Chapter 281 280. 40+ in a row!

At 6 pm, the game between the Bobcats and the Timberwolves started.

Timberwolves starting lineup: Randy Foye, Marko Jaric, Rashard McCants, Mark Madsen, Bynum.

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

Bynum beat Okafor to win the jump ball and the Timberwolves took the first attack.

Randy Foye advanced to the frontcourt, hung in the low post, Bynum received the ball and hit Okafor, collected the ball, turned around, and faced the baseline with a hook shot... hit!
This back-to-the-basket hook shot was so smooth and soft that Okafor, his opponent, was amazed in his heart, feeling a little envious and a little jealous - he is worthy of being a center produced by the Lakers, and this little hook shot is really great.

At this moment, the hook shot is associated with the Lakers. The sky hook and the big shark are the main means of scoring. The former can extend to the mid-range and is called the big sky hook, while the latter is usually in a circle around the basket and is called the small hook.

Bynum's hook shot range is not much different from that of the Sharks.

However, after seeing Bynum's hook shot, Carlisle, who was on the Bobcats' bench, looked towards the opposite coaching bench - Timberwolves head coach Randy Whitman.

Bynum's hook combo, except that the shooting action is a hook, has basically nothing to do with the sky hook. Instead, it is very similar to this guy.

Carlisle and Whitman were both players in the 80s, and both were big guards with little athletic ability. The difference was that Whitman was an organizing shooting guard who averaged 12 points and 3 assists per game in his prime, while Carlisle was a marginal player. The two faced off for several rounds in the playoffs, and Carlisle failed to defend in every round and was scored by Whitman with a hook shot at close range. It was very impressive.

Bynum spent two years with the Lakers honing his skills in post-ups and hook shots, but when he came to the Timberwolves, he was labeled by Whitman as a player with his hook shot? Carlisle: Shame on you!
Although Bynum is indeed not very suitable for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's back-to-the-hook technique, the physical conditions of the two are too different.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is three or four centimeters taller than Bynum, but weighs more than ten kilograms less than Bynum. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's hook shot is to avoid the confrontation shot and move outward; Bynum is more suitable for facing the confrontation shot and getting as close to the basket as possible.

Randy Whitman also relied on his weight to get into position for hook shots at close range. In the 80s, Whitman, who was 198 cm tall and weighed 100 kg, was considered a heavy guard and was indeed more suitable for Bynum.

But Carlisle still thinks Whitman is shameless and took advantage of the Lakers.

However, Carlisle felt that Whitman did a good job in training Bynum, and he quickly helped Bynum realize his talent.

The Timberwolves' ability to help young inside players hone their basics is not as strong as the Lakers', but the Timberwolves can give Bynum what the Lakers cannot. The Lakers will definitely give priority to Kobe on the court, followed by Odom. Last season, even Kwame Brown and Luke Walton had a higher tactical status than Bynum. The Timberwolves, whether on or off the court, always take care of Bynum first. It can even be said that all resources are poured into him alone, and it doesn't matter if the talents of others are wasted.

Moreover, the Timberwolves are only not as good as the Lakers in helping their inside players to hone their foundation, but they are still among the best in the entire league.

When the Bobcats attacked, Okafor rarely asked for the ball. Felton saw Zhang Yang pulling away and passed the ball to Okafor at the right elbow.

Okafor relied on Bynum, turned around with his back to the basket and faced the basket, showing off his footwork.

Bynum is a pretty good defender, with his height, wingspan, weight, speed and defensive awareness.

However, Okafor's footwork in singles is solid and superb, and his explosive start is obviously one beat faster. He seizes the gap, cuts one step and jumps into the reasonable collision zone, and lifts the ball on the way in. When his feet land under the basket, the ball flies towards the basket frame along with the force of his jump into the basket and falls into the frame!
The fans at the scene cheered loudly and responded to the ball!

Zhang Yang was a little surprised about this ball. He would not be surprised if Okafor created opportunities by turning around or flipping over, because that is what Okafor is good at, but he actually relied on speed... Last season, when the two faced each other, Okafor's speed was not an advantage, and he was about the same as Bynum.

