Chapter 37: The Chinese Derby (Part I)

On the evening of November 8, 2007, the energy center arena booed the court, and LeBron James completely buried the efforts of the Utah Jazz who had been fighting for 48 minutes with a jump layup with a suspected walk. At 102:100, James' layup struck to dispel the Jazz's hopes of playing overtime.

In the fourth quarter, Zhang Kong watched it from the bench. Because by the end of the third quarter, he had already committed six fouls. This is also thanks to the fact that the whistle in the Energy Center arena is always soft. But it was precisely because of Zhang Kong's excellent performance in the first three quarters that he won the final victory, and before Zhang Kong left the game, the score on the court was 90:75, leading by 15 points. Zhang Kong scored 18 points, 22 rebounds, and 9 blocks in the third quarter, and the big double-double was infinitely close to a triple-double, and if it weren't for too many fouls, he would definitely be able to score a triple-double.

Those big hands turned the Cavaliers' restricted area into a no-fly zone.

And James also scored a nearly triple-double, with 33 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists. The reason why the last quarter was so difficult was because of the loss of the penalty area defended by Zhang Kong, and the little fat man Delong played really against the sky, otherwise he would never have played to the extent that James needed to kill the opponent.

Even though there was still controversy after the game, the victory was definitely in the hands of the Cavaliers. After playing the game on the high ground of the Energy Center Arena, the Cavaliers fled the siege of the ** fanatics and flew to Sacramento.

There, they will travel to challenge the Sacramento Queens...... Well, the arena sighed all night.

The current Sacramento Kings can be described as soft as a noodle-like guy, Webber's departure made the King's proud Princeton system begin to crumble, Bunch Wells' defection for a big contract made this team completely fall out of the playoff team category, and Ron Artest's suspension is like breaking the last backbone of this team and making them completely molluscs. After Ron Artest's suspension, the Kings began a rebuild, and they tried to use scorer Kevin Martin as the centerpiece of the rebuild.

But it turns out that Kevin Martin may be a first-class shooting guard, but he is not born to be a leader, and it is undoubtedly wishful thinking to rely on him to win in critical moments, and more importantly, Kevin Martin himself is very soft, and now his softness is affecting the entire Kings team.

In the end, the delicate 'queen' failed to stop the vulgar knight lord with her nobility, and a pass of rice made her pant and collapsed.

The final score was 110-83, and as is customary, the Cleveland Cavaliers won a big win at the home of the Kings with a 27-point lead.

Zhang Kong played 35 minutes in this game, and in the head of the Kings team, who did not have excellent rebounders, Zhang Kong grabbed 30 rebounds again, almost breaking his own personal record and the highest rebounding record of an active player. Among them, 18 offensive rebounds almost broke the record for the most offensive rebounds in a single game held by Malone.

If it weren't for Kevin Martin hitting a three-pointer on Zhang Kong in the third minute of the fourth quarter and successfully sending him off the court, today would definitely be the best moment for Zhang Kong to break the record.

It's a pity that it fell short.

With Elton Brand, the core of the team, injured and unable to play, the Cavaliers abused the Clippers like a chicken, and once again took a massive lead of 110:73, 37 points to tear down all the nails of the rotten ship.

Zhang Kong did not feel any pressure in this game, and this game became the only game in which Zhang Kong did not get fouled with six fouls after the start of the regular season, and he scored 15 points, 22 rebounds, 7 blocks and 6 assists in Staples in 33 minutes, in addition to two steals. In the end, he was substituted because the game had entered garbage time, and for the sake of emotion, it was better not to do too much.

Fortunately, the Clippers have long been used to losing, and they haven't even won a game since the start of the season.

While the Cavaliers won three straight wins on the road, they also gave the Clippers a wave of five straight losses, allowing them to go further and further on the road to losing streaks. Considering that their next round opponent is the Lakers, and the Staples Center is the home of the Lakers, the poor record in the new season has made Kobe Bryant a little crazy, and it is estimated that the Clippers' losing streak will have to continue.

Sure enough, Kobe Bryant, who was furious in the next round of the game, swept 55 points in the Staples Center and sank the broken ship again, and also announced that the Clippers could not become the master of Staples no matter how hard they tried, even if the Lakers' record was poor, and they couldn't even enter the playoffs, the Clippers would not be loved like a stepmother.

