When the ball Magic tossed landed in the basket, the Lakers’ bench erupted!

From the second half onwards, the noisy boos that accompanied every Lakers’ attack quieted down at this moment.

The Utah Jazz called for a timeout! The Lakers players on the court and the bench rushed towards Magic.

After Zhang Hao was fouled out at 8 minutes and 22 seconds of the fourth quarter, the Lakers hadn’t scored a field goal for three minutes, with only two points from Van Exel’s three free throws, making two.

At the critical moment, Magic’s low post turnaround hook shot scored in close range, and the Lakers finally scored! With 17 seconds left, the Lakers lead the Utah Jazz 98 to 94 by four points!

Although Zhang Hao didn’t rush over, he stood up and applauded Magic, that shot was crucial!

The Utah Jazz made a fierce comeback in the fourth quarter, wave after wave of attacks finally narrowed the gap to two points at the last moment, seemingly about to turn the tables in the final moments, only to be directly shattered by Magic’s little hook shot!

After the Lakers players returned to the bench, a few of them gathered together and shouted loudly, "For justice!"

Magic joined in this time, echoing the second shout, "For justice."

"..." Zhang Hao involuntarily shifted his step away from these people... Others might think we’re the Los Angeles Saint Soldier Corps!

"I just said, ’We need to use the power of justice for a brutal counterattack,’ how did it become fighting for justice?"

The short 20-second timeout ended quickly, the Lakers didn’t change players, the Utah Jazz swapped Chris Morris for David Benoit to add a perimeter shooter, Stockton, Horace, and Malone remained.

The Utah Jazz set up a very beautiful rapid three-point tactic, clearly intending to shoot a three, quickly foul, and then play the final attack.

But, the opportunity was there, Horace passed the ball to Stockton, but Stockton missed the crucial three!

The Utah Jazz didn’t foul either, Magic advanced to the front court, consuming the last bit of time.

As the final whistle blew, the game ended, the Lakers defeated the Utah Jazz 98 to 94 on the road, clinching their 5th straight win and their first victory of 1996!

The cursing from the crowd erupted again, even though their voices were hoarse, the fans on the sidelines still pointed at the Lakers players, cursing, with Zhang Hao receiving the most audible curses.

But Zhang Hao didn’t react much, watched his teammates celebrating together, and felt the gazes from the nearby Utah Jazz players...

Zhang Hao got up, walked towards the player tunnel, surrounded by teammates rushing towards him.

Their glances made Zhang Hao somewhat apprehensive, "What do you want to do..."

"For justice! C’mon..."

"Let go of me!"

"Hurry up..."

"I won’t... Ah... For justice... Justice you XXX, who grabbed my balls..."

After a brief tussle, as the excitement of other Lakers players cooled down somewhat, they also sensed the crowd’s agitation, hurriedly escorting Zhang Hao towards the player tunnel.

Afraid the rookie would be beaten dead by the crowd on-site...

...

...

"Facing the Iron Elbow as a Rookie"

"Malone Tastes Defeat? Lakers Rookie Extremely Tough!"

"The Most Direct Way to Deal with Villainous Superstar"

"The Lakers’ Bad Boy Attribute?"

"..."

"..."

After the Lakers and the Utah Jazz game ended, this game exploded in popularity!

Early in the first quarter, some TV sports programs began interrupting with news of this game, the on-site happenings were too explosive.

No one expected the Lakers would play such a game.

Zhang Hao’s fearless confrontation with Malone truly transformed many fans’ impression of him.

A lot of fans’ understanding of Zhang Hao initially came from hearsay, reading some reports possibly in not-so-official media outlets, leading to very shallow or outright incorrect understanding.

However, after playing over 30 games this season, Zhang Hao had two games that allowed many fans to understand him, moreover, he seized the opportunity! Demonstrated his two traits in those two games.

The first was during Magic’s comeback game against the Bulls, where he showcased his shooting ability, tenacious character, great composure, the buzzer-beater...

This was the game that greatly boosted his fame, truly bringing him into the fans’ sight.

The subsequent Best Player of the Month awards made him more popular, but controversy, which was already abundant around him, grew even more.

But the game against the Utah Jazz brought people a whole new understanding of him.

He seemed harmless, but apart from being gifted, composed, and having a great heart, he possessed unimaginable toughness!

Facing Malone’s big elbow, he wasn’t intimidated at all!

Moreover, during Malone’s offensive, he retaliated with equally brutal moves, leading his teammates, playing even more villainous than the villain!

As for the Lakers fans denying post-game that it was fighting violence with violence, and calling it "executing justice"... Let that be seen as a joke.

Through recent performance, Zhang Hao let more fans in the North American Region know him, the game against the Utah Jazz made him even more popular? 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

...

Bad boy...

Zhang Hao looked at this adjective, feeling awkward but didn’t reject it too much.

The game against the Utah Jazz a big takeaway for him was discovering that villains must be combated with villains, relying purely on skill to defeat the opponent... it’s certainly nice, but he didn’t have the strength yet.

Achieving thus far was beyond his expectation, but to compete in skills against such superstars, not quite feasible.

Genuine superstars, if they lose, they lose, but facing players like Malone, he could only be more vicious than them!

Winning, extremely delightful, but even more delightful things happened post-game!

"Rookie Undergoing Baptism?" :

Specially signed player Zhang Hao shined brightly against the Utah Jazz, winning considerable favor from many fans post-game, but also sparked greater controversy.

Congratulations to the host on receiving the reward: Bronze Medal: Karl Malone’s Elbow (Unofficial King?)