2017-01-21

【Aiden in English】

        There is no such thing as a perfect world anymore. I have always understood that everything has a problem in one way or another. Whether it is the first or the third world, that is not up to me. The point is, in one way or another, our lives are not perfect, and there is no reason why one should not hit setbacks.

        Finally, my basketball team and I lost a match today. After convincingly beating the first opponent, Game 2 showed signs of cracking, with grinding shots and lots of grit. We barely managed to pull out from a loss. I guess no one is perfect, and we suffered the first L in the loss column. I can’t really say we “played well” either. From the first possession, the game began to go against us. The other team ran an unfamiliar zone in which the top two defenders pressed up at the half-court line, setting up an instant trap. Obviously, we were not expecting any pressure and therefore turned the ball over on the first pass. The result was an easy lay-up for the other team.

        Funny story. Because the opposing side wore a dark green jersey, while we wore a light green, the refs made the other team flip the jerseys inside-out, and so we basically saw them as the white team. There were no numbers on their backs though, which made for some odd officiating, but the game flowed somewhat smoothly. Not so much for us. Their half-court trap really gave us problems throughout the first quarter, and before we knew it, we were down 10 points. In the back of my head, it vaguely felt like the first game, where we dominated, just flipped around. The coach said to keep our cool, which was kind of hard considering we had yet to put up a single point. But the team was hopeful since we hadn’t revealed our trump card yet. (Trump. No pun intended.)

        After finally hitting a free throw, we set up the full-court press. The idea was to force the ball handler to pass to the sides, where we could set a trap with two people and the help of the sideline. A person would then be positioned in the center to sniff out any stray or desperation passes. At first, I was quite skeptical it would work, since it was a little shaky in practice. Surprisingly, it somehow worked. The other team consecutively turned the ball over three or four times, with the inbounder staring at the mass of opposing jerseys and freaking out. The ball would bounce around, sometimes in our possession, other times kind of any man’s ball. The number of scrambles was quite large, as the press forced the other team to make fast and, luckily, bad reads. However, the ball just didn’t bounce our way today, and we only took foul shots. There was no offense for us at all, and even when we brought it back to within two points. The other team just washed us away with a few threes and offensive rebounds.

        Sports are games of adjustment and readjustment. The opposing team simply made a readjustment at half-time after seeing the press for a full quarter. All I can say is, really, the day was not ours. Hopefully, when the time comes that there is more on the line, the ball will be more lenient to us than the other team.

【紅霞譯文】

        世上絕無十全十美的東西，我深深懂得凡事多多少少總有缺憾，無論第一世界也好或者第三世界也罷，這是完全不以我個人意志為轉移的。“金無足赤，人無完人”一語道破天機，誰都無法迴避挫折。

        我所在的籃球隊終於在今天比賽中失利。自打首戰告捷以後，我們投球頻受阻攻影響，第二場比賽明顯暴露出問題，接下來大家又回天乏術，幾乎無力扭轉落後局面。既然沒人是完美的，依我看第一次輸球也在情理之中，當然這並非表示本隊“打得出色”，其實從第三場比賽拿到球權，我們就開始處於劣勢，對方兩位主力後衛壓着我們打，把球控制在半場死角，巧設圈套好生擺布我們，而我們顯然放鬆警惕，球一傳出即被攔下，讓他們輕易上籃得分。

        這裡八卦一段有趣的插曲，對手身着墨綠色球衣，而我們則披掛淺綠色隊服，鑑於靠色問題，裁判決定讓他們把球衣里子朝外翻過來穿，結果對方一下子變成白色球隊，其後背連個號碼都沒有，給判罰帶來一定麻煩，幸虧比賽進展得比較順利，可我們日子並不好過，第一節連連躺槍，沒等反應過來比分已落後十分。“三十年河東，三十年河西。”我腦海深處隱約感覺這場球賽無異於首場比賽，那時我們搶盡風頭，而現在的處境卻截然相反。此刻教練要求振作精神，大家連一分都贏不來哪有心思強作歡顏，但我們仍不失為一支充滿希望的隊伍，至今尚未動用勝利王牌（這裡“勝利”一詞與新當選總統“川普”名字純屬巧合）。

        最後在投進罰球之後，我們採取全場緊逼戰術，目的在於讓帶球隊友把球傳到球場兩邊，這樣我們能利用邊線吸引對方兩名隊員，爾後另一位隊友朝禁區中心移動伺機投籃或者強行外傳。起先我對這種打法持懷疑態度，因為賽場上鮮少奏效，但想不到還真有點起色。對方連續三、四次斷球，界外發球隊員面對身材魁梧的勁敵難免心裡發怵，結果球在空中傳來傳去，有時被我們搶到，有時爭執不下。隨着我隊全場緊逼步步深入，迫使對方加快速度，多虧其間有不少盲目傳球，激戰達到了白熱化程度。然而今天我們表現力不從心，僅靠對方犯規罰進幾個球，完全喪失反擊能力，在進攻方面頂多贏了兩分，而對方連投三分球，血拼籃板球，簡直把我們打得落花流水。

        體育是調整與再調整的競技運動，對方球隊就是在中場休息期間借鑑我們全場緊逼打法而重新部署半場緊逼戰術的。我承認今天咱運氣欠佳，但願以後有所改變，讓籃球帶給我們更多的鬥志。

Crosslinks(相關博文):

2017 Twp Rec Basketball Game-2(2017年鄉村娛樂籃球隊第二場比賽)

2017 Twp Rec Basketball Game-1(2017年鄉村娛樂籃球隊第一場比賽)