Chapter 375 374. The Arrogant Bad Boy

Pachulia looked at Zhang Yang and Felton bumping their butts together in celebration while retreating, and listened to the wild cheers from the crowd. He felt very frustrated, but he had to hold it in.

When he changed to another player, he pulled it down directly and refused to be dunked. What a good excuse, but this guy...

It had been two and a half years since Zhang Yang's last fight, and that was only one fight on the court.

But his legend has always been circulating among the people, and his notoriety is even more exaggerated than that of Ranbir.

However, Zhang Yang's reputation is better than Laimbeer in one respect - if you don't provoke the bad boy Jack, he won't mess with you. He is a very pure basketball player.

This is also the reason why Zhang Yang is notorious and the Bobcats are called the new Bad Boys, but the league still supports them. If they are really like Laimbeer and the old Bad Boys in the game, the Jews will target them to death.

In the transition from offense to defense, Zhang Yang's dunk boosted the morale of the entire team, and they defended very hard.

When Okafor moved to the free throw line to help Bibby, Horford ran back from the left side of the free throw line, cut into the inside and received the ball for a layup... After being helped, Okafor turned around and chased in and slapped the backboard!
In this ball, Okafor really has some similarities to Ben Wallace, one of his draft templates!
Zhang Yang grabbed the defensive rebound, and Joe Johnson, who was fighting for the ball, slapped him on the arm. The referee blew the whistle and the Bobcats had the ball in the backcourt.

This was considered a tactical foul to prevent Zhang Yang from launching a direct counterattack.

The Bobcats fell into a positional battle, Felton continued to break through and attack, Zhang Yang and Okafor continued to play fake pick-and-roll.

Seeing that Pierce and Horford chose to switch defense again, Bibby immediately moved to the middle after Felton passed the ball to Brad Miller.

As Bibby expected, after receiving the ball, Zhang Yang passed Horford and rushed straight into the inside. He bravely stood between Zhang Yang and the basket, outside the reasonable collision zone, and protected his crotch with both hands.

But Zhang Yang had excellent vision and noticed Bibby's movement. After passing Horford, he was ready to slow down, stopped suddenly in front of Bibby, and jumped!
Horford turned around and chased after him, but he unexpectedly caught up with Zhang Yang's speed. He pounced on him in surprise and tried to block him from behind... but missed!
Zhang Yang didn't even raise the ball above his head. He jumped up and threw the ball to the right!
The ball flew over Okafor and Pierce and landed in the right corner.

After Bibby closed the middle, Felton immediately moved to the bottom corner, received the ball and shot a three-pointer...and it went in!
The two shooters scored 5 points in a row, and the Bobcats led 7-2!

Looking at the excitement of the Bobcats players when they were retreating, Bibby, who has many years of experience and has seen various strong teams, knows that this young team is gaining momentum!
After receiving the serve and advancing to the front court, he gestured - the three of us were going to go up.

He did it first to show respect, singled out Felton, broke through, and made an emergency stop and long two-point shot!
Put a center under the basket to catch the ball, two shooters on both wings, and a power forward with rushing ability. Take long shots from the top arc to the free throw line, and the 45-degree angle on both wings. Under normal circumstances, no one will come to double-team, but it is also a test of personal ability!

Going deep to the left and right, into the distance of the free throw line, the wing and the basket can complete the double-teaming, and the passing line can be easily cut off. Single players can only play singles in this extremely uncertain distance area. The defensive players also know clearly that the single players will definitely shoot in this area, so they are not afraid of being passed...

But this style of play is very simple for the Hawks, as their three outside stars are all good at it!

Bibby's shot helped the Hawks stabilize the situation.

but……

When the Bobcats attacked, Okafor forced the ball into Horford in the low post, but Horford couldn't hold on. Pachulia went to the basket to defend Okafor's attack. Brad Miller went to the free throw line to receive the ball, Joe Johnson made up for it, Brad Miller passed the ball to the left side, and Zhang Yang slipped to the baseline at the right time to hold back Pierce and Horford.

Mike Miller received the ball in a wide open position on the left sideline and made a three-pointer!
In terms of offensive firepower, the Bobcats, who have already shown their momentum, are clearly superior!
10 to 4, the Bobcats' lead expanded to 6 points!
With the experience of 4 games in April, the Bobcats already have a good idea of ​​how to play against teams with poor defense.

There is no complicated cooperation. Just let Felton and Okafor play alone to attract double-teaming and look for Brad Miller or Mike Miller. Brad Miller will provide all-round mid-range support and Mike Miller will provide sideline support.

Zhang Yang’s primary goal in running is to find shooting opportunities in order to maximize the attention of the opposing defense.

In the next three possessions, the Hawks shot 3 for 3.

Pierce received the ball in a high position and took a three-threat stance. He faked a shot to trick Zhang Yang into lifting his center of gravity, then he ran over and pushed Zhang Yang away, then made a close-range jump shot to score two points.

