First in scoring

Chapter 447 446. The shock of sudden appearance

In January, the Bobcats' record declined compared to December, but they are still the second-best team in the league with 1 wins and 12 losses.

张杨这个月得分略有下滑，17场比赛有9场得分低于30、有1场低于20，场均29.9分，外加5.7板4.3助攻2.3抢断。

奥卡福在张杨得分下滑、费尔顿表现不够稳定的时候，撑起了得分，前两个比赛月场均15.1分8.9板1.8盖帽的他，1月份场均18.3分11.7板2.1盖帽。

两人单拎出来，要拿月最佳都有点够呛，骑士队12胜4负、詹姆斯场均27+8+8；魔术队12胜5负、霍华德场均22+14+1+1+3。

But the team, Okafor + Zhang Yang, is the strongest inside and outside line combination in the East!

Correspondingly, Duncan + Ginobili was also the best inside and outside combination in the Western Conference in January.
邓肯1月份全勤，16场比赛场均21.5分10.8板2.3助攻2.5盖帽，投篮命中率54.6%，罚球命中率66.7%；

吉诺比利1月份打了14场，场均18.3分4板5.5助攻1.5抢断，投篮命中率52.6%，三分命中率41.1%。

The team with the best record in the league in January was the Spurs, with 1 wins and 14 losses. They soared from 2 wins and 12 losses at the end of December last year to 18 wins and 12 losses, surpassing the Mavericks and Grizzlies to top the Southwest Division!

At the same time, they surpassed the Nuggets and rushed to second place in the Western Conference!

Not only Zhang Yang was surprised, almost everyone who didn't pay much attention to the Spurs was surprised to see Duncan and Ginobili win the Player of the Month award and the Spurs' latest record. When did the Spurs stand up?
At the beginning, the Spurs' winning rate was less than 20%. After 10 games, they reached 10 wins and losses... Now they are second in the Western Conference and fifth in the league?

People rushed to check the Spurs' recent performance and discovered that the Spurs were indeed the best performing team in the mid-season, better than the Cavaliers, Lakers, Magic, and even the Bobcats!

And the Spurs didn't just surge forward in a short burst.

10胜10负开局后，马刺队在圣诞节前打出了5胜2负的战绩，在赛季前期结束时以15胜12负在季后赛席位上站稳了脚跟。

After Christmas, the Spurs first had an 8-game winning streak, during which they ended the Bobcats' 12-game winning streak; after breaking the 8-game winning streak against the Jazz, they continued with a 7-game winning streak; after breaking the 7-game winning streak against the Celtics, they started another winning streak and are currently on a 4-game winning streak...maintaining a very good continuity!
With such performance, most teams would have already become the most watched team, just like the Bobcats who rushed all the way to the top of the Eastern Conference in the late 06-07 regular season.

But it is difficult to attract people's attention even if two teams' performances take off.

One is the Pistons team in the 05-06 season. After the regular season ended, people were surprised to find that the Pistons had won 64 games. In the first year that Philip Saunders joined the Pistons, the Pistons made an unimpeded transition from the Iron Blood Era to the New Era.

The other team is the Spurs in front of us. After Christmas, the NFL dominated the screens of major media. The media gave less coverage to NBA teams. No matter how well the Spurs performed, they never made the headlines. Even when they ended the Bobcats' 12-game winning streak, the media were amazed that the 'three-game road trip to Texas' was indeed a hellish schedule.

Therefore, when the league awarded the Western Conference Player of the Month to Duncan, who had not won the Player of the Month for nearly 7 years, and Ginobili, who had never won the Player of the Month, it gave people the illusion that they "came out of nowhere".

Then, when people saw the data of the Spurs' last 20 games, everyone was puzzled - averaging 108.1 points per game and conceding 101 points per game.

Is this the Spurs? They look like the Bobcats from last season!

...

coming!

The Spurs suddenly became a strong offensive team, and the impact came two years ahead of schedule!
In his previous life, during the 10-11 season, Zhang Yang had experienced this feeling of "the Spurs suddenly becoming a strong offensive team", and he was already shocked at that time.

This time, as a player himself, in the world of NBA, the impact is even stronger!

Last season, the Spurs were one of the three tank teams in the league, ranking in the top three in defense and in the bottom ten in offense.

And now, in the past 20 games, the Spurs' offense ranks fourth in the league and their defense ranks nineteenth... It's too sudden.

But he was not surprised. Given the current NBA landscape, Popovich must make changes sooner, otherwise the Spurs would most likely fall behind.

When the Spurs played four consecutive away games in the Southwest Division last time, Zhang Yang had already seen the changes in the team. However, with that schedule, he had no extra energy to study the Spurs in detail. After the consecutive away games, he just wanted to rest. After the rest, he had already forgotten about the Spurs.

Now he thought carefully about the experience of playing against the Spurs. The Spurs had a complete 12-man rotation lineup, and the system... Compared with the 'Spurs system', it was not even a semi-finished product. It was indeed as the data showed, strong in offense but weak in defense. This was not the Spurs system.

