No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 185 - 108. Long-awaited Rival_3

The Bobcats also had something they did well tonight—defense.

Under the tight defense of Gerald Wallace, Nowitzki made only 5 of 12 shots, including zero of one from three-point range, plus 4 of 4 free throws to score 14 points.

Nowitzki’s current style of play tends to suffer against the likes of Garnett, Kirilenko, and Gerald Wallace.

It was a pity that on the Bobcats’ side, besides Wallace’s 15 points, Brezec’s 11 points, and Zhang Yang’s 10 points, no other player scored in double digits; Felton made only 3 of 7 shots for 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists.

This year’s Mavericks are strong on both offense and defense, averaging 99 points per game, and limiting opponents to an average of 92 points.

On the 5th, the Bobcats found some solace when they arrived at the Rose Garden in Portland.

Against the billion-dollar Mavericks, the Bobcats were pitiful, but against the Trail Blazers, who had 13 wins and 35 losses, they went all out.

Randolph made 9 of 20 shots, along with 4 of 6 free throws, to collect 22 points, 10 rebounds, one assist, and a block; nobody on the Bobcats could stop him, not even a rookie-year Okafor.

However, Randolph’s personal performance didn’t help the Blazers much as a whole, as the team scored only 88 points.

Zhang Yang made 8 of 15 shots, including one of three from beyond the arc, plus 3 of 3 free throws, to grab 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. It was his first 20+ point game of the new month and came sooner than in previous occasions.

Gerald Wallace had 18 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks; Felton scored 10 points with 3 rebounds and 10 assists; both Karim Rush and Brezec tallied 15 points... With a 106-88 victory, the Bobcats defeated the Trail Blazers, improving their record to 21 wins and 27 losses.

Starting the six-game road trip with 1 win and 1 loss, the team’s record held steady...

The day after the game against the Trail Blazers, the Bobcats arrived in Salt Lake City, rested for an afternoon, and then headed to the EnergySolutions Arena for a back-to-back game against the Jazz.

At 7:40 p.m., the Bobcats players entered the court first, and Zhang Yang felt the feverish atmosphere of Salt Lake City’s "Hell’s Court."

To him, it felt like... watching a live broadcast of a European football match?

Looking around, the stands were almost entirely white, and the people were spewing all kinds of ugly words. These were the most undisciplined fans Zhang Yang had ever seen.

On the flight to Salt Lake City, Randy Brown, who had faced the Jazz in the Finals twice during his playing days, had briefed Zhang Yang on the city. The locals’ everyday lives were very boring and oppressive; sports venues were one of the few places where they could let loose. To these fans, coming here to vent the pressures of work and life was the main event; watching the game was just incidental.

Not only were they hurling insults at the visiting players, but Jazz fans were even more harsh towards their own players when the Jazz failed to reach the playoffs in the previous two seasons.

After listening to the near-human cursing from the Salt Lake City fans for a while, Zhang Yang wondered if this was what they called "Hell’s Court."

As far as basketball was concerned, these jeers didn’t put any pressure on him; even pure booing would have been more effective.

As for the content of their tirades, it wasn’t even as hurtful as a street argument between tough old ladies.

Zhang Yang turned his attention back to the court, Deron Williams! He had been looking forward to this matchup for a long time, the highest-ranked perimeter player of his draft class.

Felton had also been awaiting this opponent for a long while, but his fighting spirit wasn’t as pure, mixed with envy.

Zhang Yang asked Felton, "Aren’t we going to say hello?"

Felton replied, "Why say hello? We’re not close."

Zhang Yang thought about it and realized Felton was right. The University of Illinois, where Deron was from, wasn’t in the Atlantic Conference but the Big Ten Conference. It seemed Felton and Deron had only faced off once, in last year’s NCAA finals, where Felton won the championship. Yet, at the draft, he was bested by Deron. No wonder he wasn’t eager to greet him, and Zhang Yang decided not to go either.

Based on the season’s performance up to now, Felton had been doing better than Deron, who was averaging only 8 points and 4 assists per game.

But Deron was still considered the most talented point guard of the 2005 class because he achieved single-game 20+ points and 10 assists earlier than both Paul and Felton, and he currently held the highest single-game score for the 2005 class, with 28 points.

The reason Deron’s averages looked mediocre was that he was benched for the first 40 games by Sloan, playing only around 20 minutes per game.

His single-game 28 points came in just 22 minutes of play, and his 20+10 only took 25 minutes, although both achievements came against defensively poor teams—the SuperSonics and the Suns—it was still a testament to his talent.

Zhang Yang had seen earlier in the season how Deron complained about being a substitute and his lack of playing time; the media had also questioned Sloan about not giving Deron more chances to shine.

Sloan’s response was that he wanted to mold Deron’s character...

It wasn’t until after 40 regular-season games that Sloan finally put Deron in the starting lineup.

Zhang Yang figured the seeds of a rift between Deron and Sloan were already sown; Sloan was still using his 1980s playbook for managing player relations well into the 21st century.

At 7:58 p.m., the starting line-ups of both teams took the court.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Karim Rush, Gerald Wallace, Melvin Ely, Brezec.

Jazz starting lineup: Deron, Devin Brown, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur, Jarron Collins.

The Jazz, with a current record of 23 wins and 25 losses, were not much better than the 21-win, 27-loss Bobcats because their star player, Boozer, injured himself after just 10 games and had yet to return.

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