First in scoring

Chapter 550 549. The Rise of the New Generation

Hill also chose to return with a minimum salary. After winning the championship, he would either retire or stay with Zhang Yang to gain popularity, coach young players in the regular season, and try hard in the playoffs to see if he can compete for a main rotation position in the dynasty.

If you can't recruit free agents in their prime, then sign veterans.

Earl Watson, a veteran point guard from the 5.1 second round who averaged 01 assists per game for the Pacers last season, joins the team with a one-year minimum salary.

Jason Kapono, a second-round pick in 03 and former three-point contest champion and small forward, joined the team with a one-year minimum salary.

02届次轮秀、上赛季在热火队和快船队打了80场比赛场均8.7分2.9板1.1助攻1.1抢断的得分后卫拉素尔-巴特勒，1年底薪加盟。

After no longer being obsessed with or being forced to give up pursuing free agents in their prime, the Bobcats have a plethora of players of the type they want, including a steady point guard with good passing and control, active defensive players at the second and third positions, and open shooters. Any one of them, they are all experienced players with seven or eight years of experience... they are just a little older, and have shown a very obvious decline in the past two years. They have reached the stage where they want to win a championship before retiring to complete their basketball career.

The Bobcats finally put together an ideally structured 14-man rotation.

Point guard: Felton, Collison, Earl Watson; shooting guard: Afflalo, Jordan Crawford, Rasual Butler; small forward: Zhang Yang, Marion, Kapono; power forward: Millsap, Ibaka, Hill; center: Okafor, Perkins.

The new lineup is a little dimmer than last season, but after the start of training camp, everything has been exceptionally smooth for the Bobcats. The team training and preseason games are all in very good condition.

After the start of the regular season, the starting lineup of Felton, Afflalo, Zhang Yang, Millsap and Perkins, combined with the five main rotation players of Collison, Marion, Ibaka, Perkins and Hill, started with seven consecutive wins and ended the first month of the game with 5 wins and 7 losses.

Although it is not as good as the 70-win season, it is obviously better than last season.

Zhang Yang's personal performance also improved. He averaged 4 points in the four games in the first week and scored 37.5+ points twice, and he got into the state directly.

After the first month, except for missing the second game due to a sprained instep, he averaged 16 points in the 32.5 games he played, far ahead of James who averaged 29 points and Durant who averaged 28.6 points.

With high scoring and good performance, Zhang Yang defeated... Randolph and won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for the first month.

The prodigal son Randolph has returned. In the first month after joining the Pacers, he averaged 18 points and 22.5 rebounds in 12 games. His 5.4 offensive rebounds per game were far ahead of the entire league. He led the Pacers to a record of 12 wins and 6 losses, beating the Magic, Hawks and Knicks to enter the top four in the Eastern Conference.

首月山猫队14胜3负东部第一、凯尔特人队13胜5负第二、公牛队13胜5负第三、步行者队12胜6负第四。

The Bobcats' record in the first month was not surprising. They retained the four frontcourt players of Millsap, Perkins, Marion and Hill during the offseason, and the evaluations they received were actually quite good. O'Neal didn't want to play anymore and retired, there was nothing else that could be done.

The Bobcats themselves were not surprised.

They failed to achieve their ideal reinforcement goals during the offseason, but apart from losing O'Neal and Matthews, they did not lose any key players.

O'Neal didn't play much of a role in the regular season last season. His main role was to match up against Yao Ming and go against Kwame Brown and Gasol Jr. in the finals.

Matthews only played when the team had injuries in the early and middle stages of last season. It was not until the late stages of the season that he got more stable playing time, and he was abandoned again in the playoffs.

On the contrary, players on rookie contracts in their second, third and fourth years, such as Collison, Cunningham, Ibaka, Afflalo, and Millsap, who started the first year of his big contract of 821 million, have made some progress.

Felton and Okafor don't seem to have made much progress compared to last season, but Zhang Yang has improved again. They just failed to strengthen their rotation lineup, which does not mean they are weaker than last season.

The elder Bickerstaff's more than three decades of experience as a general manager and head coach came in handy during this offseason.

They go to the free market to compete for players in order to strengthen the team. If they cannot strengthen the team, then they will not do so. At the very least, they will not sign players indiscriminately, which will affect their already perfect team system and the young players they have trained.

The veterans signed from the 01 to 03 classes have all been wandering in the league for several years. Their strength is not outstanding, but they have strong adaptability and know what they should do. They have a high degree of acceptance of the new system, are good at finding the right position, and understand the principle of doing the right thing... Even if they are not useful, they can be directly fired and replaced. After all, they are on the minimum salary and are substitute players.

This allows them to almost seamlessly connect with the near-perfect tactical understanding they achieved in last season's playoffs and get into the game earlier than in the past three seasons.

