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Chapter 340 - 162. Envy

Chapter 340: 162. Envy

Zhang Yang exploded for 53 points, shocking the basketball world!

After the game, Zhang Yang dominated major media headlines and became the focus of hot debate among fans.

Playing 34 minutes, 20 for 35 shooting, including 13 for 25 from mid-range, those who hadn’t watched the live broadcast exclaimed at the frequency of shots and the number of made mid-range shots, calling it too exaggerated.

Those who watched the live broadcast felt even more shocked!

In the first quarter, the Mountain Cats had already been dragged into the mire of a bloody battle by the Jazz Team. At that time, many old fans watching in front of the TV, who had seen the Jazz Team play in the ’90s, thought the Mountain Cats had an 80% chance of losing.

Never mind his own scoring, the strategy of pulling down the opponent’s score and then using their rich experience in low-scoring games to beat the opponents was what the bloody Jazz Team excelled at. In the ’97 Finals, even the Chicago Bulls were ground down to just 73 points by the Jazz Team. What made the current Jazz Team most favored was that they had a viable path to victory.

But then in the second quarter, Zhang Yang flung up 10 shots in half a quarter, and without any free throws, he forcibly scored 14 points, directly disrupting Sloan’s rotation plans and forcing the Jazz Team’s starting lineup to play two and a half quarters without daring to take a break!

Fans who only read the post-game reports couldn’t feel the visual shock that fans who watched the live broadcast experienced. It’s not uncommon for stars to get hot hands and score high—it happens several times each season—but the way Zhang Yang played was just too special and rare.

When he got hot, he refused to pass, just shooting continuously once he was on the floor... This style of play reminded fans only of one person—Kobe Bryant!

Of course, there was still a big gap. Even during a big outburst, Zhang Yang’s shot attempts were far fewer than Kobe’s. After Kobe threw up 46 shots, fans felt he could still throw up another dozen or so and score another 20 points, but Zhang Yang at the end couldn’t even drive and had to settle for shooting threes against the defense.

The ’"mere" 53 points’ was enough to cause a frenzy in the media and lively discussion among fans, and an important reason was his age—18 years and 182 days old, Zhang Yang set a new record for the youngest player to score 50+ points in a game!

The previous record holder was James, at 20 years and 80 days old.

Another ’youngest’ record of James had been broken, leaving the fans of James numbed; seeing Zhang Yang at the young age of just over 18 and a half, destroy!

...

The morning after beating the Jazz Team, Zhang Yang relaxed at home with his laptop, resting and refreshing the news.

Last night was exhilarating but incredibly exhausting... Before the last substitution, he hadn’t felt much, caught up in the thrill of shooting, it seemed the basket was as wide as the ocean, and every shot went in. But after the last substitution, when he knew he wouldn’t play again, weariness swept over him. Fortunately, he had rested for a little over a minute at the end, or else he wouldn’t have been able to stand during the post-game interview.

As he expected, the most discussed aspect of his 53 points from last night was his age.

Many didn’t discuss him as a second-year player but compared him with those who scored 50+ in their rookie seasons because even compared to those rookies, he was still too young.

This time, ESPN led the hype over his 53 points as the youngest single-game 50+ points scorer. He was surprised when he first saw it, but after thinking it through, not so much. They were just after traffic, and who they hyped didn’t really matter. Plus, even though ESPN still mostly picked out what was wrong this season, when mentioning their team strength or player prowess, they mainly praised them.

After all, by hyping them up, it created a better excuse for that someone who kept losing to them.

After indulging in the news for two hours to enjoy the moment, Zhang Yang tried to calm himself down.

The kind of hot hand from last night was something one couldn’t hope for all the time.

In the future, there was a guy named Jennings who, in his rookie year playing against Curry, went on a rampage and scored 55 points and then never found that shooting touch again. But Jennings treated that one game as a reflection of his strength, changing his playing style and shot selection, which directly impacted his career.

In his past life, Zhang Yang had looked into Jennings’ stats; before the 55-point game, his shot attempts were reasonable, and his shooting percentage was pretty good, with a success rate above 44% in 5 out of 6 games. But after scoring 55 points, his shot attempts spiked, and his accuracy plummeted, hitting a string of 30%... Retiring before 30, he ended his career with a shooting percentage of 38%.

A lesson from the past... no, that’s not right, from the future... well, in any case, Zhang Yang knew he had to be rational about the 53 points.

He checked his stats for the season on the official website; in the 10 games before scoring 53 points, he scored 10+ in 5 games and 20+ in 5 games, which seemed to cool him down somewhat.

But that wasn’t enough, so he checked what happened to James after he scored 50+ in his second year, uh...

James scored 56 points against the Toronto Raptors, facing Bosh under the hoop, but the Knight lost 98 to 105.

Then James, facing a beatdown by Yao Ming and Nowitzki, was held to 7 for 22 against the Rockets and 7 for 17 by the Mavericks.

Looking for someone else, which current star had an early career scoring spree? Iverson! The rookie season 50+ scorer, uh...

That was one of Iverson’s games during a streak of consecutive 40+ points at the end of his rookie season, and they lost all five games.

Zhang Yang’s lips twitched. He intended to see how badly these two stars had been targeted after scoring 50+, to stay calm and grounded and maybe learn some lessons.

