Chapter 137 136. At critical moments, you can always trust Zhang San!

James wants to lead the team to overtake the score and gain a leading advantage.

He repeatedly rushed to the basket, counterattacked, scored, caused fouls and went to the free throw line, and passed the ball to teammates from mid-range and long distances...

首节詹姆斯5投2中，外加10中7的罚球，单节拿到11分2板3助攻，率领骑士队拿到23分。

This is the highest score James has led his team to in the first quarter since the start of the playoffs.

山猫队这边，张杨打了8分钟，拿到6分1助攻；费尔顿5分、奥卡福4分、杰拉德-华莱士5分、阿兰-安德森3分、朱梅因-琼斯两分……单节25分，领先骑士队两分进入节间休息！
In the second quarter, James continued to play the full game, making 5 of 2 shots, including 1 of 0 three-pointers, plus 5 of 4 free throws, scoring 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, leading the Cavaliers to 24 points.

山猫队这边，张杨打了5分钟拿到两分、杰拉德-华莱士4分、奥卡福3分、费尔顿2分3助攻、马特-卡罗尔6分、朱梅因-琼斯3分、阿兰-安德森两分……山猫队这一节只拿到22分，小负两分，但依旧没让骑士队把比分反超。

到了第三节，詹姆斯6投2中，其中三分球3中1，加上6中4的罚球，拿到9分4板2助攻，率领骑士队拿到21分。

On the Bobcats side, the accuracy of their outside shooting dropped in this quarter, but Zhang Yang stood up!

Zhang Yang played for 7 minutes, scored twice in counterattacks, one long two-pointer, and one broke through to the basket for a close-range shot and was fouled, making both free throws, scoring 8 points in a single quarter!
Together with Felton's 6 points, Gerald Wallace's 6 points and Okafor's 4 points, the four of them scored all the team's points in the crucial third quarter, scoring a total of 24 points in a single quarter.

James played very hard, but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to lead the team to a lead!

Whenever he scored a goal, went to the free throw line, or made an assist, there was always someone from the Bobcats who came out to score!
Zhang Yang's mid-range and long-range shots and counterattacks; Gerald Wallace's attacks on the basket; Felton's three-pointers and close-range shots; Okafor's close-range catch-and-shoot shots, singles scoring under the basket, and offensive rebounding; Matt Carroll, Jumaine Jones, and Alan Anderson's long shots from the wing...someone always makes the shot!
With 28 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists in three quarters, James never expected that when he was performing like this, the team was still lagging behind!

71 to 68, the Bobcats lead the Cavaliers by 3 points entering the final intermission!
...

Zhang Yang originally wanted to play defense, so he went into a physical fight with Damon Jones, which caused his touch to decline in the second quarter. In 5 minutes, he made only 4 of 1 shots and scored only two points. Fortunately, his teammates performed well and kept the score close.

When the Cavaliers were shooting free throws after Perkins committed two consecutive fouls, he quickly and proactively recalled the 10 Finals game against the Heat in the 12 timeline...but didn't find anything to refer to.

He doesn't have the ability he had back then, and the Bobcats don't have the invincible team offense of the Spurs.

So he chose to play defense, betting that the referee's whistle was blocked.

But the referee really whistled!
And if you want to be serious, those whistles are really fouls.

Most of those fouls were called on the unlucky three guys: Perkins, Brezek, and Melvin Eli.

Perkins and Melvin Eli are keen on confrontation and rough moves on defense because they currently have no skills on defense.

Brezek also has bad defensive habits. He always relies on his physical advantage of 218 cm height and 221 cm wingspan to cover the heads of players who break through. James raised his arm and touched Brezek's hand, and the referee whistle sounded.

If we have to strictly follow the rules, then there is nothing wrong with the 10 fouls James received on these three people.

What made the Bobcats players excited and fight hard, and made the fans at the scene furious, was that the referee's whistle against the Bobcats was stricter than in the regular season, while the whistle against the Cavaliers was based on standard playoff standards.

