Chapter 294 293.Classmate KING has really changed!

After the meeting, Zhang Yang drank a bottle of soda water and then burped.

Before the change of coach, Zhang Yang thought that the new head coach might encounter various troubles and might need help, such as on the tactical level. He was happy to communicate. If the new head coach was capable enough and suitable for their team, he would not mind sharing his knowledge of future tactical concepts that were "tested and useful".

However, Carlisle did not need his advice in this regard and created a large-scale ball transmission tactic based on the triangle offense, which is very suitable for the NBA game environment in the next few years. The advice provided by Zhang San became the icing on the cake.

Zhang Yang was naturally happy that it didn't require any trouble, as he could focus on himself.

But I didn't expect that Carlisle actually had problems with his mentality, and it started in the preseason.

In other teams, the players have problems with their mentality and the coaches have to find ways to guide them. But here, it’s different. The players need to help the coach calm down.

But, thinking about Carlisle's coaching experience over the past six years...

Carlisle's first six years of coaching career were more "exciting" than many coaches who have coached for more than ten or twenty years.

He started off as the best coach, built a perfect system after two years of coaching, and then reaped the rewards.

He changed teams and rebuilt the system, winning 60 games in his first year, and ranked first in the league at the start of the second year, and then a brawl broke out.

After two years of bloodbath, the team began to rebuild. There was an opportunity to get a super shooter whose three-point ability was not inferior to Reggie Miller. However, the general manager did not want to give up Ray Allen in order to make way for his old team. Instead, he replaced him with Peja, who withered in the late season and disappeared in the playoffs.

After 6 years of teaching, every word is written with blood and tears, capitalized——

It is understandable that Carlisle is eager to prove himself, and when he encounters a problem he wants to solve it immediately, and he is not calm enough and lacks patience.

The "calmness" during the 13-game winning streak does not conflict with the lack of patience. There were no problems at the time, so it was easy to just say "calm down" and "don't be careless".

The main reason why Zhang Yang was so reasonable at this time was that Carlisle's coaching ability was indeed good. Except for his impatience, Carlisle did a good job in other aspects after taking over the position of head coach of the Bobcats.

If Kabal was as stubborn as his senior, who only knew how to defend, and Leng had to lead them to play defense without any defensive conditions... he would let Kabal know what a professional troll is.

...

Zhang Yang felt like he was kidnapped by his bed.

He went to bed early last night. In the winter in the north, there was no condition to go out for a stroll. He fell asleep in bed after 10 o'clock and woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning. However, he was restrained by the quilt until 8 o'clock when Alan Anderson came to call him. He finally got rid of the quilt with difficulty and got up, had breakfast with his teammates, and went to the Air Canada Arena.

After another night's rest, Zhang Yang may not have completely shaken off the fatigue from the consecutive away games, but he was in much better spirits than yesterday. During the morning preparation training, he was the most energetic one in the team.

The amount of preparatory training in the morning is very small, only half an hour in total.

After the team training, Zhang Yang and Hill chatted while practicing the butterfly step for a while. At first they practiced it for fun, just to try to improve their sense of the ball, but they didn't expect it to be so effective when bullying the weaker opponents.

As they talked about the Christmas game two weeks later, Hill asked, "Jack, is this your first Christmas game?"

Zhang Yang: "Yes, what about you?"

Hill: "I haven't played in a Christmas game for many years. I played every year when I was with the Detroit Pistons. The league also arranged a Christmas game for the first two years after I joined the Magic, but I was written off for the season both times and couldn't play. The league didn't arrange a Christmas game for us afterwards."

"..." Zhang Yang exhaled through his nose and said, "Time flies. It's almost the middle of the season. I was wondering why the training volume has been decreasing recently. I think it may not only be due to the consecutive away games, but the coaching staff should also be preparing for the middle of the season."

Why did the topic turn to this? Hill still responded: "Yes, Rick has always paid attention to these details."

Zhang Yang: "Hey, the season is almost a quarter over. I feel like I wasted a lot of time this season."

Hill: “Why do you say that?”

