Chapter 227 226. Gambling Dog Mountain Cat!

The teammates felt more and more depressed the more they talked. Zhang Yang wondered if they had won one game.
However, several teammates are also actively discussing how to deal with the Spurs' defense. He estimates that there should be no problem with his mentality, but he is just worried about gains and losses?

Yes, people’s minds are always changing.

Anyway, he thinks very simply. The job assigned to him by the coaching staff is very simple. He just needs to go on the court and shoot. It's great if he makes the shot, and it's even more exciting if he wins. If he doesn't make the shot or loses, then he will take the blame. Why think so much?

When playing ball, be pure.

Seeing my teammates can't stop chatting, I was like, man, it's already 3 o'clock, why are you still chatting? This is not Los Angeles!

If you can't beat them with your arms, then join them.

A group of grown men are chatting when they can’t sleep at night. What if one of the idea kings suddenly comes up with some inspiration?

It was 4 a.m. in San Antonio. Zhang Yang didn’t know if Duncan had seen him, but he had. At 4:, they got tired of chatting and went back to their rooms to sleep…

At noon, the Bobcats returned to Charlotte and held a preparation meeting at the Turkish Airlines Arena at 3 p.m.

The young guys are in good health, and several smart players from the "big brother gang" all appeared in the meeting room, actively participated in the discussion, and made suggestions for tomorrow's preparation training and the day after tomorrow's Game 3.

However, the content of the meeting was lackluster and there were no constructive results.

After the meeting, Rondo said depressedly: "Jack, why do I feel that we analyzed for so long last night, but we didn't gain anything?"

Felton echoed.

Zhang Yang: "It's normal. One of the things that bothers opponents about the Spurs is that it's hard to gain useful experience from a win against them, regardless of whether you win or lose."

Rondo: “Why?”

Zhang Yang responded: "The Spurs play by relying on their strength to crush their opponents head-on. With this style of play, opponents can only fight hard against them.

Moreover, Duncan, Parker, Bowen, and Ginobili, this core combination has been together for five years. How they will play and what adjustments they will make have been thoroughly analyzed. That’s why the coaching staff was able to formulate a winning style in such a short time. It’s too difficult for us to get results after playing two games.”

After hearing this, both of them understood, but Rondo was thoughtful and grasped a key word, asking: "What about other things besides playing basketball?"

Zhang Yang: "I have Nash's phone number. Can you give him a call?"

Rondo: "... Never mind. I'm not familiar with him."

Zhang Yang: "You can get acquainted. He and I have an appointment to train together at the end of August. You can come along then."

"I go!"

Rondo was not shy at all at this time and agreed before Zhang Yang finished speaking.

He is a modern point guard version of Bird who won two consecutive MVPs and might have won three consecutive MVPs if he hadn't been injured before the All-Star Weekend. Although Rondo is not a Nash fan, of course he would go if he could get close to Nash.

The next day, the 15th, the second rest day, the Bobcats conducted a day of training. The intensity was not large, as the Lakers' experience more than a decade ago was a lesson for them.

This is the third time the Bobcats have conducted training against the Spurs after winning the Eastern Conference Finals. The content of the training... is almost the same as the first training.

The two-day rest time passed in a flash, and on June 6th, the third game day of the finals arrived.

When Zhang Yang drove to the stadium in the morning, he got stuck in traffic near the stadium...

After finally entering the parking lot and parking the car, Zhang Yang complained to Felton, who had been blocking the crowd outside the arena for more than ten minutes, "I didn't expect our fans here to be so enthusiastic."

Felton: "Of course, our fans in the Carolina area are the most enthusiastic in the United States...Jack, what misunderstanding do you have about our fans here?"

Zhang Yang: "Before coming here, I thought the fan environment here was very bad. I wondered why Michael let the black TV station owner build a team here. At that time, there were San Diego, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas... those big cities in the West that could be chosen. The fans in those cities were obviously more eager to have an NBA team. The Hornets also escaped from here and ran to New Orleans to enjoy the sea breeze... cough cough, just ignore the last sentence."

