After losing to the Magic and Hornets in quick succession, D'Antoni's heart that was stimulated by the flashy fast break finally calmed down.

A team, especially a team aiming for a championship, can't do without defense, and the Suns have a super-impactful interior like Stoudamire and a super-handler who can pass the ball without looking at people, and they can't bring the Suns to the Finals, let alone a new army like the Bobcats. With the injuries of three pitchers, D'Antoni humbly listened to Jeff Van Gundy and decided to strengthen the defense, moving the offensive focus to the interior, with Hayes leading the attack, and the closer to the basket, the higher the shooting percentage, which is an eternal theorem.

The Bobcats have a very favorable schedule in January, with none of their opponents in the first six games, and it will not be easy for several teams other than the Celtics to make the playoffs.

The Bobcats' first game of 2008 was a game of passion that had not been seen for a long time. 115-97 victory over Indiana Pacers. Hayes finished with 36 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals on 11-of-21 shooting, 2-of-4 three-pointers and 12-of-17 free throws.

On the 3rd, the home team defeated the declining Chicago Bulls 104-91. The Bulls' offense is now too reliant on the outside, and the touch of Hinrich, Ben Gordon, and Lore Deng directly determines the outcome of the Bulls' game. This one they had a terrible hand.

On the 5th, the Bobcats flew to New Jersey and defeated the Nets 100-82 away. It was the best game for the Bobcats defensively, but there was nothing to be happy about, and the Nets had completely fallen for the season. After Carter left, the Nets only had Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson to support the team, and the others were garbage players. Jason Collins, who can't attack, is the center, and rookie Sean Williams starts the power forward, and Denakeba, who was cut by the Rockets that year, has become an important scoring point for the Nets.

On the 7th, the Bobcats lost to the Bucks 88-95 at home. Reid and Mo Williams are two pro-battle masters.

The Bobcats did a much better job of limiting their opponents' scoring, and Hayes improved his scoring and rebounding, but his assists became fewer and fewer, and he never had another triple-double.

On the 10th, the Bobcats lost away to Celtic, who have had a good momentum recently. People mercilessly found a bunch of shortcomings in the Bobcats, one is that the players are too young, including the coach; the second is that the lynx made mistakes as soon as they fell behind, and the playing style was not clear; The third is that the Bobcat players are not good at defending, they will only switch defenses, and they are always beaten by the opposing players who are misplaced and attacking; Fourth, players who can't prevent running without the ball can't prevent them from cutting; In addition, after the Bobcats' fast break was limited, the offense would only break through except for singles, relying too much on Hayes. Finally, Hayes lacks leadership qualities.

Fans have once again questioned Hayes' ability, and although he is far ahead of Bosh at the power forward position in the Eastern Conference All-Star voting this season, he is still not perfect as an interior player. After increasing the number of individual strong shots, Hayes's height disadvantage showed up again, and even if he shot backwards on the inside, he was often blocked.

Hayes himself didn't care much about these evaluations.

Recently, Hayes has not trained with his teammates. Instead, with the permission of the coach and the uniform team, they found another venue and practiced shooting with the assistance of assistant coach Moksky. Instead of a normal shooting move, he practiced "throwing" in five zones around the three-second zone.

"Throwing" is when the defender is tighter with the defense, taking the master to throw a relatively high arc upwards in the march, and then attacking the basket. The Spurs' Tony Parker is the best at this move, and former Rockets point guard Alston also uses it regularly. This is a type of shooting used by small players against big players. The main thing is to use your own movement to make the opponent move and not be able to jump up the block, and because of the high arc, it is not easy to block. However, it is difficult to ensure the shooting rate of throwing, and it requires a high sense of hand, which is more difficult than shooting on the spot.

On the other side, Gerard Wallace was substituted in practice, sat next to D'Antoni and asked, "Chuck hasn't been in a lot of mood lately, why doesn't he train with us and practice shooting alone?" ”

"He's not going to practice ordinary shooting, and I heard Jordan say that he was practicing a trick when he was in Los Angeles, but he wasn't mature enough, so he never used it in the game. Now we can't play on the outside, Chuck wants to practice this trick and use it in the game, otherwise if we continue to play like this, it will be very disadvantageous for us to hit the playoffs. ”

"He still has no tricks? What is it? Wallace's eyes widened. Hayes' offensive approach to the game is endless. Even LeBron James doesn't have as much offense as Hayes. But he still has a trick up his sleeve.

"Next game against the Knight, he's ready to use it, wait and see. Jordan said that if Hayes can guarantee a shooting percentage, even if the opponent is trapped, don't try to guard him easily. ”

Hayes's trick, is it a throw? But this kind of trick is often used by defenders after breaking into the interior line, and it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

As Hayes began his boring practice, throwing the ball into the basket with one hand again and again in five positions, he felt better and better.

