One Year Left to Play

Big Fatty had only faced Zhang Hao twice, and each time, in retrospect, felt like a nightmare...

It wasn’t that Zhang Hao was intimidatingly strong, but rather that mouth of his and that gentlemanly style of play...

O’Neal felt that Zhang Hao really wanted to toy with this rookie!

To this, O’Neal expressed his support; after all, fooling around is such fun!

Zhang Hao, returning to defense, turned around to see Iverson receiving the inbound pass and pushing forward with a face full of anger.

Rookies always fall for it so quickly.

Whether or not they succeed in sanctioning the top pick, the process is fun regardless, as for that medal... if you can get it, you get it; if not, whatever, having fun is what matters most.

Iverson reached beyond the three-point line, and Zhang Hao, whose mouth was usually silent, started again: "Pass to the other guard who’s in my draft class, he’s better than you, easily beats Boss Kenny."

The volume wasn’t small, causing Kenny Anderson to exclaim in surprise.

Who plays like that?

The key is, Boss Kenny really couldn’t guard Starkhouse; having been teammates, he knew how good Starkhouse’s offensive skills were, just a bit inaccurate.

The more Zhang Hao spoke like this, the less likely Iverson was to pass, continuing to dribble with crossovers!

However, Zhang Hao still did not move, solely relying on his wingspan and excellent lateral movement to cover Iverson’s shooting space in the entire top arc area, unless Iverson stepped back to shoot a really long three-pointer, otherwise, he could only shoot against a defender at the three-point line, potentially getting blocked.

After studying Iverson’s tapes, Zhang Hao suddenly realized one thing—Iverson’s three-point shot was good during his rookie season largely because the three-point line was shorter, almost like the past long two-pointer, but it seemed it got extended later on.

And at that time, Iverson was actually prepared to further develop his three-point shot, but Larry Brown wouldn’t let him...

Iverson had no choice but to grit his teeth and break through, indeed, as he expected, Zhang Hao’s defense had a single goal—to block his medium and long-range shots!

Zhang Hao simply didn’t care if Iverson drove into the lane; if Iverson scored under the basket, it would just have to be O’Neal’s fault.

This defensive strategy was a response Zhang Hao had from Garnett in his future memory, who, on a program, discussed why Iverson always scored lower and had fewer assists and a lower shooting percentage than his seasonal average when facing him.

Garnett, at his peak, could defend from 1 to 5... in fact, the ability to defend the 1 position well was mainly due to the impression left when he always defended Iverson during their games against the 76ers, and indeed, he could limit him really well.

When asked about how to limit peak Iverson, his response was—defense doesn’t necessarily mean completely stopping the opponent, but rather forcing them to make worse choices.

This is exactly how Zhang Hao defended tonight.

This time, Iverson broke through to the basket and avoided two hands’ attempts to block him, wasn’t blocked but shot a bank shot that bridged over! Barkley guarded the defensive rebound well!

Campbell had already moved to the free throw line as Iverson drove in; he had the ability to shoot from there, but since no pass came, Campbell immediately retreated as Iverson jumped up.

The 76ers’ players generally weren’t hard-working in defense; only Campbell and Clarence Weatherspoon made efforts and defended effectively, while Iverson’s defense was active, but... let’s just say it relied quite a bit on physical impact and speed, at least he won the Best Defensive Player in the Big East Conference during his freshman season, although he loved the gamble of stealing often leaving his position.

As for the substitutes... players who had been bench players on lousy teams for years didn’t have much defensive motivation.

And often Campbell and Clarence Weatherspoon felt frustrated because of their teammates’ defense, leading them to drift along as well.

But tonight, against the Lakers, both Starkhouse and Coleman showed positive effort in their defensive retreats!

One was displeased with his peer, Zhang Hao; the other was vying with Kenny Anderson.

Campbell was the first to retreat past midcourt, and indeed, the Lakers didn’t have a chance for a counterattack, opting for a set offense, with Kenny Anderson receiving the pass from Barkley and advancing to the frontcourt.

Once in the frontcourt, Kenny Anderson felt like spitting blood...

Facing Campbell’s defense, O’Neal chose to give up, standing outside on the left of the three-second zone, basically showing no intention of asking for the ball.

Barkley positioned mid-range on the right side of the three-second zone, proficient in mid-range shots, confidently holding his own even with O’Neal back, sure to find his place.

Barkley... Kenny Anderson got used to it, but what is Big Fatty up to? Channeling an enhanced version of Er Pang?

Suppressing the urge to curse, Kenny Anderson carefully protected the ball, as the rookie first pick across had some intense defensive impact.

Despite having the height and weight advantage himself, Kenny Anderson felt less powerful than the rookie across.

This wasn’t to say Iverson was extremely strong, but given equivalent weight and similar builds, Iverson’s strength was indeed exceptional; someone like Kenny Anderson, a 78 kg short guard, couldn’t compete with the just-a-rookie Iverson in terms of strength, considering Iverson joined the NBA at 21.

Originally planning to play one-on-one, Kenny Anderson suddenly remembered, wasn’t there another person!

He decisively gestured toward Zhang Hao.

Zhang Hao saw O’Neal not taking any "I want to prove myself" action against Campbell and was stunned, then saw Kenny Anderson’s gesture... what’s going on!

What are these three big brothers up to!

Though the opponent is only second to last in the East, don’t slack off too much, okay!

Though this is what he thought, when the point guard signals a play, as an off-ball player, he could only move from beyond the three-point line left of 45 degrees to the top arc, leaning against the opponent to ask for the ball.

Following Zhang Hao out was Coleman, who didn’t want to bang bodies with Barkley; Clarence Weatherspoon was indeed a very talented player, 198 cm in height, 113 kg in weight; the 76ers picked Clarence Weatherspoon after trading away Barkley in the summer of ’92 because he seemed a lot like Barkley, big butt + short neck...

Zhang Hao leaned on Coleman, seemingly asking for the ball for a three-point isolation, then suddenly, he directly pivoted, stepping around Coleman with one foot, and it was the left foot, using his iron elbow to lock Coleman dead in place; as Zhang Hao completed his pivot relying on his iron elbow, Kenny Anderson’s pass arrived right on time, just when Zhang Hao was about to accelerate for a breakthrough, suddenly, there was a bump from behind, causing Zhang Hao to lunge forward, nearly falling flat, but managed to steady himself, protecting his handsome face.

Coleman couldn’t turn fast enough; he knew his speed was definitely no match for Zhang Hao, so he simply fouled; and being nicknamed as the bad-boy, he committed the foul quite roughly, directly swinging an arm onto Zhang Hao!

The referee blew the whistle, Derrick Coleman charged with the defensive foul!

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