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Chapter 393 - 185. I’m intoxicated? No, you’ve been fooled!

Chapter 393: 185. I’m intoxicated? No, you’ve been fooled!

The game was about to start, and the referees notified both teams’ starting players to get on the court.

Zhang Yang went to the scorer’s table to apply chalk to his hands, and chatted briefly with Tyronn Lue.

He just wanted to shout ’Lue sir’ a couple of times, nothing particularly special, they talked about the Tatum brothers.

Even casual conversation could yield some useful information, and Zhang Yang could clearly feel that Tyronn Lue was in a much better mood than the last time they faced off.

That time, Tyronn Lue even had a smile that seemed to see through the affairs of the world when he spoke, making it really hard to imagine what he’d been through these past two years.

Zhang Yang took to the court, and the four teammates starting with him were Felton, Gerald Wallace, Millsap, and Okafor.

You have to say, arranging matchups against the Hawks team’s bunch of players hovering around 206 cm was really a headache.

The opposition sent out Tyronn Lue, Joe Johnson, Childress, Josh Smith, and Zaza Pachulia as their starting lineup.

The referee blew the whistle and tossed the ball into the air. Okafor beat Pachulia to win the jump ball. The Bobcats got the first possession!

Felton took on Tyronn Lue one-on-one, breaking into the lane to pass to Okafor. Okafor, facing help defense, passed to Gerald Wallace.

Gerald Wallace had just received the ball when Joe Johnson immediately stepped up to cover him. As soon as he passed the ball to Zhang Yang, Tyronn Lue followed closely.

Zhang Yang intended to pass it again, but he caught the ball in time and didn’t pass it off.

The moment he stopped, Josh Smith appeared between him and the now-open Millsap!

Luckily, he reacted quickly. Otherwise, the ball would have been stolen.

Without stopping, he turned with his back to Tyronn Lue, dodged the steal attempt, took a step through contact, spun right to the baseline, and shook off Childress, who was closing in from the top of the key. Turning to face the basket, he jumped, releasing a mid-range shot...

Tyronn Lue hadn’t shaken him off, but he couldn’t affect Zhang Yang’s jump shot in motion.

Zhang Yang’s mid-range post-up jumper hit the mark!

The shot went in, but Zhang Yang was surprised by the Hawks team’s defense this time.

Such quick switches!

If he was being covered by someone like Josh Smith, with height over two meters and speed like a guard, that shot might have been difficult... Huh? Isn’t that still the ’5 James’ strategy?

Mike Woodson on the sidelines thought the same, but he had been coaching the Hawks since ’04, and after two and a half years of drafting, trading, and signing, amassing a bunch of forwards between 203-206 cm, only Josh Smith could defend like that.

Having a forward guard the 2 and 4 spots wasn’t a big problem, but defending the 1 and 5, even for someone as talented as Josh Smith, was too much to ask.

After two and a half seasons, he and the team’s owner finally resigned themselves to the reality, starting to subtract from the ’five James defense,’ eliminating the point guard and center positions.

Even though the decision was made, seeing such a successful switch and still not being able to stop it caused some inner turmoil.

Fortunately, after two and a half years of failure, he confirmed that the ’5 James system’ wouldn’t work, and the turbulence quickly subsided.

The Hawks went on the offensive.

Tyronn Lue exploited his speed advantage to attack Felton one-on-one, driving to the right side of the free-throw line, then passed back out to Josh Smith at the top of the key.

At that moment, with Tyronn Lue attracting a decent amount of defensive attention on the right side of the key, Josh Smith’s drive down the middle posed a big threat.

Joe Johnson moved to the left corner, drawing Gerald Wallace away. With an average of 25.6 points and a 39% three-point shooting percentage, making 2.1 shots per game, Wallace dared not leave him to help out on defense.

Childress made a cut to the basket from the left, with only Zhang Yang, who was following, to block him!

Childress rushed to the left side of the key, received the ball from Josh Smith’s assist, and flew up for a layup against Zhang Yang... and scored!

Zhang Yang put his hands on his hips as he received Felton’s pass to move up court, a foreboding feeling setting in.

It was the Bobcats’ turn to attack.

Zhang Yang confirmed that the Hawks’ last round of defensive cooperation was no fluke; as he positioned himself, he saw the entire Hawks team move in response to Felton’s drive. No matter who from their team, the Bobcats, was left open, someone was always ready to close in on the receiver the moment they got the ball!

Felton noticed this too, and his way of dealing with it was simple and rough, charging forward!

He drove in close, jumped ahead of his defender, Childress, held his ground in mid-air, and lofted the ball up for a shot... and it went in!

Seeing this play, Zhang Yang instantly clarified his offensive strategy.

Well done, Big Baby Felton, figuring out in minutes how to handle the other side’s defense.

The Hawks’ 2 through 4 positions had tall players capable of moving well, possessing great potential for team defense, but individual defense... just go straight at them.

But on the defensive end...

Zhang Yang fell back to the backcourt to switch defense with Gerald Wallace. He just wanted to try and see; as he expected, when Joe Johnson saw it was him on defense, he went straight to the post to call for the ball, spun around for a fadeaway jumper, and scored.

As I thought, they targeted me as the weak spot!

His one-on-one defense wasn’t bad, and he was even excellent at guarding shooters, but the current Jordan... that was beyond his level!

