This year's preseason Jackson is mainly used to cultivate the chemistry of the players, and he is more concerned about whether everyone can play the established fighters than whether they can win the game. That meant the Bobcats had a 3-3 record in the preseason, but Jackson didn't care, and in the final two games, the team had already met his requirements.

After the preseason, Jackson gave everyone two days off in the opener game when they were going to host last season's old enemy Magic, when they almost kicked the Magic out of the top eight in the East, and it would be right to say that it was the old enemy. Previously, against the Magic, Jackson had to worry about his interior players for a long time, but now he is full of confidence.

This summer, the Magic took in Lewis, who had trained with Chang Wei and won championships with the team in Philadelphia, and made him the starting power forward, further opening up one-on-one space for Howard. But Chang Wei knows very well that Lewis's strength in recent years can be said to be standing still, although his movement speed is better than Milicic, who is about to match, but he is at a disadvantage in terms of height and confrontation, as long as Milicic rushes to the front to interfere before he shoots.

In addition to bringing in Lewis, the Magic also brought in Big Van Gundy to take the helm, apparently hoping to make a difference. Before the start of the game, Big Van Gundy said ambitiously: "This year's Magic are the strongest in recent seasons and we want to go further than last season, the opening game is the beginning of everything, we will beat the opponent and prove our quality." ”

But at the beginning of the game, Van Gundy suffered a blow to the head, and his number one big man Howard was completely undominant in the face of Gasol Jr., and he couldn't get into it with his back singles, and he didn't have the skills to score by shooting or footwork. Although Gasol Jr. struggled to block Howard on the defensive end, it caused a huge distraction for his shooting.

Howard's inability to take advantage of the interior has had a direct impact on the team's playbook, and they can only rely on Nelson and Turkoglou to create chances. But the Bobcats have twin towers on the inside, Ariza, Roy and Jack on the outside are also pretty good on defense, and the Magic's outside players have a breakthrough technique that they can't use at all, let alone guide the offensive firepower.

The Magic scored just two points from the free throw line in the first four minutes of the first quarter and were put off to a perfect 15-2 run by the Bobcats. The most high-profile player on the court is not Roy, nor Milicic, but Gasol Jr., who just entered the NBA this year. Although he only scored 2 points himself, he had already grabbed 3 rebounds and handed out 4 assists, completely freeing up the firepower of Jack and Roy. Gasol Jr.'s passing was a little rusty for the time being, but he made up for it with his expansive view of the pitch.

Howard is more of a rookie who has just entered the league, he hit all 5 shots, grabbed only 2 rebounds, and also made 2 turnovers, and it is clear that he has been beaten out and does not know how to help the team in other ways. In the rest of the quarter, the Magic were also pressed by the Bobcats, and the score was 36-15 at the end of the first quarter.

Big Van Gundy's face was pale, but he could only hurry up and lay out the tactics for the players in the second quarter. Under his direction, Howard became a completely blue-collar player, using only secondary offense to score, and the team's main offense was in the hands of Turkoglu and Lewis. They did get a small surge at the beginning, at one point closing the deficit to 10 points, but Lewis was quickly tangled up by Milicic, who was not slow to move and was always able to interfere six or seven times out of 10.

The Bobcats continued to suppress the Magic for most of the second quarter, and the instructions that Big Van Gundy gave to the Magic players didn't allow them to take back the initiative on the court. Although Milicic took on some of the task of organising the offense last season, Roy remained the Bobcats' main ball-handler and he never played as easily as this one. Whenever the Bobcats attacked, Milicic would always fall to the low post to ask for the ball, while Gasol Jr. would come to the high post to play the axis, ready to pass the ball to his teammates.

With Gasol Jr. in place, Roy doesn't need to take on most of the tasks on the offensive end as before. Although he only handed out 2 assists in the second quarter, he scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and he had already cut 20+ at halftime, which was also very rare last season. Of course, under his leadership, the Bobcats had scored 70 points at halftime and extended their lead to more than 25 points, and it was completely impossible to see that they were only one spot behind last season's regular season record.

Van Gundy couldn't stop the Magic's rout in a row, and their morale was even lower in the second half, and if it weren't for the Bobcats players deliberately controlling the pace of the game, the difference between the two sides would have exceeded 30 points. Howard was helpless in the face of the Bobcats' interior twin towers throughout the game, and he couldn't play the league's top interior stats at all, and only scored 12 points at the end of the third quarter.

Seeing that the last quarter had turned into garbage time, Big Van Gundy simply replaced all the main forces and sulked in his position. In the end, the Bobcats defeated their opponents 112-85 in the opening game to start the season with a 27-point victory. At the post-game press conference, Big Van Gundy left the court early after a few perfunctory remarks, and Jackson was interviewed with a smile.

"We've improved our squad this year, just look at the performance of the players. I can't say right now if we can go further than last season, but I'm sure they can do better. ”

The big win over the Magic was just the beginning, and then the Bobcats defeated the Nuggets, Suns, Hawks and Jazz successively, winning five straight games and ranking first in the East, such a record undoubtedly blinded many people's eyes. Of course, no one believes that they will be able to maintain this level until the end of the season, but it would be nice for the Bobcats to be the first in the East for the time being.

These opponents are not weak, and there are players in the team who can be the core of the team, but they are still defeated by the Bobcats, and many experts and fans are also impressed by the Bobcats' record. But for Chang Wei, Jackson and Bobcats' management, what is better than the start of the winning streak is the form of the players themselves and the chemistry between them. Jackson is confident about this season, and he is determined to take the Bobcats to greater heights so that the team's status can be quickly improved, which was completely unimaginable when the team was built.