After getting up and washing up, Zhang Hao came to the outdoor basketball court to continue practicing his defensive footwork.

Recently, his defensive practice mainly includes three components: footwork movement when Campbell is substituted and he goes to the paint for defense, footwork for guarding a player as a starting small forward, and the details of switching defense and helping trap.

If all these skills are combined, it’s quite challenging to link them like Antonio McDyess or Garnett, but James Worthy doesn’t teach such complexity. His approach is to focus on single exercises, letting Zhang Hao accumulate experience gradually during games.

Yesterday they just had a game, and it was a home-and-away back-to-back. Magician won’t be training at the gym today, so James Worthy can rightfully take a day off, but Mr. Zhang doesn’t slack off and continues with his training.

Lately, his defensive progress is evident, with fewer jumps during perimeter switching, slowly developing qualified switching skills to maintain defensive interference.

After practicing under-the-basket lateral movements and using hand interference more during recovery defense instead of jumping carelessly, around seven, Zhang Hao heard a car driving into his yard.

"Who is it..."

Zhang Hao walked over and saw it was Mrs. Pierce’s car... meaning Pierce was here.

"Paul, training?"

"You’re up this early too! Didn’t you just have a game yesterday? God! You’ve progressed so quickly yet you still train so hard... oh, right, without such hard work, how could you surpass me so much... hey, let me finish!"

As Pierce started rambling, Zhang Hao directly headed towards the basketball court.

The useful info was heard: he’s here to train, and seeing Zhang Hao’s rapid progress, doesn’t want to fall behind.

After Zhang Hao practiced a bit more, Pierce parked, took a basketball from the warehouse beside the garage, and came to the court.

Pierce immediately wanted to start training, Zhang Hao said: "Warm up first."

Pierce was momentarily stunned, but didn’t refuse.

While warming up and watching Zhang Hao practice defensive footwork, Pierce asked: "Aix, one-on-one?"

"Alright."

"Oh, Aix, can’t you say more than two words? Like ’I’ve waited so long for you to say that’ or ’Are you ready to take on an NBA rookie?’... that’s more like it!"

Zhang Hao was forced to play along: "Are you ready to lose to me?"

"Hmph! Want to beat me? Although I don’t stand out or adapt easily to the NBA as you do, you’re far from beating me!"

"..."

Seeing Pierce’s smug attitude, Zhang Hao knew he shouldn’t have engaged.

After Pierce finished warming up, they started their long-awaited one-on-one battle.

At college, losing weight, increasing training intensity, and experiencing more adult games, Pierce’s progress is very apparent. His skills were already versatile by the end of high school, and his brother, who played in professional leagues, and his brother’s friends taught him varied but comprehensive techniques over the past decade. At the University of Kansas, a prestigious basketball school, he received more professional and targeted guidance, with more focused strengthening over this half-year period.

However, Zhang Hao’s improvement is even greater!

With reverse fadeaways and forcefully pushing past Pierce for a layup at the basket... these two moves allowed Zhang Hao to beat Pierce 10 to 6, without much difficulty.

Pierce had already expected such an outcome and wasn’t furious or demoralized after losing.

Sitting courtside drinking hot beverages brought by Aprile Clark, who had gotten up at some point, Pierce laughed: "Aix, you’re really a genius, improving so fast! Your post-up moves are learned from Jordan, right?"

"Mm." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Can’t you be a bit happier after winning against me?"

"I’m happy, but I’d like to wait until you join the NBA for our next duel to be truly happy."

"Dream on! I will become even stronger than you soon, wait for me at the Lakers! Then, I’ll lead you to a championship!"

Seeing Pierce’s confident demeanor, Zhang Hao doesn’t doubt that once in the NBA, if his teammates are strong enough, this old friend is indeed capable of leading a team to a championship and has the leadership aura.

However... Zhang Hao couldn’t help but ask: "Paul, are you sure you’d still want to join the Lakers in the future? Will you be a lifelong die-hard Lakers fan?"

"Of course! My love for the Lakers will never change! I will definitely be a Laker in the future!"

"..."

Though Zhang Hao tends to leave things hanging, Pierce won’t let the mood drop, quickly finding a new topic: "By the way, Aix, it’s your birthday in a few days, right?"

Onlooker Aprile Clark’s eyes lit up: "Yes! Aix, your 19th birthday is coming soon, then you won’t be an 18-year-old kid anymore, but a 19-year-old kid."

"..." Zhang Hao looked at these two friends, both already 19, wanting to hit them!

Magician had explained Zhang Hao’s actions of mimicking Malone’s foul during the game against the Utah Jazz with "He’s still an 18-year-old kid" in an interview yesterday. Now, these two are teasing him about it.

Pierce carried on regardless of Zhang Hao, saying: "But the day of your birthday, the Lakers are going to New York to play the Knicks, so we might not be able to celebrate Aix’s birthday."

"Oh..." Aprile Clark’s excitement dulled quite a bit.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Hao responded: "Getting two tickets from the Knicks shouldn’t be a problem... you want to ride the Lakers’ chartered plane?"