Chapter 287 286. Is he stupid or really smart?
He said "a little bit" but stretched out his arms to show the longest length. Zhang Yang wanted to see Durant's gnashing teeth and frustrated expression, but...

Durant took a step forward, spread his arms, compared them with Zhang Yang's arms, and said, "My armspan is longer."

Zhang Yang: “…”

The two teammates watching: "..."

For a moment, the court was silent. Elson, who picked up the ball and prepared to serve, forgot to step out of bounds. The referee, who was worried that the bad boy Jack would have another conflict, also forgot to serve for 5 seconds.

It was only when Durant turned around and ran to the front court after comparing his wingspan that the awkwardness was broken. He served the ball and retreated...

Ray Allen came to the frontcourt and looked at Durant who was closely followed by Zhang Yang, muttering in his heart: Is this kid really stupid and can't understand his opponent's trash talk, or is he very smart and uses this method to regulate his emotions and relieve stress?

No matter which one it is, Ray Allen admires the rookie who comes to take over from him... He has a tense relationship with the management of the Supersonics, which can be said to be to the point of being incompatible, but it does not conflict with his admiration for Durant.

The overall performance of the 07 class has been quite poor since the start, with only three players averaging double-digit points per game - Durant averaging 17.8 points per game, Yi Jianlian averaging 11.3 points per game, and Al Thornton averaging 11.4 points per game.

At present, it seems that the class of 07 is even worse than the class of 06. At least there were 06 players in the class of 5 who scored in double digits in their rookie season.

Yi Jianlian is highly praised in China for his average of 11 points per game, because most of the rookies in the same class are not very good. His performance can basically ensure that he will be selected for the first team of rookies. The Chinese people's obsession with "rankings" is reflected in all aspects.

The 07 class is currently rated higher than the 06 class because there are Conley, Noah, and Thaddeus Young. The three of them are supporting roles in their respective teams, but they have shown good combat effectiveness and talent. In addition, Oden, who was praised by the media during the draft, still makes people full of expectations...

The other players in the same class were generally very weak. Durant, who scored 27 points in his debut against the Suns, naturally became the only focus among this year's rookies. Almost every first-rate and top outside star liked to make fun of Durant when playing against the SuperSonics, that is, targeting him.

Durant remained calm in the face of targeting and teasing. He played the game the way he should, swung his ball as hard as he could, and seized every offensive opportunity to train himself. Ray Allen saw all of this and admired it very much.

Just look at this: after Ridnour advanced to the frontcourt and launched a pick-and-roll attack with Elson, Durant actively ran for opportunities to receive the ball while being chased by Zhang Yang.

Ray Allen moved to the corner and was not in a hurry to attack. He didn't care about the first attack... Anyway, the team couldn't even get enough players who could score, and Durant could only handle more than ten shots in a game. He was not worried about not having a shot, but only worried that he would not be able to handle too many shots.

Ridnour and Elson started a pick-and-roll attack... After Ridnour broke the ball, he passed the ball to Durant who ran out to receive the ball, but the pick-and-roll was in vain.

After being separated, Elson wanted to cut in, but was blocked by the fat boy who moved one step away to the mid-range; after being separated, Ridnour had no idea about Okafor's shooting and breakthrough. After losing weight, Okafor's ability to cut into the basket and counterattack has not only improved, but his movement speed has returned to the level when he first entered the NBA, and his ability to defend against smaller players has also returned. It can't be said that he is particularly good, but with the center protecting the rim behind him, he has no problem defending Ridnour who is sluggish in individual offense.

After receiving the ball, Durant wanted to turn around and shoot, but Zhang Yang blocked his lower body. When he turned around, he felt weak in his jump, so he quickly stopped the action, grabbed the ball with one hand and reached back to protect it.

Durant is 206 cm tall and weighs only 97 kg. Compared with Zhang Yang, who is 196 cm tall barefoot and weighs 93 kg, he is clearly at a disadvantage.

Although Durant is just a rookie, he has a very high talent in defensive reading. Just from the confrontation just now, he knew that he might not be able to beat Zhang Yang.

But he didn't pass the ball, he had to shoot even if he couldn't!

He leaned down and confronted Zhang Yang. Without dribbling the ball, he secretly slid back half a step to create a little space.

The referee saw this little move but ignored it.

