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Chapter 327 - 157. The Precursor of Ailurophobia_4

Chapter 327: 157. The Precursor of Ailurophobia_4

In the future, Spoelstra of the Miami Heat would be criticized for lacking strategy, but his ability to spectacularly utilize the "James-Wade Connection" was already an outstanding achievement. It was truly difficult to devise tactics beyond a one-star four-shooter approach to aid James.

James and Hughes consulted among themselves and came up with a playing style that allowed them to coordinate, but it was still rough around the edges. Maybe after playing for a year and a half, it would improve, but now, Bickerstaff had observed for a quarter and had already found a counter-strategy.

When the Knight’s turn to attack came, Hughes charged the basket... and missed again!

Facing targeted adjustments by the Bobcats, he couldn’t think of a counter-strategy on the spot, he could only force a shot as passing was not an option.

Fortunately, this time Varejao sneaked behind Okafor and scored a putback for two points.

This was something Bickerstaff couldn’t help with. Gerald Wallace’s defense and position for rebounding were indeed lacking.

Recently, Millsap had performed well in positioning for defensive rebounds, but his defensive skills and awareness still weren’t up to par, unable to cut off the middle like Gerald Wallace.

The Bobcats attacked, Rondo advanced to the frontcourt, passing to Zhang Yang who was relying on his height against James.

Off-ball chasing, wing collapsing to help defense, James had improved a lot, he didn’t want to admit, but he indeed learned by watching Zhang Yang’s videos... However, his improvements in one-on-one defense weren’t very noticeable.

At the end of the first quarter, Zhang Yang scored a 2+1 on James, who then paid close attention to Zhang Yang’s step-back shooting.

Zhang Yang feinted a step forward, then spun successfully and broke through, James lunged forward!

Following the cut in the middle, Damon Jones who had moved in caught up to Zhang Yang, creating a pincer move with James who had caught up.

Zhang Yang passed to Rondo, who one step inside the free-throw line, received the ball and distributed it...

Felton, from a 45-degree angle on the left towards the baseline, used Okafor’s screen midway to block the chasing Hughes, and sped toward the corner, just arriving as the ball did!

He turned and shot a three-pointer before the switching defense of Gooden could catch up... and he nailed it!

Felton: Hell yeah!

The new kid is awesome!

Just now when Felton picked up the ball and passed it to Rondo, Rondo told him to rush to the corner as soon as he saw Zhang Yang drive, the faster, the better.

After partnering with the younger brother for a year, he’d learned a significant lesson: listen when smart people talk. He hadn’t expected to actually receive the ball, and the chance for a turnaround jumper was excellent!

Off to the side, another North Carolina star felt mixed emotions.

to 30, narrowing the gap to 5 points, not bad.

But that offense... Why does it look so much like Larry Bird + "The Refrigerator" + Ainge’s coordination?

That rascal Jack actually studied Bird’s videos and learned his post-up organizational style!

And to top it off, Rondo, a point guard standing at just 185 cm, freaking playing middle coordinator, unbelievable!

With a nickname of Bad Boys Legion, the three young talents in the backcourt showed shades of the ’80s Celtics... Jordan was speechless, looking to the sky, wondering what kind of team he had bought.

When it was the Knights’ turn to attack, James took over, aggressively drove but didn’t get inside, and pulling up for a jumper just outside the three-second area on the right elbow... missed!

James was gritting his teeth. With his long-range shooting feeling off, he was left wide open for threes and long twos, he was fairly accurate from the free-throw line distance, boasting a 43% shooting rate this season, averaging 2.5 makes per game. But if he had to shoot from that spot, Felton would stick close, he couldn’t break through under the basket, only at the elbow where he had a 30% shooting rate since entering the NBA.

He could only pin his hopes on Varejao and Gooden’s offensive rebounds.

Seeing the ball hit the rim and bounce towards the middle, Varejao maneuvered around it! James was excited... but a sneaky little guy got to the ball first!

Enter Center Rondo!

On the sidelines, Jordan, watching Rondo snatch the ball and swing past the defense to push the counterattack, felt an even more complicated emotion.

Most players on the court didn’t notice how Rondo suddenly appeared at the rebounding spot, but Jordan did from the crowd!

Rondo followed behind Varejao to the rebound spot and, using his speed, got to the ball first!

The chasing Hughes and James blocked off Zhang Yang and Rondo, but Rondo passed to Zhang Yang first, Zhang Yang took two steps, drawing all of James’ attention, Hughes keeping up with the speedy Rondo, not daring to let go, Zhang Yang passed to the wing... Felton caught up with a quick trot, took the ball and scored a layup!

to 30, the Bobcats narrowed the gap to 3 points, prompting a timeout from the Knights!

During the timeout, Mike Brown made defensive adjustments, reinstating Snow and Big Z to strengthen the backline defense and protect the rim, and adjusted the defensive help against Zhang Yang’s post-up plays.

After the timeout, the Bobcats’ offense faced resistance.

Bickerstaff didn’t have any better ideas for the moment, managing to close the gap with a 7-2 run that caught them up enough to potentially tie the game. Considering the significant defensive improvements of the opponents, this was already quite good.

But there was no need to hurry, their defensive play continued, preventing the Knights from replicating their first-quarter offensive performance.

In the next 10 minutes, the Bobcats outscored 19 to 18.

With a quarter score of 26 to 20, the Bobcats closed the gap to 46-48, just two points behind!

Heading into halftime, the Knights’ players were on the verge of breaking down.

Although they still led by two points, they no longer held the advantage in the second quarter. Even with appropriate defensive adjustments, they still had their lead cut by 1 point.

The playing style they had worked so hard to develop only succeeded for one quarter before being completely shut down by the opponents.

Moreover, since the opponents could make effective adjustments on the offensive end, they could only rely on their two breakthrough experts on the forward-guard line and rely on counterattacks to score.