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Chapter 314 - 152. The Rockets’ house collapsed (3/5)

Chapter 314: 152. The Rockets’ house collapsed (3/5)

The Bobcats massacred the Rockets by 31 points, leaving the domestic media completely baffled.

How were they supposed to write the battle report? They couldn’t even cut the live broadcast quickly enough like the chubby man from North Korea!

Before the game, they were promoting the Bobcats as only a playoff team while the Rockets were championship contenders.

In reality, they were prepared for the Rockets to lose and had pre-written their drafts.

Others might not know the situation with the Rockets, but would those who’ve been in Houston all year be unaware? Yao Ming and McGrady had an absolute advantage in individual skills, but aside from Yao and T-Mac, only Battier, acquired in exchange for Guy, was considered outstanding. Most of the players were dead weight, far from as formidable as the news made them out to be.

A 20-point difference would still be manageable, seeing as the gap was only 10 points after three quarters. They could argue that the Bobcats used their starters to ambush the Rockets, taking advantage of Yao and T-Mac’s rest to push the game into garbage time.

But during the garbage time when both teams fielded pure substitutes, the Rockets’ bench got pummeled by the Bobcats’ bench. The depth gap... was no longer a gap, it was like NBA players going up against Development League players.

Zhang Yang, who scored the game’s highest points during a live interview, threw another punch at the Chinese journalists, "Winning against a team that only has three players is quite normal."

The reporters were torn apart!

Isn’t Zhang San usually very modest and gentle during interviews? Why did he say it so bluntly today?

How were they going to find excuses to get paid?

...

The stunt where the Bobcats’ substitutes slaughtered the Rockets’ substitutes tore a hole in China’s basketball sky!

Over the past few years, the Rockets have spent a massive amount of media operating funds to promote themselves as championship contenders in China, declaring every year’s recruitment efforts as successful, branding themselves as geniuses in finding talent and treasures on the free market, claiming every player was top-notch.

In 2004, Spanoulis, who was selected by the Mavericks with a second-round pick and didn’t pass their summer league evaluation, was dropped by the Mavericks. This year, the Rockets signed him and had the audacity to promote him as the ’European Kobe’ in China.

When the Rockets signed Jon Barry, who had a career average of 5 points, the team hyped him up to be better than his brother...

Due to the limited channels of information, many people who rarely or never watch live games have their understanding of the NBA and Rockets’ strength based on television news and newspapers. They genuinely believed the limitless media reports, to the point where their impressions were firmly ingrained.

Today, countless Chinese basketball fans had their world shattered...

This year’s matchup between Yao Ming and Zhang Yang garnered much more attention than last year in China. The game started at 10 o’clock in the morning, which was more viewer-friendly than last year, resulting in very high ratings, especially in the last quarter which began right at noon. The ratings nearly doubled at that time... and then they saw a group of Bobcats substitutes, whose names they could not even recall, grinding their supposedly formidable Rockets players into the ground.

The final quarter score of 38 to 17 stunned the fans who believed the Rockets were championship contenders. They began to doubt... no, question! They questioned the news they had seen before.

Most fans no longer believed the news reports that came out after the game, where mainstream media wracked their brains to find excuses for the Rockets’ loss.

At that moment, some second and third-tier media outlets, sensing an opportunity, began to report the truth, igniting public opinion.

The false image that the Rockets had spent years and extensive operational funds to build crumbled overnight...

...

On Zhang Yang’s side, after winning the opening game and having a good night’s sleep, he saw a message from Tellem when he woke up. Only then did he realize he and his team had turned the Chinese sports world upside down.

He took a look at Chinese sports forums... and gasped.

He never imagined that one game could have such a dramatic impact.

Seeing posts criticizing and lambasting the Rockets crazily flooding the forums... the substitutes did a great job! If the gap had been only 20 points, it might not have had this effect.

When a multi-year fabrication is exposed, the fury of those who believed the lies can only be imagined.

His post-game interview comment also played a significant role, giving fans who wanted to know the truth a direction to seek it.

He regretted... Why didn’t he say more? Such a missed opportunity.

Yes, he disliked the Rockets. He reveled in their misfortune, wanting to kick them while they were down, but regretted not seizing the opportunity.

As for the comment about the Rockets having ’only 3 players’, worrying about offending the Rockets players... With only two matchups in a season, there’s nothing to worry about.

Becoming teammates in the future? Impossible. As for the Rockets players, aside from Yao Ming and McGrady, Battier, the only other Rockets player that is kind of decent is Luther Hayes, Juwan Howard still has a bit left in him, but with his $7 million annual salary, he’s definitely a case of high pay for low output.

Even last season, they probably wouldn’t have been too keen on the Rockets’ role players, let alone now.

Will it affect his relationship with Yao Ming... It’s the 31-point difference that was the real catalyst for the media frenzy, his comment was just adding fuel to the fire.

If Yao Ming decides to turn hostile over this, then let it be. Even if he hadn’t made that comment, it would have happened anyway.

