Chapter 129: The Youngest Mr. Forty
In the first half of the game with the Spurs, Zhang Yu burst out with the most ferocious offensive firepower since entering the NBA, scoring 21 points and 2 assists in 16 minutes, completely swelling the American media who slandered him for only passing!
With a score of 63:52, the Spurs scored 52 points at halftime and it looked like a lot. But they have a law that as long as their opponents score more than 100 points, then it will be difficult for the Spurs to win the game. Looking at the score in New York, it's clear that the Knicks will score more than 100 points today.
Tomorrow will be a brutal away back-to-back, and D'Antoni finally brought on Jerome James, Jeffries and Dujon in the second half in order to keep the main players from getting tired.
The Knicks are basically in an eight-man rotation at the moment, starting with Nate Robinson, Zhang Yu, Wallace, Kenyon Martin, and David Lee. Subs Crawford, Anderson, Wilson Chandler. With the exception of these three, the other players are only allowed to play in regular time when the team is in foul distress or when the eight are in particularly poor form.
Originally, they also had Quentin Richardson available, who was D'Antoni's favorite player during his time with the Suns, but unfortunately Ah Q injured his ankle in the preseason and needed to be out for four to six weeks.
Parker, who is always underrated, played well today, scoring 15 points in the first half for his team. Although Duncan's number began to decline, the stone Buddha also slipped very steadily, contributing 12 points in the first half. It's a pity that apart from these two, the Spurs and their players have not played well. Ginobili's demon knife didn't hurt the opponent today, he injured himself first, and there were three mistakes in the first half alone, which made Popovich's face tense throughout the first half, and the roaring skill had already been saved up, but it couldn't happen.
Injuries are fiercer than tigers, especially for these veterans who have been in the alliance for many years, they are not afraid of powerful enemies, only those damn injuries. Sometimes fans will find that a player suddenly explodes and makes rapid progress, but within a few years the player suddenly disappears, and he can't even play the ball, which is the terrible injury and the last thing all athletes want to face!
"So, it's not necessary to dunk less, right?"
Zhang Yu suddenly said to Ginobili, such a headless and brainless word suddenly made the demon knife stunned, and then Zhang Yu easily changed direction and erased
Duncan moved on his feet and followed Zhang Yu's breakthrough on the inside, but this time Zhang Yu did not force a shot, sending the basketball behind him, and David Lee received the ball and easily scored two points with a layup.
Matt Bonner is out of position again, and this year the white center has become a big hole on the defensive end of the Spurs, and his defense is so poor that Duncan has a disgruntled expression.
Popovich didn't speak as well to Bonner as Bowen and Ginobili, and the roar instantly overwhelmed the spurs fans' boos for the goal, and Zhang Yu felt that the old man's foaming star was even eight feet away from him, and the saliva was slightly larger
In the third quarter, Zhang Yu played with Duncan and Parker alone, and today he felt hot, and one against two did not fall behind. Whether it's Parker or Duncan, even at the peak, it's not the kind of player who feels good and has an easy time of forty or fifty points in a single game. Originally, some of them could be separated from Zhang Yubiao, but the demon knife stuck the knife in their own people today, and they obviously couldn't bear this heavy responsibility.
The Spurs play team basketball, team basketball is most afraid of problems in one of the rings, the Spurs are probably the strongest team with the lowest chance of winning the championship in the eyes of major media this year, they have too many problems, and the biggest problem is that the role players are aging, Bowen, Finley, these champions in previous years, this year one by one has degraded very much, and even Duncan has begun to decline gradually.
In the third quarter, Zhang Yu raised his score to 29 points, and the Spurs relied on the play of Parker and Duncan to hold on, with a score of 88:77, although the Knicks led by double digits, but it was still not safe for a team like the Spurs.
In the 8th minute of the fourth quarter, D'Antoni had to send Zhang Yu on the court again, the score was 94:85, the Spurs chased the score to single digits, they really haven't given up, Popovich is still thinking about turning defeat into victory!
Another midshot!
As soon as Zhang Yu came on the court, he shot an arrow at the Spurs, and used his hot hand that had been hot for four quarters to tell Sรน Popovich that his name Zhang Dashao would be added to the Spurs' nemesis in the future
At the end of the game, everyone thought that it would be a test game for the Knicks, and the tone was completely changed, and the weakness of the Spurs this year made the Knicks test it first, and this year the Spurs want to continue their single-numbered championship career, I am afraid it is impossible.
The New York media were ecstatic, they didn't expect things to turn out this way, and the Knicks didn't give the Spurs a chance except for one opening game, and then led the Spurs.
