One Year Left to Play

Rushing to the left side of the three-second zone, Zhang Hao grabbed the ball and directly powered through against Matt Geiger’s defense! After jumping and clashing together, Zhang Hao flicked the ball with his fingertips, and it hit the backboard and bounced into the hoop!

"Oh..."

The fans on this half of the court, especially those at the baseline, couldn’t help but exclaim.

This shot looked too exaggerated! Visually, it seemed like Zhang Hao got past Little Anthony Mason in one step, caught the ball, took two steps, and made a direct layup!

Matt Geiger’s defense was already pretty good this time, but with his ability, he could only provide some resistance to make Zhang Hao expend more energy, without affecting Zhang Hao’s skills at all.

This was an outside cut-in play taught to Zhang Hao by James Worthy, simple and straightforward, depending on speed to get past taller extended players or using his body to pin shorter players behind. Upon receiving the ball and driving inside, James Worthy worked in the air with his jumping ability, while Zhang Hao could do it more easily without needing to jump with full power in the paint, thanks to his height advantage.

However, this move is quite energy-consuming; shooting under confrontation definitely takes more energy. Zhang Hao has always been thinking about how to play longer and contribute more.

But now, he’s figured it out, just swing it himself!

If it doesn’t work, isn’t there Barkley and the Magician? Barkley being lazy, the Magician is too old to lead the team alone, and there’s still Boss Kenny.

In short, after listening to the Magician, Zhang Hao realized he could think more simply about his individual play when facing tough opponents where team play is hard to rely on.

Also, isn’t it just about making shots? The same...

For some reason, Kenny Anderson felt a heavier burden on his shoulders, not knowing why.

During the Hornets’ offense, again Matt Geiger got a chance to receive the ball, but Little Anthony Mason cut inside, prompting Matt Geiger to immediately pass from high to low, inside.

Zhang Hao sharply retracted, and Little Anthony Mason found it hard to make a shot space under the double-team of George Lynch behind him and Zhang Hao in front, but managed a tricky floater... barely making it!

This shot, the Lakers defended very well, definitely a miraculous shot.

Usually, such a basket would impact the defenders’ enthusiasm, but Zhang Hao calmly retrieved the ball as if it wasn’t a big deal, making his teammates feel the same.

During the Lakers’ offense, Zhang Hao continued with the same offensive play as the last round.

This move of his looks simple but is difficult to defend! Even more challenging to defend than James Worthy’s execution, as James Worthy relies on cross-matches, Zhang Hao doesn’t have to, as long as Matt Geiger from the other side doesn’t step out, whoever he plays against feels like big against small. As long as it’s not a guard, basically he has a speed advantage!

Keep cutting in!

Kenny Anderson’s timing and positioning in passing are really outstanding, and this time Little Anthony Mason was prepared, proactively retreating, while Zhang Hao leaned in, spinning back to go baseline bypassing Little Anthony Mason just as Kenny Anderson’s pass arrived, accurately timed and predictive!

When Zhang Hao broke into the left side of the three-second area, flanking he was blocked on the left and the space to feed inside was dead! That’s when Zhang Hao saw Kenny Anderson stepping up to the free-throw line, and he immediately passed it out.

Kenny Anderson caught the ball, without pausing, passed to the right side, where Doug Christie one step inside the three-point line received and smoothly stepped back outside the arc, catching and shooting a three...

Hit!

The collaboration was beautiful, with Kenny Anderson keenly judging the opponent’s possible defensive movements, proactively moving to the best spot to receive from Zhang Hao, already observing his teammates’ movements before catching. When Dale Curry retreated to fill the gap left by George Lynch on the right side of the three-second area, Kenny Anderson’s first reaction receiving the ball was to pass it to Doug Christie.

These two plays left the Hornets a bit stunned—they hadn’t seen this guy use this tactic before!

Not even once in the previous two games!

Not to mention the Hornets, even the Lakers hadn’t expected Zhang Hao to play like this; everyone thought he would initiate from the post-up, except Kenny Anderson, who wasn’t surprised at all by Zhang Hao’s play and immediately thought of ways to cooperate.

The Magician also noticed that Zhang Hao’s move was something learned from James Worthy during the summer, yet the Magician didn’t expect Zhang Hao to use it even more sharply. If Zhang Hao could develop a stop-and-pop jumper, this move would be truly unsolvable.

However, under the current match circumstances, where the opponent’s center’s rim protection is not strong enough, it’s already practically unsolvable!

Zhang Hao himself was somewhat surprised. Initially, he just thought keeping Little Anthony Mason at mid-range would draw help-defense if he drove in, so he chose to pull out. Pulled out, he found Little Anthony Mason wasn’t inside anymore, and neither was Clifford Robinson, so why not just cut in?

Then he found it worked great!

He hadn’t thought about it this way. His expected strategy was with Barkley and O’Neal inside, direct-basket attack might lead to traffic jams; now it seems, if Matt Geiger was behind O’Neal just now, he’d just lob for an alley-oop; George Lynch and Barkley, due to their height, might not notice weak-side off-ball movement from his perspective when driving, but O’Neal being so massive, no problem!

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