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Chapter 698 - 292. Someone is better at shooting than Zhang San!_5

Chapter 698: 292. Someone is better at shooting than Zhang San!_5

The Bobcats unleashed their strongest offensive quarter of the night in the last period, scoring 29 points, but the Lakers also solidly put up 24 points...

At 11:21 p.m., the game concluded.

Kidd with 6 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists; Garnett with 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists; Kobe with 43 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists... The Lakers defeated the Bobcats with a score of 111 to 104, improving their record to 16 wins and 5 losses, and handing the Bobcats their third defeat of the season!

...

Tonight, another sleepless night.

But this time, without even the portly boss to keep him company, Zhang Yang could only savor the honey milk beverage alone.

Since Felton played well tonight, making 6 of 13 shots, including 2 out of 5 threes, and perfect from the line on 2 attempts, securing 16 points and 5 assists, their Point Guard lineup didn’t let anyone dominate him one on one.

On Zhang Yang’s side...

He looked at the battle report on the computer screen.

He played for 42 minutes, made 13 of 29 shots, including 3 of 7 from beyond the arc, and perfect on all 6 free-throw attempts, racking up 35 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block.

A 44.8% shooting percentage was passable, and the three-pointers were outstanding, hitting 42.8%, with 100% from the line.

But the opponent’s top scorer... made 15 of 31 shots, 3 out of 9 on threes, and hit 10 of 12 from the line, totaling 43 points.

Now in the new season, for the first time, Zhang Yang encountered someone who could shoot better than him! And damn more accurately too, with a 48% shooting percentage.

He tried to think about how brutal the competition in the Western playoffs was... It didn’t work anymore. The ’mental remedy’ had already developed ’resistance’, having just been used the day before.

Even after finishing the honey milk, he still couldn’t sleep, so he stopped wasting energy and took out his notebook to revisit the earlier part of the game, analyzing, pondering, and summarizing.

That day, Zhang Yang saw the Los Angeles night view at 4 a.m...

He only fell asleep when dawn was breaking, and was awakened by Alan Anderson at noon; then Zhang Yang traveled with the team to the last leg of the five-game road trip, leaving the United States for the northern territory of Toronto.

The lengthy road trip. Even Zhang Yang, with his remarkable recovery abilities, felt tired upon reaching the final stop.

It was related to the many late nights, though insomnia due to losing games was a common situation during consecutive road games.

Leaving Los Angeles, with its relatively pleasant winter climate, for the icy snow-covered Toronto, the drastic change in environment was certainly a factor.

Zhang Yang didn’t nap in the afternoon but curled up on the sofa in his room watching video recordings, to avoid sleeplessness at night.

After dinner, just as he expected, ’Meeting Maniac’ Carlisle gathered the coaching staff and key players in his room for a meeting.

The topic of the meeting, naturally, was about the recent back-to-back defeats.

Carlisle analyzed in detail the reasons for the losses in those two matches.

At the beginning, Zhang Yang thought Carlisle’s analysis was on point.

For example, in the defense against the Jazz’s pick-and-roll offense, players guarding Kirilenko didn’t decisively help on the double-teams against Deron or Boozer.

The Bobcats, due to the lack of coordination between inside and outside defense, had to give up balanced defense. Thus, individual and zone traps had to be executed better, but when they faced the Jazz, their decisions on whom to leave open and timing for double-teams were poorly made.

Against the Lakers, their defense was actually decent. With their deep frontcourt, they achieved their goal of protecting the rim quite well. The three Lakers’ centers, Kwame Brown, Turiaf, and Mihm, combined only managed to score 9 points.

As for not containing the perimeter, they couldn’t be blamed, given that the other side had a shooting maniac who could throw up 31 shots and still maintain a 48% shooting rate. No one could withstand that.

As for the analysis of the offensive end issues, Zhang Yang also felt there was no problem.

The game against the Jazz Team was terribly restrained, and Carlisle admitted that he hadn’t anticipated the Jazz Team would restrain them so much.

Sloan’s defense system is known to restrain the triangle offense - this world knows that during the ’97 and ’98 finals, the Chicago Bulls’ triangle offense rarely opened up.

But that was something from 10 years ago, and in the decade that had passed, everyone on the Jazz Team had changed.