The final score was 108:99, and the Spurs still did not score more than 100 points after all, Parker scored a team-high 31 points, and Duncan scored 22 points and 12 rebounds. Ginobili scored just six points in the game and returned to the locker room with an old injury in the final quarter, with no player in double figures except Duncan and Parker.
Zhang Yu killed the Spurs with his long-range shooting in this game, playing 35 minutes in the game, shooting 17 of 24, 5 of 10 three-pointers, and 6 of 6 free throws, scoring 45 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, setting the highest score of his career and becoming the highest scoring Chinese player in the NBA.
Yao Ming's previous highest score was 41 points, and Zhang Yu became the second Chinese player to score 40+ in a single game after Yao Ming.
After the Knicks vs. Spurs game, major media outlets put the game in the headlines of the sports section, because Zhang Yu didn't know that he had also broken a record that the American media thought could never be surpassed again.
On March 27, 2004, at the age of 19 years and 87 days, James scored 41 points against the Nets, breaking the record held by Cliff Robinson 18 years ago and becoming the youngest player in history to score more than 40 points in a single game.
The media hurriedly found Zhang Yu's date of birth, born on February 14, 1990, the Spurs game was on November 11, 2008, no need to count the months, just count the number of years, Zhang Yu is not yet 19 years old at this time, he must have broken James's record, and the difficulty coefficient of this record has increased several times, and it is really almost impossible to break this record in the future
-- The New York Times
"The emperor from China declares that the 23rd is a rebel and thief!"
The headline of the New York Times is simply a provocation to James fans all over the world! But in New York, Zhang Yu's nickname of "Emperor of China" was completely confirmed.
Due to the conflict between Zhang Yu and Kobe Bryant at the Olympic Games, the "Los Angeles Times" has now become the vanguard of the western black Zhang Yu, and they did not adopt the nickname given by New Yorkers to Zhang Yu, but gave Zhang Yu a nickname with deep meaning such as "Red Rabbit", such a naked, naked, naked nickname, the Los Angeles media obviously have bad intentions.
However, in addition to the New York media, other regional media have reprinted this nickname, thinking that it is very suitable for Zhang Yu's style of play and also in line with his nationality. This Chinese constantly made small moves on the field, and also talked trash talk, which could not be more appropriate to describe as a "red rabbit", and even many domestic fans felt that this nickname was good.
After this, many American fans suddenly became interested in rabbits, and various improved versions appeared, such as "belly black rabbit", "communist rabbit", "panda rabbit", etc., for a time all kinds of rabbit nicknames, varied, so that Zhang Yu sighed that the foreigner's brain hole is not small, but he doesn't like the nickname "rabbit", is this something that men can use?
After playing the game against the Spurs, the Knicks players went back to the locker room to shower and immediately rushed to the airport to take a plane to Memphis, where they will take on the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow.
The Grizzlies are a team that is being rebuilt, and last year they exchanged a big plus for a small plus, so that everyone couldn't understand why the Grizzlies were so alive Lei Feng? They are the biggest contributors to the Lakers' rise.
The Knicks players were affected by back-to-back games in this game, the whole team was not good, and Zhang Yu even sprained his ankle at the beginning of the fourth quarter and returned to the locker room for treatment, which scared the New York media into a cold sweat.
Fortunately, the team doctor only detected a mild sprain, and it was good to rest for two days, and Zhang Yu limped back to the sidelines to watch the game.
The Knicks and Grizzlies fought until the last minute, and it was not Crawford or David Lee who stood up at the critical moment, but Anderson, the birdman that everyone didn't expect.
The Birdmen sent two big hats in the last minute in quick succession, fanned away the layups of OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay, and became the biggest contributor to the Knicks' victory. Although the game was won, the Knicks also paid a huge price for it, and Kenyon Martin also strained his thigh muscle in the fourth quarter and was diagnosed with at least two weeks out of action after the game.
Zhang Yu only played for more than a minute in the last quarter, and his hand feeling in the first three quarters was average, with only 12 points and 5 assists in the whole game, and his shooting was only 3 of 10, which was mediocre.
Although the Knicks won the game, they paid a high price, and the horror of back-to-back was manifested.
In their next game, the Knicks will return home on Friday, Nov. 14 to take on the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder.
Last year's Rookie of the Year VS This year's Rookie of the Year, this match was originally very gimmicky and attracted the attention of a large number of fans. However, Zhang Yu sprained his ankle in the final quarter against the Grizzlies and was unsure of whether he would be able to play in this game, much to the regret of sports media and basketball fans around the world