Giving renewed contracts to Perkins, Marion and Millsap that are higher than the market price has also served as a great incentive - if you play well, the boss is willing to pay you!
In fact, the average annual salary of the three players only increased by 3 million, but the local media knew how to publicize, and they said that Jordan spent an extra 100 million to renew the contracts of the three players.

It’s just that for the two-time defending champions, there was no substantial reinforcement, while almost all of their competitors had reinforcements, so they fell behind and it was purely out of necessity.

The Bulls started off well. Although the results were not impressive, the core play of Wade as the main attacker, Hinrich as the auxiliary point guard, and Yao Ming as the mid- to long-range and coordinated player in regular time was being built in an orderly manner.

In the focus matchup with the Spurs in late November, the Bulls defeated the Spurs 11-101. Yao Ming gave two consecutive lobs to Wade who cut in at the critical moment. Wade made one himself and assisted Hinrich who got a three-pointer from the wing with a screen to the corner, and the Bulls defeated the Spurs 97-5.

Without considering individual abilities and only looking at the degree of fit, Yao Ming, who developed his passing ability last season and whose mid-range shots have become more accurate as he gets older, is more suitable for Wade than O'Neal.

But the performance of the Celtics and Pacers surprised many people.

The Celtics are ranked second in the Eastern Conference and their fans accepted it quickly.

The 26-year-old Al Jefferson and the 25-year-old Josh Smith are both veterans in their seventh year of their careers. They are beginning to enter their prime and have performed at the edge of the All-Star level, which is normal.

Although Mayo's ceiling has been confirmed to be not too high and he can only be an All-Star at best, he was actually the key to the Celtics' stable fourth place in the Eastern Conference in the past two seasons. He was the first mature player in the 08 class. In his rookie year, the Celtics had a guard who averaged 20 points and 4 assists per game. It is easy to imagine how big of an improvement this was.

Mayo, who is in his third year this season, has just reached the All-Star level, just like his two teammates. In the Eastern Conference where the overall strength has further declined, it is a bit difficult for him to play against the two top teams, but he can compete with the Hawks, who are one year older, the Magic, who are demoralized, and the Pacers, who have just risen. He can even have the upper hand. Of course, the games where they have accumulated the most wins are against weak teams. The Celtics, who won 50 games for the first time in many years last season, were jokingly called "professional."

Moreover, the Celtics did not directly play against the Bulls in the first month. The Celtics had a better record than the Bulls due to their better record in the division. The Atlantic Division is still the weakest division, and the Central Division where the Bulls are located also has two playoff teams, the Pacers and the Bucks.

The rise of the Pacers is truly surprising. During the offseason, they signed Randolph to a three-year contract, which received very low evaluations. As a result, Randolph started with the second-best individual performance in the Eastern Conference and his team's record was not bad either.

But Randolph played well, and Granger got the praise.

In front of the camera, Randolph looked like a little brother standing next to Granger.

When Granger is in a group of people, almost everyone regards him as the big brother. It has been like this since he started to show his face in public. Artest, O'Neal Jr., Stephen Jackson and others at that time, even if they stood in front of him, did not look like big brothers but like bodyguards.

Of course, the reason why Granger was praised was not only his aura, but also his leadership ability and selfless style of play. In regular time, he handed the ball to Randolph and DeRozan. In the first month, Randolph averaged 22.5 points and DeRozan averaged 20.3 points. He only averaged 18.3 points. But in the anxious stage and critical moment, he is always the first to stand up, and he can stand and carry it!
...

In the West, the Spurs are still the leader.

马刺队首月场均出场时间达到30分钟的只有1个——盖伊，场均打31分钟，拿到17.5分6.6板2.5助攻。

Next are Conley with 28 minutes per game, Duncan with 27 minutes, and Ginobili with 25 minutes per game.

Apart from these four players, no other player played for more than 4 minutes, but as many as 25 players played for 9 minutes!

他们这赛季团队配合已经进化到了角色球员上场都打得如巨星般自信，他们从07届的落选秀里挖出来的已经年满26岁、在欧洲3年换了5支球队的流浪汉加里-尼尔，都打出了场均9分2板2助攻的表现，被誉为全民皆兵。

The Spurs, who played one more game than the Bobcats, are at the top of the league with 1 wins and 15 losses.

The second team is… the Thunder! They started with 14 wins and 4 losses, beating the Lakers and Mavericks!
The roses have begun to bloom. The third-year Rose was selected as the Western Conference Player of the Month in his first month. He averaged 18 points, 23.5 rebounds and 4 assists in 7.5 games. His breakthroughs were praised for being able to tear apart all defenses.

After watching Rose's game highlights, Zhang Yang felt that people might be too harsh in their evaluation of Thibodeau. No matter who coaches Rose, as long as Rose finds that he has such ability, he will definitely use it.

Just like Paul, if he is not really injured, he will not care about the potential injury. Advising him may even make others annoyed.

Besides, as the head coach, it is impossible for him not to use the players if they have such abilities.

