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Chapter 251 - 130. Carter: I knew it, someone has been led astray by Kobe!

Chapter 251: 130. Carter: I knew it, someone has been led astray by Kobe!

I’ll take care of the scoring for Mr. Dolan’s house, and you take care of the points they score; let’s each earn our own without interfering with each other.

That was what Zhang Yang seemed to hear the players from the other side saying the first time he played against the Knicks Team last November.

At that time, without Gerald Wallace, without Okafor, and with Felton’s play still full of bad habits, Zhang Yang scored 16 points against the Knicks Team, hitting 6 out of 9 shots...

The second time he played against the Knicks Team, Zhang Yang scored 35 points, and the faces of the opposing players didn’t show any ripples.

Tonight, the guard from the Hawks team was clearly here to score. Felton had already been firing away for half a quarter, and after Zhang Yang came on, he took the ball and just went for it, while the Knicks Team players still looked like they were letting him take whatever he wanted... Not all of them, though, some were still competing with him.

Zhang Yang made a shot, and Marbury immediately wanted to make one, completely ignoring the Little Shark’s motion for the ball.

The Little Shark scored 5 points in the first half and was playing happily. He wanted to come back from the official timeout and try to defend better, but now he was unhappy again and didn’t even want to go for rebounds.

Although Marbury had completely let loose when playing for his hometown team, he still wanted to compete with those guys from his draft class.

Of course, he wouldn’t actively defend Zhang Yang like Iverson would.

This season, his defensive contribution value was 0.2, allowing his counterparts to score 114 points per 100 possessions. What does that mean?

Nash’s defensive contribution value for the season was 2.2, allowing his counterparts to score 109 points per 100 possessions; Iverson’s defensive contribution value was 1.8, allowing his counterparts to score 110 points per 100 possessions; TJ-Ford’s defensive contribution value for the season was 2.3, allowing his opponents to score 108 points per 100 possessions.

These three were rated by the media as the league’s three worst defensive guards. Marbury didn’t receive such an evaluation, all thanks to the good impression he left on the defensive end during his time with the Timberwolves, the Nets Team, and the Suns team.

Marbury knew that he couldn’t defend anymore, going back to the hometown team for two and a half years, his defensive habits and fundamentals had long been abandoned.

And defending, how tiring...

So he chose to duel with Zhang Yang!

You beat your Jamal Crawford, and I’ll beat my Felton.

Getting blown out, Crawford was completely unfazed inside, but Marbury, why the XX are you not passing the ball?

As a result, the Hawks team players saw Marbury arguing with Crawford on one side and dueling with Zhang Yang on the other.

Felton was cursing under his breath too...

Marbury on one side was forcibly monopolizing the ball, causing discontent among his teammates. On Zhang Yang’s side... even Gerald Wallace, the leader of the ’enemy team’, was happily watching the duel between Zhang Yang and Marbury.

It was mainly because of Zhang Yang’s usual style of play, prioritizing the big picture. He threw more only when needed, and if there was no opportunity, he could even only attempt 4 shots in a game, like when playing against the Hawks team.

When facing off with the Timberwolves, in order to create better scoring opportunities for his teammates, he would take initiative in the crucial fourth quarter to shoot a few in Garnett’s help defense area to attract the opponent’s attention, willingly sacrificing paper efficiency.

What’s wrong with a 17-year-old rookie occasionally wanting to duel with a famous star? It only happens a few times a year, and if it’s your own rookie, of course, you have to indulge him.

Not just indulge him, you have to help him!

Felton was mouthing off about why little brother isn’t defending Marbury this time, but his body was very honest, defending fiercely.

Gerald Wallace and Okafor were also helping on the wing and under the basket to limit Marbury.

This was different from playing against the 76ers team. It’s hard to deal with if the 76ers’ wing shooters are on fire, with all their wing shooters; the Knicks Team’s wing shooters were standing outside the top arc three-point line, arguing with Marbury.

Marbury played 42 minutes, and even when the score reached garbage time, he stayed on the court to duel with Zhang Yang, which brings us to the ’superiority’ of the Knicks Team’s roster. The starters are famous stars, and so are the substitutes, even in garbage time they can keep a star on the court.

Marbury shot 30 times, 26 of which were valid attempts, hitting 11 out of 26 shots, including 4 out of 12 three-pointers, and with 5 out of 8 free throws, he scored 31 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal.

On Zhang Yang’s side, luckily he was a rookie, which allowed him to play 30 minutes needing rest each quarter, with 8 minutes of those being the garbage time at the end of the fourth quarter until the end of the game.

At 9:20 p.m., the final whistle blew, and the Hawks team won a big victory against the Knicks Team with a score of 112 to 93, bringing their record to 44 wins and 37 losses!

Once Zhang Yang scored more than Marbury, the fans on the spot kept shouting "Jack," and even after the game ended, the cheering didn’t stop.

Some fans wanted to use this to stimulate the Knicks Team players, but they were not in the majority.

Some fans were just joining in on the excitement, which accounted for the majority.

Another part of the fans had the ’Big Apple city mentality’, pure and simple. Even though the stars recruited by the Knicks Team in recent years came to retire or pad their stats, the fact that stars came was true. This gave these fans an illusion that all stars aspire to play in Madison Square Garden... That thought isn’t wrong.

Now they’re shouting "Jack" because Zhang Yang’s performance tonight was insane! They hope he will join in the future!

Felton, Gerald Wallace, Okafor, and even Joe, the owner, were stunned.

Damn, he really dared to shoot!

They had thought that Zhang Yang would take a lot of shots tonight, but they didn’t expect him to shoot so frequently!

In 30 minutes on the court, Zhang Yang attempted 31 shots, 26 of which were valid, making 15 out of 26, including 5 out of 10 three-pointers. Two inside-the-three-point-line attempts were fouled, and two three-point shots were fouled; he scored a total of 8 out of 10 free throws, racking up a crazy 43 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals!

Felton was bleeding internally but still had to celebrate for his little brother...