No.1 in basketball scoring

A delightful day passed, and at 3 p.m. the next afternoon, the junior varsity teams of Compton High School and Lynwood High School began their game.

Lynwood High School had overall better talent than Compton, with prodigies like Miller, Aboya, and Keith, who were among those prominently cultivated by Compton High School.

Lynwood, directly connected to Los Angeles, had unique advantages in attracting talented middle school students. Schools like Inglewood High School and Southern California High School only had so many spots on their official team.

Aspiring prodigies, if they didn't get a promise to join the official teams, would settle for schools like Lynwood High School or Santa Monica Middle School also located in Los Angeles.

However, when it came to recruiting top-tier middle school talent, Lynwood High School was at a disadvantage; those prodigies prefer Los Angeles, and neither Inglewood High School nor Southern California High School would miss out on them, including the top local middle school students from Lynwood city itself who preferred those two high schools.

Therefore, in the Lynwood High School junior varsity team, not a single player could match the caliber of DeRozan or Tatum.

Harden was still not considered a top-tier talent by the Lynwood High coaching staff. He had only started to emerge in the last two years of middle school, and his talent hadn't fully shown yet, responsible in the junior team mainly for corner catch and shoot, a role similar to that of James Keith.

Both teams consisted of 9th and 10th graders. Facing their peers, DeRozan and Tatum held a significant personal advantage, taking turns leading the team and overwhelming a group of first-class players on the opposite side. They led by 17 points at 35 to 18 in the first quarter, disrupting the game.

Actually, the Lynwood High coaching staff didn't need to do much. Although they rarely got top-tier talented middle schoolers joining, the overall talent was still better than most CIF Division I schools.

They just needed to train the 9th and 10th graders in a routine manner, let them level up in lower-tier leagues, and by the time they reached 11th and 12th grades, there would still be a bunch emerging, with competitive strength in Division I schools… but the coaching staff, wanting to prove themselves, often made bold moves like this season, seeing Compton High's junior varsity team sign up for the Southern California league, they followed suit and registered as well.

Compton High's junior varsity team had absolute strong points in DeRozan and Tatum, plus Zhang Yang helping to coordinate tactics, had already moved up from the bottom tier of teams after two games, while Lynwood High… played worse than Compton High's first game in the first half of the first quarter.

For such a situation, Harden was unable to accept it first, felt close concern in the second, and by this third game, had become numb.

He had thought of turning the tide himself, but now he only knew how to drive in for layups and shoot threes from the corner; he chose to lay low and gain experience.

It was his nature: from the beginning of his basketball career, he'd been covered by a stronger brother than all his peers; he never thought about taking the lead.

But tonight he was still stimulated—had Jack improved so quickly?

A month ago, when they played streetball together, Harden thought of Zhang Yang as a rookie just touching basketball, who was only high on basketball IQ; now, Zhang Yang could make long drives past his friend Derek Glass, the center, and dunk!

There was little doubt about the outcome of the game, Compton High School dominated Lynwood High.

Harden scored 15 points, decent for someone with few opportunities to handle the ball, being a pure catch-and-shoot player; he also made the most threes in the game with three, but Zhang Yang scored 18 points…

Harden had been playing basketball for several years now, and for the first time, he felt a dissatisfaction.

In his mind, the order of him, DeRozan, and Zhang Yang was by strength: DeRozan as the big brother, him as the second brother, Zhang Yang as the little brother.

But now, the little brother was about to become the second brother!

Initially, he had casually expressed concern that Zhang Yang might surpass him, but the little brother was seriously catching up!

He really needed to work hard!

…

"Jack! Next time we face off, I'll score more than you!"

These were the words Harden left for Zhang Yang before boarding the bus leaving Compton High School.

In the game, Zhang Yang was simply trying to score as much as possible; that was his tactical role. Playing this way not only exercised his practical skills and tested his techniques but also enabled him to help the team the most… unexpectedly, this had stirred Harden, and to this, he was looking forward!

If Harden's ambition kept growing during his school days, would he still be content playing as a junior team member and coming off the bench when he later teamed up with "Backpack" and "Turtle"?

If he were just a viewer in front of the television, Zhang Yang would feel regret about the dissolution of the Thunder trio, but as a friend, thinking about the Thunder trio again… He really felt that Harden was too wronged.

Speaking of talent, the future king was not inferior to those two.

Since his competitive spirit and motivation were going to be stimulated, he should stimulate little Harden more in the future!

Then, Jack also had to work hard to improve his strength and strive for a higher score than Harden in their next encounter. He had his advantages—maneuvering for his own benefit in tactics.

Classes, training…another week went by.

The training regimen this week had not increased: layups, free-throw line shooting, simple dribbling breakthroughs, and pushing the counterattack with the ball—that was all.

This was a decision made based on the actual situation of the team, to practice the current strategies well first.

After playing three consecutive home games, it was time for an away game. On September 7, Compton High School's junior varsity team came to Redondo Beach to play a warm-up match against Harbor High School's main team.

Zhang Yang, DeRozan, Tatum, Miller… all tried hard, but eventually lost with a score of 88 to 106.

At the last moment, Tatum dared to fight and bravely scored his first three-pointer in four games, narrowing the gap to within 20 points.

Harbor High School was a frequent visitor in the Southern California League's top 8; for the 14-16 year-old 'kids' of Compton High School's junior varsity team, the strength was a bit overwhelming, and they were trounced quite badly. However, Johnson felt this was good since the key players of this junior varsity team all had excellent mental toughness.

Just look at their eyes after they lost the game—wonderful.

Winning boosts confidence, losing boosts motivation; for ambitious players, reasons to strive can easily be found, and Zhang Yang was just like that.

Continuing with training, continuing to miss baskets!

A few days later, on September 12th, a Friday, another week was drawing to a close. By 4 p.m., at Allen Gym's basketball training court, Zhang Yang was practicing free throws.

His talent in techniques and shooting was indeed not bad. Over a little more than a month, his free-throw level had already caught up with…O'Neal.

Current goal: surpass O'Neal and Duncan in free-throw shooting.

One shouldn't aim to surpass Nash and Curry right from the start; one should progress step by step.

After finishing a set of 100 free throws, the Gate of Trials appeared before him.

"You have accumulated 20,000 Shooting Value and earned a reward: Physical Talent Limit +1."

The first task of accumulating 10,000 Shooting Value took about twenty-five or twenty-six days; the second task, accumulating 20,000 Shooting Value, took just over 30 days. The training time each day was roughly the same, and might even be slightly less. The Shooting Value from matches only accounted for a small portion so far… Sticking to the basics was indeed the right choice.

The words on the Gate quickly changed—

"Optional tasks unlocked:

Regular Task: Accumulate 10,000 Shooting Value. Reward: quickly learn basic off-ball movement for a short period.

Advanced Task: Accumulate 100,000 Shooting Value by Christmas, and upon completion, unlock the second Gate of Trials. Note: Official trials allow the selection of tasks of varying difficulties, corresponding to different rewards."