Chapter 313 312. Devil's Schedule Southwest Division 4 consecutive away games
The Bobcats had a bloody battle with the Hornets the day before yesterday, and they started off weakly tonight, being outscored 48 to 39 by the Rockets in the first half. Only with a tip-in by Rondo did they narrow the gap to single digits entering the second half.

In the third quarter, the Bobcats finally found their form. Led by Zhang Yang, Okafor and Mike Miller, they scored 32 to 25, narrowing the score to 71 to 73 and reducing the difference to two points.

Facing the Bobcats' crazy counterattack, the Rockets did not give up and kept the score close for a long time in the final quarter. With more than 3 minutes left, Zhang Yang controlled the game, Mike Miller and Okafor scored 4 goals in a row with Rondo's pass, making a 10-2 run, and the Bobcats secured the victory.

张杨打了35分钟，22投8中，其中三分球5中1，加上7中5的罚球，拿到22分8板2助攻1抢断2盖帽。

奥卡福16投9中，加上8中6的罚球，拿到24分11板。

迈克-米勒16分、费尔顿9分4助攻、米尔萨普6分5板3助攻、希尔6分4板1盖帽、隆多5分8板6助攻……

The Bobcats team worked together and eventually reversed the Rockets and won by 6 points.

If nothing else, these Rockets players are extremely resilient.

Alexander has been much more generous this season and is willing to spend money on signings, but his generosity is limited. He only allows role players to increase their salaries from mostly minimum salaries to mostly one to two million US dollars.

With this awkward salary, it is difficult to attract outstanding players, so the Rockets management found another way and chose players with hard work, perseverance and enthusiasm from those players with relatively mediocre abilities.

Before the school beauty exploded on defense, the team composed of these players could play defense with all their might, and their performance would at least not be too bad.

Just like what happened after Yao Ming retired due to a serious injury in 09, the Rockets' lineup looked very weak, but they were able to win just over 40 games, continue to maintain their strength on the edge of the playoffs, and save up chips to trade Kevin Martin, and finally used Kevin Martin in exchange for Harden.

With such a group of players under Thibodeau, even if McGrady is injured, they still play very tough and dare to fight no matter what opponent they meet.

In such an environment, Yi Jianlian's playing style became very different from what Zhang Yang remembered.

In terms of playing style, he rejected the brainless advice of his domestic agent, played to his strengths and avoided his weaknesses, and made good use of his athletic ability. On the offensive end, he mainly shot after setting a screen, cut after being left open, and counterattack to score. On the defensive end, he was quite poor, but Thibodeau made good use of his athletic ability. When he encountered a breakthrough, he would just go to defend and interfere with the shot. If he missed someone, his teammates under the basket and outside teammates would make up for it. Although his defensive role was not strong, he had a positive defensive attitude and a firm and clear goal. After playing for more than two months, at least he was no longer a drag.

Before the game, Zhang Yang watched Yi Jianlian's performance so far this season. He played in 30 of the first 25 games, averaging 11.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1 assist and 0.8 blocks per game... Sister Lian, please show some motivation and win the Rookie of the Month award or something.

...

The morning after playing the Rockets, the Bobcats left Houston and came to Dallas.

Zhang Yang felt a little regretful that he couldn't get together with Yi Jianlian during the match against the Rockets, but he was also relieved.

They only contact each other occasionally, and since they are under the same agent, they are not very familiar with each other. Yi Jianlian is not very enthusiastic and likes to complain when something happens. Although he does not complain very often, he spends even less time talking about other things. The impression left on Zhang Yang is that Yi Jianlian is always complaining.

After a night's rest, on January 1, the Bobcats came to the American Airlines Arena to challenge the Mavericks away.

At 7:40 p.m., the Bobcats and Mavericks entered the stadium one after another.

After the entrance ceremony, Hill saw Zhang Yang's eyes wandering back and forth between the opposing players and asked, "Jack, what are you looking at?"

Zhang Yang: "They really collapsed. When I came here to play away games last year and the year before, I saw a harmonious atmosphere and high morale team. Now no one is smiling. Look at their positions, it seems to be broken."

