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Chapter 467 - 208. The gap is even bigger than last year_3

Chapter 467: 208. The gap is even bigger than last year_3

With three key players missing against the Knights, the Bobcats’ offensive and defensive performance both declined significantly in the final quarter.

In the final quarter, James made 3 of 7 shots and 2 of 3 free throws, scoring 8 points with 1 assist. Hughes made 2 of 4 shots, scoring 4 points and contributing 3 assists, leading the team to score 26 points.

While the Bobcats only scored 19 points in the final quarter, it didn’t much affect the outcome of the game. It was good to give those three a bit of extra rest. Winning by a few points less is still a win...

Zhang Yang played 43 minutes tonight, made 13 of 26 shots, including 4 of 9 from three-point range, and made all 4 of his free throws, scoring 34 points with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal.

Okafor scored 23 points with 9 rebounds, Gerald Wallace scored 12 points with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks, Rondo scored 13 points with 6 rebounds and 8 assists, and Felton scored 9 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists... The Bobcats easily defeated the Knights 103 to 92, taking a commanding 1-0 lead in the series!

After the game, Zhang Yang was interviewed by NBC.

After some routine questions, the reporter asked Zhang Yang how many games he thought the series would last.

Zhang Yang responded, "We’ve prepared thoroughly, and my teammates are in great form. Maybe I’m too proud, but I don’t think we’ll have a third home game in this series."

The live broadcast signals from all major TV stations during this game were provided by NBC, so Zhang Yang’s post-game interview was broadcast in the commentary booths of all major TV stations, where the commentators reacted differently.

Some praised his confidence, others called him arrogant, and some even insinuated that he was pretending to be modest but was actually high-profile... but no one countered his comment.

After the live game camera feed was cut, the major TV stations began analyzing the game.

Zhang Yang and James’ performances were naturally compared.

The comparison was brutal. Zhang Yang played even better in the second round than in the first!

Clearly, James’ defense on Zhang Yang was far from as effective as Richard Jefferson’s and Kidd’s, and even worse than Carter, who is not known for his defense.

Zhang Yang played a full 43 minutes tonight, took 26 shots, and counting the two free-throw attempts from 4 times at the line, that makes 28 attempts, showing how easily he was involved in the team’s offense tonight.

James made 9 out of 22 shots, including 2 of 6 from three-point range, and 6 of 8 at the free throw line, scoring 26 points with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.

His shooting percentage was over 40%, definitely an improvement from last season’s playoffs, and his three-point shooting and defense were better, but such improvements, against a Bobcats’ defense specifically aimed at him, were still far from enough.

Such assessments were mostly from commentators considering James’ young age of 22, like Hubie Brown, Bill Walton, and others.

Barkley’s critique was much sharper — "James isn’t a true team player, he doesn’t understand real sacrifice, wants to do everything himself, but this way of playing can’t lead his team to victory..."

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After a victorious first game, scoring 34 points, and getting a good night’s sleep, Zhang Yang was still in an exceptional mood the next morning, even humming "Our good folks, what joyful days" while making breakfast...

It wasn’t as noticeable during the regular season, feeling not much different from last season, but in the playoffs, with the increase in intensity, he felt how effective their frontcourt group paired with Felton was against the Knights!

Last night, through the first three quarters, the only way for the Knights to fight back was through counter-defense.

In position warfare, the Knights had no way to handle them, only relying on the superb athleticism of James and Hughes to seize opportunities and counterattack to close the gap.

Regarding counter-defensive tactics, last night after the game during physical therapy, the coaching staff talked with a few tactically smart players, and Zhang Yang estimated that they could perform even better in the next game.

Before the game, he chatted with Okafor, praising James a lot, and it was genuinely meant, but after the game, he was quite disappointed, mainly because his expectations were too high.

James’ team play had improved, but not as much as the statistics suggested.

Last night, the best performers for the Knights definitely weren’t James, nor Larry Hughes with his 20 shots making 9 for 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists.

It was Daniel Gibson, who made 3 of 6, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 2 of 3 free throws for 10 points, and Donnell Marshall with two three-pointers and one long two-pointer for 8 points.

When these two played well, James and Hughes could lead the team to score 49 points in a half.

But their scoring was mainly concentrated in the first half. After the two of them pulled back in the third quarter, the Knights’ offense also pulled back, managing only 7 points in half the quarter, forced to scramble defensively.