The defense of Big Z, Gooden, Varejao, and Donyell Marshall was no different from that of the three brothers, and was even more brutal. Gerald Wallace rushed in and hit Big Z's arm with his face, causing a bloody nose, but he didn't get a free throw.

Out of desperation, during the official timeout in the second quarter, Zhang Yang and Bickerstaff discussed it and both agreed to reduce the confrontation in the interior.

There was nothing the three brothers could do. If they didn't defend like that, they would be useless on the defensive end. They had to play the way they had to.

When Okafor and Jumaine Jones are on the court, the defense is mainly interference, combined with the outside shrinkage, encirclement and suppression of James, and offensive efforts.

The Bobcats' offense is not as good as the 2012 Spurs, far from it.

However, James' impact is not as good as he was in 2012, and the Cavaliers' pitching group is far inferior to that of the Heat in 2012!
Damon Jones was the third-best three-point shooter in the league last season, but why didn't the Miami Heat, who were aiming for the championship, keep him? At that time, the Heat's head coach was still Stan Van Gundy, who was keen on three-pointers, and Pat Riley was not ignorant of the importance of three-pointers.

Because he is timid... He is very good at playing with the wind, and he dares to fight even when he is far behind. His fierce expression and determined eyes make people think that he is a tenacious player.

But whether he is really fierce and tenacious or not will be known after using him. Whenever the game situation is tense, Damon Jones becomes invisible. In the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals last season, he passed the ball as soon as he received it and did not dare to shoot even in open positions. He played for 32 minutes, took only 3 shots, missed two of them, was fouled once and made one of two free throws, and only got 1 point and 1 assists.

Otherwise, Pat Riley, who has always been generous to pitchers, would not have let go of a pitcher who averaged 42 three-pointers per game with a 2.7% three-point shooting percentage.

Donyell Marshall is old and not stable enough. Ronald Murray and Pavlovic are both standing shooters, and their hit rates are not high when their shots are interfered with.

To put it bluntly, these players on the Cavaliers are the ones left over from the popular teams, and the Cavaliers spent a lot of money to sign them back.

Mike Miller, Battier, Chalmers, James Jones... those players on the Heat team were all high-quality shooters that all teams were vying for as three-pointers became increasingly important six years later.

The Bobcats were able to regain a 3-point lead at the end of the third quarter.

After the intermission, Zhang Yang, Felton, Matt Carroll, Jumaine Jones and Okafor came on the court together.

Zhang Yang was ready to play the entire final quarter. He played for a total of 20 minutes in the first three quarters. He should be able to hold on, but he had to hold on even if he couldn't.

He tried his best tonight. It was not just a matter of winning a game. He just didn't want the league to succeed!
There is also James' attitude towards such a whistle. When Big Z executed the technical foul free throw, he was hesitant and embarrassed. Here, James almost immediately decided to make good use of the call...

This is also the main reason why the other Bobcats were angry. In their eyes, even if James looked fierce, he still looked complacent.

On the other side, James played with Damon Jones, Ronald Murray, Donyell Marshall and Big Z.

The referee blew the whistle and the fourth quarter began.

The Bobcats attacked first, and Felton passed the ball to Brezek in the low post. If Brezek didn't shoot quickly, he might not have another chance.

Brezek is always fierce when playing against Big Z. He receives the ball, turns around in one step and makes a hook shot!
73 to 68, the Bobcats lead by 5 points!
The Cavaliers attacked, and Damon Jones advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to James.

James was rarely tired at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which could be seen from his shooting in the third quarter. He was shooting three-pointers from the outside and only made 3 of 1 shots from the inside.

He took a deep breath, held it, and pushed forward!

He doesn't want to lose, and he can't lose! If he loses this game, he's basically done for the playoffs, and he might even get his head shaved!
If they lose to the Pistons or the Heat, that's not a big deal. Even if they are beaten by the Nets, that's acceptable because the Nets have two superstars, Kidd and Carter.

