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Chapter 202 - 114. Public Opinion Attack_2

Chapter 202: 114. Public Opinion Attack_2

But despite his poor shooting, Bickerstaff wasn’t angry, and he even encouraged him to take more shots if possible.

With Gerald Wallace’s 16 points, Felton’s 12 points and 9 assists, Zhang Yang’s 14 points, Okafor’s 15 points and 9 rebounds, Brezec’s 11 points and 10 rebounds... the Charlotte Bobcats beat the Trail Blazers 103 to 88, achieving their first-ever 4-game winning streak in franchise history!

The Bobcats’ record improved to 26 wins and 29 losses, tying with the Magic and only one game behind the ninth-place 76ers in the East, who had 27 wins and 28 losses!

When the Bobcats’ first-ever 4-game winning streak made the news, fans were surprised to find the team silently creeping into the playoff race.

The last time fans took note of the Bobcats’ record was at the end of January when the team upset the fourth-ranked Cavaliers in the East, finishing the month with an 8-8 record, setting the record for the fastest 50% winning percentage in a single month since the modern basketball era, sparking a flurry of attention.

But the attention was mostly because their opponent was the Cavaliers, and at that time the Bobcats had two starters in the All-Star Game. The hype died down after a couple of days; after all, they were just a 20-win team, and those who continued to follow the Bobcats were only interested in the stats of Zhang Yang and Gerald Wallace, not caring about the wins or losses of the games.

As another month was about to end, fans noticed the Bobcats’ record again and were astonished to find they had reached 26 wins and 29 losses, meaning they had won 6 out of their last 9 games!

Even though the teams they defeated included the likes of the Trail Blazers, Jazz, Toronto Raptors, 76ers... so-called weaker teams, and beating the Suns was only because Nash was injured, they lost to strong teams like the Mavericks, Clippers, and Nuggets. But this was enough to surprise the fans!

However, it was that man again who drew the fans’ attention to the Bobcats’ modest 4-game winning streak...

On the last day of February, the Bobcats’ opponent is once again the Cavaliers!

The media promoted the Bobcats’ 4-game winning streak just to hype this last-minute added game!

...

The last game between the Bobcats and Cavaliers was broadcast by various TV networks because the two teams had three All-Star starters.

When the two teams faced off again and the game was broadcast, it was because of the Bobcats’ defense against James in their last meeting.

James’s performance when posting up Felton in the low post was unexpected to everyone.

Seeing a height difference that looked to be about 20 centimeters and a likely weight difference of about 20 kilograms, yet James managed to miss 4 times in the low post: 2 misses, 1 turnover, and 1 forced to reset and shoot again!

This caused many fans to doubt James’s abilities, and his fans vehemently defended him, but the facts were right there—for 4 attempts in the low post, not a single score...

But this also increased the viewership of the Cavaliers’ games; since the beginning of February, the Cavaliers had played 10 games, with 5 being broadcast live, the highest proportion in the entire league, exceeding the number of live games for most teams for the entire season.

Of those, 3 games were added to the broadcast schedule at the last minute by television networks responding to fan demand.

As expected by the media and the fans, many of the Cavaliers’ opponents in these 10 games tried to mimic the Bobcats’ defense on James.

Still, most teams’ attempts to replicate the strategy were a farce, not only failing to guard him but also provoking James. Take Arenas for example; a furious James bombarded him with 38 points and a triple-double.

After 10 games, very few teams could truly guard James, and while there was nothing wrong with the defensive approach, only a few teams had the conditions to pull it off. Most of the Cavaliers’ last 10 opponents lacked a Center who was tough on defense and skilled enough.

This bolstered James’s fans, who began to ridicule those who doubted him, saying they were just jealous. They argued that the Bobcats just got lucky once in guarding James, and their critics acted as though they had found some sort of leverage and were overly thrilled about it.

Those questioning remained firm in their stance; for the most part, they didn’t have a significant issue with James himself. James’s public image wasn’t tarnished much, aside from his step moves being so good that the league had to change rules and his poor showing at the Dream Team, and the disdain for James mostly came from media over-praise and the boisterousness of his fans.

The debate went from discussion, to argument, to outright insults, continuing for half a month with neither side giving ground, both waiting for the next face-off between the Bobcats and Cavaliers.

Hence, on the 27th, the day after the Bobcats played the Trail Blazers, they suddenly became a ’hot’ team with the media flocking to Charlotte, and a large number of ’half-year’ Bobcats fans popping up online to cheer them on.

At the same time, the Bobcats were also attacked by many media outlets and fans. Rather than analyzing how the Bobcats defended James in late January, these critics only picked on the Bobcats’ record and players’ flaws, with some even resorting to personal attacks.

Initially, the Bobcats’ players were excited to see the media swarm in.

The Bobcats didn’t lack interviews usually, and cameras were always filming in their arena, but the players soon realized that it was almost exclusively Chinese media and local Carolina region media stationed in their stadium. Major domestic US media rarely visited, and when they did, it was mainly for Zhang Yang.

This time was different; even Perkins had the media surrounding him for interviews.