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Chapter 387 - 182. One point more than the opponent

Chapter 387: 182. One point more than the opponent

Everyone loves a big center, especially giants like Yao, prime Shaq, and early Varnado.

In the regular season, Bynum was just a pastry-eater, a meat shield at center.

But when it came to the Rookie Challenge, he turned into a shark!

Thanks to Roy’s tactical foul, the rookie team got the chance to fall back in defense.

Zhang Yang grabbed the ball and went out of bounds, passing it to Paul.

The two exchanged glances, confirming with their eyes.

Initially, they still wanted to have some fun, but after only a couple of rounds, Bynum couldn’t hold back his impatience any longer, so they started to shred the defense!

Paul advanced to the frontcourt, starting the offense with a pick-and-roll from David Lee.

Millsap actively switched defense, but Paul wasn’t the injury-ridden floor general from four years later. Using the cover, he accelerated rapidly, leaving Millsap completely unable to keep up.

Even though the rookies’ defensive skills were lacking, their attitude was generally positive due to their recent college experience. The wings actively collapsed to help on defense, and Paul looked for his teammates... and couldn’t help but laugh out loud after passing the ball.

Zhang Yang caught the ball on the left side of the three-second area at the free-throw line distance and nailed the mid-range shot!

"You guys handle the ball, I won’t compete for ball control tonight," "Watch for the passes, when double-teamed, pass it to the wing shooters. We have many players who can shoot, don’t go solo, ensure stronger offensive firepower," "If there’s really no chance, just throw it to me, I’ll be ready to assist on the side, keep up your shooting percentage, and make your stats look pretty, I don’t mind if mine aren’t great"...

Paul remembered what Zhang Yang had said during the afternoon’s strategy session. At that time, he thought this 18-year-old brother was really selfless, wondering what lifetime Felton had lived to deserve such a brother.

It was only now that he realized, with 18 players on both teams tonight, who had better off-ball movement skills than Zhang Yang?

He had just used the screen to drive inside facing a double-team, and when he glanced around, the one in the best position to receive the ball was Zhang Yang!

But Paul saw through it without pointing it out; he really wasn’t interested in the Rookie Challenge MVP. Moreover, he found it too comfortable to play with Zhang Yang, who was always in a position within his field of vision, unguarded and ready to shoot whenever he felt like passing.

For the rest of the game, the sophomore team’s players ready to shoot were Zhang Yang; the go-to guy for fast breaks was Zhang Yang; the main ball-handler when they couldn’t find an opening was still Zhang Yang...

When ball-handling players like Felton, Deron, and Ellis were on the court, their first option to pass to was also Zhang Yang. They just felt very comfortable playing with Zhang Yang, not keenly aware like Paul that something was off.

Even Ellis, who greatly disliked Zhang Yang, had to admit that Zhang Yang was the most comfortable teammate he had ever played with.

Paul, Deron, Ellis, and Felton took turns initiating the offense, with Zhang Yang heavily involved in decision-making. The sophomore team cooperated well and executed a fierce attack.

After going up 6-0 early on, the sophomore team quickly turned it into a double-digit lead.

Initially, the rookie team managed to hold their ground, primarily due to Roy’s efforts.

Roy, physically mature, technically sound, smart, and calm during games... the fierce performance of the sophomore team didn’t affect him much.

The opposing team wasn’t as strong as the playoff-level teams he faced in regular seasons, so he couldn’t understand why his temporary teammates were so afraid; he wanted to lead his teammates in resistance... but after a few minutes, he gave up.

These teammates, who bragged in training before the game about blowing up the class of ’05 and proving their talent and strength to everyone, turned out to be cowards on the court.

There were some who weren’t cowards, Rondo and Millsap. Roy secretly applauded them, worthy of playing for top teams, as they had solid mental toughness, but these two had glaring weaknesses.

Guarding Rondo, just give him space to shoot, even if he gets past, block off his direct drive and floater spots early. Rondo then has no play, and both Bynum, starting, and Bogut off the bench, had good defensive positioning awareness for the sophomore team.

Millsap... once Bynum stood under the basket, he was helpless.

Roy: Annihilate them!

...

Shoot! Shoot! Still shooting!

Since coming onto the court tonight, Zhang Yang had been shooting non-stop.

It was too easy for him; the rookie team’s offense had no rhythm, and their defense was no better.

He moved off the ball, exploiting his speed advantage over Roy. The rookie team was actively defending, but since their eyes were always on the ball handler, he always had opportunities.

Not to mention on fast breaks—only two players on the court were faster than him: Rondo and Ellis.

Even the speed of the pre-injury Paul was on par with his.

Paul and Ellis were teammates, and as for the fastest, Rondo... even if Rondo managed to keep up with Zhang Yang, he couldn’t stop him.

Initially, under Roy’s leadership, the rookie team still had some good perimeter shooting opportunities. As the game progressed and Roy gave up resisting and handed over the ball control to start coasting, the rookie team lost any good perimeter shooting opportunities. They couldn’t make shots from the outside, so they were forced to drive to the basket, facing fierce rejections by Bynum and Bogut.

After dunking once at the start, Bynum turned his attention to rebounding and blocking shots, sharing this task with Bogut—their mission was to stop the opposing dunks.

