Chapter 107 106. Charlotte's Mountain (Additional chapters after 2 recommendation votes)
Not only Zhang Yang, but Felton and Gerald Wallace also had their eyes on James.

In every era, there is a player that all players of the same era want to beat.

This season, James has become such a player, and those rising stars who have become the core of their teams have their eyes on him.

If we extend it two years forward or backward, players who entered the NBA between 01 and 05 can be considered to be in the same period as James.

But among these people, there is only one who can suppress James - Yao Ming.

The two have played against each other five times so far. The only time James won was when Damon Jones was in great form and made 5 of 6 three-pointers, and the Cavaliers narrowly won 5-104. In that game, McGrady was injured and Yao Ming led a group of small players. Yao Ming won the other four matches.

Wade's team can crush James' team, but without O'Neal, the two of them are probably evenly matched, and his ability to lead a team is still lacking.

Anthony was able to suppress James in his rookie year, but he could only go back and forth in his sophomore year. This season, James continued to rise, while Anthony not only did not improve but even regressed.

Most of the Bobcats players entered the NBA at the same time as James, including Zhang Yang, and they all wanted to enjoy the pleasure of defeating strong players of the same period by defeating James.

However, compared to Anthony, Wade, Yao Ming and others who would be criticized if they didn't win against James, the Bobcats players had no pressure at all.

There are advantages to building a new team. Losing is normal, but you will be praised if you win.

After the players of both teams entered the court, the new head coach of the opposing team, Mike Brown, came over to greet Bickerstaff. He used to be Bickerstaff's assistant coach. To be more precise, he was promoted by Bickerstaff. His first assistant coach job was given to him by Bickerstaff. His previous jobs were editor and scout.

James also took the initiative to say hello to Zhang Yang, Gerald Wallace, Felton and others.

If there is no conflict of interest, there is nothing to criticize about James's way of dealing with people.

Although the person in front of him was clearly the opponent he wanted to defeat, an imaginary enemy for the next ten years or even more, Zhang Yang felt very comfortable chatting with him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't learn this ability.

Zhang Yang noticed the man in a suit sitting on the bench opposite him - Larry Hughes.

A player who is regrettable and demonstrated to other players how miserable it is to choose the wrong team.

Last season, Larry Hughes averaged 22 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.9 steals per game, and was selected as a first-team defensive player. Many teams competed for him during the offseason, and finally the Cavaliers won him through bidding for 5 million US dollars over 7000 years. This price is only 5 million US dollars less than the 500-year maximum salary for non-Bird rights under this season's salary cap.

But Larry Hughes' playing styles conflicted with James'. At the age of 26 or 27, when he was at his peak, his performance plummeted after changing teams.

If James defends well at this time, he can use high-post pressure and steals to counterattack. Mike Brown has tried this trick, but it doesn't work. James now defends purely on instinct.

James decided to practice defense until the 07 Finals. He faced the backcourt combination of Ginobili and Parker, and whoever he defended exploded. Mike Brown was forced to arrange him to defend Bowen in the bottom corner, which hurt him deeply... But a genius is a genius. After a year of hard training, he had become a defensive giant by the 08-09 season.

Now, James and Larry Hughes are completely unable to coexist. Before Larry Hughes was injured, he had become a pseudo starter and a real sixth man, and was criticized for his garbage contract. Last summer, 26-year-old Larry Hughes signed a 5-year contract with the Cavaliers, aiming to sign another big contract when he is 31 years old, otherwise he would accept a 6-year contract from another team. Although the average price is lower, the total price is higher than what the Cavaliers offered. In this situation, let alone signing a big contract at the age of 31, it is hard to say whether there will be any team that wants him at that time.

The worst thing is that after Larry Hughes was injured, the Cavaliers' record improved, and James's average points per game soared from 28 points per game to 30+ points per game...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the game between the Bobcats and the Cavaliers started.

Brezek defeated Big Z to win the jump ball and the Bobcats attacked first.

Cavaliers starting lineup: Eric Snow, Ronald Murray, James, Drew Gooden, Big Z.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Kareem Rush, Gerald Wallace, Eli, and Brezek.

Brezek took the initiative to ask for the ball in the low post, and Felton lifted it steadily.

Zhang Yang on the sidelines focused his attention on the inside. Brezec was actually going for a singles shot! It was the first attack of the game!
Brezek is 218cm and 116kg, and Big Z is 221cm and 118kg. They are the tallest players on both teams and are among the tallest in the league.

Brezec took a step closer to Big Z, turned left and walked to the baseline, grabbed the ball, took two steps to the left side of the basket, turned his back to the basket and threw the ball...it went in!
After scoring the goal, Brezek turned around and beat his chest to celebrate towards Big Z.

