Chapter 135 134. It’s all Hughes’ fault!
In fact, Perkins also wanted to pull out for a screen in the last round, but before he took a step, he saw James flying up and Zhang Yang breaking through the middle.

Since James didn't fly this time, of course he had to come out.

James was still easily passed by Zhang Yang, but he prevented Zhang Yang from breaking directly from the middle, which was enough for Gooden and Hughes!
Hughes came up to defend on the wing, Gooden moved to the right sideline of the three-second zone to block Gerald Wallace's cut-in pass... Zhang Yang took two steps into the three-point line and stopped suddenly!

Hughes rushed forward, and Zhang Yang quickly shot against the defense... "bang"...Valejao secured the defensive rebound.

Hughes was shocked!
Zhang Yang shook his head and retreated amid the boos from the fans.

The distance was too far, the throw was too hasty, and the strength was not controlled well.

The Cavaliers attacked, and James and Hughes continued to cooperate in breaking through and passing the ball + circling around the wing and walking to the baseline.

This time Okafor cut off the defense in the middle further down, and Hughes' route to receive the ball at the baseline and pass it to Gooden was blocked. Facing Gerald Wallace who came back to block him and Perkins under the basket, Hughes passed the ball to Varejao in the high position on the left... "Snap"... Zhang Yang rushed over from the top arc and caught the ball!

Zhang Yang got the ball first, and the Brazilian center reacted quickly, hugging Zhang Yang immediately and committing a tactical foul to stop Zhang Yang from starting a fast break.

Although Varejao is only in his second year, the 24-year-old has 10 years of playing experience. He started playing professional games in Brazil at the age of 14 and is very experienced.

Zhang Yang felt a little regretful. This is the playoffs. The defensive intensity was so high in the first half, but the number of fouls in the first quarter had not even reached that level.

The fast break failed, and there were no free throws, and the Bobcats continued to fall into a positional battle.

Zhang Yang continued to play pick-and-roll offense with Perkins. This time, James was prepared to defend the pick-and-roll... but he was still blocked.

Defensive footwork and the timing of pick-and-rolls are all things that need to be practiced. He has never done these dirty and tiring jobs. Moreover, although Perkins is not good at other things on the offensive end, he is very good at pick-and-rolls.

Hughes, who was on backup defense, continued to defend calmly and steadily... and quickly pounced on him. The rookie made another long two-point shot after the pick-and-roll!
Hughes turned around and saw the ball fall into the basket, and he didn't know whether to say "MMP" or not.

He thought it was his help defense that forced Zhang Yang to speed up his shot. So this shot, which was one beat faster than the others, was the rookie's regular shooting speed?

Also, the long two-point shot after the pick-and-roll... Hughes, who played against Zhang Yang for the first time, finally understood why this rookie who was not even 18 years old was so popular every time he beat them.

The three-pointer after the pick-and-roll is easy to defend. The blocked defensive player just needs to go around the line, flank or inside to prevent breakthroughs.

But the long two-point shot after the pick-and-roll is an awkward area for the defender. As long as the person executing the pick-and-roll blocks steadily, the player who goes around the pick-and-roll will basically give the ball away for free. When the defender is James, it will be even easier.

It is also very uncomfortable for the players who are assisting in defense. If they block, they will easily be passed by. If they don't block, the opponent will just lose the ball.

Three opponents came to Hughes' mind - Stockton, Nash and Hinrich.

In response to this, Hughes' defensive response was...unchanged!
On the Bobcats' next attack, Zhang Yang missed a two-point shot after a quick stop with the help of a screen.

But in the next round, after Zhang Yang made another long two-pointer, James lost his patience.

When it was the Bobcats' turn to attack, Zhang Yang just advanced to the three-point line and James pressed forward to engage in hand-to-hand defense!
James defended fiercely and seemed extremely ferocious, but the opportunities he gave to confront and the way he took advantage of the confrontation showed that he had no basic defensive skills at all.

Zhang Yang switched to dribbling with his left hand, seized the opportunity to pull the ball and turned around, easily passing James and breaking through the middle again.

Hughes didn't even move to the middle this time, so how could he do it in time?
This time, Gooden directly pressed out of the reasonable collision zone, but was shaken off by Zhang Yang's European step. Perkins cooperated well and opened up the basket, and Zhang Yang made a layup with a European step!

After Zhang Yang came on the court, he made 6 of 4 shots and scored 8 points!
As for the Cavaliers, their offense was still weak and they only scored 4 points.

17 to 10, the Bobcats' lead reached 7 points!
After several rounds of fierce attacks, Zhang Yang stopped playing one-on-one and took a break, going to the bottom corner with his hands on his hips.

