First in scoring

Chapter 506 504.G1, another crazy beginning!
He made 2 of 2 three-pointers at the start, the first one was a chase three-pointer. Zhang Yang rushed forward, and most of the retreating Lakers players focused their attention on him.

He rushed through the center circle, slowed down, grabbed the ball about one and a half meters away from the three-point line, stepped out, jumped... and passed it to Felton.

Kidd retreated to the elbow area first, looked at Felton and Okafor on his left and right, and without hesitation, he moved towards Felton and tried to press.

But Felton was so strong that even Kidd, whose static strength increased with age, couldn't hold him down. Felton passed the ball steadily, and Okafor received the ball and slammed it down for two points!
Kobe wanted to curse, but as soon as the words came to his lips, he held them back and pinched his thighs wildly.

With the Wolf King around, Tiezha was already in a miserable situation. Now with two high school students attacking him together, the old blacksmith was afraid that Tiezha’s little heart couldn’t bear it.

On the bright side, Ariza didn't dare to shoot long shots after missing the first shot. At least he was thinking about adjusting his offensive method instead of pulling away and hesitating after receiving the ball...

Kidd received the serve and advanced to the frontcourt, passing the ball directly to Kobe who was still outside the three-point line, motioning Ariza to go to the weak side, and he ran to the right corner himself.

After two years of partnership, Kobe immediately understood what Kidd meant without Kidd saying much. He came to the top arc, waited for his teammates to get into position, and broke through on the right!

Kidd cooperated and moved up, and Garnett quickly ran to the 45-degree angle on the right to help Kidd screen and take Okafor away.

Kobe broke into the inside while Zhang Yang was chasing him. Facing Perkins' backup defense and Zhang Yang's chasing defense, he took a one-on-two approach and made a pull-up layup, causing Perkins to foul!
Watching Kobe high-five his teammates and go to the free throw line... Zhang Yang grinned and shook his head, Perkins looked miserable, the old blacksmith in his prime was really fierce!
Even with Perkins, such a big meat shield, Kobe was still able to force a pull-up shot. If Perkins had been slower in his shot, it would probably have been 2+1.

But after a little pain in the ass, Zhang Yang became excited. Their defensive goal was achieved! They forced Kobe out from the low post!

Next, what they have to do is easy!

Kobe made both free throws, the score came to 7 to 12, and the Lakers narrowed the gap to 5 points.

In the next few rounds, Kobe launched attacks from the outside, and the Lakers' offensive efficiency increased sharply.

Kobe gave up the space in the interior, Ariza had better conditions for cutting in, Kidd's range of movement for catching the ball and shooting was wider, and Garnett's off-ball screens, cutting to the basket, and receiving and passing the ball also became better. The Lakers made 5 of 4 shots in 2 rounds, including 2 of 1 three-pointers, plus 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 7 points. By the official timeout, the score soared to 14 points!
But during this period, the Bobcats relied on Zhang Yang's top arc singles to score, and the team also scored 6 points!
In the first three rounds, Zhang Yang scored 1+ in G40. Tonight, he scored 5 points with 3 of 8 shots. Zhang Yang's offensive threat is already at its peak. Garnett and Kidd, who are responsible for assisting defense for the Lakers, are paying attention to him. Even Kwame Brown under the basket is on guard against his breakthrough...

In G1 of the first three rounds, he made 6, 6 and 7 three-pointers respectively, and a total of 15 three-pointers in the first three rounds of 50 games. Although he has not yet broken Ray Allen's historical record of 57 three-pointers in the divisional playoffs, Ray Allen took 57 games to make 18 three-pointers, while he only took 50 games to make 15 three-pointers. He has surpassed the average number of three-pointers per game in the divisional playoffs!

He made 2 of 2 three-pointers at the start, forcing Ariza to defend him further outside, which gave him better opportunities for long-distance pull-up shots, forcing Garnett to move further out to provide backup defense... In terms of creating space for his teammates to shoot, Zhang Yang did no worse than Kobe in these rounds!

At the official timeout in the first quarter, the score was 18 to 14, and the Bobcats maintained a 4-point lead!
Kobe attacked fiercely in these few rounds and the Bobcats didn't get any advantage, but after the official timeout, the Bobcats had the advantage!
After swinging the ball for half a quarter, Zhang Yang entered the containment mode and became a corner shooter. He slacked off on the offensive end and focused on assisting defense on the wing. He no longer tried to defend Kobe, leaving the defense to Hill and Pietrus who came on the court one after another to relieve the physical exertion.