The fact that he could pull the Rockets down from their ’divine altar’ in the hearts of domestic basketball fans pleases him even more.

After browsing the domestic websites and forums for a while and having his fill of the buzz, Zhang Yang forced himself to shift focus, opening up the sports website belonging to the Hawks, where the news was much more normal.

The Bobcats’ 31-point slaughter of the Rockets is also a headline here, and there are plenty of news stories, but not as crazy as in China.

With last season’s performance, the Bobcats have become a rising team that’s getting a lot of attention.

With the Yao-McGrady duo, the Rockets’ profile is pretty high in the U.S. too. After acquiring McGrady, apart from Yao and McGrady, the Rockets didn’t have anyone else who could play well, and this wasn’t news anymore. Even adding Battier this season didn’t change that fact.

Moreover, the Rockets’ trade of Rudy Guy for Battier was criticized by the media as soon as it went through, and after Guy scored an average of 15 points in preseason and 23 points against the Spurs going 9 for 17, the mockery intensified.

As for the storm of public opinion the Rockets faced in China, there was barely a ripple in the US.

Previously, Chinese fans were unaware of the real situation with the Rockets, and actually, American fans didn’t know that the Rockets were so hyped up in China. They were always puzzled whenever they saw the Rockets claim to be championship contenders, suspecting that the Rockets’ owner and management were out of their minds, never realizing that those boasts weren’t meant for them and that their opinions were of no concern.

Zhang Yang, scoring 33 points in the opener, became a hot topic among fans, with the hottest question being—can Zhang Yang surpass LeBron James to become the youngest player to average 20 points per game in history?

Rondo, who had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, and 1 steal in his debut, also caught the attention of many fans. Although 6 of his assists came during garbage time, rookie stats don’t have to account for that.

The Rockets being massacred by 31 points, the media and fans’ points of attack were also normal—Jeff Van Gundy’s poor adaptability, and the Rockets’ roster being really bad.

Hubie Brown, the commentator for Time Warner Cable Sports, analyzed the game in his column, and after reading it, Zhang Yang felt it was a very objective analysis that helped him to calm down.

"At the start of the game, I thought both teams would end up scoring around 90 points. After playing for 6 minutes, Jack had scored 8 points, but the Bobcats were only leading the Rockets by 2 points, 12 to 10. At that time, I thought the Rockets had a better chance of winning. Yao and McGrady hadn’t really performed yet, while the Bobcats were only relying on Jack for scoring. If Jack’s scoring couldn’t be sustained, the Bobcats would slowly lose the initiative and the game, just like many other teams that had been defensively exhausted by the Rockets.

But Rondo’s entrance into the game was the turning point. He helped the Bobcats execute an offense beyond Rockets’ expectations, maintaining Jack’s scoring momentum. Faced with this, Van Gundy adapted poorly, letting Yao and McGrady get caught in a vicious cycle of catching up, getting tired, trying to catch up again, and getting more tired. The Bobcats’ advantage grew little by little, and when Yao and McGrady were too fatigued to play, the Rockets fell apart..."

Zhang Yang noticed two key points Hubie Brown mentioned—one was that as long as Yao Ming or McGrady were on the court, their Bobcats couldn’t continue to extend the lead, and when both were playing, the Rockets could still gain the upper hand; the other was that Rondo’s leadership in offense was unexpected by Van Gundy, who failed to respond appropriately.

He reflected on last night’s game, and indeed the situation was such.

If the Rockets had a roster of role players at league average, the outcome of the game would have been hard to say. Yao Ming and McGrady’s individual capabilities were truly strong. If Van Gundy had adapted more promptly and appropriately, with targeted responses to rookie Rondo’s offensive leadership, their Bobcats wouldn’t have won as easily. They would have probably ended up like the other teams, barely winning, but with considerable damage inflicted by the Rockets.

Zhang Yang planned to have a good talk with Big Fatty Neal when he got back, signaling it was time for the boss to get to work, and reminding his teammates to stay grounded!

He checked the report on another game.

Wade was truly ferocious...

James had put up 27 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, and 1 steal, putting on quite a performance, but Wade scored 41 points, and without O’Neal playing, he led the Miami Heat to a 92-89 victory over the Knights in the season opener.

But one sentence in the report surprised Zhang Yang—James missed two consecutive three-point attempts in the final moments, missing the chance to tie the game.

Zhang Yang remembered that in the regular season matchup with the Knight the previous season, James had passed the ball to Damon Jones during a crucial moment. This time he took the shots himself? And twice at that? Was it because he was up against Wade, or was there another reason?

By noon, the Bobcats left Houston, flying towards Dallas.

After talking with Big Fatty Neal about last night’s game, Zhang Yang looked out at the passing clouds from the airplane window, with one thought in his mind—Jews are tough to deal with!

It was only when he gathered at the hotel entrance and heard Bickerstaff mention the next stop was Dallas that he remembered, they, the Bobcats, were starting the season with a Texas three-game road trip!