Chapter 111. All-Star Weekend Part 110

The first three games of the six-game road trip were 6 wins and 3 loss, which was a wonderful start. The next morning, Zhang Yang and Felton packed their luggage and looked forward to the next three games... After getting in the car, they didn't see Gerald Wallace.

Zhang Yang asked Bickerstaff and learned that Gerald Wallace had sprained his foot and would not travel with the team to the next away game. The team did not want Gerald Wallace's injury to worsen to avoid affecting his participation in the All-Star Game. Salt Lake City has good medical conditions, so it is more appropriate to check here than to go to Denver.

Zhang Yang looked out the window speechlessly. The stars of other teams were afraid that they would get injured during the All-Star Game and affect the regular season. They...

There's nothing wrong with that. For them, having one more player appear in the All-Star Weekend is more important than affecting the regular season.

Zhang Yang remembered that Gerald Wallace did twist his foot last night when competing with Matt Harpring for a rebound, but he jumped a few times with his teeth bared and said he was fine and continued to play... It turned out that he was just holding on, and at the critical moment of the final quarter, he took over the responsibility of singles and passed the ball to Brezek.

It wouldn't be surprising if this guy was the Bobcat Crown Prince.

While waiting for the plane at the airport, Zhang Yang turned on his computer and checked Gerald Wallace's recent performance.

Gerald Wallace really worked hard in January!

It was a rare perfect month, he played 40 minutes in each game, scored 20+ points in most games, and 30 games with 3+. Thanks to his performance in January, Gerald Wallace's average points per game soared from 1+ in December to 12+, and he also maintained a performance of 17+19+7 in rebounds, steals, and assists. He was the most crucial player for their 2 wins and 2 losses in a single month. If their team wins two more games, they can compete with Billups for the monthly best player!
With this kind of play, getting injured is inevitable.

Zhang Yang could understand Gerald Wallace's feelings. He wanted to fight in every game as he had hope of winning. Moreover, the team was relying on him alone in the frontcourt. He wished he could do the work of both him and Okafor.

With Perkins, Gerald Wallace's life will be easier, but also limited. Perkins has good defensive talent, but he is too young. He entered the NBA directly after graduating from high school and is only in his third year. His growth in the interior is slow, and he is still not effective against many opponents. In many games, he can only play for more than ten minutes. When he meets the jumping man, he can play longer. When facing very few teams, he can be used as a main force.

However, Perkins himself is very satisfied with this. In the past, with inside teammates such as LaFrentz and Al Jefferson, he could only play for more than ten minutes in each game regardless of whether he was suitable to play or not.

As for the other inside players, Jumaine Jones could only be a spot shooter and had poor defense; Eli had not received a contract extension offer by 06, so he panicked and started to score and rebound well, but his defense was just so-so.

Brezek, it would be nice if all centers in the NBA were Eastern European players.

When playing against Okur and Big Z, Brezec was a completely different person.

The crown prince hadn't been absent for more than a month, and Zhang Yang felt a little uncomfortable...

Be mentally prepared in the future!
There is a high probability that Okafor will be able to stay healthy for a long time after losing weight. After all, he was able to play in all games as a core player in his rookie year. Zhang Yang remembers that after Okafor lost weight after a serious injury, he played in all games for several years in a row.

But even if Gerald Wallace is protected and equipped with more inside players, it is still inevitable that he will miss more than a dozen games every year, similar to Kirilenko, who works too hard.

...

On the 8th, the Bobcats lost to the Nuggets 88-100. Zhang Yang started for the first time, forming a rookie duo with Felton. They shot 1 of 15 and 5 of 16 respectively, scoring 5 and 14 points. The rookie duo really "enjoyed" the process.

On the 10th, the Bobcats came to Los Angeles to challenge the Clippers.

The Bobcats played well in this game. Brezek relied on height and Perkins relied on top defense. The two of them prevented Brand from making only 16 of 6 shots and scoring only 15 points. However, their scoring in the interior was also poor. Brezek, Perkins, Eli, and Jumaine Jones only scored 4 points in total.

