#concrete example is in the aussie meta apparently this super janked list was winning and no one knew how to deal with it

[vermillioncrown]

Sorry to bother, but I don’t know much about basketball so could you explain the difference between the strategies used in canon vs in BIL for the Kaijou match?

i also don't know that much about basketball, but let's just pretend ok?

canon: run-and-gun to the theme of gasolina, and being caught by surprise at what kise can do, no defense, utter shock when kuroko's misdirection wears out, seirin's hopes and dreams hingeing on kagami and kuroko finally working together to bypass kise. oh yeah, dramatic kise accidentally backhands kuroko, some bittersweet friendship/ex-teammate drama conveyed through longing glances. ganbatte through the power of teamwork, friendship, and hopes and dreams.

bil: kuroko is gonna run out of misdirection. don't rely on it completely, use it as the final blow. they'll lag in the beginning, but that's fine - just stay in the game. kise is arrogant and selfish, overly reliant on his 'power', but has the weakness of the body not being able to keep up. he doesn't care about winning as much as he cares about dominating his opponent -> he's not playing the most efficient way to help his team take an impassable lead. piss him off and 'bend him back and forth like a paper clip' until he can't take it. when kaijou then has to deal with kise and figure out what happened, kuroko can come in for the rest of the game and help them catch up bc kise can't mitigate. it's not a guaranteed win. but it's the smartest way to play with the resources you have.

the score is reflective that kaijou was able to score way ahead of seirin, and seirin had to fucking sprint to catch up. but never underestimate the bolster that is mental steadiness - knowing that that is what you're trying to do and not get caught by surprise.

tldr: the difference in strategy is 'being deliberate'. knowing where their own weaknesses were and working with that in mind, rather than just trying to overtake kaijou with sheer speed, luck, and shonen juice.

*edit: si!kagami is also more well-rounded of a player, not just dunking. bc of his past life perspective, he values the well-roundedness, as well as physical flexibility and other physical hobbies that translate well (FlexN, as i briefly mentioned in ch 4, is a type of breakdancing. super popular when kagami is supposed to be a kid and where he's located - there's a specific subcategory called bone-breaking. he's very flexible, agile, and balanced for a guy his size). he also knows from knb what he needs to train. final thing - bc the whole tatsuya thing didn't blow up, the two of them butt heads and practice against each other a lot pre-japan, and they bother alex way more.

canon!kagami doesn't have that advantage but has higher dunking power. he also went through a Bad Time after Tatsuya fought with him, and didn't play for much longer than si!kagami. also he's really not a strategic/tactical guy - more intuition.