Chapter 279 278. Bad Boy VS Flying Man
On November 11, the day after the game with the Suns, Zhang Yang slept until after 15 o'clock.

After washing up and calling the restaurant to order food, I immediately went to the study, turned on the computer, and checked the news on the intranet and the Internet. I couldn't suppress the smile... I won't suppress it anymore, I just kept laughing.

Bad Boy Jack Defeats the Run-and-Gun Storm

"With 8 consecutive wins, the Bobcats tied the longest winning streak in team history"

Deadly Jack, Deadly Three Points

《22 three-pointers, a tragic record night for the Suns》

Catalyst lost to Crazy Jack by 41 points

"In the crucial match, Booster lost to Bad Boy Jack"

Killer Jack: Rick arranged the ball well, Emeka blocked the ball well, and Raymond passed the ball well. I just received the ball and shot it in.

"43 points in a single game + a near buzzer beater, Zhang Yang laughed loudly, he once again proved his superstar strength"

"..."

"..."

Sports websites at home and abroad devoted a lot of space to reporting on last night's game between the Bobcats and the Suns.

Booster refers to Nash, which was the nickname he got after leading the Suns to rise in the 04-05 season; Catalyst was the nickname Stoudemire got in the 04-05 season, a matching nickname for the duo.

The seemingly abstract news was the headline of a sports news on a famous domestic website. Zhang Yang opened the website out of curiosity and was shocked. Then he began to reflect - did I smile too ostentatiously during the interview last night? I remember that I managed my expression well, right? It seems that I need to practice smiling more in front of the camera.

With 8 consecutive wins at the start and 43 points in a single game and a near buzzer beater, all the news Zhang Yang saw about the Bobcats and himself were full of praise. It was normal for him to get good stats and win.

There are also some miscellaneous news. They scored 143 points last night, setting a new league record for the most points scored by a single team in a single game this season. The previous holder was... the Suns. The No. 4 Suns defeated the Warriors, who are currently ranked second in the scoring list, 137-129.

When Zhang Yang saw this news, his excitement cooled down a bit. They scored 143 points, while the Suns scored 141 points...

After lunch, Zhang Yang left home and drove for more than 20 minutes to the Turkish Airlines Arena.

After playing against the Suns, we got two more days of rest. Today Carlisle only arranged two hours of individual training. Players can go to the gym for training in the afternoon and they can choose the time themselves.

However, some players received a notice to attend a team meeting at 1: p.m., and Zhang Yang was one of the participants.

When Zhang Yang arrived at the meeting room, he saw that all his teammates who were going to attend the meeting had already arrived, including Felton, Rondo, Mike Miller, Hill, Okafor, Muhammad, and himself, a total of seven players attending the meeting.

Zhang Yang looked at his watch. It was 1:16. He complained, "You are so enthusiastic at work, but no one is paying you a penny more."

Hill smiled and said, "I came here this morning and made an appointment with Thomas for a follow-up check-up. I will play three away games soon, and he wants to evaluate my physical condition."

Felton: "Last night, Rajan, Emeka and I agreed to practice free throws together this morning. Our free throws were terrible last night, so we wanted to practice more. After Nazir learned about this from Rajan, he also said he wanted to come and practice with us. His free throws were also terrible last night."

Zhang Yang: -_-||
He just said that, but he didn't expect his teammates to actually explain it.

But don't say that... Zhang Yang complained: "It's time to practice. Each of the four of you missed two free throws. We only had 4 free throws last night, which is less than our usual number of free throws. You actually missed 24!"

Felton: "We are here to practice, we will improve. We are much better this year than last year. Last night was an accident."

The other three were too embarrassed to answer, but Felton could. His free throw percentage was 74% in his rookie year, 83% last season, and 7% in the first seven games of this season. He was just a little short of making 86.7 of 4 free throws last night.

In fact, the other three players have also performed well in free throws this season. Rondo only had a 50% free throw rate in the early stage of his rookie season. In the first 7 games of this season, he averaged 2 of 1.4 free throws per game, which is already a qualified level of 70. It's just that he was unlucky last night and missed both free throws.

奥卡福05-06赛季的时候只有57%罚球命中率，上赛季就已经过60%了，这赛季前6场场均6罚4中，66.7%命中率，昨晚刚好也是6罚4中。

As for Muhammad, he doesn't take many free throws. He only averages 1.6 free throws per game in his career. The hit rate is not very important. Zhang Yang estimated that this bold veteran just heard about the idea of ​​training free throws together and wanted to join in the fun.

