First in scoring

Chapter 427 426. Only Attack and Defense Can Be Integrated

Paul got 12 assists, but the Hornets lost by more than ten points, which was a rare thing last season; Paul got the second-highest 30 points in the game, which was a very bad statistic for the Hornets even last season. If Paul got 30+, the Hornets were doomed in most cases...

In this game, Zhang Yang saw Paul's current predicament.

Unlike the future Turtle who needs both, Tristana is passive and the team needs both.

Paul has to provide a backup and step up to solve problems when competing with stars. There were no problems in the first half and he was strong throughout the whole game, but he couldn't get up in the third quarter and was extremely weak in the final quarter. However, he still had to fight hard with his exhausted body.

This is even more dangerous than the predicament of Paul that Zhang Yang analyzed before the game. Perhaps only the future peak Turtle can carry this team without being exhausted. Paul's tolerance for toughness is obviously not that good.

After the game, Zhang Yang returned home and checked the news.

The first month of competition has come to an end, and one of the hottest topics right now is related to Zhang San - the showdown between the No. 3 stars.

This month, the league's four most famous No. 4 players have faced each other once, for a total of six hot matches.

The player with the best record is Iverson, who won all 3 games, defeating Zhang San, Xiao Pao and Cheek Bang. Not only does he have an advantage in head-to-head record, but his team's record is also the best. After 4 consecutive wins at the end of the month, the Nuggets' record went from 8 wins and 4 losses to 12 wins and 4 losses. In the West, only the Mavericks and the Lakers have better records than them. They are ranked third in the West, ahead of the Grizzlies and the Trail Blazers.

The second best one was Zhang San. Except for the loss against the Nuggets, he won against the other two opponents.

But in terms of statistics, Iverson is at the bottom. Zhang Yang and Wade are competing for the scoring title, Paul is competing with Deron for the assist title, and Iverson only averages 21+7 per game.

Everyone knows the reason why Iverson's statistics declined. With two teammates averaging 25+ points per game, it is impossible for all three of them to shoot more than 20 times per game.

To everyone's surprise, Iverson seems to be happy to accept the current style of play and number of shots. Since the All-Star Weekend last season, there have been rumors that "Iverson will be dissatisfied with the reduction in shooting rights." As a result, Iverson is the one among the "Three Guns" who said he likes this team the most times.

Zhang Yang saw a comment - when the answer chose to join the Nuggets, he was ready to sacrifice.

What he said makes sense, but it is undoubtedly a hindsight view. This netizen might have been one of the people who speculated that the Nuggets would go bankrupt because of Iverson. There was no such "objective view" at that time.

Zhang Yang took a look at the first month's performance.

In the East, the Cavaliers took off, losing only two games in the first month, to the Bobcats and Raptors respectively. With 13 wins and 2 losses, they are ranked first in the East and also first in the league.

魔术队12胜4负排在第二、山猫队11胜5负第三、老鹰队10胜5负第四、公牛队10胜6负第五、凯尔特人队9胜6负第六、热火队8胜7负第七、猛龙队8胜8负第八……

西部，湖人队与小牛队都是12胜3负，掘金队12胜4负第三、灰熊队11胜5负第四、开拓者队10胜5负第五、马刺队9胜7负第六、爵士队9胜7负第七、勇士队9胜7负第八……

The Western Conference's results after one month of play are quite different from what Zhang Yang expected before the start of the season.

The Mavericks will definitely get back on their feet after acquiring Billups and Saunders, but he was still surprised that they did so quickly.

Billups' control ability brings much greater help to Nowitzki than Kidd does now!
Zhang Yang watched a live broadcast of a Mavericks game and found that the Mavericks' playing style has been adjusted compared to the past two years, but in general it is still based on unlimited singles.

Sanders' coaching style is to add his own ideas to the existing system, adjust it step by step, and ensure the current strength.

The Hawks and Celtics rose as expected, but the Bulls fell sharply.

The main problem is that Big Ben has experienced a cliff-like decline. He will be 9 years old in September. He is over two meters tall and is a short athletic inside player. He may collapse at any time. And now, he has only played 34 games so far this season, averaging only 10 points, 2.6 rebounds and 6.4 blocks per game.

The biggest decline is in physical strength. Last season, Ben averaged 31 minutes per game in the regular season and 35 minutes per game in the playoffs. This season, he averaged only 23 minutes per game at the start and could not play more than that.

On the contrary, Joe Smith, who entered the NBA a year earlier than Ben Wallace and played as a substitute, performed better this season than last season. He played 19 minutes per game, averaging 6.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks per game... But the role played by the old No. pick is far worse than that of Ben Wallace last season.

With the power forward position's strength plummeting, the Bulls did not let Yao Ming play more. Yao Ming's playing time was reduced by 1 minute, and his number of shots also decreased. The 27-year-old Hinrich and 23-year-old Luol Deng had more roles. Yao Ming's points dropped, but his rebounds increased a little.

