Chapter 134 133. Playoffs Debut
That unlucky third pick turned out to be Okafor’s nephew!
These are probably the most unfortunate uncle and nephew, as both of them are at their peak as rookies.

One of them was seriously injured in his second year in the NBA, and his athletic ability was destroyed, turning him from a talented center who was both offensive and defensive into a blue-collar laborer; the other one also suffered a serious injury in his sophomore year, but the injury was secondary. The NBA has changed eras and entered the small ball era, and he had no ball to play with due to his low-post playing style.

On the way to Cleveland, Jahlil Okafor sat next to Zhang Yang and asked him questions. Jahlil Okafor didn't get answers to many of the things he was curious about, but Zhang Yang got to know everything he wanted to know.

11 years old, 183 cm tall... Currently in the 5th grade of elementary school and will enter junior high school in the second half of the year.

I have loved basketball since I was a child. My idol is not Okafor, nor is it Duncan, whom Okafor often talked about in high school, but a blacksmith. I wore the No. 8 jersey in elementary school, and I planned to change it to No. 3 in junior high school. The reason for the change was because of him, Zhang San.

I became a fan of Zhang San when he scored the winning goal against Yao Ming, which was one of the earliest ones.

Jahlil Okafor's dream was to become a shooting guard like Zhang Yang who could shoot freely. However, his dream was shattered by Zhang Yang's words, "You may be taller than me in two years." He slumped in his chair, as if his life had lost its dreams and the sky had lost its colors.

Zhang Yang had some understanding of Okafor's family situation. His father and grandfather were businessmen in Nigeria. It was Okafor's generation that settled in Texas. His family was rich, so his strange arrogance was understandable.

After some casual chatting, Zhang Yang felt that Jahlil Okafor was quite interesting and a lively elementary school student.

Zhang Yang remembered that the future third place winner would have a expressionless face, similar to the second place winner, and his face was somewhat similar to the first place winner... He was probably influenced by the second place winner and his style was distorted.

Now that they know each other, Zhang Yang feels that he still has to remind his nephew not to develop in the direction of a standing center. Standing centers are the dominant type now, but they will have no future in ten years.

However, my nephew is only 11 years old and has not yet reached the stage of second-wave growth. It will not be too late to remind him when he is in high school in four or five years. By then, there will not be many traditional inside players in the league. The powerful ones will either be power forwards like Nowitzki, supporting power forwards like Gasol, or flexible floor players like Duncan... The reminder will be more convincing at that time.

...

After arriving in Cleveland, the Bobcats stayed in the hotel to rest and recharge for the team's first playoff game tomorrow.

All necessary preparations had been made yesterday. In addition, the Bobcats players had won all three encounters in the past three months, so they were full of confidence and were not frightened by the overwhelming bombardment of public opinion.

Public opinion bombardment refers to the hype led by some media that the Cavaliers will seek revenge for their several losses in the regular season in the playoffs.

The reason for such hype - Larry Hughes returned in his farewell game and scored 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

ESPN described the impact of Larry Hughes' return on this series like this: KING James also has a helper like Gerald Wallace.

When Zhang Yang saw this report yesterday afternoon, he pulled Gerald Wallace to the computer and said proudly, "Gerald, look, ESPN said you are assisting me."

Gerald Wallace was speechless for a moment, and said "Yes, yes, I'll assist you" like he was perfunctorily answering a child, and then went to play cards with Felton to decide the winner. Yesterday at noon, the teammates' entertainment during the lunch break was playing cards.

Zhang Yang also thinks that Larry Hughes is a very good player. In the 04-05 season, Larry Hughes' strength and performance were even better than Gerald Wallace's this season. Larry Hughes may be very strong now, but what's the use...

In the evening, Zhang Yang watched the live broadcast of the first playoff game between the Spurs and the Kings.

The Spurs won, but the best performance of the game came from the Kings players.

It's not Bibby, not Artest, not Brad Miller, not Rahim, but the crazy second-generation Korean Wells.

Bonzi Wells was placed at the power forward position. Standing at 196 cm, he kept attacking the inside, making 15 of 9 shots and 10 of 7 free throws, scoring 25 points and 12 rebounds, beating Duncan like Barkley reborn... This year is his contract year.

Zhang Yang remembered that Bonzi Wells would reject a five-year, $5 million contract this summer, and said something similar to what Kuang Ren said when he rejected a three-year, $700 million contract - this amount of money is not enough for me to spend.