Of course, Rondo and Okafor's free throw shooting has only improved compared to before, and can be said to be okay compared to before, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

After Felton "comforted" his younger brother, the six people's eyes were focused on Mike Miller who was watching the show.

Mike Meek: [_?]
Zhang Yang: "They all said why they came so early without overtime pay. You should make up one too, otherwise you will seem unsociable."

"..." Speechless for a moment, Mike Miller said: "Every morning on my day off, I go to the gym and shoot 500 three-pointers, 5 from each of the five main angles."

Zhang Yang: "Uh... it seems like I can see you training every morning on rest days. If there is no training conditions in the morning on rest days during away games, you will find a place to make up for it in the afternoon. You really work too hard. I have to learn from you!"

Mike Miller pursed his lips and smacked his lips, saying, "Who can work as hard as you guys? Is it possible that instead of you seeing me every day off, you're already training whenever I come to the gym to train?"

Zhang Yang looked at Felton and Rondo and asked, "Is there any difference?"

Rondo shook his head, and Felton said, "No."

Mike Miller: “…”

Felton: "Although we train a lot, I can't keep training like you, Mike, every day, and it's the same training. I train different items every day... You are worthy of being the three-point king!"

Mike Miller waved his hands awkwardly when he heard about the three-point king: "Don't mention the three-point king. I don't want to recall last season at all. It was a nightmare!"

Felton: "You are really the three-point king! You average 2.9 three-pointers per game. I heard that it was because of your shooting performance that Michael agreed to sign Gerrard to the Grizzlies."

Zhang Yang: "Is it because that was the first time you didn't make the playoffs?"

Mike Miller: "The second time we didn't make the playoffs, I was traded to the Grizzlies in February 2. Before the trade, I was with the Magic, who were still ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference. The Grizzlies didn't make the playoffs that year... But the next year, Hubie Brown and Jerry West turned the team into a 03-win team. I made the playoffs for three consecutive years with the Grizzlies. In the 2-50 season, the Grizzlies even won 3 games. Last season, they suddenly started to tank. I don't know what happened, and I became a core scorer."

Felton: “Is this bad?”

Mike Miller: "I was actually very excited at the beginning. I often felt that I was no worse than those top scorers. They just had better luck than me, and had more playing time and shots than me. At that time, I thought, 'My time has finally come.' But after I became a core scorer, I felt very hit..."

As he spoke he sighed, and seeing that his teammates except Muhammad were very curious, he thought he should pass on his experience of failure to his younger teammates, mainly Felton, Rondo, and Okafor, three teammates who he thought were not capable of being core scorers.

"I got the same playing time and shooting treatment as a superstar last season. I averaged 39 minutes per game, the highest on the team, and it seems to be in the top 15 in the league. I can also be like Jack. Whenever I want to shoot, the coach will arrange for my teammates to give me the ball.

I kept shooting every night, always looking for opportunities to shoot, but after a season, my number of shots was still only second in the Grizzlies. Gasol played normally... no, he played very lazily, had no motivation at all, and was unwilling to take the initiative to shoot many times. But even if he played like that, he still shot more times than me every night. I played hard and almost died of exhaustion every night, but I could only get 18.5 points. He could get 20 points no matter how he played. "

After Mike Miller finished speaking, the conference room fell silent.

Muhammad thought about the first few years after entering the NBA when he only got five or six minutes of playing time per game. He was a big hit as he was a powerful figure in his student days.

Hill couldn't quite empathize with Mike Miller, but he felt his unwillingness and helplessness.

Felton, Rondo, and Okafor were thinking - am I the same?
Zhang Yang was silent for two seconds, then said, "There is an author in China named Liang Xiaosheng who once said that there are three realms of life: accepting the ordinariness of your parents, accepting your own ordinariness, and accepting the ordinariness of your children. Accepting ordinariness does not mean compromising with fate or doing nothing, but reconciling with yourself, clarifying what you can do and what you should do, so that you will not suffer because of excessive expectations of yourself."

Mike Miller laughed when he heard this, "I like this sentence. I was often unhappy when I played before. I was the fifth overall pick, but I could only play a supporting role and a substitute. I thought it was bad luck. After experiencing a failed season as a core scorer last season, I let it go. Now I am back to my previous role, and I am happier than before and last season when I was the core scorer..."

Rondo and Okafor were both thoughtful after hearing these words...

Felton asked, "What book are you talking about, Jack? I want to read it! Is there an English translation?"

