Chapter 46 How Are You Feeling Today?

"How are you feeling today?"

Standing at the center circle before the jump ball, Gan Guoyang asked the player standing directly opposite him, Stevenson.

The round-headed Stevenson looked at Gan Guoyang in silence, having no idea what tricks this kid was up to.

Gan Guoyang asked again, "I'm asking you, how are you feeling today? Why aren't you answering? It's very impolite of you to act like this."

Stevenson had no choice but to reply in a harsh tone, "I feel great, what's it to you?"

Stevenson's tone was naturally filled with hostility. This was the San Francisco League Championship game, and Washington High School was determined to win the title.

Not only were they among the best in the San Francisco League, but they were also top-tier throughout the entire state of California; winning the San Francisco League championship was merely a small milestone for them.

"Nothing at all, I was just asking. China is a land of etiquette, but you guys are really impolite."

Stevenson was half-convinced, his heart filled with vigilance toward Gan Guoyang.

Word had it that during the game against Oakland and Fremont High School, this guy had engaged in a fierce trash-talking match with Al Payton's son on the sidelines, rendering young Payton completely speechless.

Al Payton was the coach of an amateur team in Oakland, notorious for his endless trash talk. Stevenson had played against their team before, and Al could squawk like a crow on and on without stopping.

His son was an exact carbon copy of Al, yet he had been reduced to autism by Gan Guoyang's trash talk. How could Stevenson not be vigilant?

However, the referee reminded the two of them to stop talking as the game was about to begin, and they stood at the center circle for the jump ball.

Gan Guoyang tipped the ball first, and the offense began with Shui-Zhong.

Chen Xing dribbled past half-court at a fast pace. Wearing a new pair of glasses, his style of play also took on a completely new look.

Compared to three months ago, his dribbling was much steadier, and his on-court command was far more confident.

Franklin received the pass from Chen Xing, drove hard from the wing, pulled up for a jump shot, but missed.

Stevenson used his body to firmly box out Gan Guoyang, preventing him from rushing in to grab an offensive rebound.

His twenty offensive rebounds in the previous game had left a deep impression on Washington High School.

However, Gan Guoyang did not crash the boards. Instead, he retreated quickly to defense, denying Washington any opportunity for a fast break.

Shui-Zhong's defensive transition was executed promptly, forcing Washington High School to abandon the fast break and settle into a half-court offense instead.

The mid-range shot missed, and the rebound was safely secured by Gan Guoyang.

The opening minutes of the game were rather dull. After all, it was the championship game, and the players were acting with extreme caution.

Everyone was highly focused, defensive intensity was dialed up to the maximum, rotations were crisp, and no gaps were given.

After several back-and-forth possessions with no results, the score remained locked at 0-0.

The spectators were eagerly anticipating who would be the first to break the deadlock on the court.

It was an unremarkable half-court offensive possession for Shui-Zhong.

Gan Guoyang stepped out to receive the ball from Chen Xing, relieving the defensive pressure on him.

Catching the ball at the high post, Chen Xing attempted to use Gan Guoyang's screen to shake off his defender.

The defense was tight and difficult to shake off. The other Shui-Zhong players were constantly moving without the ball, trying to create an opportunity for Franklin.

Just as Washington High School's attention was focused on Franklin, Gan Guoyang, who had just been holding the ball and looking for open teammates, suddenly put the ball on the floor.

He kept his head down and drove straight through the middle into the paint. Stevenson failed to anticipate it, and Gan Guoyang unleashed a powerful one-handed dunk!

The rim trembled slightly, and the long-quiet War Memorial Gymnasium finally erupted with applause and cheers.

Fans in the 1980s were still relatively reserved, with more applause than wild yelling.

Faced with Shui-Zhong's airtight zone defense, Washington High School could not find an offensive breakthrough for the moment and had to resort to firing from the outside.

The shot missed. Down in the paint, Gan Guoyang did not bother boxing out Stevenson, instead watching as Stevenson grabbed the offensive rebound.

Stevenson pump-faked once, twice, three times, but failed to shake Gan Guoyang off. Finally, he went up for a hook shot and got blocked, and the ball was confiscated by Gan Guoyang right then and there...

