First in scoring

Chapter 429 428. Brother, please give me some advice!

After a day of rest, on the 6th, the Bobcats faced their first home back-to-back opponent, the Philadelphia 6ers, to end their 76-game home streak.

During the final preparation time before the game, the Bobcats' starting lineup gathered together to discuss tactical details.

The 76ers' record is not very good, with 6 wins and 12 losses.

But the main reason was their disastrous start. The newly introduced core inside player performed poorly in the preseason, and was injured again after the preseason. It was a serious injury with a recovery period of 12-16 weeks. The 76ers head coach Maurice Cheeks prepared for a summer and practiced the new system for a month in training camp and preseason, but the new system simply could not be played. After the regular season started, they could only pick up the old style of play of the past two years. The performance was terrible at the beginning, starting with 3 wins and 9 losses.

The 76ers' performance has improved in recent times, with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses.

A lion needs to do its best to fight a rabbit. The Bobcats did not underestimate such an opponent on the rise and made sufficient preparations.

Also, this is the first game of a back-to-back, and they want to defeat the 76ers quickly and save their energy for tomorrow's game.

Felton saw Zhang Yang looking at the bench from time to time and asked curiously, "Jack, what are you looking at?"

Zhang Yang: "Boss, you should ask the AI ​​why it keeps staring at me."

Felton looked across, and sure enough, Iguodala had been glancing at Zhang Yang out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, why is he staring at you...Oh, now I remember, he must be jealous of you."

Zhang Yang asked with a question mark face: "Why is he jealous of me? He and I are not players on the same track."

Felton: "Didn't Iguodala change his playing style this season? He no longer wanted to be an all-around superstar who could score and organize offense, but instead played defense and support?"

Zhang Yang: "Of course I know. It's written in the scouting report and I can see it when I watch the 76ers' games. But what does this have to do with me?"

Felton: "He made the decision after the Olympics. I remember the interview in the locker room after we won the gold medal. Iguodala said that after playing in the Olympics, he finally understood what a true genius is. He no longer pursues to be a superstar like you, but wants to be himself."

Zhang Yang: "Why haven't I seen this interview?"

Felton: "I didn't see it either. Maybe there were too many topics and comments that day that could be hyped, and his popularity was not high, so the reporters didn't report it. At that time, I thought he was just sighing casually and didn't take what he said seriously. The reporters probably thought the same. If I hadn't seen the evaluation and data in his scouting report yesterday, I would have forgotten about it."

Zhang Yang: "I understand. He realized that his talent was not enough to become an excellent scorer, and he was determined to give up developing in this direction. But he was unwilling to give up and hated himself for not having talent, so he wanted to find a target to divert his hatred for his lack of talent. Am I that unlucky target?"

"..." Felton was silent for a moment, then said in a tangled voice: "Jack, now that you said that, my impression of Iguodala has become worse. Now when I see him, I feel that he has a face full of jealousy hidden in his heart, but I always think he is a good person."

Zhang Yang: "He is a nice guy, but that doesn't conflict with my envy and jealousy towards certain people or things."

"Yeah, I'm jealous of Williams too... Ahem, Jack, just pretend you didn't hear anything."

Felton suddenly understood and stopped worrying about it. He said, "It looks like the 76ers are about to rise. When Brand recovers from his injury, they will become opponents we need to pay attention to in the playoffs, just like the Hawks and Celtics. Jack, concentrate on preparing for the game and don't be careless!"

Zhang Yang nodded and focused on communicating and discussing with his teammates. He no longer looked at the little AI on the opposite side. He cared about it before because he didn't know the reason. Now that he knew, let that guy stare at him if he wanted to.

However, he thinks it is impossible for the 76ers to rise as Felton said.

With his "third eye open", he knew that the 76ers had been taken advantage of this time.

Last season, Brand played in just six games at the start of the season and was ruled out for the season. After the regular season ended, he took the initiative to opt out of his final year player option and asked the Clippers for a long-term contract extension.

The Clippers did not offer the contract immediately, wanting to haggle with Brand for a long time to lower the price. As a result, when the Suns and Celtics were trying to offer their support, the 76ers could no longer sit still and offered Brand a five-year, $5 million maximum salary with non-Bird rights.

这合同，比姚明06年续签的5年7500万、奥卡福07年续签的6年9900万都高！
The salaries these two signed are not even the second-highest salaries of the Bird Rights. When Yao Ming renewed his contract in 06, based on the salary cap at the time, theoretically he could get a maximum of more than 5 million over five years; if Okafor had completed the contract renewal this summer, theoretically he could have gotten a maximum of 8800 million over six years.

Of course, Okafor could only get so much, and Yao Ming just believed the devil's lies.

