One Year Left to Play

This time, Zhang Hao made another discovery!

He doesn’t have the ability like Jason Williams to judge the rebound location based on the arc of teammates’ or opponents’ shots, but he can, when he judges that a teammate has shot with a high probability of missing, move in the direction of Jason Williams to... help Jason Williams grab the rebound!

Being dunked on by a teammate, and this wasn’t the first time, Jason Williams wanted to curse, but internally he was extremely excited. With complex emotions, Jason Williams and his teammates, who were similarly reignited and re-energized, started to fight hard again in the next sequences.

Zhang Hao’s putback had a noticeable effect; the Lakers and Hawks were in a deadlock for a while, cutting the deficit by 5 points in the second quarter, achieving a score of 31 to 26.

But in the third quarter, the Lakers were hit by Hawks’ fast-paced half-court offense combined with excellent team defense, resulting in a 13-4 run, and the deficit widened from 8 points to 17 points.

Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson did everything to catch up, and by the official timeout in the fourth quarter, Zhang Hao scored 10 points by sinking 4 consecutive shots in 3 minutes, and Kenny Anderson used Zhang Hao’s threat to create a 3-point opportunity for Doug Christie and hit it. During this time, the Hawks missed four consecutive offenses, and the Lakers made a 13-0 run, narrowing the 18-point deficit before the official timeout to 5 points.

However, the Hawks didn’t break down; they recovered. Veteran Brellock, a strong contender for this season’s Three-Point King, seized the Lakers’ opportunity when defending tightly as in previous rounds, made a three-point shot after getting a screen, and stabilized the situation for the Hawks.

In the end, despite Zhang Hao scoring 14 points in the final quarter to help the Lakers reach 34-24 in the quarter, thus narrowing the deficit by 10 points, the Hawks still laughed last with a 90-71 lead in the first three quarters.

points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, and 2 steals. The shooting percentage improved to 12 out of 24 because of the last four consecutive shots, Zhang Hao’s performance was remarkable, and several times the Lakers closed the gap due to his rallying, enabling Kenny Anderson to lead teammates in attack.

But the first quarter’s 19-32 score was too damaging.

A 9-point deficit, 105 to 114, the Lakers lost at home, ending their 5-game winning streak while the Hawks secured a 6-game winning streak at the start!

...

...

The day after the game against the Hawks, the Lakers set off for Houston in the morning. Next up are two consecutive away games in Texas, where there’s currently no talk of a Texas Big Three.

If there was a nickname combining the three Texas teams now, it’d be "Cash Machine Triangle."

The Mavericks have a bad record, and it’s foreseeable; the veteran coach resigning, the three core players assembled in the past few years all traded away, Duncan about to enter the draft... From 14 teams in the West, 6 have less than two wins since the season began. The Clippers have played 5 games, with 2 wins and 3 losses, ranking eighth in the West.

The Rockets have 1 win and 5 losses, the Spurs started with 6 consecutive losses...

At this point, any team visiting Texas might grab a streak of wins.

While looking at the scouting report for the Rockets and Spurs, the Rockets seem to be getting better, but the Spurs seem to be intentionally giving up, reportedly considering firing head coach Bobo Hill by Vice President Popovich.

There’s not too much useful information in the scouting report; the team constantly loses in various ways every game... nothing uniform at all.

Yet one sentence in the scouting report stood out to Zhang Hao, feeling useful yet glaringly uncomfortable — the Rockets’ new Twin Towers might cause them significant trouble.

Thinking that only 10 games into the season, before it started, Zhang Hao never imagined the Lakers would be smashed in the paint like this. Even though Mutombo is indeed difficult to deal with defensively, currently in peak form and the biggest favorite for Defensive Player of the Year...

Watching Barkley, who gets on the plane and immediately falls asleep, Zhang Hao accepts it. This guy doesn’t have any desire to initiate offense when playing against a team like the Hawks, who despite their good early record are not seen as championship contenders like their Lakers last season, appearing to prepare to play dead until facing stronger teams.

This actually isn’t a problem; the skill is there, playing around 20 minutes each game and keeping fit. It’s advantageous for the Lakers in the season’s later stages, just a bit more strenuous for Zhang early on.

But another person...

"Shaq O’Neal, 24 years old, 216 centimeters, 133 kilograms..."

"What’s this guy doing? I remember seeing his weight was 136 kilograms just after finishing the three away games, where’s the 3 kilograms gone in these few days?

Randomly losing weight for what reason! Were you even told to train! Oh... your hook shot improved a bit?

Damn! Were you told to try hard? Can’t you just rest well?"

Looking at O’Neal’s latest player scouting report, Zhang Hao couldn’t help but mercilessly complain internally.

This point about O’Neal genuinely concerns Zhang Hao!

But these words can only be a complaint inside; they can’t be said aloud for any reason, or it would look improper, causing more trouble instead.

Telling the acknowledged most gifted young leading star, theoretically the strongest player on the same team: "Don’t train, just gain weight well," this is...

"O’Neal’s injury is almost completely healed; perhaps after this two away games, he’ll make a comeback, right? With consecutive flights, so tiring, he might not train, right? Luckily, both visiting opponents are top 50 all-time greats, so he’ll have a chance to take pre-game photos; otherwise, leaving him in Los Angeles, who knows if he’ll sneak in practice again?

Hopefully, when he returns, he’ll be exhausted from matches and won’t consider training but will instead enjoy being lazy..."

Thinking how last season everything was fine; how did a summer turn the home team so quirky?

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