One Year Left to Play

Moreover, this matter, once it’s over, it’s over; he had long anticipated David Robinson’s worsening injury and had reminded him last season only to be dismissed as trash talk by the other side...

Now that it’s happened, it has happened.

After completing the interview, Zhang Hao wasn’t affected by other team’s player injuries; he started preparing for tonight’s warm-up against the Rockets. If there’s any impact, it makes him more patient with the warm-up and more proactive with the post-game Jabbar-style therapy...

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Currently, the Lakers have a record of 5 wins and 1 loss, holding the second place in the West, ahead of the SuperSonics’ 4-2 record. The Rockets see the Lakers as an opportunity to rally and place great importance on this game.

The Lakers players felt the hostility from the opponents as soon as they entered the venue.

Among them, Divac’s hostility was especially evident, and it was specifically targeting Zhang Hao.

He thought the glory the Lakers had last season should have been his, and now teaming up with O’Neal, Barkley, and Kenny Anderson should have been him too.

Zhang Hao is accustomed to hostility from opponents.

Of course, having been traded, he grew to resent the Lakers; before the game, the Magician wanted to exchange a few words with the opponent, but as the Magician approached, they headed straight to the court with the ball.

They weren’t particularly close former teammates, having only partnered for two seasons; the Magician didn’t mind.

Before the game, 5 of the top 50 stars posed for a photo, making Zhang Hao envy them once again. By 7 PM, the match between the Lakers and Rockets began.

After the game started, as expected, the Rockets had a clear advantage inside.

Also, the Lakers were unfortunate to meet the Rockets after playing five or six games at the start of the new season; a couple of games earlier, they could surely have easily won.

After a few matches of adjustments, the Rockets gradually improved, with a recent record of 1 win and 2 losses, their strategy became clearer, unlike initially when the Twin Towers often overlapped positions.

Both Divac and Olajuwon could operate from the high and low post, and their chemistry increased steadily.

While the Rockets are also a slow-paced team, Olajuwon’s warming form and Divac entering the golden age of his career rendered the Lakers interior led by Zhang Hao quite powerless.

Thankfully, the old fox was prepared, emphasizing counterattacks with caution. You can’t rush blindly; in this era of competition, if you rush recklessly, you’ll tire out. Otherwise, Old Nelson’s team wouldn’t have been so miserable in recent years.

But both Kenny Anderson and the Magician, as the core ball handlers, seized the right moments to launch fast breaks, with the former using his speed to drive the teammates, and the latter directing from the backcourt like Kidd, making the Los Angeles Kakashi Team come online again!

In the final quarter, the younger and more energetic Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson led the team to gain the upper hand, once turning the score into 109 to 100 with three minutes remaining, seemingly about to secure victory.

Yet in the last three minutes, Zhang Hao, Kenny Anderson, and James Robinson together missed five long shots, with Zhang Hao’s crucial three-pointer to break the tie in the last six seconds also failing, heating up but occasionally coinciding with the jersey prints.

The Rockets’ gambling-style contraction yielded miraculous results; the Lakers, in the last three minutes, only managed a free throw beyond one offensive rebound snatched by Barkley, resulting in one point out of two, while the Rockets went on a 10 to 1 run, dragging the game into overtime!

Though Olajuwon has significantly lowered his ambitions, his skills are undeniably intact, and he’s not heavily reliant on athleticism, with a 92 rating acknowledging him as one of the best centers in the league.

Initially, it seemed Olajuwon was falling off, but this matchup allowed Zhang Hao to realize it might have been Olajuwon adapting to Divac at first, causing a sluggish performance in their first three games. Now, their Twin Towers chemistry has built up, improving coordination, enabling Olajuwon to perform at top-notch levels.

Thankfully Barkley’s crucial offensive rebounds kept the Lakers from getting overtaken by the Rockets directly, pushing them into overtime.

During overtime, the exhausted Rockets collapsed quickly, with Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson both deciding to drive towards the basket, consecutively causing damage, collectively helping the Lakers with a 15 to 4 run!

Ultimately, the Lakers avoided consecutive defeats by edging past the Rockets 125 to 114 with Zhang Hao contributing 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists; Kenny Anderson scoring 29 points and providing 14 assists; George Lynch setting a personal career-high with 32 points thanks to Zhang Hao’s defensive gravity; and Barkley and Jason Williams collectively pulling down 20 rebounds.

Zhang Hao maintained his small achievement of not encountering consecutive defeats in the regular season since joining the Lakers.

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As the team in the spotlight, every detail about the Lakers is under scrutiny; opponents receive more information about them, whereas the Lakers have relatively fewer resources on their opponents.

In terms of current strength, compared to equally scrutinized teams like the Bulls and Utah Jazz, the Lakers indeed lag behind.

A fifty-fifty matchup has become the norm...

However, on November 13th, the Lakers weren’t dragged down as miserably this time!

After the match against the Rockets, the Lakers arrived in San Antonio, Texas, for a match against another Texas team, the Spurs, after resting for one night. By the end of three quarters, they were ahead by nearly 30 points with a score of 89 to 60.

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