First in scoring

Chapter 529 528. Name your name!

There is a hot game tonight - the Cavaliers play the Nuggets away.

But after the game, the hottest topic in the forum was - Zhang Yang was kicked out of a New York nightclub again.

Since the fans are interested in this topic, the media naturally have to follow suit. All portals put this entry on the front page, and some websites even put it in the headline position, with the game reports placed below.

The main reason is that the influence of James vs. Anthony is not as great as in previous years. From the 03-04 season to the 06-07 season, the duel between the two always triggered a viewing boom. At that time, both of them were evaluated as "future rulers". Fans discussed their games together with classic duels such as Magic and Bird, Olajuwon and the Admiral, Kidd and Nash, Payton and Jordan...

But now, both of them have entered the ranks of veterans and are in the seventh year of their careers. Anthony, who was born in May 7, is already 84 and a half years old, and James, who was born in December 5, is about to turn 25. They are still struggling in the regular season and have only made it to the second round of the playoffs at most. At present, there is no hope of further progress.

No matter how hard the media hypes it up, the fans aren't buying it.

James is okay, he is indeed strong. If he is given some decent teammates, he can lead the team to 50 wins. If he is given a pass, he can rush to the first place in the regular season. Now with the addition of Jamison, he has gradually secured the first place in the Eastern Conference and the second place in the league, with the record second only to the Spurs.

Anthony has not made any progress in recent years. The main manifestation of his declining popularity is his All-Star votes last season, which amounted to only 113 million, less than Artest's 118 million, ranking only fifth among Western Conference forwards.

Before the start of the regular season, Stern announced new rules for All-Star voting - eliminating the center position and replacing it with 3 frontcourt players and 2 backcourt players.

On the surface, it means that the position boundary between center and power forward has become increasingly blurred, and the two should not be separated in order to adapt to the changing times. However, in terms of the best lineup, the center position has not been eliminated and it is still 1-2-2.

Everyone knows the actual reason - the Jewish guy doesn't want Anzhu to be the All-Star starter.

Bynum's "prank" revealed during the offseason once again refreshed people's three views.

After the end of last season, at the Timberwolves' farewell party, he sent assistant coach A's wife to assistant coach B's room, took assistant coach B's girlfriend back to his room, and took his own girlfriend to assistant coach B's room... Six hungry men and thirsty women had a soul-stirring battle all night long, but except for himself, the other five people didn't know about this in advance. They were all drunk, and after they got excited, they realized that they had entered the wrong door.

This is more than just a prank, it's a crime. That's why Bynum paid more compensation and the Timberwolves management put pressure on the two assistant coaches, otherwise they would have been sued like Rose.

People simply couldn't understand Bynum's train of thought. Was he attracted to his assistant coach's girlfriend? With his financial resources, he could just steal her away. If he just wanted to watch the "live show", he could just pay her. It seemed like the other party wasn't someone who didn't like money, so why did he have to do this?

Although his reputation is extremely bad, as a big center, Bynum still has many fans. Duncan's fans have become more and more indifferent in recent years, and he may not be able to compete with Bynum for the center position, so Stern simply did not set up the center position in the All-Star Game.

This makes Anthony's hopes of being selected as an All-Star starter even slimmer.

The lottery players of the 03 generation have really suffered many disasters. James is in the East with the three young players, Yao Ming, and Howard; Anthony has no ambition; Bosh is ambitious but the management has made all kinds of confusing operations; Kaman is excellent but has been injured for years; Milicic is already considering retiring and returning to his hometown to buy a piece of land to farm; Ford was written off in his rookie year and suffered multiple injuries later. He has become a substitute at his prime age...

Instead, Wade, who was unknown before the draft, and Hinrich, who was very successful in college but was fooled by a fortune teller, won the championship early. Now one is competing for the scoring title and the other is competing for the championship.

As for Zhang Yang, they didn't make it to the nightclub. Felton had a childhood street friend who worked in a billiard club, so he took a few friends to take care of his old friend's business.

Zhang Yang recalled that Felton loved buying watches during his rookie season. He would wear a watch worth tens of thousands of dollars wherever he went. Once when he came to New York for a game, he went to a nightclub to hang out with his high school friends. When he came back from the bathroom, his watch was gone. Later, he gradually lost interest in watches, but this friend is still his friend... This is the man who helped block a knife on the street that year!
But this is Xiaofei Boss's personal matter, and Zhang San is not in a position to express his opinion and will not express it.