Sandwiched between three straight wins, the Cavaliers went back-to-back to Denver to challenge the Nuggets, and this time the Cavaliers were in trouble. The back-to-back games did consume the physical strength of the Cavaliers, even if the game ended in three quarters yesterday against the Clippers, but after flying to Denver, the Cavaliers still looked a little weak.

And Zhang Kong, the only one with sufficient physical strength...... He left the court with six fouls just over the halfway point of the third quarter. Against Allen Iverson, the league's top breaker, Zhang's inability to control fouls was exposed, with five of his six fouls being caused by Iverson.

Allen Iverson also scored a season-high 38 points and dished out 10 assists for a big double-double. And Carmelo Anthony was not to be outdone, cutting down the luxurious data of 30 points and seven rebounds, and the two major scorers proved the offensive firepower of the golden double guns with a wonderful performance of 68 points, and also beat the Cavaliers into a honeycomb with a messy shot.

At 105:127, the Denver Nuggets defeated the Cavaliers, who had just won three in a row, by 22 points.

Four games later, the hymn to Zhang Kong was sung again.

Cavaliers four in a row, Zhang Kong averaged 17.75 points, 22.8 rebounds and 4.5 blocks of luxury data, especially rebounds, an average of 22.8 rebounds per game far ahead of Dwight Howard, who is now ranked second in average rebounds per game, 7 more, although Dwight Howard's average of 15.5 rebounds per game has been a rare high number in recent years, two or three more than the past twelve or thirteen rebounds per game when he could win the rebounding king, but with Zhang Kong's average of 22.8 rebounds per game, this number of rebounds is inevitably a bit insufficient.

The data of averaging more than 20 rebounds per game, the media investigated and found that it had to be traced back to 1968 or even before, when the two giants of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell split the NBA, and since then, no one has been able to score more than 20 rebounds, not even Chamberlain himself!

And the average of 4.5 blocks per game can only be seen in the 90s, when the four centers shined in the world, and now ...... The closest to Zhang is Denver Nuggets center Marcus Camby, who averages 3.4 blocks per game this year, more than when he won the block title, and even then he is still 1.1 behind Zhang.

The numbers don't tell the story, but they don't lie.

"He's already Russell" Basketball Today has the title written in the biggest words on their front page.

"It's a stat that only came out of the Chamberlain and Russell eras." Today's basketball listed a lot of Russell's stats, and finally gave his own answer: "Except for the lack of experience and championships to prove himself, he is not much different from Russell based on the data alone." ”

Even Bill Russell himself was invited to participate in an exclusive interview, and when asked about it, Russell said: "It's not fair to think that Zhang Kong and I are not much different, after all, in those days, I faced players who were shorter than me except Chamberlain, and he (Zhang Kong) had to play against the same opponents every night. If you think he's on par with me except for experience, then I'm going to tell you that he's surpassed me in every bit of experience but experience. ”

At the same time, Bill Russell also said that Zhang Kong must work harder on the offensive side.

"A good team player can not attack, but he must have enough attacking ability to help the team in the crucial moments. At the same time, he has to have a deeper understanding of tactics, understand his position in tactics, and do more after meeting the tactical requirements, and he has the ability to do that. ”

If before Russell, the claim that Zhang Kong's second Bill Russell was just some people's YY, then after Bill Russell personally admitted it, this matter set off an uproar.

Put the words 'greatest' on his head, and there may be some Jordan fans who want to stand up and protest. But adding the suffix 'team player' to the end of 'greatest' is a sentence that even Jordan's most loyal fans can't say. Five MVPs, eleven championship rings, the foundation and pillars of the Celtics' immortal dynasty.

The title 'Lord of the Rings' is the greatest tribute to his life's achievements.

When Bill Russell said on TV that he had surpassed me in every bit of experience but experience, the entire NBA shuddered.

Whether Zhang Kong wants it or not, the title of Bill Russell II was forcefully pressed on Zhang Kong's head by the media. This makes Zhang Kong quite helpless, brother doesn't like to attack to play like this, if brother lets go of his hand to attack, do you want to change your name to 'Chamberlain II', brother swears, brother is by no means the illegitimate son of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, two friends!

Huh, something seems to have dropped?

Oh, it's the festival-kun. How did you fall to the ground?