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.

【红霞译文】

        世上绝无十全十美的东西，我深深懂得凡事多多少少总有缺憾，无论第一世界也好或者第三世界也罢，这是完全不以我个人意志为转移的。“金无足赤，人无完人”一语道破天机，谁都无法回避挫折。

        我所在的篮球队终于在今天比赛中失利。自打首战告捷以后，我们投球频受阻攻影响，第二场比赛明显暴露出问题，接下来大家又回天乏术，几乎无力扭转落后局面。既然没人是完美的，依我看第一次输球也在情理之中，当然这并非表示本队“打得出色”，其实从第三场比赛拿到球权，我们就开始处于劣势，对方两位主力后卫压着我们打，把球控制在半场死角，巧设圈套好生摆布我们，而我们显然放松警惕，球一传出即被拦下，让他们轻易上篮得分。

        这里八卦一段有趣的插曲，对手身着墨绿色球衣，而我们则披挂浅绿色队服，鉴于靠色问题，裁判决定让他们把球衣里子朝外翻过来穿，结果对方一下子变成白色球队，其后背连个号码都没有，给判罚带来一定麻烦，幸亏比赛进展得比较顺利，可我们日子并不好过，第一节连连躺枪，没等反应过来比分已落后十分。“三十年河东，三十年河西。”我脑海深处隐约感觉这场球赛无异于首场比赛，那时我们抢尽风头，而现在的处境却截然相反。此刻教练要求振作精神，大家连一分都赢不来哪有心思强作欢颜，但我们仍不失为一支充满希望的队伍，至今尚未动用胜利王牌（这里“胜利”一词与新当选总统“川普”名字纯属巧合）。

        最后在投进罚球之后，我们采取全场紧逼战术，目的在于让带球队友把球传到球场两边，这样我们能利用边线吸引对方两名队员，尔后另一位队友朝禁区中心移动伺机投篮或者强行外传。起先我对这种打法持怀疑态度，因为赛场上鲜少奏效，但想不到还真有点起色。对方连续三、四次断球，界外发球队员面对身材魁梧的劲敌难免心里发怵，结果球在空中传来传去，有时被我们抢到，有时争执不下。随着我队全场紧逼步步深入，迫使对方加快速度，多亏其间有不少盲目传球，激战达到了白热化程度。然而今天我们表现力不从心，仅靠对方犯规罚进几个球，完全丧失反击能力，在进攻方面顶多赢了两分，而对方连投三分球，血拼篮板球，简直把我们打得落花流水。

        体育是调整与再调整的竞技运动，对方球队就是在中场休息期间借鉴我们全场紧逼打法而重新部署半场紧逼战术的。我承认今天咱运气欠佳，但愿以后有所改变，让篮球带给我们更多的斗志。

Crosslinks(相关博文):

2017 Twp Rec Basketball Game-2(2017年乡村娱乐篮球队第二场比赛)

2017 Twp Rec Basketball Game-1(2017年乡村娱乐篮球队第一场比赛)