Hayes now believes in such a thing as luck.

After his rebirth, the fate of many people has been changed, although the Rockets have played badly this season, but Maddie has no signs of injury, and there is still the possibility of hitting the scoring title. Brand and Arenas are much more unlucky, they seem to have a lot of fate with injuries, although there may be some discrepancies in time, but they are still seriously injured and reimbursed.

The most frustrating thing for Hayes was Bagnani, who had not missed many games in his previous life except for appendicitis surgery, and his attendance was quite high. As a result, he was seriously injured not long after moving to the Bobcats, which is more like a disaster for no reason.

Players who are used to attacking from the outside are not prone to injury because they rarely fight physically. However, Bagnani and Calderón, two people who rely on fixed-point shooting for most of their offense, are injured.

After playing the Magic, the Bobcats followed up with another back-to-back game against the Atlanta Hawks, a powerhouse in the same district. The Bobcats, who had just experienced a fierce battle, couldn't lift their spirits, and even Hayes played out of style this time, playing 32 minutes, shooting 4-of-16, scoring 12 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Bobcats suffered a 91-115 defeat on the road by 24 points, suffering a two-game losing streak.

Biedrins and Felton are in the starting lineup. The Bobcats couldn't get out of the run, and Felton played two seasons of positional offense, and was used to a slow pace, always hesitating when handling the ball. And his outside shooting isn't as consistent as Calderon's, shooting just 27 percent from the field. Biedrins couldn't shoot from the outside, and was suppressed by Yao Ming on the inside, posing no threat.

The Bobcats returned home and got three days off. After Bagnani was reimbursed for the season, the media has changed its tone when it comes to evaluating the Bobcats, and people are no longer optimistic about the Bobcats. The media in the United States is so strange that a week ago they touted the Bobcats as almost invincible, and they are the favorites to win the championship this season, breaking the record of 72 wins or something. The Bobcats have lost four of their last five games, and the media has said that the Bobcats have lost their playoff qualifications.

On December 18, two coaches, D'Antoni and Jeff Van Gundy, who had completely opposite styles, quarreled during Bobcat training. The reason for the quarrel was a tactical disagreement.

Van Gundy believes that if the Bobcats want to remain competitive, the best way to do so is to play positional offense and strengthen their defense. But D'Antoni still wants to keep running.

"Andris (Bidrins) scoring ability is a bit weak, but we can arrange for Karl (Landry) to play more, he has a good impact and can shoot from the middle, Raymond (Felton) can adapt to running and shooting, he can not shoot from the outside, he can strengthen the breakthrough, and he can maintain the attacking power." D'Antoni said that the Bobcats' previous offense was too beautiful, with more firepower than the Suns, and he was a little reluctant to accept it if they were to change to a defensive team.

"Karl's offense is better, but what about the defense? Our offense can't be as strong as it used to be, and Carl's height suffers on the inside, so if he partners with Chuck, as long as the opponent has a tall pitcher, it will be enough for us. Raymond is not tall enough and not much better defensively than Jose (Calderón), and if we don't strengthen our defense, we will be in big trouble next. Van Gundy said loudly, a little excited. Mike, we don't have a pure shooter in the team at all, only Chuck and Corunna (Azubuk) are the starters with three-point accuracy, you also know that running and shooting needs outside shots, if Chuck pulls out, what about the inside? Andris lacked containment in attack. One-on-one singles are also not very efficient. We don't have a pure pitcher on this team, and we're the only one on the bench right now. With running and shooting, relying on quick shots, we can't beat the Spurs and Mavericks. They all know how to crack the run-and-run, can you deny that? If the Bobcats want to go far in the playoffs, they have to change. ”

Bobcats bench Weaver also shot just 37 percent from three-point range, while Barnes was at 32 percent, and no one else was good at shooting threes. At this time, Van Gundy was a little depressed Okafor was replaced, although the offensive ability is weak, but Okafor can play a big role if he plays defensive basketball with positional offense.

D'Antoni sighed and said: "I know we have to defend, but can we defend with our current squad? Before, we used 122 joint defense to defend, and we couldn't see the effect at all, this is not the Rockets. My concern is to put the defense first and end up attacking badly. You say if it's defense-oriented, how can we attack? ”

"If you have the opportunity to play fast, of course you have to play fast, but you have to protect the backcourt rebounds. Andris is a must-starter, and his defense and rebounding are much better than Karl's. Carl [Landry] is just a rookie and you can't ask him to do more. His mid-range shot was inconsistent and he had enough hits in the first few games. The power forward can be replaced by Matt (Barnes), who has good individual defense ability and is also very active in grabbing rebounds. The offensive system can play the tactics of the interior strategy, and let Chuck be the axis of the interior line. Van Gundy said solemnly.

D'Antoni feels like the sun, always smiling and beaming. Van Gundy is the opposite, when the team wins, he is fine, and when he loses, he looks like someone owes him a lot of money.

