Chapter 208: Honor
Kings vs. Pelicans, Zhang Feng vs. Cousins, this exciting game has been designed by the audience with many plots. These episodes are probably the Pelicans bloody king, Zhang Feng slashed 30+ in the air, or the Pelican King fought 2 overtimes, Zhang Feng led the team to the final victory, and Cousins and Davis continued to cut 40+ in the air.
However, the real development process and outcome of the game were beyond the expectations of the audience, even beyond the imagination of NBA reporters, program hosts, and basketball commentators, who really didn't expect that the plot was that Cousins was ejected from the game, and Zhang Feng took the king to slowly grind the Pelicans to death.
In this game, Zhang Feng finally scored a triple-double, although it was only 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, but it was still a terrible statistic, it is a pity that this triple-double was won by Zhang Feng in the 5th game, so the attention was far less than Ben Simmons, who also scored a triple-double a few days ago, because Simmons only took 4 games.
However, many neutral fans believe that Zhang's triple-double should be taken more seriously, because Ben Simmons has been trained in the NBA system for more than one consecutive and Zhang Feng has only been playing for a few months.
This statement was first sent to O'Neal by a screenshot of fans of the Chinese Tiger Fight Forum, and after O'Neal saw it, he tweeted many NBA commentators to call for the incident, while also repeatedly mentioning that Zhang Feng broke the NBA debut scoring record in the first game.
Although these 'shouts' did not quickly attract the attention of fans, reporters, and basketball commentators, they finally bought an impression in their hearts, and this impression is that Zhang Feng's basketball level and leadership are really good.
After the game against the Pelicans, the Kings had a day of rest before continuing to train for the upcoming Washington Wizards.
During this period, the team management decided to implement the team option on Malachi Richardson's contract, and the management had already decided not to exercise the team option because the Kings had too many people who could play shooting guards, Buddy Hield who went out to start, Bogdan, who had just recovered from injury, and veteran Galette Temple, but Zhang Feng's suggestion made the management determined.
Why did Zhang Feng advise the king to keep Malachi? Because the night before the preseason opened, he saw Malachi staying in the stadium to practice, of course, this is nothing, but during this period of time, Zhang Feng noticed that Malachi was never lazy in training, conscientious, and even improved. As the saying goes, to evaluate a person, don't listen to what he says, but to see what he does, and Malachi is so persistent that it is enough to show his attitude, so Zhang Feng made this decision.
On the 29th, the Kings continued to play at home against the Wizards, and Zhang Feng was very happy that he could finally face the long-established point guard in the NBA, so that he could know how good he was.
However, to Zhang Feng's regret, the Wizards coaching staff only let Wall play for 2 points before replacing Wall, and then never replaced Wall again. In these two minutes, Zhang Feng didn't even have time to complete a matchup with Wall.
The Wizards did this in response to the league's new rotation rule, which now can't rotate players for no reason, and the coaching staff has no choice but to make this decision in order to prevent Wall from getting injured.
In the first quarter of the game against the Wizards, without the Walwizards, the ball was all dominated by Beal, and Buddy couldn't prevent the athletic Beal at all, and the Kings were cut by Beal by 10 points in a row, and finally ended the first quarter 22:28 behind.
In the second quarter of the game, Zhang Feng switched to Beal, and Beal's shooting rate dropped rapidly, but the Wizards' Gortat stepped up, and he blew up Willy on the inside, causing the Kings to have failed to catch up with the score, and the Kings still trailed the Wizards 48:54 at halftime.
At the beginning of the second half, Bogdan, who had returned from injury, replaced Buddy Hield on the court, although he received a lot of passes from Zhang Feng, but because the shooting rate was not high for a long time, the Kings who fell into a scoring drought were taken advantage of by the Wizards to widen the difference. Fortunately, Zhang Feng's trust finally allowed Bogdan's shooting rate to rebound, and in the last two minutes of the third quarter, the two teamed up to score four three-pointers, chasing the score to a 72-72 tie in one wave.
After the Wizards took a timeout, they made adjustments to focus on the Kings' forward line, but Justin's strong defense prevented Oubre from getting on the edge, causing the latter to deliberately trip Justin and almost cause a brawl between the two teams.
In the final quarter, the Wizards' various routines were recognized by Zhang Feng, causing Wizards head coach Brooks to want to put Wall back on the court, but during the time when Brooks hesitated, Zhang Feng, Bogdan, and Justin played many exquisite ball-off-ball cover shots, which directly opened up the point difference and made the Wizards powerless.
In the end, the Kings had 6 doubles, and Zhang Feng won the game with a double-double of 24+16.
After the game, Zhang Feng thought that Wall would be unhappy, but he didn't expect Wall to take the initiative to hug him, and told reporters that he could become a special player, although it was not explicitly stated that he would become a superstar, but the recognition of the league's top point guards still made Zhang Feng rise a lot of status in the hearts of fans in China and the United States.
After the game against the Wizards, the Kings ended all the October schedule, and the next thing that awaits them is the Eastern Conference three-game road, except for the Pacers, the other two opponents are ruthless characters, and Zhang Feng will also check on Hayward's injury in Boston, which is something he promised Green Army coach Stevens for a long time.
The three-game road streak was painful, but another thing that made the Kings happy was that the Kings went 5-1 throughout the October schedule and finished first in the West in the regular season.
Although the Memphis Grizzlies also have five wins, they have one more loss than the Kings, resulting in a 10% lower win rate than the Kings, so the Grizzlies can only settle for second place.
This No. 1 in the West is both strength and luck, the strength lies in their three-game winning streak, and at the same time winning at home against the Pelicans and Wizards, and the luck is that they only played a strong team like the Rockets.
No. 1 in the West made Zhang Feng's name quickly enter the field of vision of people from all walks of life in the NBA. In the NBA's second and first Weekly Nominations of the season, Zhang Feng was widely mentioned.
In the best of the week, Zhang Feng crushed Lillard, Harden, and Curry in the same position with an absolute data advantage of 26 points, 10 assists and 5 rebounds.
In the Western Conference Best of the Month competition, Zhang Feng led the Kings to the first place in the West and directly PK Curry and Harden, two strong opponents, and the only one who could fight with Zhang Feng was the Clippers Griffin, who also had a good record.
While fans were debating who deserved to be elected, Celtics coach Stevens praised Zhang's leadership in an interview, and praised Zhang Feng as one of the best point guards besides Kyrie Irving.
The impact of this interview, combined with the Clippers' two-game losing streak, led to Zhang's victory in the first Western Conference Monthly Selection.
When the league officially announced that Zhang Feng was the second weekly and first monthly player of the season in the West, all Kings fans and China were boiling over and they wrote hilarious comments on basketball forums:
"On October 27, 2017, Zhang Feng ascended the throne as the new king, and for another four days, he was honored and lived up to the name of the king"