张杨17分、费尔顿14分6助攻、卡罗尔12分、卡里姆-拉什15分，外线四人得分上双，阿兰-安德森、博甘斯、伯纳德-罗宾逊等人加起来拿到18分，全队也才拿到90分。

Without Gerald Wallace, it is really difficult to attack the inside.

90 to 95, the Bobcats lost to the Clippers on the road, suffered two consecutive losses, and their record was 22 wins and 29 losses.

However, Zhang Yang and others also had a good mentality. They slept unwillingly after losing by 5 points, and went to Phoenix the next day with full expectations. If they lost this game, they would fight again in the next one!
After a day of rest in Phoenix, on the 12th, when Zhang Yang and Felton were preparing for a wonderful match with Nash with strong fighting spirit, they received unfortunate news.

Nash will miss tonight's game due to back muscle tightness.

This makes Zhang Yang and Felton very regretful. Gerald Wallace and Okafor can't play. What can they expect when playing against the Suns? Isn't it just a match with Nash?
At 7:40 in the evening, after the players of both teams entered the court, Nash, who was sitting on the bench wearing a pressure suit, also looked at Zhang Yang with regret.

He watched the live broadcast of the game between the Bobcats and the Cavaliers. He saw the scene where Zhang Yang used rhythm flow to break through James, and it was full of his own shadow.

They are of similar height (Nash is 191 cm, Zhang Yang is 193 cm), similar weight (Nash is 88 kg, Zhang Yang is 90 kg), and similarly handsome (Nash admits it).

Nash was also looking forward to this game and wanted to have some on-site teaching, but there was no way. His back injury had to be controlled and he couldn't force it. Maybe he could only go for a stroll and make an appearance during the following All-Star Weekends.

In addition to this, Nash is also full of worries about tonight's game.

Last season, the Suns had 62 wins and 20 losses. Nash played 75 games and had 60 wins and 15 losses. That is to say, when Nash was absent last season, the Suns only had 2 wins and 5 losses.

With Stoudemire out this season, Nash has become even more important to the Suns. So far, the Suns have played 51 games, with 33 wins and 18 losses, and Nash has played 47 games, with 33 wins and 14 losses. In the 4 games without Nash, the Suns lost all of them!
Nash's worries soon became a reality.

In the first quarter, the Bobcats just worked hard, and after one quarter, they found that the score was 31 to 18...

费尔顿首节打满，6投4中、其中三分球2中2、加上2中1的罚球拿到11分3助攻。

Zhang Yang played for 5 minutes in the first quarter, made 5 of 3 shots, plus 1 free throw, and scored 7 points.

They both got excited!
In the second quarter, the Suns' offense also soared. Without Gerald Wallace, the Bobcats were able to defend against teams like the Clippers that pushed into the paint, but they had no way to defend against fast teams like the Nuggets and the Suns. The Suns scored 37 points in this quarter... but the Bobcats also scored 37 points!
At the end of the first half, the Bobcats led the Suns 68-55 and continued to maintain a 13-point lead!
In the third quarter, the Suns scored 28 points, and the Bobcats continued to advance and scored 35 points!
103 to 83, after three quarters, the game entered garbage time!

In the final quarter, Zhang Yang and Felton sat on the bench, watching Bernard Robinson and Alan Anderson partner up to play in garbage time. This was a feeling they had never experienced before. When playing against strong teams in the past, they were the ones who played in garbage time to score some points and assists. This was the first time they had beaten an opponent with such a good record!

今晚费尔顿打满前三节，20投12中，其中三分球6中4，加上4中3的罚球，拿到生涯新高的31分！刷新05届新秀单场最高分！外加3板7助攻！

After Zhang Yang came on the court for the last 5 minutes of the first quarter, he never left the court, making 13 of 8 shots, including 4 of 2 three-pointers, plus 3 of 3 free throws, scoring 21 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists and 1 steal. He rushed forward to counterattack and made one pass, scoring 20+10 for the first time in his career, and +2 on the 'youngest record list'!

