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Chapter 730 - 312. The devil’s schedule Southwest Division 4 consecutive away games_3

Chapter 730: 312. The devil’s schedule Southwest Division 4 consecutive away games_3

Zhang Yang responded, "Their determination could indeed be related to the Warriors; the day before yesterday, the Mavericks were slaughtered by the Warriors by 24 points, a crushing defeat of 98 to 122."

Hill added, "That’s possible. Besides that, there’s another reason they might feel that we effortlessly seized the championship that should have been theirs."

Felton: "This..."

Zhang Yang: "They think it should belong to them just because they say so? Let them try to take it!"

Felton, Hill: "..."

Typical of you, Zhang San, bragging even after picking up a bargain.

After hearing the trio’s reckless analysis, the teammates became emotionally charged. Were they supposed to vent their frustration on them because they couldn’t beat the Warriors? They wanted to fight back... but they couldn’t prevail...

In the second quarter, the Bobcats reduced the point gap by two, with a score of 31 to 29, but in the third quarter during the star showdown, the Bobcats fell short. Zhang Yang, under Josh Howard’s defense, made only 2 out of 5 shots, including 1 out of 3 three-pointers, plus 2 out of 2 free throws, scoring 7 points—not too bad, but short of his third quarter season average of 10.6 points by one three-pointer.

Felton had played fiercely in the past two games; tonight, he was supposed to have a clear advantage over Harris and Barea, but he couldn’t gain the upper hand right from the first quarter.

Okafor did manage to outplay Nowitzki one-on-one, but he could only manage to attempt three to five times in a quarter; asking him to score more in a situation where he wasn’t feeling it was a bit much.

On the Mavericks’ side, Terry scored 12 points in a single quarter...

The commentators all said that Zhang Yang had defended Terry very well, but Terry just kept scoring!

Under Terry’s leadership, the Mavericks scored 30 to 23 in the third quarter, leading the Bobcats by 9 points with a score of 94 to 85 entering the final quarter.

Felton quickly fell into a physical crisis; by the final quarter, exhaustion had spread throughout the Bobcats’ team.

The Texas tour, NBA’s scariest away schedule, is exceptionally tough, either very strong, very steady, or very grinding. The Bobcats’ tour of Texas included the season-topping Hornets in the Western conference, and mid-season, by the third game, a physical crisis occurred!

In the fourth quarter, the Bobcats’ strategy shifted to Jarett Jack and Zhang Yang alternating attacks.

Zhang Yang made 4 out of 10 shots, including 1 out of 3 three-pointers, plus 3 out of 3 free throws, scoring 12 points. Jarett Jack made 2 out of 6 shots, scoring 5 points, with the two combining for 17 points. But the team scored only 23 points in total and failed to turn the game around.

Okafor scored the team’s highest of the night with 33 points and 14 rebounds from 12 out of 21 field goals and 9 out of 12 free throws, but Nowitzki scored a game-high of 35 points, overshadowing him.

Zhang Yang made 11 out of 27 shots, including 3 out of 9 three-pointers, and 4 out of 4 free throws, scoring 29 points, which edged out Terry’s 26 points. However, Terry’s higher shooting efficiency with 9 out of 17 shots and more than fifty percent field goal rate for the night predominated.

Tonight, Josh Howard, Harris, Stackhouse, and Barea all performed noticeably better than Felton, Rondo, Jarett Jack, Hill, and Millsap.

The fiery Mavericks defeated the Bobcats 119 to 108, handing the Bobcats their sixth loss of the season!

...

"Half-moon, so romantic..."

"Asking the palaces in the sky, what year is it tonight..."

"You are like a fire in the winter..."

Tonight, the weather was clear, and on the 24th night of winter, the moon hung in the sky like a crescent.

After the loss, Zhang Yang experienced another sleepless night, standing on the balcony, sipping honey milk and singing.

He tried, just like the night they lost to the Hornets, to distract himself from the negativity of the defeat by analyzing the game, but it failed.

He realized that the reason he was able to divert his attention that day was not because the method was particularly effective, but because they had given their all during that game and played very well, only to be outplayed by an opponent who scored 25+20 points in the Hornets.

The loss to the Mavericks was different. The opposition had erupted frenziedly after their loss to the Warriors, and his team was stuck in a physical crisis during the most brutal consecutive away games in the Southwest Division... Such a defeat was tough to swallow.

Actually, before starting the consecutive away games in the Southwest Division, he knew it would be tough, and losing games was likely, so he was psychologically prepared, but he never anticipated losing two out of the first three games...

And he felt he bore a significant responsibility for those losses.

If his one-on-one skills had been better, his fundamental shooting stronger, if he could have made a couple more baskets against James Posey or hit a few more three-pointers in the run against the Mavericks, the outcomes might have been different.

As the clock neared 4 AM, he still couldn’t sleep, and Zhang Yang no longer wanted to view the scenery at 4 in the morning, so he resorted to his ultimate strategy—fetching the mathematics book he had borrowed from Okafor.

After a few minutes of reading, and as the alarm struck 3:58 AM, his eyelids fought briefly before he fell asleep, muttering, "Thank goodness my major doesn’t require math... "

The next day after lunch, Zhang Yang and the team left Dallas and flew to San Antonio, the last stop on their tour of the Southwest Division.

This time at the away game, Carlisle even cancelled the hotel meeting originally scheduled, advising the players to rest a bit more.

Another day passed, and on January 6, the Bobcats arrived at the AT&T Center to challenge the Spurs.

Zhang Yang noted that the Spurs were even less favored by the media this season. The day before, they played against the Mavericks, who were on the brink of the Western Conference playoffs and previously upset in the first round. That game had nationwide coverage, but not when the defending champions played against them, last season’s runners-up Spurs, which had no nationwide coverage.

This season, the Spurs had a not-so-bad record of 23 wins to 9 losses, ranking fifth in the Western Conference, securely within the first tier of strong Western teams, with a good chance of reaching 60 wins.

The reason the Spurs fell out of media favor compared to last season... they had an average of 90.5 points allowed per game, ranking first in the league in defense!