After playing billiards and returning to the hotel, Zhang Yang saw the news that he was kicked out of the nightclub...

At noon on the second rest day, the Bobcats came to Madison Square Garden for preparatory training.

During the training break, when being interviewed, Zhang Yang fiercely refuted in front of the camera: "I was not kicked out of the nightclub, it was James who was kicked out!
New York nightclubs are really annoying. They don't care about the privacy of their guests at all. They arbitrarily judge people's age based on their appearance and ask people to show their driver's licenses. This is shameful behavior!"

The next day, November 11th, was the Bobcats' 30th game day of the season.

In the morning, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg told reporters in an interview that he would consider introducing regulations to prohibit non-government personnel from viewing other people's private information.

When Zhang Yang heard the news, his eyes widened like a husky.

He just responded as a professional player because the reporter asked him, and he was doing business with Harden and the new acquaintance Curry from a distance. This is something that benefits the media, the league, and the players... Of course, he had some personal emotions involved, but isn't that what interviews are all about?

The city hall responded? And supported his nonsense? Is it so magical?
He opened the search engine on his phone, wanting to check what kind of person the current mayor of New York is... Bloomberg, the owner of the world's largest financial media, is a real businessman, a marketer, and the face of Wall Street.

He felt that the Big Apple was truly worthy of being called this city, as it always gave him away game experiences he had never had before.

...

At 7:40 p.m., the visiting team entered Madison Square Garden.

When Zhang Yang entered the stadium, the fans cheered wildly as if they were drunk.

Curry stood behind Harden, staring at Zhang Yang.

He had heard that when Zhang Yang came here to play, he was more popular than in Charlotte. When he mentioned this to his teammates, they seemed to have gotten used to it. Although he was not happy, he also prepared himself mentally. But when he really saw this scene, his emotions came up and he couldn't control it at all.

He had never received such cheers! It was okay for him, just a rookie, but Harden and David Lee, the two faces of the team, had never received such treatment!

Zhang Yang enjoyed the fanatical atmosphere of the basketball mecca for a while, then turned to look at Curry behind Harden.

The elementary school student looked like a well-behaved little brother who did not steal the spotlight from big brother Harden. However, others might not notice his undisguised hostile gaze, but Zhang San, who was being stared at, felt it when he entered the venue.

Curry on the court is indeed very different from the reserved elementary school student he played with the night before. No, it should be said that Curry is a player with great ambition and arrogance, otherwise he would not have such a style of play in the future.

But Curry here has a very unrestrained style of play.

Zhang Yang saw in the scout report yesterday when preparing for the game that Curry averaged 7.2 three-point shots per game, ranking second in the league, higher than Ray Allen, Granger, and Aaron Brooks, and only lower than Zhang San's 8 three-point shots per game! Ray Allen, Granger, and Brooks only took 6.3, 6.2, and 6.4 three-point shots per game, respectively!
In the past two seasons, he was the only one who led the others in three-point shots by a large margin, and now there is one more.

Curry averages 2.6 three-pointers per game, ranking third in the league, only lower than Zhang San's 3.3 three-pointers per game and Ray Allen's 2.8 three-pointers per game!

He had the impression that Curry's three-point attempts and hits were not that high in the early stages of his career, but that they suddenly skyrocketed in the 12-13 season, from an average of just over two three-pointers per game to more than three points, and then to more than five points...

However, among the three major pitchers this season, Curry has the lowest hit rate.

At this time, the big screen posted the data of the main players of the two teams.

Zhang Yang played 16 games, averaging 29.8 points (second in the league), 6.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.1 blocks, with a shooting percentage of 51.1%, a three-point shooting percentage of 41% and a free throw shooting percentage of 88.6%.

Curry, 18 games, averaged 15.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, with a shooting percentage of 44.6%, a three-point shooting percentage of 36.1% and a free throw shooting percentage of 93.4%.

As for Ray Allen, Zhang Yang remembers that his three-point shooting percentage was 44%, ranking first among the top ten players in the three-point shooting list.

Zhang Yang initially thought that it was caused by the different team environments, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was not right. Both Nelson and D'Antoni played run-and-gun, and D'Antoni could not be crazier than Nelson.

Originally, Curry seemed to be averaging 17+ points per game on the Warriors, and he achieved this with Ellis averaging 25 points per game and Maggette averaging 20 points per game.