But the opponent in front of us is the Bobcats!
Zhang Yang, Felton, two rookies, Okafor, who entered the NBA a year later than him, Gerald Wallace, a player given up by the Kings, plus a bunch of scraps that other teams didn't want. He lost to this opponent and completely lost face!

James broke into the inside, pushed Felton into the three-second zone, and fell into the Bobcats' double-team.

Brezec was covering James' head as usual. James made a lob shot, and after the ball was thrown, his arm actively hit Brezec's arm... His cognition was different from others. In his opinion, favorable conditions must be taken advantage of.

But! This time, after James' arm hit Brezek's arm, the referee did not blow the whistle!
In this ball, James focused on creating damage and knocking down Brezek. His shot was completely off target. The ball flew out, hit the backboard, and bounced to the other side!
Jumaine Jones, who cut off James' passing route to the left at the three-second zone on the left side of the basket, grabbed the ball!
Jumaine Jones was surprised that the referee didn't blow the whistle. At this time, he saw Zhang Yang running in to respond, and quickly gave the ball to Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang fights back!
Felton cooperated tacitly and blocked James who wanted to chase and defend. When James bypassed Felton and rushed to the free throw line, Zhang Yang had already run out of the three-point line and approached the center circle.

If Larry Hughes was there at this time, Zhang Yang's counterattack would not be so easy, but tonight, Larry Hughes played for 4 minutes in the first quarter, 5 minutes in the second quarter, and never played again in the second half, because his appearance would limit James' offense.

Zhang Yang rushed to the frontcourt, jumped in front of the legal collision zone, and slammed the ball into the basket with one hand!
The director of Time Warner Cable Sports was very bad. He split the screen and put two pictures together - the picture of Zhang Yang dunking, and the picture of James stopping to chase and slapping the referee's arm, asking why he didn't get a free throw.

The score difference reached 7 points, James became anxious and continued to force his way into the inside... but still didn't get the whistle!
Fortunately, Big Z rushed in and poked the ball out of bounds from Brezek's hands, preventing the Bobcats from counterattacking.

James yelled at the referee again and slapped his arm, saying "He hit my hand, he hit my hand."

But James' roar was met with a warning from the referee! Mike Brown saw this and called a timeout!
...

It was a surprise for the Bobcats that Brezec was not called for fouls in two consecutive defensive games.

Entering the timeout, Bickerstaff thought for a moment and decided to substitute Gerald Wallace, Okafor and Perkins in advance to give it a try!
Zhang Yang also felt that it was time to give it a try.

Did the referee receive instructions to only blow the whistle in the first three quarters? Or was the free throw quota reached? James had already received 21 free throws in the first three quarters. Even when O'Neal was slashed by his opponent, he might not have received that many free throws. So the referee dared not blow the whistle again?
Whatever the case, it's worth preventing the referee's whistle from blowing randomly again.

Although they were ready to fight to the end, they also fought very hard tonight, otherwise Bickerstaff would not have put Okafor and Gerald Wallace off the court to rest. There was one thing that puzzled Zhang Yang. It was Blazek who was protecting the rim just now. James could have easily scored with his footwork in these two attacks, and he might not even need to rely on his footwork. He could have easily scored against Felton and Blazek. Why did he have to shoot free throws?

It would be good for James to beat Perkins, but it should be good for James if Blazek stays on the court and Okafor is not there...

Before the timeout, Zhang Yang expressed his doubts to one of the few top students on the team who had already obtained a bachelor's degree.

Okafor answered with a term: "path dependence."

Zhang Yang suddenly understood.

He also watched the news before entering the NBA.

The early James was not like this. In his rookie year, he made many traveling mistakes and was criticized for not shooting. In the first offseason, James worked hard on practicing his footwork and three-pointers. In the summer of 04, we often saw news about James working hard on basic skills, especially during the Athens Olympics. Almost every day, the media were marketing how hard James worked.