Of course, Thibodeau's almost pathological mentality of making the main players play enough time and suppressing the opponent to the end even if he is bullying the weaker team must have magnified Rose's hidden injury risks.

Entering the second month of the game, the Bobcats continue to advance rapidly, maintaining a very high winning rate and competing fiercely with the Spurs for the top spot in the league.

The Spurs' new system has been perfected by the third season, and at least it seems to be a model where everyone is a soldier. The Bobcats' system, which they have been honing for three years and won two championships, is actually more perfect than the Spurs' system.

By the middle of the month, after accumulating enough shooting points, Zhang Yang couldn't wait to start the next experience.

This time, I accumulated 10 shooting points for three months. In addition to focusing on the game, I also used my free time to develop attacking techniques that require higher running and jumping abilities.

He regretted this, very much - why did he get so excited after his jumping ability grew to 91 and ran to ask Jordan how to pull up?

Jordan came to teach him with great enthusiasm. Seeing that he learned his moves very well in just a few days, he was still amazed even though they had known each other for a long time.

But when he couldn't pull it smoothly in the team training game arranged by Jordan, Jordan got angry.

Zhang Yang finally heard such outrageous remarks as "Can't you avoid it by jumping up and twisting your body?", "Wait a moment after pulling the ball back and then stretching your hand forward, aren't you trying to block it?", "Can't you avoid it by jumping up and holding the ball up and pulling it like this?" and so on.

When Gerald Wallace was criticized, Zhang San laughed happily, but now he regrets talking to Jordan about the pull-up lever.

It is better to find a retired blacksmith to learn. Although the old blacksmith's teaching is a bit sloppy, at least he will take the learner's physical fitness, playing habits, etc. into consideration.

For this reason, he didn't even think about getting the shooting talent points first, and started training directly. However, the year he arrived was not 18 or 19, but 94...

……

……

In the 92-93 season, the Knicks failed to defend their title, and the Bulls made it to the finals for the first time in their history.

It took Jordan four years to defeat Zhang Yang, but he defeated Barkley in his first time reaching the finals.

Although the game against the Knicks did not go to a Game 4, Jordan and his Bulls were actually pushed to the limit. The Knicks' lineup of a center + a small forward + role players with a total salary of over million was something that only the Bulls led by him were capable of defeating. If they had fallen, the Knicks would have ended up as a super dynasty with four consecutive championships.

After the Eastern Conference Finals with the Knicks, the Bulls, who were in their best form, defeated the Suns 4-1. Jordan lifted his first championship trophy and FMVP trophy. The 30-year-old cried while holding the trophy.

But just when Jordan finally reached the top of the NBA and his basketball career reached a new peak, bad news came. One month after he won the championship, his father was robbed and killed by two street thugs.

Three months later, before the new season was about to begin, Jordan still couldn't get over the grief, and coupled with the media's outrageous comments, he chose to retire.

When Zhang Yang read the training information to this point, he felt complicated. Jordan retired after all, and it was because of something like this.

But he quickly cheered up. Even without Jordan, there is still Dream!
After failing to defend his title, Bird was looking for a replacement for Mark Jackson in the free market. He finally realized the importance of this master of control who did not look amazing at all.

But such a point guard is too hard to find. He wanted to trade with the Clippers, but the Clippers' general manager was Elgin Baylor, who hung up the phone on him.

After getting angry, Bird adjusted his thinking. Since he had already played star basketball for a year, he might as well rush in this direction!
To avoid a situation like last season, where players were recruited for teamwork, but in the end, they played star basketball and a group of versatile substitutes all became shooters and cutters, which not only wasted the players' abilities, but also made it impossible for them to maximize open shots and cuts.

Bird spent 2 million over two years to sign swingman Anthony Bonner from the Kings. Last season, he averaged 160 points and 25 rebounds in 8.6 minutes per game. His playing style is simple, consisting of cutting, rushing, and counterattacking.

Using Tony Campbell as a bargaining chip, the Mavericks traded for 83-year-old veteran point guard Derek Harper from the 30 class.

Derek Harper in the 80s was selected to the All-Defensive Team. In his peak period, he averaged 19 points and 7 assists per game. Now he is not as good as before. In the 92-93 season, he averaged 12.5 points and 6.5 assists per game, and his team's record was... 11 wins and 71 losses.

Derek Harper's ability to attack with the ball has deteriorated so severely that he is incapable of serving as the point guard for a team, even a weak one.

But what Bird wants is not Derek Harper's ability to attack with the ball, but his still solid defense and the ability to catch and shoot, which is rare for point guards these days.

In the 92-93 season, Derek Harper averaged 39 three-pointers per game with a hit rate of 1.6%, ranking second among all point guards, second only to Terry Porter of the Trail Blazers.

