One Year Left to Play

The Lakers are starting to take control!

Both teams have had multiple players leave and join, resulting in some flaws in their tactical cooperation. The Knicks, playing at home, are slightly better prepared and have a clear purpose; they decided to focus on defense from the start. The Lakers began without O’Neal, so the Knicks started the game better than the Lakers.

But when it came to the rotation lineup, the Lakers kept three of their starting players, and the Lakers’ play resolutely turned into a defense-first, star-centered offense, reversing the situation!

At the 10:33 mark, the Lakers tied the game at 17-17, with a 9-4 run, prompting the Knicks to call a timeout and bring in Oakley and Chales, alongside Starks, Ewing, and Alan Houston.

This lineup immediately improved the Knicks’ spacing significantly. After enduring a tough five minutes, they also managed to rest Barkley and Kenny Anderson, after which another 50-great player from the Lakers removed his training top with a smile on his face and stepped onto the court.

The combination of Brian Shaw, Byron Scott, Zhang Hao, Magician, and Jason Williams took the court.

Van Gundy intended to make a late-quarter push with an offensive lineup, and so did the Lakers!

With coordination from the Magician, Jason Williams completed a play, Byron Scott hit a corner three assisted by Brian Shaw’s secondary pass, and on the Knicks’ side, Alan Houston made a long two-pointer, and Ewing completed a drive and layup to score 2+1.

At the end of the first quarter, the game was tied at 22, and the teams entered the break.

If this were last season’s Lakers, they would have been really troubled; last season they severely lacked players capable of taking on tough situations, only relying on Van Exel, Zhang Hao, and Doug Christie.

But this year, they have plenty of players!

Having found a way to deal with the Knicks, the Lakers, with Barkley leading along with Magician, Zhang Hao, Doug Christie, and Fisher, entered the second quarter.

The strategy of building a team with stars is the same, but the Lakers’ star quality is significantly higher.

In a playoff-level defensive game, the starting lineup’s Barkley and Kenny Anderson had the advantage, and the reserve lineup’s Magician had the advantage over Starks. With both teams having awkward offensive coordination but faster defensive harmonization, the Lakers continued to hold the advantage!

Playoff-level games test the quality of the stars, and the Lakers led the score in the second quarter. By halftime, the Lakers led the Knicks by 45-39, entering the halftime break with a 6-point lead.

The on-site fans were not too disappointed with such a situation; Barkley was too strong! In the high-intensity defense, he made 4 out of 7 shots, plus 2 out of 3 free throws, earning 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Kenny Anderson, who replaced Barkley in the second half of the second quarter, also scored 7 points and 3 assists.

Their performance was excellent, making New York fans feel that the newly introduced Chales and Larry Johnson were indeed not as good as the two new additions on the opposing side.

If they lost, they would definitely boo Chales and Larry Johnson.

The Magician also performed well, coming off the bench in the first half for 9 minutes, providing 3 assists and scoring 2 points with 2 rebounds.

However, on-site fans were somewhat disappointed; the opposing Lakers played so well, yet Zhang Hao seemed invisible!

Throughout the entire first half, there was no initiative from Zhang Hao, nor solo plays; the total touch time, including a fast break, might not even have added up to a minute.

It seems, just as the media said, after the Lakers signed so many stars over the summer, Zhang Hao’s tactical status in the Lakers is reduced, his opportunities to perform decreased, and his growth might be influenced by the new stars.

Sure enough, Zhang Hao seemed to have turned into a pure supporting role...

This left on-site fans and Lakers fans, and fans of Zhang Hao before the television, feeling uncomfortable.

However...

At halftime, when the on-site big screen and television broadcast displayed the players’ halftime performance data in terms of points, rebounds, and assists, the fans were astonished to find that Zhang Hao scored 13 points in the half!

out of 6 shots, plus 1 out of 2 free throws, Zhang Hao surprisingly took 11 shots in the half!

That’s when some fans realized a point in the Lakers’ style they hadn’t noticed before—until now: whoever held the ball last, if the opportunity was really bad, and time was running out, it would just be thrown to Zhang Hao.

He played the entire first quarter, scoring 7 points, and played 9 minutes in the second quarter, scoring another 6 points, playing 21 minutes in the half and tallying the highest score! Higher than Barkley’s 10 and Larry Johnson’s 12 points!

...

Giving up solo chances and reducing ball handling duties for decoy purposes in order to contribute more on defense... Zhang Hao had a very clear goal for his new season’s style.

He played to win, and data... winning is the most important, winning games, Celestial Mandate, winning is more gratifying than achieving good stats and losing, double the happiness, stronger than craving shots which might provoke the dissatisfaction of new stars.

Not only winning regular season games, Zhang Hao sincerely wanted to win in the playoffs too; at his current skill level, he chose to seize bad opportunities from his teammates, worked hard on defense to seek counterattacks, and he indeed did so.

He wanted Barkley and O’Neal to happily play, aiming to set an example for other teammates for everyone to make sacrifices for winning games.

However, after halftime, seeing himself topping the team in field goal attempts, and game-high score, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks... he fell into contemplation.

Such offense, honestly, isn’t tiring! His physical advantage was too significant! When O’Neal wasn’t playing, he was the tallest on the Lakers; with Ewing not on the court, he was the tallest in the game.

But this was not the script he planned!

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