57: 56.

It Seems There Really Is a Grudge (Extra update for 10k recommendation votes) 57: 56.

It Seems There Really Is a Grudge (Extra update for 10k recommendation votes) The Hornets went on a rampage at the last moment of the season, winning 5 consecutive games to end the season, and yesterday they beat the Hawks in the final game, solidifying their record at 47 wins and 35 losses.

The Grizzlies lost a game on the 15th, bringing their record to 47 wins and 34 losses.

After the Hornets beat the Hawks, even Popovich thought they were definitely going to play the Grizzlies, as the Grizzlies hadn’t been playing as desperately as the Hornets in their final games.

The Grizzlies and the Hornets faced off four times this season, each securing two victories.

In the Southwest Division, the Hornets had a record of 9 wins and 7 losses, while the Grizzlies had 8 wins and 8 losses.

If the records were the same, the Hornets’ ranking would be higher.

The Grizzlies’ last game was against the Thunder Team with a record of 54 wins and 27 losses, and Popovich guessed that the Grizzlies wouldn’t fight to the death with the Thunder Team.

Unexpectedly, the Grizzlies fought hard in their last game, battling the Thunder Team to the end and narrowly winning in overtime!

Popovich and Zhang Yang looked at each other, both seeing the confusion and surprise in each other’s eyes.

Popovich, with decades more experience, reacted faster and said to Zhang Yang, “Didn’t I tell you?

The Grizzlies are stronger than the Hornets.

Our opponent will definitely be the Hornets.

Young man, you’re still too inexperienced.”

Zhang Yang, “…”

Shameless old thief, so thick-faced!

Who was it that added positional defense training to the training in the past half month?

Was this training to deal with the Hornets?

Worried Duncan couldn’t handle David West, who’s 206 cm and 109 kg?

Zhang Yang felt regretful that they couldn’t play against the “Twin Bears,” but thought facing off against Paul wasn’t too bad!

He was just very curious, why did the Grizzlies change their minds?

Meanwhile, at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, the game between the Grizzlies and the Thunder Team had just ended.

It was a close win, but Hollins felt that their playoff hopes were slim.

He didn’t want to play against the Spurs or Lakers, but the fifth and sixth seeds were too strong, with the Nuggets Team at 52 wins and the Trail Blazers at 50 wins—they wouldn’t be able to catch up, even if they tried!

When he first had the idea to drop to eighth and play the Spurs, it was during the Spurs’ four-game losing streak.

Recalling the three previous match-ups with the Spurs, where they weren’t at much of a disadvantage, he looked into the Spurs’ performance after the All-Star weekend and discovered their physical crisis…

After much thought, he decided to target the Spurs.

But what he didn’t anticipate was that the Spurs suddenly started having “fancy injuries”; towards the end, they weren’t even pretending, openly stating they were resting for the playoffs.

Preparing for whom?

And there was the game at the end of last month, where he noticed the opponent had made tactical preparations specifically against them, something not seen in the first three matchups!

Facing this situation, when it came to deciding the rankings, Baldy Hollins chose to bail.

Better to be seventh and face the Lakers, at least the Lakers didn’t take them seriously, treating the games against them as if afflicted with nobleman’s disease.

Moreover, whenever Pau Gasol faced Marc Gasol, he was extra motivated…

…

The regular season was over, and on the 18th, the Spurs returned to San Antonio.

They had the afternoon off.

Zhang Yang didn’t go for extra training this time, browsing the news and playing League of Legends to relax after being on edge for over two months with the regular season finally over.

He saw several media outlets placing him in the running for Best Sixth Man…

and it wasn’t much of a surprise.

When he was with the Warriors, he averaged 11.6 points per game over 50 games.

During his time with the Spurs, his scoring gradually increased, and he ended up averaging 16.6 points per game over 30 games.

Overall, across 80 games, he averaged 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.4 steals.

As his performance improved, the negative comments diminished and the praise grew.

Finishing the regular season with the league-leading Spurs, it was quite normal for him to be nominated for Best Sixth Man.

But winning the award was impossible, as Odom from the Lakers had already locked it down, averaging 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3 assists, with a shooting percentage of 53%, and being present for all 82 games… Playing as a sixth man was just cheating.

If Odom were on the Spurs, Zhang Yang felt Popovich would treat Odom as the core player.

After resting all afternoon, the next morning Zhang Yang arrived at the AT&T Center to prepare for the playoffs with the team.

The regular season was over, and the Spurs got 3 days of rest.

The playoffs would start on the 21st at home.

As Zhang Yang had expected, they were preparing to play the Hornets, and the team had a battle plan ready.

Although they had switched their primary hypothetical enemy to the Grizzlies for the first round, Popovich didn’t eliminate the possibility of playing the Hornets; he just focused more on the Grizzlies.

The necessary preparations to play the Hornets were still done, so he could easily tease Zhang Yang.

And indeed, he did breathe a sigh of relief that they were playing the Hornets—he wasn’t eager to deal with the tough nut that was the Grizzlies.

Two days passed quickly, and April 21st arrived.

The Spurs were set to face off against the Hornets at home in the first round.

At noon, the Spurs received good news—Popovich got 60 votes, beating Thibodeau, who got 55 votes, to win Coach of the Year for the season.

Zhang Yang’s opinion of Popovich was neither particularly good nor bad, even though he was the coach of his current team.

They just had a normal working relationship.

But for Thibodeau, he really didn’t like him.