Felton rolled his eyes at Zhang Yang and said, "You should keep your voice down when you say these things... The Hornets are not liked by fans here, mainly because they are too weak. For so many years, they have only made it to the second round at most. If you had the money to buy a ticket, would you rather buy a ticket for Duke, North Carolina, or the Hornets? This year, Duke was eliminated in the first round, and North Carolina lost in the Elite Eight. The fans must have put all their enthusiasm on us who made it to the finals."

Zhang Yang opened his mouth but didn't continue speaking, and nodded in approval.

The fat guy doesn't even look down on the second round now... That's right, he won the national championship in his junior year and entered the NBA, entered the second round in his rookie year, and made it to the finals in his sophomore year. With such a basketball career, how could he not be arrogant.

When Zhang San mentioned his opponents in the East, weren't all the teams except the Pistons selling out their first team?

At 9 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats played against the Spurs at home in Game 3 of the Finals.

In the first two games, the evaluation given by the media and fans was - ugly!
If the Bobcats, a team that made it to the finals in their third year, hadn't been participating in the game, the ratings would have collapsed after Game 1. Even with the Bobcats, the ratings for Game 2 dropped a lot, but they didn't drop as low as in 05.

The 05 finals left a deep psychological shadow on the fans.

Even in China, the ratings of G2 have dropped slightly compared to G1.

But even though the game was ugly, the ratings for G3 did not drop but increased instead, because the Bobcats won G2!

As expected by the media and fans, the two teams started another ugly and bloody battle tonight.

The Bobcats can make all kinds of changes when playing against the Pistons because the Pistons' inside line is indeed too old. Webber, Tianzun, Dale Davis, Antonio McDyess... 5 of the 4 main inside players are at least 33 years old, and they also lost their inside pillar Ben Wallace.

But against the Spurs, the Bobcats were unable to make more changes and could only fight hard.

The Bobcats failed to gain an advantage in the first quarter tonight. Duncan was furious after losing the game. He played for 10 minutes in the first quarter, made 5 of 3 shots, plus 6 of 4 free throws, and scored 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks!

When Duncan was substituted out for rest, the Spurs were already leading the Bobcats by 24 points, 13 to 11!
At the end of the quarter, Zhang Yang and Gerald Wallace each made a breakthrough layup, and the Bobcats barely narrowed the gap to within 10 points, and entered the second quarter trailing the Spurs by 17 points at 26 to 9.

The nightmare of G1 came again, and the Bobcats began a long journey of chasing points.

In the second quarter, the Bobcats scored 20 to 15 at one point, chasing the total score to 37 to 41 and narrowing the gap to 4 points.

But after the Spurs called a timeout, Ginobili scored the ball, Barry made an open three-pointer, and then the Bobcats missed a shot. Parker grabbed the defensive rebound and counterattacked, running all the way to shake off the defender and made a layup, widening the gap to 9 points again.

It was only thanks to Zhang Yang's three-pointer against Ginobili's defense in the last 3 seconds before the end of the first half that the score difference was narrowed to 6 points.

At the end of the first half, the Bobcats trailed the Spurs by 40 points, 46 to 6.

到了第三节，第二节缓着打了8分钟的邓肯又开始发力，单节6投3中，加上4中3的罚球，拿到9分3板1助攻1盖帽，率领马刺队单节拿到21分。

山猫队这边，张杨6分、奥卡福6分、米尔萨普4分、杰拉德-华莱士3分、穆罕穆德2分，加起来也只拿到21分。

Duncan single-handedly led the team to withstand the Bobcats' counterattack and did not allow the Bobcats to narrow the gap like they did in the second quarter!
In the final quarter, the Bobcats continued to fight back under the leadership of Zhang Yang and Okafor.

In the first 10 minutes, Zhang Yang made 7 of 3 shots, including 1 of 1 three-pointers, and scored 7 points. Okafor made 4 of 2 shots, plus 2 of 2 free throws to get 6 points. The two of them combined for 13 points, leading the Bobcats to 20 points during this period and preventing the Spurs from scoring only 19 points.