In November 04, James' three-point shooting percentage increased from 11% in his rookie year to 29%, averaging 37 three-pointers per game. At the time, ESPN touted his three-point talent as better than Jordan's, and his footwork in attacking the basket was also clearly improved.

The turning point came in January 05. When the labor agreement was renewed, the league amended some rules, one of which was the legalization of the three-step layup connected with the jump step and stride... Since then, James has changed. By the end of the 1-04 season, James' three-point shooting percentage regressed from 05% to 37%, and the number of three-point shots also dropped to 35 per game.

If you can easily score in the paint, why practice footwork? Why practice three-pointers?
Zhang Yang thought of a word - giant baby.

He knew that James was not without talent for footwork and three-point shooting. After Decision 1.0, James lost a lot of privileges. His average turnovers per game in the 10-11 season set a new career high. He spent a summer adjusting his footwork. In the 11-12 season, traveling was no longer an attackable point, and the league re-banned the 'new three-step'. In the 12-13 season, he even practiced three-point shooting and shot 40% from three-point range.

Okafor doesn't know what James will be like in the future, but he is very concerned about this new generation leader. He came to the conclusion of "path dependence" from the changes in James' playing style in the first three years of his career.

Okafor was very satisfied when he saw that Zhang Yang understood what he heard. It was easy to talk to smart people.

But Felton didn't understand, so he asked, "What is path dependence?"

Zhang Yang: "It's very complicated. Let's talk about it after the game."

Felton didn't want to listen anymore after hearing the complexity, so he responded, "Then let's play the game first."

Okafor: “…”

...

The Cavaliers also made substitutions, with the combination of Snow, Hughes, James, Varejao and Gooden coming on the court.

Mike Brown just doesn't understand offense and is not good at tactical response, but he is not stupid. When the referee whistled in favor of offense, he would of course send a group of pitchers to surround James.

Now he thought the referee might not blow the whistle, and judged that the Bobcats might take the opportunity to attack the defense, so of course he had to follow up.

The timeout ended and the game continued. The two teams suddenly changed from offensive to fierce battle!

James tried to "create damage" again, but still didn't get the whistle.

He was not as furious as before. That time, he lost the whistle too suddenly, and he couldn't accept the fact that his "lifeline" was gone.

During the timeout, he had calmed down. He knew there was no time to complain and he had to fight!

I just tried it. After confirming that there was no whistle, James changed his playing style. It was okay to play against the inside combination of Brezek and Jumaine Jones. Perkins guarded the basket, Okafor made up for the defense, Gerald Wallace retreated, Felton defended... He really couldn't do it, so he gave the ball to Larry Hughes, who rushed to grab the ball and cut into the basket.

Originally this was just a helpless act, but after playing a few rounds, he felt unexpectedly good!
His physical condition is so good that he is perfect for cutting in and attacking rebounds. There are few people in the entire league who are more talented than him in this aspect.

Just like he clung to "causing damage" as a life-saving straw before, when he saw that the adjustment in his playing style was effective and had a new "straw", he played even harder.

James had never played like this before. Needless to say, he controlled the ball during his school days and the first two years after entering the NBA. After Hughes came, he gave up some of the ball, but when Hughes attacked, he just stood outside the three-point line waiting for the pass...

People only think of ways to make progress when they are pushed into a desperate situation.

Hughes was originally full of complaints about James, but seeing James' active cutting and rushing, he also led the team to attack desperately to deal with the frontcourt group of Gerald Wallace, Okafor and Perkins.

The Bobcats did not give in to the counterattack launched by Hughes and James. They played very hard and tried hard to maintain their lead.

The score did not increase quickly, and the Cavaliers relied mainly on Hughes' breakthroughs, James' cutting into the basket, or second-chance offensive rebounds to score.

The Bobcats can only rely on Gerald Wallace and Okafori to score by using Felton's wing control and Zhang Yang's high post control.

In the 10 minutes after the Cavaliers called a timeout, neither team made any substitutions. Both Bickerstaff and Mike Brown were afraid that the defense would not be able to hold up after making substitutions.