Hill: "They are in a very bad state this year. They have played 32 games and only have 19 wins and 13 losses. They dropped to eighth in the Western Conference after losing to the Warriors the day before yesterday. They have won more than 7 games for seven consecutive seasons, but this season may be interrupted. Once they lose too many games, various problems within the team will emerge."

Felton on the side chimed in: "It's not just a matter of record. Their elimination from the black round last season brought them a lot of internal conflicts."

Zhang Yang and Xi Er became interested after hearing this. Zhang Yang said, "Boss, tell me more about this."

Felton likes gossiping a lot, so he said, "Nowitzki only shot 38% in the series that the Warriors defeated in the first round. Wasn't he nicknamed 'tissue paper' by the media? I saw a report before that the Mavericks' own players said Nowitzki was a wimp, and that he caused them to be defeated in the first round and brought them shame."

Hill: "This shouldn't be the case. I watched the live broadcast of that series. The Mavericks' elimination was not just a problem for Nowitzki alone. The point guard couldn't control the rhythm, the head coach's strategic plan was wrong, the response was also very bad, the outside defense couldn't keep up with the speed, and the counterattack defense was not good..."

Zhang Yang: “It shouldn’t be, but it’s normal.”

Hill: “Yeah…that’s right.”

What are you talking about? Felton didn't understand, so he continued gossiping: "Last month I saw news that Howard was competing with Nowitzki for the top scorer. I think this is very likely true. Howard's shots this season are 17.3, and Nowitzki's has dropped to 16.9, the lowest in six years."

Zhang Yang: "What kind of brain is this?"

Felton: "I also think he has a problem with his brain. He has lowered the average IQ of black people. I don't know where his confidence comes from. He takes more shots than Nowitzki, but scores less than Nowitzki, and he is still competing. The top scorer relies on strength, not on grabbing shots."

Zhang Yang: “…”

Hill knew that Zhang Yang didn't want to respond, so he said, "I've heard about this, too. It seems that many Mavericks players support Howard. I don't understand."

Zhang Yang: "After being eliminated in the first round, they became a laughing stock and had to find someone to blame. They didn't dare to criticize the young general for fear of being hidden away, so they could only point their spearhead at Nowitzki, who had a good temper."

Hill: “It’s so realistic!”

Felton: "It's very realistic, but there is one thing that surprised me. The only Mavericks team member who publicly supported Nowitzki was Terry. I thought he would jump out to compete for the top scorer. I didn't expect it."

Zhang Yang: "Terry? It's really surprising, but it makes sense. He doesn't care much about the ridicule and abuse from the outside world. If he really recognizes Nowitzki's strength, it fits his personality."

Felton and Hill thought about it and realized that Terry did have many shortcomings, such as being loudmouthed, arrogant, and self-centered... but they refused to shirk responsibility.

After chatting with Felton and Hill, Zhang Yang wanted to go and say hello to Nowitzki, but finally decided not to.

In previous years, Nowitzki would always greet his opponents enthusiastically and proactively. Now he looks like he has become withdrawn after being beaten by the Warriors. The day before yesterday, they lost to the Warriors again... What should I say to Nowitzki now? Comfort him? Wouldn't that be like exposing his scars?

It would be better to let the Silver Horn King lick his wounds alone and slowly come to terms with this matter.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats' away game against the Mavericks started.

The Bobcats players just treated this game as an ordinary regular season game, but they didn't expect the Mavericks to attack and defend like crazy from the start!
Nowitzki and Eddie Jones made two consecutive three-pointers at the start. Josh Howard was unwilling to fall behind and made two quick stop jump shots from close range. Harris counterattacked and made a layup to get two points. The Mavericks scored five consecutive goals at the start and led the Bobcats 5-12!
Carlisle called a timeout and replaced Felton with Rondo to improve the speed of the point guard position; replaced Perkins with Muhammad to strengthen the defense on both wings of the three-second zone; replaced Hill with Mike Miller to enhance the wing shooting.

The head coach had a clear plan for response and the players executed it very well. After the timeout, Zhang Yang and Okafor took on the offensive responsibility.

Facing the defense of Josh Howard, whose size restrained him, Zhang Yang mainly relied on running and shooting, and would play one-on-one when there were mismatches.