A certain unnamed No. 3 player (Paul: Ah? Me again?) mentioned the stats—last season’s rookie game, the class of ’04 faced numerous dunk attempts against them, with Iguodala dunking the most, at 11 times.

This stat greatly annoyed a few of the sophomore team’s big men. Though they weren’t very familiar with each other, there was still a sense of collective pride among the same class players; the two centers with a talent for protecting the rim were ready to shut down the opposition’s dunks tonight.

As the sophomore team’s counterattack opportunities increased, the ball-handlers’ assists kept rising, and Zhang Yang’s scoring was consistently going up...

Initially, the sophomore team’s coach, Randy Brown, was thinking about how to balance the playtime among the nine players, but as the game wore on... balance what? He was the coach, and his word was final!

Let Jack keep playing! Too many guards? Then let Jack play small forward.

In the beginning, Randy Brown still allocated playing time based on time.

But by halftime, after seeing Zhang Yang’s stats, he only organized three perimeter lineups in the second half. When Zhang Yang played as a shooting guard, either Paul or Deron played as point guard, and when Zhang Yang played small forward, the guard positions were filled by Paul and Felton.

All three were willing to pass the ball to Zhang Yang. Ellis wasn’t opposed to passing either; he would still pass when the opportunity wasn’t great, but Ellis’s idea of an opportunity didn’t align with others...

Moreover, after seeing Zhang Yang’s first-half stats, Paul, Felton, and Deron didn’t just treat Zhang Yang as a receiving option in the second half. Once they settled into position battles, they actively created shooting opportunities for him, looking for Zhang Yang during counterattacks, passing to him even if his opportunities weren’t as good, until Zhang Yang needed a break for a couple of plays before they took their own shots.

Granger hit the court when Zhang Yang played shooting guard to create space during counterattacks, drawing defensive attention; when Zhang Yang played small forward, he just stayed on the sidelines.

In the paint, David Lee, Bogut, and Bynum took turns playing in pairs, focusing on grabbing rebounds.

As the game progressed, whenever Zhang Yang received the ball, the fans at the venue would start cheering immediately.

After Zhang Yang scored, the fans began chanting "Bad boy," "Jack."

He shot with even more effort...

At 18 minutes and 33 seconds into the second half, Zhang Yang cut back for a drive attack, receiving a pass from Felton, scoring a layup, and drawing a foul from Millsap!

All the fans in the venue stood up and cheered wildly!

Bald head number 24, who had only come to courtside to watch in the second half, also stood up laughing, shaking his head and clapping.

In the first half, the sophomore team took 43 shots, with Zhang Yang taking 22 of them, making 15 baskets, and scoring 38 points. The second half wasn’t even over, and the sophomore team had taken 33 shots, with Zhang Yang shooting 24 times...

Zhang Yang had played for 38 minutes and 33 seconds, making 33 of 46 shots, including 6 of 10 three-point shots, and 9 of 10 free throws... With this layup scored, his personal score climbed to 81 points, and he still had a bonus free throw!

Zhang Yang, pushing through exhaustion, walked to the free-throw line, took a deep breath amidst the cheering and shouting of the entire crowd, and leisurely made the bonus free throw... It was good!

The cheering from the fans erupted anew!

points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, Zhang Yang set a new single-game scoring record for the All-Star Rookie Challenge!

The previous single-game record was held by Stoudemire, a player from the Suns, who scored 36 points in the 2004 Rookie Challenge, surpassing Kobe’s record of 31 points in a single game.

Tonight, Zhang Yang more than doubled the scoring record for the Rookie Challenge!

Dan D’Antoni, the rookie team’s head coach, graciously called a timeout to let Zhang Yang savor the moment.

His teammates rushed towards Zhang Yang, gathering around to celebrate.

Paul, Deron, Granger, David Lee, and Bogut, all five were astonished; over 40 shots!

Felton had thought that throwing 30 plus times in a game was impressive before, but he hadn’t expected his little brother to dare throw more than 40 times in a single game...

If it were them, given so many shooting opportunities, they wouldn’t dare shoot either!

Even having seen Bynum take 46 shots in a single game seemed crazy, except for that one who was jealous of his abundant hair, it was unbelievable that someone else dared to shoot that much!

Only Ellis didn’t join the crowd, but he too stared wide-mouthed at the big screen.

He had always prided himself on being the most like "that one," but now he found someone even more similar...

The rookies on the other side now shared the same thought as Bargnani, "Mom, save me, I want to go home!"

...

After the timeout, Randy Brown subbed out the completely exhausted Zhang Yang.

The score had already reached 135 to 75, with no suspense left—Zhang Yang alone had outscored the opposite team by 3 points by the end of the first half.

In the last minute or so, the sophomore team scored 4 points, and the rookie team made two three-pointers, scoring 6 points.

At 10:13 p.m., the final whistle blew, with the sophomore team winning a big victory over the rookie team by 139 to 81!

points weren’t the highest in a rookie match, as Stoudemire led the Western team to 142 points in 2004, nor were 81 points the lowest, as Webber’s Passion Team only scored 68 points in 1994.

But the sophomore team’s points scored and points restricted were both ranked as the second-highest in rookie match history, creating the largest point difference in rookie match history!

However, that wasn’t the craziest part.

Zhang Yang’s 82 points in a single game were one more than the entire rookie team combined!