Because Durant is the face of the rookies, the best performing rookie of each year will have some privileges, and the league cannot let him perform too poorly, right? Even a weak player like Mike Miller, who averaged 00 points per game in the 11.9 class, can win the Best Rookie award. Kenyon Martin, who performed best that year, also has privileges. In his rookie year, he often moved while blocking people during pick-and-rolls, and his hands and feet were not clean during defensive confrontations, but the referees generally did not blow the whistle… The best performer in the 00 rookie year was actually the No. pick Martin. He lost the Best Rookie voting to Mike Miller because he missed more than a dozen games due to injury. That year, except for the number of appearances and three-point shooting percentage, Kenyon Martin's other statistics were all better than Mike Miller.

After taking half a step to create space to lift the ball, Durant faked a shot, and then faked another... Zhang Yang put his left hand on his waist and his right hand on the right side of his head, keeping himself in a position to interfere with the shot at any time, and completely ignored Durant's faked shot.

Durant glanced at Perkins under the basket and Felton facing Elson outside the three-second zone. He had no choice but to dribble the ball, step back, grab the ball, and jump...but he failed to jump fully!
Zhang Yang pressed forward the moment Durant dribbled the ball, and held Durant's lower body before he grabbed the ball and jumped. Durant didn't have enough strength to jump, and although he was not blocked and successfully shot the ball, Durant didn't know where the ball would hit... "Bang"...

The ball hit the rim, bounced onto the backboard, bounced a bit, and landed on the backboard again the second time. The referee blew the whistle, it was out of bounds!

For this ball, the Sonics players all felt that Zhang Yang's defense was great.

Zhang Yang himself felt the same way. Under normal circumstances, he would have been showing off and saying some trash talk, but he didn't do that this time.

Looking at the tall and skinny guy who was silently retreating, Zhang San felt that this rookie was poisonous. The arm span comparison just now had left him with a psychological trauma. God knew how this rookie would respond to his trash talk.

As long as he is not embarrassed, the one who is embarrassed is someone else... Zhang San never thought that he would become that 'someone else' one day.

In the next few rounds, Zhang Yang kept hammering Durant, attacking one-on-one whenever possible and defending him to death.

When he attacks, Durant can't defend him because his footwork is not as fast as his and he is not as good as him in confrontation. Durant also has almost zero defensive experience.

He is very familiar with Durant's usual offensive methods and has a clear defensive purpose. Durant's current ability is still relatively new, so he defends very well and does not let Durant go even when he doesn't have the ball.

During this period at the beginning of the game, Durant had almost no room to struggle except for occasionally making a strong shot to show off his height, wingspan and shooting talent.

However, Zhang Yang did not enjoy much fun of bullying the weak ones.

It was too quiet. No matter how badly he was abused, Durant was very quiet and tried hard to shoot and defend every ball. Zhang Yang, who went into the court with the mentality of bullying the little backpack, even felt a little frustrated.

He kind of understood why Duncan's opponents were so irritable...

...

The score difference was quickly widened. After Durant's opening main attack phase ended, Ray Allen took over the ball and started to score singles. Only then did the Supersonics start to score normally.

Although Ridnour is the assist leader of the Supersonics, Ray Allen is the actual offensive organizer, averaging 25.5 points, 4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.

At least half of Ridnour's assists were passed to Durant or Ray Allen, who immediately caught the ball. There were only two or three truly effective organized offenses per game.

Ray Allen was good at organizing the offense, but with too few teammates who could score, he could only barely keep the score difference from becoming ugly immediately. Halfway through the first quarter, the Bobcats led the SuperSonics by 18 points, 9 to 9.

During the official timeout, Felton wiped his sweat and said to Zhang Yang, "Jack, you're defending the third-best high school student in your class so badly that he's been beaten up. You're too ruthless."

Zhang Yang: "He didn't play randomly. He was trying to score the ball over my head in various ways, but he couldn't make it yet."

Felton: "Do you think he can develop that kind of difficult goal-scoring ability? You're thinking too much. He's not you."

Zhang Yang: "He may be one of my biggest competitors in the future."

Felton: “Impossible?”

Zhang Yang: "How about a bet? Bet 100 yuan that he will become a superstar."

Felton: "Then I have to re-evaluate him. If a reporter asks me questions about him during an interview, I have to answer them properly, so that I won't be embarrassed if the news is dug up later."

"?" Zhang Yang said dissatisfiedly: "Boss, why don't you bet with me?"

Felton: "You have better vision than me, why should I bet with you and give you money for free?"

Zhang Yang: "You're so stingy. You didn't even give me a hundred dollars..."

The two chatted for a while, wiped the sweat off their faces casually, and gathered around Carlisle. After more than ten seconds, they sat down on the chairs, changed to a clean towel, continued to wipe their sweat, and put on their training suits.

