Chapter 189 188. The key killer got the first triple-double!

He couldn't withstand the impact when crouching under the basket, and he couldn't stop Zhang Yang's footsteps when he went out to block. Bosh encountered the same dilemma as Garnett when protecting the rim against the Bobcats.

Bosh's effective height is much shorter than Garnett's. Although his wingspan is excellent, it is still 4 cm shorter than Garnett's. His jumping speed is also slower and he is more difficult to defend.

As for why it was Bosh who stepped back to protect the basket instead of Nesterovic?
On the next attack of the Bobcats, Felton cut in from the baseline, received a pass from Zhang Yang, stepped on the left sideline of the three-second zone and made a layup towards Nesterovic to give the answer.

Nesterovic is very good at protecting the rim. He is top-notch in the league in terms of defense under the basket and withstanding impacts, but his feet are too slow. He can only take care of Zhang Yang but not Felton.

But in fact, the problem lies with Bosh.

Garnett + Nesterovic were one of the best twin towers in the league in terms of rim protection in the early years of the century, and both O'Neal and Duncan had headaches when they met them.

In the summer of 03, Popovich made a dirty move by offering Nesterovic a 6-year, $4200 million contract. You should know that Ben Wallace's contract at the time was for 6 years and $3390 million, so the Timberwolves had no choice but to let him go at this price.

Of course, Nesterovic and Duncan are also very compatible, but their prices are too high. In the 05 Finals, the three-man inside rotation of Duncan + Nesterovic + Muhammad made Popovich's teacher Larry Brown numb.

If it weren't for the fact that the Spurs' middle-class contracts had a lot of salaries increasing year by year, and if Ginobili's first four-year child labor contract was not going to increase his salary, Popovich would have been reluctant to dismantle the three-tower combination.

Colangelo Jr. seized the opportunity to bring in Nesterovic in order to "reorganize" the Timberwolves' twin towers.

But Bosh's ability to assist and defend is far inferior to Garnett's.

With Nesterovic behind him, Garnett can first interfere with Zhang Yang's advance and then defend Felton who is waiting for the ball, while ensuring that the passing line on the wing is cut off.

If we take Bosh's tasks one by one, he can do each one well. Just now, for example, he moved in time to block Okafor's cut in and ruined Millsap's best chance to receive the ball. He also did a good job in close defense against Felton before.

But it would be too difficult for him to be as comprehensive as Garnett.

After a few more rounds, Zhang Yang scored from the right side of the free throw line and the elbow area. The Raptors players made adjustments on their own, strengthening the defense in the middle and not giving Zhang Yang any chances to shoot.

The Raptors players had no time to take care of Felton when he cut in and scored or made the second pass to Alan Anderson or Okafor who cut in.

Bosh cursed the player who once wore the No. 8 jersey in his heart.

The way Zhang Yang beat them these two times was so similar to Tulong Ke’s, it was exactly the same!
Although the Raptors rose to prominence after replacing most of their players this season, their defensive system has been slowly built around Bosh over the past two years, which is why they were able to quickly get used to each other and achieve a record comparable to that of the Pistons in the middle of the season.

The time Kobe scored 81 points against the Raptors was a perfect reference textbook for defeating the Raptors' defense.

Although Zhang Yang's ability is obviously inferior to Kobe's, the Raptors players still dare not bet that Zhang Yang will not make the shot.

This guy may be even more determined than Kobe. He will definitely shoot if he gets a chance. In the last match, they gave Zhang Yang a mid-range shot, and he threw it 31 times. In addition, Zhang Yang got a chance in the Rookie Challenge not long ago, and he threw it 46 times and scored 82 points...

Zhang Yang definitely won’t be able to score 82 points in the regular season, but even if his score is cut in half and he only gets 41 points, the Raptors won’t be able to bear it!

Facing the Raptors' blocking defense, Zhang Yang passed the ball when the double-team came, and the Bobcats' team offense started smoothly.

Playing like this put a lot of physical pressure on Zhang Yang, so Bickerstaff replaced Felton with Rondo in time.