Bird actually first looked for Terry Porter, whose contract was expiring, but the Trail Blazers' new owner Paul Allen directly threw him a two-year, $2 million contract. Bird really couldn't write such a check to a player whose annual salary was at most $500 million. The normal price was around $150 million to $120 million.

Charles Dolan is still the one who leads the Knicks now. Old Dolan has not yet sold the Knicks to his son James Dolan. Bird got his money's worth, no matter how expensive it is. The price has doubled, which is obviously not worth it, and he is not indispensable.

In the interior, Bird also strengthened the team. Baylor poached his Mark Jackson. With a strong desire for revenge, when Charles Smith's contract renewal negotiations with the Clippers were deadlocked, Bird offered him a five-year contract and won the 5 third pick.

Charles Smith is 208 cm tall and weighs 106 kg. He is a power forward and was once a top talent. He averaged 21 points and 6 rebounds in his sophomore season and 20 points and 8 rebounds in his junior season. However, he was seriously injured at the end of the regular season of the 91-92 season as a junior. After his comeback in the middle of last season, his athletic ability was affected. He was forced to transform from a top power forward to a nimble technical player, and his performance also declined to an average of 14 points and 6 rebounds per game.

The Clippers were only willing to offer a short-term contract of 2 years and 500 million, but Charles Smith, like Pippen who renewed his contract last year, wanted long-term security. Bird successfully lured Charles Smith to New York with a 5-year contract totaling 1000 million, successfully taking revenge on Baylor.

With Ewing, Anthony Mason Jr., Oakley, Charles Smith, and Anthony Bonner who can play power forward, the Knicks' inside depth has reached its highest level since Zhang Yang joined!
Those who focus on assists and long shots include Anthony Mason Jr., and Ewing also has good assist ability; for rushing players, there are Oakley and Anthony Bonner; for technical players, there are Ewing and Charles Smith. There are two people of each type of inside player!
On the outside, there are mostly functional players, allowing Zhang Yang to fully display his personal abilities, with shooters or cutting players standing on the wings to support him.

After the start of the new season, Zhang Yang took off as Bird expected. He played in all 82 games, averaging 35.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.6 steals per game. He won the scoring title for three consecutive years with an absolute advantage. O'Neal and David Robinson, who ranked second and third, both averaged less than 30 points per game...

The corner of Zhang Yang's mouth twitched when he saw this. The 'he' here was just as flamboyant as he was.

After winning the scoring title, the 'he' here shouted to Jordan: "Come back, Michael, you belong on the basketball court, not on that damn baseball bat. Without you, I'll be the only scorer left in the NBA."

This must have offended O'Neal, who was very careful... but it didn't seem to matter.

The Knicks had a record of 57 wins and 25 losses in the regular season, ranking first in the Eastern Conference and third in the league.

东部只有尼克斯队战绩在55胜以上，第二的老鹰队54胜、第三公牛队51胜、第四魔术队50胜、第五骑士队46胜、第六步行者队45胜、第七篮网队41胜、第八热火队40胜。

More than a decade after being defeated by the Lakers, the Western Conference has experienced a surge in strength in the past two years. Led by MVP-level Barkley, a large number of stars have flocked to the West to escape the dominance of the Knicks and Bulls. In addition, the large amount of talent accumulated in the West in previous years has begun to be realized, and there are already signs of wildness.

西部第一超音速队63胜、第二火箭队60胜、第三太阳队56胜、第四马刺队55胜、第五爵士队55胜、第六勇士队54胜、第七开拓者队50胜、第八掘金队44胜。

This season, there has been a subtle change in the NBA - many teams of mediocre strength have begun to engage in hand-to-hand combat and play slow defense.

The person who started this trend was Pat Riley, who joined the Heat in the summer of 92. Under his transformation, the Heat, whose lineup could be described as lame, made it directly to the playoffs last season and ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference. Although they were easily defeated by the Bulls 3-1, it gave many teams with ordinary but not bad lineups hope of entering the playoffs.

The Heat's playing style is hand-to-hand combat, slow tempo, and defense. It is simple and easy to learn.

Those who followed suit were mainly teams from the Eastern Conference, with only two or three teams from the Western Conference.

In the first round, the Knicks almost got eliminated because of this!

At the beginning, Bird stole the general manager position from the God of Calculation, which made the God of Calculation hate Bird to the core. The Heat, who were already in their second year of playing iron defense, had an unprecedented defensive intensity. They took away the home advantage in G1 and led 2-1 at one point. The Knicks scored less than 3 points for three consecutive games, but in G90, everything was different.

张杨32投17中、其中三分球10中6、加上15中15的罚球，狂轰55分，率队以100比73屠杀热火队。

G5张杨再砍42分，率队以95比79再胜热火队，3比2逆转晋级第二轮。

The Heat almost overcame the opponent, but in the West, the Nuggets, who were the first to imitate the Heat's play, actually overcame the opponent, and led by Mutombo, eliminated the league's top Supersonics 3-2!

