Chapter 19. Match Day Events

"If you don't speed up your change of direction and start, and fail to shake off the defender, you will be blocked by the opponent and may even be forced to stop... Let me show you, like this..."

"No, you can't lift your feet before dribbling forward, or you'll be called for traveling. Your hands need to move a beat faster..."

"Yes, that's it. Be prepared to exert force but don't really use it. Switch between horizontal pulling and starting at any time. Control the rhythm well..."

"You need to practice slowly to better control your body..."

Seeing that Zhang Yang finally "got it", Nash taught him more attentively and carefully...but he also wanted to criticize him.

You can learn things so quickly, but you have to stick to one or two techniques. How much time you waste!

But Zhang Yang just "got it", and Nash chose to endure it.

Under Nash's guidance, Zhang Yang honed his starting habits.

The starting habit has been maintained for 5 years and has long since become muscle memory. It is difficult for Zhang Yang to adjust, but he is working hard to learn and practice.

He didn't care about the results of the training in such a short period of time, but he wanted to remember how to train so that he could develop more correct habits when he returned and laid the foundation.

Zhang Yang spent the first day of the training in training.

After a day of training, in addition to becoming familiar with existing techniques, gaining a preliminary understanding of run-and-gun tactics, and learning the basics of ball control, he also gained an understanding of his physical fitness as an adult.

At the age of 21, his speed is top-notch in the NBA!
Currently, the only two players on the team who are faster than him are Nash and Dragic. He learned from Nash that Barbosa is the fastest on the team. These three players are all known for their speed. Being slightly faster than these three does not mean that he is slower.

In terms of strength, he is average among the team's guards. He suffers when competing against Jason Richardson and Hill, but has an advantage when competing against Dragic, and is on par with Dudley.

His jumping ability is not bad, but he is definitely not as good as the super physical guys like Xiao Ba Wang and Slam Dunk King, but he is much better than Nash...

Coupled with his height of 196 cm, his physical fitness as an adult may not be outstanding in the NBA, but it is definitely not bad. He can probably be at the first-class level?
This made him more confident in his basketball career. Physical fitness is the foundation of competitive sports.

...

May 5nd is the game day. Today, the Suns will play the Spurs in the first game of the series at home.

In the morning, Zhang Yang got up and trained for a while before being stopped by Nash, who asked him to save his energy for tonight's game... Then he was asked to make breakfast, this time 3 more servings.

Last night, Nash's wife Alejandra Nash returned from her parents' home with their two daughters.

Zhang Yang learned from Nash that it was Alejandra's father's birthday a few days ago, but Nash was playing in the first round at that time, so she took her two daughters back to her parents' home to celebrate her father's birthday.

Alejandra seemed to dislike Zhang Yang and didn't treat him well for letting him stay with her. But he didn't care. He thought it was a bit too much for him to ask for a good attitude when he was eating and living for free and even taking a ride with her.

However, the relationship between Nash and Alejandra seemed to be very delicate, and they did not hide it even in front of outsiders who were staying with them... Zhang Yang did not ask about other people's family affairs.

Nash's two daughters are quite cute, but they seem to be a bit obsessed with appearances. They kept chattering around him about what happened during his few days at his grandparents' house.

After breakfast, Zhang Yang watched the video clips of the Spurs' first-round series against the Mavericks with Nash.

Nash has watched this video clip many times. It was mainly for him to explain to Zhang Yang what to do on both offense and defense. It can be regarded as a different way to study the video.

Zhang Yang listened carefully to Nash's professional explanation and tried hard to understand the top superstar's understanding of the game.

It was almost noon. This time Nash did not let Zhang Yang cook. Instead, he took Zhang Yang to the America West Arena to have a nutritious meal.

After taking the first bite, Zhang Yang felt a little nauseous. How to describe it? The ingredients are definitely the best, but the taste... can only be described as the original taste of the ingredients.

But seeing Nash swallowing the food with big mouthfuls, Zhang Yang also finished his nutritious meal.