Zhang Yang understood why James was assigned to defend Bowen in the 07 Finals. In the previous few encounters, Hughes was absent and there was no comparison, so it was difficult to tell how bad James' defense was at that time. But after the comparison tonight, he knew.

He has bad positioning habits, poor defensive basics, is impulsive, stubborn, and has no defensive execution... Even if the fat guy, who has improved his playing habits and offensive choices, comes, he can beat James.

It's just that the fat guy's main task in this series is defense, and the Cavaliers knew that Felton was more powerful in attacking the basket, so they didn't let James, who had a high probability of not being able to defend against a breakthrough, defend, so the chance to score fell on Zhang San.

When Zhang Yang stood with his hands on his hips in the corner, the Bobcats' offensive burden fell on Okafor and Gerald Wallace. The two of them scored one ball after another, and the offensive efficiency dropped again.

Mike Brown's defensive response was actually very effective. He replaced the slow-moving Big Z with the faster-moving Varejao and Gooden in the interior, and did a good job of limiting Okafor.

Hughes has good defensive ability and can defend any of Felton, Zhang Yang, and Gerald Wallace very well.

In response to this, Bickerstaff's response was to replace Zhang Yang during a dead ball situation!

As the game progressed, the confrontation became more and more effective. Okafor and Gerald Wallace's close-range shots were not as accurate as in the first half. After Hughes' return, the Cavaliers' defense has indeed improved greatly, which is very beneficial for the Cavaliers in the playoffs.

In the last two minutes of the first quarter, the Bobcats only scored 3 points, but the Cavaliers were not much better. They only relied on James to break into the basket and score 2+1, and Varejao was fouled in the second attack and made two free throws to get 5 points.

After the first quarter, the Cavaliers narrowed the score to 15 to 20.

After the intermission, the Cavaliers replaced Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Big Z, while James and Hughes continued to play.

On the Bobcats side, Bickerstaff anticipated the opponent's rotation plan. They have played against each other three times in the past three months, and Mike Brown's responses are too easy to figure out.

He did not replace Zhang Yang who had already rested, but instead sent out a combination of Felton, Alan Anderson, Gerald Wallace, Melvin Eli and Brezek.

After the start of the second quarter, the Cavaliers' offensive performance improved significantly. Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall each made a three-pointer in the first half of the quarter, helping James and Hughes create better conditions for attacking the basket. The Cavaliers scored 12 to 8 at halftime.

Mike Brown's defensive strategy was still very effective. The confrontation that lasted for the entire first quarter had a very consuming effect. Felton devoted himself to defense, Okafor was substituted for rest, and only Gerald Wallace was left, unable to support the offense.

By the time the official timeout came, the Bobcats' lead had been reduced to 1 point.

But after the official timeout, Zhang Yang came back on the court and faced James who had taken a step away from defense. He jumped decisively and shot a three-pointer... and it went in!
James's defensive choice of "judging others by his own standards" made Hughes, who was standing next to him, numb.

Hughes wanted to say to James: Don't think you are left alone and don't dare to shoot, others don't dare to shoot either! It was hard to narrow the gap to 1 point, and then it returned to 4 points!

But he only dared to think about it in his heart and didn't dare to say it out loud.

Haven’t you seen the miserable end of Ricky Davis?

This time Zhang Yang was on the court, his task was still to shoot, shoot and shoot. Bickerstaff used him in reference to Ginobili in the 05 Finals.

Although Zhang Yang's scoring ability is not as good as Ginobili's, the Cavaliers' defense is even worse than the Pistons'!
Zhang Yang's scoring efficiency in the second half of the second quarter was not as exaggerated as in the second half of the first quarter. He only made 4 of 2 shots in positional offense, but he still scored in a counterattack and scored 7 points personally!
In addition, after James switched defense to Felton, Felton made a three-pointer in a single play, and Okafor, who returned to the game, scored 2+1 at the basket.

Zhang Yang, Felton and Okafor worked together to give the Cavaliers a 13-8 half-quarter score.

At the end of the first half, the score was 41 to 35, and the Bobcats regained a 6-point lead!
After fighting hard for a whole quarter, the score gap not only did not narrow, but was widened by 1 point. By the third quarter, James could no longer keep calm.

到了第三节，詹姆斯在9分多钟出场时间里闷头往篮下冲……打出了5投1中、罚球4中2的进攻表现，拿到4分3板1助攻3失误。

The Cavaliers only scored 10 points during this period.

On the contrary, after James was replaced, Hughes led the team alone and scored 4 points in more than two minutes... It’s not that Hughes’ scoring ability is better than James, but after any one of them goes down, the other’s offense will be much easier, which has been proven in the regular season.

