One Year Left to Play

Compared to the East, the West is much weaker this year, with the sixth-place team already having a winning percentage below fifty percent.

The tanking in the West is even more intense, with the Rockets at 7 wins and 9 losses ranking 8th in the West!

The Warriors at 9th place to the Grizzlies at 14th place, all sorts of fancy ways to lose, of course, there are also teams like the Warriors who want to win but the head coach is completely unsuitable.

However, the West has indeed proven that their tanking skills are higher than those of the East.

On the morning of December 1st, Michael Jordan, after returning for over a season, finally won the Player of the Month award for the first time since his comeback, bringing fans to tears!

With the same starting record of 15 wins and 1 loss, Jordan, with an average of 34.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.5 steals per game, outperformed Malone, who averaged 29 points and 10.5 rebounds, to win the Player of the Month.

The Rookie of the Month was won by the insanely hot Iverson. In his rookie season’s first month, Iverson played all 17 games, averaging 43 minutes, achieving 21.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 6.3 assists, becoming the first rookie in the modern basketball era, besides Jordan and Grant Hill, to average such stats in a month.

But Jordan’s accolades seemed overshadowed, as right after winning the Player of the Month, the media was all abuzz discussing the Lakers’ "unfair treatment" of O’Neal.

At this point, no one said O’Neal wasn’t worth his colossal $127 million contract, and everyone was "sympathizing" with O’Neal, saying the Lakers treated him unfairly, completely forgetting when the Lakers went 7-1 without him before his return...

That evening, the Lakers faced the challenge of the Denver Nuggets at home.

After a one-game break, O’Neal recorded his fourth double-20 in five games, with the Lakers pulling down 51 rebounds tonight, and O’Neal alone grabbing 22, reducing Antonio McDyess to only 4 rebounds and Elvin Johnson to only 6 rebounds, outperforming the opponents’ twin towers combined by more than double!

points, 22 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 blocks, O’Neal was just shy of posting a quadruple-five game.

Under O’Neal’s dominant offensive rebound control, the Lakers easily defeated the third-last in the West, the Nuggets, with a score of 104 to 86, tying their season-high five-game winning streak.

O’Neal proved with his strength that he was not the one holding the team back!

However, in this game, O’Neal wasn’t the one with the highest number of attempts in the team, with 10 out of 16 attempts and an incredible 8 out of 12 in free throws for the night, and even accounting for 4 and-1’s, he only shot 20 times when including fouled shots.

Meanwhile, Zhang Hao had a pretty great game, benefiting from the Nuggets’ poor outside defense and O’Neal’s inside presence. Utilizing his movement to catch passes and shoot, and launching counter-attacks, he astonishingly attempted 26 times, hitting 15 out of 26, with 3 out of 9 in three-pointers, and 7 out of 8 free throws, blasting to a stellar 40 points and 8 rebounds!

Before the game, he pointed to a high-draftee peer of his class and said, "I will score 10 more points than you," which has now become a target for media criticism.

Zhang Hao achieved his 11th career game scoring 40+ points and got roasted like crazy...

Regarding this, Jordan, who watched the live broadcast of the game, was incredibly envious.

Scoring high and making headlines again...

...

After a day’s rest, on December 3rd, the Lakers, with a 14-4 record and ranked third in the West, faced the challenge of the SuperSonics, who had a 14-3 record and were ranked second in the West.

With the ongoing media outcry for O’Neal’s justice, tonight the Lakers dramatically changed their strategy!

O’Neal became the main offensive focal point, turning into a necessary single-option beast and elite rim protector in counter-attacks.

The strategy remained simple, but the focus was completely different.

The SuperSonics had acquired Jim McIlvaine, a center who previously played as a backup for the Washington Bullets, providing him with a staggering 7-year, $35 million contract, nearly making Pippen spit blood!

The reason was he is a 216 cm tall, 119 kg white center.

However, not all meat-shields are the same, and this one was just a meat-shield.

O’Neal attempted 25 times throughout the game, with 11 of those being opportunistic solo shots, scoring 13 out of 25, and maintaining excellent free-throw capability, hitting 6 out of 10 free throw attempts, leaving the SuperSonics reluctant to hack-a-Shaq, finishing with 32 points and 13 rebounds, though offensive rebounds were reduced to only 5.

While Zhang Hao, under the opponent’s focused defense, saw a sharp decline in attempts to 13, with 3 of these being counter-attacks. Regular shots were merely about taking over a failed play, and rare opportunities arose for a catch-and-shoot on the move, with three positional play solo attempts resulting in outside drives.

He shot 7 out of 13, with 4 out of 5 free throws and zero successful three-pointers, finishing with 18 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

On the SuperSonics’ side, Payton scored 24 points with 6 assists, keeping Kenny Anderson to only 3 out of 9 attempts, excelling at both offense and defense.

Kemp scored 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks, often performing better in hard-fought games than easy ones, which is why he is highly revered.

Schramm was just getting better with age, delivering the second-highest score on the court with 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists, besides his defensive game found no flaw in this nearly 34-year-old veteran.

However, with 3 SuperSonics starters scoring over 20, and the bench players Sam Perkins scoring 17 and Eric Snow scoring 10, their defensive arrangement against the Lakers fell apart completely!

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