The James-Hughes combo had many similarities to the James-Wade combo, such as relying heavily on shooters. The Knights’ built-up group of shooters, compared to Riley’s, except for being more expensive, was inferior in every other aspect.

After breakfast, Zhang Yang went online in his study. Last night’s game ended almost at 11:30 PM, and after handling the interview, physical therapy, and discussions with the coaching staff, it was almost 2 AM by the time he got home and went straight to sleep, with no time to catch up on the news.

To have fun, he definitely went to ESPN...(●￣(ｴ)￣●)

What’s going on?

Top News — "Jordan: I Will Carefully Consider the Mascot Issue."

Zhang Yang stared at the headline for a dozen seconds then clicked to open the news.

The content essentially reported that last night, after the game, Knight fans once again blamed the loss on the Bobcats’ mascot, Rufus.

Knight fans on various forums built threads demanding a change of the Bobcats’ mascot, and by the end of the night, posts ranged from tens of thousands to millions of comments.

That’s not the point though, the main fact is that most replies in the threads came from IP addresses in North and South Carolina!

So, early this morning, reporters from major media gathered in Charlotte rushed to Jordan’s house requesting an interview, and upon learning about the situation, Jordan made that statement.

After reading ESPN’s headline, Zhang Yang also opened ESPN, Sports Illustrated... and checked other popular media outlets online, finding the news was more or less the same.

In sports forums, the hottest topic was also this one.

After surfing the internet, Zhang Yang was disturbed for a long time.

Was their game against the Knight team so uninteresting? Was it less appealing than this bizarre news?

He knew their team’s owner was unreliable when it came to these matters.

All that aside, was Rufus really that ugly? Some people even said their kids were scared by Rufus. If they were that easily frightened, they should probably visit a pediatrician!

After ranting to himself for a while, he felt as if there was an invisible hand pushing something forward.

He had seen replies similar to his confusion, but they were drowned by a sea of responses.

Forget it, he wasn’t going to read about their own series anymore. He wanted to enjoy LeBron’s goofiness, but ended up getting splashed by the drama himself.

He better check the news from the Western Conference.

Once he reached the news on the Suns and Spurs series, the tone was much clearer.

The Suns lost their home court advantage, as the Spurs narrowly defeated them 111-106 away.

Zhang Yang opened the game report and when he saw Nash’s stats at the top, he guessed the reason for the Suns’ home loss.

Nash made 12 of 18 shots, including 2 out of 4 three-pointers, along with a perfect 7 out of 7 from the free-throw line to tie with Duncan for a game-high of 33 points, but only had 7 assists.

It wasn’t likely that Nash was trying to score aggressively on his own.

After checking the whole team’s stats, Zhang Yang concluded... Stoudemire made only 6 of 19 shots, Barbosa made 7 of 17, and among Suns players who took more than 5 shots, only Nash and Marion who scored 16 points on 7 of 12 shooting had a shooting percentage over 45%.

Nash’s high scoring and low assists occurred because the team offense wasn’t clicking, and he had to score himself.

With Nash shooting 67% and Marion 58%, their teammates made only 21 of 58 shots, a shooting percentage of just 36.2%, while the whole team made 40 of 87 shots for a 45% shooting efficiency.

On the Spurs side, Duncan scored 33 points, single-handedly matching Nash’s offense. Besides Duncan, there was the fast French sports car scoring 30 points. The Spurs made 41 of 82 shots, reaching a shooting efficiency of 50%.

From another angle, considering that the Suns’ team offense wasn’t functioning and they lost only by 5 points, the series suddenly seemed a lot more exciting.

It was unlikely that the Spurs could disrupt the Suns’ team offense like last night in every game, and with the offensive performances of Nash, Stoudemire, and Marion this season, once the Suns got their team offense rolling, the Spurs might not be able to outscore them.

Zhang Yang sent work email to the team’s video editor asking for the game footage of the first match between the Spurs and Suns. He didn’t have time now, but later he might study the Spurs’ defensive strategy that forced Nash to score on his own.

After sending the email, Zhang Yang revisited the game report and logged in with his alt account to reply — The Suns losing their home court advantage must blame Nash. Although he played well, he still had flaws. He missed two three-pointers. Had both gone in, wouldn’t the Suns have won?

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