The Jazz Team’s ’New Duo’ formed only in ’05, showed signs of emergence last season, and it just so happened that the past few years were the Lakers’ declining phase; this era’s Jazz Team had no samples of dealing with the triangle offense, so naturally, Carlisle was unalert.

Zhang Yang didn’t think Carlisle was to blame; he hadn’t realized before playing the Jazz Team that the opponent would restrain the triangle offense, which was their core offensive system, augmented by using the Princeton offense to create mismatches.

He remembered that in the future playoffs, the Jazz Team would be rubbed out by the Lakers team three times.

After playing against the Jazz Team, he understood that it wasn’t the triangle offense that could deal with the Jazz Team’s defense, but that Sloan had the misfortune to face another ’Jordan’ as an opponent. Over three playoff series, the scores went from 4-2 to 4-1 to a sweep; the last time Kobe vs. the ’New Duo’, Kobe was able to casually hit over 50% shooting.

Now Zhang Yang knew that playing against the Jazz Team, if both teams were in form, their Bobcats’ tactics might not do well no matter how they played; in the end, it would turn out like with the Jordan of old, the future Kobe, and last season’s Yao Ming and McGrady. It would turn into a battle of star players going one-on-one, and it would come down to whether they could shoot the Jazz Team to death like Jokic, or get worn out like Yao and McGrady...

Playing against the Lakers Team, Carlisle had prepared early, believing Garnett would restrain their team offense. He had prepared an alternate strategy, with Zhang Yang initiating the offense holding the ball, pinning down Garnett. Although this strategy wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t bad either.

There were areas where the improvisation on the spot wasn’t good, but for the first encounter of the new season with such a strong opponent, performing poorly was within reason.

When Zhang San reviewed the game at dawn, he also discovered several rounds where his offensive choices were very poor.

But when Carlisle proposed a solution to the problem, Zhang Yang was full of question marks...

After just those two games, Carlisle was actually considering changing the core of the offensive system!

Seeing Zhang Yang’s strange expression, Carlisle asked, "Jack, do you have a different opinion?"

Zhang Yang, "No, I think your idea is very correct, Rick. The construction of our offensive system needs to avoid being restrained by any team as much as possible, but..."

Carlisle, "But what?"

Zhang Yang, "Teams like the Jazz Team and Lakers Team that have the capability to cut off our ball movement should not be too many. You have to consider carefully about changing the core tactics of the offensive system.

Our offensive tactics system is not yet perfect and is still undergoing constant optimization and adjustment. We can’t be sure that after the system is perfected, we will still be so severely restrained by the Jazz Team and Lakers Team.

Of course, Rick, I know you are considering the championship, and both the Jazz Team and Lakers Team are contenders for the Western Conference finals spot. However, their threat to our championship pursuit in the future... I don’t think the Jazz Team will make it out of the West. Among the teams that restrain our offense, we only need to pay serious attention to the Lakers Team.

Yesterday’s game against the Lakers Team, I felt we didn’t play badly. They restrained us, but we could also target their weaknesses to limit their offense.

Your adjustments on both offense and defense were very good, Rick; the reason for the loss lies with me, we lost by 7 points, and I scored 8 points less than Kobe."

As a head coach, Carlisle was somewhat displeased with his ideas being refuted, even if the person who disagreed was Zhang Yang.

And there were many aspects of Zhang Yang’s opinion that Carlisle wanted to question—how could he so confidently assert that the well-established system, the successful experience, the strong roster, and the outstanding coaching ability of the Jazz Team meant they certainly couldn’t break out of the West?

But Zhang Yang took all the responsibility for the loss upon himself... What head coach wouldn’t love a star player who volunteered to take the blame?

After an emotional fluctuation, Carlisle calmed down.

Having lost two consecutive games, he was somewhat anxious. He had planned to calmly face the defeat, but when the losses really came, it still threw him off-balance; after all, these years had been too challenging for him, taking over as the defending champion.

In the afternoon when they arrived in Toronto, during the coaching staff’s preliminary meeting, Carlisle proposed changing the core of the offensive system. The conservative Paul Silas expressed his disagreement immediately, but Carlisle thought that since the offensive system was not yet perfected, adjustments would go smoothly, and changing the core tactics would be much more difficult once the offensive system was further polished.

Having calmed down now, Carlisle remembered that what Zhang Yang said was right—the number of teams that could constrain their offensive system had to be limited.