The basketball term "black eight" was born in this year's playoffs.

In the second round, the Knicks met the Magic, who had defeated the Cavaliers 3-1 to advance to the second round. Before the series started, O'Neal shouted, "I'm going to let that Los Angeles guy know what a strong inside scorer is." Zhang Yang did not respond, and then led the Knicks to sweep the Magic 4-0 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. This was the second consecutive year that the Knicks swept the Magic. After the game, the Orlando media revealed that O'Neal thought that the Heat almost eliminated the Knicks, and he was much better than those people in the Heat and would definitely beat the Knicks. His words were extremely sarcastic, using phrases like "Jack can score 90 points in two games, can you do it?"

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks met the Pacers, who had truly pulled off an upset.

The Pacers defeated the 51-win Bulls in the first round and continued to defeat the 54-win Hawks in the second round. This team really made people believe that in addition to Jordan's team, there is another team that can beat the Knicks.

But the Knicks let people know what it means that 'there is only one strong team in the East after Jordan retired'. In just 5 games, the Knicks defeated the Pacers 4-1 and advanced to the second round.

In 5 games, Zhang Yang made 47 of 20 three-pointers, which made Reggie Miller, who averaged 2.4 three-pointers per game, understand what it means to be a "three-point shooter beyond the times"...

...

The training information ends here. Zhang Yang came here on June 6rd. On June 3th, the finals will start in Houston.

He checked the situation in the West through newspapers and magazines. Currently, some teams in the West are "fat but weak". They rely on the talents accumulated in the early years or the recruitment of a large number of Eastern stars in the past two or three years. Their performance in the regular season took off, but they are still weak in the playoffs. Once the intensity is increased, their true colors are revealed. It takes time for them to become truly strong teams.

The truly strong teams may be only the Rockets and the Suns. The Rockets swept the 50-win Trail Blazers in the first round to advance. In the second round, the Rockets encountered some obstacles against the Suns led by Barkley, but the regular season MVP + DPOY Olajuwon still led the team to defeat Barkley. In the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets met the Jazz, and they swept the team again.

The Jazz were almost defeated by the defensive Nuggets in the second round, and it took them seven games to advance with a 7-4 score.

Payton was just unlucky. If the Jazz and the Nuggets played five games together, they would also be defeated by the underdogs.

The Nuggets’ lineup is indeed not good. Muhammad Rauf, who averaged 18 points and 4.5 assists per game, is the leading scorer and second in assists;
Robert Pike, who averaged 9 points and 6 assists per game, was the team's assist leader;

Mutombo, who averaged 12 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.1 blocks per game, is the star player.

The West has received a large number of stars and talented players from the East in the past two summers, but Denver didn't get a single one, which led to the Nuggets' lack of continuity and being exhausted by the Jazz.

With just 42 wins, the only teams in the West that can definitely win in the first round are the Rockets and the Suns.

Maybe it was after this playoffs that Sloan started to go the iron-blooded route?

After briefly understanding the situation in the West, he got up, had breakfast, went to Madison Square Garden, tried his skills, and found that the situation was a little different from what he expected.

The last time he came to the 80th line, he could clearly feel that last year, the 30-year-old him was slightly less athletic than the 10-year-old him on the 29th line, but a little better than the 22-year-old himself whose physical talents had not been fully tapped.

He thought that the 'him' here would be 3 years old in 31 days, and his athletic ability might decline. Time is unforgiving.

Unexpectedly, there is basically no difference from last year! After half a year, his strength and jumping have improved a bit. His speed is still 94, his strength is 88, and his jumping is 91. He is closer to the 94 speed, 91 strength, and 91 jumping here.

The "Gate of Experience" suggests that the talent limit increased after the development period will delay the decline in physical fitness?
Or is it the effect of 'I age slower (intermediate)'?

Maybe both!
Zhang Yang suddenly felt that "I age slower" was not so useless!
It would be amazing if the peak of athletic ability could last until over 30 years old. He only remembered Jordan? James?
Kobe, Wade, Iverson and other superstars with explosive athletic abilities all had obvious physical declines around the age of 30, especially Wade, who had both knees seriously injured, it was very obvious.

Two days later, on the morning of June 6, in a hotel in Houston, the best sixth man John Starks took the lead in celebrating Zhang Yang's 6st birthday.

Zhang Yang enjoyed the birthday wishes from his teammates without blushing or breathing hard, and opened the presents with great enthusiasm.

When Starks and Zhang Yang first started their experience with the Knicks, they played very well as a bag-carrying little brother.

A very inspirational player. He was not drafted after graduating from college in 87. He played for the Warriors for half a season in the 88-89 season. Before his contract was guaranteed, he was cut by the Warriors to save $9 in salary. He played in the Continental Basketball Association in the 89-90 season. He was discovered by Stu Jackson in 90 and given a one-year contract as a substitute. Later, he received a two-year, $1 million contract extension from Bird.

