One Year Left to Play-Chapter 325 - 105: Just Focus on Offense
"You really are a good employee... Come on, let’s go have lunch. Aix, do you have any teammates you’re close with? You need to make more friends."
"Hmm... I guess I do..."
...
During lunch, Alan Houston also came by. Everyone knew Zhang Hao and Alan Houston were under the same agency. Currently, Alan Houston was talking to the Pistons about renewing his contract early, but negotiations had stalled. Grant Hill wanted to spend more time with Alan Houston.
Zhang Hao called over Jason Williams—his new teammates. When he went to call him, Zhang chose Campbell.
In the first two games, the one who helped him the most was Van Exel, who was willing to pass him the ball.
The most enthusiastic one towards him was Sibaros, who looked after him both in communication and during media interviews.
The happiest about his joining were Anthony Peeler and George Lynch, who got more opportunities as teammates.
But the one who left the best impression on Zhang Hao was Campbell.
A classic cool guy, neither passionate nor particularly friendly. Yet, even though this primary scoring center—who relied on eating at the basket and catching jump shots—hadn’t scored in double figures in the consecutive games since Divac left, Campbell showed no displeasure towards Mr. Zhang.
In the past two games, Zhang Hao received help from Campbell. Although Campbell bulked up to 127 kilograms to become a sturdy center against O’Neal, which affected his mobility, his defensive awareness was still there. Otherwise, his blocking wouldn’t be so outstanding, averaging 2.5 blocks. During the game, Campbell often guided Zhang Hao’s movements.
However, a simple lunch couldn’t really enhance their relationship; they didn’t talk much after the meal.
At 7:10 PM, after warming up, Zhang Hao entered the court with his teammates.
Upon entering the court, Zhang Hao immediately wanted to turn around and leave...
Pierce’s mom was probably the most enthusiastic Zhang Hao fan in all of Los Angeles. Last game, she saw many fans holding signs urging Zhang Hao to leave. Tonight, she and Aprile Clark were holding signs cheering for Zhang Hao.
Yet, seeing the signs they held, Zhang Hao felt a deep sense of embarrassment.
"The strongest high school student of all time—Aix!"
Fortunately, people don’t know this joke now, or Zhang Hao would want to find a hole to crawl into.
Zhang Hao felt like he could burst his power level, probably reaching 8000 points, while Grant Hill was estimated at over 20,000.
However, tonight, surprisingly, there weren’t many people booing Zhang Hao. When he entered, the cheers were quite loud!
When he returned to Los Angeles yesterday and saw the news, it clearly said he was removed from the Lakers player lineup and wasn’t worthy of wearing the Lakers jersey anymore.
Somewhat puzzled, Zhang Hao received an explanation from Sibaros: "Did you forget whose debut scoring record you refreshed?"
"Oh, right, it was against the Pistons, but why?"
"A few years ago, our two consecutive championships were ended by the Pistons. Otherwise, the Magician could have had six titles, surpassing Mikan’s five titles."
A few years ago... Zhang Hao instantly connected with the memory of this era. It really was just a few years ago. According to the future, the Lakers’ two consecutive championships during the 80s’ yellow-green rivalry felt like many years ago. He didn’t even notice the current Lakers-Pistons rivalry.
In a few years, this rivalry atmosphere will fade over time. For instance, in the original timeline when the Lakers and Pistons played in the 2004 Finals, no one even thought of them as rivals.
"Our fans are really fickle..."
Zhang Hao didn’t want to dwell on this. The game was about to start, and he was extremely excited. Every time he played a game, he was full of energy, and tonight as the game was about to kick off, his excitement was far beyond usual.
He wanted to win!
Especially seeing Grant Hill, this superstar of his era, increased Zhang Hao’s desire to win to the utmost.
Previously, he thought he wouldn’t get as overly excited as Kenny Anderson did when facing Grant Hill and Anfernee Hardaway. But now, he realized he was wrong.
Though it was different from Kenny Anderson’s envy and jealousy, Zhang Hao was far more excited than during his last encounter with Grant Hill.
He wasn’t initially concerned about the fans’ opinions. Now, he wanted to improve their view of him by defeating Grant Hill.
People’s self-perception is always prone to bias.
Feeling overly excited, Zhang Hao hurriedly opened the player scanning system, glancing at Grant Hill’s 93 skill rating, then at his own 73...
"Rely on teammates, cooperate well, don’t get carried away with excitement..."
Zhang Hao worked hard to calm his overly excited emotions.
At 7:28 PM, Zhang Hao, sneaking through the backdoor, took to the court with his other four starting teammates.
Van Exel, Anthony Peeler, Sibaros, Zhang Hao, and Campbell started the game.
The Pistons fielded Joe Dumars, Alan Houston, Grant Hill, Don Reed, and Ostie Soper as their starting lineup. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
At 7:30 PM, the game began.
The Pistons won the jump ball and quickly went on the attack. The pace was noticeably faster than during their last match-up. Putting Ratliff on the bench greatly enhanced the Pistons’ overall mobility.
Dumars advanced the ball to the frontcourt and passed it to Grant Hill, then moved to open space. Over the past two years, he had forced himself to develop a three-point shot. This season, he averaged two three-pointers a game with a forty percent shooting rate, making him Grant Hill’s strongest support, more impactful even than Alan Houston.
