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Chapter 240: Season Finale Focus (Make-up Post)_2

Chapter 240: Season Finale Focus (Make-up Post)_2

Tonight, Felton has experienced his spring!

Harrington and Josh Smith were fast and agile as power forwards, but at the point guard position, they were as slow as turtles on defense.

Mike Woodson still insisted they had to learn to defend against the opposing point guard; otherwise, the position adjustment was meaningless. Joe Johnson would still have to defend the point guard, but that was a skill not even someone as talented as Josh Smith could master...

Felton repeatedly stepped back for long-range shots, continuously driving close in for scores, and he blew up the Hawks’ defense!

Making 16 out of 25 shots, including 4 out of 6 three-pointers, and 5 out of 7 free throws, Felton scored a whopping 41 points with 2 rebounds and 4 assists! Securing the first 40+ point game for a rookie from the 2005 class!

Gerald Wallace scored 14 points with 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks, Okafor had 14 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block, Matt Carroll got 9 points, Jumaine Jones 8 points...

Zhang Yang got 6 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals, passing the ball well after receiving it near the top of the key and getting several assists.

Although Harrington and Josh Smith could no longer blindly double team Zhang Yang, they could still help on defense! And they discovered that their help defense was even more effective than their chase defense. When chasing, they sometimes really couldn’t keep up, but with help defense, they only had to judge Zhang Yang’s running direction and intent; once they got that covered, the other side could only pass the ball. Sometimes, if they timed it well, they would even get a block!

As a result, for the first time in his career, Zhang Yang had more assists than points... The duo took great pride in this.

As for their ability to easily figure out the running intentions of their opponents and seize the right moment to help on defense, they didn’t seem to give it much deep thought.

Especially Josh Smith, who gave the impression that even if God wanted to force-feed him, he would be unable to get anything in.

The Hawks were also playing well offensively. With eight players rotating, all eight scored, with Joe Johnson taking 35 points, Josh Smith 10 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists, Harrington 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists, Childress 20 points, Marvin Williams 16 points... But they scored a lot and lost even more.

to 117, the Bobcats narrowly won against the Hawks by 8 points in this high-scoring battle!

...

The Bobcats’ record has reached 38 wins and 35 losses, getting off to a great start in the sprint to the playoff spots!

Entering April, the Bobcats have garnered more attention.

Because they are the only team this season that could realistically surge from the lottery range to the playoffs.

This season, the standings of the teams gradually solidified after the Kings and the Pacers swapped their best players, which revitalized each team, splitting the league into three tiers.

In both the Eastern and Western Conferences, it was pretty much the same, split into playoff teams, 30-win level teams, and those contending for the first draft pick.

And the divisions between each tier were very clear: the bottom-dwellers were truly bottom-dwellers, and the 30-win level teams were legitimately at the 30-win level.

Teams like the 76ers, Magic, and Rockets, who had a good chance of making a playoff push earlier in the season, had now lost hope.

The Jazz, with Boozer’s return, had a very good record in March and seemed like they were about to surpass the Nuggets, but then the Nuggets exploded even more violently in March, and now the Jazz seemed to hold only hopes.

Currently in the West, teams like the Spurs, Suns, Nuggets, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Clippers, Lakers, and Kings had pretty much locked their playoff spots, with only the Clippers, Lakers, and Kings of the Pacific division still competing for ranks.

In the East, the upper and lower halves had also solidified, until Okafor’s return shook up the season’s established order. The Bobcats broke through from just above a 40% win-rate, a 30-win level team, into the playoff ranks!

So, toward the end of the regular season, when it came to playoff spots, the only question was whether the Bobcats could secure a spot in the Eastern Conference top eight, and which unfortunate team would get bumped out by the Bobcats.

On that matter, the Bobcats became the ’main character’ of the end of the regular season.

At this time, Felton’s 41-point game had more impact than ever before!

Felton finally enjoyed the sensation of being a popular rookie, feeling like even walking came with a breeze.

He consoled his slightly jealous younger brother, saying that he would let him have the opportunity they had discussed to score big against the Knicks.

Felton just said that, and Zhang Yang immediately agreed. Felton instantly regretted it.

Coming back to his senses from his smug mood, Felton then remembered that his little brother could really be a dog at times!

But the words were already spoken, and a big brother couldn’t take them back, could he...

