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Chapter 631 - 271. Targeting me? Then I’ll block you completely! _2

Chapter 631: 271. Targeting me? Then I’ll block you completely! _2

Zhang Yang: "Uh, boss, this is the time when you should be laughing out loud instead of agreeing. It makes me feel kinda awkward."

Felton: "No worries, you’ve got thick skin."

Zhang Yang: "..."

He, Zhang San, still preferred the old boss’s original, goofy look...

...

In the evening, the Bobcats’ home court welcomed a game against the Pacers.

After Carlisle was fired, the Pacers entered a rebuilding phase, signing Jim O’Brien as the head coach.

O’Brien was a special coach. After leaving the college coaching scene in the late ’90s to come to the NBA, he quickly made a name for himself. His first major feat—developing Anthony Walker and Paul Pierce into All-Stars, even superstars.

But once he transitioned from assistant coach to head coach, his performance as a coach was quite indescribable.

Latter, he went to coach the 76ers, where his performance was still a mess, but he managed to develop the raw, newly-entered NBA player Iguodala into an all-around warrior. When the 76ers completed their roster overhaul, he was fired again.

In his ten years in the NBA as an assistant and head coach, O’Brien was quite well-known, nicknamed the ’Swingman Guidance Expert,’ but his flaws were also obvious: he wasn’t good at developing big men, and the performance of any big man under his coaching would decline.

When O’Brien joined the Pacers, fans joked—this time, when developing Granger, he needn’t be so diligent; he might not get fired so quickly.

Some also felt sympathy for young O’Neal, who, in the off-season, felt like he had already seen a plummet in O’Neal’s performance.

In the first week of the new season, what fans expected happened. With only a slight increase in playing time, Granger’s scoring soared from an average of 13 points per game to 18, significantly improving on both offense and defense.

Moreover, it was evident that Granger’s improvement wasn’t just due to personal skill development. The tactical role the coach assigned him and the specialized tactics crafted for him were also better than last season.

In terms of coaching ability, O’Brien definitely fell short of Carlisle, but specifically for developing swingmen and crafting tactics for them, O’Brien was among the top three in the NBA.

Poor O’Neal suffered, as his playing time plummeted to under 30 minutes, and his freedom to shoot was drastically reduced. From averaging 19 points per game last season, he dropped to 13 points and 6 rebounds a week in, and he had already officially requested a trade...

At 7 PM, O’Neill bested Okafor and won the jump ball, starting the game with the Pacers on offense.

The Bobcats’ starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Millsap, Okafor.

The Pacers’ starting lineup: Tinsley, Mike Dunleavy, Granger, Troy Murphy, O’Neill.

Tinsley advanced to the frontcourt, still showing respect to the big brother, passing the ball to O’Neill in the low post.

O’Neill actually hadn’t asked for the ball; he just habitually stood in the one-on-one position, but receiving the ball, he decided to go for it... suddenly turned, jumped, and hooked... which was swatted away frontally by Okafor.

This ’sneak attack’ was too thoughtless, neither sudden nor skillful. Any focused defender wouldn’t be fooled, especially someone as composed as ’little Duncan’ Okafor.

Hill, guarding Dunleavy at the right corner, grabbed the defensive rebound.

In transition offense, with no fast break opportunity, Zhang Yang slowly jogged to the frontcourt.

Seeing O’Neill playing and lacking any fighting spirit, Zhang Yang felt a tinge of pity.

Just last month, O’Neill had just turned 29, supposedly in the prime of his career, but everything changed after that brawl at the end of 2004.

In the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons, O’Neill only needed to score 20 points per game, but following extensive suspensions of his teammates, he was forced in the 04-05 season to make nearly 20 attempts per game, even though his scoring jumped to an average of over 24. Injuries followed, and his rebounding and defensive performance quickly declined... later entering a vicious cycle, gradually becoming more injury-prone.

Now, essentially abandoned by Carlisle, while it’s true that the drastic cuts in O’Neill’s playing time, shooting rights, and scoring this season were directly due to coach O’Brien’s style, without Carlisle’s approval, O’Brien wouldn’t have been able to ’discard’ the main interior player of the past six years.

Coming to the frontcourt, Zhang Yang received the ball facing Grant’s tight defense. He set aside his thoughts and focused on the offense.

Danny Granger, a very tall wing defender, was one of the rare players who reported a barefoot height. Officially 203 cm tall, he looked taller than Millsap, with a strong build, long arms, and decent mobility. With such great defensive fundamentals and movements, Zhang Yang decisively chose to drive!

Zhang Yang smoothly bypassed Granger... but was stopped by Tinsley!

Zhang Yang passed the ball to the other side of the three-second zone, and Felton, seeing Tinsley move to double-team Zhang Yang and Granger covering the space for a return pass to the top of the arc, immediately cut inside.

Felton caught the ball at the elbow, took a step closer, and O’Neill moved up to defend. Felton passed straight to the right, and Okafor, facing the basket, caught the ball and jumped to score a basket!

Zhang Yang quickly fell back on defense, harboring a bad premonition... no, he couldn’t believe it, it shouldn’t be!

He was just a simple, kind-hearted 19-year-old boy who could only drink back in his home country. The opponent had already traded Harrington away, they couldn’t be targeting him this blatantly.

The Pacers were on offense, and after Tinsley had shown respect to the boss, he began executing the head coach’s plan, giving the ball to Granger for a solo play.