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Chapter 471 - 209. Rogue Cat Born, Uneventful Second Round_4

Chapter 471: 209. Rogue Cat Born, Uneventful Second Round_4

The Knight players saw hope!

But as soon as the final quarter began, Zhang Yang received a pass from Rondo, saw James backing off a step on defense, and took a decisive, quick-release three-point shot... James immediately rushed to contest, but couldn’t successfully interfere.

Zhang Yang’s three-pointer went in, 63-56, and the Bobcats extended their lead to 7 points!

Then James, pressing Rondo, drove into the paint. In his haste, he took an ill-advised shot, which was swatted away by the recovering Gerald Wallace.

Rondo grabbed the ball and pushed forward on the fast break. Facing a chasing James, Rondo scored on a layup and even drew a foul from James!

Rondo’s additional free throw was also lucky; the ball bounced off the rim before falling in, 66-56, and the Bobcats once again stretched their lead to double digits!

In the following 11 minutes, the Knights continued to push back, scoring 20 to the Bobcats’ 14, but when James hit a three-pointer against Felton that cut the deficit to 4 points, only 1.2 seconds were left in the game.

As soon as the Bobcats passed the ball in, the final buzzer sounded.

Zhang Yang made 8 of his 20 shots, including 2 of 7 three-pointers, plus 4 of 5 free throws, scoring 22 points with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block; Okafor hit 4 of 11 shots and 6 of 10 free throws, totaling 14 points and 14 rebounds; Felton made 4 of 10 shots, including 2 of 5 three-pointers, to end with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists; Gerald Wallace went 4 for 7 from the field and 5 for 5 on free throws, finishing with 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 7 blocks...

The Bobcats had a field goal percentage of 39.8%, and the Knights fared even worse at just 37.6%.

James made 6 of his 16 shots, including 1 of 7 three-pointers, along with 6 of 10 free throws, to collect 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists; Larry Hughes made 4 of his 12 attempts for 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists; Big Z hit 3 of 5 shots and made all 4 of his free throws for 10 points and 8 rebounds; Damon Jones made 4 of 12 three-point attempts and 2 of 3 free throws for 14 points...

80-76, the Bobcats narrowly defeated the Knights by 4 points in a hard-fought battle, taking a commanding 2-0 series lead and maintaining home-court advantage!

...

In a regular team positional battle, the Knights got outplayed.

In a defensive struggle, this actually significantly narrowed the gap in overall strength between them and the Bobcats, with play going back and forth.

But after the defensive battle, Mike Brown, James, and the others felt even more despair than after Game 1.

The defensive struggle was essentially damaging the enemy by a thousand and oneself by eight hundred.

If the strengths were equal, then such a battle wouldn’t be a problem.

But the crux of the matter was that the Bobcats’ strength at -1000 still outshone theirs at -800!

During team positional play, they could still hope for a turnaround when their shooters were performing well.

But during the defensive grind, they might have lost by only 4 points, yet their actual experience was one of never seeing any hope throughout the game, not glimpsing any so-called opportunities.

Apart from the opening steal and counter for a lead, they didn’t lead for the remaining 47 minutes and 40 seconds!

Time and again, they managed to narrow the gap to just one or two shots within reach of overtaking, but each time they mounted such a comeback, they were already exhausted and entered into a period of weakness. And whenever they showed signs of weakness, Zhang Yang would step up and deal them a blow, and no one on their team was capable of responding.

Once again, a sense of desperation began to spread within the Knight’s locker room...

Two days later, on the evening of May 14th at 9 p.m., with the home-court advantage alternating, the Charlotte Bobcats faced off against the Knights at the Quicken Loans Arena for the third game of the series.

Mike Brown, together with Duncan, had won the championship in ’03. Although he was nearly devoid of tactical adaptability on the spot, he did have insights when it came to choosing game strategies and understanding the condition of his players.

Even though playing a hard-nosed defensive battle might not fare better than simply going for regular offensive and defensive matchups to test the shooters’ touch, he once again chose to fight a bloody battle.

After Game 2, their morale was shattered, and they had completely lost faith in winning. Betting on their shooting touch with that state of mind was tantamount to suicide, so stubbornly grinding it out on defense and betting on the opponents’ poor shooting was more reliable.

In the first half, the Knights’ defense was still passable, with scores of 14 to 18 and 16 to 23, preventing the Bobcats from opening up their offense, but trailing by 11 points at halftime... too coincidental, the gap was the same as the last game, and that ultimate despair at the sound of the final whistle once again descended...

In the third quarter, the Knights’ defense crumbled, with Zhang Yang scoring 9 points in a single quarter, Okafor 8 points, Alan Anderson 3 points, Gerald Wallace 3 points, Millsap 4 points, Perkins got a 2+1 for 3 points, Felton hit a three-pointer... The Bobcats rolled out a score of 34 to 22 for the quarter, extending their lead to 23 points!

After the break between quarters, Bickerstaff benched all his starters, deploying Rondo, Alan Anderson, Herrmann, Millsap, and Muhammad as the main lineup, with Jarett Jack and Jumaine Jones rotating and playing the entire quarter.

The Knights had no desire to turn the game around in the final quarter, only managing a score of 25 to 17.

With 5 points in the first, another 5 in the second, and 9 in the third, Zhang Yang made 5 out of 10 shots, including zero made out of one attempt from the three-point line, plus 9 free throws out of 10, securing 19 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals; Okafor made 5 out of 10 attempts to claim 15 points and 9 rebounds; Gerald Wallace with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 blocks; Rondo ended with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals...

The Bobcats had a decent overall shooting percentage at 45%, while the Knights barely hit 40%, with the entire team shooting 29 out of 71. The best performer was James, scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds along with 4 assists out of 22 shots.

to 77, the Bobcats triumphed over the Knights once more, leading the series with a score of 3 to 0!

After a day of rest, on May 16th, the Bobcats faced off against the Knights on the road for the fourth game of the series.

In this match, the Knights put up no fight, rendered utterly helpless.

Trailing 0 to 3, and without hope of winning, even James lacked fighting spirit that night. Playing only 30 minutes, he made just 4 out of 11 field goals and 5 out of 6 free throws to tally 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists. He sat out the final quarter because by the end of the third, the score had already reached 56 to 83...

Actually, the first part of the first quarter wasn’t too bad, with the Bobcats leading by 5 points, 15 to 10. But as soon as Rondo came off the bench, he made several consecutive steals and fast breaks, scoring 11 points in half a quarter, leading his team to a mini-run of 19 to 5, utterly demolishing the opposition in the first quarter, 34 to 15.

In these two games, Zhang Yang was actually worried about one thing—whether a 58 lineup would surface?

But his concerns were entirely superfluous this time. The Old Jew did have some vision, after all. This year, the chances of the Knights winning were even slimmer than last year. The Bobcats might not be stable against the Raptors, but against the Knights, it was a sure crush. James was completely neutralized, Hughes was also miserably restrained, and their two strongest players couldn’t break free... It wasn’t necessary to stubbornly promote them, as it would be nearly impossible, not to mention the potential of offending Chinese fans.

Zhang Yang only played 21 minutes that night, hitting 4 of 7 shots, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 1 of 2 free throws, to score 11 points and 3 rebounds.

Rondo, who scored 11 points in the first half of the first quarter, became the main offensive focus of the evening. He played 33 minutes in total, sinking 7 out of 13 field goals and 7 of 11 free throws, earning 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, leading the Bobcats to a ruthless victory of 109 to 86 over the Knights who had already given up resistance, sweeping the series 4 to 0 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals!