First in scoring

Chapter 502 500. On the Eve of the Finals
After qualifying, Zhang Yang was exhausted after the game. After the last game of the "China Derby Eastern Conference Finals", he really felt more tired than playing the game!
Of course, G4 itself was not that difficult.

When Zhang Yang finished his chores and returned to the hotel, Emma Roberts was already sleeping in a spread-eagle position.

Zhang San was upset. When they first got together, even if the little bitch was so sleepy that her eyelids were fighting, she would force herself to resist the urge to sleep and wait for him to come back.

Will love fade? We won't spend the night together anymore?
The main reason was that Zhang San was too sleepy. He took a nap in the car on the way back to the hotel and now he couldn't fall asleep.

He turned on his computer, plugged in headphones, and prepared to listen to Gangzi's crosstalk for a while. Before listening to the crosstalk, he habitually opened basketball websites and forums to check out the post-match comments.

The first thing he noticed was the news about the finals schedule released simultaneously by the league's official account on major basketball portals, with the first game scheduled for the 6th.

That means the Bobcats get 4 days of rest and the Lakers get 5 days of rest.

This is more rest time than in previous years. Last year, there were only two days of rest between the last game of the divisional finals and the first game of the finals.

He guessed it might be because the divisional finals ended too early?

If they are only given two days of rest before starting the finals with the Lakers, in extreme cases, the finals may end as early as the 11th. In that case, there will be a window period of more than half a month before the draft, which may affect the attention of the draft and then affect the league's promotion of the next rookies.

He remembered that before the Eastern Conference Finals began, public opinion generally believed that the finals might start around June 6th.

At that time, the Jazz won two consecutive rounds with a score of 4 to 1; the Bulls defeated the second and third teams in the MVP rankings in a row. Their defensive system was highly mature and they played with a consumption-oriented approach. Neither the Magic nor the Cavaliers had an effective way to break the deadlock.

The Lakers and the Nuggets fought for 6 games. Kobe took on Iverson, Ray Allen and Anthony alone. The offensive firepower did not have an advantage. Thanks to Kidd's organization of the offense and his performance in receiving three-pointers, as well as Garnett's help to Kidd in the coordination, the Lakers were able to fight back and forth with the Nuggets in terms of overall offensive firepower. The key to victory was on the defensive end. Garnett + the defensive center + the wing Kidd connected the entire team's defense, and Kobe and Ariza took turns to defend Anthony. With all these done well, the Lakers were able to get through the dangerous situation.

The Bobcats and the Hawks just played a tiebreaker, which exposed some obvious shortcomings. For example, there are too few players with top one-on-one defensive ability. Only Zhang Yang can be considered comprehensive in one-on-one defense. Hill, Okafor, Perkins, and Pietrus all have obvious flaws. Hill is old, Okafor is not strong enough in one-on-one defense after losing weight, Perkins is slow, and Pietrus has a weak foundation and relies on athleticism and awareness to defend...

At that time, people thought that no matter who advanced to the finals, the Eastern and Western Conference finals should have to be played for at least 6 games to determine the winner. In that case, the divisional finals would end at the earliest on the 6th.

Let alone others, Zhang Yang himself felt that the Eastern Conference Finals would definitely be more difficult than the second round. He thought that the Bulls' second-line defense would definitely be better than the Hawks'...

As a result, all the conference finals were over on the first day of June. If the NBA Rules Committee had not slightly advanced the start time of the season and delayed the end time of the regular season when drawing up the schedule this season in accordance with the labor-management agreement, the finals might have had to start on Children's Day.

Zhang Yang reviewed the Eastern Conference Finals that just ended, and felt that Okafor had made great contributions!
Without Duncan Jr. silently doing the dirty work behind his outside teammates, he would have to wait at least two years to be selected for the first defense, and at most he could try to get into the first or second defense.

Recalling the difference in actual defensive effectiveness between the Hawks' and Bulls' outside players against him, he deeply felt how much defensive help a good power forward can provide to outside players!

In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls' outside defense on him was really poor and they didn't do anything well.

But in G2 and G3, Luol Deng, Sefrosa and Nocioni did a better job of rotating defense against him than Pierce, Joe Johnson, Maurice Evans and others, but the effect was not as good as the latter.

Because of the serious aging of Ben Wallace and the insufficient basketball IQ of Tyrus Thomas, the help they provide to their outside teammates on the defensive end is much worse than that of Horford.

Zhang Yang also thought of Biao Biao. In the playoffs, he could feel how powerful this new DPOY is.

One person has to do the work of two people, guarding the last line of defense and withstanding the impact at close range. No wonder at the end of the regular season, some experts called Howard "the best defensive player in basketball history."