The offensive end is handed over to the pick-and-roll combination of Felton and Okafor, with the support of Brad Miller, and the small forward position's long shots and cutting into the basket.

On the other side, Kobe also wanted to stop the ball and enter the team mode to cooperate tactically with his teammates at the beginning, but after playing for a while he had to start scoring singles again.

The Bobcats were able to quickly enter team offense mode after Zhang Yang played for half a quarter. One reason was that their core supporter was not in the starting lineup at all, and there was a more crucial point - Zhang Yang was a pure scorer in the tactics!

Kobe... was also a pure scorer in the tactics when he partnered with O'Neal, but he is no longer like that now.

Garnett is 33 years old, and his offensive ability has declined a lot compared to two years ago when he was with the Timberwolves; the 36-year-old Kidd's personal offensive ability is better than when he was young. He can shoot accurately when receiving the ball in open space, and he has also developed a certain running ability in the past two years, but these two people combined, in terms of personal offense, are not as good as O'Neal, let alone Pippen.

Therefore, the Zen Master has adaptively optimized the triangle offense in the past two years, helping Kobe, Kidd, and Garnett find a balance point for cooperation.

The Zen Master's operation was very powerful, showing his ability to control superstars, which ranks among the top three in NBA history. The only ones who can compare with him are Red Cardinal and the Divine Calculator. The triangle offense they created is also very strong, just like in the first few rounds, Kobe, Garnett and Kidd connected to create shooting opportunities easily... Of course, there are flaws as well - the offensive system is highly dependent on the Big Three!
This is exactly why the Lakers "only" won 59 games in the regular season. In the more than 20 games that Garnett missed, the Lakers' winning rate was just over %.

The Lakers' starting lineup didn't have any tactical coordination tonight. After the frontcourt combination became Luke Walton, Kwame Brown and Gasol Jr., it was even more difficult to coordinate against the Bobcats' defense.

Although the Lakers made some adjustments, Kidd, Kobe, Kwame Brown and Gasol Jr. strengthened their defense, which had a certain curb on the Bobcats' team offense and limited the Bobcats' score in the second half to 11 points, but they themselves only scored 8 points!
After the first quarter, Kobe made 9 of 4 shots, plus 3 of 3 free throws, scoring 11 points. Zhang Yang made 8 of 4 shots, including 2 of 2 three-pointers, plus 2 of 2 free throws, scoring 12 points.

29 to 22, the Bobcats lead the Lakers by 7 points!
...

During the intermission, Carlisle gave his players dozens of seconds to celebrate, talk trash, and vent their excitement.

When the players calmed down a bit, he called them together and said, "We played very well in the first quarter. Brad, Grant... Jack, all did a great job! But the next part is the real test. You all saw the opponent's defense. Garnett was not on the court just now..."

Listening to Carlisle's words, Zhang Yang nodded repeatedly in response. He was not just trying to be funny, but really agreed with Carlisle's opinion.

The opponent's defense was indeed fierce. In the last 5 and a half minutes, when the opponent was fighting hard on defense, he cut into the basket and made only 3 of 1 mid-range shots!

Of this 7-point advantage, 6 points were earned by his two consecutive three-pointers at the beginning, which means that he only made 6 of 2 shots afterwards...

Also, with Kidd and Ariza on defense, Kobe's defensive burden was reduced, and his offense was really fierce. He didn't feel tired after a quarter! After starting with 2 of 0, he made 7 of 4 and scored 11 points plus 3 assists! Fortunately, the opponent's starting forwards had a bad touch tonight!

When Carlisle was making tactical adjustments, Zhang Yang wanted Felton to remind him, but the head coach did not miss that point and arranged to strengthen the defense before coordinating the melee against Garnett and Ariza... Zhang San was upset, because having a good coach would make everything good, except him... Oh, no, it's the little fat boss who has less work to do.

After the intermission, the second quarter began.

The Zen Master sent out a combination of Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Garnett and Gasol Jr.

The Lakers' playoff rotation method is to ensure that two of the Big Three are on the court.

Another thing is that when Kobe is on the court, at least one of Kidd and Ariza should be on the court to reduce Kobe's consumption on the defensive end. After all, he is about to turn 31 years old. In the three overtimes against the Bobcats, Kobe was exhausted and missed all three long shots. The Zen Master's execution on this point is higher than the former.

Carlisle sent out a combination of Felton, Afflalo, Hill, Okafor and Perkins.

As the Bobcats analyzed during the intermission, the opponent really strengthened the defensive melee with Garnett as the connection point, Gasol protecting the rim, Ariza pressing defense at the top of the arc, and Kobe assisting in defense.