But for Felton who is now smiling foolishly, Zhang Yang still feels a little regretful. There are only two chances a year to play against Nash. If he misses this time, he will have to wait until next season.

On the other side, Nash was speechless.

When he is not there, the team loses... It seems that he has gotten used to it. In the past season and a half, he has missed more than 10 times and has only won twice.

Nash thought of Zhang Yang's counterattack and an idea came to his mind...

He asked D'Antoni, "Is it possible for us to dig up that high school kid before I retire in four years?"

On the 7th, Nash was already 32 years old. He was already thinking about his retirement. He even felt that he might not be able to finish his current contract. His contract expires in 10 years, when he will be 36 years old. How could he have guessed that he would be able to play until he was 40 before retiring, and at the age of 38 he would be able to average 12+10 per game and lead the team to the playoffs, outlasting many superstars who are only in their twenties and twenties and have just entered their peak.

At present, he is really considering the future of the Suns, the team that has been so kind to him.

D'Antoni didn't think there was anything wrong with Nash's statement of retiring in four years.

But as for Nash's beautiful expectations... D'Antoni doesn't want to break his beloved disciple's beautiful expectations: "Who can predict the future? He is only 17 years old, everything is possible."

...

131 to 119, the Bobcats easily defeated the Suns without Nash and ended the first half of the season with a victory.

After the game, Nash went to the other side to express his appreciation to the two rookies. It was late at night so they didn't talk much. They ended the chat after exchanging phone numbers and email addresses.

The All-Star Weekend is just a few days away and there will be plenty of opportunities then.

As for Zhang Yang, after finishing the physical therapy, he returned to the hotel and fell asleep on the bed without setting the alarm clock. He slept until noon.

After playing 52 regular season games, he theoretically had a week of rest. He relaxed a little and slept for almost 11 hours.

The bed next door was empty... No, it seemed that the bed had not been moved. He returned to the hotel at around 12 o'clock in the morning. The bed was still in the same state as the waiter had made it during the day. He remembered that Felton, Anderson, Kareem Rush, Jumaine Jones... a group of people went to a nightclub last night. They might have just spent the night there. Even if they had to pack up, they would probably go to a hotel where nightclub girls acted as agents.

No matter how conscienceless the fat boss is, he would never do such a thing as picking up a nightclub girl and bringing her back to do things that only adults can do in front of him.

The fat little boss will definitely pack two.

Zhang Yang got up, called the front desk to order a few dishes for lunch, opened his laptop and checked his email.

The team has already sent his air ticket and hotel order to his email, and he just needs to go to the front desk to print it out.

In the evening, he took a flight from Phoenix to Houston. The host team of this year's All-Star Weekend is the Rockets. Tomorrow, on Valentine's Day afternoon, his All-Star Weekend work will begin.

When Tellem called yesterday, he said that the team had already arranged the air tickets, hotels, drivers, etc. for his parents, so he didn't need to worry about his parents and brother going to Houston to watch the game or play, so he could work with peace of mind.

Zhang Yang felt that the evil capitalist Boss Qiao did not let him work with peace of mind, but to concentrate on his work.

After a while, lunch hadn't arrived yet, but Felton came back first. After hearing Zhang Yang say that he had ordered lunch, he immediately called the front desk to add a few dishes. After lunch, Felton left the hotel first. He was going to Houston at 3 pm. He was not a player under AJ, so Jordan didn't cover his flight and hotel expenses, but Under Armour would pay for it, although Under Armour would not cover his parents' travel expenses.

Zhang Yang did not leave the hotel after lunch. He asked the front desk to extend his room for another day and ordered a bunch of snacks, since they would be charged to the team's account anyway.

I finally get a break during the season and indulge myself a little.

During his leisure time, Zhang Yang checked the news online.

The first half of the season is over and all the major media outlets have produced a bunch of 'summaries'.

Some media news headlines are very eye-catching. The audience will think, "Wow, look, this is so well written." Passersby will have a lot of question marks in their heads when they see it, and then want to see how outrageous the news can be.

Zhang Yang is the latter. When he opened the ESPN official website, he didn't want to switch web pages because he wanted to see how exaggerated it was.

