Chapter 272 271. Targeting me? Then I will defend you to death!

In the West, the Player of the Week winner is...Chris Paul!

首周保罗率领黄蜂队4战全胜，场均22分4.5板11助攻2.5抢断，场均15投9中，命中率是惊人的60%。

张杨开局打出1次单场50分、保罗开局连续3场20+10，首周7天每天在热门新闻榜单中都能看到他们的名字，但当两人同时拿下周最佳后，还是让球迷们惊叹不已。

With the Pistons defeating the Bulls and the Lakers defeating the Pistons, the three teams completed the cycle of defeating each other, and among the 30 teams in the league, only the Bobcats and Hornets were undefeated.

In the first week, Charlotte's 'two teams' dominated the East and West!

Moreover, Zhang Yang and Paul are both from the class of 05!

This is another day when the quality of the 05 players is improved!
05-06赛季的时候，韦德二阵+FMVP、詹姆斯一阵、安东尼三阵，当时詹姆斯才21岁、安东尼22岁、韦德23岁，当时的舆论——03届统治NBA的时代已经到来。

As a result, the next year, the younger class of 05 had already made it to the top. Deron led the Jazz to reverse the Yao Ming and McGrady teams and advance to the Western Conference Finals, and Zhang Yang led the Bobcats to a comeback and win the championship.

Now, another supernova from the 05 class has emerged, and Paul has started off with a superb performance!

In contrast, in the 03 class, James was restrained by the Bobcats when his team still had a losing record, and he lost all 17 times against the Bobcats; Wade's Heat team collapsed after winning the championship; Bosh encountered the strongest era of interior players in the Eastern Conference in more than a decade, facing opponents such as Yao Ming, Howard, Okafor, Tian Zun... After Anthony was silent for three years starting from his sophomore year, he suddenly became the best performer in the 03 class!

In front of them were the veterans of the 96 generation, and in the back were the super guards of the 05 class. In just one year, the 03 class suddenly became the sugar cube in the middle of the cookie, being rolled into a round shape and flattened...

On the 8th, the Bobcats' fifth game day of the new season arrived.

In the morning, the Bobcats conducted regular training. The content of the training had little to do with the opponent in the evening. It would be difficult to make targeted preparations for the next three opponents, mainly because the opponents are in a period of reconstruction or chaos. Not to mention Carlisle as an opponent, Carlisle estimated that even the opponent's head coach did not know what kind of performance he could get, so he simply gave up targeted preparations, continued to polish the tactical details, and steadily and orderly advanced the progress of system building.

Just like the Class of 06 was hyped at the beginning of the 07-03 season, the Class of 05 is now also being crazily pursued by the media and fans.

The outside world is very lively, but the "top three point guards" among the "genius guards" of the 05 class is now very melancholy.

During lunch, Felton asked his younger brother, "Jack, do you think I have a bad talent?"

Zhang Yang: "What's wrong with your talent? Even though you are the leader of the evil Bad Boys and broke up the GDP group, your reputation is so bad. The media's expectations for your future are that you have the potential to be an All-Star. If you grow steadily to your peak, you may be selected as an All-Star."

Zhang Yang remembered that in the original time and space, Felton made almost no progress in the Bobcats. For five years, he had been playing the same style as in college. He had no good playing habits and his growth period was almost wasted.

But in the 10-11 season, under the guidance of D'Antoni, the head coach who is good at using point guards, he still averaged 17 points and 9 assists per game in the first half of the season, and led the team to a decent record of 28 wins and 26 losses. In the Eastern Conference where or wins are enough to enter the playoffs, the performance of leading the team is very good... It's a pity that after the All-Star Weekend, he played two games and was used as a core bargaining chip by the Knicks to trade for Anthony.

The Nuggets head coach George Karl did not like Felton, a point guard who was not fast enough, had no talent in organizing offense and could only play tactical ball. After joining the Nuggets, he could only play as a substitute and fell into decline again.

Because he did not hone his basic skills, had bad playing habits, and did not improve his techniques in the first eight years of his career, his strength declined rapidly starting at the age of 8 as his athletic ability declined. He became a substitute and gradually faded out of the NBA.

The little fat guy here started adjusting his playing habits in his rookie year, and began to hone his shooting basics under the guidance of Englander. After his rookie season, he began to receive training from legendary trainer Grove, and actively expanded his skills and scoring area. At present, it seems that there will be no problem for him to be selected as an All-Star in his peak period.

Moreover, with Felton's floor-flow playing style, if he lays a solid foundation and develops his skills well enough, his peak period in the future may be very long. He is not prone to injury when playing with the floor-flow style, and he may still be at his peak at the age of 34 or 35.

Felton: "Are you praising me? But now that you put it that way, I think I'm OK. It's just that compared to Williams and Paul, I seem to be quite bad. They all averaged 20+10. Ellis averaged 20 points per game this year. The dunk king can only be a substitute for Ellis, and I only have 15 points."