In this contract year, Starks played 75 games, averaging 14.6 points and 3.8 assists per game, and was named the best sixth man. In the middle of the season, he received a 4-year, $700 million contract extension from Bird.

After a simple birthday celebration, Zhang Yang joined the Knicks in an away game against the Rockets in the finals.

When playing against O'Neal, Ewing performed quite well.

奥尼尔4场比赛分别拿到36分、23分、18分、35分；尤因拿到23分、16分、20分、37分，有时候尤因还能占上风。

But facing the Dream, the gorilla was so miserable!
首战大梦20投10中，加上10中8的罚球，拿到28分10板5助攻5盖帽，把尤因防得13投5中，只拿到15分9板2助攻2盖帽，还有5次犯规！
靠着暴走5投5中加上4中2的罚球拿到12分14板的奥克利、4投2中拿到5分6板3助攻的小安东尼-梅森，尤因在内线才能勉强与奥拉朱旺和奥迪斯-索普的双塔周旋。

Charles Smith and Anthony Bonner only played for a few minutes each, and their abilities were clearly not enough against the inside rotation of Olajuwon + Thorpe + Horry.

Although Ewing couldn't beat Olajuwon, he played very hard and tried his best to fight with Olajuwon.

After all these years, it is not the first time that he has been beaten by Dream. Also, after all these years, he is no longer leading the team alone.

Zhang Yang made 23 of 12 shots, including 7 of 3 three-pointers, and 12 of 10 free throws. He played one-on-one from the outside and defeated Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell, Vernon Maxwell, Mario Elie, four Rockets outside rotation players, as well as Horry who switched to the outside, and scored 37 points!
除了进攻无人能挡，防守端张杨和德里克-哈珀、约翰-斯塔克斯一起，把火箭队外线头号得分手弗农-麦克斯维尔防得9投3中只拿到8分4助攻、把肯尼-史密斯防得5投1中只拿到5分。

In addition to the three Rockets' inside players who scored in double digits, the only player on the outside who scored was Cassell, who came off the bench and made 9 of 4 shots to get 10 points and 2 assists.

Led by Zhang Yang, the Knicks beat the Rockets 98-87 and took a 1-0 lead away from home!
After the game, Drexler, who was eliminated early and had completely denied his ability to lead the team alone, suddenly became a hot topic.

In the first round, they beat the Houston Rockets so hard that they admitted defeat after the game; in the second round, they beat Barkley so hard that he was speechless after the game; in the Western Conference Finals, they beat Malone so hard that he became autistic. The super dominance of MVP+DPOY made people have high hopes for the Rockets led by Olajuwon, and they expect them to end the Eastern Conference dominance that began when the Pistons won the championship in 89.

It has been 5 years since the Western Conference won a championship. The last time this happened was in the 5s.

Olajuwon did indeed beat Ewing, proving that he is the strongest center in the league today.

But the Rockets' outside players, let alone facing Zhang Yang, didn't even have anyone who could cause any trouble!
Although Olajuwon beat Ewing, Ewing was not completely powerless to fight back. He pulled out to shoot and pass the ball, and Olajuwon still had to follow him. It was not only because of the rules. Ewing made 13 of 5 shots, including 8 of 2 in singles, which was too bad to watch, but he made 5 of 3 mid-range shots in open positions!

The Knicks have a good depth of inside lineup. Two of them are not strong enough to face the Rockets' inside group, but in addition to Ewing, Oakley and Anthony Mason Jr. can contribute. Relying on Ewing's containment, Oakley and Anthony Mason Jr. both played well. Although the Knicks' inside line as a whole was still suppressed by the Rockets' inside trio led by Olajuwon, the disadvantage was far less than the Rockets' outside disadvantage facing Zhang Yang!

Magic led the Lakers to meet the Eastern Conference team in the finals. Although the overall winning rate was not high, it was not bad, with 4 championships and 5 runner-ups.

In the two times that the Glider led the Trail Blazers to the finals, they did not win a single game, had a record of 1 wins and 0 losses against the Knicks, and were swept twice in a row. The Glider's ability to lead a team was also questioned, and people thought his title of the league's second best shooting guard was a joke.

Now seeing that the Rockets' outside players are having difficulty scoring in double digits, recall that the Glider managed to average 8 points per game with a 45% shooting rate in 23 finals games. Although the opponent Saint Jack averaged 8 points in 31.5 games, the Glider in front of Saint Jack is almost like the gorilla in front of Dream, but at least he is not completely powerless to fight back.

The Rockets' outside players who looked very powerful during the regular season and Western Conference playoffs were just background players in front of Zhang Yang!

Public opinion began to lean towards the Knicks, and the Knicks did not let them down.

The Knicks also won Game 2 on the road smoothly, and won a big victory in Game 3 after returning to New York.