While browsing the forum, Zhang Yang saw that the divisional finals were one-sided on both sides, which did not make the fans feel "disappointed". They just didn't expect the gap to be so big. This result actually made the fans more enthusiastic about the discussion!

However, after the previous round of series, fans would always discuss what the losing side did not do well, and how pity so-and-so’s performance was...etc. But this time, there was no such discussion. The fans only discussed the Bobcats and Lakers who advanced.

Both teams swept their opponents and advanced to the finals. The fans' expectations for the finals became even higher, but the arguments between the fans on both sides also became more intense.

On the American side, there are definitely more Lakers fans, and theoretically it is difficult for Bobcats fans to win the argument. During this period, there was a small group of fans who loved to speak out, giving people the feeling that they were a "cult". But the actual situation was that Bobcats fans not only did not lose out, but instead had the upper hand!
Zhang Yang sometimes sees that he has a small group of fans who are quite like a 'cult'. Moreover, players like him have a large fan base, so a small group is also a large group of people, and the silent majority are represented.

But this time it's not his small group of fans who have become more "evil", but the number of "5-year Bobcats fans" has increased, and another group of "cult members" have joined them!

'The Three Strongest High School Students in History' Fans Brawl!

...

The next day at noon, Zhang San and Little Bitch went to the Little Giant's house for lunch.

On the court, both teams were angry in Game 3, but after the Eastern Conference Finals, Yao Ming also accepted it.

如果是2比4或者3比4输了，那肯定很不甘心，但1比4、0比4这种比分，实力差距过于明显……

In the afternoon, the two returned to Charlotte with the Bobcats and rested for a night. On June 6, the second rest day, the Bobcats began preparations before the finals.

The morning preparation meeting lasted the entire morning, and Zhang Yang, Felton, Okafor, Hill, Brad Miller, Millsap and other six people were exhausted.

It’s okay for teammates to be distracted or even fall asleep, but they have to concentrate.

For the following training, the general direction will be controlled by the head coach, but the specific training and details will be led by them in cooperation with the two assistant coaches Vincent and Paul Silas.

During lunch, Zhang Yang complained to Vincent: "Did you guys stay up all night these past two days?" Vincent replied in confusion: "No, we assistant coaches went back to the hotel to rest after the game the night before yesterday. We had a day off yesterday. Why are you asking?"

Zhang Yang: "Where did you get such detailed preparations for today? They are too thorough and complicated. I only remember the latter part, but I have almost forgotten the former part. Fortunately, Randy has the video."

Vincent: "You said preparations. After watching the live broadcast of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Rick determined that the Western Conference Finals had no reference value. He only studied the two games we played against the Lakers in the regular season, the Lakers' first-round match against the Mavericks, and the second-round match against the Nuggets. We were almost ready for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals that afternoon... But you actually remembered some of it. I, who participated in the preparation plan, can't remember much without looking at my notes. You are worthy of being a North Carolina graduate student."

Zhang Yang: "I see. I heard you say you guys will have a holiday after Game 4. I thought Rick could do so much preparation by himself. I was shocked."

Vincent: (), No, man, didn't I just convey that Rick is absolutely confident that we can win the Eastern Conference Finals and is thinking about our opponent in the Finals before we even play a single game?
Seeing that Zhang Yang, Hill, and Felton had turned the topic to discussing Carlisle's on-the-spot micro-management in the Eastern Conference Finals... Vincent thought to himself: Okay, Rick is right, I'm really not destined to be a head coach. I can't even do this little bit of emotional guidance.

In the afternoon, Zhang Yang conducted two large training sessions with the team, one for offense and one for defense, each with 3 sections and 20 minutes each. The training content was the Lakers' basic offensive tactics, basic defensive positioning and coordination.

Such meticulous preparation for the series relies entirely on four rest days. Excluding yesterday's real rest and the morning of the game day, there are a total of three and a half days of preparation time.

Unlike before the Eastern Conference Finals, there was only a day and a half to prepare, so we could only focus on tactics.

At 4: p.m., the team's first training day was over. Randy Brown distributed the copied CDs to the players, and those who were interested in studying the preparation meeting did so.

This is another benefit of having more rest days. The daily training workload will not be particularly large. The devilish training camp of the magician in the late 80s caused Magic Johnson to be seriously injured and Skyhook to retire. These are lessons from the past. Instead, it leaves some time for the players to digest the content of the preparation training and allows players with tactical thinking time to think about how to respond.

Most of the Bobcats players had an easy first training day, but Zhang Yang, Hill, Felton and Okafor were on a tight schedule. After get off work, they took a shower, changed their clothes and followed their respective teams to "get their next job."