The Cavaliers only scored 14 points in the third quarter, while the Bobcats continued to score steadily. Zhang Yang played for 7 minutes in this quarter and scored only 3 points. He was double-teamed, but Gerald Wallace who cut in got more opportunities. Jumaine Jones on the wing and Okafor under the basket also had more opportunities. The Bobcats continued to score 20 points in a single quarter.

After three quarters, the score was 61 to 49, and the Bobcats extended their lead to 12 points!
After the intermission, the tactical board in Mike Brown's hand flew off the Cavaliers bench and landed in the hands of KING James.

He replaced Larry Hughes and brought in Damon Jones, Ronald Murray, Donyell Marshall and Big Z.

In the fourth quarter, the Bobcats were really caught off guard and were beaten 3 to 9 in 4 minutes. The Cavaliers chased the score to 58 to 65, narrowing the gap to 7 points!
Bickerstaff reacted quickly, replacing Zhang Yang and Okafor and attacking with all his might!

The Cavaliers' pursuit of points ended here. In the next 9 minutes, the Cavaliers scored 20 points and played very well, but the defense...

James had his best performance of the night in the final quarter, making 4 of 2 shots and 6 of 4 free throws, scoring 8 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, leading the team to 29 points. Damon Jones, Ronald Murray and Donyell Marshall, three three-point shooters, performed extremely well and made 4 three-pointers in a single quarter.

But the Bobcats scored 9 points in the next 22 minutes and 26 points in a single quarter, maintaining their lead until the end!
詹姆斯生涯季后赛首秀，18投6中，其中三分球5中1，加上11中7的罚球，拿到20分7板8助攻2抢断1盖帽……外加5失误。

张杨生涯季后赛首秀，首节8分、第二节7分、第三节3分、末节4分……15投8中，其中三分球4中2，加上5中4的罚球，拿到全场最高的22分4板1助攻2抢断！

加上费尔顿的6分7助攻、杰拉德-华莱士的17分8板4助攻2抢断5盖帽、奥卡福的12分14板2盖帽、布雷泽克的8分、朱梅因-琼斯的6分……

87 to 78, the Bobcats defeated the Cavaliers by 9 points!

...

The Bobcats won the first game, seized the home-court advantage and led 1-0.

This gave a loud slap in the face to those media who advocated Hughes' return and the Cavaliers' revenge!

But the media were too shameless to immediately turn their guns around and criticize the Cavaliers.

Fans of the Bobcats, fans who dislike the Cavaliers or fans who dislike James, all stood up and besieged James' fans.

In fact, after the last matchup in the regular season, Cavaliers fans have already accepted the fact that James was restrained by the Bobcats.

They were the team that least wanted to see the Bobcats win their final game. That night, countless Cavaliers fans turned into Pacers fans, praying that the Pacers would win...

But before the start of the playoffs, the media were touting that with Hughes back, the Cavaliers would be a different team, a 50-win championship-level team.

The reason is very good. Hughes averaged 20+ points per game last season, was a defensive leader, and a second-highest paid player with an average annual salary of US$1400 million.

Under the media's deception, the Cavaliers fans really believed it! But reality gave them a critical blow...

Just when some fans began to doubt James, ESPN took action!
The target is Larry Hughes!

ESPN compared James' stats and the Cavaliers' scoring performance in the first three quarters when James and Larry Hughes played together, with James' stats and the Cavaliers' scoring performance in the final quarter when Hughes sat on the bench.

Conclusion – Hughes drags down James.

The fans of the Cavaliers immediately became excited and started to criticize Hughes!

At noon the next day, Zhang Yang, Okafor and Alan Anderson came to Felton's room and ate lunch while watching sports news on TV and browsing forums on the computer.

They thought that after the Cavaliers were beaten in the first game, James would be criticized.

Unexpectedly, not only did James escape being criticized, but he was also praised to the sky for his performance in the final quarter where he scored 8 points and 3 assists and led the team to narrow the gap by 3 points!

Just that 12 minutes of performance overshadowed Zhang Yang's performance of 27 minutes out of 22 minutes!

Felton was stunned: "Didn't they see that when James went off at the end of the third quarter, Hughes's performance as the only player leading the team's offense was similar?"

Okafor, who learned some psychology knowledge in college, analyzed: "James' fans finally see information that is beneficial to them, and their brains will actively block out the unfavorable information."

Zhang Yang echoed, "That's right. Their brains are afraid that they can't accept reality and will kill themselves."

Felton: "Ah? The brain can have its own thoughts?"

Zhang Yang: "That's what the book says."

Felton: "Is it so wonderful? I really need to read more books..."

Okafor: ???

……

……

Games are harmful. I woke up in the morning and said I would play for an hour... I continued to type...

(End of this chapter)