Mike Meek: “…”

I am speaking my mind with all my heart and willing to humble myself to share my experience of failure, have you listened?

Zhang Yang: "I don't know if there is an English translation. I'll ask next time I go to the bookstore."

Everyone: Boss, that’s enough! Third brother, that’s enough too!
...

At 1:, the coaching team arrived at the meeting room on time.

After the meeting started, Carlisle gave an opening speech.

"Last night was the first time we played against a really strong team in the new season. Although we won, if Mike and Jack hadn't scored 4 goals in the last minute and got 11 points, we would have lost." "We did a lot of things poorly on the defensive end last night. We were always a step behind in switching defense and filling gaps on the wing. We will focus on strengthening this part in the next period of defensive training."

"Our double team defense was not strong enough. Paul, Emeka, Rajon, you were too gentle when you fouled. You should be like Jack and Raymond. If you have no choice but to foul, you should not be so gentle. You should hit the opponent's arm like Jack did. You can't foul and let the opponent throw the ball out.

When Bell, Marion, and Dio fouled you, did they let you shoot the ball into the basket? Next time we play against the Suns, I don't want to see Stoudemire and Barbosa make 2+1 so easily. "

"We did a good job cutting in last night. We need to keep doing it and do it better. We need to get better at passing high and low, attracting the defense in the low post, and then passing to the outside line after the defense is back..."

Carlisle rarely praises and spends most of his time pointing out the things that were not done well.

After a 'suppressive' opening, Vincent came to the main seat, briefly analyzed the next three away opponents, and then began to arrange the training for the afternoon and tomorrow morning.

After the meeting, on the way to the training ground, Felton said depressedly: "We clearly won 8 games in a row, how come Rick said it was like we lost 8 games in a row?"

Okafor responded: "We started off so well."

Felton: "Is it bad to be too smooth?"

Hill: "What Emeka said about smooth wins is that we won too smoothly. Except for the Suns, we had some pressure in the other 7 games, only when we played against the Bucks, but once Jack made an effort, we successfully reversed the Bucks. We won the other games easily."

Felton: "Oh, I see. Rick is afraid that we will become complacent because of our 8-game winning streak at the start? No, it shouldn't be just that. Let me think, is it because our opponents are too weak and we won too easily that we can't find our own shortcomings? It seems that it's not just that. It's because we don't need to make too many changes to win against most opponents, so the advancement of the tactical system is affected..."

Zhang Yang: "Both. Also, our opponents this month are also very weak. We haven't played many games against strong teams since the beginning."

Felton: "Yeah, we usually only have a few minutes to analyze opponents in the preparation meeting. Today, we analyzed the opponents of the three consecutive away games for less than 3 minutes in total. But there is really nothing to analyze. The Nets, Pacers, Knicks, the Nets with the best record only have 10 wins and 3 losses... Wait, I remember that after the three consecutive away games, our opponents for the last four home games at the end of the month were also very weak. It seems that we are playing against the 6ers, Timberwolves, Celtics, and Rockets. No wonder Rick is anxious."

Mike Miller echoed: "Yeah, including the opening game, our 11 games in November are too easy. I have never played such a schedule. It feels like the league is afraid that we will have a bad start and give us a winning streak."

Hill: "I think you are right, Mike. We are the defending champions, but we lost an important defensive core. After Gerald Wallace left, everyone knew that we had to change our style of play. Stern might be afraid that our lineup would decline and we would have to change our style of play again. If we didn't have a good start, we wouldn't be able to be compared with the Bulls. Don't you think so, Jack?"

Zhang Yang: “…”

"What do you mean?" Felton asked, not understanding.

Hill looked at Zhang Yang's reaction and smiled, "Jack and the Bulls' Yao are the key to Stern's opening up of the Chinese market... no, the Asian market and even the entire overseas market. The Bulls, that 50-win team, got Yao and only lost the sixth man Ben Gordon. The Bulls' traditional style of play is very suitable for Yao, a super traditional center. No one will doubt that they will become the strongest team.

Stern wanted to create competition between Jack and Yao, so he deliberately arranged such an easy start schedule for us, hoping that we would have a good record at the beginning and allow us to slowly polish the new system without pressure. "

Felton: "He's pretty good, but how can we build a new system without pressure? I remember that when we played against many opponents, any offensive tactics could create ideal shooting opportunities. It was the same when we played against the Suns last night. Although our positioning was average, we still got open shooting opportunities. As long as the opponent didn't move in advance to block the position, it was easy to score. No wonder Rick didn't look very happy."