This is just based on Duncan's 'fourth peak', Ginobili who is at his peak at the age of 31, Gay's talent, Conley's precocity and stability, and the offense is built around the personal abilities of these four people.

The Spurs were able to crush the enemy with a record of 17 wins and 2 losses after Christmas, largely because their opponents did not expect that this team, which had ranked in the top five in the league in defense and the bottom ten in offense for 11 consecutive seasons, would suddenly become a strong offensive team.

Of course, you need to have strength to take advantage of favorable conditions, and the Spurs, who focus on offense, should not be underestimated. In the evening, the Bobcats team arrived at Beverly Hills, Jordan's vacation estate.

After playing the first three games of the four-game road trip, the Bobcats got two days of rest and will play the last game on the 4rd.

They only come to Los Angeles twice a year, and it happens to be a break time. Boss Joe wants the players to relax, and Kawhi Leonard has no objection.

There have been some changes in the details of this year's All-Star Weekend, one of which is the time for determining the All-Star coaches. It has been decided that after the first three game months, the head coach of the team with the best record in the East and West will be elected as the All-Star head coach. If he has already been elected in the previous season, the head coach of the second-place team will be elected, and it will be marked that it depends on the person, not the team.

After defeating the Jazz and winning five games in a row, the Bobcats' record reached 5 wins and 38 losses, surpassing the Cavaliers with 9 wins and 35 losses to rank first in the Eastern Conference. Carlisle has already won the honor of All-Star head coach, and he accepted the boss's suggestion to let the players relax.

Carlisle has changed a lot since he coached the Bobcats for a year and a half. He still wants to do everything the best, still takes on many things, and often habitually requires others to aim for the highest standards in everything like himself. But he has become much more tactful in his handling of things and is no longer as demanding as before, always having unpleasant experiences with his players.

At the party, Zhang Yang heard that most of his teammates were discussing the Spurs, a strong offensive team that "came out of nowhere". This strong offensive team was the Spurs. Not only were the fans surprised, but the players also felt incredible.

But there is someone who doesn't care about the Spurs - Tim Duncan Jr.

Okafor did not participate in the discussion with his teammates at all, just drank some wine and gambled a little.

Little Duncan's appearance fits Zhang San's impression of him, except...

Zhang San: Why does Little Duncan look at me with a bit of disdain? As if he thinks I am unnecessary?
After a day of rest, on February 2, it was the Bobcats' training day.

Carlisle did not arrange any training in the morning. The players drank a little last night, so they should rest as much as possible.

At noon, the league announced the All-Star starting lineup in a live broadcast, and Okafor's room was filled with cheers and calls for "treat".

Zhang Yang pretended to be helpless and accepted his teammates' request for a meal, which drew cheers from his teammates. Okafor was not so dramatic and just nodded to indicate that he accepted the invitation.

Zhang Yang looked at the final voting results.

east:

Center: Yao Ming was elected with 248 million votes, Howard was second with 231 million votes, and Perkins was third with 126 million votes.

前锋：詹姆斯311万票当选、奥卡福206万票当选，波什178万票第三、大卫-李161万票第四、皮尔斯149万票第五。

后卫：张杨515万票当选，韦德191万票当选，费尔顿131万票第三、哈登113万票第四、卡特106万票第五。

west:

Center: O'Neal was elected with 281 million votes, Bynum was second with 196 million votes, and Oden was third with 98 votes.

前锋：加内特229万票当选，邓肯211万票当选，安东尼198万票第三、易建联176万票第四、杰拉德-华莱士171万票第五。

后卫：科比300万票当选，艾弗森261万票当选，保罗216万票第三、罗伊197万票第四、帕克173万票第五。

The results of the first stage were similar to what Zhang Yang remembered, with the starting lineup still being the same 10 players.

This voting method of announcing the number of votes every day can easily determine the number of places early. Supporters will definitely do their best to defend the tower, and it will form a siphon effect...

He, Zhang San, just set a historical record of 309 million votes last season. This season, the number increased by 60% and reached 500 million!
Yesterday, some media said that his votes may exceed 500 million, as long as the alliance does not invalidate too many of his votes. Now it seems that the "audit" basically did not fall on him, but on Lianmei.

Yi Jianlian's votes were "audited" to fourth place. Zhang Yang remembered that Yi Jianlian's votes were almost the same as Duncan's in the first stage, but he was overtaken by Anthony in the second stage, and finally had more than 20 votes less than Anthony.

The number of votes for the other candidates in the top few seems to be similar to what the media predicted, and there are not too many invalid votes. Does this mean that this audit is specifically aimed at Lianmei?

Zhang San cursed Lianmei as a Jew in his heart for 3 seconds, then...he went back to his room, got his backpack, and followed the team to the Lakers' Toyota Center training hall to prepare for the game.

The afternoon training was not large in volume, but the content was varied. It was obvious that Carlisle had made a lot of preparations for this game, and wanted to use tomorrow's game to test which ones could be used, which ones needed to be abandoned, and which ones could be improved... The Lakers were undoubtedly the team that the Bobcats valued the most in the Western Conference, no doubt about it!

(End of this chapter)