Zhang Yang: Wow, you played pretty well!
These small steps are really fast...compared to the big Z.

This was the first time Zhang Yang saw Brezek competing with other players. Is this how Eastern European centers greet each other?
At the European Championship last summer, Lithuania and Slovenia met in the quarterfinals. The Lithuanian team, where Big Z was, won, and it seemed that there was a conflict during the game... It was very Eastern European basketball.

However, when he got to the NBA court, Big Z did not ask for the ball in response to Brezek's provocation. When it was the Cavaliers' turn to attack, he honestly executed the tactics.

Compared to the 'loose' Bobcats, the Cavaliers are highly disciplined and it is clear who is the top and who is the bottom.

Mike Brown used what he learned as an assistant coach for the Spurs in his three years on the Cavaliers, creating very good growth conditions for James in the early stages of his career. The Spurs' style of play from 00 to 03 was defense first, and offense gave the ball to the strongest players.

On the offensive end, Brezec toughened up and surprised Zhang Yang, but on defense, Zhang Yang didn't have much expectation for Brezec... Sure enough, James broke into the paint and made a three-step layup against Brezec, without even using the additional 'continuation jump step' allowed by the new rules.

Brezec's defense is too soft!
When the Bobcats attacked, Gerald Wallace also asked for the ball and broke through.

James misjudged his lateral move and was passed by Gerald Wallace.

Gerald Wallace broke into the paint and made a layup.

Brezek is soft, Big Z is not soft but slow!

Brezek had a good sense of coordinating the offense. As soon as Gerald Wallace started to break through, he turned and ran to the baseline. Big Z followed him for two steps and saw Gerald Wallace rushing in, so he immediately turned around and chased back...but it was because of those two steps that he lost the opportunity to make up for the defense.

James's breakthrough was sharp, even Gerald Wallace couldn't defend him one-on-one, and he couldn't protect the rim in the paint, so the Bobcats lost points consecutively at the start.

But the Cavaliers couldn't defend against the Bobcats' offense!
James's defense is currently quite poor, and he can't stop Gerald Wallace's breakthrough. As for Snow, he is old and relies on his skills to defend, and he can't stop the young and strong Felton. Facing the breakthroughs of Felton and Gerald Wallace, the Cavaliers players began to miss Larry Hughes.

Although James has been leading the offense alone after Larry Hughes was injured, and the Cavaliers' average points per game in the last 18 games has soared to 99 points, compared to only 27 points in the first 94 games, their defense has also declined significantly. In the first 27 games, the Cavaliers averaged 92 points per game, which was the top in the league, and in the last 18 games, they averaged 96 points per game, which is only slightly below the league average.

In the past, Snow and Larry Hughes helped James clean up his mess by shrinking on the wings to provide assist defense. Now Snow is the only one left. Every time he encounters an opponent with strong breakthrough impact, the life of Big Z under the basket becomes miserable.

However, as the game progressed, the Cavaliers still gained the advantage!
Felton and Gerald Wallace took turns to compete with James in breakthroughs. When they attacked for a few minutes and needed to slow down, James could continue to break through!

James averaged 42 minutes per game this season, ranked first in the league in breakthroughs and counterattacks with the ball, and his energy consumption on defense was probably among the best in the league...

Zhang Yang who was watching was amazed. He was tall, fast, strong, flexible and had good stamina!
The score was 15 to 11, and the Bobcats called a timeout to make substitutions. Zhang Yang, Jumaine Jones, and Perkins replaced Kareem Rush, Eli, and Brezek.

Zhang Yang stretched his body, and before the timeout was over, he called his teammates together and talked to them for a few words.

Felton: "Jack, are you kidding me?"

Zhang Yang: "Just give it a try. How do you know it won't work if you don't try? It doesn't matter if you fail. Just think of it as helping Gerrard relieve his defensive fatigue. Gerrard can play better on offense when his defensive fatigue is reduced, and it can also relieve your offensive pressure."

Gerald Wallace: "I have no problem with that, but I don't think Raymond can do it. I couldn't do it myself."

Felton: "Who says I can't do it? Just let me do it!"

Zhang Yang: Damn, the little fat boss really can be controlled by anyone!
Perkins: This rookie's strategy is too outrageous. Two people vying for the top spot actually accepted it! This team is really weird!
Jumaine Jones: Fortunately, I was not assigned any strange tasks.

...

Players from both teams came onto the field.

The Cavaliers also made personnel adjustments, replacing Ronald Murray with Alexander Pavlovic, while Snow, James, Gooden and Big Z continued to play.