Before his serious injury, Bynum was a super potential stock with all the talents except for his brain. He weighed 130 kilograms, but had excellent mobility compared with power forwards. He was also very durable in the first two and a half years of his career.

It was not until the middle of the 07-08 season that Bynum stepped on Odom's foot while grabbing a rebound in the crowd and fell, twisting his knee and dislocating the entire kneecap. He also suffered structural damage to the knee joint and meniscus. He could only be treated with surgery and was out for the season.

The injury was too complicated and the treatment was not ideal. When he returned in the 08-09 season, Bynum's mobility, jumping speed, and explosiveness were greatly affected. Various knee problems continued to affect his entire career. Comparing before and after the serious injury, Bynum's physical talents were completely different...but his brain did not change.

Bynum's movement speed is only faster than last season, but Okafor can take advantage of the difference in rhythm...

When retreating, teammates went to high-five Okafor. While high-fiving, Zhang Yang asked, "Did you lose weight successfully?"

Okafor's weight loss this time is small. Unlike last time when he lost 10 kilograms in several months, the change in body shape will not be so obvious. Plus, Zhang Yang can't tell since he sees it every day.

The main reason is that the Bobcats haven't encountered an inside player with similar mobility as Okafor for a long time. The ones they have encountered are either physical players like Stoudemire and Thaddeus Young whose mobility is not inferior to that of small forwards, or white inside players with shooting ability who are not mobile like Murphy and Kostic.

"Eight pounds," Okafor said succinctly.

Zhang Yang gave a thumbs up. It has been about a month since Okafor decided to lose weight, right?
During this month, Okafor trained and played games with everyone every day. During this period, he lost six or seven pounds without realizing it. Little Duncan is really perseverant!
It was the Timberwolves' turn to attack. Randy Foye broke through Felton and entered the inside, passing the ball... Bynum got in position to receive the ball, raised his head and shot it high!
Losing weight is not always a good thing. Okafor was able to compete with Bynum before, but now he is obviously struggling more than last season.

In the transition from offense to defense, Zhang Yang played against Jaric, and Jaric did a good job in close defense.

Zhang Yang played with a poor rhythm and dribbled the ball from behind, then broke through the middle. McCants retreated and Bynum moved to the top of the arc in the reasonable collision zone, and Zhang Yang passed the ball to the right side of the three-second zone.

Bynum immediately moved to the right side of the three-second zone, but was still a little slow. Okafor received the ball, turned around and made a close-range jump shot!

Okafor has lost six or seven pounds and Bynum's strength has improved compared to last season. It is difficult for the former to defend the latter one-on-one.

But Okafor's playing style is lighter than before, and Bynum can't defend against it!

In the next few rounds, the two teams fought back and forth. The Timberwolves' offense around Bynum was indeed difficult to defend, mainly because the Bobcats could not hold up under the basket, so they had to rely on Hill or Millsap to shrink and defend. Randy Foye and Jaric, two guards averaging 4 assists per game, took advantage of this to open up the team's offense.

Fortunately, the Bobcats played very well on offense and couldn’t be defended for more than one or two games, so they didn’t fall behind at the beginning.

After a few rounds, Carlisle took advantage of a dead ball to replace Perkins, letting Okafor play power forward, while Felton, Zhang Yang and Hill continued to play.

With a more obvious comparison, Carlisle also found that Okafor had successfully lost weight and was fully capable of playing as a full-time power forward.

He hadn't noticed this before, and the reason was similar to Zhang Yang's.

Also, Okafor is not a bloated player, but a muscular man with tendons. During the season where there is basically a game every other day, he thinks it would be good if Okafor could lose weight before the halfway point of the season. Moreover, he did not feel that Okafor's performance fluctuated due to weight loss during this period... Okafor never mentioned this!

Is it because he hasn't lost 10 pounds yet and wants to wait until he loses enough weight before reporting? Kabal is in a very complicated mood. This team is full of weirdness...