Joe Johnson scored two points with a high-post back-to-back jumper from Zhang Yang;
Only Horford missed the two-pointer after receiving the ball from the wing. There was nothing he could do about it. He got the chance in that position, and his hit rate on two-pointers from the wing was only 35% in the regular season. It was the kind of shot that he should have made when the opportunity came, but he just didn't make it.

Zhang Yang was very upset, he never thought that one day he would be the one being targeted by the opponent, and he couldn't defend himself!

Generally speaking, Zhang Yang is not responsible for defending the opponent's particularly strong players. Most of the time, he is even assigned to defend spot shooters to save energy. For example, when playing against the Lakers, he is generally responsible for defending Kidd, Vujacic and the like.

But the opponent in front of him...the forward and guard line are Pierce and Joe Johnson, both of whom are taller and stronger than him.

In fact, it would be easier for these two to play against Mike Miller. They took the initiative to pick Zhang Yang. This was one of the Hawks' game strategies. When it was time to play against the star in regular time, they would pick Zhang Yang to consume the opponent's energy in the opposite way.

However, the Hawks played very well in these 3 rounds, and the Bobcats played even better!
Okafor made a layup with a step-over in a close-range face-to-face single play;
After Horford missed the shot, Zhang Yang grabbed the defensive rebound and counterattacked with a three-pointer to break into the paint and beat Joe Johnson who was retreating to the basket for a 2+1;

Zhang Yang received the ball on the wing and broke through, then passed it back to the high post, and Brad Miller made a jump shot from the free throw line.

After Brad Miller made a mid-range shot, the Bobcats stopped the Hawks!

...

In 3 minutes and 38 seconds, the Hawks scored 8 points, which is not bad. With this ratio, they can score or points in one quarter.

But the opponent scored 17 points!
When Pierce returned to the bench and saw the score on the big screen, he was dazed.

This was the first time the Hawks played against the Bobcats after the All-Stars Weekend. They intuitively felt how fierce the firepower of the 'new era offensive basketball' that was praised by the media during the Bobcats' 9-game winning streak was!
At this time, an emotionless voice came into Pierce's ears: "Paul, don't think too much about defense, just follow the plan and focus on the key points."

Pierce reacted and looked at Bibby, feeling annoyed and embarrassed.

It was indeed his fault that the defense was so bad at the beginning. After seeing Zhang Yang's improvisation of the "double insurance tactics" in the first round, he also "improvised" and directed Horford to switch defense with him. As a result, Pachulia was dunked by Zhang Yang in that round.

The defense became more and more chaotic in the following rounds, and it all started from that round.

Their established defensive strategy was to block Zhang Yang outside the free throw line, defend against three-pointers, force Zhang Yang to shoot from as far as possible within the two-point range, and mainly prevent Zhang Yang from entering the basket. After selling a bunch of their power forwards, their inside line was very weak, which was like their own backyard to Zhang Yang.

Such a defensive strategy will inevitably lead to greater defensive problems in other positions, but at least it can put Zhang Yang in the relatively least accurate shooting area. This is the limit of what they can do. They can't just mindlessly double-team like the Eagles did in the past.

They have a top defensive assistant coach in Mike Woodson, but their defensive performance this season is the worst in the league, allowing an average of 103.9 points per game, the eighth-most in the league.

In fact, it was originally lower, with an average of 101 points per game in the early season. Looking at the 56 games after the big trade, the average points lost per game reached 105.2 points, which is worse than the Suns' average of 105 points per game, ranking fifth from the bottom in the league, only slightly better than the Warriors, Nuggets, Supersonics, and Knicks.

不过后面这56场比赛，老鹰队场均拿到106.7分，联盟第六，只比勇士队的场均112分、掘金队的场均110分、太阳队的场均109.9分、山猫队的场均109.7分、奇才队的场均107.1分差。

Because the Eagles gave up on defense this season.

Unlike the Bobcats, the Bobcats do not have the time and energy to build up their defense in depth. Single defense and double-teaming have always been emphasized, and the players also have independent defensive responses. Although their average points allowed of 103.4 points per game is not much better than that of the Hawks, they averaged 80 points in the first 110.1 games of the regular season, which has already rushed to second place in the league. Even if they pulled back in the last two games, they still had 109.7 points in the end.

The Eagles really gave up completely.

When the deal was first completed, Woodson actually tried to take care of both offense and defense, but the result was that he didn't understand offense. As for defense, they hadn't played defense well for several years, and most of the players didn't even have good defensive habits.

Also, there is no one.

After the transaction was completed, the management had performance requirements. After Woodson tried it, he chose to give up defense this season and let the players focus on offense, delegating power to the players, mainly to the White Devil Bibby.

Maybe it's genetics, Bibby has a natural talent for coaching. He has never served as a "coach", but the team's coaching staff is so awesome that he can only do it himself. It was his first time doing this kind of work, but he actually made the team's offense look pretty good.

It is also related to the simplicity of their playing style - all offense revolves around the three superstars on the outside, and when in doubt, the superstars play solo.