Rondo's support and assists not only make the ball flow better, but he can also pass the ball based on prediction when he is surrounded.

The Bobcats played a very ferocious offense tonight.

However, the Bobcats were unable to quickly gain an advantage!
The Raptors don't have a defender like Garnett, and they are haunted by the shadow of Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points. Even without the threat of Gerald Wallace cutting into the basket, Zhang Yang successfully led the team to open up the offense.

But Gerald Wallace's absence has a big impact on their defense!
首节打到9分22秒，张杨轮换下场休息时，山猫队仅以27比23领先猛龙队4分！
没有了杰拉德-华莱士的中近距离干扰，波什9分半钟不到的时间里5投3中，加上2中2的罚球拿到8分，比张杨还要多两分！

When Zhang Yang was substituted out for rest, the Bobcats' offensive efficiency declined, scoring only 5 points in the last two and a half minutes, while the Raptors scored 8 points.

After the first quarter, the Raptors narrowed the score to 31 to 32, and the difference was reduced to 1 point!
In the second quarter, the Bobcats made a mistake in their first attack. Ford quickly stole the ball from Rondo and counterattacked with the ball. Even Rondo couldn't catch up with him. He went straight to the Bobcats' basket and made a layup amid the crazy cheers of the fans, helping the Raptors to overtake the score 33 to 32.

Both are short and fast players. Rondo was taught a lesson when he met Ford, who had several years of NBA experience.

Just like at the end of the first quarter, Zhang Yang was not on the court, Felton's containment range was limited, and the wing shooter lacked the ability to run independently... Rondo couldn't break through and could only pass the ball to Okafor.

Okafor had a good offensive success rate against the Raptors' substitute centers Gabayosa and Bargnani.

But the Raptors are hoping he will play like this, as they can use offense to consume the opponent's inside core and make a lot of money!
After Okafor scored two times, Bickerstaff called a timeout to rotate the lineup, replacing the combination of Millsap and Muhammad, letting Felton play pick-and-roll offense, and sending Alan Anderson and Matt Carroll to the wings.

Bickerstaff made a good adjustment this time. Since Bosh was not on the court, the Raptors lacked the ability to defend at close range and could only move in advance to block Felton who was setting the screen, giving the wing a chance to shoot.

Without Okafor and Rondo, the team performed even worse on defense. The Raptors' backup forwards and guards, Bargnani and Fred Jones, had better shooting opportunities and scored consecutively with Ford's sudden passes, but the Bobcats were able to keep up the firepower on offense and had a back-and-forth battle with the Raptors.

However, this also shows that the Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell has done a good job in lineup rotation. The players he sends out are very targeted. He does not make rotations based on the strength of the players. When Rondo comes on, he replaces him with Ford, and when Felton comes on, he replaces him with Calderon. He rotates based on better matchup effects.

He is worthy of being the top favorite for the best coach of the season.

Halfway through the second quarter, the score was tied at 45.

Zhang Yang returned to the court after the official timeout. Although he only scored 4 points in half a quarter, he had 3 assists!
He does not pass the ball when his teammates can score directly, but passes the ball when he sees that his teammates have better offensive conditions.

Although he only had 3 assists, his teammates scored 10 points in those rounds when he initiated the offense and passed the ball! With his 4 points and Rondo's 4 points from his breakthrough and counterattack layup, the Bobcats scored 18 points in the second half of the second quarter!
The Raptors continued their offensive firepower from the first half of the quarter and scored 14 points.

The score in the second quarter was 31 to 28. At the end of the half, the Bobcats led the Raptors 63 to 59 and regained a 4-point lead.

张杨半场打了接近16分钟，8投4中拿到10分4板7助攻1抢断。

With this performance, the team was only leading by 4 points. Bickerstaff felt overwhelmed. He rubbed his head and thought, well, his hair had fallen out a long time ago, so he didn't have to worry about being bald.

During the halftime break, when the players were doing some chores to relieve their physical and mental stress, Bickerstaff thought for a few minutes and decided to do something drastic!
This is his usual style of response.