Carlisle’s response is - head-on confrontation!

After Felton missed a three-pointer in the first round, the Bobcats immediately responded with stronger melee defense.

The Bobcats scored terribly low in the first half of the quarter. In 5 minutes, they made only 9 of 2 shots and scored only 4 points!
But the speed at which the score gap was narrowed was slower than Carlisle expected, which meant that the players' defensive performance was better than he expected!
Felton's influence on Fisher's long-range shooting, Afflalo and Pietrus's physical consumption of Ariza, Okafor and Millsap's tight defense on Garnett, all had great effects!
Only Hill was in a miserable state. He was attacked by Kobe Bryant. After defending Pierce, he defended Luol Deng. After defending Luol Deng, he now had to defend Kobe Bryant... He demanded an increase in his endorsement fee!
打到5分08秒，科比拿到4分、加内特2分3板1助攻、小加索尔2分，湖人队小半节时间打了山猫队一个8比4，艰难将分差缩小到3分，比分追至30比33，把山猫队打停！
Both teams made personnel adjustments. The Zen Master replaced Fisher, Ariza and Gasol Jr. with Kidd, Shannon Brown and Kwame Brown, while Kobe and Garnett continued to play.

Carlisle replaced Felton and Pietrus with Jarrett Jack and Zhang Yang, while Hill, Millsap and Perkins continued to play.

Seeing a chance to tie the score, Kobe was ready for a strong shot... but after the timeout, Zhang Yang faced Kidd's defense, received the ball one step inside the arc, turned and stepped back from the three-point line, and took a "Hamblen-style" step-back three-point shot... and it went in!
36 to 30, the Bobcats lead by 6 points again!
The Lakers' counterattack momentum was stopped by this ball!
After struggling for half a quarter, they narrowed the gap to 4 points, but the opponent immediately evaded Kidd and made a three-pointer... From Kidd's perspective, he did not interfere with the shot, but from the perspective of others, Zhang Yang's shot seemed to have been blocked by Kidd, and the opponent still made the shot.

Not to mention the role players, even Kobe's mood was affected. He became impatient and missed two shots in a row.

After Kobe calmed down under Kidd's comfort, he started to attack well. Although the team's offensive firepower continued to be sluggish, his overall performance in attacking was better than Zhang Yang's. Zhang Yang did not choose to confront Kobe head-on. Kidd's defense was tighter and his anticipation ability was strong. He lost the chance to turn and step back when he came up, so he took the initiative to rush in, shoot when he had the chance, pass to Millsap or Hill when he was double-teamed, be cautious in shooting from the outside, shoot when the opportunity is good, maintain the threat of long-range shooting, and pay attention to rebounds on the defensive end...

Millsap and Hill, as well as another setter and singles point guard Jarrett Jack, did not disappoint Zhang Yang. Although they missed their shots, they did not dare to shoot like Ariza did when they missed. They would just shoot when the opportunity came, and the missed shots were just to cheer for the two blacksmiths on the court.

His teammates consumed enough shooting opportunities and maintained the continuity of the offensive coordination. In the second half of the quarter, Zhang Yang actually seized the opportunity to score two goals... One time he ran back and used the screen to receive a three-pointer from Jack's breakthrough pass, and the other time he grabbed the rebound and counterattacked with the threat of chasing him, then stopped and rushed to the basket for a dunk!
In the second half of the second quarter, Kobe Bryant scored 4 points with great effort. Kidd made two free throws and Kwame Brown scored two points. The team scored 8 points. The defense was also very good. But Zhang San on the opposite side missed two mid-range shots and one dribbling shot under the basket. He received the ball and made 1 of 1 three-pointers and counterattacked with a dunk to get 5 points! Hill made one of two free throws, and Okafor, who replaced Perkins at the end of the quarter, made two points with a tip-in. The Bobcats team also scored 8 points!
The score was 15 to 16 in a single quarter. At the end of the half, the Bobcats maintained a lead of more than 44 points with a score of 38 to 5!

Zhang Yang played for 7 minutes in the second quarter and scored 8 points, bringing his personal score to 20 points, continuing to lead Kobe by 1 point!
After the halftime break, the Lakers players adjusted their mentality and launched a counterattack again under the leadership of Kobe, Kidd and Garnett.

Kobe Bryant focuses on offense, and on defense he guards shooters and blocks the wings;

Kidd assists in ball control, assists in shooting, defends, tries to seize counterattack opportunities, grabs rebounds and rushes whether he can play or not, trying to disrupt the opponent's defensive rhythm;

Garnett's shooting was really bad tonight, and it still didn't get better, but he did a very good job in screen, tandem defense, and help defense. He also tried to rush up to receive Kidd's pass and cooperate in fast breaks...

