CHAPTER 1318: CHAPTER 531: THE IMBALANCED SENSE OF RETURNING TO NORMALCY (PART 4)

During the game, the performance of Collison made Zhang Yang feel irritated, but after the game ended, looking at the dejected Collison, Zhang Yang suddenly remembered that this high school rival, fully developed physically and technically mature, was still a rookie!

Playing nearly 30 games in two months, in the NCAA, sometimes that’s the whole season’s worth of games for a team!

Moreover, in the two games before the three-day rest period, facing Mayo and Hinrich, Collison had more than 30 minutes of playing time; his playing time suddenly doubled, making him exhausted and even got beaten badly by these two... Now this, is most likely hitting a wall?

This is a process most rookies have to go through. Zhang Yang also went through this in his rookie year, and he didn’t have much experience to offer Collison. The situation with the Bobcats back then was completely different from now; no matter how poorly he played, how many shots he missed, even if he shot less than 40% for several consecutive games, old Bickerstaff would give him over 20 minutes each game to throw around a dozen shots.

However, the coaching staff seems very patient with Collison...

After a day’s rest, on December 31st, the Bobcats welcomed the last game of 2009 at home, their opponent being the Miami Heat, who also have a superstar wearing number 3.

Zhang Yang continued his excellent performance from the previous game, shooting 11 out of 20, including 4 out of 7 from three-point range, along with 9 out of 9 free throws, scoring 35 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Wade also performed well, shooting 11 out of 22, along with 11 out of 14 free throws, scoring 33 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists.

But aside from Wade, only Beasley scored 14 points and Big Q scored 10 points for the Heat, no fourth player scored double digits.

The only ’pillar’ inside, O’Neal, was defended to the point of scoring only 6 points and 5 rebounds on 3 out of 10 shooting.

With a score of 107 to 91, the Bobcats easily beat the Heat, securing their 23rd victory of the season.

Wade hasn’t been playing as hard this season compared to last season. It might be arranged by the Heat’s coaching staff or could be a personal choice, averaging 26 points, 4.2 rebounds, 7 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.1 blocks. Except for assists, the other four statistics are the lowest since his sophomore season, but his shooting percentage has surged to a career-high of 50.8%.

Shot attempts are also the lowest in several years, averaging 18.2 times.

Only when facing opponents he cares about, like tonight against Zhang Yang, does he go all out, but ultimately, he lost in long-range shooting.

On Zhang Yang’s side, during the match, his focus was entirely on competing with Wade. After the match, while checking detailed statistics, it was as he expected, Collison returned to the bench tonight and still got 22 minutes of playing time. Felton, who just recovered from an injury, had his playing time kept under 30 minutes.

As for performance, still not great, shooting 2 out of 6, scoring 6 points and 3 assists, but there’s a good part — he still dares to shoot, and his passing stability is quite good. The basic skills honed during his four years of college were worth it.

The night before, after cooling down, Zhang Yang felt he might have been too demanding of Collison, considering he was a ’full-fledged’ player entering the NBA after graduating in his senior year.

If it were players like Harden and DeRozan who entered the NBA after playing one year in college last season as main rotation players on championship-contending teams, one can imagine how poor their performance could be. Even performing as well as Collison in his bad states would be considered lucky.

At least Collison only struggles with his shooting performance. His proficient playmaking skills still well accomplish the coach’s assignments of distributing the ball.

However, it might also be due to another rookie being too outstanding — Cunningham!

This guy truly makes minimal mistakes; as the third choice for positions 3 and 4, he consistently performs steadily...

After resting for a night following the match with the Heat, the next day, 2010 arrived as scheduled.

In the first nine days of January, the Bobcats played four alternating home and away games. All opponents were weak teams, and the Bobcats won them all. After beating the Wizards at home on January 9th, their record reached 27 wins and 8 losses, thanks to this easy schedule, they surpassed the Bulls again, climbing to second in the East.

At home that evening, Zhang Yang opened the Gate of Trials. During extra practice this morning, his shooting value already accumulated to 100,000. After wavering between talent points and upgrading trial harvest level for a day, he made up his mind and opened the trial!