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Chapter 651 - 278. Bad Kid VS Fly Man_4

Chapter 651: 278. Bad Kid VS Fly Man_4

Okafor effortlessly won the jump ball against Krstic, giving the Bobcats the first possession!

Okafor won the jump ball, and the Bobcats initiated the attack.

Zhang Yang received the ball at the top of the arc and went one-on-one against Carter, pulling off a butterfly step.

Carter, as expected, got aggressive and tried to steal the ball. Zhang Yang quickly dribbled with his right hand, pulled to the left, and burst through the middle!

On the flank, Richard Jefferson and Krstic from under the basket moved to cover Zhang Yang. After Carter was outplayed, he angrily turned to chase in defense. Zhang Yang, drawing a triple team, passed the ball to Hill on the mid-range right. Hill caught the pass and immediately fed it to Okafor who, stepping into the three-second zone, caught the ball with one hand and smashed it through the hoop!

Krstic tried to turn and cover, but he was far too late.

As the defense switched to offense, Carter sprinted to the frontcourt. Seeing that he was guarded by Zhang Yang, he aggressively demanded the ball for a one-on-one.

He was envious of those who were handsomer than him, younger yet more accomplished than him; he envied Kobe, Iverson, and even his own cousin!

Especially Iverson; during the 2001 50-point duel, he always believed his loss was due to the scheduling—why did the league schedule Game 7 on the same day as his graduation? After attending the ceremony and traveling back to the court, his fatigue led to a poor performance: only 6 out of 18 shots made, resulting in the Raptors losing Game 7 by just one point.

Indeed, Carter’s poor condition in Game 7 due to attending his graduation ceremony, though heavily criticized, was understood by some who said, "There’s only one graduation ceremony, but many playoff games." Ironically, after 2001, Carter never made it to the playoffs with the Raptors again. Meanwhile, Kobe, frequently traveling to court due to legal issues, exploded in performance every time, thus creating the "court rush rule" headlines...

Of those three, the one Carter was most jealous of was Iverson, because only Iverson had directly defeated him in the playoffs.

So just now, when Carter saw Zhang Yang pull off the butterfly step and aggressively tried to steal the ball, Zhang Yang easily outmaneuvered him.

Zhang Yang, seeing Carter’s fierce demeanor, steadied his heart and focused on defense.

For an opponent not strong in guards + star players, it was time to let the bad boy, Jack, practice his defense—Carlisle.

Carter made a quick direction change and accelerated, overpowering Zhang Yang, who managed to keep up the pace, but couldn’t withstand him.

The four major shooting guards, both Kobe and Carter were power freaks; flying men like Carter equate to OK Kobe

Zhang Yang desperately held his ground against Carter, keeping him from entering the key from mid-range to face the basket directly; that way, Carter drawing Okafor to guard would have just lobbed the ball behind Okafor.

After much effort, Zhang Yang managed to hold Carter off until the elbow zone, with Felton on the flank, and Okafor moved to the right side of the restricted area to double team.

Carter didn’t force it through, instead flicking the ball towards the free-throw line where Odom, high post, received and passed it on... Krstic moved to the left elbow to catch the ball, turned around... and was closely guarded by Zhang Yang who had rotated to cover!

Krstic hesitated for a moment. Not shooting seemed embarrassing, so he forcefully jumped up to take a shot while facing the defense... He missed!

Zhang Yang turned around, grabbed the defensive rebound, and as Richard Jefferson, who was pressing forward, immediately advanced to force a steal to create a chance for his teammates to retreat, Zhang Yang gave up on the fast break and passed the ball to Felton, who steadily advanced.

The retreating Krstic was very frustrated, "Are you all just targeting me in both offense and defense to bully me?"

After Kidd left, Carter and Richard Jefferson only cared about personal performances, which only increased.

Odom joined the Nets and delivered a top-tier performance as a forward, averaging 16.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game.

When Zhang Yang was preparing for the game, he was surprised by Odom’s performance, initially thinking that after being traded by the Lakers, Odom would have a mental breakdown and give up... but he quickly realized that at this time, Odom hadn’t yet experienced the Lakers’ three years with two championships, not only that, he went through the most barren three years of the post-OK era, not making the playoffs, losing in the first round, with Kobe making a fuss about transferring teams... Odom’s sense of belonging to the Lakers was not strong, maybe even less than his sense of belonging to the Clippers, after all, the Clippers were the team that drafted him.

Another point, The Lakers traded Odom for Kidd, unlike in 2011 when the Mavericks got Odom for just a trade exception, making it seem like the Lakers were throwing away trash.

With Odom’s help, Carter started off the season averaging 5.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, marking the first time in his career his assists reached five; in the first two games of the season, Carter didn’t score 20 points, but as he got more games with his partner, Carter quickly returned to scoring over 20 points per game, currently averaging 22.6 points, and he is expected to have his first season averaging 20+5+5.

Kidd’s team leadership was definitely stronger than Odom’s, but in terms of cooperation with Carter, who is also a guard, Odom, as a forward, was indeed more suited than Kidd. If it was building around Kidd as the absolute core, giving him a power forward like Kenyon Martin or Nene would be more suitable than giving him Carter.

Richard Jefferson started the season with a career-high average of 22.5 points per game, and the dual core of Carter and Odom was very adept at passing to players cutting into the basket.

However, for the slow-footed Krstic, this was not friendly. People once thought he was an Eastern European who played technically, but now they understood he was a technically skilled player who thrived on receiving passes; under pressure, he almost never made shots and in highlight reels, one could often see him making shots against defenders, but upon closer inspection, when Kidd passed him the ball, the defenders couldn’t effectively disrupt him.

Krstic still had a lot of strengths: good shooting, high efficiency on catch-and-shoots, able to make open shots even under high pressure, but he heavily relied on passes, and was better at catching and shooting from mid to close range. In the first three seasons, his shooting outside the three-second area accounted for 70%, very low inside the paint attempts, and because of his slow speed, he suffered a serious knee injury last season, and now his movements were even slower, without Kidd’s better passing to create shot opportunities, Krstic, who had a 53% shooting percentage last season averaging 16 points per game, saw his scoring plunge dramatically this season, only averaging 6 points per game at a 40% shooting rate...

Tonight, the strategy of the Mavericks was indeed aimed at Krstic, who was being targeted on both offense and defense.

And no one cared whether he was upset or not; the focus of the players from both teams was on the matchup between Zhang Yang and Carter.

Zhang Yang reached the frontcourt and engaged in a physical battle with Carter at the top of the arc, barely receiving the ball.

Since they couldn’t put a hand on the ball handler at a high post, Carter immediately retreated inside the three-point line, blocking in front of Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang protected the ball, turned around to face Carter, cursing internally about his strength.

Little did he know, Carter was also very surprised by Zhang Yang’s strength. A skinny 19-year-old, who could barely hold his ground against him—when he was 19, he was still in college and didn’t have such bold strength...