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Chapter 235 - 125. The top three teams in the East have all won!

Chapter 235: 125. The top three teams in the East have all won!

Zhang Yang and Carter squared off!

Carter drove to the basket aggressively, attacking the rim whenever possible, and if he couldn’t get under the basket, he would pull up for a jump shot.

Zhang Yang, on the other hand, mainly focused on catch-and-shoot and fast breaks.

The two players had a qualitative gap in individual ability, but their different playing styles greatly narrowed the gap in their performances.

Carter had to create his own shots from drives to shooting, and would also encounter double teams and help defense.

Zhang Yang was different. Okafor was making threats, Felton’s pick-and-roll penetration and close-range floaters were already dangerous, and Gerald Wallace’s attack on the basket was no less threatening than Richard Jefferson’s. All Zhang Yang had to do was shoot, of course, he needed to overcome the physical jostling from Carter beforehand.

The offensive conditions were extremely unequal for both sides, but that’s the nature of the game.

Kidd, seeing Zhang Yang getting hotter with his shooting, became anxious but had to endure and patiently look for opportunities to possibly help Carter.

This was his worst-case scenario after deciphering the opponent’s offensive and defensive strategies.

They could not impose more restrictions on Zhang Yang’s high post catch-and-shoot.

Defending beyond the arc could be extended, as the defense had farther to travel, but so did a player moving to catch and shoot, which actually allowed for better containment.

Yet for the high post mid-range, shooters could use a screen to quickly get into position for the shot, and since the passing distance was shorter, they had to extend their defense even further out.

But their Nets team did not have the conditions to extend their defense outwards, for they lacked a center like Okafor, and by extending out, their interior defense would immediately get shredded by Felton, Gerald Wallace, and Okafor, which was exactly the real purpose of the Bobcats’ tactics.

To the Bobcats’ strategy, Zhang Yang’s high post shooting was just a process! He was merely one piece of the strategic puzzle!

What Kidd wanted was to prevent the Bobcats’ objective from being achieved and to nip their tactics in the bud during the process phase.

With their current lineup, the team offense was restricted by the Bobcats, and Carter’s isolations were the only stable scoring method.

Carter taking on five players had a better shooting percentage than he and Clifford Robinson being left open for shots.

Richard Jefferson was certainly not someone the opponents would leave open, Jason Collins was too easily covered, a starting center averaging just 4 points and 4 rebounds was hardly reliable.

Switching to a lineup better at shooting to break the opponents’ team defense? Kidd believed that was exactly what the Bobcats wanted. Currently, their lineup overall still restrained the Bobcats’ offense effectively, only exposing a gap at the high mid-range. They couldn’t defend Okafor’s isolations, but they would actually prefer Okafor kept playing iso, as his threat was what really troubled them.

If they brought in better long-range shooters, their defense would be ruined!

Times had changed since then, in the summers of 2002 and 2003, although the Nets couldn’t attract star players, high-quality role players eager to win a championship flocked to join them, like Lucious Harris, Anthony Johnson, Todd MacCulloch, Rodney Rogers, Aaron Williams... At that time, their role players’ lineup was on par with the Mavericks and the Trail Blazers.

Now, after failing to reach the finals for two consecutive years, the role players they attracted... better not to mention them. In the summer of 2004, they eagerly invited Mourning to join, only for him to play for two months last season before fussing to buy out his contract and return to the Miami Heat.

39-year-old Clifford Robinson was now their most capable substitute.

Of course, the Bobcats’ offensive and defensive strategies were not flawless, but this was their first encounter, and even a genius like Kidd couldn’t come up with a better countermeasure on the spot.

So, under the current circumstances, they could only hope that Carter could hold out.

But the situation did not develop in the direction Kidd had hoped.

To avoid Gerald Wallace’s help defense, Carter chose to attack the basket from the weaker left side, initially performing well, but after several rounds, facing Melvin Ely’s mid-range blocks, Okafor’s close-range help defense, and Zhang Yang’s chasing jump shot interference, Carter’s shots mostly missed!

After an official timeout, the Bobcats substituted Perkins for Melvin Ely, and with Okafor returning to power forward, Carter missed three straight one-on-one shots!

Meanwhile, Zhang Yang found his rhythm! He nailed two consecutive high post catch-and-shoot mid-rangers!

After Carter’s third miss, the Nets players couldn’t sit still any longer. Clifford Robinson, who was defending a pick-and-roll, stayed at mid-range to help against Zhang Yang, handing over Felton to the unfortunate Jason Collins.

About Collins, Okafor squeezed past Kidd and dunked over him off an alley-oop from Felton to score two points!

Coming back from the timeout, the Bobcats launched a 6-0 run, extending their lead from a closely contested 5-point margin to 11 points, 24-13 against the Nets!

Then it was the Nets’ turn to attack. Carter didn’t shoot again but instead passed the ball to Clifford Robinson at the weak-side elbow.

This position was neither too far nor too close, precisely Clifford Robinson’s blind spot for shooting. He could only drive headlong into the paint... attempt a floater... only to have it swatted out of bounds by Gerald Wallace’s block!

Nets’ frontcourt ball, Kidd called a timeout!

Only two minutes had passed since the official timeout!

Kidd looked at Carter with a flash of disappointment in his eyes, mixed with even more regret.

Before the continuous foot injuries that ruled him out for seasons, Carter could be compared to stars like Ike. Despite not having made the first team like those two, at 23 during the 99-00 season, he made the third team in his sophomore year, and at 24 in the 00-01 season, he made the second team as a junior. His talent was explosive, and his prospects back then were even better than McGrady’s, who was also selected for the second team.

But in the 01-02 season, Carter was undercut by the Spurs in two games. The first incident was minor, only sidelining him for a few games, but the second incident ended his season abruptly, halting his rising momentum. Then, in the 02-03 season, he was undercut again, this time his speed and explosiveness were destroyed... though still stronger than most players’, compared to the ’demi-god’ he once was, he fell far short.