was double-teamed by four people outside the right waist position. Finally, Zhang Jinsong took the opportunity to steal the ball.

"Don't be impatient, just play steady."

Gong Luming saw Zhang Jinsong steal the ball and shouted loudly.

Several mistakes in the first quarter were made during fast breaks. Facing Argentina's defense, head coach Harris felt that it was more advantageous to play a positional battle and did not arrange any fast break counterattack tactics.

(End of this chapter)