Zhang Yang and Felton were both replaced. Okafor brought Rondo, Alan Anderson, Mike Miller and Hill to play. The offense was organized around Mike Miller's mid-range and long-range shots, Rondo and Hill as the core, and Okafor and Alan Anderson as the receiving points.

Entering the rotation stage, the Bobcats' speed of widening the score gap suddenly slowed down. When playing against the Supersonics, it would be better to let Okafor score alone or Rondo score. The opponent's defense was too weak and many tactical runs seemed stupid and dull.

But Carlisle gave a strict order that the tactics must be run and mastered during the game.

That's right, Carlisle used the SuperSonics as sparring partners.

It's no wonder that Carlisle is so arrogant. It's not just him who treats the Supersonics as 'sparring partners', other strong teams do the same. If every team plays seriously against the Supersonics, the Supersonics' average net loss will not be just over 10 points, it will be difficult to be less than 20 points.

When playing against the Rockets previously, they discovered areas that needed tactical adjustments. When playing against the SuperSonics, one of the four worst teams this season, Carlisle forced the players to practice hard through actual combat.

However, Carlisle cannot fully control what his players do on the court, such as defense.

Zhang Yang went down to rest, and Mike Miller or Rondo took the initiative to help Hill double-team Durant, and Hill did not refuse. He often did such things as bullying talented rookies in the last century.

Under the "care" of Zhang Yang and his teammates, Durant had a terrible performance tonight. He played for 37 minutes, made 16 of 4 shots, including 4 of 0 three-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws, barely scoring in double digits, with 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, plus 4 fouls and 4 turnovers.

However, with Zhang Yang's evaluation, the Bobcats players also discovered Durant's specialness - no matter how bad the offensive environment is, he always tries hard to shoot!

Zhang Yang's old teammates who have been working with him since his rookie season really saw some of Zhang Yang's shadow in Durant...

Durant, who had been missing shots silently, was actually shocked tonight - the real Jack on the opposite side only played for 27 minutes and threw the ball 20 times!
It's the same tactic, but when it comes to playing around Zhang Yang, the style is completely different from playing around Okafor, Felton, and Mike Miller. Zhang Yang can catch the ball by running and using the screen. Even if the backup defense comes, he still throws the ball...

20投11中、其中三分球4中2，加上4中3的罚球，张杨拿到全场最高的27分！
He took one more shot than Ray Allen, who played for 39 minutes, and scored two more points than Ray Allen.

Durant: I want to shoot like this too!
But thinking about the fact that I had attacked 20 times tonight, including the rounds that resulted in fouls and mistakes, I was already exhausted...

Durant: I'd better level up slowly, there's no rush, I'm still young...wait!
My little Jack seems to be a little older than the real Jack?

At 10:24 p.m., the final whistle blew and the Bobcats easily defeated the SuperSonics 116 to 98.

Durant was shocked, but Zhang Yang, who shocked Durant, was unhappy - bullying a weak player could actually make him feel depressed, which was something Duncan's opponents had never experienced.

We still have to play against the SuperSonics once this season, right? Play harder then! The number of shots should be twice that of Durant!
...

The game against the SuperSonics marked the beginning of a five-game road trip for the Bobcats.

The next morning, the Bobcats left the wealthy city of Seattle and came to Portland, the Rose City, another prosperous big city in the West.

After a night's rest, on the morning of December 12, Zhang Yang and his teammates came to the Rose Garden Arena to prepare for the game.

As soon as the pre-match meeting ended, Zhang Yang and his teammates received news about their competitor - Yao Ming won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week last week, winning all four games, averaging 4 minutes per game, scoring 32 points, 24 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks.

Thanks to last week's four-game winning streak, the Bulls' record improved to 4 wins and 13 losses, surpassing the Pistons to rank second in the Eastern Conference.

They are catching up! The female Zhao Riyue leads the Bulls' iron-blooded army to catch up!

And what was even more frustrating was that the opponent that Nv Zhao Ri Yue defeated to win the best player of the week was exactly him, Zhang San.

Who made the Bobcats have a good record? They had 2 wins and 1 loss last week. He averaged 32 points per game last week. His name will definitely appear as a candidate for this type of award.

When the Player of the Month was announced a few days ago, Zhang Yang was very proud to see that he had defeated three candidates. Today, he wants to propose to the NBA - don't announce the candidates who didn't win the award in the future.

Zhang San now understood what the old blacksmith meant: It feels so bad to be second!

(End of this chapter)