比分从75比68，打到87比80，这10分钟时间，两队打出了12比12的比分。

During this period, James scored 6 points and 5 rebounds, 5 of which were offensive rebounds!
When it was the Bobcats' turn to attack, Okafor faced Varejao in the low post. Varejao moved his chair away and failed to cause Okafor to make a mistake, but Okafor turned around and missed his hook shot.

James, who came in, grabbed his sixth rebound of the quarter and passed it to Hughes, who launched a counterattack!

Hughes, who did not play in the third quarter and only played for 9 minutes in the first half, was a "fresh force" compared to other players on the court. He rushed to the frontcourt and attracted the double-team of Zhang Yang and Gerald Wallace who had retreated, and passed the ball... James followed up from the wing, received the ball and made a layup!
At 11 minutes and 02 seconds, the score was 82 to 87, a 5-point difference. After James scored, he moved towards Zhang Yang. If he could defend him, there would still be a chance!
Gerard Wallace avoided Hughes's interception and passed the ball to Zhang Yang who was running back.

James was thrown away for a moment, but immediately caught up with Zhang Yang after he received the ball.

Zhang Yang protects the ball like Nash. Even if he suffers a disadvantage in the confrontation, he can still advance steadily and advance across half court against the clock.

For example, when James failed to complete a steal and failed to cause the opponent to lose eight seconds, he quickly returned to the three-point line after retreating through the center circle.

Zhang Yang felt the change in James, but he didn't have the time or energy to analyze it.

He took a deep breath and listened to the cheers and shouts of encouragement from the fans. He felt like he could hardly continue playing, but he had to hold on!
As for Gerald Wallace, after double-teaming Hughes, he didn't have the energy to move sideways to help James and couldn't play one-on-one.

Felton only rested for 4 minutes tonight and couldn't even handle the one-on-one play. Okafor just missed the hook shot when he was close to an open space. Perkins... can only point his finger at Zhang San!

After adjusting his breathing, Zhang Yang dribbled to the top arc. Perkins pulled out and blocked James. Zhang Yang broke through with the help of the screen!
Gooden stepped out to defend the pick-and-roll, worried that Zhang Yang would directly throw a three-pointer after the screen. When the official timeout came back, Zhang Yang had just made one and was pressed very far to the outside. Zhang Yang took the initiative to press forward, pull the ball, turn around, bypass Gooden and rush into the inside!
Hughes came over from the wing to defend the shot, and Zhang Yang decisively rushed to the inside.

After crossing the three-point line and the center defense, the more difficult things are still to come!

When passing Gooden, Zhang Yang saw James retreat directly from the middle to the basket.

After being ravaged by pick-and-rolls so many times, James has learned from experience and finally took advantage of it tonight.

After Hughes failed to block his mid-range shot, he followed Zhang Yang into the paint.

Zhang Yang rushed to a close distance, with Varejao blocking him in front and James and Hughes chasing him from behind... He did not hesitate, as hesitation would lead to defeat. He grabbed the ball, aimed at the basket, and jumped up and shot before the three blockers arrived...

Everyone's eyes were focused on the flying ball!

James prayed that the ball would not go in, but unfortunately, the ball drew a small parabola, hit the inner edge of the basket, and slid into the basket!
The Cavaliers call a timeout!

The fans at the scene were instantly ignited and cheered wildly!

All the teammates rushed towards Zhang Yang, pushed away the three Cavaliers players next to Zhang Yang, and surrounded Zhang Yang to celebrate.

At the critical moment, no one was able to play. The Bobcats players thought that they could only play defense and bet that the opponent would not be able to make the shot in the last 58 seconds... Zhang Yang stepped up again and made the key shot!
With 31 seconds left, the score was 89 to 82, a 7-point lead, and the Bobcats secured the victory!

On the other side, the Cavaliers players' breath of hope all disappeared when they saw the ball fall into the basket.

James looked at the score on the big screen, feeling very unwilling, but he was powerless...

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(End of this chapter)