Kobe Bryant vs. Zhang Yang, the battle between the strongest high school students in history, a head-to-head matchup for the scoring champion, a head-to-head matchup for the MVP... The popularity of this finals is extremely high, and both sides have played a dominant performance in the divisional finals. The popularity is no less than last year's finals.

The Bobcats have four popular stars with many endorsements, so the workload naturally increases.

But they are not alone, the same situation exists for the Big Three in Los Angeles.

Even Kwame Brown got a long-term endorsement contract with the "Ping Pong Racket" sports brand with an average annual salary of US$150 million, which made Boss Joe so angry that he cursed in front of the camera and threatened to sue Ping Pong Racket, which caused a lot of fun.

After finishing work in the evening, Zhang Yang was busy when he got home at night. He followed the training arrangements given by Carlisle, studied the videos of the preparation meetings, and the Lakers' game videos... He was busy, but generally speaking, it was fulfilling.

In the next two days, he devoted himself to the full preparation work just like the first training day. He participated in and helped his teammates in training, communicated with the coach and teammates, and had consensus. Of course, there were occasional arguments when there were disagreements, but everyone was working towards the same goal, and the arguments were also to find ways to solve troublesome problems... Compared to the first time they played in the finals two years ago, when they knew nothing and just went for it, this time, the entire team was more professional.

On the morning of the 5th, the last rest day, the Lakers came to Charlotte.

At noon, Hill and Kidd had a meal together. The two won the best rookie award together in the same class, which was also a good story in that year.

The career trajectories of the two are quite different. Kidd had a very difficult early life because of the 3J incident. Jordan's retirement was the starting point of his success. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in the shortened season. As a result, two years later, at the peak age of 28, he was taken by the Suns in exchange for Marbury because the police reported that he was involved in a domestic violence dispute, and the Suns' home attendance was greatly affected.

He was about to collapse at that time. He was beaten by his wife and sold out.

But when he arrived at Rutherford with despair, he found that the lineup there seemed to be tailor-made for him, and the head coach's defensive counterattack system was also to his liking. After that, he soared to become the "league's No. 1 point guard."

Hill was completely different. He had great success in his early years. He led the All-Star vote in his rookie year, was on the second team in his sophomore year, and was selected to the first team in his junior year, defeating Pippen. In the next three years, he was the fourth best forward in the league after the double 21 and Malone... And then there was nothing else. In the 21st century, he was equivalent to "retired".

The relationship between the two was average in their early years, and they even disliked each other because of the fan confrontation environment created by the media. But in the summer of 07, after Kidd joined the Lakers, he took the initiative to call Hill and invite him to join. Although Hill refused and accepted the invitation of the third young master who visited him, the relationship between the two improved because of that phone call. Perhaps it was because they had reached the stage of "clinging to each other" and had many topics to talk about, and they became friends after two years.

Zhang Yang, who has the best relationship with Hill on the team, was also brought by Kidd, but it was not one of Kobe and Garnett, but Marc Gasol.

Gasol showed extraordinary talent in his rookie year.

Although he is still a substitute, his playing time has increased to 27 minutes after the All-Star Weekend. Kwame Brown was squeezed to the power forward position by him for a long time and performed very well. He played in all 30 games after the All-Star Weekend, averaging 7.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He has certain shooting ability, good passing ability, good rim protection and excellent ability to defend against back-to-the-basket shots.

Of course, his flaws are also obvious. He is slower than Yao Ming, and his defense depends on a reasonable collision zone. He has lost some weight, but it is not obvious. He still weighs 130 kilograms. If it is European basketball without the defensive three seconds, it would not be a big deal, but with the defensive three seconds, there are still many problems. There are also problems on the offensive end. During the pick-and-roll, he can only stand still and have no ability to cut in. He also has no one-on-one singles ability. For the time being, he cannot completely replace Kwame Brown.

However, despite all these problems, he is still loved by the three big guys in the team. Not only Kidd, but Kobe and Garnett also like to play with him.

This time Kidd called up Gasol, not only because he likes his younger brother, but also because he heard from Hill that the teammate he brought was Zhang Yang. He wanted Gasol to get to know another big man. More friends mean more paths. It is difficult to stay in a team for many years, especially for a team like the Lakers that is keen on training its own guards and introducing inside players.

Now that he is at this age, his ideas are very different from when he was young.

Just as Kidd had imagined, the bad boy was happy to make new friends. As soon as the four of them met in the club, Zhang Yang took the initiative to find topics to talk to the two of them.

only……

After Zhang Yang greeted Gasol, the first question he asked was: "Mark, I heard that you are being kept by a rich woman?"

Gasol was excited because he had a private encounter with a new big man. Hearing this, he felt like his tail was stepped on: "I'm not! I didn't! It was a misunderstanding!"

(End of this chapter)