Okafor mainly relies on off-ball screens in the high post and on the wing before catching the ball and shooting. When necessary, he goes one-on-one with Nowitzki, and the effect is also very good.

The Bobcats' offensive firepower has improved significantly, but on defense, apart from Rondo's good performance in limiting Harris's counterattack, the 2-4 positions were still blown up...

The Bobcats' defense this season mainly focuses on single defense and double team. At the beginning of the season, the Bobcats coaching staff, management, and core players discussed many times and made a decision based on the actual situation. This season, offense is the main focus, and defense is secondary.

In training camp, preseason, and the start of the regular season, their offense adjusted much faster than their defense.

The loss of Gerald Wallace has a far greater impact on defense than on offense. The defense has lost Gerald Wallace, the core of the connection between the inside and outside lines, and needs to be completely reconstructed. As for offense, Gerald Wallace is not irreplaceable, he is just a little weaker. Zhang Yang, Okafor, and Felton continue to improve in offense. Rondo, Millsap, and Alan Anderson have also made progress in their own ways. Jarrett Jack and Muhammad can both score. The front line has also introduced Hill and Mike Miller, two scorers who will definitely average double digits if they change teams. The offensive conditions are much better than last season.

So this season the Bobcats did not rebuild their defensive system, but instead did subtraction, ensuring basic defense and focusing on offense. However, since their players have good individual defensive abilities, they can still have a defense slightly above the league average by just ensuring basic defense, that is, single defense and double-teaming.

Normally, the Bobcats' defense, which mainly relies on single defense and double-teaming, is actually very suitable for dealing with the Mavericks' unlimited single-player style of play. This season, they mainly focus on single defense, and the single defense abilities of Zhang Yang, Felton, and Okafor have been greatly improved.

But tonight the Mavericks players were like they were given a shot of chicken blood, attacking with all their might and in great touch. Terry, Nowitzki, Eddie Jones and Stackhouse, who came off the bench, all shot very accurately from the outside.

This meant that when Josh Howard broke through, the Bobcats' wings did not dare to shrink and double-team him, resulting in Hill and Mike Miller being beaten by Josh Howard one after another. When Barea, who came on as a substitute, broke through, the wings did not dare to shrink easily.

After the first quarter, the Bobcats trailed the Mavericks by 31 points with 35 to 4.

Entering the intermission, Felton, who played for a few minutes at the end of the quarter and was overwhelmed by Barea, who came on as a substitute, took a big sip of water and spit out, "Is the opponent crazy tonight? Fighting so hard? We are not the Warriors!"

Zhang Yang responded: "Their fighting spirit may have something to do with the Warriors. The Mavericks were slaughtered by the Warriors by 24 points the night before yesterday, losing miserably 98 to 122."

Hill continued: "That's possible. There's another reason. They may think we got the championship that should have belonged to them by taking advantage of the situation."

Felton: “This…”

Zhang Yang: "They say that what belongs to them should belong to them? If they have the guts, come and grab it!"

Felton, Hill: "..."

You are worthy of being like this, Zhang San. You are so arrogant even after getting a bargain.

After listening to the three's analysis, the teammates beside them became angry. The other team couldn't beat the Warriors, so they took it out on them? They wanted to fight with the other team... but they couldn't win...

In the second quarter, the Bobcats narrowed the gap by two points with 31 to 29, but in the third quarter when competing for stars, the Bobcats fell behind. Zhang Yang made 5 of 2 shots in the quarter under Josh Howard's defense, including 3 of 1 three-pointers, plus 2 of 2 free throws to get 7 points, which is not bad. Compared with his season average of 10.6 points in the third quarter, it is more than one three-pointer away.

Felton played too hard in the past two games. He should have had a clear advantage against Harris and Barea tonight, but he didn't take advantage of it since the first quarter.

Okafor did beat Nowitzki badly in singles, but he could only score three or five times in a quarter at most. It would be difficult for him to score more points if he didn't have a good touch.

On the Mavericks side, Terry scored 12 points in a single quarter...

The commentators were all saying that Zhang Yang defended Terry very well, but Terry just kept making the shot!
第三节小牛队在特里带领下打出了30比23的比分，小牛队以94比85领先山猫队9分进入末节。

Felton fell into a physical crisis early on, and by the final quarter, physical exhaustion spread throughout the Bobcats.