The Big Three simply gave up the idea of ​​launching the triangle offense and just relied on their individual abilities!

Led by these three players, role players Ariza, Shannon Brown, and Kwame Brown who played in the first half of the quarter, and Fisher, Gasol Jr., and Luke Mbah a Moute who played as double point guards in the second half of the quarter all performed quite well, and the momentum of chasing points was fierce!
But the Bobcats did not fall behind!
Under the leadership of the new 'King of the Third Quarter' Zhang Yang, the entire Bobcats team worked together to withstand the Lakers' counterattack... and did not let the Lakers overtake the score!

The Lakers had three opportunities to reverse the score in this quarter. The first was at the beginning of the second half. Kidd and Kobe made three-pointers in a row, and the score was narrowed to two points with a 3-6 run. But then Zhang Yang broke into the inside and made a strong jump shot with a European step, causing Garnett to foul and made both free throws.

The second time was before the official timeout. Shannon Brown received two consecutive layups from Kidd's "out-of-bounds" passes from the left baseline, narrowing the gap to 1 point, but Zhang Yang immediately responded with a high-post turnaround jump shot. Then Millsap stole the ball from Garnett who turned around. Zhang Yang received the ball and counterattacked to tie down the defense, and lobbed the ball to Pietrus for an alley-oop dunk, widening the gap to 5 points again.

The third time was at the end of the quarter. After Kobe scored two goals in a row, he received a lob from Garnett, ran back into the paint and made a layup, causing a foul and also making the free throw. He scored 7-0 alone, narrowing the gap from 8 points by the Bobcats to 1 point.

After Kobe made the free throw, there were 7 seconds left. Zhang Yang rushed out directly. Brad Miller, who picked up the ball, reacted quickly and threw the ball outside the three-point line. Zhang Yang rushed out and caught the ball. He rushed straight to the opposite side, grabbed the ball with one step outside the three-point line, and at the same time stepped forward and jumped!

Zhang Yang had no control over his body this time. After he jumped up, he fell into the three-point line due to inertia, but he struggled to maintain his balance and pushed the ball out... The ball flew straight to the backboard, and it was obviously not the basket frame, but the direction was very straight!
The red light came on, accompanied by a long whistle, and the ball hit the middle of the rectangular frame of the backboard with a "bang" and bounced into the frame!

When the red light came on, the ball had already flown into the cylindrical range of the basket, and the take-off point was obviously outside the top arc. The referee decisively signaled to the technical table that the three-pointer was valid!
科比单节8投5中，其中三分球1中1，加上3中3的罚球，拿到14分。

He scored more points than Zhang Yang in this quarter. Zhang Yang made 9 of 4 shots, including 4 of 2 three-pointers, plus 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 12 points.

Kobe scored 33 points in three quarters, surpassing Zhang Yang's 32 points.

But after working hard for a quarter, we saw that the score difference was only reduced to two points!

The score was 26 to 24 in a single quarter. After three quarters, the score was 64 to 68. The Lakers were still 4 points behind the Bobcats!
And this gap didn't last long...

After the intermission, Felton stole the ball from Fisher, counterattacked and hit Fisher with a 2+1, making the score 71 to 64 and widening the difference to 7 points!
Fisher is also a well-known figure. He turned around and wanted to return the favor to Felton. He actually passed Felton and broke into the inside... but was slapped down by Millsap who came to defend him.

Although the Bobcats did not launch a counterattack this time, after falling into a positional battle, Zhang Yang ran back and cut into the inside with the help of Millsap's screen, received the ball outside the three-second zone and took the European step to avoid Garnett's pursuit, and made a pull-up shot facing Gasol's block... and it hit!
Gasol Jr. also hit Zhang Yang's arm when he just threw the ball out!

The referee blew the whistle in time, indicating that Gasol Jr. committed a foul. Zhang Yang's goal was valid and he was awarded a penalty!

The Zen Master, who had been as calm as a god no matter what the situation was in the first three quarters, could not sit still this time and stood up to call a timeout!
Looking at the score of 64 to 73, the Lakers players were a little confused. Even the two high school superstars didn't react.

Only 49 seconds into the final quarter, their deficit had gone from 4 points to 9 points! And Zhang Yang had an extra free throw!

Ji Bugong on the bench opened his mouth wide: Who am I? Where am I? How come the game ended like this after I sat down for less than a minute?
The Lakers bench was eerily quiet, while the fans and Bobcats players were in a state of partying!

