The Final Shot

Chapter 6: Review

When the game ended, and both teams had to line up to shake hands, Scott had a very cocky smile on his face. As he was captain, and Michael was also captain, they were at the front of their line. Scott spoke as he shook hands with Michael.

"Told you we would win! See ya!"

When the Braves finished shaking hands with the Penguins, Coach Auerbach led them to the bus. They would go back to their university and review the game tomorrow during practice. King went home, sulking all the way. He blamed himself for their loss. He only scored 19 points, even though his average at high school was 23.4. Carl went to the street court, to practice his three-pointers. He too, felt guilt. He only made four three pointers out of six attempts. I could have done so much better! If I continue to play like this, we'll suck! Carl thought. Jake went home and stared at the wall. He kept on replaying the scene over and over again. What if he had made the shot? What if he had done better? The Braves could have won. Michael just went to the gym and kept practicing free throws. He had missed all of them tonight, yet he had still put up an impressive 22 points. It was his last year at college. If they didn't win, he wouldn't have a chance to win anymore. The Braves were ranked number 10 in the Southern Conference and were tied with many teams at 0-1. They were only ranked number 10 because B was one of the first letters by alphabetical order. When everyone went into the gym for practice the next day, no one was smiling. Coach Auerbach told everyone to come in. There was a room in the gym that was generally known as the conference room, where the team would discuss strategies. Coach told the Braves to get in the conference room. He told Lex to turn the video on. Then he let everyone but King, Michael, Jake, Carl and Lex go to the gym to practice.

"What do you think you guys were doing last night? You only lost by two points but you look like it was a blowout. It was only one game! It's not possible to win all the games, so get up, and stop sulking!"

Coach always lectured them on everything. Michael, as the captain, decided to speak for all of them.

"Coach Auerbach, we're all not happy with our own performance. It was because we all could have done better, but we didn't."

Coach Auerbach raised his eyebrows.
"So you all thought that was the issue? It wasn't! You guys are expected to score less! You only have a certain amount of possessions! I don't care how much you score, I care about how much the team scores!"

King, Michael, Jake and Carl lowered their heads in shame. Coach Auerbach continued.

"To be honest, it was no one's fault that we lost. We need to practice cooperation, all right? I'm going to go outside to coach the other guys. Lex, review with the guys what they need to work on and tell them their numbers."

There was a whiteboard in the room and Lex scribbled quickly on it. It said:

Points

 Assists

 Rebounds 

Steals

 Blocks 

FG

Michael   

22

2

8

-

2

9-11

King

19

4

6

1

3

8-10

Carl

15

3

1

-

1

5-7

Jake

13

7

2

1

-

4-9

Overall, they had done great, but Lex analyzed that their lack of steals meant that they had to work on steals more. Lex said that their 2 steals had led to 5 points, so it was an average of 2.5 points per steal, so they should practice running faster. It would be impossible for them to go small ball, so they had to make everyone run faster instead. Lex suggested that they take morning runs around the community. Lex also praised them on their offensive rebounds, which they had done better than the Penguins. The meeting was over and the five people who went out of the conference room looked much happier than the five people who had gone in the conference room.