199. The crucial battle!

But if they lost to the Pistons tonight, their record would be tied, both standing at 54 wins and 27 losses.

Because of the head-to-head results, they would drop back to second place, rendering all the efforts of the latter half of the season fruitless.

With Gerald Wallace sidelined for a month due to injury, they fought in every game to keep up with the Pistons and not fall behind, wasn't it all just for the sake of clinching the first place?

Otherwise, with a record of 34 wins and 18 losses at the midpoint, they only needed to win half of their next 30 games to securely hold on to the second spot, 16 wins would have given them 50 victories.

Of course, they could still hope for the 76ers to beat the Pistons in the closing game... but let's not talk about how the 76ers would win, as Zhang Yang felt uncomfortable just thinking about placing hopes on another team.

At 9 a.m., the Bobcats began preparing for tonight's game.