We gave up on defense, but we still had to have a defensive goal in every game. At first, this goal was randomly chosen, but after the All-Star Weekend, it gradually became clear - to do our best to limit the opponent's first scoring point.

As for the fact that this will give other scorers of the opponent better shooting opportunities... it doesn't matter! They have three big stars, who are they afraid of in scoring?

Pierce's "self-response" tonight not only failed to achieve the defensive effect he wanted, but he even failed to complete the basic goal, allowing Zhang Yang to score 3 points and 5 assists in 2 and a half minutes, and the Bobcats scored 17 points as a team, taking off from the start.

After the timeout and seeing the score, he knew it was his problem...but the White Devil was too direct and didn't give him face!

However, despite being angry and embarrassed, Pierce also felt relieved - finally someone was controlling him in such a tough way!

In the first nine years of his career, Pierce encountered two big brothers, and his two "highlight seasons" were played with the assistance of those two big brothers.

Of course, this "highlight" cannot be compared with Kidd, Iverson, Kobe, who have made it to the finals or even won the championship, but it is not bad.

The first big brother was Kenny Anderson, who had been on the Celtics when Pierce entered the NBA. He grew up with him and helped him play the best season of his career in the 01-02 season - 49 wins and 33 losses in the regular season, third in the Eastern Conference, and reached the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs and lost 2-4 in the sixth game against the Nets.

In the summer of 02, Kenny Anderson's contract year was up, and he was sent away by the Celtics because of his high salary of nearly 49 million. In the next two seasons, the Celtics' record plummeted, from 44 wins to 36 wins, and then to wins.

The second big brother is Payton. After the collapse of the Lakers F04 in the summer of 4, he was traded to the Celtics. With the help of Payton, Pierce led the team to regain its strength, winning 45 games and ranking third in the Eastern Conference.

But they were unlucky enough to meet the Pacers in the playoffs. The Pacers dropped to sixth place only because many people were suspended for fighting. Even if Artest couldn't play in the playoffs, the Celtics' lineup was much stronger than that of the Celtics. In the end, the Celtics lost in a game seven and were defeated by the underdog.

In the summer of 05, after the two-year mid-level contract that Payton signed with the Lakers expired, he left the Celtics and continued to cling to O'Neal. The Celtics immediately collapsed.

Without the assistance of a player with outstanding abilities, rich resume and strong experience in leading a team, Pierce could not lead the team. In the four seasons when he led the team alone, the team won 4, 44, 36 and 31 games respectively.

He looks fearless, but in fact he is very dependent on his leader.

In the original time and space, he had Garnett as his teammate. Garnett's performance as a leader could be questioned, but few people questioned his leadership ability.

We are lucky here, with the White Devil as our leader, we can urge him to calm down and stop giving orders blindly...

...

Neither team made any substitutions.

The Eagles wanted to catch up, and their starting lineup was their most powerful lineup, so naturally they had to keep playing.

On the Bobcats side, the starting lineup was also their most powerful offensive lineup. Carlisle did not take it lightly in the face of a huge 9-point advantage at the start.

A team like the Hawks, which has a weak inside line and is top-heavy, has a very low lower limit of strength. The inside line is too weak and has no foundation, but the upper limit is also difficult to predict.

Pierce and Joe Johnson, two top singles scorers who can average 25+ points per game while leading the team alone, take turns playing. Next to them is Bibby, who is often ignored by opponents but can make a sudden shot. The Lakers with the outside combination of Kidd and Kobe have been defeated by them.

After the timeout, the Eagles attacked.

Joe Johnson backed up Zhang Yang in the high post, turned around and made a jump shot...and it went in!
The peak of the contemporary Jordan, he could really beat anyone in a one-on-one match.

Attack and defense transition, continue to play successful tactics, and then adjust according to the opponent's defensive changes after being restricted. This is the routine operation of the advantageous side.

Zhang Yang continued to go to the mid-range on the right baseline, and when Felton broke through, he ran around the long two-point area to the high post and set an off-ball screen with Okafor.

While running, Zhang Yang judged the opponent's defensive strategy against him from Horford's footsteps and Pierce's chasing and defending method - to limit his three-point shots and shots within the free throw line at all costs.

His choice is...

He slowed down before setting the screen, and when Okafor came down early, he accelerated again, played with a poor rhythm, and quickly came to the left side of the free throw line, receiving the ball from Felton at an angle from the right elbow area.

Facing Pierce's pursuit and Horford's backup defense, Zhang Yang received the ball, turned around, dribbled the ball and stepped back, and threw the ball before landing...

One-on-two, a long step-back two-point shot!

Zhang Yang's 'Hamblen step-back shot' is one of his signature scoring methods, but Pierce and Horford really didn't expect this guy to dare to shoot like this when facing a double-team!
Especially Pierce, he felt that he was confident enough, and even proudly thought that no one was more confident than him.

Now his perception was refreshed... No, he was still the most confident. The guy in front of him could no longer be called confident, but arrogant! Arrogant to the extreme!

(End of this chapter)