One Year Left to Play-Chapter 342 - 108: What If We Win?
Except for these two players, the Lakers had no one else scoring in double digits. Jason Williams did grab 16 rebounds, but grabbing rebounds doesn’t put the ball in the basket.
The Rockets ultimately relied on Glider Drexler’s 34 points and 6 assists, Olajuwon’s 26 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and 4 blocks. They also only had two players scoring in double digits, but they scored higher, narrowly defeating the Lakers 105 to 98.
The Lakers’ two-game winning streak was snapped, their record turning to 14 wins and 7 losses.
Losing to the Rockets, Zhang Hao was genuinely a bit frustrated, not playing well in the final quarter, allowing Glider to score 15 points in a single quarter.
But early the next morning during the review, Zhang Hao knew they deserved the loss.
Their offensive changes in the final quarter were sluggish, Olajuwon’s defense in the last period was superb, securing two blocks and two steals in a single quarter, effectively locking down the Lakers.
Those details were incredible. Zhang Hao spent four hours in study mode repeatedly watching Olajuwon’s defense, everyone said Olajuwon’s offensive game was like a small forward, very comprehensive.
But Zhang Hao thought Olajuwon’s defense was even scarier—just as comprehensive!
Switching on the perimeter, cutting off passing lanes, intercepting breakthroughs, post-up defense... He excelled in everything! Mention Olajuwon’s defense, and people recall his record-breaking number of blocks in history, but many overlook his current sixth place in NBA history for steals, with only Stockton, Maurice Cheeks, Jordan, Drexler, and Elvin Robertson ahead of him.
Through the first three quarters, the game was still intense, then in the last quarter, Olajuwon gave a good lesson!
...
"Aix, why does our schedule not have us play the Clippers first, then go to the Rockets? This way, we wouldn’t have to run back and forth..."
"Aix, look at all these fans wearing your jersey!"
"You’re so popular here..."
"Can you say something?"
Jason Williams was quite desperate; he was the closest with Zhang Hao, but Zhang Hao wasn’t fond of responding. He seemed to listen attentively, but was mostly echoing, rarely answering.
Nevertheless, the less Zhang Hao engaged, the more Jason Williams wanted to talk to him—this seemed like a challenge!
The morning after the Rockets game, the Lakers flew back to Los Angeles, and at 7 PM, they headed to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for an away game against the Clippers.
This coliseum is the home stadium of the University of Southern California Trojans. The primary usage rights belong to USC, coincidentally, there was a game last evening, naturally leaving no availability for the Clippers.
The Lakers turned up here for the away game, with a considerable number of Lakers fans attending, including many USC students—and conveniently, Zhang Hao was a freshman at USC.
These past days, many Adidas flagship stores in Los Angeles sold out of Lakers’ number 8 jerseys.
While listening to Jason Williams ramble, Zhang Hao studied the scouting report on the Clippers players... The strongest, Loy Vaught, with an ability rating of 82, averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds so far this season, and a shooting percentage of fifty percent seemed decent. But his defense is only 56... He’s a power forward!
Zhang Hao recalled that during the draft, the Clippers selected Antonio McDyess and immediately traded with the Nuggets, acquiring swingman Rodney Rogers, who averaged 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists last season, and Brent Barry, drafted 15th in the first round.
The Lakers’ legendary Master Baylor executed this deal, which was completely incomprehensible to others. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
Zhang Hao believed there was only one possible explanation—the combined salary of these two players isn’t as high as the second overall pick.
Otherwise, he really couldn’t understand why this transaction happened.
Besides Brent Barry, Zhang Hao had no impression of the other Clippers players—even in contemporary memory, there wasn’t any. In Los Angeles, the Clippers were practically invisible.
At 7:30 PM, the Lakers’ back-to-back away game against the Clippers began.
Having lost to the Rockets yesterday, the Lakers players were quite annoyed, since they lost just by a few points in the final quarter. Even Zhang Hao, who had analyzed the reasons for losing to the Rockets, especially wanted to vent tonight!
As the game started, Zhang Hao and Sibaros aggressively cut to the basket, faced with the defense of 56-rated Loy Vaught and 61-rated Bibi Deler, the Clippers’ undersized inside duo. Both players were only 206 cm tall, lacking in height, wingspan, strength, speed, and bounce compared to Zhang Hao. Although both were good at ball handling and better than Zhang Hao in this aspect, defensively, they were no match compared to Zhang Hao’s rim protection abilities.
With passes from Van Exel, Sedale-Srte, and Campbell, Zhang Hao, and Sibaros took turns to rattle the opponents’ rim.
Sibaros played only 22 minutes tonight, didn’t play in the second half due to his stamina being merely adequate.
However, Zhang Hao, utilizing study mode every night, recovered well in terms of stamina, played 37 minutes, with most of his shots concentrated close to the basket and under it, cutting efficiently, 14 out of 23 shots and making 7 out of 8 free throws, soaring to 35 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks, marking his first career 30+10!
With Zhang Hao’s 35 points, 10 rebounds, Sibaros’ first-half 15 points, and Van Exel’s 15 points and 15 assists, the Lakers claimed a resounding victory over the Clippers 129 to 95, and improved their record to 15 wins and 7 losses.
After winning this match, Zhang Hao’s remaining lifespan increased to 511 days!
...
Actually, this was a stretch of 4 games in 5 days, starting from the 9th, with three consecutive back-to-backs: the 9th and 10th, 12th and 13th, 15th and 16th.
On the morning of the 14th, the Lakers flew to Washington, the capital of the United States, to challenge the Washington Bullets away tomorrow.