But their ordeals seemed too harsh, almost casting a shadow on his young self.

Thinking that way, Jennings must have had a really strong mentality, being so confident despite a career shooting percentage of 38%.

...

After resting all morning, Zhang Yang resumed training in the afternoon.

If high-scoring games due to a hot hand were elusive, then he would train to have that level of shooting ability!

Two months into team training, his mid-range shot had barely improved to 84, still far from the upper limit of 94. Recalling his 23-year-old self on the alternate timeline, who had a mid-range shot of 88, he knew there was still a gap, so he kept working the iron, continuing to train!

The next day, December 1, marked the start of a new month.

Following the game against the Jazz Team, the Charlotte Bobcats had two days of rest; they rested all day yesterday and left Charlotte early this morning to begin a three-game road trip.

Their opponents for the three games were the Wizards, Pacers, and 76ers respectively—all of average records, but each had their tough points.

Not long after arriving at the hotel in D.C., the Bobcats received a notification from the league: Okafor had won an award!

The four core players agreed to meet for lunch. Zhang Yang stared at Okafor and said, "Envious."

Felton nodded, "Yeah, envious."

After they spoke, they both looked towards Gerald Wallace.

Gerald Wallace hesitated for a moment before saying, "I’ve already won it before."

Zhang Yang and Felton pointed towards the door of the restaurant in unison, "Get out!"

Gerald Wallace looked at them wordlessly.

Okafor also allowed himself a rare smile and said, "I thought Jack would get Player of the Month. Didn’t expect it to be me."

Zhang Yang replied, "You had 20.5 points, 11 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in 16 games last month. You performed the best and most consistently on our team, If not you, then who?"

While he might sound sour, he truly wasn’t jealous. Okafor’s performance was indeed superior, and without Okafor’s short-range cooperation, one-on-one play, rebounding, and defensive help, they wouldn’t have achieved a record of 12 wins and 4 losses.

The other two teammates were just as indispensable.

Felton averaged 15.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1 steal over 16 games; Gerald Wallace averaged 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.5 steals, and 2 blocks over 12 games—both were irreplaceable parts of the team.

Of course, he wouldn’t sell himself short either; in the first month, he averaged 23.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks a game, which was no less significant than the other three core players.

When Okafor was criticized and insulted, he wouldn’t get angry; he’d just stay expressionless. But when praised... he felt great inside yet also somewhat embarrassed and tried to change the subject:

"Yao, from your home country, is truly impressive, averaging 25.8 points and 10 rebounds. He’s a true center. The last center to average 25 points was probably O’Neal!"

And indeed, the Western Conference Player of the Month was awarded to Yao Ming.

Zhang Yang commented, "The little giant is indeed fierce."

Only after playing in the NBA did Zhang Yang realize how difficult it was for an interior player to score high.

Even someone as strong as Duncan had managed to average over 25 points in a season only once so far.

The "little overlord," on the other hand, had averaged 26 points in his third year, but his playing style was more akin to a mobile small forward without the ball rather than a traditional post player. Watching just his offensive plays that season, he wasn’t much different from Richard Jefferson without the long shot.

A true post player doesn’t have the luxury of shooting often. A natural talent like O’Neal, after moving to the Miami Heat, helplessly stated, "My physical strength is no longer sufficient to support 20 shots per game."

Felton joined in, "Unexpectedly, it’s Yao who ended up winning the Western Player of the Month. Before that, everyone was saying Nowitzki or Howard might get it."

Gerald Wallace added, "The Mavericks had a 12-game winning streak, but it was really surprising they went on to lose four in a row against the Wizards, Warriors, Spurs, and Rockets. What’s more surprising is that the Rockets managed a 10-5 record with that line-up. Yao and McGrady are too impressive. To compete with Yao for Player of the Month, the Mavericks needed at least two more wins, especially after losing the head-to-head matchup with the Rockets..."

Zhang Yang, Felton, and Gerald Wallace then began chattering noisily about the Rockets and Yao Ming.

With the Yao-McGrady duo, the Rockets were also a highly talked-about team in the United States.

Leading his team to a 10-5 record while averaging over 25 points a month, Yao was the day’s most talked-about player.

Before dining out, Zhang Yang had browsed some Chinese websites and noticed that local fans were also heatedly discussing Yao’s performance, while also criticizing the Rockets.

Previously, no one had mentioned the salary issues of the Rockets, but once the fans learned the truth, they realized that the Rockets’ payroll was even lower than that of the San Antonio Spurs, a team often ridiculed by Chinese fans for being stingy. Although the Spurs were also avoiding taxes—to the point of offloading Muhammad, their third-best post player, and reducing their payroll to 65 million, just 500 thousand below the luxury tax threshold—the Rockets’ payroll was even lower at 63 million.

Whether fans of Yao or McGrady, they all felt it would be better to go to the Spurs than to stay with the Rockets.

Recently, when Zhang Yang occasionally visited Chinese websites, he even saw media reports on how much money the Rockets were making off Yao, leading to even more fierce criticism of the team...

As Okafor listened to the three of them talking about Yao, he remained expressionless.

What about celebrating my ’Duncan-light’ winning the Player of the Month? The conversation turned to another Player of the Month all too soon! Annoying!

...

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