Carlisle, the head coach, rushed into the court after the timeout sounded. His facial expressions and body movements were like those of a comedian. It was hilarious to watch...

...

After being excited for a while, Carlisle coughed twice, called the players back to the bench, and took the time to make adjustments.

He replaced the combination of Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Okafor and Perkins.

After the timeout, the five players on the opposing team were just as Kawhi Leonard predicted. Kidd and Kwame Brown, who had rested for less than a minute, were substituted in, and Ariza was also substituted in. Kobe and Garnett continued to play.

The Lakers enter the decisive battle mode early!
Zhang Yang went to the free throw line and made the extra free throw, 74 to 64, the score difference widened to double digits!

Then Kobe started to attack again, playing very impatiently, but this time not only did the Zen Master ignore it, but Kidd and Garnett on the court also ignored it. Releasing Kobe was their only choice given the current defensive intensity and the fact they were 10 points behind.

At this time, they believed in Kobe just as Duncan unconditionally believed in Ginobili. Ginobili was Jordan for 20 minutes, and they could directly regard Kobe as Jordan!

科比前三节23投11中，其中三分球5中3，加上10中8的罚球拿到33分！换乔丹来，他们相信也不过如此！

But this time, Kobe disappointed his teammates. Under the one-on-one defense of Hill on the outside, the double-team of Zhang Yang and Okafor, and the siege of Perkins, he made only 8 of 3 shots in the final quarter, plus 4 of 2 free throws, and only scored 8 points!
Kobe's offensive purpose was too obvious, it was clear that he wanted to swing the ball. The Bobcats were leading by 10 points and had enough room for defensive mistakes. Hill blocked the shot from the outside, and Zhang Yang and Okafor left the opposing forwards open and double-teamed them in advance.

The Lakers' forwards got a lot of opportunities to cut in and shoot, but they didn't seize them well. Garnett, Ariza, and Luke Walton, who replaced Ariza, only made 8 of 3 shots combined, and with two free throws, they only got 8 points.

This kind of response to the shot made Kobe's already poor one-on-one situation even worse!
The Lakers played pretty good defense, limiting the Bobcats to just 11 of 11 shots in the last 16 minutes and 5 seconds.

Zhang Yang made 7 of 2 shots, with a hit rate lower than the team's, only 28.5%. The only bright spot was his 5 of 2 shots from beyond the three-point line. Including his 2 of 2 free throws, he only got 8 points.

山猫队其他人9投3中，加上4中2的罚球，拿到8分，全队在11分11秒钟时间里仅拿到16分，但是……这对山猫队来说已经够了！

Apart from Kobe and three forwards who scored 3 points for the Lakers, the only others who scored were Kidd who made a three-pointer, Kwame Brown who missed a pass and was fouled and made one of two free throws. The team's total points were only 16 points.

拼了11分11秒，湖人队只是追平了末节开局前49秒的那个0比6！而山猫队前三节还有4分领先优势！
As Garnett roared unwillingly and threw the ball to the front court, the game ended...

科比31投14中，其中三分球7中3，加上14中10的罚球，拿到41分4板6助攻2抢断，整体表现不算差。

基德9投4中，其中三分球6中3，拿到11分8板7助攻1抢断，接应投篮、牵制、防守、梳理进攻，做得也都不错。

但加内特虽然拿到了12分12板4助攻1抢断2盖帽，可投篮表现是14中4，以及有多达4次失误！
Ariza was even worse, making only 8 of 2 shots, with a hit rate of only 25%!

On the other side, Zhang Yang contributed the highest miss production in the game, making 24 of 11 shots in the first three quarters, 13 of them missed, and 8 of 3 shots in the last quarter... He missed 18 shots in a single game, making 32 of 14 shots, but 13 of them were 8 three-pointers, plus 7 of 7 free throws, scoring a game-high 43 points!
43分6板4助攻2抢断1盖帽，张杨率领山猫队以90比86险胜湖人队！
After the final whistle sounded, the fans cheered again!
Boss Joe laughed and patted his old teammate on the shoulder. We won, and...

Pi Er: My record! My only record! Just gone like that? If I had known, I wouldn’t have come to watch it live! Damn it, why are you pushing the camera towards me? I still have to smile!
张杨单场命中8个三分球，超越了95年总决赛G1肯尼-史密斯的单场7个三分、97年总决赛G3皮蓬的单场7个三分，创造了新的总决赛单场三分命中纪录！
(End of this chapter)