This scene looks amusing, but it’s also heartbreaking.
Even though the Bobcats suffered the loss of a key player, significantly weakening their strength, Felton, the oldest of the ’New Bobcats Big Four’, just turned 25 this summer. His talent is explosive, and his future is boundless. He will surely win the championship again.
However, Hill’s health record really doesn’t inspire confidence that he can last much longer, even if Zhang Yang spoke up in his support, people thought it was just his favoritism towards Hill.
After the flag-raising and the ring ceremony, Zhang Yang handed the ring to his mother, his first championship ring, as an early birthday gift... Of course, he still needed to buy a birthday present later, or he would be nagged for life.
Despite entering the court 10 minutes early, after the ring ceremony, there were only a few minutes left for both teams.
Carlisle quickly highlighted a few key areas to pay attention to, warning his players not to be careless, then the referee urged the starting lineups of both teams to take the court.
At 8 PM, amid the passionate cheers of the fans, Okafor easily beat Big Z to win the tip-off, and the Bobcats attacked first!
The Bobcats’ starters: Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Okafor, Perkins.
The Knights’ starters: Larry Hughes, Pavlovic, James, Gooden, Big Z.
Felton received the ball and pushed forward to the frontcourt, passing to Zhang Yang at the right side of the free-throw line.
As soon as Zhang Yang got the ball, James suddenly pressed up, attempting a steal.
Impact, timing, using his body... In a few months, James’s defensive improvement surprised Zhang Yang.
Lucky for him, like Nash, protecting the ball as his first priority was ingrained into Zhang Yang’s foundation, or else he might have been caught by James’s sudden ambush.
Zhang Yang kept his composure, turned his back, patiently feinting, looking for opportunities... Why were there so many chances?
Zhang Yang took his feint a step further, suddenly spinning to the free-throw line, jumping, shooting a mid-range jumper...
James was fooled by Zhang Yang’s excellent rhythm and realistic feints, lunging half a step to the left, and although he quickly turned to rush towards Zhang Yang at the free-throw line, he was a beat too slow.
Zhang Yang scored with a turnaround mid-range jumper!
James slapped his hand in annoyance, clearly unwilling to accept it... He indeed felt reluctant, as he was so close to forcing a turnover just then, and his defense was only a tiny bit off, not having anticipated the real moment of the shot.
He also felt that Zhang Yang’s offense had changed, looking similar to last season with the same moves, but it just felt different to him.
On Zhang Yang’s end, at first he thought James’s defense had changed significantly, but after the isolation play, it didn’t feel any different.
Transition to defense, Knights on offense.
Larry Hughes pushed forward to the frontcourt, passing to James.
This year, Mike Brown made adjustments to the starting lineup based on James’s significant defensive improvements shown during the preseason—against the straightforward breakthroughs of Ford, the tank-like drives of Luol Deng and Iguodala, James defended very well.
So, before the regular season began, Brown decided to stop using Snow, having either Hughes or James take over as point guard, and put Pavlovic, Gooden, and Big Z—three shooters—to optimize the space for the two to attack the basket.
Against other teams, this slight increase in space might have worked well.
But against the Bobcats... James was blocked again at the elbow area.
Hill’s side wing contraction and help defense was not as explosive and aggressive as Gerald Wallace, but Hill’s experience was richer, intercepting the passing route to Pavlovic waiting for the ball on the right sideline.
What’s more, James keenly sensed danger, the risk of being stolen from or blocked at any moment.
James suddenly pounded the ball, retreating two steps to the left rear, pulled up, and shot a mid-range jumper one step inside the free-throw line...
As James retreated on his first step, Hill immediately sprung into action, pressing up for the block and interference, but he hadn’t expected James to pull back two steps... Could he do that too?
Luckily for Hill, James’s mid-range was indeed poor, and the ball clanged onto the rim.
Felton yelled at the referee, "That was traveling, wasn’t it?" but the referee ignored him. Perkins, who grabbed the rebound amid Gooden’s challenge, protected the ball well, and Felton did not persist, his shout merely expressing his dissatisfaction.
Gooden’s pressure made Perkins, not great with ball-handling, choose to protect the ball conservatively. This gave the Knights a chance to fall back on defense, and the Bobcats continued into a set offense.
Felton received the ball and moved forward, continuing to give it to Zhang Yang.
This time, James stuck closer, limiting Zhang Yang’s space for lateral movement, with a great defensive presence and his basic movements much improved from the beginning of last season, very aggressive.
But for Zhang Yang... that wasn’t defense that could stop him!
Zhang Yang applied a cross-over feint, spinning around close to James, shaking him off behind, and breaking towards the baseline on the right!
Pavlovic closed in from the wing to intercept.
Big Z moved ahead of time to block the right side of the paint, using his towering 221 cm stature to block Zhang Yang’s passing route to the basket.
James turned and chased urgently on defense.
The triple-team was about to form... Zhang Yang passed back to the high post, Hill had already positioned himself!
Gooden, guarding against Okafor’s mid-range on the left side of the paint, quickly covered to the free-throw line. Hill made his pass, Okafor received the ball cutting in, took flight, and scored with a floating shot.
Hill demonstrated the ball distribution awareness of the first point forward after Pippen with that pass!
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