In the third quarter, Bickerstaff sent out a combination of Rondo, Zhang Yang, Matt Carroll, Jumaine Jones and Okafor.

Facing the combination of Ford, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, Bosh and Nesterovic, Zhang Yang and Okafor launched the attack with pick-and-roll, Jumaine Jones and Matt Carroll spread out on the wings, Rondo ran to respond...just attack!

In order to allow Zhang Yang to fully focus on offense, Bickerstaff tried to reduce Zhang Yang's defensive input as much as possible, and asked him to defend Graham's cutting in on the wing and shrink to grab rebounds.

下半场开局打了猛龙队一波狠的，3分16秒时间里打出了14比7的比分，一举将分差拉开到两位数，以77比66领先猛龙队11分！
However, the Raptors have already escaped from the bronze pit. Although they cannot be called the king of the league, they are also players in the gold and diamond divisions in the East. They withstood the psychological pressure and did not collapse. Ford patiently waited for the opportunity and launched a counterattack when the Bobcats were weak after a few minutes of fierce attack. In 3 minutes, they responded with a 10-6 wave, chasing the score to 76-83 and narrowing the gap to 7 points.

When the Bobcats attacked, Matt Carroll received the ball and shot a three-pointer.

When the team is in a favorable situation or in garbage time, Matt Carroll is very accurate, but once the opponent gets into the game, he becomes anxious when shooting and often misses three-pointers!
Looking back, Bosh received the ball in the corner and made a three-pointer, and the Bobcats called a timeout!
6分58秒，比分来到79比83，猛龙队重新将分差缩小到4分！
Sam Mitchell worked hard to coordinate rotations and adjust tactics, and with the players working hard against the bad boy Jack who "instigated Kobe to score 83 points", the Raptors tied the Bobcats 7-20 in 20 minutes and kept the score close!
Bickerstaff was a little annoyed. He should have made substitutions earlier. But at that time they had just reached their climax and it was hard not to expect to further widen the gap. However, the opponent was too resilient.

This is the difficulty with Eastern Conference teams, but any team that can make the playoffs has good ability to withstand pressure.

After the official timeout, he replaced Zhang Yang, who had 5 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the first half, with a combination of Felton, Alan Anderson, Herman, Millsap and Muhammad. The opportunity had been lost, but it was not too late to make up for it. Making adjustments one round earlier might create better opportunities faster.

Felton played very hard after he came on the court, but at the beginning of the final quarter, he still couldn't withstand the Raptors' offensive.

With 4 minutes and 22 seconds left in the final quarter, Bosh made a long two-pointer from mid-range against Millsap, and the score came to 102 to 101. The Raptors overtook the Bobcats by 1 point!
Bickerstaff called a timeout and replaced Zhang Yang and Okafor, who had rested for more than 9 minutes and one intermission.

He had already tried every trick he could. Felton, Millsap, and Muhammad played very hard. The wing rotation players Derek Anderson, Matt Carroll, and Jumaine Jones also played very hard, trying to create rest time for Zhang Yang and Okafor. Now, they could only rely on Zhang Yang and Okafor to solve the problem.

After the timeout, the Bobcats sent out a combination of Rondo, Zhang Yang, Matt Carroll, Okafor and Perkins.

The Raptors sent out a combination of Ford, Anthony Parker, Maurice Peterson, Bosh and Nesterovic.

The Bobcats attacked and Rondo passed the ball to Zhang Yang from the center line.

Zhang Yang was about to launch an attack and saw Okafor asking for the ball from Bosh at close range. He immediately understood Okafor's idea and waited for Rondo to reach the left elbow before lobbing the ball to Okafor.

Okafor played against Bosh, turned into the three-second zone, and shot high against Nesterovic's defense, making the Bobcats overtake by 103 point, 102 to 1.

In the offense-defense transition, Bosh asked for the ball at close range to maintain his success rate. After receiving the ball, he turned around and faced Okafor, then made a lateral jump shot!

Zhang Yang felt another essential difference between Bosh and Garnett. In terms of defense and organizing offense, Bosh was far inferior to Garnett. However, Bosh really dared to throw the ball at the critical moment, and was more courageous than Garnett to get close to the basket when playing one-on-one.

