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Chapter 262 - 135. Score as many goals as you penalize, and we’ll score just as many!

Chapter 262: 135. Score as many goals as you penalize, and we’ll score just as many!

Zhang Yang said, "The brain fears you’ll sabotage yourself and actively blocks unfavorable information," which Okafor thought was reasonable, as he understood it the same way.

But why did that statement steer the conversation off track?

Okafor directed the conversation back on course, "Next game we need to be careful, what ESPN said isn’t completely without merit, when Hughes was benched, the Knight’s offense was indeed very good."

Felton didn’t like this kind of talk that bolstered the other team’s morale, "They can’t stop us either, we don’t have to fear their offense, with Jack there, we don’t have to worry about their defense either."

Zhang Yang: "Actually, most of my points were in the first half, I got 15 out of 22 points then, 6 out of 10 shots, in the second half only 2 out of 5 for 7 points, only serving a distracting role, the scoring in the second half really depended on you guys."

Felton: "7 points isn’t too few, I played 42 minutes and only got 6 points... You guys are just too calm and overthink, we are now leading 1 to 0, and we’ve seized the home court advantage already, we need to be confident, we will definitely be the winners in the end!"

Zhang Yang: "You’re right, boss!"

Okafor: ?

That’s enough to convince him? He’s not continuing to advise Big Felton to be a bit more cautious?

Just as Okafor was puzzled, he saw Felton making a phone call asking Bickerstaff why the video hadn’t been delivered yet... it seemed he was already being cautious?

That worked too?!

Okafor had only skimmed a few psychology books, never delving deeply.

Encouraging cautiousness when you lose is right, but when you win, it’s a different story. At those times, it’s not necessarily about getting the other side to accept your view, simply conveying your idea clearly is enough.

Felton is well aware of the importance of being cautious, especially since this is the playoffs...

...

In the afternoon, the Mavericks went to the Quicken Loans Arena for two training sessions, one offensive and one defensive, based on their first game’s real combat experience to make tactical adjustments.

The next day, April 25th, came the second playoff game day for the Mavericks.

After the morning’s pre-game meeting, Zhang Yang received a league notification that he had won the Sixth Man of the Year and was second in Rookie of the Year voting.

He went to the locker room to open the NBA official website to read the news.

In the Rookie of the Year voting, Paul received 54 out of 100 first-place votes, accounting for 34% of the score, winning Rookie of the Year.

Zhang Yang received 26 first-place votes, Felton got 20, and the three of them monopolized the first-place votes.

In the Sixth Man of the Year voting, Zhang Yang received 72 out of 100 first-place votes, a 45.2% scoring share, and was named the Sixth Man of the Year.

The second place went to Mike Miller of the Grizzlies, who got 11 first-place votes, and the third place was Stackhouse of the Mavericks, who got 7 first-place votes.

Not winning the Rookie of the Year was a bit of a letdown for Zhang Yang because once missed, there was no second chance for that award.

But Paul’s performance matched Anthony’s in the 03-04 season with averages of 16+5+7+2, which was really impressive, and Zhang Yang did his utmost having better efficiency in scoring and rebounding than Paul.

Apart from scoring and rebounding, Paul was also the Hornets’ tactical core and had the best defensive performance among rookie guards.

Fortunately, winning the Sixth Man of the Year somewhat soothed his bruised ego.

Although not the first rookie to win Sixth Man of the Year, as Ben Gordon had also won it in his rookie year, Zhang Yang still set a record—the youngest Sixth Man of the Year ever!

The "youngest" this record, once set, wouldn’t be closed. It’s not only a favorite of ESPN but also other media outlets and a popular topic among fans.

Previously, most records for being the youngest were expected to go to James, it was just a matter of time, and other major media outlets in rivalry with ESPN had few opportunities to use it.

Now it was different, there was a younger one!

The youngest to score 20+, 30+, 40+, the youngest to score 1,000 points... the youngest Rookie of the Month, the youngest Player of the Week, the youngest Sixth Man...

Whatever award Zhang Yang won, other media would directly tag him as the youngest, definitely no mistake!

At 8 PM, the game between the Mavericks and the Knight in the second match of the series began.

The Mavericks were prepared for the opponent’s offensive or defensive explosion, considering the Knight had just lost their home court advantage and certainly didn’t want to lose two home games, as that might mean no comeback.

Surprisingly, the Knight was experiencing internal conflicts!

Larry Hughes, on the offensive end, would dribble and attack the basket himself, he would pass, but only to sideline shooters and interior teammates. If those at the sideline and under the basket had no chance, he would still force a shot.

Knight’s offense turned into James playing with two, and Hughes taking turns for one, performing even worse than in Game 1!

Defensively, Hughes did not cover up for James anymore, instead tightly covering his own defensive target, Gerald Wallace.

Burdened by one of the top defenders constantly on him, Gerald Wallace was almost fired up, but fortunately, his teammates performed well.

In the first half of the first quarter, Felton made 2 of 4 shots including one three-pointer and scored 5 points, in the latter half, Zhang Yang made 3 of 5 shots plus 2 free throws, scoring 8 points.

James possessed exceptional talent for guarding shooters; even though his basic skills were poor, his height, arm span, and speed were ideal for guarding sideline shooters.

But he was restless, always eager to show proactivity on defense. When guarding sideline shooters, regardless of whether it was needed or not, seeing an opponent charge, he would close in.

Thus, Mike Brown could only assign him to guard backline ball-handlers.

So tonight, without Hughes’ help on defense, James was overwhelmed on the perimeter for the entire quarter...