Chapter 531

Chapter 531 Everybody is dreaming!

The Blazers were also warming up just like the Lakers.

They felt a bit amused by the cheering and the support shown by the Chinese fans to Chen Huan.

“So, are you scared?” Alan Crabbe slightly jabbed at Damian Lillard right next to him.

“Haha.” Damian Lillard laughed but the contempt was clear from his eyes.

“Let’s not be careless.” The center Plumlee said. “It’ll be very hard to defend Kobe and Iverson tonight so you need to respond on the offensive end…just drag out Kobe and Iverson’ stamina and we’ll definitely win once they’re done!”

“Yeah.” Lillard immediately agreed with it, “Don’t worry, I’m playing 48 minutes tonight! We must win the first game against Kobe and Iverson! If we tire those two old men and get the first game, their mentality won’t be enough for the remaining games!”

Damian Lillard had been a star for a few years and wasn’t a rookie that got beaten repeatedly anymore when he came to the league.

Since he was in the playoff, he obviously wanted to win the trophy.

“They are known for never giving up.” Plumlee said, “You guys have to be cautious.”

“Mason, you’re being too wary.” Allen Crabbe patted his shoulder, “We are only a few years older than one of those two if you add Damian and me together. How can’t we defeat them when we are in such good shape with strong and healthy bodies? We can give our all and recover by tomorrow but them? It’ll take at least a few days!”

Another basketball genius McCollum agreed with that, “Allen is right! Even if they had the wills, time has caught up to them and this is our time now! There will be a gap when they leave the court and mustn’t let that pass by! So, like Damian, I’ll also play the whole game!”

Plumlee stopped talking after seeing the attitude from the two core pieces of the team.

He didn’t really believe the Lakers could win.

In February, Kobe and Iverson showed signs of tiredness so they took more than half a month of rest.

But how could 40 and 37 years old bodies recuperate fast and adapt to the high-intensity competition?

It was very likely that they would pump out their energy and never reach their full capacity back, and would only get worse and worse. They wouldn’t be able to shine in the playoff and end up being eliminated.

That was why they were very excited after getting the Lakers in the playoff.

At the beginning of the game, Plumlee decided to use his body to bully the two veterans.

The reason he warned his teammate was because the head coach Terry Scotts asked him to keep the team calm and not get careless.

Looking at their lineup, except for Kobe and Iverson, which of their other three starters looked like elite players?

In particular the recently joined Chinese teenager, he looked thin and weak, he should fly away when touched, right?

The Lakers were really out of their minds!

In such an important game one, they went for the surprise pick instead of stability?

This thin and young Chinese boy completely didn’t look like a secret trump card!

Even God would not forgive them if they still couldn’t win this game!

Today’s ref was the veteran Jason Phillips.

At 8.58pm, the ref greeted the players from both teams and was ready to get the game going.

Roy Hibbert was at the center for the Lakers.

On the back row, Kobe stood at the center with Chen Huan at his right and Iverson at his left.

The furthest back was D’Angelo Russell.

(TLN: The fuck is this lineup!?)

The Blazers had Plumlee at the center against Hibbert with Damian Lillard and McCollum at the furthest back and Aminu and Allen Crabbe further forward.

The two on-site commentators Teacher Su and Teacher Wang couldn’t understand the lineup either as they talked about it.

TNT commentators were Jeff Van Gundy and Shaquille O’Neal as they also had their own opinions about this.

“The Lakers lineup seemed to show that they wanted to go on the offensive right at the bat! The most surprising thing is Chen Huan in the starting lineup!” Van Gundy said in shock, “I thought he would come up at the second half of the first quarter and play as the substitute but he’s playing as the starter?”

“Haha, I think their minds are clouded.” O’Neal said, “Damian Lillard and McCollum are obviously good offensive and defensive players so they wouldn’t definitely be able to restrain their offense. If Kobe isn’t in form, Iverson wouldn’t be able to get the help and the Rookie Russell wouldn’t be able to take such a heavy responsibility, let alone the other rookie who never played a competitive game.”

O’Neal was Kobe’s biggest detractor so he obviously couldn’t say anything good about him and wouldn’t view highly the people Kobe picked.

“This isn’t necessarily true. If Chen Huan shows half of what he showed during the preseason, he would be a good support.” Van Gundy said while laughing, “I recently watched multiple times of his preseason games and it really looked like Iverson when he just debuted! Even bolder than Iverson!”

