One Year Left to Play

Bill Walton’s son, Luke Walton, is a sophomore at the University of San Diego High School, nearly 17 years old, and he joins the local middle and elementary school kids in shouting, "Believe in the light," or holding up the X sign transformation device and yelling "Aix."...

Before leaving San Diego for Los Angeles today, Bill Walton saw his son spending his hard-saved allowance to buy an Ultraman X model...

Bill Walton’s comment on this made the fans watching the popular Lakers vs. Magic game, who didn’t know or cared about tokusatsu shows, become interested in what drama Zhang Hao was filming.

At 6:30 PM, the referee blew the whistle to start the game, throwing the ball into the air, and the Lakers vs. Magic game kicked off.

O’Neal timed his jump at the exact moment when the ball reached its peak, easily winning the jump ball!

The Lakers attack first.

Horace Grant, who could top all the league’s forwards with a $29 million contract over the next two years, had his reasons. He immediately blocked Zhang Hao, giving Dennis Scott a chance to stick to Zhang Hao, then went inside to use Anfernee Hardaway to block Barkley for a moment, receiving down low to block Barkley’s drive.

Very impressive team cooperative defensive command and leadership skills!

Then, Zhang Hao caught the ball at the top left arc of the three-point line against Dennis Scott’s close defense and forced a shot... It was too strong, hitting the back of the rim and rebounding.

Horace Grant turned to face the basket and jumped for the rebound... A surge of great force came from behind!

"Bang"

Along with the basket’s groan, Horace Grant was directly knocked out of bounds, only stopping after hitting the sponge.

O’Neal dashed in from the top of the arc, knocking Horace Grant away for a putback dunk!

O’Neal intentionally slowed his speed because he knew Horace Grant was good at defense. If he cut in from the middle and was blocked by Horace Grant, Zhang Hao’s pass to the right would be blocked, and he trusted Barkley’s fast break, but didn’t expect Anfernee Hardaway to successfully block Barkley and actually have an effective challenge, giving Horace Grant time to recover.

And in the end, Zhang Hao directly shot... The things people sense at different moments are different, and from Zhang Hao’s forceful shot, O’Neal felt a strong sense of trust!

Of course, the more perfect Zhang Hao was in playing basketball, the more O’Neal disliked him.

Zhang Hao’s shot surprised the Magic players, but O’Neal’s putback didn’t because O’Neal was truly strong.

Swapping attack and defense, Anfernee Hardaway advanced to the frontcourt.

Zhang Hao carefully defended the top of the arc, wary of Anfernee Hardaway’s speed.

But as Anfernee Hardaway accelerated after a change of direction, Zhang Hao found he could actually keep up!

Anfernee Hardaway drove to the right side of the paint, unable to escape Zhang Hao’s defensive coverage of his shooting space, suddenly stepped back, creating distance, and took a long two-step back shot...

Anfernee Hardaway reacted promptly and had good technique, found a chance but unfortunately didn’t make it.

O’Neal worked hard on positioning, and Barkley grabbed the defensive rebound.

Seeing Zhang Hao running to the frontcourt, Barkley passed the ball to Kenny Anderson.

Kenny Anderson felt a bit uneasy. He just missed two games, but when he returned last game, his teammates were all thinking to pass the ball to Zhang Hao first!

Earlier, Kenny Anderson thought being the leader was too burdensome, but when it was nearly taken away, he still felt a bit lost.

Advancing to the frontcourt, seeing Zhang Hao and Barkley opening up the breakthrough space, Kenny Anderson, facing Anfernee Hardaway’s defense, used a series of crossovers before breaking through on the left side!

Surprisingly, Anfernee Hardaway was slow to react, a considerable delay, and Kenny Anderson drove to the left of the free-throw line, stopping suddenly for a jump shot...

Even though Anfernee Hardaway managed to stretch his hand to Kenny Anderson’s shooting position less than a second after Anderson released the ball, Kenny Anderson had already shot, making the pull-up jumper!

Retreating on defense after scoring, Kenny Anderson was surprised. He didn’t enjoy facing Anfernee Hardaway because the opponent was fast; his defensive awareness, though not exceptional, was good enough, and his fundamentals were solid. They had a height difference of several centimeters, but Anfernee Hardaway was just a tad slower. Previously, against Anfernee Hardaway, Kenny had very few pull-up jumper opportunities.

But today he did, and he keenly judged the difference in Anfernee Hardaway compared to before and seized the opportunity to score.

Zhang Hao, meanwhile, had also noticed something strange about Anfernee Hardaway that he didn’t see before.

He rechecked the player scouting report...

Last year, Anfernee Hardaway weighed 92 kg; this year, he’s 97.5 kg. He remembered Anfernee Hardaway’s speed last year was 94, among the fastest of the top speeds, just a tad slower than super top-level speed like Kenny Anderson’s, but now it’s slipped to 91!

"So, after losing Big Fatty this summer, Penny gained over 5 kg! Is he trying to improve his strength? But ended up making himself more injury-prone and slower..."

It’s not hard to understand; when a team lacks something, the leading player, if capable, will want to do something about it.

Zhang Hao felt Anfernee Hardaway really believed what the media said about him being able to achieve anything, so after O’Neal left, he chose to become stronger and ended up with frequent injuries...

"In 2004, after Big Fatty left the Lakers, Kobe also chose to bulk up and similarly got injured, missing the season; in 2008, after Big Fatty left the Heat, Wade was out soon after... Is this the breakup curse with Big Fatty?

Wait! I remember in 2010, when James parted ways with Big Fatty, he also started gaining weight! It seemed he soon started cramping repeatedly at peak age...

Including Penny, all these players faced issues during or just before their peak after parting ways with Big Fatty!"

Zhang Hao felt he had discovered a terrifying Yang Mi and Jing Tian!

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