The score was 81 to 86, the Bobcats narrowed the gap to 5 points, and the Spurs called a timeout!

With a two-goal lead, the Spurs were very stable. After the timeout, Duncan scored in the low post, and Ginobili made a long two-point shot from the three-point line, widening the gap to 7 points.

At the critical moment, teammates believed that Zhang San was right. When the Bobcats attacked, Zhang Yang took advantage of the screen to break through Horry who was defending the pick-and-roll, and made a two-point shot to keep the score close.

But looking back, Duncan was fouled in the paint and made both free throws, widening the gap to 7 points again.

It was the Bobcats' turn to attack. Seeing that there was only 1 minute left, Zhang Yang was ready to give it a try. He went to the frontcourt, received the pass from Felton, and took a three-point shot with the help of a screen... and missed!
Gerald Wallace took advantage of Duncan's attempt to block Okafor's rush and made a tip-in from the baseline to score two points, bringing the score to 85-90 and keeping the hope of a comeback alive.

Then Ginobili's one-on-one three-pointer to end the game missed, and Rondo grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a counterattack.

Zhang Yang followed up and received the ball from the left side of the three-second zone and entered the basket. He circled and made a layup behind Ginobili who was retreating. The score was 87 to 90. Hope really appeared! If we defend it, there is still a chance to tie the score!
But Ginobili immediately killed the Bobcats' hopes. He broke into the inside and made a high throw to the basket under Okafor's defense, causing Okafor to foul!

Although the free throw missed, the Spurs widened the gap to 11 points with 5 seconds left!
The Bobcats called a timeout. Even though the hope was slim, they still had to try their luck.

But unfortunately, after the timeout, Felton still missed the three-pointer after receiving the pass from Zhang Yang. Luck was not on their side...

At 11:24 pm, the final whistle sounded.

邓肯今晚打了36分钟，20投11中，外加10中7的罚球，单场拿到29分15板4助攻1抢断4盖帽，丢掉主场优势后，他今晚全程开无双！在吉诺比利今晚只有16投6中只拿到15分、帕克日常拉垮9投3中只拿到10分4助攻的情况下，率队以92比87客场击败山猫队，大比分2比1，抢回主场优势！
In addition to Duncan, the Spurs also had another player who performed well tonight - the wing shooter.

Bowen, Horry, Barry, and Udrih made a total of 7 three-pointers tonight, but they shot well mainly because Duncan's offensive performance was too aggressive tonight, forcing the Bobcats to shrink their wings and attack, which gave them a chance.

山猫队这边，张杨今晚25投10中，其中三分球6中2，加上5中4的罚球，拿到26分；奥卡福16投8中，加上6中4的罚球，拿到20分11板；杰拉德-华莱士13投6中，其中三分球1中1，加上5中4的罚球，拿到17分7板2助攻1抢断3盖帽……还是没干得过邓肯。

After the game, Zhang Yang felt a little pain on his face. His "2-game championship declaration" after winning G5 was slapped in the face!

If you win you can skip the interview, but if you lose you can’t.

After the game, Zhang Yang was asked about his '5-game championship declaration', to which he responded: "If 5 games are not enough, then 6 games. My goal is to win every game!"

...

The next day, June 6, a rest day, at 17 a.m., the boss gang once again arrived at the stadium early to conduct their daily post-game review.

After G2 won, many people boasted and praised them.

If you keep bragging after losing G3, you will be mocked by many people.

Felton looked at the mockery of Zhang Yang in the newspapers and on the Internet, then looked at his calm younger brother and sighed, "Jack, you can still remain calm after so many insults. I can't do that."

Zhang Yang: "Don't make me watch it again, I'll feel better... It's just a loss, it's not like I haven't lost before, I can try again tomorrow."

Felton: "That's what I said, but we finally won the away game and got the home advantage, but it was taken away again right after we came back. The psychological gap is too big."

Zhang Yang: "Life is so exciting, always ups and downs...downs..."