Brand himself was willing to stay in Los Angeles. Who wouldn't love the second largest city and the glamorous life there? After accepting the offer, he took the contract to Sterling, hoping that the Clippers would match it.

But Sterling decisively refused to match the contract and would rather sign Camby who was released by the Thunder, so Brand had to go east.

Many people, like Felton, now believe that Brand's return will help the 76ers take a big step forward.

After all, that was Brand, who averaged 20+10 per game since entering the NBA for many years in a row. In his peak season, he averaged 24.7 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, combining both offense and defense.

But if Zhang Yang remembers correctly, Brand would later be pardoned by the 76ers.

Sam Hinkie, the future general manager of the 76ers, commented on the signing of Brand: "The moment that contract was signed, it meant that our reconstruction had failed. It was a standard example of a garbage contract."

Many people believe that Brand is a technical player who does not rely on physical fitness, and the Achilles tendon rupture has little impact on him. This is also the analysis of the 76ers' prospects in the scout report.

But Zhang Yang, who is also a technical player, knows that players like him who are not famous for their physical fitness are not independent of physical fitness. On the contrary, they rely on it more than those men with super physical fitness. Their "technical style of play" has utilized their explosive power, bullet speed and other aspects to the extreme. The so-called "independence" is just an illusion of others.

Some "technical players" themselves do not have this awareness, such as Peja of the Hornets. As a player who mainly relies on running and shooting, he is completely unprepared on the technical level to deal with the decline in mobility and jumping speed. Now his running is easily blocked, and his shooting accuracy is also affected by the decline in jumping ability.

...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the game between the Bobcats and the 76ers started.

The Bobcats' strategic goal was to win the game quickly, but after the game started, the two teams fought a seesaw battle. The score in the first quarter was 26 to 25 and the score in the second quarter was tied at 26. The Bobcats only had a 1-point lead at halftime.

Thanks to Zhang Yang's 7 free throws in the third quarter, which helped the 76ers commit enough fouls early on, the team was able to score 27 to 21 in the third quarter and gain a clear lead. At the end of the third quarter, the team led the 79ers 72 to 76.

The 76ers did not give up in the final quarter and fought back under the leadership of Iguodala, Andre Miller and Nick Young.

So far this season, Iguodala's average points per game have dropped to 15 points, but his defense and offensive organization have undergone qualitative changes. He averaged 6.5 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game, all of which are career highs.

His scoring efficiency also increased significantly, from 43.7% last season to 49.6%.

The person who benefits the most from Iguodala's reduced shooting attempts is Nick Young, who was brought in by the 76ers during the offseason to be used as the sixth man.

Nick Young averaged 8.2 points per game for the Wizards last season, which soared to 16.5 points this season. He was promoted to the starting lineup and became the 76ers' leading scorer. He is considered a candidate for the Most Improved Award.

In fact, if we only look at the strength, Eric Gordon, the high-ranking rookie who was relegated to the bench as the sixth man, may be more capable than Nick Young, but the round-faced Gordon has a strong desire to hold the ball. When he started at the beginning of the season, the 76ers' outside line had almost no cooperation. He, Andre Miller, and Iguodala all held the ball and did their own thing.

Although Nick Young is extremely poor at defense and cannot pass the ball, he has great advantages on the offensive end - he only takes the shooting rights, and when there is no single opportunity, he moves away to receive the ball, does not stick to the ball, and is very accurate in shooting after receiving the ball.

Not only that, when everyone on the team has bad offensive opportunities, give the ball to Nick Young, he can make the shot despite the defense. Iguodala and Andre Miller both like to partner with him.

The combination of 'young Kobe' + 'poor version of James', coupled with Andre Miller who does a good job of ball distribution, and sixth man Gordon, is the basis for the 76ers to take off as long as Brand returns from injury.

However, although the 'poor version of Janko' fought hard in the final quarter, he was still suppressed by Zhang Yang and Felton.

With more than 50 seconds left in the game, Zhang Yang dribbled the ball between his legs and made a mid-range shot under Iguodala's defense, bringing the score to 99 to 92. The Bobcats' lead expanded to 7 points, securing the victory.

晚上9点22分，比赛结束，张杨20投9中，其中三分球6中2，加上13中12的罚球，拿到32分5板2助攻3抢断，率领山猫队以102比94击败76人队，拿下4连胜！

Zhang Yang thanked the 76ers' inside players for the dozens of free throws!

This was the toughest game Zhang San had played against the 76ers since Iverson left the team, with a rare shooting percentage of less than 76%.

It can also be seen that Iguodala has studied Zhang San deeply and kept his shot count very low. This was the game with the fewest shots he took against the 76ers in the past two years.

But unfortunately, Iguodala defended well, but the inside players behind him fell behind. Dalembert, Speights, Thaddeus Young and Donyell Marshall took turns to "give away kills" in the third quarter.