Zhang Yang felt sorry for Felton. When compared with others, Felton was always confident, regardless of whether he could win or not. But when compared with players of the same class, he became particularly unconfident.

Zhang Yang: "In terms of statistics, it may be difficult for you to beat them, but when you play against them, you are not inferior to them, and you have advantages that they don't have."

Felton's eyes lit up: "Jack, tell me, what are my advantages?"

Zhang Yang pointed at himself and said, "I'm your teammate."

Felton stared at Zhang Yang for a while and said, "You're right. I'm luckier than them."

Zhang Yang: "Uh, Boss, you should be laughing at this moment instead of approving. It makes me feel embarrassed."

Felton: "It's okay, you're thick-skinned."

Zhang Yang: “…”

Zhang San still prefers the silly look of Little Fatty Boss...

...

In the evening, the Bobcats will play against the Pacers at home.

After Bird fired Carlisle, the Pacers entered a rebuilding period and signed Jim O'Brien as head coach.

O'Brien is a very special coach. After leaving the college coaching world and coming to the NBA in the late 90s, he quickly became famous. His first masterpiece was training Anthony Walker and Paul Pierce into All-Stars and even superstars.

But when he officially became the head coach from assistant coach, his coaching performance was hard to describe.

Later, he went to the 76ers as head coach. His coaching performance was still a mess, but he trained Iguodala, who had very rough skills when he first entered the NBA, into an all-around warrior. When the 76ers completed the lineup change, he was fired again.

During his 10 years as an assistant coach and head coach in the NBA, O'Brien became quite famous and was nicknamed the "forward-guard swingman coaching expert." However, his shortcomings were also obvious. He was not good at training inside players, and no matter which inside player came to the team he coached, their performance would decline.

When O'Brien joined the Pacers, fans were joking that they wouldn't have to be so careful in training Granger this time, and maybe he wouldn't be fired so quickly.

Some people also sympathized with O'Neal Jr. and said during the offseason that they seemed to have seen O'Neal's performance plummet.

In the first week of the new season, the situation that fans expected occurred. Granger's scoring soared from 13 points per game to 18 points without much increase in playing time, with huge improvements on both offense and defense.

It can be seen that Granger's performance improvement is not only his personal ability improvement, but the tactical role and exclusive tactics assigned to him by the coach are also better than last season. In terms of coaching ability, O'Brien is definitely not as good as Carlisle, but just in terms of training forwards and guards and creating tactics for them, O'Brien is in the top three in the NBA, if not the best.

O'Neal is in a bad situation. His playing time has plummeted to less than 30 minutes, and his shooting rights have been greatly reduced. His average points per game has plummeted from 19 points last season to 13 points and 6 rebounds. He has only played for a week and has publicly requested a trade...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, O'Neal Jr. defeated Okafor to win the jump ball, the game began, and the Pacers took the first attack.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Millsap, Okafor.

Pacers starting lineup: Tinsley, Mike Dunleavy, Granger, Troy Murphy, O'Neal Jr.

Tinsley advanced to the frontcourt and gave face to his big brother by passing the ball to O'Neal in the low post.

O'Neal Jr. didn't actually ask for the ball. He just stood in the singles position out of habit, but when he received the ball, he just shot it... He suddenly turned around and jumped for a hook shot... but was slapped down by Okafor in the face.

This 'sneak attack' was too brainless. It was neither sudden nor skillful. If the defender was more focused, he would not have been fooled, let alone Duncan Okafor who was known for his calmness.

Hill, who was defending Dunleavy in the right corner, grabbed the defensive rebound.

In the transition from offense to defense, with no chance for a fast break, Zhang Yang slowly ran to the front court.

Looking at O'Neal, who had started to lose his wit and fighting spirit while playing, Zhang Yang felt a little regretful.

Last month, O'Neal Jr. just turned 29 and should have been in his prime, but after the fight at the end of 04, everything changed.

In the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons, O'Neal Jr. only needed to score 20 points per game, but after his teammates were suspended on a large scale, he was forced to take nearly 04 shots per game in the 05-20 season. Although his points soared to 24+ per game, injuries also followed, and his rebounding and defensive performances declined rapidly... After that, he fell into a vicious cycle and gradually developed into the direction of a glass man.

Now he has been basically abandoned by Bird. Although O'Neal's playing time, shooting rights and points have plummeted in the new season, and the coaching style of the new head coach O'Brien is the direct reason, without Bird's consent, O'Brien cannot "abandon" the core of the inside line for the past 6 years.

Coming to the frontcourt, Zhang Yang received the ball and faced Grant's outside defense. He put away all distractions and focused on offense.