When Zhang Yang checked the information and learned about the changes of the Bulls, he sighed that it was good to have championship experience. He could see the benefits of the Bulls' adjustment - to reduce the burden on Yao Ming, so that he can successfully survive the one or two years of salary explosion after winning the championship. When Ben's contract expires, Yao Ming will only be 30 years old. As long as such a big center maintains good health, he will have at least another four-year championship cycle at the age of 30.

At that time, Hinrich and Yao Ming were in their prime, Luol Deng was at his peak, and there was salary space, so you can imagine how attractive it was to high-quality players.

Zhang Yang opened the homepage of his own team, 11 wins and 5 losses, which was indeed worse than he expected. It seemed okay, at the level of 55 wins, but their schedule in the first game month was quite easy. Apart from the game against the Cavaliers and the duel with the No. 3 star, there were no strong opponents, and they still lost 5 games.

The average score in 16 games was 105.3 points, which was much worse than last season, with a lot of fluctuations; however, the average points lost was 98 points, which was successfully lowered below the league average score line, and the defensive system has been effectively built. Other teams spend several years to slowly rebuild, or focus on defense like the Grizzlies and Cavaliers, or focus on offense like the Nuggets. If the Bobcats want to do that, it is easy, and they only spent one year last season.

But they tried it last season, purely on offense. If the Suns didn't collapse, they would still be far behind the Suns with Nash, Marion and Stoudemire, and that Suns team was not even one of the top three favorites to win the championship.

In terms of pure defense, they can hardly reach the intensity of last season's Bulls, this season's Cavaliers and Grizzlies, and the playoff version of the Lakers.

They can only move forward together, pursuing the top of both offense and defense, and integrated offense and defense!
...

February 12st, a new month has arrived.

After lunch, Zhang Yang came to the stadium to hold a meeting to prepare for the evening game.

Starting from the game against the Nuggets, the Bobcats have won six consecutive games.

The Bobcats have an easy schedule in the early stages of the season. In addition to the fact that most of their opponents are not top teams, they also have many home games. Although there are 10 games in the first match month, including the opening game on October 31, 16 of them are home games; the first two match months have a total of 9 games, 30 of which are home games.

The meeting ended quickly without even any preparation training. The meeting even discussed the opponent for the next game... Tonight's opponent is the Pistons.

However, the boss gang still held a small meeting as usual, emphasizing the points that need to be paid attention to in tonight's game, but there are not many points to emphasize. Now the Pistons' focus is on training Noah and playing badly to get draft picks.

The meeting turned into chatting mode.

Felton: "Jack, have you seen the list of the month's best awards?"

Zhang Yang: "I haven't seen it. We can't get it anyway."

Upon hearing this, Felton talked about the first month's best awards announced in the morning.

Mayo won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award; Rose defeated Lopez of the Rockets, Westbrook of the Clippers, and Love of the Timberwolves to win the Western Conference Rookie of the Month award.

James and Anthony won the Eastern and Western Conference Player of the Month awards respectively.

Van Gundy and George Karl won the Eastern and Western Conference Coach of the Month awards respectively.

After that, Felton complained: "I thought Howard would win the Player of the Month, but I didn't expect it to be James."

Zhang Yang: "It's normal for James to win. He performed well. Boss, don't wear tinted glasses."

Felton: "I know he deserves it, but Howard is better. I feel Howard should get MVP + DPOY. After every Magic game, his defensive highlights are in the news. I feel his defense is better than Wallace's back then!"

And you see, Anthony and Karl won the Player of the Month award together, Van Gundy also won the award, but Howard didn't win, which is very strange."

Hill interjected: "Maybe it's more interesting to have James and Anthony named Player of the Month together.

Moreover, compared with Jack and Paul last season, James did not look that good. Wade won the championship before, and Bryant was called the "best player in the world" at the Olympics. The league may give James more preference in these less controversial awards. After all, he is the most popular star in the league. After the Cavaliers started with a winning streak and ranked first in the league, the league's official website has not changed the photo, which has always been his portrait photo. "

Zhang Yang: "I see. You are worthy of being the popular superstar promoted by the league more than a decade ago. Grant, you really know a lot!"

Hill quickly grabbed Zhang Yang's neck and used his throat lock technique: "You can be more direct in your scolding!"

Zhang Yang: "Ahem, I'm about to be strangled to death! Ahem, why aren't your movements so fast when you play basketball?"

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats will face the Pistons in a back-to-back game at home.

Although their physical strength was affected, the Bobcats still easily defeated the Pistons 107-96.

After trying out a few games, although Carlisle continued to complain about Zhang Yang's overly reckless style of play, he chose to accept it and determined the overall direction of offensive and defensive adjustments.

Zhang Yang did not disappoint him. In back-to-back games, he did a good job in one-on-one defense against the opponent's core ball-handling player Harris, and still scored 26 points on 12 of 37 shots on the offensive end, opening the curtain of a new month of competition!
(End of this chapter)