The best teams in the first half selected by other media are basically the Pistons, with 43 wins and 9 losses, first in the league, or the Spurs, with 40 wins and 12 losses, first in the Western Conference and second in the league.

ESPN is different. They don't select the best team, but instead select the most surprising team in the first half, the Cavaliers, with 31 wins and 21 losses.

In fact, other media also selected the "most surprising" and "most unexpected" teams, but they were either the unexpectedly rising Clippers, or the Suns who were still strong after the injury of the little bully, or the Magic, Hornets, and Bobcats.

For the best player of the first half, other media all chose Kobe. This selection is not based on the record, but purely on personal performance. Otherwise, it would have been given directly to players from the Pistons or Spurs. Kobe scored 12 points in three quarters against the Mavericks in December and 62 points in a single game against the Raptors in January. He also averaged 1+ points per game in January. Such unprecedented performances are right in front of us. It makes no sense not to choose him.

ESPN also selected Kobe, but not just Kobe. They came up with the 'Best Player in the Halftime Division' selection, with Kobe being the best in the Western Conference halftime and James being the best in the Eastern Conference halftime.

Reason: James' average points per game in February also reached 2+, making him one of only three players in the league averaging 30+. Although his points are lower than Iverson's, his record is much better.

Zhang Yang looked at it from all angles for a long time, but really couldn't see any problem.

But seeing their names listed side by side in the news headlines...it just feels weird.

In the evening, Zhang Yang set off for Houston. When he arrived at the hotel in Houston, he began to try on clothes.

It was said that work would not start until the afternoon of the 14th, but a series of interviews began in the morning.

During the interview, Zhang Yang was low-key and perfunctory, and expressed his honor when asked about the All-Star Weekend.

Don't offend those big guys at this time. He doesn't want to be like his boss, who couldn't even catch the ball in the first All-Star Game. He is not an American, so he can't even take revenge on someone in the Olympics by not letting that person enter the Dream Team.

But during the fan activities in the afternoon, he was very serious and actively participated in every activity, making sure the older brothers and sisters who came to participate had a great time.

"A lot of fans only get one chance to see me in their lifetime and I don't want them to be disappointed in me."

This sentence is one of the motivations for Zhang Yang to move forward on the basketball road.

He had no idea about the scale of his sneaker fan event, but he was very happy to see Tellem, so it was at least the largest among AJ's endorsement stars, otherwise the money-hungry agent would not give up.

Not even two months after signing the contract, Tellem is already urging AJ to come up with a draft design for the signature shoe as soon as possible.

Players who have signature shoes from big-name brands have more bargaining power when signing other endorsements.

After two busy days, on Thursday, Zhang Yang finally got... half a day off, as he had to participate in the Rookie Challenge in the afternoon.

After waking up in the morning, Zhang Yang got up immediately, washed up, and went straight to where his parents lived.

Knock! Is Boss Qiao so generous? He arranged a big villa in the suburbs for his parents!

Zhang Yang thought that his parents would be lonely traveling alone when he was not around, but it turned out that the couple was having a great time. They left their baby to the nanny and even stayed overnight in a theme hotel on the 14th!
Speaking of which, there is one thing that surprised Zhang Yang. As the family business was getting better and better, his mother had more free time and actually lost weight. When she was busy with that store every day, she got fatter every year.

But he felt that his mother was also very confident when she was fat - she was beautiful before, and now she is still beautiful after losing weight.

Zhang Yang felt so sad. Were they held back again in those years? He remembered that in the five years after he came to the United States, his parents never went on a trip… As soon as he left, his parents started to have fun. Not only did they practice the trumpet, but they also became very romantic.

Fortunately, little Wukong held on to his golden cudgel all day long and would not go to bed without putting on his four-star hat, which gave Zhang Yang some comfort.

...

After having lunch at home, Zhang Yang came to the Toyota Center in the afternoon to participate in the rookie event.

The freshman team consists of nine people including Zhang Yang, Paul, Felton, Nate Robinson, Granger, Villanueva, Channing Frye, Marvin Williams, and Bogut.

