No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 1361 - 542: Raise a Glass as You Take the Court
Unbeknownst, on the other side, Zhang Yang looked at the big screen showing Kobe’s mid-range shots, 24 attempts with 11 made, and felt that his opponent’s mid-range skills made no sense at all. In such a game, he could still shoot over 45% with his mid-range shots!
This kind of mid-range ability provides a remarkable capacity for resilience, suppression, and endurance.
If it weren’t for his last two three-pointers, he would have been completely exhausted by Kobe’s mid-range shots tonight!
In the NBA, he’s not the only one; over in Dallas, there’s another player who becomes even more terrifying when he gets into playoff mode!
Zhang Yang believes that one day his mid-range shots will surpass these two players, but as long as they are still in their prime, it’s pretty much impossible—too many basics, skills, and experiences need to be caught up on.
When both of them have aged out, even if his mid-range shots surpass them, there wouldn’t be an opponent to go up against him in this area.
Durant? He’s impressive, but he’s a difficult opponent for Zhang Yang to feel any strong desire to defeat. When they meet on the court, Zhang Yang obviously wants to win, but that’s all there is to it.
However, for three-point shooting, give him another year and a half? He should be able to reach historical levels by then! No, he might become the first historical-level three-point shooter!
He is confident that, as of now, in NBA history, no one is better than him at three-point shooting. Perhaps someone is better at running and shooting after a catch, someone might be better at finding opportunities through movement, someone might be more precise with catch-and-shoot threes... but in terms of overall three-point ability, he is number one!
In his memory, Nowitzki’s decline should start about a year and a half from now, but it’s not for certain.
The 11-12 season saw Nowitzki appear to decline rapidly, largely because the Mavericks’ lineup became lackluster. After Kidd won the championship, he lost motivation, and his performance plummeted. Chandler and DeShawn Stevenson left the team; these three were crucial starters and even core players in offensive and defensive tactics. Nowitzki had essentially become a pure scorer, a simplified cog geared towards winning the championship. Such players are greatly affected in team performances and even individual performances due to roster changes!
It mainly depends on Cuban’s financial investment in the later stages. Zhang Yang remembers that after fulfilling Nowitzki’s championship dream, Cuban significantly reduced investment, and just a season after winning the championship, in the 12-13 season, the Mavericks broke their 12-year streak of paying luxury taxes.
Over on Kobe’s side, his offensive peak should easily last for more than three years...
A battle of the Three-Point King against the Mid-Range King? A clash of the new and old generations?
Zhang Yang, who was almost losing it due to Kobe’s play, got excited again when he thought of this.
Such lively thoughts are mainly because he won tonight; if he had lost, he might have obsessed over mid-range practice every day during the upcoming All-Star weekend, just like the relentless hive-minded Kobe across from him...
...
With a record of 35 wins and 17 losses, the Bobcats entered the All-Star weekend holiday ranked third in the East.
The leaders in the East, the Cavaliers, are at 42 wins and 10 losses; second, the Magic Team, at 36 wins and 16 losses; fourth, the Celtics, at 32 wins and 20 losses; the fifth Bull Team at 34 wins and 18 losses...
The Cavaliers have a commanding lead, and the Celtics, secured by topping the Atlantic Division, are solidly in fourth. Only the Magic Team, Bull Team, and Bobcats are fiercely competing for second and third places.
The scoring king battle among Zhang Yang, Durant, and Anthony also remains intense.
Zhang Yang wrapped up the first half of the season with back-to-back 20+ games, boosting his number of games with 20 missed shots to 17... Wait, it should be two consecutive games with 40+, raising his average score by 0.5 points, overtaking Anthony’s average of 31 points and Durant’s average of 30.8 points to reclaim the top spot on the scoring leaderboard with an average of 31.1 points.
James contended for a while at the beginning of the season, then gave up early. Wade’s scoring was more laidback this year, only going all out when facing opponents he considered rivals, and he didn’t directly compete.
On the assist leaderboard, Paul delivered an incredible performance in January, catching up to Nash, and the two are neck and neck. Deron trails them by an average of one assist per game, making it difficult to catch up, while Rondo, in fourth, averages less than 10 assists and isn’t in the running.
Howard dominates the rebounding leaderboard with an average of 13.5 boards, while Zhang Yang also leads the steals leaderboard with an average of 2.9 steals.
At the start of the season, Duncan led the blocks leaderboard... but he later fell back, now averaging only 2.3 blocks, trailing Howard’s 2.7 blocks, and it seems unlikely he will catch up again.
Several days later, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Zhang Yang, Felton, and Okafor, accompanied by their families, arrived courtside to watch.
This year, the team’s performance wasn’t remarkable, and with averages of 15+3+6+1, Felton wasn’t selected as an All-Star reserve.
The Eastern All-Star reserves are Wade, Joe Johnson, Pierce, Okafor, Bosh, and Horford, and they join Iverson, Zhang Yang, James, Howard, and Yao Ming to form the Eastern All-Star team.
The Western All-Star reserves are Paul, Roy, Deron, Durant, Nowitzki, and Bynum, and they join Nash, Kobe, Garnett, Stoudemire, and Duncan to form the Western All-Star team.
Because Roy withdrew from the All-Star weekend due to an injury, Stern appointed Rondo as a replacement.
Bynum was selected as one of the All-Star frontcourt reserves, but Anthony wasn’t chosen... Bynum is already unpopular, Zhang Yang didn’t expect Anthony to be even less favored, and this wasn’t the first time Anthony had lost out to other forwards despite having better performance and stats.
Not only Anthony missed out in the West; Aldridge, Gasol, Kaman, Gerald Wallace, Parker, and Rose were also left out... The frontcourt had the most unfortunate exclusions with plenty of outstanding forwards.
