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Chapter 702 - 293. KING’s classmate really changed!_4

Chapter 702: 293. KING’s classmate really changed!_4

The league’s first 20 wins of the new season did not come easy. On December 17th, at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the Bobcats lost to the Pacers 95 to 102, ending their three-game winning streak with a record of 19 wins and 4 losses.

Apart from Okafor, who made 7 out of 13 shots and 4 out of 5 free throws for 18 points and 10 rebounds; and Zhang Yang, who scored 35 points from 12 out of 28 shots, including 1 of 3 three-pointers, and 10 out of 11 free throws, the rest of the Bobcats had a terrible shooting performance tonight.

As a team, they made 34 out of 83 shots, which means that aside from Okafor and Zhang Yang, everyone else combined shot 15 out of 42, a mere 35% success rate.

Meanwhile, the Pacers made 39 out of 79 attempts, reaching a shooting accuracy of 49.3%...

On December 19th, the Bobcats went to the Verizon Center in Washington to challenge the Wizards.

The Wizards had been performing decently this season, with a record of 11 wins and 14 losses before tonight, competing for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

However, both media and fans had already overlooked them because Arenas had suffered a severe injury early in the season and was out for the rest of the season.

Of the Wizards’ Big Three, only two were left, Jamison and Caron Butler, neither of whom were very star-like; the most newsworthy player on the Wizards this season turned out to be rookie Nick Young.

After a hard-fought overtime, the Bobcats narrowly defeated the Wizards 120 to 117, clinching their 20th victory of the season!

Zhang Yang played 47 minutes, making 13 out of 27 shots, including 1 of 3 three-pointers, and 7 out of 9 free throws for 34 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block; Okafor had 23 points and 11 rebounds; Felton 14 points and 9 assists; Mike Miller 19 points; and Rondo 8 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists...

The Wizards were on fire tonight; Jamison scored a game-high 40 points, Stevenson bagged 21 points, and Butler added 20 points, combining for a whopping 81 points!

With just over 10 seconds left in regulation, the Wizards led the Bobcats by 3 points at 110 to 107, but Zhang Yang made the only three-pointer of the game to tie the score. With no one from the Wizards able to take the final shot, since Arenas had been out for the season, they had to pass the ball to the rookie Nick Young, who bore a resemblance to a little blacksmith.

Living up to expectations and paying tribute to his idol, Nick Young drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer from outside the basket, helping the Bobcats push the game into overtime, where they ultimately turned the tables.

On December 21st, the Bobcats arrived at Boston Garden and defeated the Celtics 108 to 100, avenging their streak-ending loss from the end of last month.

Pierce had a decent night with 30 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals, though his shooting percentage was only 38.5%, making just 10 out of 26 shots. Hill, Alan Anderson, Afflalo, along with Zhang Yang, and Felton on the wings, and Okafor, and Millsap in the paint all aggressively defended against him.

Zhang Yang’s shooting wasn’t great either, as he too was heavily guarded, but performed a bit better than Pierce with 11 makes out of 25 attempts, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 4 out of 4 free throws, totaling 28 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.

The standout performer for the Bobcats tonight was Rondo coming off the bench, with 3 out of 5 shots made, and 2 out of 2 free throws for 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 10 assists, effectively utilizing Zhang Yang’s high post distractions to help Okafor achieve a remarkably high shooting percentage of 10 out of 11 shots... If only Okafor hadn’t thrown a fullcourt miss just before halftime, he could have had his second career game scoring over five points with a 100% shooting accuracy.

Despite the win, the Bobcats did not have an easy game tonight. The Celtics, treated as rejects up for trade by Ainge, played desperately. Rivers, after being a ’chocolate chip in the middle of a cookie’ for a month, also decided to go all out, joining his players in defying Ainge and striving to win the game.

After losing to the Bobcats, the Celtics’ record came to 12 wins and 14 losses. It’s uncertain whether they can make the playoffs, but having achieved 12 wins early in the season means they can forget about a top-five draft pick. Teams aiming for a tank are currently around only five wins and are projected to win a maximum of fourteen or fifteen games by the end of the season...

Fans who have been following the ’Where is Pierce going’ drama didn’t expect the plot to get this interesting!

After finishing a three-game road trip, on the afternoon of December 22nd, Zhang Yang and his team returned to Charlotte. Carlisle announced a holiday break at the airport, with no practice scheduled for the next three days before Christmas, planning to regroup at 9 AM on the 25th to prepare for the Christmas Day battle!

Zhang Yang was in his third NBA season and was finally going to participate in his, and the Bobcats’, first-ever Christmas Day game!

Their opponent... the Chicago Bulls!