The trip to Texas is the most terrifying away schedule in the NBA, bar none. Either the teams have to be very strong, very stable, or very durable. The Bobcats’ trip to Texas also includes the Hornets, who once dominated the top spot in the Western Conference this season. It is mid-season, and in the third game, a physical crisis appeared!
The Bobcats' playing style in the fourth quarter turned into Jarrett Jack and Zhang Yang taking turns.

Zhang Yang made 10 of 4 shots, including 3 of 1 three-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws, scoring 12 points. Jarrett Jack made 6 of 2 shots and scored 5 points. The two of them combined for 17 points, but the team only scored 23 points and failed to complete the comeback.

Okafor made 21 of 12 shots tonight, plus 12 of 9 free throws, for a team-high 33 points and 14 rebounds, but he was outshone by Nowitzki, who scored a game-high 35 points.

Zhang Yang made 27 of 11 shots, including 9 of 3 three-pointers, plus 4 of 4 free throws, for 29 points. He scored more points than Terry, who scored 26 points, but his shooting percentage was not as high as Terry's. Terry made 17 of 9 shots tonight, with a shooting percentage of over %.

Josh Howard, Harris, Stackhouse, Barea and others performed significantly better tonight than Felton, Rondo, Jarrett Jack, Hill, Millsap and others.

The aggressive Western Cowboys defeated the Bobcats 119-108, giving the Bobcats their sixth loss of the season!
...

"The moon is half-moon, so romantic..."

"I ask the palace in heaven, what year is it now..."

"You are like a fire in the winter..."

The weather is clear tonight. On the night of the twenty-fourth day of the winter month, the moon in the sky is curved into a crescent.

After losing the game, Zhang Yang suffered from insomnia again. He stood on the balcony, drinking honey milk and reciting the lyrics to the song.

He tried to distract from the negative emotions of losing by analyzing the game, as he did the night he lost to the Hornets, but failed.

He found that he was able to successfully divert attention that day, not because this method was so good, but because they had tried their best in that game and played very well, but there was a 25+20 thug on the Hornets and they couldn't win.

It was different when they lost to the Mavericks. The opponent went crazy after losing to the Warriors, and they were in the most brutal situation of the season and fell into a physical crisis after playing four consecutive away games in the Southwest Division... Such a defeat was very unwilling.

Actually, before he set out to play four straight away games in the Southwest Division, he knew it would be difficult and he would most likely lose, so he was mentally prepared. He just didn’t expect to lose two of the first three games…

He felt that he had to bear a lot of responsibility for the losses in the two crucial games.

If he had better one-on-one skills and better basic shooting functions, if he could score two more goals when playing one-on-one against James Posey and two more three-pointers against the Mavericks, the results might be different.

Seeing that it was almost 4 o'clock and he still couldn't fall asleep, Zhang Yang didn't want to look at the night view at 4 o'clock in the morning anymore, so he had to resort to his ultimate move - he took out the math book he borrowed from Okafor.

After watching for a few minutes, when the alarm clock reached 3:58, his eyelids, which had been fighting for a few minutes, closed and he fell asleep, muttering to himself, "Fortunately, I don't have to study mathematics in my major..."

The next day at noon, after lunch, Zhang Yang left Dallas with the team and flew to San Antonio, marking the last stop of the four-game road trip in the Southwest Division.

This time when they were on the road, Carlisle even canceled the originally scheduled hotel meeting to allow the players to rest for a while.

Another day passed, and on January 1, the Bobcats came to the AT&T Arena to challenge the Spurs away.

Zhang Yang found that the Spurs were even less favored by the media this season. The day before yesterday, they played against the Mavericks, who were on the edge of the Western Conference playoffs and were eliminated in the first round of the quarterfinals last season, and the game was broadcast live nationwide. However, as the defending champions, they played against the Spurs, who were the runner-up last season, but there was no national broadcast.

The Spurs have a good record this season, with 23 wins and 9 losses, ranking fifth in the Western Conference. They are in the first tier of strong teams in the Western Conference and have a hope of winning 60 games.

The reason why the Spurs are even less popular with the media than last season...they are averaging 90.5 points per game, ranking first in the league in defense!

(End of this chapter)