Nash's explosion came suddenly and violently. Even Kise was shaken to the ground by him.
Hyuga Junpei's face changed dramatically, suddenly remembering what Kagami had said when he first joined the club. At that time, Kagami thought that since he was playing basketball in Japan anyway, it would be the same no matter where he played.
Looking back now, it wasn't just boastful talk. America's basketball level was just that high.
To reach this state, Kise needed to frantically drain his physical stamina. What about Nash? He only had to abandon those flashy playing styles and return everything to orthodoxy, and Kise was defeated by him.
Such a gap couldn't be ignored.
"But Tendou can still keep up with the pace!" Aida Kagetora noticed that even though Nash had further elevated himself, Tendou could still keep up without falling behind.
Nash had made that shot, but Tendou had provided enough physical contact and interference. Nash couldn't make every shot like this.
"He's only now breaking through the 80% limit?" Aida Kagetora had thought Tendou had already broken through from the beginning. So previously, Tendou had been playing in his normal state all along.
"How much longer can you hold on, Kise?"
"About another minute or so." Kise looked at the timer - over 3 minutes had already passed in the third quarter.
Five minutes wasn't actually his limit, but if he didn't want to cause too much burden on his body, it was best to play in this state for 5 minutes. Any longer would increase the risk of injury.
"You need to work on your conditioning more." Tendou gave him advice. If Kise continued playing like this, he would eventually become injury-prone.
Reality wasn't as beautiful as anime - if Kise kept pushing himself to the limit like this, he could easily ruin his professional career.
"However, for the next minute or so, go wild to your heart's content." Tendou received the inbound pass from his teammate and calmly dribbled across half court.
Currently, the conditions for victory weren't equal for both sides. Tendou only needed to contain Nash and pass the ball to Kise in time for Dragon Slayer Sword to score.
Nash wasn't so certain - passing the ball to anyone carried risk. The safest approach was to do it himself. Fortunately, he had been using Jason Silver as the main attacker in the first half, so his stamina was still sufficient to play the entire second half.
"This kind of matchup opportunity is rare."
"Don't disappoint me, Nash!"
Tendou faced Nash directly, with black flames burning wildly behind him. That was his monster, floating behind him like a guardian spirit, watching Nash.
A rare opportunity? Was this guy referring to him? Strictly speaking, it was orthodox American basketball style.
"This guy wants to use me as a whetstone?" Nash's face turned ashen. American basketball was different from Asia and even Europe - this was universally acknowledged. Just like how football was most passionate in Europe.
First, America's coaching was professional. In Asia, many children played basketball just for fun, without systematic training. Even those club youth programs could only be called amateur.
But in America, there were training institutions like PSA, where every movement from shooting to dribbling had strict training standards. This professionalism was also reflected in "individualization."
For different children, they would arrange tailor-made training plans to quickly develop talent and find the path suitable for each individual. The prerequisite was that the child had sufficient talent.
Second, physical confrontation. This aspect needed no elaboration - in international competitions, national teams had suffered greatly in physical confrontations, while the Dream Team always maintained an advantage.
Third, the cultural gap in basketball. This aspect was truly difficult to catch up on. In the NBA, the world's largest basketball stage, America had the most fanatical basketball culture in the world.
Before Tendou's transmigration, he had read many basketball novels where most protagonists were born into NCAA or high school leagues. The protagonists had already adapted to American basketball and environment before entering the league.
This ensured they wouldn't be like Yao Ming, completely unable to adapt to the game pace when first entering the league.
And Nash was a quintessential product of American basketball. Defeating him would be of great significance to Tendou.
"Bang!"
The basketball violently hit the floor and bounced back.
The moment it touched his hands, Tendou's body had already shot out like an arrow. Nash quickly reacted, but discovered that pitch-black monster suddenly charging toward his other side.
This meant Tendou was about to complete a change of direction. However...
"This change of direction speed!"
Too fast!
Nash hurriedly adjusted his form, barely managing to block Tendou's lightning-like change of direction. However, this was merely the prelude to the storm.
"Slash!"
Tendou suddenly accelerated his breakthrough frequency, the complexity of his movements multiplying, dancing like a madman.
Nash used his eyes to see, his legs to move, his hands to intercept... his entire body participated in the defense.
"So intense!" The audience cried out in surprise. At this point, these two people's confrontation could still escalate.
Many people couldn't express in words what kind of game this was. Shirogane Kōzō was also watching tensely in front of the TV.
This battle would prove whether Tendou possessed the talent to compete on the world stage. Nash was a first-class genius, but such geniuses appeared in America every year - about ten to twenty (five-star high school players).
Shirogane Kōzō didn't dare dream of historical-level geniuses like the God Emperor Magic Buddha. Those were rare existences even in the history of American basketball.
Shirogane Kōzō's expectation for Tendou was simple - as long as he could defeat Nash, that would be enough. Only then would they have a chance to produce a star player!
"Swoosh!"
The basketball shot out like a bullet from Tendou's hands, flying into Kise's palm.
The latter took on the Evil Dragons' two-man defensive line, performing acrobatics in the air with a between-the-legs switch, dunking the ball into the rim.
'Little Kise is so cool~' From just now, real-world bullet comments had been spamming Kise. These were all Kise's true fans.
"Smack!"
After scoring, Kise forcefully high-fived Tendou in celebration.
"I've grown a little now too, haven't I?" Kise was very satisfied. Even though he hadn't reached Tendou's level yet, at least he had truly improved.
Back at Teiko, he was just Tendou's substitute, never even having the chance to high-five Tendou in celebration, always looking up at his back.
But now... Kise didn't know what he was thinking about, but suddenly broke into a grin.
"Don't grin like an idiot - we haven't won yet."
"But good job, keep it up."
"Yes!"
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