Banani inbounded the ball, trying to shake off those first points. Kiyoshi started dribbling up the court, trying to get their offense rolling, but instantly, Motijheel's defense was all over him, a solid wall of green jerseys.

  Talk about pressure.

  "Pressure! High pressure! They're pressuring high!" Kiyoshi called out, feeling the heat already. He could barely breathe, let alone think about setting up a py. This was intense.

  Motijheel's defense? Suffocating was an understatement. They were reading Banani's minds, anticipating passes before they even happened, shutting down every single driving ne. It was like trying to py basketball underwater.

  Seriously difficult.

  "Pass it back! Reset the py! Gotta reset!" Ahsan urged, seeing Kiyoshi cornered and trapped. They needed to get the ball moving again, just to breathe.

  Kiyoshi somehow managed to flick a pass back to Ahsan, who was hanging out near the half-court line.

  Ahsan took a dribble, trying to quickly scan the situation, but Motijheel's defenders were like shadows, glued to them, not giving an inch. Relentless.

  "They're not giving us any freaking space!" Tariq, the Power Forward, excimed, practically wrestling with his defender, struggling just to get open for a second. It was custrophobic out there.

  Robi, down in the post, was trying to signal for the ball, waving his arms subtly, but the passing nes? Completely clogged.

  Motijheel's defense was like a giant python, squeezing them tight, cutting off every single possible way to attack. They were trapped.

  Ahsan, feeling the insane pressure, took a gamble and tried a risky pass to Sajid out on the wing.

  Big mistake. A Motijheel defender read it perfectly, like he knew the pass was coming before Ahsan even thought about it, and leaped right in front for the interception. Ouch.

  "Intercepted! Noooo!" Tahera groaned from the sidelines, facepalming. That was a costly turnover, right there.

  Motijheel’s defender snagged the ball cleanly and immediately took off up court.

  Fast break alert! Banani was scrambling to get back on defense, but it was already too te.

  Before Banani could even blink, Motijheel was attacking again, lightning fast. A quick, crisp pass to their Center, a powerful post move that was all muscle and finesse, and bam, another basket.

  They were unstoppable right now.

  Thump. Swish.

  Sound of defeat ringing in Banani's ears.

  4-0. Less than two minutes gone on the game clock.

  This was escating quickly.

  "Damn, okay, they are actually really good," James murmured from the bench, low-key impressed despite the score being a total disaster for their team. "But… predictable though. Like, very predictable." He was already in analysis mode, spotting patterns, noticing weaknesses even in their apparent dominance. It was like, Dude was a basketball brain. Though he only watch basketball game in anime.

  Hasnaen, another new Center, sitting right next to James on the bench, looked totally stressed. "Predictable? Dude, they're up by four points in like, two minutes! What's predictable about that kind of domination?" He was not seeing the silver lining right now.

  James just grinned, unfazed. "Their offense is textbook, man. Beautifully executed, no doubt about it. But still, textbook. We can read this book. We just gotta figure out the chapter titles, you know?" He was speaking in riddles, but he seemed confident.