Rondo, Okafor, Millsap and others were originally quite depressed, but after listening to the "crosstalk" of these two brothers, they were no longer depressed and started to talk about business.

Rondo: "Our biggest problem last night was our poor three-point shooting."

Several people looked at the statistics table. Last night, their team made 13 of 4 three-pointers, with a hit rate of only 30.7%.

Not only did they shoot inaccurately, they also took too few shots. Gerald Wallace made 1 of 1 three-pointers and Zhang Yang made 6 of 2. The two of them accounted for more than half of the team's three-point shots. The others only shot 6 times, and only made 6 of 1.

Looking at the other two statistics tables next to it, Felton made 1 three-pointers in G2 and 4 three-pointers in G3 respectively.

Felton: "Yeah, all our three-point shooters were blocked last night."

Zhang Yang: "Looking at the bright side, Emeka and Gerrard's scoring opportunities in the paint have improved, and they have seized the opportunities."

Rondo denied it, "This is not a good thing. The inside offensive role of Emeka and Gerald combined is not as good as Duncan. Without the threat of three-pointers from both wings, your high-post shooting and breakthrough scoring, Jack, were affected. In the fourth quarter, after our three-point shooters on the wing were all exhausted, Jack, neither you nor I could break through. Moreover, without the threat of mid-range and long-range shooting, Emeka and Gerald can score inside, but Paul and Alan, who rely on outside passes, can't score."

Zhang Yang, Okafor, Millsap and Alan Anderson did not react much when they heard this. This is Rondo's way of speaking. The main reason is that what Rondo said is right. If Rondo made random accusations, they would definitely refute it.

But there are still honest people. Felton complained: "Rajon, you will have no friends if you talk like this."

Rondo: "Jack told me to stay true to myself and to take the initiative to put forward my opinions. The strong don't need friends!"

Felton: "What Jack said should be correct, you continue."

Okafor, Millsap, Alan Anderson, and Rondo: "..."

Rondo took a deep breath and continued, "We now have two choices. First, we should seize the opportunity left by the opponent's main defense outside and attack the basket. The Spurs lost Nazr and Nesterovic, and the remaining Elson, Oberto and Brezec have to rely on Duncan to play qualified defense. Second, we should find a way to shoot three-pointers and connect the inside and outside points like in the first two games."

Okafor spoke up: "Both options feel like dead ends. Rajon, you're right. Gerald and I combined, our inside offensive impact is not as great as Duncan's. Although his helpers are not good enough, his inside offensive and defensive comprehensive ability is number one in the league. Elson and Oberto can provide basic defense, which is enough to provide support for Duncan, and the Spurs' ability to defend three-pointers is also the best in the league."

Zhang Yang: "A dead end is better than not finding the way at all."

Okafor nodded: "That's right, it's better than having no solution at all, but Jack you are really optimistic. Although I also know that we have made a lot of money so far, I still can't help but feel anxious. I need to learn this from you."

Zhang Yang: "No, no, everyone has their own way of behaving and thinking habits. It's impossible for everyone to be the same. You and I have very different personalities. If you imitate me, you might become even more depressed."

Okafor thought about the magical legends about Zhang Yang and the fact that Zhang Yang might be scolded for whatever he said... Yes, if he were in Zhang Yang's public opinion environment, he would probably have to go home and cry in bed.

Rondo groaned. How come even Okafor was distracted? What was the topic about?

No! Coach Long can't be led astray! He has to stay true to himself!
Rondo forced the topic back: "Three-pointer or attack the basket?"

Zhang Yang decisively responded: "Three points!"

Rondo: “Why?”

Zhang Yang: "A great man once said that the more the enemy opposes you, the more you must persist!"

...

On June 6th, the fourth day of the finals arrived.

At 8:40 p.m., players from both teams entered the stadium.

After the Bobcats lost Game 3, public opinion was pessimistic.

But the fans at the scene were still enthusiastic, which made Zhang Yang feel very excited. Although there would be individual cases where one fan could defeat ten haters, and there might even be a large number of such cases, he felt very motivated to have a group of fans who would always support him behind his back no matter what the situation was!

