Harden's recovery is crucial to the Devils, especially his military training style of play. Later on, the Cardinals were forced to drop their twin towers and chose to shrink their center when encountering pick-and-rolls.

This approach prevented Lopez from being subjected to military training again, but gave Harden more opportunities to shoot from outside.

The second half was Harden's personal performance stage.

Of course, his performance did not make the game lose suspense, because as the game continued, the physical fitness of the Devils players who invested too much on the defensive end began to decline, and the quality of defense naturally declined as well.

The two sides fought back and forth until the decisive moment.

In the last minute, Xu Yong completed a fatal steal on Gus, and Harden passed Robin Lopez and scored a layup to kill the game.

The score on the field finally settled at 66 to 61. The Devils completed the reversal, defeated the Cardinals away from home, broke the opponent's unbeaten streak, and won a crucial victory.

The moment the game ended, the players of the Devil's team rushed onto the court and started celebrating wildly.

This victory means so much to them!

Harden was surrounded by the crowd in the center. He hit 4 three-pointers in the second half and scored 18 points, 24 points in the whole game, and was the number one contributor to the team's victory.

Harden also enjoyed it to the fullest. Although he had difficulty breathing at the moment, this moment was so wonderful to him that it was beyond description.

…

After the game, the players returned to the hotel one after another.

Because of the long journey, they would not fly back to Tempe until the next morning.

The hotel also stayed in a standard room, and Xu Yong and Harden lived together.

"Xu, thank you." After returning to the hotel, Harden thanked Xu Yong from the bottom of his heart.

If it weren't for Xu Yong, he might not have realized his problem until now.

If it weren't for Xu Yong, he might still have chosen to give up out of habit when he encountered difficulties tonight.

But because of Xu Yong, all this changed. He truly experienced the thrill of doing his best to win the game!

It is a feeling that you will never know unless you experience it. It is more intoxicating than the red wine brewed by Chateau Lafite.

"You have to thank yourself, James." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

What he said to Harden before was very meaningful, but what is more meaningful is that Harden himself experiences this feeling.

Because he has truly experienced it, he is not forced to change, but enjoys the pleasure brought by the change, which will motivate him to continue to change actively.

"No matter what, I'm glad to meet you here, Xu, my friend." Harden took the initiative to reach out and hug Xu Yong, and even changed the way he addressed him.

"Me too." Xu Yong also hugged Harden.

Although Harden is quite different from him in personality, he is essentially a good person.

Apart from anything else, he gets up so early every day, and Harden never gets angry with him even when he is woken up occasionally. This is someone with such a broad mind.

…

Time flies, and another January has passed in the blink of an eye. The NCAA season is now coming to an end.

After two months of invitational tournaments and one month of regular season games, the strength of each university has been fully revealed.

This is clearly shown in the latest opinion poll.

The top-ranked team changed from the University of Kansas to the University of Memphis.

The most direct reason is that the University of Memphis has not lost a game in March!

This includes invitational tournaments and regular season games. You should know that their opponents in the invitational tournament include top teams like the University of Connecticut and Georgetown University.

The team's top scorer Chris Douglas-Roberts averaged 18 points, 4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, with a field goal percentage of 57.7% and a three-point shooting percentage of 41.3%.

In addition to him, Derrick Rose, a freshman from the University of Memphis who is considered a favorite for the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft, also averaged 14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

In addition, Antonio Anderson and Joey Dorsey are all players with NBA prospects.

What’s more important is that the team has 8 players averaging more than 5 points per game. This is a team with outstanding core capabilities and top overall level.

Kansas dropped to second place because of two losses in the regular season, but they are still the strongest team overall this season.

There is only one reason, the talents they have accumulated over the past few seasons have enabled them to have a total of 7 players with NBA prospects, including Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Darryl Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sherron Collins, Sasha Cowan, and Cole Aldridge!

This is the equivalent of the World Series, where other teams only have a few strong points, but they are already the dream team.

Ranked third is North Carolina. North Carolina’s situation is similar to Kansas, and they also lost two games. However, with strong players such as Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, and Ty Lawson, they are still the favorite to win the championship.

UCLA dropped to fourth place. They lost to Washington State and USC in a row. The team, especially Westbrook on the back line, has not been in good shape recently.

And in this list, Arizona State University jumped all the way to the 11th place!

After defeating Stanford University, their performance got better and better, and their record was only behind UCLA and Stanford, ranking third in the PAC10 league.

Although the team has many first-year players, everyone can feel that they are becoming a more and more mature team.

As long as they perform normally in the next games, it is a foregone conclusion that they will get the wild card spot and enter the championship.

Even as Xu Yong originally thought, their goal could be turned to going further in the tournament.

Of course, now is not the time to "consider the next round of opponents". Playing well in the remaining games of the season is still their first goal.

The survey list is updated weekly, and they can go from being unknown to 11th place, but they may also fall off the list again.

The people on the organizing committee will instinctively look upon a team like this with dark horse attributes with a harsh eye.

The Devils' next opponent is UCLA, a team they lost to before.

And this time they are going to travel to Los Angeles to challenge their opponents.

This is a crucial battle for both sides.

The Devils' overall performance has improved, and they need revenge against UCLA to clear their name.

UCLA has been in poor form recently and they need a game to regain their form and boost morale. The excellent Devils team is obviously the most suitable target.

On the morning of the game, the players boarded a plane to Los Angeles.

Harden seemed very active on the plane because his home is in Los Angeles.

Sandek didn't want to put too much pressure on the players before the game, so he didn't arrange any training when he arrived in Los Angeles.

It is this arrangement that allows Harden to have time to go home.

However, just before leaving, Harden invited Xu Yong to visit his home.

Since the last victory over Stanford, Harden and Xu Yong's relationship has been heating up rapidly since he called Xu Yong a friend, and now it has reached the stage of "meeting the parents."

However, in the United States, this kind of invitation to one's home has gone beyond the polite "brother" or "friend" of black people, but really regards Xu Yong as his friend.