Zhang Yang: "I've played for so long this season, and I haven't gained anything except being second in the scoring list and first in the record."

Hill: "..."

You are more pretentious than me!

It was 3:10 pm when Zhang Yang and his teammates entered the stadium.

Every winter when the Bobcats play away games in Toronto, it is the earliest game they play in the entire season. If there is no overtime, the game can be finished almost at dark.

After the entrance ceremony, Zhang Yang went to the sidelines and was interviewed by the reporter from the Chaoting TV station.

There is no live broadcast, but the Bobcats only come to Toronto to play one game every year, and the TV station wants to shoot some footage and ask some random questions to use in the sports news program.

When Zhang Yang was answering a question, he saw the reporter trying to hold back his laughter, and turned around to look... a long-necked dinosaur was trying to get in front of the camera!
They have played against each other so many times. Although Zhang Yang was targeted by the Raptors in two games last season because he instigated Kobe to score 83 points against the Raptors, he has no personal grudge against Bosh.

He pulled Bosh in front of the camera and introduced him in English: "This is Chris Bosh, one of the best scoring power forwards in the NBA. In my mind, he is no worse than James and Wade of the same class..."

Bosh was so surprised to hear this. It wasn't the first time he had taken advantage of the camera, but it was the first time someone had been so friendly to him! The first time someone had praised him so much!
Zhang Yang continued: "His signature game was when Kobe scored 81 points on him."

Long-necked dragon: convex (艹皿艹) convex

Bosh wanted to refute, but racked his brains to recall his classic games. Sadly, he found that Kobe scored 81 points, which was indeed the most "iconic" game in his career so far. Not even one of them...

At 3: pm, the Bobcats' away game against the Raptors starts!
Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Mike Miller, Millsap, Okafor.

Raptors starting lineup: Ford, Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, Bargnani, Bosh.

Bosh beats Okafor to win the jump ball, and the Raptors attack first!
Ford advanced to the front court and broke through to initiate the attack.

Zhang Yang was passed cleanly, Ford is really fast!

Mike Miller's zone double team came quickly, and Ford's pass from the right was blocked, but he did not face the defense and jump shot. He did not have Iver's jumping ability, and before Mike Miller and Zhang Yang formed a siege, he passed the ball...

On the left side, Bosh cut in after picking up the ball for Bargnani on the outside, received the ball, and passed it... Kapono moved to the mid-range on the right baseline, received the ball and made a mid-range shot!
Zhang Yang reached back to pick up the ball, let out a "whoa" and shook his head. The opponent's spatial pulling ability was too strong!
Bargnani and Bosh, two players who can shoot from long range, went to the outside to set off-ball screens, and the three-second zone was empty for a while!

That is to say, Okafor has lost weight, and paired with Millsap, these two people expanded out to defend and switch defense to prevent Bosh from cutting directly into the open layup.

Carlisle's decision to use this inside combination was based on the team's core defensive idea of ​​man-to-man defense.

The defensive choice of most teams is to let these two players go out to set off-ball screens, and let the outside players cover the big men. It would be fine if the rotation speed was fast. Teams like the Rockets and Spurs are not afraid of the Rockets' style of play, but most teams' outside rotation speed is not that fast, which ultimately leads to the Raptors' wing shooters getting a lot of open shooting opportunities.

这赛季至今，卡波诺三分命中率48%、安东尼-帕克三分命中率43%、卡尔德隆三分命中率42%、胡安-迪克森三分命中率44%……猛龙队全队三分命中率高达40.6%，力压三分命中率39.3%的太阳队，高居联盟第一。

During the offseason, the general manager of the Raptors accurately grasped the timing of the trade, packaged up the veterans who looked good last season and sent them away with junk contracts, and decisively snatched top open pitcher Jason Kapono from the Heat and Carlos Delfino from the Pistons... forming an army of pitchers.

Head coach Sam Mitchell also did a good job coaching, further optimizing last season's breakthrough, passing and cutting tactics and making good use of the pitching group.

The Raptors players played very hard and well...