官方暂停前后的几个回合，奥卡福和波什来了一波对飙，奥卡福4投2中加上2中2的罚球拿到6分，波什5投3中也拿到6分。

With 7 minutes and 33 seconds left in the final quarter, the score between the two teams was 109 to 110. The Bobcats held on to the 1-point difference and did not allow the Raptors to widen the score.

It was the Bobcats' turn to attack again. Okafor, who had been attacking for five consecutive rounds, stopped playing and moved to the right baseline. He could not attack anymore and had to save some energy for defense.

Zhang Yang started playing singles without hesitation.

He was ready to take over the offense when the official timeout came, but he didn't expect Okafor to last more than a minute. This was certainly a good thing for him, as it reduced the consumption in the tense stage of the two rounds.

He felt a lot of pressure. His teammates had tried their best to keep the score close, and now all their hopes were on him.

But at the same time as the pressure was huge, he was also extremely excited. In this respect, he was a bit "mean". He really enjoyed the situation of moving forward under pressure.

After Rondo and Perkins moved into position, Zhang Yang started and broke through Anthony Parker!

The efforts of his teammates were not in vain. Zhang Yang had a long enough rest tonight and now had enough energy. He passed Anthony Parker and avoided Ford who rushed over from the left side of the three-second zone, and went straight to the low post on the right side of the three-second zone.

The Raptors' defense rotated quickly. Ford failed to block Zhang Yang and rushed to the right baseline, cutting off Okafor's passing line. Bosh retreated to the right sideline of the three-second zone.

Zhang Yang stopped suddenly at the elbow area one step outside the close distance, jumped up, and made a jump shot facing Bosh who was pressing forward... and it went in!
111 to 110, the Bobcats took the lead again!

During the transition from offense to defense, Bosh ran to the front court while panting.

The Bobcats had a tough time tonight, and the Raptors, who were always chasing points, were not much better.

Especially in the past few rounds, Bosh was forced to compete with Okafor. He had the highest playing time in the game and consumed a lot of energy.

However, even though he started to pant, he still had to lean on Okafor for the ball when he reached the frontcourt.

Apart from him, no one else on the team could score stably at critical moments. Ford was too short to shoot, so he would only be blocked if he rushed to the basket. He couldn't rely on the watery Bargnani, right? He was the only one left.

Bosh played one-on-one for the sixth consecutive round... He turned around and shot high under the basket, but was blocked by Perkins!

After playing singles for several rounds in a row, his jump was obviously not as high as in the previous rounds!

Rondo grabbed the defensive rebound, but Ford quickly poked the ball out of bounds, preventing Rondo from launching a counterattack.

Zhang Yang rushed forward two steps and then stopped, feeling a little regretful. But since the chance to counterattack was lost, he would continue to play singles!

The game fell into a positional battle, and Zhang Yang once again broke through and passed Anthony Parker.

Anthony Parker's defense is actually pretty good, but he is mainly good at teamwork defense. He can do a good job defending role players alone, but it was really difficult for him tonight to defend Zhang Yang, who is fast and has a great rhythm of breaking through.

The Raptors did not block the mid-range this time. Nesterovic directed Ford and Bosh to move to the elbows to prevent Zhang Yang from getting close to the inside.

Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with Nesterovic's command, which is very much in Popovich's style. Anthony Parker blocks long shots on the outside, and multiple people protect the rim to guard the efficient scoring area within the elbow area...but the bad boy Jack is unreasonable!
Zhang Yang took a quick stop and jump shot from within the free throw line on the right side of the three-second zone...and it went in again!
113 to 110, the Bobcats took a 3-point lead!
The opponent was able to hit a quick stop jump shot at the critical moment, and the Raptors really had no way to defend!
The Raptors players thought of another player who had given them a hard time - Arenas.

When the Raptors attacked, Bosh couldn't hold on after six consecutive rounds and tried to open up as much space as possible at the baseline.

Ford was not afraid of danger at the critical moment and used his lightning speed to pass Rondo. Rondo was already very fast, but Ford was the fastest in basketball.