Deron failed to be selected for the rookie team. Although his average stats of 8 points and 4 assists per game when the list was released were average, his performance was still better than Granger's 7 points and 4 rebounds per game and Marvin Williams' 8 points and 5 rebounds per game. The reason for his failure to be selected may be that there were too many point guards, with only one shooting guard and one small forward each, and he was the one with the worst stats among the best performing rookie point guards this year.

This may become another point that Deron hates Sloan.

The sophomore team consists of Ford, Devin Harris, Delonte West, Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Iguodala, Luol Deng, Nenad Krstic, and Howard.

Ford is from the class of 03, but he was injured before the All-Star Weekend in his rookie year and was unable to participate. His sophomore year was directly written off and he still was unable to participate. However, the fans really wanted to see him appear on the All-Star stage, so Stern authorized Ford to participate in this Rookie Challenge as a sophomore player. In terms of real playing experience, Ford is indeed a sophomore.

At the event, with the camera facing everyone, everyone was very polite. They greeted those they knew and got to know those they didn't know.

But outside the camera, everyone is either gathering together with familiar people or alone. It’s not clear-cut, but there’s no such all-hands-on-deck attitude as in front of the camera.

Zhang Yang, Felton, Paul, and Marvin Williams got together.

Paul looked at the three North Carolina players surrounding him and felt like he was surrounded by enemies. No, he had to find a topic to discuss how to play tomorrow's game.

The three North Carolina players combined cannot think as one, so Zhang Yang, as a representative, discussed with Paul for a few minutes and decided to just do it.

There will be trouble if you can beat him!

The 04 draft was a big year, and it was the sophomore year again... Josh Smith, Al Jefferson, Livingston, Childress, Nelson... All of these people were not selected for the sophomore team, and there was also Okafor who was injured and didn't play much and was not selected.

As for the class of 05, except for the three guards, the others had almost no ability to fight back against the sophomores. How could they fight?
On the second day, the rookie challenge turned into a dunk showdown between first and second graders.

You rush over and dunk one on each side, and I rush over and dunk one on each side.

Fans did not think there was anything wrong with this kind of game scene. After the game changed from the Eastern and Western Conference Rookie Showdown to the First and Second Grade Rookie Challenge, the game gradually became like this.

It is almost impossible for a rookie team to beat a sophomore team. Even the 03 class lost to the 02 class. In the 04 Rookie Challenge, the twin towers of Stoudemire and Yao Ming crushed the group of geniuses from the 03 class.

截至目前，就只有99届击败过98届、01届击败过00届，99届能赢是因为弗朗西斯、奥多姆、布兰德三个新秀对比才二年级的98届球员来说实在太强；01届能赢是因为00届实在太弱。

In the end, the sophomore won the dunk contest 106-96. Iguodala, who had the most dunks (11 times), won the Rookie Game MVP with a performance of 30 points in a single game.

Felton, Paul and Zhang Yang each only scored about 10 points. Dunking is not what Felton and Zhang Yang are good at. Paul is good at it, but he has no interest in this kind of game.

Zhang Yang saw that the two brothers beside him looked very depressed, so he comforted them: "It's okay, we can beat the rookies next year."

Paul: "..."

Felton: "Yeah! Next year we won't be the ones being abused!"

Paul: ?
So this is why you're sad?

The next day, Saturday, Zhang Yang and his parents went to watch the triathlon. Felton and Paul participated in the skills challenge, Matt Carroll was invited to participate in the three-point contest, and Gerald Wallace was invited to participate in the dunk contest again, but withdrew due to injury.

Zhang Yang did not participate in any of the three competitions as the league did not invite him. Instead, a certain bad boss who got 5 points encouraged him to sign up for the three-point contest, but he flatly refused.

The unscrupulous capitalist not only wants to exploit him, but also wants him to be humiliated!

……

……

Today's 1.1 words make up for the 1000 words I missed yesterday. Please give me a monthly vote! Please give me a recommendation vote!

(End of this chapter)