Chapter 304 303. White Devil: Am I going to become a big shot?

In the first back-to-back game, the Bobcats won easily. On the second night, the Bobcats faced the Hawks at home.

At 6:40 in the evening, the visiting Eagles entered the Turkish Airlines Arena first.

Zhang Yang stood at the entrance of the player tunnel, watching Pierce, Horford, Pachulia, Bibby, and Joe Johnson enter the court one after another. No matter what he said or how confident he was in his heart, he still felt pressured when he saw the starting lineup of the opponent.

After the entrance ceremony, the two teams exchanged greetings, especially the two outside stars of the Hawks were very enthusiastic.

In the past, when Zhang Yang played against the Hawks and Celtics, he rarely saw smiles on Joe Johnson and Pierce's faces, and their brows were always furrowed. This time, the two of them enthusiastically and proactively ran over to them to greet them, as if they were... showing off their new teammates?
Even the cold-faced devil Bibby smiled when he greeted Hill.

Zhang Yang didn't find it strange that the three of them were so happy.

Bibby has been clamoring to leave since Webber was sold by the Kings. The Kings have been making promises to appease him for several years... Perhaps the Kings management did not intend to make promises, but really felt that they had the ability to rebuild a championship-contending lineup.

For example, this summer's operations, while enjoying the rookie bonus of Kevin Martin and the child labor bonus of Artest, retained the two as well as Bibby and Brad Miller, freed up a maximum salary space, recruited top inside players everywhere, and wanted to rebuild the "Five Tigers".

Bibby really believed it in the past two years, but this summer when he saw that they had such a four-man team but could not attract any top inside players, he became completely desperate. After the season started, he requested a trade and wanted to leave.

Pierce requested a trade after the All-Star break last season.

Joe Johnson has been playing point guard for several years and is almost losing his passion for basketball.

Now, Pierce has strong teammates, Bibby successfully escaped from the Kings, and Joe Johnson no longer has to play point guard. The three of them are all All-Star or quasi-All-Star level players in their prime. The day before yesterday, the three of them faced their first game after forming a team and easily defeated the Knicks 107-95 away from home.

毕比21分6助攻、皮尔斯23分8板6助攻、乔-约翰逊25分4板2助攻，三大外线球星表现都非常出色，压着兰多夫、克劳福德、大Q、埃迪-库里、大卫-李……等人打。

Zhang Yang thought that if he were one of these three brothers, he would not only laugh heartily now, but might directly fire at the Lakers and Bulls and shout "I am the number one person in the universe."

...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, Okafor defeated Pachulia to win the jump ball, and the Bobcats attacked first!
Hawks starting lineup: Bibby, Joe Johnson, Pierce, Horford, Pachulia.

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

Zhang Yang received the ball in a high position and executed the first attack, playing against Joe Johnson alone, dribbling behind his back, moving sideways, taking a step and jumping to shoot... Joe Johnson interfered, and the shot went in!

Pierce guarded the rebound and Zhang Yang quickly retreated, which was a mistake - the modern Jordan is much more aggressive in defense than before.

In the offense and defense transition, Bibby received the ball and advanced to the frontcourt. In the first attack, he also looked for the team's strongest singles spot... Where is he?
After looking around, I saw Pierce and Joe Johnson standing one step inside the three-point line on both sides of the baseline, and then I looked at Horford at the left elbow and Pachulia at the right elbow.

Beebe: Are you doing performance art here? Symmetrical shapes?

The first attack in the last game seemed to be the same... Could you guys stop being so humble!
Joe Johnson and Pierce were also speechless for a moment, looked at each other...neither of them moved.

Bibby decided to come on his own and break through alone!
Facing Felton's defense, Bibby broke through to the right side of the free throw line and stopped abruptly. His speed was average and he couldn't shake off Felton. He forced a mid-range shot under Felton's resistance... and missed!
Perkins protected the defensive rebound, Felton received the ball and advanced to the frontcourt. Seeing that Zhang Yang did not continue to fall to the high position, he passed the ball to Okafor who was blocking Horford in the low position.

Okafor backed Horford and pushed Horford away a step. Horford immediately pressed back. Okafor seized the opportunity when Horford pressed forward and turned into the three-second zone.

Pachulia moved in time to block Okafor, and Okafor passed the ball...

With the help of Felton's screen, Zhang Yang cut to the left sideline of the three-second zone, received the pass from Okafor, and made a layup over the head of Bibby who was switching defense... and it went in!
It was the Eagles' turn to attack.

He couldn’t make any single plays at the start, and was pressed over the head for a layup during team defense… Bibby remained calm and didn’t play single plays.

His biggest advantage - strength confrontation, does not work well when facing Felton.

He gestured, signaling his teammates to cooperate.

In the second game, Bibby could see that his two All-Star teammates had lost face after the big trade - Joe Johnson was worried that he would appear too aggressive if he took the initiative to receive the ball and play one-on-one, which would displease his two new star teammates; Pierce felt that he was the newcomer and should play a supporting role at least when he first arrived.

Bibi: So I'm the only one who doesn't understand the ways of the world!
However, Bibby never cared about other people's opinions. Since his two teammates were humble, he took on the role of leader.