Zhang Yang was really feeling the burn this time; those two high schoolers from the Hawks were monstrous! On his little notepad, he made sure to star their names.

Still, he was quite happy for Big Fatty, who had pretty much adjusted his gameplay throughout the season, correcting many bad habits over the course of the grueling regular season.

By focusing his training on a few shooting hot zones, though Felton’s scoring areas had become much narrower—his isolated long shots concentrated at the top arc three-pointer and long two-pointer, his drives to the basket focused around the edge of the three-second area, and his catch-and-shoot focused outside the three-point wings—it appeared to restrict Felton’s ’ceiling’, making his scoring methods less comprehensive than during his college days.

But Felton never had the talent to become a technical kaleidoscope of a player. Spreading his training time too thin would only result in a jack of all trades, master of none.

Such a Felton, Zhang Yang had seen in his previous life: each season, he was criticized for poor shooting, shaky finalizing ability inside, and unwise shooting choices... Only his stable passing and control were praised, the same every year, as if there was no improvement at all.

It wasn’t until 2014, after Felton was traded to the Mavericks, that his shot selection and finalizing ability began to improve under Carlisle’s guidance, but by then he was already 30 years old, which was far too late.

The Felton of now was no longer as all-rounded, but the few scoring methods he focused on could reach greater heights than before.

And this was just his rookie season. Perfecting his strengths first and then gradually expanding his scoring techniques in the future was feasible.

Thinking of Lowry, the little dynamo, Zhang Yang considered that Felton entered the NBA stronger than Lowry, with a higher starting point, and more opportunities... In light of his current trajectory, who could reach a higher pinnacle between the two was truly hard to say!

After returning to Charlotte and resting over one night, on April 3rd, the Bobcats faced a home back-to-back challenge, the first game was yet again against the Hawks team.

The two teams once again produced a high-scoring battle.

Harrington contributed 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists, Josh Smith added 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, and Joe Johnson scored 35 points once more.

For the Bobcats team, no one scored higher than Joe Johnson this time; Gerald Wallace had the team’s highest score with 27 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Zhang Yang continued to be targeted by the two high schoolers, his little notebook was about to smoke.

Felton also faced stringent defense tonight; the Hawks team certainly didn’t want to be scored on by a rookie in back-to-back games.

Thanks to Gerald Wallace’s 27 points, Okafor’s 22 points, Matt Carroll’s 18 points, and Jumaine Jones’s 16 points, the Bobcats beat the Hawks 116 to 109, raising their record to 39 wins and 35 losses!

The next day, on April 4th, the Bobcats’ three-game winning streak was snapped as they lost their 36th game of the season at home to the Chicago Bulls with a score of 87 to 94.

That night, the Bobcats’ offense failed to click and their defense was lacking, too.

Young teams, after all, still struggle with controlling the pace; they had been led astray by the previous games against the Hawks team.

After the match, Jordan stormed into the locker room and gave the players a piece of his mind.

After Jordan left, Felton stepped up, urging his teammates to make good use of the next two rest days to train well and get the rhythm back on track.

Gerald Wallace was quite frustrated with himself for being one step behind Felton; he wanted to be the one leading his teammates, but he was always a step too slow...

On April 5th, the NBA took a day off. Zhang Yang rested in the morning, did extra training in the afternoon, and watched the March Madness final game live in the evening.

Florida State unceremoniously dispatched UCLA 73 to 57, with Joakim Noah being named the MOP of the Final Four.

Zhang Yang remembered that player would eventually be picked by the Chicago Bulls with a draft choice they had acquired from the Knicks, a pick that was a sweetener in the deal that sent Eddie Curry to New York... so the Bulls’ selection from 2001 turned into a future All-NBA and All-Defensive team player?

During this period, the Knicks were the NBA’s good Samaritans, taking on bad contracts and doling out lottery picks.

Could it be that Dolan felt embarrassed for earning too much and decided to distribute the wealth in a different way?

After two days off, on April 7th, the Bobcats team faced the Timberwolves at home.

As the player introductions ended, Garnett could feel two sources of malice.

He stepped back and, with an ironclad gaze, looked towards the opposing side... Gerald Wallace and Okafor.

The last time the two teams met was the middle of the month, five months ago; Gerald Wallace and Okafor were both out with injuries, and Garnett posted 28 points, 22 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks, leaving the two rookies running scared...