The game shifted from defense to offense, and after pushing forward into the frontcourt, Zhang Yang made a hand signal.

Felton ran to the left corner, opening up space at the top of the arc, Zhang Yang going one-on-one!

The cheers from the fans in the stands rose instantly! Just got played one-on-one, and now to respond with the same, bad boy Jack was going to strike back!

Joe Johnson had solid fundamentals in defense and a good attitude, but he was a bit lacking in athletic ability.

Zhang Yang deftly spun past Joe Johnson, penetrated to one step inside the free-throw line, and leaped to shoot quickly, facing up to Josh Smith who came to help...

The ball flew over Josh Smith’s head and dropped into the basket!

Josh Smith was quick to help, but mainly Joe Johnson failed to even properly slow down Zhang Yang’s penetration.

On the sidelines, Bickerstaff had already stood up, arms crossed.

Only two rounds in, and the players had abandoned tactics; he didn’t mind that, nor did he care about players going head-to-head with the opposition, as long as they could score, it was a good method.

Moreover, Zhang Yang’s details in his stop-and-shoot were very good. Facing off against Joe Johnson who was slower in both turning and acceleration, Zhang Yang began to slow down after beating his man, creating better conditions for jumping and shooting... Returning from playing in an All-Star weekend, his technique had even improved! It was impressive.

What he cared about was defense, and how the players would respond to it.

He had a strategy in mind, but wanted to see the players’ ability to adapt on their own.

Against a stronger opponent, he wouldn’t be so laid back, but with the Hawks team, even with some special changes, he didn’t take them seriously.

On the defensive round, Bickerstaff saw Zhang Yang continue one-on-one defense against Joe Johnson and frowned.

Joe Johnson posted up Zhang Yang down low, turned into the paint, and made a bank shot against Millsap’s collapsing defense.

With another offense-defense transition, Zhang Yang received the ball in the frontcourt and continued to play one-on-one against Joe Johnson.

Bickerstaff was surprised, was Zhang Yang really taking on the opponent? It wasn’t a good choice, but he didn’t stop him.

In his eyes, Zhang Yang was a calm, intelligent genius, and yet he could also have such irrational moments; he decided to wait for Zhang Yang’s setback and then mock him thoroughly.

Zhang Yang went one-on-one against Joe Johnson for several rounds, initially going back and forth, but after a few more rounds, he gradually lost.

Zhang Yang was a large-sized scoring guard, taller than most shooting guards, but Joe Johnson had a physical advantage even among small forwards.

Facing Zhang Yang one-on-one, Joe Johnson was at ease at both high and low post, fronting and backing.

Whereas Zhang Yang could only attack from the outside against Joe Johnson, and only facing up. With Josh Smith close by, he couldn’t penetrate...

Playing one-on-one against Joe Johnson, even Kobe, Carter, Iverson, Ray Allen, those top scoring guards with maxed out offensive skills, might not have the upper hand.

While "Contemporary Jordan" was just a playful nickname by the fans, it really suited Joe Johnson’s characteristics—dominating in one-on-one matchups.

That night, Zhang Yang was hammered by Joe Johnson.

Watching the score reach 8 to 13, the gap had widened to 5 points, on the verge of being stretched further. Bickerstaff was about to call a timeout, but seeing Zhang Yang not showing the frustrated expression that usually followed a rout, calmly saying something to his teammates while receiving the ball... he decided to wait and see.

On the court, Zhang Yang advanced to the top of the arc and continued his drive.

But this time, after getting past Joe Johnson, he didn’t stop for the jump shot. With his shooting feeling affected by the physical confrontation, he chose to drive into the paint!

Josh Smith shrank back on defense to cover, but Zhang Yang didn’t pass the ball rashly. Before Josh Smith could close in, he turned around first, backing against Josh Smith, and just as Joe Johnson was about to close in with Josh Smith for the double team, he bounced a pass through...

Gerald Wallace cut in along the baseline, taking advantage of Millsap’s screen on the right side, received the ball, and made the layup!

to 13, the Bobcats closed the gap!

The Hawks’ offense, with Joe Johnson playing vibrantly, prepared to continue one-on-one.

To dominate over Zhang Yang, the ’young’ superstar, felt too exhilarating.

But upon getting to the frontcourt, he found that the defender on him had changed to Gerald Wallace!

The Contemporary Jordan inwardly sighed, not bad for a genius who could brush against the All-Stars at 18; although he had been irrational for a few rounds, he didn’t continue to lose his head and had calmed down without the head coach calling a timeout, much better than him back in the day... No, not just better, but incomparable. At 18, he was still in high school, receiving a happy education.

However, just as Joe Johnson finished his sigh, he noticed something was off.

He had planned to restart the cooperation with his teammates and continue exploiting Zhang Yang, Childress’ counter runs at the basket were more than Zhang Yang could handle, and their tactic was to open up the game focusing on Zhang Yang.

Josh Smith, ready to assist from the free-throw line, would burst through uncontested, his footwork was much stronger than his model.

If the wings collaped to help on defense, Josh Smith had the talent for assisting and precise passes, so the shooters on the wings could get open.

But Zhang Yang didn’t go on to defend Childress; it was Felton who stood in front of Childress!

Zhang Yang took on Tyronn Lue instead!

Joe Johnson: I’ve been had!