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Chapter 703 - 294. The situation in the East changes again!

Chapter 703: 294. The situation in the East changes again!

On the afternoon of December 23rd, at Zhang Yang’s parents’ home, Zhang Yang, his parents, and Yao Ming’s little family were busy preparing for Christmas Eve tomorrow.

Oh right, there was also a little Goku who was dragging his feet, literally hanging onto his big brother’s thigh without letting go.

Once Yao Ming had wrapped the lights around two rows of large Christmas trees in the yard, each tree standing about two and a half meters tall, he said to Zhang Yang, "Yangyang, the lights are set up, turn on the power to test them."

Zhang Yang replied, "Okay, Big Yao, stand back in case of any electrical leakage."

After Zhang Yang flipped the ground-fault circuit interrupter switch, Yao Ming checked the bulbs on several Christmas trees, all of which were lit. He shouted to Zhang Yang, and Zhang Yang turned off the lights.

Back in the living room, Yao Ming asked, "Is there any other high-up work that needs doing?"

Zhang Yang said, "Most of the work is done. After we have lunch, we’ll go up to the roof and fix Santa Claus to the chimney with a stand."

Yao Ming said, "Uh... okay..."

Looking around at the living room decorations, if you called it a traditional Chinese style, except for the red color, there weren’t many Chinese elements—mostly Western stuff. But if you said it was full of Western flair, the style of decoration still looked very ostentatious...

Yao Ming said, "Yangyang, I didn’t expect your family to celebrate Christmas so grandly."

Zhang Yang said, "Since we’re here, we might as well follow the local customs, but we’re not used to celebrating like the Americans, so we’ve combined Eastern and Western styles."

Yao Ming said, "It’s ingeniously fused! I was thinking, Christmas comes with a hard-won three-day holiday, and I still have to travel for an away game. Now I think Stern has arranged it very well. If the Christmas showdown were at our home court, I wouldn’t get to see how your family celebrates Christmas; I would definitely spend all three days in front of the computer gaming."

Zhang Yang said, "After you went to the Chicago Bulls, I guessed Stern would definitely schedule us for the Christmas showdown. I also thought it would be at the United Center, which is much more famous than our stadium, and it’s where Joe made his legend. It has more topicality. I didn’t expect it to be at our home court, maybe because we are the defending champions."

Yao Ming said, "You guys are the defending champions; that’s really impressive... How about taking an afternoon nap and then teaming up to run an instance? I brought my computer!"

Zhang Yang said, "Okay... Eat, sleep, play Warcraft?"

This pun made Yao Ming burst into laughter.

Howard had reached fourth grade and further improved his performance. So far this season, he was averaging 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game, officially becoming a superstar player.

Both were number one draft picks and played center, and they had entered the NBA only two years apart, so it was inevitable that Yao Ming and Howard would be compared.

Compared to Howard’s occasional double 20+, Yao Ming’s roughly 25 points and seven or eight rebounds per game, with rare instances of scoring over 30+, did seem somewhat lackluster.

Since losing weight, Yao Ming had significantly reduced his aggressive ’dominating’ playing style, and the visual impact and appeal of his games compared to Howard, with his various aggressive drives, volleyball-style blocks, and fast breaks, were considerably less.

Moreover, Howard had just turned 22 at the beginning of the month, while Yao Ming was already 27. Many media outlets and fans believed that Howard would eventually catch up with Yao Ming’s technical advantages.

This season, the Magic team had Stan Van Gundy as the head coach, and they employed a star-studded strategy that improved the team’s performance. Many people felt that Howard had surpassed the great Yao, becoming the league’s number one center.

Yao Ming was naturally unhappy with this kind of public opinion, but these were weaknesses he truly could not make up for; if he couldn’t do anything about it, he could only hammer Howard when they faced off against the Magic team.

They had already faced each other twice this season. At the end of last month, Yao Ming played 31 minutes, going 10 for 18 and scoring 26 points with 8 rebounds, while Howard managed only 2 for 6, scoring 8 points and grabbing 16 rebounds; last week, Yao Ming played for 34 minutes, making 8 of 13 shots for 20 points and 10 rebounds, with Howard making 5 of 11 shots for 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Making 5 out of 11 shots seemed poor for a center, but that was already the most Howard had scored against Yao Ming, also exceeding his average shooting percentage in their encounters. In their previous six matchups, Howard shot 42.8% from the field, averaging 11 points and 9 rebounds.

Their professional careers had pitted them against each other seven times, with Howard only winning once during the 05-06 season when the Magic narrowly beat the Rockets 76 to 74. That win wasn’t much about Howard, as Francis went off against his former team, scoring 27 points. That day, Howard, guarded by Yao Ming, managed only 12 points on 4 for 9 shooting.

After chatting for a while, Zhang Yang’s mother called from the kitchen to start dinner. Zhang Yang took the little Goku hanging on his thigh, set him on the ground, and said, "Goku, go wash your hands; it’s time to eat."

Little Goku crisply responded and scurried off to the washroom...

After lunch, Zhang Yang and Yao Ming secured Santa Claus properly. Now there was no more work for them; the preparations for steamed and marinated dishes for tomorrow were left to Zhang Yang’s parents and Ye Li to handle.

Yao Ming felt relieved when he saw the Christmas Eve menu at Zhang Yang’s house, "Thank goodness there’s no turkey; I’ve tried it once and don’t want to eat it a second time..."

When one is gaming on the computer, they can nap when they want and play when they feel like it; the urge to play isn’t so strong.

But when two people team up, it’s different. The planned nap was immediately skipped. After securing Santa Claus, the two went to the study, ready to team up for an instance.

As Yao Ming was plugging in, booting up, and fiddling with the network connection, Zhang Yang opened a news website to wait... "Damn!"

Yao Ming asked, "What’s wrong, Yangyang? Did your computer explode?"