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Chapter 367 - 170. First in shooting!

Chapter 367: 170. First in shooting!

After the year-end battle between the Bobcats and the Knicks, Zhang Yang topped the headlines on major sports media websites!

This time, he scored 52 points in a single game. The level of shock among the fans was not as great as the time he scored 50+ against the Jazz Team, which was the first time in NBA history that a player under 20 had scored 50+ in a single game.

But in terms of the sensation and impact it caused, this time was even greater!

Because the place where Zhang Yang scored 50+ was in the Big Apple City, at the basketball holy land, Madison Square Garden!

It was broadcast nationwide, and the viewership of this game in the basketball holy land was more than double the viewership of the Bobcats’ game against the Jazz Team at home!

This was the second time that Zhang Yang had scored 50+ in a single game this season. Before him, only one other player had reached 50+ twice this season—Gilbert Arenas, who had overtaken Iverson to top the scoring leaderboard.

Arenas scored 54 points against the Suns and led the Wizards to a surprise victory of 144 to 139; he scored 60 points against the Lakers, outpacing Kobe who only scored 45.

Among the top scorers, Kobe currently only had one game against the Bobcats where he scored 58 points; Iverson had several 40+ games but had not scored 50+ yet; James scored fewer points this season than last, not yet reaching 40+, with his highest being 39 points against the 76ers before Iverson was traded; Anthony had not yet scored 50+ in his career.

Zhang Yang’s post-game interview comments, "My 50+ games are one more than Kobe" and "Another kid’s going to be corrupted by me, what can I say, I’m the bad boy," also sparked a heated debate.

It’s normal to clash with Carter, other players often sourly comment after a spectacular performance, and there are not a few who talk back to Carter.

Mentioning Kobe by name... some thought this comment was out of the blue.

Some said it was his declaration, aiming to surpass Kobe, who is the current benchmark for scoring leaders in the league because he has the highest scoring average among active scorers.

But no one called him arrogant or conceited; at 18, having scored 50+ twice already, what’s wrong with having such an ambition?

Boston media even suggested that Zhang Yang should take his boss as the role model, rather than an imitator.

Another thing that made New York basketball fans the butt of jokes again—cheering for Zhang Yang, who had already scored 49 points as a visitor and was at the free-throw line with just over 30 seconds left in a game they led by one point, became another classic scene in the basketball holy land.

...

The day after the game against the Knicks, the new year arrived, January 1, 2007, at noon, and the Bobcats left New York for the West.

A five-game cross-year trip, one in the East and four in the West.

At the hotel in Seattle, Zhang Yang looked at the schedule for January: 17 games, the Jew went crazy again!

In November, not counting the game at the end of October, there were 15 games; December also had 15 games, but by January it had increased to 17 games.

Of the 17 games, there were 8 Western away games, and the earliest start times for home games or Eastern away games were at 8 PM Eastern time; January coincided with the domestic winter vacation, clearly the Jew had planned the schedule targeting the student group.

Zhang Yang checked the schedules of other teams for January online; 27 teams had 14 or 15 games, and one team had only 13 games, but the Rockets also had 17 games in January... balanced out a lot.

The new issue of the monthly best awards was announced, with Arenas and Kobe respectively taking home the Eastern and Western Conference Player of the Month awards, both purely for their great personal performances, as their team records were not that impressive.

In the afternoon, Zhang Yang and Rondo went to the Key Sports Pavilion with Ingles for some shooting practice. Zhang Yang practiced two sets of three-pointers and free throws before leaving; with four away games in six days, including a back-to-back, and after playing 45 minutes the previous day, it was time to rest properly.

Coming to practice for half an hour was because he was just over 300 short of reaching 100,000 shooting value.

This time his random physical attributes, randomized to stamina, added 5 points to his stamina, bringing it to 93; his current stamina was 88, leaving plenty of room for improvement, potentially enough to average 40+ minutes per game in two or three years!

A new task had arrived: 100,000 shooting value random shooting talent, 100,000 shooting value upgrade ’I age a bit slower’.

He hoped to continue randomizing mid-range shooting talent, elevating it to a historical level of 95...

At present, after checking the Gate of Trials, his three-point assessment had already reached 77. After two months of relentless shooting, his mid-range shot had improved to 85 and his layup to 89. Three-point shooting, being the worst initially, improved the fastest. This season, he hoped to break into the 80s across all areas and the 90s in layups!

After resting for a day, at 9 AM on January 2, the Bobcats arrived at the Key Sports Pavilion to prepare for battle, continuing with tactical fine-tuning training.

In the evening, the Bobcats defeated the SuperSonics on the road with a score of 103 to 94.

To engage in tanking, the SuperSonics had done a lot, trading away any players who could potentially increase the likelihood of winning, besides their two main scorers Ray Allen and Lewis, and they even replaced their head coach with Bob Weiss.

Bob Weiss was a notorious tanking coach from the eighties and nineties, with his most successful tanking record assisting the Spurs in securing David Robinson.

Under the defense of Gerald Wallace, Ray Allen scored 25 points, grabbed 4 rebounds, and gave 3 assists, showcasing a strong personal performance and promoting himself to other teams in the league.

Lewis’s shooting was really unstoppable this year; despite focused defense by the Bobcats, he still managed to score 21 points, made 7 of 15 shots, including 4 of 9 from the three-point line, and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line.

