One Year Left to Play

This demonstrates the importance of actual combat; no matter how much one trains, it’s only during real matches that one understands what is the most suitable strategy, what needs enhancement, and what kind of strengthening is effective rather than blind guessing.

The defensive characteristics in the playoffs present the opposing team with a choice: effortlessly create an opportunity with a low-consensus unscheduled shooting point or more arduously play the stars?

When faced with such choices, the Lakers turn to Zhang Hao, Kenny Anderson opts to take action themselves rather than letting George Lynch attempt unreliable close-range shots.

But when it’s the Hornets’ turn, the situation is more difficult; previously, they would decisively choose with Larry Johnson, but now, even Glenn Rice is not that type of player.

And to present the Hornets with such a difficult choice, one thing must be ensured—the success rate of the Lakers’ offense.

With Zhang Hao’s sudden change in playing style, they accomplished this!

Actually, when Zhang Hao took to the court, he was still troubled by his thin technique, wondering how exactly to become a threat; backing down the 113-kilogram Little Anthony Mason was quite daunting, yet unexpectedly, hey, with a try, the solution naturally emerged!

Of course, the premise for doing well was the hard work he put into strength and fundamental skills during the offseason!

Zhang Hao became more and more exhilarated; what does it mean by the saying ’one trick works anywhere’? After experiencing the joy of using a back-down play against inadequately weighted opponents, he now finds new joy facing well-weighted, swiftly moving inside opponents—strong breakthroughs from the perimeter!

When Zhang Hao charges, the Hornets’ perimeter players simply can’t come up to block him; is 160 centimeters, 130 pounds Boggs going to block a 206-pound, self-proclaimed 206 centimeters inside sprint? Or is his foster father coming to block him?

To tackle this problem, during the third quarter’s official timeout, the Hornets swapped Matt Geiger with Clifford Robinson after tying the score at 64 to 68, 4 minutes and 22 seconds into the third quarter.

This substitution indeed solved two major problems for the Hornets: not having to worry about relying on stars or reliably hitting open shots in offense, and addressing the issue of Zhang Hao penetrating without a frontline to block.

But Matt Geiger is still a 213-centimeter tall center, and this ’92 center doesn’t worry about contracts; everywhere he goes, contracts start at 5 million US Dollars, even though he’s ordinary, he’s still a threat under the basket to any penetrating players.

Without Matt Geiger, replacing him with Clifford Robinson, Zhang Hao’s penetration was indeed curtailed, but George Lynch and Barkley came off the bench and enjoyed easy baskets!

With opportunities for easy scoring, Barkley became proactive; he wasn’t enthusiastic primarily because he didn’t want to go for one-on-one plays. With Kenny Anderson, he felt there was no need to resort to one-on-one plays whenever meeting difficulties, because it was exhausting; but Zhang Hao’s side attracted the defense, allowing him to score by cutting in, so being proactive makes absolute sense.

The problem with this style of play lies in consumption; Zhang Hao starts from the three-point line at full speed to reach a truly threatening point to execute the task of creating opportunities for his teammates to score easily.

Therefore, the Hornets were enduring, waiting!

Zhang Hao’s playing style will be adopted by a player similar in style ten years later, but that player, when playing like this, would make a maximum of 20 shots in one game, and always ensure hitting a fifty percent shot rate; Zhang Hao charged like this dozens of times a quarter, with the purpose of creating opportunities for teammates. The future player was astounded seeing his template playing such a style.

Finally, by the end of the third quarter, Zhang Hao couldn’t charge anymore; he obediently stayed outside the three-point line waiting to receive the ball, leaving it to Kenny Anderson to hold for a while.

Now, the Hornets felt they had a chance. Despite being led by that terrifying gentleman, they were mostly trailing behind by 29 to 21 within the first 10 minutes of the third quarter, and their 2-point advantage turned into a 6-point deficit, but here’s their opportunity!

Kenny Anderson hits a floater, 87 to 79, Lakers’ lead expanded to 8 points.

Yet, the Hornets still felt confident, Zhang Hao couldn’t run anymore! As Dale Curry arrived at the front court, he actively demanded the ball and forcefully drove to the basket, attempting to dunk over Zhang Hao who had not cut in during the last two rounds, and whose speed had been evidently slowing.

After waiting for so long, Dale Curry finally got this chance... "Whack"!

An upfront, solid block, Zhang Hao swung Dale Curry’s dunk ball directly across the midline, sending it to the opposite half!

Out of bounds! Hornet’s backcourt ball!

Dale Curry landed, took several steps back to steady himself, and watched Zhang Hao high-five with Kenny Anderson... How can this guy jump so high, so quickly? No, why does it seem like he’s not tired anymore?

Zhang Hao sensed Dale Curry’s astonished gaze, turned his head, tilted it with his hands sprawled out and shrugged, saying: "I really couldn’t jump in the last round when you went for the dunk. Unfortunately, I just took a rest."

If it weren’t for my son needing to curry your favor in the future, see if I don’t jump up and hit your knee!

Dale Curry turned and ran back to receive Boggs’ throw, feeling infuriated! Even though he didn’t know what was happening with Zhang Hao, hearing that was aggravating.

Not just Dale Curry, even Kenny Anderson, Zhang Hao’s teammate, felt Zhang Hao deserves a good smack...

Zhang Hao scratched his head; honestly, nobody believes him!

During the last defense round, he hadn’t used ’Little Flying Hero’s Physical Pool’; he was timing it, using it during the last round, meant maximizing the medal’s usage just as the first half ended, but clearly, stamina in the first half wasn’t as good as at the beginning of the third quarter; he played 21 minutes and 06 seconds in the first half, needing to play 10 minutes and 33 seconds in the third quarter before using it, maximizing the medal’s effect.

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