Zhang Yang thinks the Raptors are a very interesting team. When they are on the rise, everything looks so good.

Anyway, it looks like a thriving scene now. Since the start of the season, the team has averaged 104.2 points per game, with a record of 12 wins and 8 losses, and is competing with the Magic for the fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

However, although the Raptors' offense was good, their defense was... When it was the Bobcats' turn to attack, Zhang Yang passed Anthony Parker and rushed to the basket, and forced a layup against Bargnani's defense!

Bosh's defense is not that strong, and his frontcourt teammates are Capono and Bargnani, so the basket is essentially undefended!

The Raptors averaged 104.2 points per game, soaring from the league average last season to eighth in the league, but their defense also dropped sharply to ninth from the bottom in the league, giving up an average of 103.5 points per game, and were nicknamed "the shame of the iron-blooded Eastern Conference" by fans.

Of course, the overall strength of the Raptors has increased a lot compared to last season, especially the "ceiling" has been improved a lot. The 12-8 start record is the best proof. They have defeated the Pistons, Magic, Mavericks, Jazz and other teams with 50+ wins.

But tonight, the Raptors met an opponent that restrained them.

The outside screens of Bosh and Bargnani are important weapons for the Raptors to create opportunities for cuts and long shots. When facing the combination of Millsap and the weight-reduced Okafor, it was Hill who rotated to play power forward. The two's ability to create opportunities for their teammates was greatly limited.

On the other hand, the Raptors had no way to deal with Felton and Zhang Yang taking turns to break through. Bosh guarded the rim, Zhang Yang broke through with the Euro step, Bargnani guarded the rim, and Zhang Yang went straight in.

Felton was also very aggressive in attacking the basket tonight, and even used the 'close-range quick stop and step-back jump shot'. He didn't dare to use this trick when playing against Western Conference teams, but he used it very well tonight!
Not only did the Bobcats play with restrained style, but they also played extra hard tonight. It was not targeting the Raptors, nor was it because the coaching staff arranged for them to play hard, but the Bobcats were under a lot of pressure in the previous few games and played very hard, and that continued into tonight.

The Bobcats quickly took the initiative. Although they failed to defeat the Raptors in one go, they did not give the Raptors any chances throughout the game.

The time came to 5:58 in the evening and the final whistle sounded.

张杨打了34分钟，18投10中，其中三分球2中1，加上8中6的罚球，拿到27分7板3助攻1抢断1盖帽；费尔顿18投9中，其中三分球4中2，加上4中3的罚球，拿到23分3板6助攻。

加上奥卡福的18分8板、米尔萨普11分6板、隆多10分7板6助攻……山猫队以111比98轻取猛龙队，终结两连败！
Bosh played well tonight, making 17 of 9 shots and 6 of 5 free throws, scoring 23 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block, holding the Raptors at bay, but no one stepped up to help him raise the team's offensive ceiling.

Tonight, the off-ball screens by Bosh and Bargnani were not that effective, and the Raptors' shooters who usually raise their offensive ceiling looked much more mediocre...

...

The 5-game winning streak is finally over!
The day after playing against the Raptors, at noon on December 12, Zhang Yang returned to Charlotte with the team.

Before arriving home, he thought that after returning home, he would immediately crawl into the familiar big bed, take a nap, and then stay up late at night to retaliate... But he couldn't sleep when he got home. After being away for more than ten days, the bed felt a little unfamiliar to him.

This is a big pain for people who don’t choose their beds!

Zhang Yang thought of what future public intellectuals would say - the high-speed rail is too fast and there is no sense of ritual in returning home.

I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the study to surf the news.

He felt a little depressed when he saw the Eastern Conference rankings.

When the score was 16 wins and 1 loss, Zhang Yang was thinking:

At that time, he felt that the advantage of 4 wins was so huge that the opponents would definitely not be able to catch up with them in a short time.

但5连客回来，17胜3负的他们，领先东部第二名公牛队的16胜5负，只有1.5个胜场了。

If we accidentally suffer two losses in a row, we will lose our first place in the league.