The endings of the two seem to be similar...

On April 4, the Bobcats' first playoff game day in team history arrived.

The Bobcats received good news in the morning - Bickerstaff beat Philip Saunders, Avery Johnson and Popovich to win the best coach award.

This was expected. Bickerstaff's coaching performance this season was similar to that of Doc Rivers in the 99-00 season and Rick Carlisle in the 01-02 season. They both led a team that was considered a bottom-ranked team before the start of the season to a good record.

When the Bobcats' winning percentage stabilized at 50%, the media had already regarded Bickerstaff as the top favorite for the best coach.

Even if the Bobcats don't make the playoffs like the Magic in the 99-00 season, as long as they maintain a % winning rate until the end, they will definitely be named the best coach.

Compared to the best coach award, the best manager award announced by the league at the same time is more popular.

Elgin Baylor has been the general manager for 20 years and won the Best Manager Award for the first time.

At the beginning of the season, public opinion generally believed that Baylor's career as a general manager was coming to an end, but he ended up winning the best manager award... This is more magical than any inspirational sports movie.

After a day of preparation, at 7:40 p.m., the Bobcats players entered the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland first.

There were constant boos, jeers and curses.

After this regular season, there are two teams whose fans hate the Bobcats the most.

One is a Bucks fan, who had been sitting in a playoff spot for five months, and in April, when the playoffs were about to begin, they were squeezed out by the Bobcats.

The other group is the Cavaliers fans, who think the Bobcats are a despicable team that only targets the weaknesses of their King James, and shout "If you are a man, you should fight the KING head-on."

Zhang Yang was originally under some pressure, as it was his first time playing in the playoffs, so he was always a little nervous.

But after hearing those weird words from the fans and seeing those slogans, I suddenly felt less nervous...

After the entrance ceremony, James came to the Bobcats team, warmly hugged the four new stars of the Bobcats and expressed his anticipation for tonight's game.

After James said hello and left, Felton asked in confusion: "Is he crazy because of losing?"

Gerald Wallace: "It must be crazy."

Okafor: “…”

He didn't want to say bad things about others behind their backs, but he also felt it was strange.

Zhang Yang pointed to the sidelines, and his three teammates looked over and immediately understood.

Zhang Yang also felt that something was wrong with James at first. Just about 10 days ago, after James lost three games in a row, he looked at them as if he wanted to eat them. After the game, he went straight into the home team's player tunnel. When reporters chased him, James quickened his pace and left.

But he saw the camera of the imperial court station set up nearby...

Tonight's game will start one hour later than usual, and it was deliberately chosen to start at 1 a.m. imperial time because the Imperial TV station will broadcast the game live.

In the United States, ESPN will also broadcast this game live.

The whole country is broadcasting live, so they still have to deal with the face work. Zhang Yang and others are not sensitive to the camera because they can see it every day.

After Zhang Yang was selected as an All-Star starter, the TV station gave him a promotion. They changed from sending reporters to stay with the team for interviews to using the same level of cameras as Yao Ming's to follow Zhang Yang's training and games throughout the entire process. They even asked if they could take a few photos when he was receiving physical therapy or playing games in the locker room.

Yao Ming's side is more exaggerated. Occasionally, people would go to his home or his hot pot restaurant to film him. As for Zhang Yang, he doesn't mind if reporters want to film him in his restaurant, but he refuses to film him where he lives.

At first, the Bobcats players were very excited to see the cameras, but as time went on, they got used to them and even treated interviews from the court TV station as idle chat.

To be honest, James gave face in front of the camera, and this action really made the four Bobcats guys hate him.

That common saying may not be completely appropriate, but it is suitable to describe it here - don't hit a smiling person.

...

It's 8 o'clock in the evening and the Bobcats' first playoff game in history begins!

The cheers from the fans at the scene were deafening. They were looking forward to the reunited forward and guard combination of James and Hughes to beat the opponent and avenge their previous defeat!
Halfway through the first quarter, the fans were still cheering for the Cavaliers players, but the voices were much quieter.

Why is the situation different from what they thought? Didn’t the media say that James and Hughes teamed up to beat up the kitten?
It is true that Hughes' return has brought a huge improvement to the Cavaliers, but it was all on the defensive end. With him providing help defense on the wing and defending Gerald Wallace alone, compared to the past three matches between the two teams, the Cavaliers' defense improved significantly tonight, like a top defensive team.