Hill pursed his lips speechlessly and said, "Yes, even if we lost Gerald Wallace, we are still strong. Jack, Emeka, and you, our three core players have improved for another year. We don't need a complete system to play against weak teams. We just need your tacit cooperation... I guess in the next period of time, Rick will suppress us in every preparation meeting..."

The next afternoon, the Bobcats left Charlotte and started a three-game road trip.

After resting for a night in Jersey City, the Bobcats came to Army Airlines Arena on November 11 to challenge the Nets away.

Zhang Yang looked at the not-so-lively atmosphere at the scene and said with emotion: "Kidd worked hard for 6 years and spent his entire peak period, but he still couldn't make the Nets the home team in the hearts of New Jersey basketball fans. When he left, the audience seats were empty."

Felton: "People in New Jersey either consider themselves New Yorkers or Philadelphians. Basketball fans here prefer the Knicks and 76ers. Look over there, there are people holding up a sign saying 'Go New York, Jack'... Hey, why does it feel similar to our situation? But we are much better than them. We can definitely make our team comparable to North Carolina and Duke and surpass them!"

The more Felton spoke, the louder he got, and finally he roared. His teammates didn't know what he had said before, but when they heard Felton roar, they all roared along. Their roars were different, but the main one was powerful.

At this moment, Zhang Yang was glad that he didn't have the idea of ​​being the boss, so he decided to just be his star player...

At 7 pm, the game between the Bobcats and the Nets started.

The Bobcats sent out a starting lineup of Felton, Zhang Yang, Mike Miller, Hill and Okafor.

The Nets sent out a starting lineup of Darrell Armstrong, Carter, Richard Jefferson, Odom and Kostic.

Okafor easily defeated Kostic to win the jump ball, and the Bobcats attacked first!
Okafor won the jump ball and the Bobcats took the first attack.

Zhang Yang received the ball at the top of the arc and played against Carter, performing the butterfly step.

Carter really got excited and pressed forward to grab the ball. Zhang Yang quickly dribbled the ball with his right hand and pulled it to the left at the same time, breaking through the middle!
Richard Jefferson on the wing and Kostic under the basket rushed towards Zhang Yang. After being passed by Carter, he turned around angrily to chase and defend. Zhang Yang attracted a three-man team and passed the ball to Hill in the middle distance on the right side. Hill received the ball and passed it directly to the basket. Okafor took a step into the three-second zone, received the ball and slammed it into the basket with one hand!
Kostic tried to turn around and make the save, but it was far from enough.

During the offense-defense transition, Carter ran to the frontcourt and saw that it was Zhang Yang defending him. He immediately asked for the ball for a one-on-one play.

He is jealous of those who are more handsome than him, and those who are younger but more successful than him. He is jealous of Kobe, Iverson, and even his older cousin!

Especially Iverson, in the 01+ offensive battle in 50, he always felt that he lost the game because of the schedule - why did the league arrange the seventh game on his graduation day? He rushed to the court after the graduation ceremony, and was exhausted from the long journey. His performance was sluggish and he only made 18 of 6 shots. In the end, the Raptors lost the seventh game by 1 point.

Actually, Carter was in a bad state in Game 1 because of attending the graduation ceremony. Although he was scolded badly at that time, there were still some people who understood him, saying "there is only one graduation ceremony, but there are many playoffs." Coincidentally, after 01, Carter never made the playoffs again with the Raptors. Later, Kobe was entangled in lawsuits and often had to rush to play. Every time he rushed to play, he had a big explosion, which became a gimmick of "the law of rushing"...

Among those three, the one Carter envied the most was Iverson, because only Iverson had defeated him head-on in the playoffs.

So just now when Carter saw Zhang Yang doing the butterfly step, he rushed forward to steal the ball, but was easily passed by Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang looked at Carter with a fierce look on his face, calmed down and focused on defense.

The opponent is not strong + there are stars in the back line, so let the bad boy Jack practice defense in actual combat - Carlisle.

Carter changed direction and accelerated to attack. Zhang Yang followed but couldn't hold on.

Among the four great shooting guards, Kobe and Carter are both strong monsters with forward-level strength. Kawhi Leonard is about equal to OK Kobe < Kawhi Leonard after being continuously stepped on by Bowen < peak Kobe < Malone Kawhi Leonard. There is no peak Kawhi Leonard or other forms of Kawhi Leonard in between because Carter was less than 25 years old and his athletic ability was damaged by continuous stepping on him, so he had no conditions to go to the next level.

