Howdy,
#NaNoWriMo (550) — Day 12
(Unedited, or only slightly)
Continued …
It looked like he’d be going all the way to the hole, but deeper into the key CJ stepped up to block off Jake, and at the last second — at just the right second — Jake dropped off a perfect bounce pass to Mike, who moved the right way, toward the basket, to catch the ball and lay it up off the backboard and in for a score. The first score of the game. (This was the direction, but no … )
It looked like he’d be going all the way to the hole, but deeper into the key CJ stepped up to block off Jake, and at the last second — what felt like just the right second — Jake decided to drop off a pass to Mike, who could catch his bounce pass and lay it up off the backboard and in for a score, but when Jake released the pass his new teammate Mike wasn’t moving toward the basket, toward the opening, toward Jake’s direction for the pass.
Jake’s bounce pass was thrown out of bounds. He wished Mike had slid a little toward the hoop and slipped in a quick score, but Jake also felt terrible for tossing the ball out of bounds. It didn’t feel totally like his fault, but Jake didn’t want to show up Mike. Jake tapped his own chest with all the fingers and thumb of his open hand two or three times while he said, “My bad. My bad, Mike.”
The physical reaction — tapping his chest — came without thinking about it, which probably helped him say the words, since Jake certainly didn’t want to take the full responsibility for the failed play and turnover. But Jake was used to carrying responsibility, in life, in the game. He knew his position was responsible for responsibility: part of the point guards job description.
He accepted it.
He had to D up.
“Play man,” Michelle announced.
Man to man.
She was on it.
Jake played denial on Marcus, on the inbounds. He hoped to keep Marcus from getting his hands on the ball as much as possible, having figured out already that Marcus was a good athlete and aggressive.
Marcus also had a few inches on Jake, and Jake figured he’d try to take him to the basket for maybe a runner or something like that, using his height advantage against Jake for a good shot if he wasn’t able to get the ball all the way to the hoop for a layup.
CJ threw the first pass inbounds to Jose. Michelle played Jose well. Jake continued working hard to deny Marcus the ball, but noticed Michelle had knees bent, feet moving, staying in front of Jose as he dribbled, keeping him from going anywhere easily but also keep conservative spacing so he couldn’t blast right by her. Jake defended even harder against Marcus, confident that Michelle had her man covered.
From the corner of his eye, Jake caught the movement of CJ diving down hard to the block, beating Mike to the spot. Initially Jake had wondered if Michelle would hold her own, but he started to worry more about Mike. Jake slid back from full denial on Marcus to more off a pistols position, keeping an eye on Marcus and Jose with the ball, but especially striving to get in position to help on CJ if Mike didn’t wrestle into better positioning to deny CJ or at least make the other team’s efforts more difficult.
To be continued …
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
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