Van Gundy's debt-like tone did not arouse D'Antoni's disgust, and he still said very kindly: "Jeff, I don't want to quarrel with you, you calm down first." Let's do it, five games, these five games except for the Jazz and the Hornets, there is no team too strong, let's continue to run and bomb tactics to see if the players can play well, if these five games lose more than two, we will change the tactics and listen to you build a team based on defense. What do you think? ”

D'Antoni has always been very polite to Van Gundy, firstly because Van Gundy and Hayes have a particularly good relationship, and secondly, if Van Gundy himself is willing to take a back seat, the current team manager would not have his turn to do it. The title of senior adviser to Van Gundy from the Bobcats hierarchy also gave him the right to restrain D'Antoni, and the two had to negotiate tactically.

"Okay. If we don't play well in those five games, we're going to have to change our tactics as soon as possible, just like we should be training for the playoffs. Andrea (Bagnani) situation should also remind us, we can't just rely on one set of tactics to play the whole season, at the beginning the opponent is not familiar with our tactics, the defense will be very difficult, familiar with the possibility of coming up with a way to crack, in fact, the solution is very simple, then foul hard, disrupt the offensive rhythm of the pitchers, once the outside line can't shoot, the game will be difficult to play. Everyone is more amiable in the regular season, and it won't be so easy in the playoffs. Van Gundy agreed to D'Antoni's suggestion. Before the Bobcats hit the run-and-bomb, he had no opinion, because the opponent who could fight with the staffing had no advantage of fighting back, and the defense could be practiced slowly, but now it is different. He had a hunch that the Bobcats' five games would not be easy to play, and that he would have to rely on Hayes and Wallace to support the team.

On December 20, the Bobcats hosted the Utah Jazz. The Bobcats didn't lead once in the game, losing by 102 points at 102-121.

Felton was on par with Deron Williams in college, but in this game, he was completely blown out by Delon Williams, and under his defense, Deron Williams played 38 minutes, scoring 32 points, 5 rebounds, 16 assists and 2 steals. Bobcats' backup point guard, Raymond Sessions, also got playing time, and his defense was worse and his offense was a bit restrained, with just two assists, three turnovers and four fouls in just 10 minutes on the court.

Hayes and Boozer's alignment also didn't take advantage, Sloan trained Boozer in the same way as he trained Malone, and his and Delon's blocking and pick-and-roll coordination was also very powerful. Especially in the offense under the basket, Boozer uses both strength and technique, and this season seems to have Malone's eight successes. It's just that I haven't learned Ma Long's iron elbow skills, so it's just a little softer. In this game, he had 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Another hero for the Jazz is center Okoo. The Bobcats also experienced the pain of being pulled out of the interior by their opponents. Oku's offense, like Bagnani's, is more on the outside, and not particularly much on the inside. His mid-to-long-range shooting is very accurate, shooting 38.4% from three-point range last season, averaging 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2 assists per game. Oku's scoring stats have declined this season, averaging 15 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists per game is still eye-catching, and his three-point shooting percentage has also risen to 40.2%. He also scored 20 points in this game, shooting 4-of-6 from three-point range.

Without Bagnani, the Jazz took a crazy bag against Hayes in this game and let Felton go. As soon as Hayes gets the ball, Boozer and Ronnie Brewer will be on together, leaving Hayes almost impossible to find inside.

Hayes passes the ball out, and Felton hits a lot of iron from the outside.

Speaking of Ronnie Brewer, Hayes kind of regretted forgetting about this guy and should have dug up the bobcat in the summer. Brewer, who averaged just 4.6 points per game for the Jazz last season, has played 27 minutes this season and scored as many as 12 points while shooting 55 percent from the field. And Brewer is tough defensively, responsible for defending the opposing team's best perimeter players, and has all the weapons of a defensive finisher, including power, distance, excellent sense of smell, and excellent hand and foot movement. Although he plays as a shooting guard, he dares to stand up to Hayes.

Under the wrap of the two muscles, Hayes scored extremely hard. Even tougher are the assists. Bagnani and Calderon are both good teammates who shoot when they catch the ball, and they have a lot of assists for Hayes, while Felton often shoots iron when he receives the ball, and then he loses confidence and breaks through after receiving the ball...... This left Hayes a bit devastated.

Hayes finished with just 14 points, 14 rebounds and two assists. Assists hit a season-low low. The Jazz stifled Hayes' play, the Bobcats couldn't play team basketball, and the players took turns playing singles. Wallace had 26 points and eight rebounds, and Weaver also scored 16 points, but that couldn't change the end of the Bobcats' fiasco.

Biedrins' attention is on rebounding, the offense is not good, Gortat is not as good as Bidrins, after all, he is only in his first season, and he has not yet adapted to the rhythm of the NBA. The furthest offensive distance between the two is to shoot from the three-second zone on either side.

The Bobcats' outside offense is not working.

After the game, Hayes tactfully expressed his displeasure with Felton.

"Raymond! Eldest brother! You can't do that! Let's practice shooting! If you practice shooting well, with your physical fitness, you are absolutely as fierce as a tiger, and no one can stop you, and the fans will give you the nickname Thunder Tiger in the future. ”

Felton: "......"

(To be continued)