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Chapter 736 - 314. Seems like there’s nothing wrong

Chapter 736: 314. Seems like there’s nothing wrong

However, now that Duncan admitted he was a center, there was no problem anymore. O’Neal was old, and Yao Ming had moved to the Eastern Conference where they might only face off twice a year, and the Western Conference lacked other centers to challenge him.

Moreover, when Duncan faced Yao Ming, each had their advantages.

Last month, before the Spurs played against the Chicago Bulls, Zhang Yang watched the predictive analysis that mentioned the two players had faced off 14 times before this season.

In those 14 games, Duncan averaged 20.5 points per game, with a shooting percentage of 43%, which was fairly dismal. He could hardly make any move under the basket, also being outscored by Yao Ming who averaged over 50% shooting per game.

But he did a very good job in limiting Yao Ming’s shooting.

In the 02-03 season, Yao Ming’s rookie year, the first time he faced the Spurs, he played David Robinson into 3 fouls in the first quarter, shooting 10-for-18 and adding seven free throws on seven attempts to score 27 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks, leading the Rockets to a 89-75 thrashing of the Spurs.

By the time the two teams faced off the second time, Duncan switched to the center position. Being the top player in the league at the time, he guarded Yao Ming like a blue-collar worker, fighting fiercely in front defense, limiting Yao Ming to only 11 shots, and leading the Spurs to a 87-82 victory, avenging their previous loss.

In that game, Duncan’s blue-collar defensive performance was compared to Mad Dog Jerome, and the post-game reports called him an upgraded version of Mad Dog Jerome.

Another number 21... Zhang Yang felt that Garnett and the Timberwolves were just holding each other back.

In that godforsaken Minneapolis, with mediocre results and seven straight first-round exits and only one occasion of passing the first round, Garnett was consistently voted as an All-Star starter. If he were in a big city or a strong team, Garnett’s popularity in the U.S wouldn’t have been suppressed by Duncan for so many years.

Garnett’s big contract was too much for the Timberwolves but just right for the Lakers.

However, the reason Garnett had more votes than Kobe was mainly because the competition for Western guards was too fierce this year, Iverson, McGrady, Nash, Paul, Ginobili, Parker... all shared a significant number of votes, while the competition for the Western forwards was much less, with Duncan and Stoudemire moved to center positions. If these two were placed in forward positions, this year’s Western All-Star starting center would have been either Hayes or Kwame Brown, ranking them third and fourth among blue-collar inside players.

The time reached 8:40 PM at Tuhang Stadium, where the Pistons entered first.

As an All-Star from North Carolina, when Heaven previously played here, there were cheers, even though the Bobcats were knocked out by the Pistons in the second round of the 05-06 season, Charlotte fans still cheered for Heaven last season.

But not this time, as Heaven entered, a deafening chorus of boos filled the air.

After the Bobcats won the championship in an underdog playoff run last season, the mentality of Charlotte fans had changed.

Before, their perceived rivals were teams like the Knight, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Wizards, etc., that participated in the first or second rounds.

Now, in their eyes, the only competitors in the East were the Pistons and the Chicago Bulls!

Zhang Yang looked at the group of players across and thought of a word: "balanced."

Yesterday during the preparation meeting, he had seen some interesting statistics in the Pistons’ scouting report.

Hamilton averaged 31 minutes per game, scoring 17.2 points, with 3.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

Billups averaged 32 minutes per game, scoring 16.8 points, with 2.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.

Rasheed Wallace averaged 30 minutes per game, scoring 13.2 points and getting 6.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists.

Noah averaged 26 minutes per game, scoring 6.6 points and getting 7 rebounds and 2.2 assists.

Prince averaged 29 minutes per game, scoring 12.6 points and getting 4.4 rebounds and 3 assists.

McDyess averaged 25 minutes per game, scoring 6.8 points and getting 6.6 rebounds.

The 5 starters and the sixth man all had playtime between 25 and 32 minutes, with key rotations like Jason Maxiell, Juan Dixon, Ratliff, Jarvis Hayes, Lynch Hunter all playing between 10 and 15 minutes.

This rotation method had two main benefits. First, every one of the starters and the sixth man had attended all 35 games so far without absence; second, the players were always in good form when on the court and were quickly substituted if they underperformed.

Philip Saunders and Popovich both followed this strategy... Zhang San: my responsibility?

Zhang Yang felt Saunders had it tougher. The Pistons’ salary this season was only $65 million, even lower than the Spurs’.

Moreover, of that $65 million for the Pistons, 5 players took the bulk. Richard Hamilton, Billups, Rasheed Wallace all had multi-million salaries totaling $34 million; Prince earned $8.6 million, and McDyess $6.8 million. These five nearly accounted for $50 million. The Pistons had a full roster of 15 players where the remaining 10 players’ salaries together were less than $16 million.

But it was still better than under Van Gundy in previous years, at least the money was spent on the sharp end, and they managed to sign capable players like Juan Dixon and Ratliff at base salaries.

The balanced playtime allowed the main players to be more relaxed and maintain good performance continuity. When the game was tense, Billups, one of the league’s top clutch performers, would step up to solve the problem.

This meant that even with Rasheed Wallace aging another year, the Pistons’ performance improved compared to last season, with 26 wins and 9 losses out of 35 games played so far, even better than the same period last season and second only to the 05-06 season in the history of the Pistons.

Zhang Yang felt this opponent was tougher than last year...

At 9 PM, with Okafor beating Noah in the jump ball, the game between the home team Bobcats and the Pistons began.