It’s just Ford’s finishing ability...he broke into the inside and was interfered by Perkins, and shot the ball into the basket!
Perkins' defense was strong at the critical moment!
Zhang Yang grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it to Rondo immediately, dodging Ford's aggressive rush, and then immediately rushed to the frontcourt.

Partnering with Rondo, Zhang Yang just had to charge during counterattacks. He bypassed Anthony Parker and Maurice Peterson, received the lob after entering the free throw line, took a step and jumped, and made a layup!

115 to 110, the Bobcats' lead expanded to 5 points!
When the Raptors attacked, Bosh received the ball in the low post, stood still for two seconds, suddenly took a step forward, turned around and made a jump shot...and it went in!
The ball caught Okafor off guard.

In the transition between offense and defense, the Raptors players tried hard to defend and create counterattack opportunities for Ford.

Bosh's one-on-one play and Ford's counterattack were the last hope of the Raptors at the critical moment, as most of their main players were exhausted.

But... Zhang Yang made another quick stop jump shot from the same position on the right side of the three-second zone!

Zhang Yang showed his killer qualities at the critical moment, scoring 4 goals in a row. The Bobcats led by 117 points again with 112 to 5!
The Raptors played one-on-one defense at the top of the arc and shrank under the basket to protect the rim. Zhang Yang played so comfortably!

When the Raptors attacked, Bosh made another effort, turning around and shooting from close range against Okafor.

Looking back, the Raptors didn't dare to let Zhang Yang make a one-on-one jump shot. Maurice Peterson didn't dare to let go of Matt Carroll who made 3 three-pointers tonight. Ford was too short. Bosh extended his move from the baseline to the free throw line to block Zhang Yang and completed the double-team with Anthony Parker.

Zhang Yang passed the ball to Okafor without hesitation, and Okafor received the ball from mid-range at the baseline and made a shot...hit!
At the critical moment, Okafor remained steady and did not let down!
119 to 114, the Bobcats continue to maintain a 5-point lead!
When the Raptors attacked, Bosh continued to play one-on-one. He had 9 one-on-ones in the past 8 rounds. Bosh, who had already scored 10 points in the final quarter, was completely unable to play. His close-range shots were crooked and short!

The ball hit the front edge of the basket and bounced toward the middle. Zhang Yang took it into the three-second zone and got his 10th rebound of the night, and immediately passed it to Rondo.

Rondo took a look at the opponent's position when he received the ball and immediately launched a counterattack.

The Raptors players blocked Zhang Yang directly, and Rondo rushed to the frontcourt by himself and made a fast break layup under Ford's pursuit.

121 to 114, the Bobcats lead by 7 points!
Bosh looked at the big screen in despair

He scored 33 points tonight, 8 points in the first two quarters, 7 points in the third quarter, and 10 points in the final quarter. His performance was better than Okafor, but no one can match that bad boy at the critical moment!
Not only Bosh, but also the other Raptors players had their energy held back all night, but their energy was wiped out by the Bobcats' defensive counterattack.

In the last minute or so, even though the Bobcats attacked fiercely for several rounds and fell into a sluggish period again, the Raptors were unable to launch an effective counterattack, relying only on Perkins' tip-in to score two points. The main reason was that they had no energy or conditions to counterattack. At this time, they had to rely on outside players to play one-on-one, but their outside player with the strongest scoring ability was TJ Ford...

At 8:24 pm, the final whistle sounded.

首节6分2板4助攻、第二节4分2板3助攻、第三节5分3板3助攻、末节连砍8分外加4板1助攻……张杨17投10中，其中三分球2中1，加上2中2的罚球，拿到23分11板11助攻2抢断1盖帽！

加上奥卡福的22分8板、费尔顿14分5助攻、马特-卡罗尔进了3个三分球拿到11分、米尔萨普9分6板、隆多12分3板6助攻、阿兰-安德森8分、帕金斯6分3板3盖帽……

123 to 117, the Bobcats narrowly defeated the Raptors and won 6 consecutive victories!

(End of this chapter)