The Timberwolves also made lineup adjustments, replacing Sebastian Telfair and Anthony Walker, while Randy Foye, McCants and Bynum continued to play.

After the timeout, the Bobcats failed to take advantage, but the Timberwolves went on a 9-4 run first!
Anthony Walker showed his all-around skills. When Okafor was close to him, he would break through. When Okafor was away from the defense, he would shoot. He was very reckless and played however he wanted.

Bynum is very familiar with this style of play, and he does an excellent job in receiving and coordinating the ball and grabbing offensive rebounds.

Carlisle is troubled by this. If Okafor plays center, he can't defend against Bynum, but Perkins can. If Okafor plays power forward, he can't defend against Anthony Walker. If Okafor is replaced, the attacking threat is not enough, and Bynum can cover the basket by himself, and the Timberwolves' outside players can cut in to defend against shots...

Fortunately, Zhang Yang launched two consecutive counterattacks. He scored a goal himself and assisted Okafor who followed up to narrow the 5-point difference to 1 point. Carlisle did not rush to call a timeout and just wanted to see how the game went.

At the end of the first quarter, Randy Foye received a pass from Anthony Walker and made a three-pointer, 32 to 26, and the Timberwolves extended their lead to 6 points!
With 17 seconds left in the first quarter, it was the Bobcats' turn to attack. Zhang Yang faced Randy Foye, who was defending him, from the top of the arc. He changed direction, broke through the opponent and rushed to the right elbow area, and made a quick stop jump shot... and it hit!
As the ball went in, the referee blew the whistle. McCants, who was coming to defend, bumped into Zhang Yang who had just thrown the ball. It was a defensive foul and Zhang Yang was awarded an extra free throw!

With Zhang Yang's free throw, the first quarter ended with the score at 29 to 32, and the Bobcats narrowed the gap to 3 points and entered the intermission!
Returning to the bench, Felton complained: "I don't know what's wrong with our recent opponents. They all play like they're fighting for their lives!"

Hill: "There are very few teams that can win 10 games in a row. After 10 games, you may lose at any time. Every opponent wants to be the one to end our winning streak, so they will definitely play very hard." Felton: "I forgot this. Yes, last season when the Suns won more than games in a row, I played very hard against them, but I didn't win. But I didn't expect that after Garnett left, the Timberwolves are stronger than last season."

Zhang Yang: "Last season, the Timberwolves wanted to play badly. They gave up a lot of players in the 06 offseason. They did not renew the contract with the core player Cassell, sent Banks (Marcus) to the Suns, and did not renew the contracts of the main inside substitutes such as Olowokandi... Instead, they kept Davis (Ricky), a player with a negative effect on the court.

It's just that Garnett was unwilling to give up and insisted on leading his teammates to win, leading the Timberwolves to more than 30 wins. If it weren't for Garnett, the Timberwolves' record last season might have been worse than that of the Celtics.

They wanted to tank last season because they wanted to get the top two draft picks to select Oden or Durant. They traded for Bynum, so naturally they didn't want to continue to tank.

I remember that after they lost Garnett's 2400 million-dollar contract, their total salary dropped to 4900 million. They didn't think about saving money. Instead, they signed free agents and traded to fill the salary cap, built the lineup around Bynum, and used Davis (Ricky) and Blount (Mark) whose short contracts were about to expire to exchange for players with long-term contracts and outstanding strength. Walker was obtained in such a trade.

When the preseason just ended, some media predicted that they would win 40 games, but now they haven’t performed as expected by the media…”

Zhang Yang said that he felt that the Timberwolves management still had some advantages, such as being very decisive and having good vision in determining the core players.

加内特19岁新秀年打出场均10分6.4板1.8助攻1.1抢断1.6盖帽的表现，展现出惊人天赋后，森林狼队确定以他为核心建队；09-10赛季乐福打出场均14分11板的表现后，他们立刻把上限不高的艾尔-杰弗森甩卖到爵士队，扶正乐福。

Now that Bynum is averaging 19 points, 8 rebounds and 6 blocks per game in his sophomore season at the age of 1.6, he has been decisively established as the new core and trained with all his strength.