Danny Granger, a very tall wing defender, is a rare player whose barefoot height is reported. His official height is 203 cm, but he looks taller than Millsap. He has a tall physique, long wingspan, good mobility, and great basic defensive footwork and movements... Facing such an opponent, Zhang Yang decisively chose to break through!

Zhang Yang successfully passed Granger...but was blocked by Tinsley!
Zhang Yang passed the ball to the other side of the three-second zone. Felton saw Tinsley double-teaming Zhang Yang and Granger covering the space for Zhang Yang to pass back to the top arc, and he immediately cut inside.

Felton received the ball at the elbow and took a step to close range. O'Neal Jr. came up to defend. Felton passed the ball straight to the right. Okafor received the ball in front of the basket and jumped to make a layup!

Zhang Yang retreated quickly. He had a bad feeling... No, he didn't believe it. It shouldn't be like this!
He is just a simple and kind-hearted 19-year-old boy. He can only drink at home. The other side has already sent Harrington away, so it is impossible for them to target him like this.

The Pacers attacked, and Tinsley gave face to the boss and began to follow the coach's arrangement, giving the ball to Granger for a single play.

As Tinsley expected, Granger couldn't hit Zhang Yang and was stuck when he changed direction!
Although the opponent was weak, Zhang Yang was very prepared. After watching the video clips of Granger's first four games, he discovered Granger's bad habit in singles - when someone snatched the ball away with his right hand, he would subconsciously dribble between his legs and change direction to the left to avoid the opponent and go to the left.

Granger has excellent strength but average explosiveness. He was stuck by Zhang Yang and his speed of advancement was limited. He chose to stop suddenly on the left side of the free throw line, failed to break free of the confrontation, and jumped to shoot... but the shot was far off target.

Okafor protected the defensive rebound, the offense and defense switched, Zhang Yang received the ball in the high position, turned around and threw it directly... Granger is about 206 cm tall with shoes + 215 cm wingspan, and he interfered well. Zhang Yang missed the shot, but!

Okafor turned around O'Neal and dunked for two points.

For this ball, Zhang Yang was certain that the opponent was targeting him, an innocent 19-year-old boy!
When he caught the ball just now, he noticed that Dunleavy on the opposite wing and Tinsley, who was defending Felton, were both moving towards him! How crazy!

Use this to organize the offense? No! He wants to shoot! He always finds a chance to shoot!

Next, when Zhang Yang was attacking with the ball, the opponent was close to him, so he broke through and looked for shooting opportunities... but unfortunately there were basically none.

Felton and Hill, who were dealing the cards, and Rondo, who came off the bench to deal the cards, made good use of this point. After passing the ball to Zhang Yang, they waited for the people defending them to double-team Zhang Yang, and then they cut from the high post to the inside, attacking at close range or under the basket. The biggest beneficiary was... Okafor!

Singles, dunks, second chances, Okafor had a blast tonight.

Zhang Yang became more and more angry on the offensive end, and he fought hard against Granger on the defensive end.

Granger, who plays technically, met Zhang Yang, who is good at defending technically, and his singles performance was very poor.

But no matter how well Granger played, as long as he had enough energy, Pacers head coach O'Brien would let Tinsley give him the ball for a one-on-one.

This is how he developed his singles skills and his ability to shoot hard in close defense and confrontation...

...

At 9:20 pm, the final whistle sounded.

奥卡福18投12中，加上10中7的罚球，拿到31分15板2助攻2盖帽，率领山猫队以106比92轻取步行者队。

Zhang Yang scored less than 20 points for the first time in the new season. He played for 35 minutes, made 15 of 6 shots, including 7 of 2 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws, and only scored 18 points.

Although he had 6 assists and played a full role in distraction; his performance on the defensive end was also very good, showing his defensive talent. Granger, who had a brilliant performance at the beginning of the season, made only 16 of 4 shots tonight, missed a three-pointer, and only 2 of 1 free throws, scoring only 9 points and 6 rebounds.

But he was very sad and angry tonight, and he remembered the Pacers!

Little did we know that Granger was thinking at this moment: This top player in the same class is such a good shooter, he took 15 shots and scored 18 points. Fortunately, we were prepared, otherwise this guy would have scored or points on us?
Zhang Yang forgot one thing—Granger was in the same class as him.

Facing the top player in the same class, which ambitious player would not want to target him?
The Pacers had lost four games in a row at the start and had little chance of winning. Facing the top player of the same class, Granger thought he couldn't beat him anyway, so he called on Mike Dunleavy, Tinsley, Marquis Daniels, Kareem Rush and others to work together to encircle and suppress Zhang Yang and prevent the bad boys from bullying them and scoring points. He firmly believed that this guy was capable of doing such a thing.

But there was a reason why Zhang Yang forgot that Granger was in the same class as him. Granger looked too... not as old as Oden or that one, but he gave people the feeling that he was very old and had played for many years.

(End of this chapter)