One Year Left to Play

But the Magic team had no solution for Zhang Hao either. Fortunately, the Lakers’ role players were not performing well tonight, otherwise the Magic wouldn’t even be able to cause more trouble for Zhang Hao.

In this situation, the Magic team chose to exhaust Zhang Hao as much as possible, relying on Anfernee Hardaway to lead the team.

Zhang Hao played several rounds in succession, helping the Lakers keep the score tight.

But playing like this was really tiring. At this stage, resting for a couple of rounds wouldn’t be a big problem, but the fatigue was still evident.

Finally, after Zhang Hao scored 9 points continuously, he broke into mid-range and faced Danny Shaye’s defensive cover. He chose an urgent stop jump shot but didn’t manage it well. This move wasn’t yet learned to be used in the face of defensive cover during a game—iron with the mid-range shot!

Horace Grant barely blocked Jason Williams to grab the defensive rebound. The Magic team felt the opportunity had come; Zhang Hao definitely needed a breather. The Magic team had a chance to widen the score gap. Just when Horace Grant was about to pass to Anfernee Hardaway, Jason Williams directly hugged Horace Grant!

Tactical foul! After four minutes into the second quarter, the Lakers and the Magic were tied at 42-45. Zhang Hao needed a break after Jason Williams followed the coach’s instructions during Zhang Hao’s free throw, committed a foul, and went off as O’Neal took the court!

As soon as O’Neal came in, he blocked Anfernee Hardaway driving into the inside lane through Doug Christie with a huge rejection!

Compared to Doug Christie paired with Zhang Hao in defense, Doug Christie paired with O’Neal obviously made the defensive lineup stronger. Zhang Hao’s rim protection ability was top-notch, but O’Neal’s close-range defense and serious guarding of the three-second zone were absolutely league-leading!

Magician grabbed the rebound, transitioned to offense, fell into a positional battle, and O’Neal hung on Danny Shaye for a poster dunk!

After O’Neal completed the dunk, the Magic faced two fouls. O’Neal excitedly ran out and bumped hips with the Magician after completing the dunk.

At this moment, the Magic team discussed starting the Hack-a-Shaq strategy again.

However, O’Neal went to the free-throw line and made the additional shot!

all!

When it was the Magic team’s offense, Anfernee Hardaway was prepared this time, faking a strong drive. As he rushed into the basket, in an encounter with O’Neal he bounced the ball to the ground, leading Danny Shaye on the other side of the three-second zone to catch and throw it in.

Anfernee Hardaway’s brilliance was vividly illustrated in this play.

With strong ability and attractive play style... Jordan’s two initial successors, if not cursed by injuries, truly possessed the talent and ability to lead the NBA forward as star players.

However, after the Magic team completed the offense, they dared not implement Hack-a-Shaq immediately. Earlier, O’Neal surprisingly made a swish with his free throw.

Given this, the Magic team could only double-team urgently. During the Lakers’ offense, Zhang Hao took advantage of a Magician off-ball screen to receive a pass and was immediately trapped by O’Neal’s outlet pass. Facing Anfernee Hardaway’s aggressive defense, Zhang Hao ignored his opponent, raised the ball for a mid-range shot and scored!

all!

Zhang Hao’s personal scoring also increased to 25 points!

By now, Zhang Hao didn’t care about tasks or no tasks.

In such a game, he just wanted to win!

No matter whether there’s a task or not, he purely wants to win!

Nevertheless, in this situation with no other distractions, Zhang Hao played more freely. After the second quarter started and the score was overtaken, he played naturally, doing what he had to do while prioritizing the game, temporarily setting aside tasks. He saw more opportunities contrary to what seemed natural!

The score between the two teams was tight until 6:42 in the second quarter when Zhang Hao made a long pass from the left of the free-throw line to the baseline right, Fisher caught and made a three-pointer, Lakers overtook with 56 to 55, Magic called a timeout!

After the official timeout, both teams put in more key players. Lakers had four starters except for Barkley on the court; Fisher and Kenny Anderson played dual guards. Magic team also put back their starting lineup.

Under Anfernee Hardaway’s lead, the scores remain tight between the two teams, but the Magic team was able to keep up with the Lakers only thanks to Anfernee Hardaway’s outburst supporting a Magic team with a single-structured lineup.

When the Lakers caught some opportunities usually hard to grasp under regular conditions, the gap in strength came to light!

By 7:29 in the second quarter, Zhang Hao, faced with being double-teamed and limited passing angles, directly pushed the ball towards the right side of the basket, O’Neal turned in the air with a pivot, pushed away Ronnie Selika, and then in mid-air assisted with an alley-oop!

When Horace Grant and Anfernee Hardaway came to double-team Zhang Hao’s outside dribble attack—Grant blocked Zhang Hao from directly passing inside, Hardaway stopped Zhang Hao’s passing route to Fisher on the wing—Zhang Hao delivered a pass that possibly no one other than O’Neal could accept.

Perhaps it’s because O’Neal’s partner was the No. 8 player; this kind of pass turned out to be converted into an assist by O’Neal helping Zhang Hao.

At 9:11, Zhang Hao anticipated Anfernee Hardaway’s target, moved sneakily ahead. As Horace Grant caught the ball and raised to shoot, Zhang Hao sprinted from behind, stealing the shot directly with a simultaneous block and rob!

Horace Grant immediately made a tactical foul on Zhang Hao, Lakers fell into a positional battle. The previous round, Lakers failed to score, but Zhang Hao’s block added an additional offensive chance as Kenny Anderson drove for a mid-range stop-jump shot and scored!

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