It's easy to have grudges when playing against each other in the playoffs, and the two teams had no communication at all before the game.

After the Eastern Conference Finals, the players of the Bobcats and Pistons, who had originally had a good relationship, became much more distant...mainly because the game was too intense and the score was too close. Last year, the Bobcats were beaten by the Pistons in the second round, so there was no grudge between them, but the gap in strength was too big.

In the first three games of the finals, the total score difference added up to less than 3 points, which was even more intense than the Eastern Conference Finals. The atmosphere became increasingly tense, and grudges accumulated much faster than in the Eastern Conference Finals.

At 9 o'clock in the evening, the fourth game of the finals between the Bobcats and the Spurs will start at home!
Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Gerald Wallace, Millsap, Okafor.

Spurs starting lineup: Parker, Finley, Bowen, Oberto, Duncan.

Duncan defeated Okafor to win the jump ball, and the two tied again in the finals jump ball. The Spurs attacked first!
The Spurs start, and Duncan continues to dig!

This is the Spurs' strongest start in the past decade. They have won three championships and it is unshakable.

The same goes for the Bobcats. Zhang Yang worked hard on the outside, shooting whenever he needed to.

However, just like in the previous game, after the Spurs gradually adapted to Zhang Yang's singles, when both Zhang Yang and Duncan were in full swing at the beginning, Zhang Yang was no match for Duncan in the strong attack.

张杨开局4投2中拿到4分，邓肯开局5投3中，其中还有一次是2+1，马刺队开局7比4领先山猫队3分！
It was the Bobcats' turn to attack again. Felton took the ball and faced Parker's defense. He faked a breakthrough and took a step-back three-pointer...but missed!
Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound and felt that the situation was stable and he could enter the iron-blooded mode.

But when Duncan went down to the low post to receive the ball and prepared to start teamwork, he found that the opponent had no intention of double-teaming him, only Okafor was squatting behind him!

After a slight hesitation, Duncan rushed towards Okafor and continued to dig!

Duncan knocked Okafor to the arc of the reasonable collision zone, turned around and made a hook shot, 9 to 4, the Spurs' lead reached 5 points!
When it was the Bobcats' turn to attack, Felton continued to take a step-back three-point shot... and still missed. But then Duncan continued to force a shot in the low post, but it also missed!
It was the Bobcats' turn to attack again. Unconvinced, Felton continued to step back and shoot a three-pointer...and finally made it!
7 to 9, the Bobcats narrowed the gap to two points!

This is the charm of the three-pointer. Even if the situation looks very unfavorable, if you suddenly make one, the situation may change dramatically.

It was the Spurs' turn to attack again. Duncan had been attacking for seven consecutive rounds and needed to slow down. He moved to the wing, ready to receive a mid-range shot or assist, and handed the offense to Parker.

Parker was shot at for several rounds in a row. Although the opponent only made 3 of 1 shots, he could no longer hold back. He changed direction, broke through Felton and rushed into the inside. Okafor was in place for defense, but Parker shot very quickly. He grabbed the ball first and made a quick layup... and it hit!
Parker was surprised! Although Okafor did a good job in helping out on this ball and it was difficult for him to shoot, it was still much better than his shooting opportunities in the previous three games because Gerald Wallace at the baseline did not leave Finley open to help out on defense!

When the Bobcats attacked, Felton swung the ball, Zhang Yang took over, and Gerald Wallace, Millsap and Okafor were responsible for rushing and grabbing the ball.

In the next few minutes, the Spurs continued to take the initiative. Parker attacked the basket guarded by Okafor without any wing defense. It was difficult, but manageable. After Duncan recovered, he was sure to win the singles.

Popovich was confused by the Bobcats' style of play. Did they give up? No! The opponents' singles and defense played very hard... It was not until halfway through the first quarter, when Ginobili played two rounds, that Popovich finally discovered the opponent's intention.

The old gambler opposite!

(End of this chapter)