Rose, Luol Deng, and Noah, these three talented players, all had multiple serious injuries during Thibodeau’s coaching tenure.

They broke down before turning 30, turning into classic bad contracts.

The most tragic was Rose, who broke down at 23.

Zhang Yang was quite fond of Noah.

He used to laugh every time he saw the clip of Noah clapping while the Miami Heat were in internal conflict.

In 2006, the Chicago Bulls’ general manager wanted to trade the whole team for Kobe; Thibodeau played Rose, Luol Deng, Noah, and Boozer’s luxurious lineup into four bad contracts…

It seems the God of Basketball really ran out of luck for this team.

At 7:40 PM, in the ATT Stadium, the Hornets and the Spurs entered the court one after another.

When Zhang Yang saw Paul, he was extremely excited.

Paul was one of his favorite basketball players, just as he loved the man in the overalls, with a profound affection.

There was a time when he would reply with this emoticon whenever he encountered injustice—

Unfortunately, his teammates were quite indifferent; they made no gestures to chit-chat with the opposing players, and Zhang Yang could only bury his fondness in his heart…

Mainly because their Spurs were not well-received, no one paid them any attention.

Over time, they consoled themselves, believing they were aloof and did not care to interact with the opponents.

This had its benefits, as the Spurs players were very focused on preparing for the game beforehand.

At 8 PM, the playoff series’ first game between the Spurs and the Hornets began!

Duncan beat Emeka Okafor to win the ball, giving the Spurs the first possession.

The starting lineup for the Spurs: Parker, Zhang Yang, Richard Jefferson, Duncan, Splitter.

The starting lineup for the Hornets: Paul, Marco Belinelli, Ariza, Carl Landry, Emeka Okafor.

David West tore his ACL in March and was out for the season, further depleting the already short-handed Hornets’ roster.

Parker advanced to the front court and started a pick-and-roll with Duncan, then passed the ball to Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang circled underneath to the left baseline to receive the pass while Emeka Okafor stepped out of the paint.

Zhang Yang passed to the middle, where Paul couldn’t stop Duncan, who cut in, took the pass, and made the layup…

Emeka Okafor rushed back to cover, but it was too late.

Duncan’s layup was good, and he added an assist to Zhang Yang’s tally.

Emeka Okafor, only 28 years old, seemed slow like a 38-year-old in front of Duncan.

In his rookie year, Emeka Okafor was seen as a bigger, scoring version of Ben Wallace, with explosive athleticism, fierce defense, and top-notch fundamental skills and awareness…

But he suffered a devastating injury in his sophomore year, was out for the season, and although he still was a double-double machine on his return, he never replicated his rookie season performance, and his once limitless future prospects vanished.

In the transition to offense, Paul used Landry’s screen, faced Duncan on a switch, the small against the big, and with a burst of speed, stopped suddenly, stepped back, and launched a fadeaway jumper…

It’s in!

Duncan relied on team play, Paul on individual skill, and each of them scored one basket to start the series.

The way the two team leaders scored also announced the respective offensive approaches for this game.

In the following possessions, the Spurs executed a beautiful team offense with a high success rate.

In six possessions, they scored 3 baskets for 7 points, a 50% field goal percentage, which was very impressive.

However, on Paul’s side, he sank 2 out of 3 shots, including 1 for 1 from three-point range, personally scoring 5 points and providing an assist for Belinelli’s three-pointer and helping Ariza complete a 2+1 play.

With 4 minutes and 11 seconds into the game, the Hornets led the Spurs by 4 points with a score of 13 to 9!

Paul, by his sole effort, was pressing the Spurs!

Popovich stood up, his expression sour.

Did all these super point guards have a grudge against their Spurs?

They all played so hard when facing them!

Suddenly, Popovich remembered, there indeed was a grudge.

In the second round of 2008, they beat the Hornets 4-3 to advance to the Western Conference Finals, and Bowen had pulled down Peja, who was going for a layup, during that series…

On the court, the Spurs were on offense.

Paul, Ariza, and Landry worked together to cut off the connection between Parker and Duncan and the basket.

Fortunately, Zhang Yang had good awareness and moved early to receive the ball, or Parker’s pass would have been almost a turnover.

Seeing this, Popovich prepared to call a timeout and was ready to bring Ginobili in early to stabilize the game with one-on-one plays.

If things continued like this, they might run into trouble.

Just then, Zhang Yang caught the ball, turned around, and shook off Belinelli, who was chasing in defense, entered the paint, took a step to the right to avoid Emeka Okafor’s cover, landed and quickly stepped to the left front to bypass Paul, who was closing in on the double team, ended up behind Emeka Okafor, jumped, and banked a floater…

it went in!

One against three!

When the Hornets were on offense, Paul drove in close, spun past Splitter’s help defense, and scored a layup with a low shot.

Popovich, who had planned to call a timeout, hesitated and stopped his motion.

In the transition back to offense, Parker passed the ball to Zhang Yang, who asked for it actively, then went to the left baseline to keep up his threat of cutting to the basket.

Zhang Yang used a screen to break through, with Ariza blocked solidly by Duncan.

Landry did a good job defending the pick-and-roll, sticking closely to Zhang Yang’s drive.

Zhang Yang reached the right side of the paint, suddenly gathered the ball, and quickly stepped to the left front.

Both Emeka Okafor and Landry lunged at Zhang Yang, who stepped back to the right sharply, swiftly evading both and went for the layup…

another hit!