No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 190 - 110. Pre-All-Star Weekend

Before the first 3 matches of the 6-game away series, they had 2 wins and 1 loss, a delightful start. The next morning, Zhang Yang and Felton packed their luggage, imagining the next 3 matches... When they got on the bus, they didn’t see Gerald Wallace.

Zhang Yang asked Bickerstaff and found out that Gerald Wallace had twisted his ankle and wouldn’t join the team for the next away match. The team didn’t want to exacerbate Gerald Wallace’s injury, to avoid affecting his participation in the All-Star Game; the medical facilities in Salt Lake City are good, and it was more appropriate to have the check-up there than in Denver.

Zhang Yang silently looked out of the bus window, thinking how other teams’ stars were protected from injuries during the All-Star Game that could affect regular-season games, but their team...

It wasn’t really a problem; for them, having one more player appear during the All-Star Weekend was indeed more important than affecting the regular season.

Zhang Yang remembered that last night, Gerald Wallace indeed twisted his ankle fighting Matt Haplin for a rebound position, but he grimaced in pain and hopped a few times before continuing to play...turns out he was toughing it out, and still took over in the crucial moments of the final quarter to make a play for Brezec.

If this man was a prince of the Bobcats, it truly wasn’t surprising.

While waiting for the plane at the airport, Zhang Yang turned on his laptop and checked online for Gerald Wallace’s recent performances.

In January, Gerald Wallace truly fought hard!

Rarely missing a game that month, he played 40 minutes per game, scoring 20+ in most games and 30+ in three, thanks to his performance in January, Gerald Wallace’s average score soared from 17+ in December to 19+, and he still maintained performances of rebounds, steals, and assists at 7+2+2, making him the key player that helped their team achieve an 8-8 that month. If they had won two more games, he could have competed with Billups for Player of the Month!

With such aggressive playing, injury was inevitable.

Zhang Yang could understand Gerald Wallace’s feelings; there was hope to win, everyone wanted to fight every game, and with only him in the frontcourt, he’d rather do his and Okafor’s work all by himself.

Having Perkins made things a bit easier for Gerald Wallace, but not by much. Perkins’s defensive talent was good, but too raw. Coming directly into the NBA from high school, he was only a rookie in his third year. It naturally takes longer for the front line to mature, and against many opponents, he would only play a few minutes per game. He could play a bit longer against high-leap players, and against a very few teams, he could be a mainstay.

However, Perkins was quite satisfied with this, as previously with LaVrentz and Al Jefferson as teammates in the frontcourt, whether or not he was suitable to play, he would get only a few minutes per game.

The other frontcourt players, Jumaine Jones could only be used as a fixed-point shooter, lagging behind in defense; Eli, by 2006, hadn’t yet received a contract extension offer and panicked, starting to seriously score and rebound, but his defense was just passable.

Brezec, if all NBA center players were from Eastern Europe, that would be great.

When playing against Okur and Big Z, Brezec was a completely different person.

Having the prince out of games for over a month, Zhang Yang felt somewhat unaccustomed...

He better prepare mentally from now on!

Okafor, after losing weight, could likely maintain his health long-term; after all, as a rookie, he was able to attend every game as a core player. Zhang Yang remembered that after Okafor’s major injury and subsequent weight loss, he had several consecutive years of perfect attendance.

But even with careful management and more frontcourt support for Gerald Wallace, missing ten or more games a year was still inevitable, similar to Kirilenko, who was too aggressive.

...

On the 8th, the Bobcats lost 88 to 100 to the Nuggets Team, with Zhang Yang rarely starting for once, forming a rookie duo with Felton, respectively making 5 out of 15 and 5 out of 16 shots to score 14 and 13 points. The rookie duo intensely ’enjoyed’ the process.

On the 10th, the Bobcats went to Los Angeles to challenge the Clippers.

The Bobcats played fairly well in the game; Brezec, with his height, and Perkins with his tough defense, managed to hold Brand to only 6 out of 16 shots, scoring just 15 points. But their own frontcourt scoring was also dismal, with Brezec, Perkins, Eli, and Jumaine Jones together only managing 14 points.

Zhang Yang scored 17 points, Felton had 14 points and 6 assists, Carroll scored 12 points, and Karim Rush scored 15 points. The four outside players scored double figures, while Alan Anderson, Bogans, Bernard Robinson, and others together scored 18 points, and the whole team managed only 90 points.

Without Gerald Wallace, the frontcourt was really struggling to score.

to 95, the Bobcats lost away to the Clippers, suffering a back-to-back loss with a record falling to 22 wins and 29 losses.

However, Zhang Yang and the others maintained a good mindset; they weren’t happy losing by 5 points and slept it off, waking the next day loaded with great expectations for Phoenix, ready to fight again in the next game!

After resting a day in Phoenix City, on the 12th, Zhang Yang and Felton, ready for an exciting duel with Nash, received some unfortunate news.

Nash would miss tonight’s game due to back muscle tension.

This greatly disappointed Zhang Yang and Felton. With both Gerald Wallace and Okafor out, what could they look forward to in the game against the Suns, if not a showdown with Nash?

At 7:40 PM, after both teams’ players entered the court, Nash, dressed in a compression shirt and sitting on the bench, also looked regretfully towards Zhang Yang.

He had watched the livestream of the Bobcats’ game against the Knight, seeing Zhang Yang rhythmically dribble past James, a mirror image of himself.

Similar height (Nash 191 cm, Zhang Yang 193 cm), similar weight (Nash 88 kg, Zhang Yang 90 kg), similar handsomeness (Nash admitted).

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