In the original 94 Finals, the Rockets did not actually have much of an advantage. The situation was a little different from here. The Knicks there did not have very strong players on the outside, but they had explosive depth, and they suppressed the Rockets' outside players who looked pretty good in the regular season and the Western Conference playoffs. With the Knicks suffering a serious loss on the inside, the Rockets fought back and forth.

If the Knicks had won that time, the final FMVP would most likely have been undrafted player John Starks...

Olajuwon relied on his personal ability to drag the useless outside line in the finals to the seventh game, and won the championship by 6 points in the seventh game.

Here, Bird focuses on strengthening the depth of the inside line. Except for the sixth man John Starks, all the other players on the outside are functional players who are matched with Zhang Yang and can maximize Zhang Yang's personal abilities.

The inside partner became stronger, Ewing led the inside group to try their best to deal with Olajuwon, and Zhang Yang on the outside blew up everything... The Rockets really didn't have much room to struggle in the first three games.

直到G4大梦打出31分11板11助攻2抢断7盖帽的梦幻表现，火箭队才以94比88险胜尼克斯队一场，没被横扫。

But Olajuwon ultimately failed to bring the finals back to Houston.

G5尤因也支棱了一下，14投7中、其中三分球1中1、加上6中4的罚球，拿到19分12板，打出了这次总决赛最好表现；
张杨21投11中、其中三分球5中2、加上7中7的罚球，拿到31分4板7助攻2抢断，基操，得分比前4场平均表现还低3分。

The two of them suppressed Olajuwon who scored 27 points and Audis Thorpe who scored 20 points.

104 to 90, the Knicks defeated the Rockets at home with a score of 4 to 1 and easily won the championship!
5场比赛场均32.6分5板5.6助攻2.2抢断，投篮命中率54.1%，三分命中率40.9%，罚球命中率92%，张杨这次总决赛打出了80线生涯最高效率，捧起了第6座FMVP奖杯！

……

……

Zhang Yang had a great time on this trip to the 80th line, but after the fun, he felt that it was not exciting enough and was full of regrets.

Olajuwon is very strong, but he doesn't have any capable opponents on the outside, it's a pure bullying game.

I don't know if the Glider will still hug the thighs if the Dream doesn't win the championship? No, the situation should be to hug the group.

After analysis, Zhang Yang feels that the probability of a team-up is still very high. The Rockets are already the strongest team in the Western Conference, and the Gliders have no other choice if they want to win the championship.

Glider + Big Dream, should be able to fight against Saint Jack + Gorilla, right?
Thinking of the nickname "Saint Jack", Zhang Yang still felt ashamed.

Maybe because it was not difficult, there was only one basic task in this experience, not even an advanced task. I got an experience reward of 'Line Prediction (Elementary)', which slightly improved my sensitivity in judging passing movements.

This is definitely an ability related to Olajuwon. Dream is the only monster in NBA history who averaged 2+ steals and 4+ blocks per game in a single season since statistics were collected.

As of the 1993-1994 season, Olajuwon still averaged two steals per game in his career, and his total number of steals ranked fifth in history after Stockton, Maurice Cheeks, Elvin Robertson, and Jordan, more than a hundred more than Zhang Yang there. It is estimated that it will take another season for Zhang Yang there to catch up with the Dream.

Zhang Yang liked this experience very much.

Although Olajuwon's stronger defensive ability and more impressive defensive record is blocking shots, his average number of blocks per game in his 18-year career is as high as 3.1, which is a terrifying block at the level of the ancient basketball era.

But for Zhang Yang, blocking shots is good, but it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t have them. Improving his awareness of intercepting passes will help him more.

Of course, if the experience is to improve the ability to interfere with shots, rather than simply increase the number of blocked shots, then it will be more attractive to him than improving the awareness of intercepting passes, as his awareness of stealing the ball is already good.

Training is just a matter of "sleeping". After getting up, Zhang Yang continues to train and play in the game.

2011 arrived as expected. On February 2, the Bobcats defeated the Rockets 10-97 on the road, improving their record to 91 wins and 42 losses, ending the first half of the season.

Only 10 games were lost in three and a half months. Although this half-season record is not as good as the 70-win year or the Cavaliers' performance in the first half of last season, it is still the second best in the Bobcats' history, surpassing the Spurs with 40 wins and 12 losses, and ranking first in the league.

A year later, Carlisle once again ascended the throne of All-Star head coach.

场均16.1分2.8板5.2助攻1.1抢断，轻易进不了全明星的费尔顿，今年再度搭上球队战绩的快车，与稳健的场均15分11板1.8助攻2.2盖帽的奥卡福一同入选全明星替补阵容。

Zhang Yang averaged 32.1 points per game in the first half, far ahead of the scoring list, but this year's All-Star vote leader was gone.
The main reason why he lost to Kobe with 309 million votes was that the Staples Center hosted the All-Star Weekend.

Hollywood stars lined up to vote for Kobe on TV and social media.