After listening to Zhang Yang's words, Felton said, "I haven't paid much attention to them. Jack, when you mention this, I looked at the opposing players. Except for the absence of Garnett, their lineup is indeed much better than in the past two seasons... Hey, does this mean that Garnett's high salary has hindered the Timberwolves from strengthening their team?

I remember seeing a news story in college saying Garnett’s salary was higher than Bryant and Duncan combined.”

"...You can also say that."

Zhang San could understand that the fat boss didn't know much about the Timberwolves. He was collecting information about the Timberwolves because he was about to play against them. Who would pay attention to a non-playoff team in the Western Conference?

But the angle from which the fat little boss looked at things was really tricky.

不过费尔顿说的也没错，03-04赛季，科比薪水1350万、邓肯1268万、加内特……2800万。

Garnett's salary this season is 400 million higher than Kobe and Duncan.

...

After the players chatted, drank water and rested for more than a minute, Carlisle called the players together to adjust their playing style.

Facing the Timberwolves, who have good lineup depth, good lineup structure, and who play very hard, Carlisle's adjustment direction is very clear - attack!

This adjustment was very much to the liking of Zhang Yang and his teammates.

Seeing the players excitedly stepping onto the court, Paul Silas said: "The players are very happy to hear that they are going to play offense. They don't seem to like defense."

Carlisle: "It's not that they don't like defense, but young players don't like to do useless things.

Our defensive conditions are not good enough. We don't have a real defensive pioneer on the outside, and our rotation defense system is not well established. When we encountered trouble in the previous few games, I chose to strengthen the defense, but the energy and physical strength invested were not proportional to the return brought by the strengthened defense. Because of the lack of connection points between the inside and outside defense, the defense was not good. I found that the players had a resistance to defense.

So since I started playing against the Suns, I have focused on offense when responding to situations, and this change is indeed more suitable for us at the moment."

Paul Silas responded, "Rick, you young coaches are really courageous. Even if I discovered these, I still didn't dare to give up the tradition of defense."

Carlisle: "I haven't given up on defense, I just don't get hung up on 'tradition', and defense isn't so-called tradition. When I was a player 20 years ago, the mainstream style of play in the NBA was offense. More than a decade ago, the league changed the rules and it became defense. At that time, most of the coaches who were hung up on 'offensive tradition' were eliminated by the NBA. Now the league has begun to adjust the rules in a direction that is conducive to offense, and we must keep up.

But now defense has not been eliminated. Now it is very similar to the transition period in the early 90s. Both offense and defense are important. So in the starting phase when the defensive conditions are relatively good, the tactics I arrange are still defense-first..."

Carlisle conveyed his coaching philosophy to the assistant coaches on the sidelines. On the court, Zhang Yang led the team to launch a fierce attack!
In the first game, Zhang Yang used the butterfly step to change direction and passed the clumsy defender Randy Brown to break into the inside. He made a quick stop jump shot against the backup Mark Madsen at close range, chasing the score to 31 to 32 and narrowing the gap to 1 point.

Turning around, Randy Brown faced Zhang Yang's single defense and made a sudden stop and two-point shot, but was disturbed by Zhang Yang.

Rondo grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a counterattack!
The two point guards, Telfair and Randy Brown, retreated to the backcourt very quickly. When Zhang Yang rushed to the free throw line, the two had already retreated to the basket.

But Rondo still passed the ball to Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang received the ball and rushed into the double-team, using his height advantage to shoot high... He made a one-on-two jump shot and caused Telfair to foul!
Zhang Yang went to the free throw line and made the free throw, 34 to 32, the Bobcats overtook by two points!

While Zhang Yang was shooting free throws, Whitman replaced him with sixth man Anthony Walker to intensify the offense.

When the Timberwolves attacked, Anthony Walker made a great contribution right away, rushing into the paint and lobbed the ball... Bynum pressed over Perkins' head and made a layup! This also caused the opponent to foul!
Perkins was not completely out of position on this ball. If Bynum had been standing still to receive the ball, Perkins could have handled it. However, Anthony Walker's pass was also very wild, and he seized Perkins' weakness in aerial defense and delivered an assist that was worthy of a top-five play.