Curry's partner here is Harden on the outside. The sophomore Harden has averaged 17.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game so far this season. The Knicks' top scorer David Lee is averaging 19.6 points per game. The two's points and shots are not as high as Ellis and Maggette, but Curry has only averaged 15.5 points per game so far.

Judging from the number of shots, Curry is obviously not the player D'Antoni focuses on training. Harden, who has better physical talent, technology and basketball IQ, is the tactical core of D'Antoni. Curry's style of play is not what D'Antoni arranged.

After reading the scout report yesterday and thinking about it, Zhang Yang seriously suspected that Curry was influenced by him, Zhang San, during his college years.

After all, they play in the same state, and almost every home game is broadcast locally by Time Warner Cable. He played like this and succeeded in the NBA, so Curry, who aspires to play in the NBA, followed suit.

Curry started to shoot too early, and his ability is far less than that of the Curry who started to show results in the fourth grade after three years of training in the original time and space. He dared to shoot after his three-point ability broke 90. A primary school student dared to shoot like this in the NBA! So he shot such a three-point hit rate.

Zhang Yang is very interested in what kind of impact this will have on Curry's career.

The pre-match preparation time ended quickly and the starting lineups of both teams came onto the court.

Bobcats: Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Millsap, Okafor.

Knicks: Curry, Harden, McGrady, Wilson Chandler, David Lee.

McGrady has only played 9 games so far this season. Tonight is the 10th game. He can play, and D'Antoni gave him face and let him start. Anyway, their rotation is relatively free, so he can just make the substitution later.

McGrady, who just turned 5 in May, is no longer as brave as he used to be, but he is unwilling to give up. He still plays like a core player. If he is not given the ball, he will stand on the sidelines. In 30 games, he averaged 9 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. So far, he has 2 steals and he can't get any at all. His shooting percentage is only 0%, and his three-point shooting percentage is 38%. He has become a burden. It must be that D'Antoni has a soft temper, otherwise he would have been crushed on the bench like Kemp, Francis and Eddy Curry were back then.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats' away game against the Knicks began.

Okafor defeated David Lee to win the jump ball, and the Bobcats attacked first!
Felton advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Zhang Yang before reaching the three-point line.

Harden, who was standing in front of Zhang Yang, was shocked - Third brother, are you going to fight me head-on? What an honor!
Hey, why is there another person next to me? Wait, Fatton, what are you doing next to me? I admit that I have a talent for defense. I am a defensive genius.

But! Does Zhang San need a pick-and-roll when playing against me?

Zhang Yang used Felton's screen to move horizontally to the right side of the top arc. After Felton broke away, he immediately moved to the left at a 45-degree angle. Curry had already switched to defend Zhang Yang, so Harden could only keep up with Felton.

On Curry's side, he was very active in switching to defend the pick-and-roll, and quickly stuck to Zhang Yang, fearing that the opponent would take advantage of the screen and shoot directly.

But to his surprise, Zhang Yang just turned sideways to protect the ball after the screen. After Felton and Harden moved away, he was a little confused. When he saw Zhang Yang turned around and started to make moves, he quickly concentrated on defense. This was his first time to face off against Zhang Yang!

Zhang Yang directly rushed forward in a crushing manner!
Curry tried his best to push forward. His static strength is actually very good among point guards, especially his core strength is excellent. But compared with Zhang Yang, whose weight and strength are first-class among forwards and guards, he couldn't withstand it!
But he didn't give up, and retreated as hard as he could, trying to catch up... Then, he saw Zhang Yang collect the ball and retreat outside the three-point line! He wanted to rush back, but his body had already been ejected!

There was no one in front of Zhang Yang after he stepped back. He took a look and jumped, taking a three-point shot... and it went in!
The fans at the scene cheered wildly, without considering Curry's feelings at all. In the past month or so, they liked Curry very much. Some people even liked Curry more than Harden because he was like that man.

But when the man himself came to the stadium, no one cared about the elementary school students...

……

……

I have a 6: am flight back to my hometown tomorrow morning. I am packing and buying gifts today, so I don’t have time to write. I probably won’t have time tomorrow either. I will probably have to play mahjong with my grandma in the evening, so I’ve asked for leave in advance.

I wish my friends a happy New Year's Eve! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

(End of this chapter)