Y13 [EN]: Chapter 91

Y13-91 2010-11 Regular Season

Boboa quickly dashed towards the basket with his signature speed. Having snatched the ball at the top of the opponent’s court, it was practically an open field. Boboa confidently maximized his speed.

[Is that speed the reduced speed after his injury?! Rodrigo Boboa, he just lacked confidence, but that’s still top-class speed!]

[He seems a bit slower than last year, but he’s young and put a lot of effort into rehab, so he seems to have recovered quite a bit! Rodrigo Boboa running towards the empty basket!]

콰아앙!!

[Rodrigo Boboa! A clean and powerful one-hand slam!]

[Rodrigo Boboa is proving with his play that he’s still good! He scores 5 points and 1 steal in just over a minute into the game!]

탁-

The two successful possessions at the start boosted Boboa’s confidence.

“Nice!!”

Youngjae, watching from the bench, cheered louder than anyone, waving a towel to support Boboa’s play. If Boboa revived, the team would gain a new weapon, and personally, he couldn’t help but be happy for his friend’s comeback.

Boboa’s strong performance seemed to give Dallas the early momentum, but Jrue Holiday and Jodie Meeks were in their best shooting form of the season. Their three-point shooting percentage was just over 30%, slightly lacking for guard positions, but their finishing around the basket and mid-range success rate was close to 50%, showing extreme prowess.

[Jodie Meeks gets past Boboa with a screen from Elton Brand and soars again!]

[Jodie Meeks is a short shooting guard, but he’s still 6-4 (193cm). In comparison, Rodrigo Boboa is 6-2 (188cm) and also at a disadvantage in physical battles.]

“Ugh!”

Boboa jumped, timing his block against Jodie Meeks, who was soaring towards the basket. He used to overcome the height difference with his explosive jump and block the shot, but his speed wasn’t the only thing that had declined since the injury.

슉-

[WOW!!!]

[A clean mid-range jumper goes in! Rodrigo Boboa’s defense is really disappointing. Meeks’ movement was good, but Boboa’s screen defense is not good at all!]

[If this continues, Boboa can only be described as half a player. He showed potential offensively with a different style, but defensively, he’s worse than Barea. He didn’t get much playing time last season due to defensive issues, and if he continues like this, this season will be a repeat of last year. Dallas’ team defense this season is complete, but Boboa is showing defense that gets beaten on every pick.]

Boboa slightly lowered his head. He thought he was starting to find a solution, but his defense was the problem. His ability to stop dribbles and prevent breakthroughs was decent. His lateral quickness was a bit slower, but he could compensate for that. He didn’t have problems in man-to-man defense, but he still couldn’t find his place in 2-on-2 defense or team defense.

[Well, with about 5 minutes left in the first quarter, Coach Carlisle is bringing in Youngjae Yoon and Shawn Marion. It seems like a good decision since Boboa and Peja show too serious problems in activity and defense when they play together!]

Steve Kerr took a sip of water and continued his commentary.

[And in the case of Philadelphia’s sixth-man combo guard Lou Williams, Boboa can match up well defensively because he is short and enjoys isolation plays. Coach Carlisle probably has that in mind too!]

Youngjae and Marion had a quick discussion during the timeout.

“Yoon, Philadelphia’s defense is better than I thought. Even though Boboa shook them up a lot in the beginning, they quickly reorganized.”

“Is the paint crowded?”

“Not really. Rather, the high post and perimeter defense are stickier. Elton Brand’s rim protection is top-notch, but Spencer Hawes next to him, well, he’s not as good defensively as Thaddeus Young, who’s coming in now. Thaddeus Young is more solid now because he shows active movement and clever plays. Besides, Thaddeus Young always shows good offensive stats against our team, so keep that in mind too.”

Youngjae nodded at Kidd’s words and finalized his strategy with him. The game resumed, and Kidd started dribbling the ball quickly past the half-court line. At the same time, Youngjae also started stirring up Philadelphia’s defense with his unique activity.

Youngjae, glancing at Jodie Meeks, who was persistently following him, moved to the wing on the right side and received the ball from Kidd, then relentlessly started driving into the low post. Jodie Meeks momentarily lost track of Youngjae’s drive into the paint, and as soon as Youngjae confirmed that Jodie Meeks was following behind, he quickly got out of the crowded paint.

As a result, Youngjae, who had completely shaken off Meeks, was surprised by Iguodala’s tremendous help defense. He knew Iguodala’s defense was great, but he didn’t think he could fill the empty space so quickly.

‘One step above Marion.’

Youngjae tensed up and didn’t try to fight Iguodala head-on. As soon as Youngjae confirmed Nowitzki standing on the right side, he tried to drive in with all his might.

[Youngjae Yoon, is he going head-to-head against Iguodala?!]

[It looks reckless. It’s reckless! Youngjae Yoon can’t dare to compete with Iguodala’s power, and Iguodala’s speed is enough to defend! Can Yoon break through with his individual skills?!]

However, Youngjae drove into the space between the right side and the wing, drawing a slightly large semicircle. He wanted Thaddeus Young to drop off Nowitzki even a little bit by blatantly showing that he was struggling.

[Even Thaddeus Young is sticking to the struggling Youngjae Yoon! Is it okay to leave Nowitzki open?!]