Gan Guoyang was not a behemoth like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Wilt Chamberlain, the kind of players who made opponents lose all desire to shoot the moment they encountered them in the paint.

He was only an inch taller than Stevenson, with slightly longer arms, and the two of them looked to be in the same size tier.

Many players, after grabbing the ball in the paint, felt they could challenge Ah Gan, but the result was always ending up empty-handed and disgraced.

Gan Guoyang mastered the timing of his blocks exceptionally well; he almost never fell for pump fakes and possessed lightning-fast reactions—he had cleared Nintendo's game *Donkey Kong* by Chen Xing in no time at all.

This kind of attribute was sometimes more important than height, wingspan, or vertical leap.

Furthermore, his frame was rock-solid. Trying to create shooting space through sheer physical contact was no easy task; one had to be exceptionally strong.

Stevenson was strong, but not as strong as Ah Gan, nor was he quick enough or decisive enough—he was playing timidly against Gan Guoyang, and the more he avoided contact, the easier it was to get blocked.

Having secured the block, Gan Guoyang initiated the fast break, received a bounce pass from Chen Xing, and easily converted the layup.

Scoring 4 consecutive points and contributing a block, Gan Guoyang had started the game extremely well.

When he retreated to defense, he asked Stevenson again, "Hey, Stevenson, how are you feeling today?"

Stevenson kept a dark face and said nothing. The small guard Bobinio drove through the middle, and Gan Guoyang didn't even bother to rotate; he simply reached out and swiped the exposed ball away.

It was still Washington High School's possession. Gan Guoyang was in great defensive form tonight; once the ball entered the vicinity of the three-second zone, it struggled to find its way to the rim.

On the sidelines, Washington High School's coach shouted at the top of his lungs: attack the paint, don't back down. Hearing this, Stevenson went and got blocked once again.

Next, Stevenson and David Bonner double-teamed Gan Guoyang in the low post when he received the ball—a tactic that had worked like a charm in the previous game between the two teams.

This time, however, Gan Guoyang received the ball further out. He dribbled out and handed the ball off via a hand-off to the accelerating Franklin.

Franklin drove fiercely into the paint, drawing a defensive foul on a layup, and made both shots at the free-throw line.

Shui-Zhong capped off a 6-0 run that forced Washington High School to call a timeout.

During the timeout on the bench, Stevenson had a bad premonition.

He felt as though he were a piece of prey, already locked onto by a hunter.

He had been targeted right from the start of the match.

Perhaps this was human instinct realizing danger; the moment one had such a feeling, one should run away.

Yet in a basketball game, you couldn't run. Stevenson thought to himself, it's fine, I have backup.

Following the timeout, Washington High School, having emerged from their early-game chaos, finally got on the board with an outside mid-range jumper.

On defense, Stevenson and Bonner began shadowing Gan Guoyang everywhere—one sticking to him tightly, the other roaming nearby.

As for North Overseas Chinese High School's number 9 power forward, Wu Zhixiong, let him be; he possessed virtually no offensive threat.

North Overseas didn't place any expectations on Wu Zhixiong either, continuing to funnel the ball to Gan Guoyang as the double-teams converged.

Gan Guoyang dribbled out once more, passed the ball to Franklin, and set out to find another opportunity.

The shot clock had a generous 35 seconds, which was plenty of time to orchestrate another offensive play.

Gan Guoyang shifted directions, moving to the other side, and suddenly planted himself to set a screen.

Franklin's pass arrived instantly. Gan Guoyang dribbled, muscled his way past Stevenson, turned around, and forced up a layup while drawing a foul on Stevenson.

He sank both free throws.

Gan Guoyang was playing much smarter than in the previous game, rarely allowing himself to fall into traps and seizing opportunities the moment they arose.

Stevenson felt the pressure on his shoulders increase sharply; Gan Guoyang's flexible execution forced the two interior defenders to allocate their duties much more carefully.

The score quickly climbed to 15-10, with North Overseas High School leading by 5 points. Washington High School's interior offense was essentially silenced, forcing them to rely on the perimeter.