“We will see.” O’Neal didn’t continue to argue with him but was ready to violently slap his face.

It was soon 8:59 pm.

The atmosphere became slightly tense.

The fans at the arena also subconsciously lowered their voices.

The players started to focus.

Hibbert and Plumlee were obviously responsible for the jump ball.

Hibbert was 7cm taller than Pumlee and also had longer arms.

Coupled that the both of them weren’t much of a jumper or jump ball king, the Lakers grabbed the ball and it was something everybody expected.

“You want to get this possession?” Kobe asked Chen Huan.

“Okay!” Chen Huan agreed with calmness and no hint of nervousness.

Chen Huan was actually a bit excited to use for the first time ‘Professional Basketball (Legend)’ but he hid emotion well.

Their talk obviously wasn’t heard in the broadcast but in the replay, they would actually catch their words.

Kobe nodded slightly after seeing how calm Chen Huan was.

He was also worried Chen Huan would be too nervous or excited.

Now it seemed he had nerves of steel.

“Roy, number 2!”

Kobe raised his voice and shouted.

Hibbert didn’t look back but he must have heard it.

When the referee whistled and threw the ball up, Hibbert and Plumlee jumped shortly after.

The Blazers were aware of Plumlee’s jumping ball skill.

So quickly went to defend.

Sure enough, Hibbert got the ball after a ‘Pah’ but the ball went forward.

McCollum, who was retreating to defend, suddenly saw the ball go to his side.

He subconsciously stretched his hand to get it but heard someone shout nearby him.

“Care!”

This was Aminu yelling.

Why was he yelling?

McCollum’s mind was still a bit muddled as his hand touched the ball.

But a huge force came as the ball in his hand was stolen away.

Then McCollum saw a player in a purple and gold jersey fly by him.

He wanted to pull that person’s jersey but he couldn’t even touch the shadow.

Lillard ran a bit faster than McCollum and saw it was the Chinese player. He was shocked but quickly ran toward him.

But he was still not fast enough as Chen Huan passed by him and went straight toward Allen Crabbe and Aminu who were waiting under the basket.

“Come!”

Crabbe rushed forward and faked a foul move as if he wanted to slap Chen Huan on the face.

As long as Chen Huan got intimidated, he would be able to slow down Chen Huan’s charge and maybe even steal the ball.

But Chen Huan didn’t even blink as he did a crossover and a spin as he body leaned toward Crabbe and directly blew by him.

The remaining hurdle was Aminu who didn’t move from his spot.

Seeing that Chen Huan took two steps and jumped up, Aminu also leaped up without any fear and stretched out his long arms to cover the shooting range.

*Bam!*

When the two bodies collided, one bounced off while the other was still ascending and slammed the ball into the hoop.

*Tap*

Chen Huan jumped down from the basket.

Aminu, who was knocked down to the ground, was screaming in pain and couldn’t get up at all.

He glanced at Aminu coldly but also didn’t do any celebration and acted as if it was some normal basket from the training ground and left toward his own side of the court.

The arena was silent.

The people were stuinned.

Even the most excited DJ couldn’t believe what he saw as his eyes widened.

O’Neal, who was about to trash the Lakers, had his eyes widened and it was bigger than bullseyes.

WTF!

This was a rookie?!

This was a rookie who never played in the NBA before!?

This was a 17 years old from China!?

This world was too crazy!

Van Gundy was dumbfounded.

He just said that Chen Huan was like Iverson when he was young but he didn’t expect Chen Huan’s first possession would act like Iverson.

Chen Huan’s dunk was also very domineering.

He knocked Aminu out of the air.

Aminu was a big man who was 2.06 meter tall and weighed 117KG!

Did Chen Huan’s thin body even weigh 80kg?

This amount of athletic ability, only a few people like fucking Anthony Davis or Lebron James had it, right?

But they were all NBA superstars!

And it took them years of training to have bodies like that!

They definitely didn’t have a body like that in their first game and first year!

How could Chen Huan be so strong?

The Blazers action also was quite ridiculous.

They didn’t even go to check their teammate who was on the ground crying but looked at each other.

As if they were trying to confirm whether they were dreaming or not.

What?

They already made the decision to take the lead but this kid came out of nowhere and even gave them a knock by surprise!

Blew by three people, knocking down one and doing a perfect one-hand dunk.

The whole thing took less than 5 seconds!

Were they really not dreaming?

Since when basketball was played like that…