What Zhang Yang found interesting was that many celebrities in Los Angeles also campaigned for him, taking advantage of his popularity in the local area.

The highest number of votes seems similar compared to previous years, but it is actually very exaggerated because the NBA's vote counting is more strict this year, and the overall number of votes has shrunk a lot. The number of valid votes for other stars has decreased overall, and Zhang San's number of votes has decreased. The only one whose number has actually increased is Kobe.

Dwyane Wade, who received the third highest number of votes, received 214 million votes; James, who received the fourth highest number of votes, received 205 million votes; and Yao Ming, who received the fifth highest number of votes, received 204 million votes.

Eastern Conference starting lineup: Wade, Zhang Yang, Bosh, Howard, Yao Ming.

Western Conference starting lineup: Rose, Kobe, James, Durant, Garnett.

Wade, Yao Ming, Kobe, and Garnett are all veteran popular superstars who have been strong for many years. They are in big city teams, and it is normal for them to be selected as All-Star starters at the same time.

But Rose and Durant, one in the third year and the other in the fourth year, were actually selected as All-Star starters at the same time in that remote place of Oklahoma City!

Of course there are objective conditions. In the frontcourt, Duncan's data declined, and then his popularity declined. Anthony's "where to go" soap opera caused a lot of fans to feel bad. After joining the Trail Blazers, Stoudemire is no longer the only star in the interior and his data has declined...

In the backcourt, Stoudemire left, the Suns collapsed, and Nash's popularity declined; Kidd already had two All-Star starters, Kobe and Garnett, and his personal regular season data shrank significantly; Paul only returned in January, and averaged only 1 points, 15 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. He is still in the stage of adjusting his playing style, and his data and record are not good...

But even with these objective conditions, it is still quite impressive that Rose and Durant can stand out and beat Westbrook, Deron, Ginobili, Parker, Anthony, Gasol, Griffin and others to be selected as All-Star starters.

In particular, it defeated the duo of Westbrook and Griffin, whose popularity has soared in Los Angeles this year. The two Los Angeles players ranked third in the backcourt and fourth in the frontcourt in the Western Conference in votes.

It all depends on one thing - performance!
Rose averaged 23.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.2 steals in the first half, ranking fourth in the half-time MVP ranking, behind Zhang Yang, James and Wade.

杜兰特半程场均28分7板2.5助攻1.1抢断1盖帽，排在半程MVP排行榜第七。

杜兰特现在最大的缺陷是失误，场均2.5助攻有3.1次失误，让球迷们印象最深刻的是12月中和马刺队的比赛，被盖伊+马刺队团队协作防出了21分11板3助攻11失误的另类三双。

In terms of the ability to lead the team's offense, Durant is not as good as Rose, who is one year younger than him. Even though Durant's average points per game has declined, his offensive efficiency has soared with the help of Rose, with his shooting percentage increasing from 46.2% in his junior year to 50.1%!

You should know that Durant's shots within close range actually account for less than most small forwards, only 20%, which is about half of the proportion of other small forwards. Eighty percent of his shots are outside close range.

Rose's leadership ability is quite exaggerated.

The two of them carried the team to second place in the Western Conference and grabbed the All-Star starting spot.

Bosh was selected as an All-Star starter for a simple reason, he played 50 games, averaging 24 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, ranking second among power forwards in scoring, second only to Nowitzki, which was secondary, mainly in New York.

Eastern Conference substitutes: Mayo, Felton, Joe Johnson, Granger, Okafor, Al Jefferson, Horford.

Western Conference substitutes: Nash, Ginobili, Rondo, Nowitzki, Duncan, Stoudemire, Gasol.

Stoudemire will miss the All-Star weekend for treatment due to a knee injury, and the league has designated Blake Griffin, one of the host teams, as a substitute.

各队教练的眼光还是雪亮的，虽然吉诺比利、邓肯数据都差了其他全明星一大截，一个场均16分3板4助攻、一个场均15分9板3助攻2盖帽，其他全明星数据最差的加索尔都有18分11板4助攻2盖帽，但马刺双星的票数都不是全明星替补里最低的，德隆、乔-约翰逊的票数最低。

The Celtics' double stars are also getting better. The 08 class had their second All-Star, and the 04 class had their fourth All-Star.

When fans mentioned the players who were not selected for the All-Star Game, the ones they regretted the most were Paul, Roy, Anthony, and Deron.

Paul's determination to change his playing style after suffering a serious injury is unparalleled. Other players who return from serious injuries will struggle for a while even if their bodies are no longer suitable for their previous playing style, and may suffer another serious injury or at least delay the opportunity to adjust their playing style.

Paul is different. After realizing the seriousness of the problem, when his injury recovered to the point where he could train, he decisively gave up his previous style of play and started playing on the floor. As soon as he came back, he performed like a first-tier star and quickly returned to the position of a superstar!
(End of this chapter)