76: 74.
The high school competition can no longer accommodate this duo!_2 76: 74.
The high school competition can no longer accommodate this duo!_2 Even though the fervor surrounding the claim of “rivaling the talents of Farmar, Jas, and Mayo” and the slogan “whoever we face, we beat” had gradually waned, they had yet to lose a ga since the start and remained in the spotlight, still the thorn in their opponents’ eyes.
These two kids apparently thought it wasn’t enough!
On November 10th, Compton High School narrowly defeated California High School, led by the 23rd ranked high school player Shawn Williams, with a score of 96 to 89 on their ho court, securing their 9th consecutive victory.
Zhang Yang racked up 15 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, demonstrating an aggressive defensive performance.
DeRozan scored 41 points.
With Zhang Yang being heavily guarded, he shifted to focus on defense, allowing DeRozan to bear the offensive load for the team single-handedly.
Tatum achieved 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists, notching his first triple-double as a starter, providing DeRozan with plenty of great passes and holding his own in the battle for rebounds.
The three standout players were interviewed by the Los Angeles dia after the ga.
When a reporter asked how long they thought their winning streak would last, Zhang Yang held up his index finger.
Reporter asked, “Is your goal to start with 10 straight wins?”
Zhang Yang didn’t respond, but DeRozan shook his head and said, “It’s to keep on winning.”
Thomas couldn’t see how holding up an index finger related to “winning continuously,” but his reaction was the sa as the reporters’—My God, you guys are really confident.
Having confidence and ambition, Thomas didn’t think it was a bad thing, but couldn’t this kind of goal be discussed in private?
Declaring it in front of reporters, especially those from Los Angeles, wasn’t that needlessly making things more difficult?
No difficulties, so you create your own challenges to overco?
However, Thomas thought about their current position as the top team in the league, with Lynwood High School, California High School, and Inglewood High School ranking from second to fourth, and they had already defeated two of them.
Knowing those two as he did, they probably really were creating challenges on purpose!
What could he do?
Just deploy more scouting resources, get more information about the opponents, and help them as much as he could.
Having such players on the team was a headache, but constantly winning—what a joy!
He found himself needing to adjust his expectations for the season again, but this ti he didn’t want to change them anymore, just let Zhang Yang and DeRozan go all out!
…
Thomas wasn’t wrong in his guess; Zhang Yang and DeRozan were indeed actively creating difficulties and conditions for training.
When the warm-up matches in September had just started, they could train in every ga, but as the warm-up phase was nearing its end, they began to feel the competition’s difficulty ‘decreasing.’
Once the league started, thanks to the “assistance” of the Los Angeles Pioneer, the opponents were hostile and played desperately against them, which gave them a good workout, but soon they felt that the opponents were no match again.
After playing against California High School, they discovered that only the top teams in their district could provide them with proper training.
It wasn’t that the opponents weren’t good enough.
California high school basketball ranked at the very top in the nation, and their district was the strongest in the CIF Division I, with half of the district champions in the past decade coming from this area.
Thomas had raised his expectations to aiming for a championship spot at the end of the player selection process, which indeed seed like a reasonable goal at the ti.
Mainly because Zhang Yang and DeRozan had just passed the rapid growth stage of age fourteen or fifteen and had entered the phase where their bodies started to beco stronger, and their skills and ga experience were growing quickly.
With both of them having solid fundantal skills, their rate of improvent took even themselves by surprise, with the opponents increasingly falling short.
After discussing it, they decided to create their own challenges!
That still wasn’t enough.
On November 14th, when Compton High School was away challenging Vincent Middle School of Pasadena City—a weak team at the bottom of the district—DeRozan deliberately eased off, letting Tatum take the lead in the offense.
Against such an opponent, DeRozan could easily win without much effort, which didn’t allow him to practice making calm, pressured shots.
Yes, without conditions, he would create them!
When Zhang Yang knew of DeRozan’s intentions, he teased, “You’re becoming more and more like your idol,” and then joined in on the plan.
Kobe, during his high school days in Pennsylvania, was capable of producing an average of 25 5 5 3 3 from the 9th grade.
Pennsylvania high school basketball was generally diocre, ranking between 30th and 40th in the nation, so starting from the 10th grade, Kobe would slack off in the first half and then turn the ga around in the second half.
Zhang Yang didn’t need to be as deliberate as DeRozan; he only had to use techniques he wasn’t good at or that weren’t effective in high school gas to create difficulty for himself.
Unfortunately, Vincent Middle School was not a challenging opponent.
Even when they went easy, the score at the end of the third quarter was only an 8-point lead for the other team, and a fierce offensive from DeRozan in the final quarter quickly turned the ga around.
DeRozan hadn’t given up; he was determined to keep going, certain that the next ga would provide ample training opportunities!
…
As weeks passed and one ga followed another, Compton High School kept winning, continuously drawing dia attention.
However, the dia noticed that Compton High School’s gas had changed, with almost every match turning into a ‘co-from-behind’ situation.
At first, the dia thought the opponents had gone berserk against them because of Zhang Yang and DeRozan’s proud claim of “winning continuously,” making Compton High School’s gas difficult.
They even mocked them for being too arrogant.
But when every match turned out to be a ‘co-from-behind’ and ‘adversity’ situation, even against the teams at the bottom, the reporters realized sothing was off.
After taking a closer look, they found that the duo had been using their opponents for practice!
Following the journalists’ reports, another wave swept through California’s basketball scene with “take down Compton,” “take down the number one junior high student,” and “take down the mysterious Eastern prodigy,” adding another layer of intensity to Compton High School’s challenges.
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