After feeling depressed for a while, he finally let it go. Their performance at the start of this season was not normal to begin with. They were ranked first in the league, so they should defend it if they could, and fight for it again if they couldn't.

But there is no need to worry too much about the next two opponents...

After a day of rest, the Bobcats resumed training on the 13th. On the 14th, the Bobcats faced the challenge of the Cavaliers, who had 11 wins and 11 losses, at home.

Zhang Yang's shooting performance was average tonight, but he shot a lot, making 21 of 9 shots, including 10 of 3 three-pointers, plus 10 of 9 free throws, scoring 30 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. His 42% shooting percentage was a bit touching, but he also got 30+.

Larry Hughes's close defense and James's help defense had a great impact on Zhang Yang's shooting.

But he alone held down two defenders, and even when he didn't have the ball, James' attention was on him, and his teammates were in very good conditions for offense.

奥卡福15投9中，加上6中4的罚球，拿到22分13板。

费尔顿今晚负责顶詹姆斯，没余力进攻，只拿到7分3助攻，但隆多有10分9板4助攻，加上迈克-米勒的16分、希尔的13分……山猫队以107比98稳稳击败骑士队！
The result of the game was not surprising. Zhang Yang won 18 consecutive games against the Cavaliers.

But James' performance tonight surprised him!

Felton defends from the top, Perkins or Muhammad protects the rim, he or Zhang San shrinks to double-team, Okafor or Millsap cuts off the pass...the restrictions on James are still great.

James made only 30 of 12 shots tonight, including 6 of 1 three-pointers, plus 14 of 10 free throws, scoring 35 points and 4 assists. His shooting performance is definitely not good, it can be described as terrible.

But Zhang Yang didn’t think James played badly tonight. Instead, he thought he played quite well.

He saw a trait in James that he had never seen before - determination!
James played resolutely and with a clear goal tonight, which was to score!
Unlike the opening game when he was focused on playing simple shots, James kept trying different ways to score tonight, including breakthroughs, pick-and-rolls, counterattacks... and even second attacks by grabbing offensive rebounds!
In addition to 35 points and 4 assists tonight, James also had 10 rebounds, the second highest in the game after Okafor, including the most offensive rebounds in the game, as many as 4!
Of the six three-point shots James took, three were pull-up attempts from outside the three-point line. It can be said that he tried every possible way to score.

In the opening game, the Cavaliers players lost their temper after just a short while of playing, and in the later stages of the game they seemed to have given up the game.

Tonight, James fought hard and kept trying more possibilities, which greatly inspired his teammates' fighting spirit. The whole team worked together until the last moment and did not let the Bobcats widen the gap, keeping the difference at around 10 points.

With this score difference, if there was a player with explosive scoring ability, the Cavaliers could really close the gap in two or three minutes, but the Cavaliers don't have such a player...

Zhang Yang has been in the NBA for two and a half years since he was selected by the Bobcats. He has seen James say things like "I want to change" and "I am not the same as before" eight or ten times in interviews.

Zhang Yang saw James say this again a while ago, and he was already watching it for fun.

But this time, he found that James was really different from before...

...

On December 12, the day after playing against the Cavaliers, the Bobcats defeated the Hawks 15-114 at home in a back-to-back game, winning their 102th game of the season.

张杨和乔-约翰逊来了场打铁大战，张杨怒打12铁，20投8中，其中三分球6中2，加上5中5的罚球，拿到23分；乔-约翰逊16投6中，其中三分球4中1，加上7中7的罚球拿到20分。

Zhang Yang was targeted by the Hawks, so he called on his teammates to target Joe Johnson, although Joe Johnson did not participate in the targeting of him...but no matter what, this is the blame that the boss should take.

After playing back-to-back home games, the Bobcats started a three-game road trip.

The league's first 20 wins of the new season did not come so smoothly. On December 12, at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the Bobcats lost to the Pacers 17-95, ending their three-game winning streak and bringing their record to 102 wins and 3 losses.

