CHAPTER 1310: CHAPTER 530: ONE VERSUS TWO—CONQUERING THE THUNDER TWINS!

After a conversation with Carlisle after the meeting, Zhang Yang confirmed that they had been playing quite well since the start, and being mentioned indicated that the coaches still had expectations for that player, as almost all of their main rotations were mentioned.

But he decided not to join in on these meetings for fun anymore since listening made his head hurt; he’d only attend those where the coaching staff invited players to participate.

As a player, no, I should say as a top player who enjoys the support of teammates and coaches, he doesn’t quite align with the coaches’ way of thinking.

On the contrary, maybe those water cooler managers would like this kind of meeting, listening to the coaches ’diss’ the main players, they’d definitely enjoy it.

Zhang Yang thought he might have guessed why Carlisle embarked on the coaching path back in the day...

The next day, a new month arrived.

In the morning, Zhang Yang did not receive a notification, so he checked the NBA official website and saw that James won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month.

With an average of 29.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 8.6 assists, and 1.6 steals, he led the team to a 16-2 record, ranking second in scoring in the league and first in the East.

The team with the best record this month was the Spurs, at 17 wins and 2 losses.

However, no Spurs player won the Player of the Month; instead, Stoudemire from the Suns won the award with an average of 27.9 points and 9.9 rebounds, and a 15-4 record, third in the West.

The Cavaliers had a 16-2 record, the Magic a 14-4, the Bobcats a 13-4, the Celtics a 12-6, and the Bulls a 13-5;

The Spurs had a 17-2 record, the Mavericks 15-3, the Suns 15-4, the Trail Blazers 13-5, and the Lakers 14-4;

Zhang Yang checked the standings, and for the first time in three years, the top three records in the West were better than the top three in the East!

Though it seemed mainly because their Bobcats had ’slipped’...

The Bulls and Lakers had it pretty rough, not being the first in their division and directly dropping out of the top four.

The Coaches of the Month were Van Gundy and Philip Saunders.

The Rookies of the Month were Curry and Evans.

Evans averaged 19.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 18 games, made a spectacular debut with the Timberwolves, starting 9-9... tenth in the West.

Zhang Yang felt that those three guys on the Timberwolves were quite unlucky, playing so well yet not even touching the playoffs, while Curry at 7-11 still had playoff hopes.

Curry averaged 15 points, beating Jennings’ 17.2 average to win Rookie of the Month, which surprised Zhang Yang since his performance and stats were not up to Jennings. Was it because of his 2.5 three-pointers per game, tying him with third in the league? Or was it because he played in the Big Apple City?

Last season, Harden also experienced a situation where he was clearly at a disadvantage but still won Rookie of the Month.

In the evening, Zhang Yang arrived in Rutherford Town with the team, and with Carter being traded, the city’s basketball atmosphere completely collapsed.

Last year when they came here, Carter’s ads were everywhere and the Brooklyn Nets got some exposure too. Now it seems there’s nothing basketball-related in this town. Since Kidd left two years ago, the Brooklyn Nets’ market really just relied on Carter alone.

After dining with Felton, Okafor, Hill, and Millsap, Zhang Yang returned to the hotel and heard about something crazy.

The second darkest night for elementary schoolers in the NBA arrived... The Knicks Team lost their back-to-back second game 118-124 to the Bucks, with a record of 7 wins and 12 losses, but that’s secondary.

Jennings, who had just been snubbed by Curry for Rookie of the Month, went off for 56 points against Curry!

The first rookie to score 50+ points in a single game since Iverson, and it happened at the Holy Site of Basketball, second only to Kobe’s 61 points here, the highest single-game score at the Basketball Sacred Place!

Who knows how Curry feels, but Zhang Yang was astonished—his season-high single-game scoring record was broken!

Zhang San: I should have fired a few more shots against Curry last night!

Such a good three-point shooting touch wasted!

...

With the new month, the first to blow up was Jennings, who said on camera after the game: "Do the bad boys still feel disappointed in my performance?"

The next day, on an away game day for the Bobcats against the Brooklyn Nets, reporters brought Jennings’ words to the Lu Hang Arena. Zhang Yang responded: "Brandon has renewed my interest in him, he might be more interesting than Stephen."

Curry, having been thrashed two nights in a row, was already upset, and seeing the back-to-back jibes from the ones who thrashed him, especially Zhang Yang’s words, he just exploded... and immediately went to the gym for more practice.

As for Zhang Yang, he scored 42 points, for his third 40+ game of the new season, leading the Bobcats to a 96-87 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, kicking off the second month of play.

Coaches are truly patient at times, but once the ’test period’ is over, the adjustments are indeed significant. They initially led by 14 points, but following a slew of tactical changes by the coaching staff, they nearly got overturned by Odom’s team, who posted 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists. Fortunately, Zhang San scored 16 points in the final quarter to secure the win.

However, maybe it was precisely because the Brooklyn Nets were at the bottom of the league, with a 3-16 record before tonight’s game, that the coaching staff made such aggressive adjustments.

After the game, Zhang Yang reviewed Carlisle’s in-game adjustments and found that the objectives were actually very clear, unlike the ’vague’ setup during the test period.

The starters no longer vacillated between ’superstar leads team offense’ and ’core facilitates team’, but rather when the three young stars were on the court, they resolutely played the former, while Millsap’s playing time was more shifted to the rotation period, leading the second unit along with Afflalo.