Only then did Steve Kerr realize why Youngjae was trying to make such a reckless breakthrough. At that moment, Steve Kerr got goosebumps and couldn’t help but burst into a hearty laugh.

[Youngjae Yoon… he’s really good at using people’s psychology! Is that player really a rookie?! It’s coming out now. Why Youngjae Yoon attempted such a reckless breakthrough!]

Thaddeus Young was eventually lured by the attractive bait and rushed at Youngjae to steal the ball. Youngjae threw the ball behind his back at the same time as Iguodala’s tremendous defense and Thaddeus Young’s double team came in.

[Oh, oh!! Youngjae Yoon! A fantastic pass as if he has eyes in the back of his head!]

[It’s not that he has eyes in the back of his head. He deliberately became bait to create this situation from the beginning. He could have broken through Jodie Meeks and driven into the paint, but Iguodala’s help defense was so good. So Meeks had to switch with Iguodala and stick to Marion. In the meantime, Youngjae Yoon, who confirmed Nowitzki on the right side, intentionally made the double team stick to him!]

[Dirk Nowitzki’s 3-pointer!]

슉-

[Accurate! Dirk Nowitzki!]

[It’s just one assist, but it was a smarter and more surprising pass than any other assist today! He’s really an amazing player, Youngjae Yoon!]

Youngjae faced Nowitzki and they shouted in excitement, while Iguodala and Thaddeus Young’s faces contorted as if they had eaten something foul because they had been tricked by Youngjae.

Until the end of the first quarter, the score was 20 to 25. Dallas was leading by 5 points. Boboa, who had played for the first 5 minutes, recorded 7 points, 2 assists, and 1 steal, and Youngjae recorded 3 points, 1 assist, and 1 rebound in 3 minutes. Feeling that he was being guarded more tightly, Youngjae started to play the game in a way that targeted Philadelphia’s weaknesses rather than making reckless breakthroughs or shots. He always kept in mind that he had agreed with Kidd to give possessions to Dirk Nowitzki. But Youngjae was not a player who lacked scoring ability to the point of passing even the opportunities he had to Nowitzki. He didn’t forget that he had to score at least 15 points.

(Jason Kidd’s no-look bounce pass! Jrue Holiday is fooled without even using his hands! The bounce pass goes to Youngjae Yoon, who was cutting in on the left!)

(It’s amazing. Unpredictable passes are really hard to receive! It’s hard to poke such a sharp pass even if you see a gap for players who are called slippery hands [players known for stealing the ball], but Youngjae Yoon is different! His hand size isn’t big, but he never drops a pass to the point where he’s called glue hands [players who catch the ball well]!)

(Jodie Meeks vs. Youngjae Yoon 1:1!)

Youngjae looked at Meeks blocking him and immediately turned his body clockwise without hesitation. The game is decided from here. Whether Meeks will follow the spin move or not.

턱-

A heavy feeling on his back during the spin move. Youngjae quickly turned his eyes to look at the player blocking him.

‘Iguodala!’

An unexpected player was marking Youngjae. He clearly confirmed that Iguodala was following Marion as he moved to the side…

‘It’s a double team.’

It was a disaster. It seemed that Iguodala was thinking of putting a double team or help on Youngjae if he saw Youngjae’s movement to develop an attack instead of Marion, whose shooting touch wasn’t very good. Youngjae hesitated, but Youngjae knew exactly that if the water had already been spilled, he had to set up an empty cup and fill it with water [make the best of a bad situation]. Besides, he knew that there wasn’t much time left on the shot clock.

[Yoon! He’s being double-teamed by Andre Iguodala and Jodie Meeks!]

[Reverse spin again! Even if you do a reverse spin, you’re still in the same spot! You have to make a choice…]

But Kerr couldn’t continue the story after that. And neither could the Philadelphia fans. The Philadelphia players couldn’t say anything either.

슉-

Youngjae pretended to pass over Meeks, who was relatively short and had slow reaction speed, and then jumped up as is. Since the pass wasn’t easy, he just shot a tough-shot in reverse [difficult shot].

[Oh my godness!!! Wonderful shot!!!]

[Iguodala and Meeks were completely fooled! If you can’t stop the attack even after blocking it like that, you can’t help but lose strength?!]

Even Steve Kerr, who was calmly and coolly analyzing the situation and commentating, couldn’t hide his excitement and cheered at Youngjae’s fadeaway.

Youngjae turned around and raised the index finger of his left hand and the index, middle, and ring fingers of his right hand to make the number 13 so that the two players who blocked him could see it clearly.

[Y13! He’s properly appealing himself! He just hits a tough-shot 3-pointer in a double-teamed state!]

[Iguodala is smiling helplessly and Meeks is frowning and glaring at Yoon. They’ve completely lost momentum.]

-삐이익

[As expected, Philadelphia’s coach Doug Collins is requesting a timeout!]

[I think we need to cut it off once. If you don’t cut it off here, the score difference can widen in an instant. This defense was really good. It’s just that Yoon’s tough-shot went in, so that’s how it turned out. Philadelphia needs to reorganize. And to break Yoon’s momentum, it would be better to put in a forward instead of Jodie Meeks and match Iguodala with Yoon.]