No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 864 - 371. King’s only hope of getting the Scoring King _3

Just as he was about to leave, the office door opened and out came a bald head... Coach!

Zhang San: Damn, is the boss playing that far ahead?

But upon closer inspection, Bikstaff, Randy Brown, Paul Silas, and others were all there, except for the shooting coach Ingles who was tidying up at the training ground, the coaching staff was all in the boss’s office. freēnovelkiss.com

They must be having a meeting.

Carlisle saw Zhang Yang and seemed startled, greeting: "Jack, you’re done with training?"

Zhang Yang felt something was odd about him but responded, "Yeah, getting ready to head back."

Carlisle: "That’s good, you should rest more on off-days, even though your physical fitness is good, you should pay more attention to health... were you coming to say a prayer to the God of Wealth before heading back?"

Zhang Yang: "Yeah, after saying a prayer I’ll go back and rest, play games with James and Carmelo, chill out a bit. Did you guys just finish a meeting? What’s there to discuss at this time... draft matters? I remember we only have a second-round pick, right? The Kings’ first-round pick is lottery protected, they’re twelfth in the West, we can only get their first-round pick next year."

"It’s not about the draft, that’s still early, as you said, we only have a second-round pick, and it’s among the last few positions, the decision isn’t in our hands, even if we like a player, they might be picked by another team early..."

Carlisle hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "Today we came to discuss the last two games with Michael."

Zhang Yang was puzzled: "Aren’t the last two opponents no big deal? We’ve played against the Chicago Bulls 3 times, the Lakers though only once a few months ago, but their style is mature and stable, I thought you guys had long prepared for it."

"Situations often exceed expectations, there are always overlooked areas, Jack, you see, we just finished a back-to-back, and in both games, the fourth-quarter performance was poor. Now we have 61 wins, the Pistons have 58 wins and 22 losses, we’ve locked in second place in the East..."

Seeing Carlisle’s flickering gaze, Zhang Yang had a rough guess and asked: "Are you planning to forgo the last two games, letting us starters rest and prepare for the playoffs?"

Hearing Zhang Yang’s voice getting louder, Carlisle hurriedly reassured: "No, of course not."

Zhang Yang breathed a sigh of relief: "That’s good, I’ve been looking forward to facing the Lakers again, to avenge that loss... Rick, what does that look mean?"

Bickerstaff interjected: "What Rick means is, you won’t be among those resting."

Zhang Yang: "... Huh?"

Seeing Zhang Yang’s reaction, Carlisle turned his head, neither admitting nor denying.

Looking at Coach’s "not afraid of being scalded" attitude, Zhang San felt a thousand alpacas run through his heart, Coach, Bikstaff, and Qiao Tu have become thicker skinned after hanging around each other for so long!

Zhang Yang tried to calm his emotions, asking: "Is it decided?"

Hearing this, Carlisle knew the rascal was dissatisfied but could understand the coaching team’s thought process, so he revived and said: "It’s decided, but there’s still one problem now."

This piqued Zhang Yang’s curiosity, he asked: "We’ve got 60 wins, locked in the second spot in the East, the Lakers have 64 wins, the Bulls 66 wins, we can’t surpass them, what’s the problem?"

Carlisle: "Both tomorrow and the game on the 18th will be nationally broadcast, we’re discussing what excuse to use for resting the starters."

Zhang Yang speechlessly said: "So you actually wanted me to sit out as well, but after discussion, couldn’t find a reasonable excuse, so you settled on having me play?

And after your discussions, the excuses you came up with for resting others weren’t good enough, so this matter today could have simply not been told to me, just announced tomorrow, but instead, you tell me now and want me to help think of a way?"

Coach felt very awkward, during games, learning tactics and skills, he wished Zhang San to be as smart as possible, but at this moment, he didn’t need to be that clever, or so direct... but it doesn’t matter, as long as he’s not embarrassed, others would be.

Seeing Coach’s skin thickening by the moment, Zhang San was helpless but could only help make money, saying: "It’s just an excuse for resting, I can come up with one off the top of my head..."

...

On April 16, 2008, the Bobcats’ penultimate game day arrived.

The fans’ eyes were focused on Charlotte, today there’s a popular game here - the East’s second Bobcats vs. the West’s first Lakers.

Lately in the season, among playoff-positioned teams, only 5 teams have managed to improve their win rates - the Chicago Bulls, the Lakers, the Bobcats, the Spurs, and the Hawks.

Among them, the most dazzling one is the Bobcats, from 44 wins and 18 losses, third in the East, they surged to 61 wins, losing only 1 game during that span.

The Chicago Bulls and the Lakers aren’t far off either, Bulls with 15 wins and 3 losses out of recent 18 games, the Lakers 14 wins and 4 losses out of recent 18, they’ve always been strong, their performance fluctuations aren’t big hence people got used to it.

Just being in the 60-plus win realm, the Bobcats’ high start, dip, and lastly explosive performance trend, garnered more discussion.

Mainly because no one, including the Bobcats themselves, expected to continue breaking the franchise’s best-season record, even joining the ’60-win club’, as Okafor said, before the season began, their goal was to win 50 games, be in the East’s top 4, and not embarrassingly fail to defend the season’s title.

This season’s Bobcats performance also made two individuals the hottest buzz-worthy figures.

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