Zhang Yang tried his best to hold Carter back, preventing him from entering the three-second zone and facing the basket from mid-range. That way, Carter could attract Okafor to make up for the defense and then directly pass the ball behind Okafor.

After trying his best, Zhang Yang finally pushed Carter to the elbow area, and formed a siege with Felton on the wing and Okafor who moved to the right side of the reasonable collision area.

Carter didn't force it, but threw the ball to the free throw line. Odom received the ball from a high position and passed it to Kostic, who moved to the left elbow area to receive the ball and turned around, but was blocked by Zhang Yang who came to defend!
Kostic hesitated for a moment. It would seem embarrassing not to shoot, so he jumped up and shot despite the resistance... and missed!
Zhang Yang turned around and grabbed the defensive rebound. Richard Jefferson, who was rushing to grab the ball, immediately pressed forward to force the ball, creating a chance for his teammates to retreat. Zhang Yang gave up the fast break and passed the ball to Felton, who pushed forward steadily.

Kostic was very sad and angry when he retreated: You guys are targeting me and bullying me both in offense and defense, right?

After Kidd left, Carter and Richard Jefferson only looked at their individual performances, which increased instead of decreased.

Odom came to the Nets and played like a top organizing forward, averaging 16.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.

Zhang Yang was quite surprised to see Odom's performance when he was preparing for the game. He initially thought that Odom would lose his temper and give up on himself after being traded by the Lakers... But he soon figured it out. At that time, Odom had not yet experienced the Lakers' two championships in three years. Not only that, he had also experienced the bleakest three years in the post-OK era, failing to enter the playoffs, being eliminated in the first round, and Kobe clamoring to change teams... Odom's sense of belonging to the Lakers was not that strong, and might not even be as strong as his sense of belonging to the Clippers. After all, the Clippers were the team that selected Odom in the draft.

Another point is that the Lakers traded Odom for Kidd, instead of the Mavericks using only one trade exception to trade Odom like in 2011. The Lakers were like throwing away garbage with that deal.

With the help of Odom, Carter averaged 5.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists at the start, reaching 5 assists for the first time in his career. In the first two games of the season, Carter scored less than 20 points, but as his partner competed for more games, Carter's score quickly returned to more than 20 points. He currently averages 22.6 points per game and is expected to have his first 20+5+5 season in his career.

Kidd's ability to lead a team is definitely better than Odom's, but in terms of cooperation with Carter, who is also a guard, Odom, as a frontcourt player, is indeed more suitable than Kidd. If Kidd is the absolute core, giving Kidd an inside player like Kenyon Martin or Nene would be more appropriate than giving him a Carter.

Richard Jefferson started the game with a career-high 22.5 points per game, and the duo of Carter and Odom were very good at passing the ball to players who cut into the basket.

But it is not friendly to Kostic, who has slow feet. People used to think he was a technical player from Eastern Europe, but now they know that he is a technical player who can hardly score a goal under interference. In the game highlights, he can often be seen shooting the ball in front of the defender, but if you look closely, when Kidd passes the ball to him, the defender can't effectively interfere with him.

Kostic still has many advantages. He is good at shooting, efficient at catching dunks, and can still make open shots after high confrontation. He just relies a lot on passes and is better at catching and shooting at medium and short distances. In the first three seasons, his shots outside the three-second zone accounted for 70%, and his shots in the paint accounted for a very low proportion. Because of his slow footwork and a serious knee injury last season, his footwork is even slower now. Without Kidd to create better catching and shooting opportunities, Kostic, who averaged 53 points per game with a 16% hit rate last season, has seen a cliff-like drop in scoring this season, averaging 40 points per game with a 6% hit rate...

The Bobcats' strategy tonight is really aimed at Kostic, who is struggling on both offense and defense.

And no one cared whether he was sad or angry. The players on both sides were focusing on the matchup between Zhang Yang and Carter.

Zhang Yang went to the frontcourt and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with Carter at the top of the arc, and barely caught the ball.

Unable to get to the ball handler in the high post, Carter immediately retreated to the three-point line and blocked Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang protected the ball and turned to face Carter, cursing the power monster in his heart.

Little did Carter know that he was also very surprised at Zhang Yang's strength. A skinny 19-year-old boy could barely hold him up. When he was 19, he was still in college and didn't have such bold strength...

(End of this chapter)