During one possession, Gan Guoyang grabbed an offensive rebound. Stevenson and Bonner immediately collapsed on him. Instead of forcing it through contact, Gan Guoyang delivered a pocket pass to the cutting Big Bear.

Wu Zhixiong was far too slow, and not very tall either. The moment Bonner turned around to recover, Wu Zhixiong squandered the uncontested layup opportunity.

However, Wu Zhixiong was quick-witted; he had never intended to force the shot. Seeing Bonner scramble back to contest, he immediately flicked the ball back to Gan Guoyang.

At that moment, Gan Guoyang took a long stride and exploded upwards, catching the ball and throwing down a thunderous one-handed dunk right over Stevenson!

The round-headed Stevenson was sent flying out of bounds like a ragdoll, yet he was also slapped with a blocking foul, resulting in an and-one!

Having completed the dunk, Gan Guoyang looked down at Stevenson from above and shouted loudly as he landed, "I asked you, how are you feeling today? Why aren't you answering me?!"

"You are so rude and impolite," Gan Guoyang added before draining the bonus free throw.

Stevenson had taken a terrible spill, his chest aching from the collision, yet he was being called rude on top of it all. He had nowhere to seek justice.

The game entered a substitution phase. Stevenson went to the bench to rest, and surprisingly, Gan Guoyang went to the bench to rest as well—something he rarely did previously.

Gan Guoyang's absence gave Washington High School a chance to chip away at the deficit. The score quickly narrowed to 21-18, with North Overseas leading by only three points.

Gan Guoyang immediately re-entered the game and hit an outside jumper, stabilizing the situation for his team.

Stevenson was still sitting on the bench, even thinking to himself: I'd rather just keep sitting here, I don't want to go back out there and take a beating.

The first half was drawing to a close. Stevenson had yet to score, had suffered three blocks, and had only managed to grab a few rebounds.

However, the coach pointed at Stevenson, signaling him to get ready to enter the game.

Feeling somewhat aggrieved, Stevenson said to the coach, "I feel terrible today."

The coach consoled him, "Win the game, and everything will be fine."

"I feel like I'm not getting any support."

In the previous game, he and Bonner had double-teamed Gan Guoyang. Although Gan Guoyang put up high numbers, the process was fiercely contested, and Gan Guoyang ultimately lost the match after fighting through the two of them.

Yet in this game, he felt like he was the only one taking a beating while Bonner was completely fine—Bonner had even scored 6 points, and Gan Guoyang didn't even bother to help out in the paint, letting Bonner score one-on-one against Wu Zhixiong.

"This is their strategy. Gan is playing smarter today, so you need to be sharper and tougher as well. Get out there, Stevenson!"

The coach was right. Faced with different strategies, players had to adjust promptly, and regardless of whether the situation was favorable or adverse, they had to fight tenaciously.

Still, they were high school players after all; their emotions were easily swayed and fluctuated. Gan Guoyang's dual suppression of Stevenson physically and mentally right from the opening tip had made the guy somewhat fearful of the battle.

Even if they lost and settled for second place this game, they would still make it to the CIF State Championships, and perhaps even Division 1—this was determined by their overall strength and performance.

Once you enter a game with that kind of mindset, especially in the interior, Washington High School's paint defense quickly collapsed.

With little time remaining in the first half, Gan Guoyang converted back-to-back turnaround jump shots within two minutes.

His turnaround jumper wasn't fully refined yet, lacking variety, and if carefully studied with dogged resistance, it could be contained.

Yet Stevenson failed to do so. He was terrified by Gan Guoyang's scorching scoring momentum. By the end of the first half, Gan Guoyang shot 8-of-9 and poured in 20 points.

As the whistle blew, Gan Guoyang held the ball and glared at Stevenson, still unwilling to let him off the hook.

Stevenson hurriedly said, "I don't feel good today, okay? I don't feel good."

Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "If you had said that sooner, I could've treated you a bit better, right, Bonner?"

Stevenson widened his eyes in disbelief and shouted, "I'm Stevenson, I'm not Bonner!"

Gan Guoyang looked surprised and said, "You're Stevenson? Sorry, I didn't look closely at the name. The tactics we drew up before the game were specifically targeting Bonner."