No.1 in basketball scoring

Under Budenholzer's excellent tactical adjustments, Zhang Yang led the whole team with six players scoring in double-digits: Kobe scored 17 points with 6 assists, Gasol had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists, Nash contributed with 13 points and 5 assists, Ed Davis posted 10 points and 11 rebounds, Meeks with 11 points... Overall offense was much better than the last game.

On the defensive end, excluding the Thunder Team's three core players, the rest were held to only 25 points, disrupting the Thunder Team's offensive strategies completely. It could be said that this was their best defensive performance in the Western Conference Finals, even better than Game 4.

Zhang Yang continued to primarily defend Durant tonight, doing even better than the last game and holding Durant to just 10 out of 24 shots, including 1 out of 4 from three-point range, with 5 out of 5 free throws, scoring 26 points.

However... Durant also had 10 assists, with stats of 26 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 blocks!

Harden was fierce tonight, scoring 33 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists; Ibaka's mid-to-long range shots were unusually accurate, going 10 for 16, with perfect free throws, giving him a career-high 28 points, along with 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 blocks.

Although the Thunder Team's team offense was effectively locked down and hardly executed, these three passed among each other, mainly because when Harden and Durant couldn't break through, they'd pass to the other two, and the receiving player would immediately take the shot... Somehow they managed to score 87 points!

112 to 105, the Thunder Team narrowly defeated the Lakers, refusing to be eliminated!

This time, it was Zhang Yang's turn to stand with hands on hips, biting his lip while looking at the big screen after the final buzzer.

His individual overall performance, the team's overall offense and defensive cooperation, were almost the best since the start of the Western Conference Finals, but they were somehow still outgunned by those three!

The main problem was with Harden, who shot 12 out of 20, including 4 out of 6 from three-point range! At one point, it felt like every shot he took went in, and it actually did.

He had to guard Durant, and the Lakers had to double-team Harden while ensuring they protected the rim, leaving Ibaka open at mid-range... and then the explosive Ibaka seized the opportunity to score 28 points.

Just over two hours later, Zhang Yang's feelings about this Western Conference Finals had completely changed.

When leading 3-1, he was sure they had it in the bag, but at 3-2, a sense of crisis suddenly emerged.

…

At noon the next day, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles, with no training scheduled for the afternoon.

Budenholzer initially planned to schedule a training session, but when the plane landed, he announced a rest day.

Even though he had worked in the NBA for over a decade, always with a top-tier team like the Spurs, as head coach, he was still a rookie. When faced with something as completely unexpected and beyond tactical adjustment solutions as Game 5, he panicked and even considered revoking the decision made earlier about not having rest-day training during this series... perhaps it's also because he had worked with the Spurs for so long, making him prone to stress in such situations.

However, after the Lakers' chartered flight took off for Los Angeles, when he mentioned the afternoon's training plan to his coaching colleagues, Bickerstaff opposed it.

Bickerstaff merely said, "Stop worrying, leave it to them," gesturing towards Zhang Yang and Kobe watching last night's game footage in the corner of the last row.

Only then did Budenholzer's unsettled mind calm down; it was only those two who could have such a good effect.

Kobe, the Spurs' old nemesis, had always gone berserk every time he met the Spurs in the playoffs since losing to them in the 1999 playoffs. He met them in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2008, winning 4 out of 5 times against them.

Including the 2001 Western Conference Finals, where Kobe averaged 33.3 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists per game on 51% shooting, scoring an average of 9 mid-range shots per game, crushing the Spurs, who lost Game 3 by 39 points and Game 4 by 29 points...

With Popovich, Budenholzer also dreamed of coaching Kobe, and now at the Lakers, this dream had come true.

Zhang Yang, who Budenholzer had watched closely as he grew from a sixth man to an MVP-level star, understood how strong his ability to withstand pressure was and how outstanding his performance was in crucial games.

As for Zhang Yang, after taking a nap at home, he arrived at Kobe's house at 3 p.m., where Nash and Gasol were already present.

The four discussed last night's game for nearly two hours, concluding the same as Zhang Yang and Kobe did when watching the footage on the plane—that there was no error on their part in the loss.

After the Son of the Wind and Big Brother arrived at this conclusion, Zhang San and the old Ironsmith instead smiled.

Seeing the two smiling, Nash cautiously asked, "Jack, Kobe, are you guys okay? Don't be too anxious; it's just one loss."

Gasol added, "Right, we're still leading 3-2, and we still have home-court advantage."

Upon hearing this, Kobe "clicked" his tongue and looked at Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang said, "Don't worry, I'm fine. I just confirmed one thing: since it's not the coach's tactics or our execution that's the issue, solving this will be simple."

Kobe also spoke up, "Who should go, you or me?"

Zhang Yang replied, "You just stay as our tactical core!"

Their display of nearly arrogant self-confidence infected Gasol once again, who was using 'leading 3-2' to comfort himself and avoid pressure but now genuinely felt like there was no pressure.

Nash was equally infected, though his thoughts differed slightly from Gasol.

Son of the Wind: Is this the difference between me and those two? No wonder the old Ironsmith and Zhang San could lift the O'Brien Trophy...