除了13投7中，加上5中4的罚球拿到18分10板的奥卡福；28投12中、其中三分球3中1、加上11中10的罚球拿到35分的张杨，山猫队其他球员今晚投篮表现都很糟糕。

The team made 83 of 34 shots, which means that except for Okafor and Zhang Yang, the others made 42 of 15 shots, with a hit rate of only 35%.

The Pacers shot 79-for-39 from the field, a hit rate of 49.3%...

On December 12, the Bobcats came to the Verizon Center in Washington to challenge the Wizards away.

The Wizards have been playing well this season. Before tonight, they had played 25 games with 11 wins and 14 losses, and are in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

But the media and fans have ignored them because Arenas was seriously injured not long after playing and was out for the season.

The remaining two of the Wizards' Big Three, Jamison and Caron Butler, are not very star-studded. The Wizards player who has been in the news the most this season is... rookie Nick Young.

After one overtime game, the Bobcats narrowly defeated the Wizards 1-120 and won their 117th victory of the season!
张杨打了47分钟，27投13中，其中三分球3中1，加上9中7的罚球，拿到34分8板3助攻3抢断1盖帽；奥卡福23分11板；费尔顿14分9助攻；迈克-米勒19分；隆多8分10板12助攻……

The Wizards were very powerful tonight. Jamison scored a game-high 40 points, DeShawn Stevenson scored 21 points, and Caron Butler scored 20 points. The three of them scored a total of 81 points!
With more than ten seconds left in the regular season, the Wizards led the Bobcats by 110 points, 107 to 3. However, after Zhang Yang made the only three-pointer of the game to tie the score, no one on the Wizards could step up to shoot the buzzer-beater. Arenas had been ruled out for the season long ago, so the ball could only be thrown to rookie Nick Young, who looked like a little blacksmith.

Nick Young lived up to expectations and paid tribute to his idol. He made a buzzer-beating three-pointer that went into overtime, helping the Bobcats drag the game into overtime, but they were ultimately defeated.

On December 12, the Bobcats came to the TD Garden in Boston and defeated the Celtics 21-108, avenging their winning streak that was ended at the end of last month!
Pierce scored 30 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, which looked okay, but his shooting percentage was only 38.5%, and he made only 26 of 10 shots. Hill, Alan Anderson and Afflalo took turns to defend him, and Zhang Yang and Felton on the wings, and Okafor and Millsap in the interior also defended him.

Zhang Yang's shooting percentage was not very good either, and he was also the one who was closely guarded by the opponent, but he was better than Pierce. He made 25 of 11 shots, including 4 of 2 three-pointers, plus 4 of 4 free throws, and got 28 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks.

The most eye-catching performance of the Bobcats tonight was Rondo, who came off the bench. He made 5 of 3 shots, plus 2 of 2 free throws, and got 8 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists. He took advantage of Zhang Yang's high-post containment to help Okafor shoot 10 of 9... If Okafor hadn't received the serve before the end of the first half and made a three-pointer throughout the game, he would have played the second game in his career with more than 5 goals and a 100% hit rate.

Although they won, it was not an easy game for the Bobcats tonight. The Celtics players, who were treated as discarded pawns and commodities by Ainge, played very hard. After being the 'chocolate filling in the cookie' for a month, Rivers also gave it his all and joined his players in opposing Ainge and trying his best to lead the team to victory.

After losing to the Bobcats, the Celtics' record is 12 wins and 14 losses. It's hard to say whether they can make the playoffs in the end, but they have won 12 games in the early stage of the season, so they can forget about the top five picks. The teams that are in a bad situation now have only about 5 wins, and they are expected to win at most or games in the end...

Fans who have been following the soap opera "Where is Pierce?" didn't expect the plot to become more and more exciting!
After three consecutive away games, Zhang Yang returned to Charlotte with the team at noon on December 3. Carlisle announced the holiday directly at the airport. No training was arranged in the three days before Christmas. They gathered at 12 am on the 22th to prepare for the Christmas battle!

Zhang Yang is entering his third season in the NBA and is finally having his first Christmas game as well as the first in the Bobcats’ history!

Opponent...Chicago Bulls!
(End of this chapter)