Horford received the order and came out to help Bibby block Felton. Bibby broke through with the help of the screen and passed the ball to Pierce who ran to the left side of the three-second zone.

Pierce encountered a switch defense and had the opportunity to take a shot with a poor rhythm, but he did not choose to gamble on his touch. Instead, for the sake of safety, he passed the ball to Joe Johnson who went around the top arc. Felton, who stayed at the free throw line, pushed up to Joe Johnson's lower body. Joe Johnson did not use his height advantage to take a step forward and force a shot. Instead, he passed the ball to Horford who was left open.

But the ball transitioned twice between Pierce and Joe Johnson, which gave Okafor enough time to return to defense.

As soon as Horford received the ball and turned around, Okafor had already raised his long arms to block him.

Horford faked a shot, but Okafor didn't fall for it. As a rookie, Horford was a little timid facing Okafor and passed the ball to Bibby who came back from the baseline.

The ball spun around and returned to his hands. Bibby looked at Zhang Yang who switched defense in front of him... Damn, it would be better to just play one-on-one against Felton!

The only bright spot in this round of tactical coordination was that the passes from positions 1 to 4 were steady and without any mistakes.

Seeing Felton sticking to Joe Johnson fiercely and holding up Joe Johnson's lower body, Pierce was closely followed by Hill. There was not much time left for the offense, so Bibby came on his own.

Facing Zhang Yang's defense, Bibby made two strong steps and then stopped and stepped back to shoot... "bang"...

Bibby was blocked by Zhang Yang and couldn't even see the basket. He threw the ball purely based on his feeling, and it missed!
Perkins grabbed the defensive rebound, and Horford pressed forward to interfere with the pass, creating an opportunity for his teammates to retreat.

Judging only from individual defensive abilities, all five starters on the Hawks are not bad.

Even Joe Johnson was active in retreating. He was beaten almost every night in the past few years simply because he was assigned to defend the opponent's point guard and could not keep up with his opponent's speed. Over time, he lost all his defensive enthusiasm and became what the media and fans called "a bench standing at the top of the arc." But now he has regained his former enthusiasm.

When Zhang Yang received the pass from Perkins, the fast break opportunity had been lost, so he passed the ball to Felton and continued to fight a positional battle.

Felton advanced to the frontcourt and continued to pass the ball to Okafor for singles. Okafor, who just got double 20, played a big threatening role tonight. Pierce on the wing double-teamed him, Hill went around the free throw line and took a step to receive the ball, Pachulia came up to defend, and Hill threw the ball to the left.

Zhang Yang moved from the left baseline to the left side of the free throw line. Pachulia quickly moved towards Zhang Yang and double-teamed him with Joe Johnson.

At this time, the difference in mentality between the two teams' strongest scorers appeared... One against two, and the opponent's center is being double-teamed, doesn't that mean that there will be at least one big open space among the three frontcourt players of their own team?

Zhang Yang took a mid-range shot!

Hill rushed directly to the basket from the free throw line...but his attempt was fruitless.

Zhang Yang made a decisive mid-range shot!
The situation in the first few rounds was very different from what the Bobcats players expected!
The Eagles were a mess on defense.

Pachulia defended very hard, but his ability was limited, and once he made a layup, he couldn't get back to the basket.

Horford has good talent, good combat effectiveness, and is motivated, but he has no experience. His combat effectiveness is good but not particularly good. After all, he is just a rookie. In the first 20 games, the Hawks were the third-to-last team in the Eastern Conference... He didn't know what to do at this time, and did not play the role of the "connection point between inside and outside defense" as the media called it.

Bibby, Joe Johnson and Pierce are all good at defense, but they have almost no coordination with their teammates.

Just like when Joe Johnson and Pachulia double-teamed Zhang Yang, both of them blocked Zhang Yang's breakthrough route. After Zhang Yang jumped, they followed him. There is no difference between double-teaming with or without this kind of double-teaming.
To sum up these problems - the defense is disorganized and has no rules.

Three of the five starters were replaced, Tyronn Lue, Marvin Williams and Josh Smith left the team, two new players came in on the outside, Horford moved from the original starting center to the power forward position, and Pachulia returned to the starting lineup from the bench... Now they not only have no defensive coordination, but they have even lost the ability to rely on tacit defense.

However, the Eagles' defense will be worse than before in a short period of time after the trade. The Bobcats guessed this. Although the Eagles' head coach is Mike Woodson, a well-known defensive coach, the Eagles' progress in building their defensive system has been almost zero in the past two years. This cannot be blamed on Woodson, but the Eagles' management's operations are too outrageous.

But the Bobcats players were puzzled by the Hawks' offensive performance. The Hawks played very well offensively against the Knicks the day before yesterday!

No matter how puzzled you are, now that the advantage has come, you should work hard to attack and expand it!

After the first quarter, the Bobcats scored 31 points in a single quarter and led the Hawks by 31 points with 22 to 9!
If Bibby hadn't used the screen to break into the paint and made a 2+1 jump shot over Okafor in the last attack of the quarter, the Hawks would not have scored more than 20 points in a single quarter!

After enduring for one quarter and entering the intermission, the White Devil called aside 35 seconds 13 shots and the modern Jordan and asked: "Can you play more actively?"

(End of this chapter)