Long Shot - Mike Lupica [36]
Five playing as one.
Nate forced a jumper that missed by a lot. Joe grabbed the rebound and fed Pedro, who dribbled down the court and broke free in the lane, looking to feed either Jamal or Ned. But when nobody stepped out on him, he ended up with a clear path to the basket. He laid the ball home.
53-49.
Now it was the Warriors who looked tired, who’d lost their legs. Kyle missed with a jumper. Joe grabbed another rebound and fired an outlet pass to Pedro at midcourt. He had Ned cutting behind him, Jamal flying to catch up with them on Pedro’s right.
Ned was the one with two good steps on his man, Josh Watson.
But instead of passing the ball to Ned as he cut to the basket, Pedro told him with his eyes to pull up on the wing for a three-pointer. As soon as he did, Pedro hit him with a sweet bounce pass.
Josh tried to catch up at the last second, thinking he could block the shot. But he was too late. Ned let the ball go, and even with Josh flailing at him and clipping him on his wrist, Pedro could see just from his release that he’d regained his form at the best possible time.
One ref put both arms up as soon as the ball went in, making it official that the shot was a three-pointer.
At almost the exact same moment, the other ref blew his whistle, calling a foul on Josh.
Ned didn’t look at either one of them and didn’t change expression—he just nodded. He walked to the line, took the ball, looked as cool as the Ned of old and made the free throw that made it a four-point play.
His first basket of the fourth quarter.
One minute left.
The Warriors called time-out. In the Knights huddle Coach Cory said, “I saved one more time-out for when they miss.”
Not if they missed.
When.
Coach said to Pedro, “Can only be Kyle or Nate taking the shot. You got Kyle?”
“All day,” Pedro said.
To Bobby Murray, Coach Cory said, “What about Nate the Great?”
“He’s done,” Bobby said, “like dinner.”
Coming out of the time-out it looked like the Warriors might run the clock all the way down, since there was no shot clock in sixth-grade basketball. But they made their move with twenty seconds left.
Kyle had the ball up top. Pedro had been waiting for him to make his move and now he did. Pedro couldn’t see what was happening behind him, but knew Nate had to be running around trying to shake free of Bobby. But he couldn’t get open, because Bobby was all over him.
Kyle had to do something on his own.
He had started dribbling slowly to his right. Now he picked up the pace. The best move he had was ducking his shoulder and going around the corner, just using a burst of speed to beat you off the dribble, leaving you in the dust.
Only Pedro was ready for it, overplaying him, knowing Kyle didn’t like going to his left. Pedro beat him to the sideline, planted his foot there, which meant Kyle had to reverse the ball or get rid of it.
With time running out on him.
Had to be under fifteen seconds now.
For one moment, Kyle tried to look everywhere at once, at Pedro, at Nate, at the clock. As soon as he did, he dribbled the ball off his foot.
Out of bounds.
“Off him!” Kyle yelled to the ref, pointing at Pedro.
The ref grinned at him. “Only if he’s wearing one of your sneakers, son.”
Twelve seconds left.
Pedro called the Knights’ last time-out.
It had taken longer than it was supposed to. A lot had happened in just a handful of games. But Pedro was finally where he wanted to be.
EIGHTEEN
When Coach Cory started talking in the huddle, he was talking only to Pedro and Ned.
“Seems to me that for a couple of knuckle-headed sixth-graders,” he said, grinning as he did, “that you’ve always had options on top of options for those pick-and-rolls of yours. Just pick the one you like best now.”
They both nodded.
To Joe and Jamal and Bobby, Coach Cory said, “Joe, you clear out over to the left wing. Bobby, you’re up top. Jamal, you move around in the lane—just don’t clog it up if you see somebody comin’ your way.”
Now Coach Cory spoke to all of them. “We clear?”
They all nodded.
He put his hand out