Zhang Yang made 10 of 19 shots tonight, including 2 of 5 three-pointers, and 4 of 5 free throws, scoring 26 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, and delivering 3 assists with 2 steals.

In the game against the Knicks, the Bobcats’ offensive system had a slight adjustment that wasn’t very successful; they ended up abandoning their basic tactics most of the time and had to rely mostly on the individual abilities of their players to improve their offensive success rate to compete with the Knicks.

Today, against the SuperSonics, the adjustments in tactics showed their effectiveness—the offensive output required from Felton, Gerald Wallace, and Okafor was significantly reduced.

By shifting Zhang Yang’s tactical role from a mid-range constraint scorer to the primary shooting option, the focus of the offensive burden was moved from Felton, Okafor, and Gerald to Zhang Yang, wing shooters, and role players making cuts, reducing the trio’s offensive output pressure and easing their physical strain.

This change was beneficial for the current state of the trio, and Zhang Yang was also happy to take on more offensive responsibility, but simultaneously, the impact of Zhang Yang’s performance on the Bobcats’ overall offense also became larger.

Previously, those three laid the foundation; Zhang Yang’s shooting was seen as an ’offensive bonus’, helping them lead the team to perform well offensively. Now, if he played well, his teammates played more smoothly; if he played poorly, his teammates struggled more.

Indeed, in the game against the Clippers on the 4th, Zhang Yang only made 8 of 20 shots, missed all 3 attempts from beyond the arc, scoring just 20 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and giving 2 assists; the Bobcats’ total score also slipped to 93 points, resulting in a 93 to 100 loss to the Clippers, and their record dropped to 22 wins and 11 losses.

With Zhang Yang firing unrestrainedly, taking on the role of the primary shooter in tactics, the offensive stability of the Bobcats was significantly affected, and having the current version of him carry a team’s offense was somewhat challenging for him... however, this was something both Jordan and Bickerstaff had anticipated.

Recently, the offensive performances of the other three core players have varied greatly due to physical strain; even without these adjustments, the team’s strength would have fluctuated significantly.

Given this, it was better to develop Zhang Yang’s personal ability, resilience, and leadership skills, reduce the wear on the other three core players, and struggle through the daunting January schedule of 17 games.

Zhang Yang, without hesitation, chose to shoulder the heavy burden, and regardless of whether he could bear it, just this attitude alone impressed Jordan greatly.

On the 6th and 7th, they played back-to-back road games against the Kings and the Trail Blazers.

The glory days of the Kings were completely gone.

Rahim, who had just turned 30 last month, requested retirement from the Kings, hoping the team would waive or buy out his contract, but was denied.

A phenomenal talent who averaged over 20 points in his second year and 21+ points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block in the first 5 years of his career, after being tormented for several years with the Grizzlies, Hawks, and Trail Blazers, joined his long-desired strong team, only to find that this team was at the end of an era.

Rahim, utterly disillusioned, could only reluctantly return home to inherit the ’throne’—his father was a district leader of the Islamic religion, roughly holding a status akin to a king in the area, with a hereditary system, and his family owned a foundation; in the future, he became a NBA Development League Commissioner and was a candidate to succeed Adam Silver as the next NBA Commissioner...

In the game against the Kings, the Bobcats won narrowly with a score of 97 to 92; Zhang Yang made 8 of 16 shots to score 23 points. While his scoring wasn’t high, he activated his wing players, Matt Carroll and Alan Anderson, with the former scoring 16 points and the latter 14 points; together, the two shooters combined for 30 points, in addition to Felton’s 16 points and 7 assists, helping the Bobcats snatch a victory.

In the back-to-back game against the Trail Blazers, Randolph found that Okafor, Gerald Wallace, and Millsap were extremely fatigued and played with great effort. Shooting 13 of 23, along with 4 of 6 free throws, he scored 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, leading the Trail Blazers to an unexpected 102 to 94 victory over the Bobcats.

During the 5-day, 5-game road trip, the Bobcats had a record of 3 wins and 2 losses, which was lower than their earlier record of 20 wins and 10 losses before the road trip began, though this was already better than what the coaching staff had expected, as they had thought they would lose 3 of the 5 games.

On the 8th, the Bobcats returned to Charlotte, resting for a night, and the next day started another session of 6 days, 4 games, against the Raptors, Timberwolves, Hornets, and Chicago Bulls, the last two being back-to-back games.

Today, Bickerstaff only scheduled 30 minutes for offensive tactical training before concluding the preparation.

During lunchtime, the coaching staff discussed and analyzed how Zhang Yang would play in the upcoming games.

After several games, opposing head coaches had clearly noticed the change in Zhang Yang’s tactical role, making the defense specifically stronger against him; the difficulty of Zhang’s shots had significantly increased compared to when he was used as a decoy.

When the coaches were analyzing, Ingles mentioned Zhang Yang’s recent development in long passing; the coaches unanimously agreed that Zhang Yang might increase his passing like he did against the Kings in the upcoming games.

Then, in the evening game at 8 PM against the Raptors, Zhang Yang played for 36 minutes and took an astonishing 31 shots... After 20 unsuccessful shots against the Trail Blazers, he decided to add another 10!