After lunch, Zhang Yang felt a little sleepy and slept for an hour in the lounge. When he woke up, he wanted to ask Nash about some tactical matters. He saw Nash was already warming up and Hill had also arrived. He greeted them both and walked into the locker room.

Zhang Yang asked, "Have I slept that long? Are you already warming up?"

Nash stopped and smiled, "It's too early for you to warm up. You can go watch some video clips of Leandro and Jared and learn how they move. I'm old, not like you young players. You may be able to adjust your body to the best condition in an hour, but I need at least two or three times as much time as you. I also need to rest in between to conserve my energy and move my body little by little."

Zhang Yang said he understood and stopped disturbing Nash from preparing for the game.

It is hard for others to imagine how hard it was for him to be the assist leader and perform like the league's best point guard at the age of 36.

Hill came at this time, probably to start warming up for the 8pm game a few hours in advance.

There are 82 regular season games in a year, and every game requires such pre-game preparation. Even in the NBA, only a few people can do this.

Zhang Yang watched the video for a while. The movement and counterattack of the two players mentioned by Nash... In his opinion, they were quite ordinary. The choice of movement routes was ordinary, and the movement in positional battles was just following the tactics. They were only at the level of playing tactics, and their tactical awareness was not outstanding.

The two players have rich game experience, understand the passing habits of Nash, Hill, Richardson and others, and can cooperate with each other tacitly.

Especially Barbosa, with his outstanding physical fitness, top speed, excellent jumping speed and bounce, strong finishing ability at the basket, and excellent long-range shooting... but he failed to become a star. He only averaged 18 points per game in the year when the Suns' offense was at its peak. After that, he got worse and worse every year. When he looked at the team's data sheet yesterday, he saw that Barbosa, who was only 28 years old, had dropped his regular season score to 9.5 points this season.

Barbosa's scoring is getting worse every year. The reason should be that the head coach was changed from D'Antoni to Gentry. There is still a big difference between these two coaches. Zhang Yang is not sure what the difference is, but watching the game can clearly show the difference between the Suns in the two periods. Barbosa's tactical adaptability is obviously not good enough, even though both head coaches have a run-and-gun style.

However, although the tactical awareness of those two players is average, they have played for a few more years after all, so their game experience is worth learning from.

At around 3 o'clock, teammates came to the gym one after another. Zhang Yang did not continue watching the video, but participated in his teammates' pre-match activities and joined in the fun.

He once again felt the good atmosphere of the team, and he speculated that this was the influence of the personalities of the team's leaders.

Nash is not a strong boss; Stoudemire is noisy and easily impatient, but he gives people a sense of being straightforward and not malicious; the eldest brother Hill is gentle and elegant; the dunk king Richardson studied child psychology, has a kind personality and is generous to others...

When the team leaders are these people, the atmosphere can't be bad.

At 6 o'clock in the evening, after eating the fast-calorie carbohydrate food prepared by the team, Zhang Yang began to warm up before the game with everyone with the help of the trainer.

At 7:, Zhang Yang changed into his jersey and training suit in the locker room, then followed his teammates to the player tunnel.

Gentry, who was at the back of the pack, wanted to say a few words to Zhang Yang to ease his young disciple's nervousness before the game. He was quite optimistic about Zhang Yang, who had good physical talent and worked very hard. He also heard from Nash that Zhang Yang had recently become more intelligent and had begun to expand his skills.

But Zhang Yang's expression was not nervous at all, instead it was full of excitement!
Is this because he felt confident after scoring 10 points against the Trail Blazers?

Although being too excited is not a good thing, it is better than being so nervous that you can't even play to your full potential. Gentry put his mind back on the game that was about to begin.

Zhang Yang followed his teammates to the player tunnel, and the noisy voices of 20,000 fans at the scene flooded into his ears.

He didn't feel the noise, nor did he feel too nervous. He was just excited about stepping onto the NBA court!
……

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(End of this chapter)