On the other side, Iguodala stopped pretending after the game and stared straight at Zhang Yang who was calmly high-fiving his teammates to celebrate.

But his mentality is much better than Bosh's the night before, his teammates are better, he can wait for Nick Young and Gordon to improve, and there is also hope for Brand in the interior...

...

The next night, after 2 hours and 24 minutes of play, the Bobcats lost to the Magic 110-115 at home, ending their four-game winning streak.

刘易斯21分、尼尔森15分、考特尼-李12分、戈塔特10分、特科格鲁20分、霍华德12分、雷迪克11分……刘易斯、特科格鲁、霍华德三核均步入巅峰期的魔术队，强得可怕，一共9人上场，7人得分上双！
不过这场比赛对山猫队来说怪可惜的，他们攻防两端的战术准备、执行，总的来说做得都不错。张杨拿到35分、费尔顿18分8助攻、迈克-米勒进了4个三分球拿到17分，三人合砍70分，撕碎了魔术队4-1防守阵型。

On the defensive end, Howard was limited to only 12 points and 14 rebounds.

But the Magic's 19-of-10 three-point shooting from the outside opened up a lot of space; in order to limit Howard's scoring in the paint, the Bobcats missed a lot of Magic's wing players' cuts.

In addition, this was the second game of a back-to-back series, and they had fought the 76ers to the end last night. The intensity of the Bobcats' rotation defense was not able to maintain the continuity throughout the game as in the previous two games. In the second half, the Magic scored 63 points, and their own scoring could not keep up...

Little AI flew to the South Coast with the team. There was no game tonight, so he stayed in front of the TV to watch the live broadcast: Hahahaha, Zhang San, you deserve this day!
At the post-match press conference, Carlisle criticized the league's unreasonable schedule. The first three games were three games in four days, with two days of rest in between, and then three games in four days again. This was only possible because the games were played at home, otherwise the physical strength problem would have been highlighted long ago.

The most important thing is that after playing six consecutive home games, the Bobcats have to rest for three days before the next game.

The next morning, the discussion about this matter reached a climax and became a hot topic because not only the Bobcats had such a schedule, but all teams had it.

Public opinion alarmed league executives, and Vice President Stu Jackson came out in an interview and said the league would take this issue seriously.

And then...what happened next? There was no next!

This topic is brought up for discussion every year, but it has remained the same over the years.

A group of statistical experts have already helped the NBA develop a 'round schedule', and it is very well planned. It will be of great help to the players' physical strength and health, and will also improve the excitement of the game.

But it is not very friendly to the game ratings. There will often be a lot of popular matchups, and there will also be times when there are no popular matches for several days in a row.

For commercial leagues, making money is the most important thing. They prioritize arranging popular matchups at the right time and then fill in other games.

As for issues such as players' physical strength and health, to put it bluntly, in the eyes of the league and sponsors, geniuses will always emerge in an endless stream.

However, Carlisle, who brought up this topic, actually didn't care about it. He brought up this topic just to divert attention.

The game against the Magic was hyped up by the media before the game, which infinitely elevated the importance of a regular season game.

If they win, Carlisle will do nothing. If they lose, since he has the opportunity to use criticism of the schedule to divert the attention of the media, fans, and even his own players, he should of course take advantage of it. This is a basic operation of being a head coach.

Carlisle is very satisfied with the start, as he has 6 wins and 4 losses in 2 consecutive home games and a record of 14 wins and 6 losses. Last season's record of 14-1 was abnormal, because the win or loss of an ordinary regular season game affected the mentality of the players, and that was the problem.

...

After a day of rest and a day of training, it was December 12th. At noon, Zhang Yang arrived in Atlanta with the team.

In the evening, the three young masters left the hotel together to find a place to eat. Before going to the restaurant, they first came to the underground church in Atlanta, the only "American monument". Many years ago, this city became a ruin in the war. The first building built after the war was this small church. The sign at the door read "Atlanta's Oldest Church".

Two years ago, after the Bobcats traded for Jarrett Jack, Zhang Yang dragged Felton here to worship the local Buddha. Later, every time he came to Atlanta for an away game, Felton would drag Zhang Yang and Okafor to pray.

Zhang Yang did not refuse. The church was right in the city center. Since he was already there, he might as well pray. After all, the one who donated the money was the fat boss.

When they arrived at the church, Felton donated several thousand dollars as usual, and then prayed with his two younger brothers. At first, Felton didn't know what to pray for. He didn't think he had any sins that he needed to confess to God, and he didn't remember much from the Bible. But after praying with Zhang Yang once, he had a direction - to make a wish.

After making the wish, the three did not leave immediately, but stood by the window to watch the sunset.

