Chapter 410 Training for the Movie 4
The Duke Blue Devils team did not expect the Tar Heels team to start putting so much pressure on the attack playing as a visitor and knowing they needed to win, and even if they knew it was difficult to stop the Tar Heels attack this season.
So, in addition to reinforcing the defense, the Duke Blue Devils team knew they needed to attack if they wanted to have a chance to win in that game, the strength of this team was the three-point play and the fact that the whole team attacked together and everyone had the quality to attack and defend.
They had no main players that stood out much more than the others and even those in the reserve could decide an important game, it was because of that style of play that everyone was important that the Duke Blue Devils team always had a team strong.
So the Tar Heels team was also prepared to defend this game against this difficult opponent, Jake was not defending against anyone in this 1st half of the game and was just watching if someone would perform better and so he would defend against that person.
Jake only defended against the best players in the three-point line, but the truth was that when he didn"t defend against anyone he sometimes played better because he could defend against more opponents even if he couldn"t block by playing like that.
In another play the Duke Blue Devils team was attacking, after a good play in which the Tar Heels defense could not keep up with the left ball for Roshown McLeod, Jake was defending on the left side and so McLeod was free to try the outside shot to making 3 more points for the Duke Blue Devils team.
The Duke Blue Devils team still tried to react by making a good game in the attack, but with Jake and Jamison leading the attack of the Tar Heels team it was difficult for the Duke Blue Devils team to defend or lessen the advantage on the scoreboard.
In another move Jake advanced the ball even before the three-point line and pa.s.sed to Williams on the right, Williams was also fine in that 1st half of the game, but he couldn"t score much because Jake was attacking more with Jamison and Carter.
Williams pa.s.sed the ball to Okulaja further down the right, Okulaja tried to advance the ball to try to enter the painted area, but the Duke Blue Devils team"s defense was strong in the painted area.
So Okulaja had to stop and pa.s.s the ball farther back to Jake in the middle, when Jake took the ball the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team went to defend by the side of Jamison and Carter, Williams was open on the right and Okulaja was more in the middle.
Seeing this, Jake made a feint and tricked the opponent by advancing on the almost empty right, the defense players of the Duke Blue Devils team realized this and some players on the left went to the right trying to defend against Jake.
Jake moved forward with speed and when he found Trajan Langdon he did a quick crossover and managed to get rid of Langdon going through the middle, Jake made a mess in the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team who sent another player to defend against Jake.
Jake didn"t try to go any further when he saw that more players from the Duke Blue Devils team came to defend against him and pa.s.sed the ball to Carter further down the left, with the players who came to defend against Jake and the player who was defending against Jamison, Carter can receive the ball freely and make a dunk to cheer up teammates and make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
With Jake"s leaders.h.i.+p in the strong attack of the Tar Heels team they ended the 1st half by winning the game with a big advantage on the scoreboard, with that advantage unless the players of the Tar Heels team made a mistake they would easily win that game.
In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and had 16 points, 5 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, and 6 steals, Jake was satisfied with the performance of his teammates in that game and everyone was trying as hard as they could to bring victory for the Tar Heels team.
"What a great performance from the Tar Heels team players in this game, everyone is playing well and Jamison returned to playing well with 12 points until that point in the game, Jake is having an easier time organizing the attacks in that game and he himself scored 16 points in the 1st half of the game."
"The players on the Duke Blue Devils team also performed well, but they made a lot of mistakes and Jake even hindered the Duke Blue Devils team by making 6 steals, so they scored fewer points than the Tar Heels team."
"It is true, but this result does not decide the game, I could see that some players on the Tar Heels team ended up tired this 1st half because of the intensity of the last games and because of the pressure as well."
"The Duke Blue Devils team still has a chance of winning the game even with the Tar Heels team having such a great advantage at the end of the 1st half, the players of the Duke Blue Devils team have the skill and because the reserves play well in the game the initial players they"re not that tired."
"I don"t think so, from what we are seeing in this game if Jake continues to play well and the defense of the Tar Heels team plays well the victory is guaranteed, Jake usually has more than 30 points in all games, so he should get another 14 points at least and there are his teammates."
The commentators were divided in that game as well as all the sports media were, this was because some wanted to see the Tar Heels team lose to the Duke Blue Devils team before the start of the ACC tournament and others wanted to see the Tar Heels team continue to win until they won again the NCAA tournament this season.
It would be a very good story for reporters to see the defeat of the Tar Heels team and the end of their winning streak without achieving the record that they so wanted to be the second team with the longest winning streak in history.
That"s because both fans of the Tar Heels team and fans of other teams and basketball, in general, bought the magazines and newspapers with this news, after all, everyone in the media knew that a story of failure had more impact than a story of success.
And there were other members of the media who wanted to see the Tar Heels team win until the NCAA tournament, because then they would have an exciting story about one of the best teams in the history of college basketball who would have managed to win two ACC tournaments and two NCAA tournaments in a row and with a sequence of more than 60 games without losing.
Of course, Jake and the Tar Heels team players wanted to see the Tar Heels team win and so they intended to continue with that advantage on the scoreboard until they won this important game, and the Duke Blue Devils players would love to win that game and end that rival record.
At the beginning of the 2nd half, everyone could see that the Duke Blue Devils team returned to try to win by pressing in the attack, the players of the Tar Heels team recovered in the interval, but were still much more tired than the opponents.
What impressed everyone was how Jake defended on the three-point line by putting pressure on three different players from the Duke Blue Devils team and because of that the three always remained in different positions in the attack so that Jake could not defend against the three.
In another attacking move, the Duke Blue Devils team managed to make a good move and again the three players on the Duke Blue Devils three-point line separated so that Jake could not defend against all of them.
But the defense of the Tar Heels team was not only Jake and also had Williams and Carter defending on the three-point line against the three opposing players, but this also hindered the Duke Blue Devils attack move and made them lose time in possession ball.
So with a few seconds left the ball was pa.s.sed to McLeod, Jake went to defend against him so as not to risk being caught by surprise, so McLeod pa.s.sed the ball to Langdon who had Williams defending against him.
Langdon used the skill to get some s.p.a.ce to try the shot and hit to make 3 more points for the Duke Blue Devils team, the players of the Tar Heels team were not affected by these three points of the opponent and continued the game smoothly.
This great advantage that they had on the scoreboard helped them to be able to play more calmly with less pressure even with everything that was happening to them and playing as a visitor, on the contrary, the Duke Blue Devils team had to make three-point plays because only then they had a chance to win the game.
And because of that more than half of their attacks ended up being wasted, the players of the Tar Heels team also started to miss more moves in the 2nd half and so the Duke Blue Devils team saw the opportunity to try to win.
The biggest problem was that Jake hardly missed attacks and the Tar Heels team also had very good players in catching offensive rebounds, so some of his mistakes could come back for another chance with a rebound.
In another move Jake moved forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Williams from the right, Williams was performing well in that game too and was satisfied with his team"s victory so far.
Williams slowly advanced to the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to Okulaja further on the right, Okulaja held the ball and pa.s.sed it back to Carter on the left, Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Jake quickly through the middle.
The Duke Blue Devils players pressed the defense against Jake and Jamison too, Jake signaled and Carter returned to make a screen and hinder the Duke Blue Devils player who was on defense.
So Jake can go to the left and calmly try the shot from outside to hit and make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, with Jake and Williams. .h.i.tting the three-point shots it was more difficult for the Duke Blue Devils team to win.