山猫队6分22秒钟时间只拿到9分，这是从1月31号起到现在，4次交手以来，骑士队开局防得最好的一次。

But the Cavaliers only scored 6 points during this period!
With Larry Hughes on the court, James' offensive space is even worse!

Felton was mainly defending James, and Gerald Wallace directly received the mid-range. After Felton used the threats on the weak side and under the basket to block James outside the three-second zone, Gerald Wallace directly left Hughes open and double-teamed him.

James made two turnovers in the first half! With Larry Hughes on the court, James' offense was unplayable.

After the timeout, Keith Bogans and Brezek were replaced by Zhang Yang and Perkins.

Zhang Yang felt that there were a few problems with this rotation.

He believes that Perkins should play later in the game, and with Hughes on the court, Okafor + Brezek are enough in the interior.

When facing Big Z, Brezec also performed well on the offensive end. Although Brezec's rim protection is not as good as Perkins, his extended distance can be farther...

When Zhang Yang saw the opponent's lineup, he felt that he was really overthinking it. Mike Brown would never consider the offensive problems.

The Cavaliers sent out a combination of Snow, Larry Hughes, James, Varejao and Gooden.

They didn't even consider the offensive end, otherwise simply replacing Hughes would have been the biggest improvement.

The game continues and the Cavaliers attack.

Felton has only one job tonight - keep close to James.

James rushed to the right sideline of the three-second zone, faced off against Felton and passed the ball.

Hughes received a jumping pass from James and chose to rush to the basket, shooting in the crowd... "bang"... missed!
Felton grabbed the defensive rebound.

The cheers of the fans at the scene turned into sighs, but they immediately cheered up and shouted for defense.

Felton got the ball, and James, Hughes and Snow quickly retreated.

Zhang Yang stopped his fast pace to avoid wasting energy.

These three people are really good at defending fast breaks!
The game turned into a positional battle. Zhang Yang went to the frontcourt to receive the ball, and he was defended by James.

Zhang Yang protected the ball and observed the defensive positions of other opponents.

Snow and Hughes on the wing, and Varejao and Gooden in the interior, all have very good positioning, which is really a headache! No wonder they were able to play the fifth-best defense in the league before Christmas.

There was pressure, but Zhang Yang was not afraid at all!
Let's start! His mission here is to shoot!

Zhang Yang waved his hand toward the right rear of James. James turned his head to look... Before he could turn his head completely, he saw Zhang Yang bending his knees and raising his hand...

James quickly jumped up to block the shot.

Zhang Yang raised the ball and slapped it towards James' crotch, dodged the jumping James, entered the three-point line, slapped the bouncing ball, and broke through the middle!
Hughes cursed in his heart and rushed from the wing to the middle, but it was too late.

Zhang Yang broke through the basket from the middle and slammed home with one hand to score two points!

The commentator on the court TV station shouted: "This is Xiao Zhang's first goal in the playoffs!"

The fans at the scene also knew that this was Zhang Yang's first shot and first score in the playoffs... It was a dunk! The fans burst into boos.

Some were booing Zhang Yang, some were booing Hughes for being slow in making up for the wing defense, and some were booing the center.

No one dared to block Gooden's pass from outside the three-second zone, and he was confronted from the side. Even in the playoffs, he would have been called for a foul.

Go directly to the basket and raise your hands to interfere? He would never do such a stupid thing. If the opponent was not bluffed, he would be dunked on. He is not Duncan.

It doesn’t matter if you’re booed. When the team loses, one of their role players will always come out and get beaten. The boos are a small matter. The most important thing is not to serve as a background.

When it was the Cavaliers' turn to attack, James and Hughes cooperated well this time.

James broke through, and Hughes ran to the baseline behind the shrinking Gerald Wallace. He cut in from the baseline to receive the ball and attracted the defense. Then, on the left side of the three-second zone, Gooden received the ball and made a close-range shot.

It was the Bobcats' turn to attack again. This time, Zhang Yang received the serve himself and pushed forward, helping the fat boss reduce some of his consumption.

While advancing, Zhang Yang saw Hughes talking to James...

Zhang Yang came to the top arc and James had returned to his defensive position.

Zhang Yang waved his hand again and faked a move. Although James still reacted, he just stretched out his right hand to interfere and raised his center of gravity.

Zhang Yang did not break through directly. His opponent had good physical fitness and quick reaction. He waited for a while, and when the time came, he broke through from the right side!

James turned around... "bang"... Damn, there really is a pick-and-roll!
(End of this chapter)