No.1 in basketball scoring
Chapter 417 - 193. Secure the top spot in the region in advance_3

Chapter 417: 193. Secure the top spot in the region in advance_3

This season, the Bobcats, Bulls, and Raptors have powerfully risen to the top four, but the Heat and Nets have collapsed, and the Pistons also slid from the historical strength of 64 wins last season down to the 50-win range, making the East seem to have reverted to the first few years of the new millennium, or perhaps even worse.

Though the 02-03 season saw the Pistons take first place in the East with just 50 wins, and the eighth-placed Magic barely had a 42-40 record, at that time the eighth in the West had 44 wins and 38 losses. The strength and record gap between an average playoff team in the East and West wasn’t large, it was just the top teams that were vastly different.

Now, after two years of false prosperity brought by the ’shark moving east,’ the collapse is worse than before O’Neal headed east, and the gap between the East and West has spread in all aspects.

Following Yao Ming’s return from injury, it’s very likely that this season we will see the dismal scene where the first place in the East doesn’t match up to the fifth in the West, and the eighth in the East is worse than the tenth in the West.

Currently, all the teams beyond the top five in the East have a winning percentage below fifty percent.

However, the desolate state of the East doesn’t affect the New Bad Boys Legion’s praiseworthy performance this season.

The Bobcats are bound to break the record for the fastest new team to win a division championship, achieving it in just 3 seasons!

Moreover, the Bobcats are one of only two teams in the East this season to have an upper hand against Western teams, the other being the Pistons.

This season, the Bobcats have only two games left to play against the West, with 15 wins and 13 losses in the previous 28 encounters. If they can win just one of the upcoming home games against the Kings and Clippers, they can ensure an advantage over Western teams... Although most of the wins are against weaker teams, most Eastern teams struggle even to defeat weaker West teams.

In an interview, when Zhang Yang was asked to evaluate his sophomore performance, he praised his teammates for their help; when asked about his teammates’ performance, he praised the coach for good leadership; and when it came to coaching performance, he praised the owner for having a good eye in choosing a great coach... he always deflected praise away from himself.

But when asked about the team’s final record predictions for this season, he answered, "The target is 60 wins."

A reporter from The New York Times exclaimed, "Oh, that’s a great goal, you’d have to win all the remaining games, 16 straight wins. This season only the Mavericks and Suns have achieved more than 10 consecutive wins. How likely do you think it is that you can achieve this goal?"

Zhang Yang responded, "Larry Bird once said—when you ask me about my goals, I always set the highest one because I believe I can do the best... He’s the kind of player I want to become."

Reporter: "I remember you said you wanted to be like Iverson, and just recently you mentioned wanting to be like Bryant and Jordan... What kind of player do you really want to be?"

Zhang Yang: "There’s no conflict. I want to have ’The Answer’s’ courage to fearless charge against any strong opponent; I also want to have the scoring ability of the Black Mamba and His Airness that can destroy any opponent; and I want to be like Bird who can have limitless confidence because of his own strength."

The New York Times is the media outlet that has interviewed Zhang Yang the most this season... Yes, even the local Charlotte media do not match the enthusiasm of the New York media.

In the past year, The New York Times has interviewed Zhang Yang no less than a hundred times, nearly half of which were by this reporter. He could clearly sense Zhang Yang’s manner of speaking gradually changing.

At first, he was overly modest, often avoiding interviews, only answering standard questions, and if anything controversial came up, the topic was shut down.

Now, although he is still mostly modest, deflecting and sometimes even evasive, on certain specific questions, he would show ambition and confidence... The reporter felt that this ambition and confidence were not due to inflated self-esteem from personal or team ability, but had always been there, just gradually revealing itself...

...

After a day of rest, on March 20th, the Bobcats faced the challenge of the Magic.

At 6:40 in the evening, players from both teams entered the court.

After greeting Hill and returning, Felton asked Zhang Yang and Okafor in surprise, "Why are they so pumped tonight? Last time before the game they seemed timid."

Zhang Yang: "They just got a three-game winning streak, now with 32 wins and 34 losses, already surpassing the Knicks and tying with the Nets, they rank eighth in the East, and they even have the chance to catch up with the Wizards or Heat. They might face us in the first round, and since this is the last time we’ll play against them in the regular season, they might want to cement their confidence."

Okafor interjected, "They might be looking forward to an upset. In our previous three encounters, we won twice first, then they won last time. They might feel that if they win again this time, they can establish a psychological advantage since their win came later. We really do need to be wary of this, and we can’t lose tonight!"

Felton: "The Knicks have already been overtaken?"

Okafor: [・_・?]

Zhang Yang: "After that incident, the Knicks Team only won one game, and lost all the other matches."

Felton: "Marbury is so miserable. The NBA should ban Thomas, people like him shouldn’t appear on the basketball court. Being compared to him, I feel ashamed."

Zhang Yang: "Luckily, I’m benchmarked against Joe Dumars, Dumars has a pretty good reputation."

Felton: "Envy you!"

Okafor: "..."

Did those two even hear what he was saying? Based on past experiences, they should have... Teaming up with these brothers for almost two years, he had gotten completely used to conversations abruptly switching topics like this.

By 7 p.m., Howard beat Okafor to win the tip-off, and the game began!

The Magic’s starting lineup: Nelson, Redick, Hill, Turkoglu, Howard.

The Bobcats’ starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Herrmann, Jumaine Jones, Okafor.

Tonight, Bickerstaff placed Gerald Wallace into the substitute list, letting Gerald Wallace slowly find his form.

After Nelson advanced to the frontcourt, facing Felton’s defense, he dribbled the ball between his legs repeatedly and then suddenly pulled up and shot!

Felton was caught off guard... "Clang"... The ball hit the right side of the rim.

Okafor underneath was also caught off guard, the opponent just shot like that? Crazy?

Howard reacted a bit faster, grabbing the high-bouncing rebound.

Okafor returned to his senses in time, immediately boxing out to block Howard’s position for a second attack.

Howard flung the ball towards the top of the arc; Redick ran to the right side of the arc to catch the ball and turned around, facing the basket and shot... Zhang Yang followed tightly to the top of the arc and leaped with an outstretched hand, slapping the ball that Redick had just pushed out!

A frontal block!

Zhang Yang landed and dashed forward... failing to grasp the ball, the block was too solid, with the palm exactly hitting the ball, which flew over the midcourt line and then rolled out of bounds on the opposite baseline.

Zhang Yang was somewhat regretful and quite stunned.

During the prep meeting of the Bobcats, the team unanimously agreed that the Magic would definitely play a three-point game tonight, making good use of their army of three-point shooters.

They predicted it right; the Magic prepared to open the game with three-point shots.

But what kind of play was this? Shooting threes straight in the face of defense? Is this the three-point strategy of the opponent? What about the sudden splits, high post plays, and diagonal passes?

Zhang Yang looked towards the Magic’s coach, Brian Hill on the opposite bench. The Magic players were so excited, so proactive, pre-game discussions were so heated, they seemed so confident, and yet the first play of the game turned out like this?

...

...

Last two days for monthly votes! See you tomorrow.