Chapter Two: The Block at the Buzzer

Chen erased the board. “We switch. Lu stays deep.” Gu waited until seven seconds remained. Han moved up, then slipped toward the basket before contact. Gu drove and lofted the ball toward the rim. Han was already airborne. Lu did not watch the pass. He watched Han’s shoulder tighten and launched from behind the baseline side. Three years of absorbing hits and being called slow became coordinates. Han caught the ball with both hands for an alley-oop. Lu’s hand appeared beneath the lights and crushed the ball against the glass. Boom! The clock expired. Overtime. Twenty thousand people fell silent for half a second. Then the Thunder bench erupted. Zhou slammed into Lu’s chest. “You actually went for it!”