Bynum also made the free throw, 35 to 34, the Timberwolves kept the score close!
After the offense and defense switched, Zhang Yang continued to break through with the ball... He encountered an early double-team in the elbow area and passed the ball back to the free throw line. Rondo received the ball and went straight to the basket from the middle, attracting Bynum to come out. He then sent a small lob, which just flew over the fingertips of Bynum who jumped up to intercept. Perkins received the ball behind Bynum and violently dunked it with both hands, responding to Bynum's alley-oop layup!
When Zhang Yang encounters a player who is strong in one-on-one defense, he serves as an off-ball assist point; when he can play with absolute advantage in one-on-one play, Rondo and Hill will serve as the assist points, and occasionally Millsap will also get the opportunity to practice assisting in actual combat. They have been playing for nearly a month, and they have already developed a clear way to respond in this regard.

Facing the fierce offensive of the league's top Bobcats, the Timberwolves, composed mainly of young and athletic players, showed no fear and fought back.

If they could end the Bobcats' opening 12-game winning streak...they'd be so excited just thinking about it.

In the following time, the Timberwolves and the Bobcats fought back and forth in regular offense, but whenever it came to the star confrontation, the Timberwolves were no longer able to do it.

Bynum played well in the regular time. He was able to hold his own against Okafor and Muhammad in singles. Facing Perkins' defense, he was also able to have scoring opportunities with the help of his teammates. But when it came to the critical moment, he had to stand up and solve the problem in singles... It was difficult for Bynum.

Telfair, Jaric, McCants, Radmanovic and others could only score in team offense. Randy Brown and Anthony Walker had the ability to score in singles, but when competing against Zhang Yang, Felton, and Jarrett Jack... they couldn't win!
Although the Timberwolves repeatedly closed the gap, the Bobcats were able to take advantage whenever the game reached a tense stage.

比赛来到末节9分22秒，森林狼队在官方暂停后打出了一波10比4，将比分追至102比107，官方暂停前多达11分的分差被他们缩小到了5分，两球就可以追上！
But immediately afterwards, Zhang Yang faced Jaric's defense, turned around and made a mid-range shot from the high post, widening the score difference to 7 points.

It was the Timberwolves' turn to attack again. After a climax, the Timberwolves fell into a brief slump. Anthony Walker's three-pointer was short, Okafor blocked Bynum this time, and Millsap went inside to protect the defensive rebound.

In the transition of offense and defense, Zhang Yang received the ball outside the three-point line, pretended to break through and stepped back, shook off Yaric, jumped and shot... He did not show any mercy at the critical moment and made a three-pointer!

112 to 102, the score difference returns to double digits!

The Timberwolves' young players were able to withstand the blow tonight. They had such a big lead in the first quarter, but Zhang Yang's 2+1 narrowed the gap to 3 points. They withstood the blow; in the second and third quarters, they narrowed the gap and even surpassed the score. In the end, they were beaten by Zhang Yang and Felton's singles, but they did not get discouraged; in the first half of the final quarter, the Bobcats scored 17 to 10, widening the gap to 11 points, and they also held on, and launched a counterattack after the official timeout...

But after Zhang Yang scored this goal, they really couldn't hold back anymore!
Zhang Yang scored 11 points in three quarters, including 9 points in the first quarter, 10 points in the second quarter and 30 points in the third quarter. With this shot, his score in the final quarter also reached double digits, with 12 points in a single quarter!
With less than two minutes left, the Timberwolves failed to organize an effective counterattack. Zhang Yang also failed to score any more goals and missed a three-pointer.

At 8:23 pm, the final whistle sounded.

29投14中，其中三分球11中5，加上10中9的罚球，张杨打了38分钟，拿到42分5板2助攻2抢断1盖帽，率领山猫队以115比104击败森林狼队。

Zhang Yang scored 40+ points in two consecutive games, leading the Bobcats to a 13-game winning streak!

(End of this chapter)