The timeout ends, the Bobcats attack, and serve from the center line.

After receiving the serve, Felton passed the ball to Zhang Yang, creating space.

There was cheering at the scene, Zhang Yang and James faced off for the first time!

James, the son of American basketball, is known as the first genius of the new generation.

In this regard, many basketball fans in the Carolina area disagree with this statement. In their eyes, Zhang Yang is the most talented one.

The two finally faced off, and the fans at the scene were extremely excited.

Compared to the fans, Zhang Yang calmly protected the ball and waited for his teammates to get into position.

Suddenly, Zhang Yang started!

This time James judged the position and movement correctly, and pressed forward to try to use his body to prevent Zhang Yang from breaking through... Zhang Yang predicted James's prediction, retracted his feet before the confrontation came, dribbled the ball between his legs and retreated one step to the left rear. James pounced in front of Zhang Yang, and Zhang Yang restarted, passed James, and broke through the middle!

The fans at the scene cheered and screamed wildly when they saw this scene. The rhythm was so beautiful! It felt a bit like Steve Nash!
Zhang Yang who broke into the inside was still calm. Just now he took some time to step back and get up again, and Big Z had already closed in. He broke into the right position, grabbed the ball and made a quick shot before James caught up and Big Z pressed forward to form a siege... and it hit!
13 to 15, Zhang Yang helped the Bobcats keep the score close!
Hearing the cheers of the fans, Zhang Yang calmly retreated.

His role in coming on the court at this time was to continue the offense and relieve the offensive pressure for Felton and Gerald Wallace.

Against the Cavaliers, whose defense is only average in the league, offense is not a big problem. The key is still defense...leave it to the fat boss and the crown prince.

Soon, the fans at the scene could no longer cheer.

They saw that after James advanced to the frontcourt, it was Felton guarding the top arc!
What kind of defensive matchup is this? Is Bickerstaff crazy?

Bickerstaff was also surprised. He did not make any defensive adjustments just now and gave the players the power to make independent decisions, but the players' own adjustments were too wild!
Felton, who was guarding the top arc, felt scared when he saw James advancing, but the words were already spoken, so he had to go ahead with it.

Oh, by the way, what did the jerk say? Now I remember...

James was also surprised to see that it was Felton who was defending him, but before he could have thoughts like "being looked down upon" or "the opponent is crazy", he saw Felton take a big step back, then another small step, and was almost retreating to the free throw line!
The fans at the scene were even more dumbfounded when they saw Felton "leaving James open". What kind of defense is this?
After Felton pulled away, he also wanted to press forward again, what an unreliable bastard. However, he remembered what Zhang Yang said, "James usually only shoots three-pointers at the beginning of the game when there is no confrontation and when he is behind and has no other choice," and resisted the urge to press forward again.

Then... he saw that James really didn't shoot and broke through from the middle!
Felton yelled in his heart, "Oh shit!" and quickly took small steps to move.

James rushed to the free throw line, changed direction when he was about to make contact with Felton, and broke through along the right sideline of the three-second zone.

The distance from the free throw line to the right side of the basket is much shorter than the distance from the top arc to the right side of the basket. Felton was not thrown off and followed James closely while reaching out to grab the ball. His chubby little hands were very fast.

James was almost cut off from the ball, so he quickly pulled the ball and turned around, with his back to Felton, and stopped on the sideline of the three-second zone on the right side of the basket.

Felton felt sorry, but he didn't stop and pressed forward to stick to James.

But even though he was sticking to her, Felton felt cold in his heart. He was going to be beaten and attacked. He thought of those inside players who were ravaged and destroyed by O'Neal and Yao Ming. He never thought that there would be such a day for him. Damn little brother... eh?

No, why hasn’t the impact come yet?
Felton was ready to be dunked on, but James just dribbled the ball and looked around... 5 seconds left! Are you going to ride on me or not?
James was also anxious. He didn't attack immediately after turning his back to the defense because the miserable and ferocious-looking center had already moved in. Not to mention that he was not very good at post-up shots, even if he knew, it would be too late. No one came to support him at this time. He couldn't just turn around and dribble away by himself, right?
Not to mention whether there would be enough time for a complete breakthrough in the offense, if he broke through a 185cm small guard in a one-on-one situation, he would be forced to pull out and break through again. Does he still have any face left?

At this time, the baseline referee's countdown to 5 seconds had reached '4', and James did not wait for his teammates to respond, or his teammates did not expect that James would need someone to respond to Felton in the low post... No matter what, he had to take the shot.

Then, Felton saw James's lousy turnaround jump shot... which hit the rim... and he actually blocked it!
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(End of this chapter)