Although this church is small, it was built with great care. At sunrise and sunset, light shines in from the east and west windows and falls on the statue of Jesus, creating a strong religious atmosphere.

Felton took off his coat and held it in his hand, saying, "In previous years, it was always quite cold when I came here to play in the winter. Why does it feel warmer than Charlotte this year?"

Zhang Yang: "Maybe the divine light is shining on you, and you feel the warmth of God."

Felton rolled his eyes at his younger brother: "Aren't you hot?"

Zhang Yang: "A little bit. I also think the coat is too thick. I noticed it when I got off the plane. But I still don't take it off. Put it on. It's almost night time. If I catch a cold and get sick, it will affect tomorrow's game."

Felton: "Oh, yes, I put it on, but why does it seem to be hotter this year than in previous years?"

Zhang Yang thought about it, and decided to stop being romantic. He started with realism and analyzed, "Maybe it's because the Eagles have become stronger? In the past, we came here to play games just for fun, but this year they've become a strong team. We almost lost to them last time, so they're already an exciting opponent for us. Are we even more excited?"

Felton: "Oh! That's it!"

Okafor couldn't listen any longer. Zhang San's outrageous analysis was not as good as what he said before that he felt the warmth of God.

He couldn't help but say, "Atlanta is south of Charlotte. Theoretically, it should be warmer than Charlotte. It's just because the city is built on the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and there are no higher mountains around. In winter, cold air passes through. Normally, it would be colder than Charlotte. But this year, there is no north wind on the south coast. Instead, the subtropical warm current has risen, so it's a little hotter. Don't you guys check the weather before playing away games?"

Felton: “…”

Zhang Yang: “…”

Shuangqiang was silent for a few seconds, and Zhang Yang uttered, "You are the only one who reads a lot, and you are the only one who likes watching TV!"

Seeing Zhang San's slightly frustrated look, Little Duncan couldn't hold back his smile - could he speak more in such situations in the future? It's fun to argue with Brother San!

Suddenly, a laugh came from the side.

Zhang Yang turned around to see who was laughing at him, looked left and right, no one... He said "Oh" and lowered his head, and saw the girl rolling her eyes.

Zhang Yang asked this bitch-like looking girl, "Emma Roberts?"

Emma Roberts put away her eyes and responded, "I didn't expect you to know me. I'm so sorry, I'm too short and I need you to lower your head to talk to me."

Zhang Yang nodded: "You are shorter than you look on TV. On TV, you look like you are 1.80 meters tall."

The bitch rolled her eyes again and said, "I really want to step on you when I talk to you!"

The words were very fierce, but Zhang Yang felt that the other party didn't seem angry, so he smiled and said, "I didn't expect to see a star on TV here. I'm so lucky. My name is Jack, nice to meet you."

Emma Roberts: "Of course I know who you are. I came to Atlanta just to watch your Bobcats and Hawks game tomorrow."

Zhang Yang: "You are my fan? What an honor."

Emma Roberts crossed her arms and said, "No, that was before. Now I have to think about whether I should continue to be your fan. The way you lowered your head just now hurt me."

Zhang Yang made a very regretful expression and said, "I'm so sorry, I know a good restaurant, would you like to give me a chance to apologize?"

Looking at Zhang Yang's tall and straight but slender figure, sunny and handsome face, and thick skin... reserved? What the hell is reserved!
Emma Roberts: "I'll accept your invitation reluctantly... Hey, Jack, where are your teammates?"

Zhang Yang just noticed Felton's little move to pull Okafor away, and responded: "They are already mature teammates. Don't worry, they won't get lost and will find their way to the game."

Xiao Fei and Xiao Duncan, who were secretly observing from outside the door, had the same expression——()
When Zhang Yang and the bitch walked out of the church, Felton and Okafor hid behind a big tree. After the two got into the taxi, they came out from the corner.

Felton: "Emeka, do you think we should remind Jack that he has a game tomorrow and can't consume too much energy tonight?"

Okafor: "Huh? Didn't Jack just meet that actress? Can he bring her back to the hotel?"

Felton: "It's too easy for him. I heard Steve say last summer that he took Jack to a party, and at noon the next day he saw two extremely beautiful actresses coming out of Jack's room. He was envious."

Okafor: "Uh... I think it should be OK. Jack can play 40 minutes in back-to-back games. Playing poker is not as tiring as playing games, right?"

Felton: “That’s right…”

It was past 9pm, in the hotel where the Bobcats were staying, in Felton's room, he and Okafor had been paying attention to the movement in the corridor, and heard a woman's cry. One tall and one short poked their heads out from the crack of the door, and saw Zhang Yang pick up the actress he had just met in the afternoon, and the other woman wrapped her legs around Zhang Yang's waist and entered the door...

Little Fat Boss: Bro, please give me some advice!

(End of this chapter)