Hold the ball with both hands relaxed, front the basket with both feet, use your habit to send the ball out, point your hand straight in the direction of the basket and shoot quickly, and remember this feeling when you shoot with your fingers last off the ball. Gently push it out...... Hayes pondered the key. When he singled Odom in Los Angeles, he often used one-handed shots and small hooks to make Odom lose his temper. In fact, throwing is a combination of one-handed shooting and hooking, and it is an emergency shooting method when the position is not enough to shoot and it is inconvenient to hook the hand, so the basic skills are solid, and the throwing is not difficult. It's a pure touch of attack.

When Jordan watched Hayes practice in Los Angeles, he brought up one of Hayes' shortcomings. Although he knows a lot of things, as long as he is thoroughly studied by the opponent, he can defend.

Jordan told Hayes about his experience in backward jumpers, but Hayes's jump shot height was not high enough, and it was easier to be blocked when the movement was stretched and in the air, and Jordan's stunt was not practical for Hayes. Olajuwon's "big dream" footsteps, Hayes will also make it, but his inside footsteps will not be able to practice Olajuwon's power. His height is too short, and his arm span is only normal. As for the other main offensive means, Barkley's arched ass can only deal with skinny interior players, and cannot break the bag. After a season and teams have studied Hayes, no one is stupid enough to find a skinny player to fight Hayes on the three-second line.

Hayes doesn't have a "one-trick immortal" trick.

Among the active players, Garnett has a step-back shot, Duncan has a board-rubbing jumper, Iverson has a stop-and-go quick shot, LeBron James has a bulldozer-style breakaway, Maddie has a pull-up shot, and the guards have to break through skills, all of these tricks Hayes can do, but they can't use them to their full power. In the end, Hayes decided to create a trick that worked for him!

"Moksky, pass me the ball. 200 balls, I'll try to hit today. Hayes stood on the three-second line and laughed.

Moksky nodded.

On January 12, the Bobcats played the Cleveland Cavaliers again.

The Bobcats changed their style of play, and the offense was mainly focused on Hayes. So experts generally believe that the confrontation between Hayes and James will be more exciting than the previous one, and ESPN broadcast the game live. Magic Johnson and Joan Barry provide commentary for the game.

Speaking ahead of the game, Joanbarry said: "The Bobcats' absence of Calderon and Bagnani has lowered their outside offense a notch, and Hayes has recently dropped his assists per game to 8.2. What are your thoughts on this? ”

"Hayes has only been training in Los Angeles for two months and I'm feeling good to be where he is now. The number of assists mainly depends on the offensive system, and the Bobcats are now led by Hayes, so the assists will naturally be reduced. Just like Kobe, his main task is to score, assists are secondary, and if he puts the passing first, it will be easy to get an assist in a game. ”

Joan Barry smiled: "In the last game, everyone thought that Hayes would compete with James, but Hayes still chose to avoid the same as when he was in the Rockets, and he also defended Guden on the inside, after that game, people's evaluation of Hayes decreased a lot, I think Hayes is still not passionate enough, and prefers to give the ball to his teammates to solve problems." ”

"I don't think it's a big deal, James has a physical advantage, and Hayes ate James' big hat twice in the first few rounds of play, which has a certain psychological impact on his later offense. In that game, the Bobcats had the advantage on the outside, and it was a fool's choice for Hayes to choose to play hard if he didn't pass to the outside to attack. However, it is impossible for Hayes to choose to hand over the outside line in this game, the Bobcats have not been in good form recently, and the team needs him to step up and attack. ”

On the court, James said to Hayes: "Don't want to win again today for the Bobcats. ”

With the Bobcats missing three players and the offense being greatly reduced, James has absolute confidence to overwhelm Hayes and win against the Bobcats.

"Not necessarily." Hayes smiled.

There have been changes to the starting line-ups for both sides. Bobcats starters: Felton, Azubuuk, Gerard Wallace, Hayes, Biedrins.

Cavaliers starters: Larry Hughes, Shannon Brown, James, Gooden, Ilgoskas.

Biedrins won easily with a jump ball and flicked the ball to Felton.

LeBron, don't think that without outside shooting, the Bobcats can't win against the Cavaliers. Today I'm going to see if you can stop me. I'm going to beat you, both as a team and as an individual. Hayes ran low to the right and reached for the ball. Felton lobs the ball high to Hayes.

The Cavaliers still sent James alone. Every time the two pair match, James can make Hayes's stats drop, and the Cavaliers have no reason to make substitutions.

Hayes dribbles with his back and James clings to the defense. Come on. No matter what means you use, I will take you down, your technique has been thoroughly studied by me!

Hayes moved, stepped with his left foot, pivoted with his right foot, turned into the middle and entered the three-second zone, took the ball and jumped backwards...... He's going to shoot a step-back jumper? That was James' first judgment, and he immediately took a step forward and jumped the block. But before his hand could be raised, Hayes didn't jump to the top point before he took the shot, throwing the ball forward with one hand. The ball arced very high, bounced up and down the basket, and landed in the basket. 2 to 0.

James was stunned. What is it? Throws backwards?!

(To be continued)