No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 173 - 104. When it comes to being annoying, you’ve got to look at the little brother.

to 19 behind, Scott called a timeout and substituted JR Smith out.

He had hoped JR Smith could break the situation, but instead, the gap widened from 4 to 8 points.

Scott had been teammates with Kobe during Kobe’s rookie year, and back then, he thought Kobe was quite stubborn.

But after coaching the Hornets for over a year, he realized that Kobe’s play back then was incredibly smart; at least Kobe knew to adopt different strategies against varying types of opponents, and if he couldn’t win, he’d learn more techniques.

JR Smith played the same way against everyone, and you couldn’t even criticize him because if you did, he played even more stubbornly.

The high school player on the other side, however, was different. His defensive choices were smart and executed firmly, and on offense, he knew how to exploit JR Smith’s propensity for risky steals, decisively moving without the ball when facing a strong defender like Paul, and maximizing his existing abilities...

After the June tryout, Scott had suggested the team trade their first-round pick for Zhang Yang, but management’s idea was to draft Zhang Yang if he fell to the 33rd pick in the second round, as they already had a high school shooting guard. He recommended trading JR Smith for a first-round pick, but his rationale was rejected.

JR Smith’s rookie year performance wasn’t good, but he showed talent, enough to exchange for a draft pick on the edge of the lottery in a weak draft year, such as trading with Baylor...

But because JR Smith had shown talent, the front office couldn’t part with him.

Now, Zhang Yang’s displayed talent far exceeded JR Smith’s, and his future at the very least was that of an All-Star player. Slowly scratching off the lottery ticket that was JR Smith was regrettable, but it was useless now.

After the timeout, Paul led the team on a tough journey to catch up on points.

Originally, after entering the NBA, Paul wasn’t supposed to struggle so much when matched against Felton.

Felton had many bad habits in his play. He wasn’t clear on his strengths or weaknesses, just blindly powering through, and not as adept at using his body as Deron.

But Felton, following what was written on the A4 paper, corrected his methods bit by bit, and over the course of two months, the changes were significant.

While Felton’s ability to lead the team solo was absolutely not on par with Paul’s, his frankness, not losing out to Deron’s, was the perfect counter to Paul’s skillful and tricky defense, and his shot selection had also improved, not faltering at one-on-one.

Over these two months, Felton made one other huge improvement—he no longer compared himself with every competitor, but instead focused on his strengths.

A month ago, Felton’s mentality would not have been this good, but last month he had nearly three weeks of very little playtime, less than 20 minutes, sitting on the bench for long periods, which gave him more time to observe his little brother’s performance on the court...

Paul couldn’t gain the upper hand one on one, and the pick and roll offense didn’t work well either since the cutting players couldn’t distract Gerald Wallace. The play was subpar, and the most affected was David West. In his third year, the close to All-Star level offensive performance he showed was mostly reliant on receiving the ball and shooting after screen plays with Paul.

Shooters... The biggest problem for the Hornets now is the lack of shooters, otherwise Gerald Wallace wouldn’t dare to defend like that. The Hornets team averages 3.5 three-pointers per game, tied for last in the league with the Clippers.

It’s worth mentioning that the Spurs, coached by Popovich who always said he hated three-pointers the most, averaged 6.5 three-pointer makes per game, ranking ninth in the league, even higher than the Bobcats’ 6.3 average.

Paul tried hard to lead the team in scoring, but once the gap reached around 10 points, they could not close it again.

In the end, the Bobcats beat the Hornets 104 to 95, securing the team’s first-ever three-game winning streak! fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Paul played 42 minutes tonight, shooting 8 for 17, including 0 for 2 from three-point range, and adding 4 made free throws out of 6 attempts, scoring 20 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing 11 assists, and making 3 steals. He led the team in scoring, assists, and steals, and tied with David West for most rebounds, but still couldn’t catch up with the score.

Now, his playstyle has exposed a significant issue—his personal ability sets the upper limit for the team’s strength.

When he leads the team, his teammates don’t have much freedom in their playstyles; they have to play the way he needs them to.

Of course, if Paul were strong enough, then it wouldn’t matter; he could bulldoze through the competition. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that dominant yet.

If the opponent performed beyond what Paul could handle, they’d struggle to make effective adjustments... except for the wildcard JR Smith. With both Paul and JR Smith on the court, the ball had to go to this teammate; one reason was that this teammate couldn’t be directed, and another was that such a talented teammate had to be given opportunities.

But the current JR Smith only had the ability to average 7 points per game, and the number of games he could excel in during a season could be counted on one hand.

Felton tonight shot 7 for 15, including 2 for 4 from beyond the arc, plus 5 of 5 from the free-throw line, scoring 21 points, grabbing 3 rebounds, dishing 6 assists, and making 1 steal, with an impressive scoring performance.

Gerald Wallace dominated in all areas, going 9 for 15, and adding 6 made free throws out of 8 attempts, scoring 24 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, dishing 3 assists, making 3 steals, and blocking 2 shots.

Zhang Yang didn’t try to steal the show from Big Baby. When he wanted to go head-to-head with Kobe, Big Baby didn’t hesitate to pass the ball. When Big Baby faced an opponent he was eager to defeat, he would certainly need to play a supportive role as well.

He did what he was supposed to do. Facing the sophomore high school player JR Smith, he created space, played well on the counterattack, and was highly efficient tonight, shooting 5 for 9, adding 2 made free throws out of 3 attempts, scoring 12 points, grabbing 4 rebounds, dishing 4 assists, and blocking 1 shot.

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