Zhang Hao grabbed the ball at the free throw line, took a step, and soared for a dunk!

"Dunk Master (Bronze) activated..."

Watching Zhang Hao land and turn back to defense with a face of indifference as if completing a routine dunk, the cheers in the venue continued!

Zhang Hao’s exaggerated counterattack, which the fans had rarely seen before, and the Lakers players were all hyped, reaching a peak of emotion when this came out!

Hit them!

Brutal defense, who can’t do it?

After these two rounds, the teams truly began a combat-style battle.

Before, the Lakers were always thinking about creating better offensive opportunities; even their defense was conventional to reduce their side’s exhaustion.

Now, the Lakers players didn’t care anymore, under the spiritual leadership of a certain anonymous No. 8 rookie, with Campbell and Doug Christie leading inside and outside, they started the combat mode!

Again, it was the Heat’s offense. Under George Lynch’s desperate defense, Owens missed a close-range jumper!

Under the basket, Zhang Hao had retracted, tangled arm in arm with Moning.

Moning had the upper hand, but he couldn’t straightforwardly elbow and push away like bullying Jason Williams!

Zhang Hao hindered Moning a bit more, then Campbell moved to the right side of the three-second zone and got the defensive rebound.

Seeing Zhang Hao desperate in his combat with Moning, the fans loudly cheered again!

That’s Moning! Although Lakers fans don’t think much of the Heat, nor do they particularly like or dislike Moning, they’re well aware of Moning’s strength, as he’s one of the league’s top four centers, ranked fifth.

Despite Zhang Hao being squeezed by Moning’s strength until his body tilted, he managed to withstand it and helped Campbell secure the defensive rebound. How could the fans not cheer?

The brutal confrontation led to continual misses for both sides. Over the next five possessions, each team scored only one field goal, and had two free throws, Zhang Hao making 1 out of 2, Moning missing both, leaving the score at 34 to 35, with the Lakers trailing by 1 point.

The brutal combat brought not only misses but also a sense of powder keg readiness.

Everyone was sweaty and sore from the combat, leading to anger and dissatisfaction, resulting in more extra actions from both teams as they played.

The tension gradually escalated!

Having played a decent half-quarter offensively, in the latter part of the second quarter the teams reverted to the scoring status of the opening, trending even worse than the first quarter!

With confrontation comes winning or losing, while other positions are manageable, true desperate combat made little difference and the action at the power forward position was exceptionally intense!

At 10:58 of the second quarter, after more than 4 minutes, the teams scored 6 and 5 points. Finally, Zhang Hao found the chance to attack the basket!

Sedale-Srte rushed inside, drawing Moning’s defense before passing to Doug Christie, who was positioned to receive at the right side of the free throw line. Zhang Hao, locked in a fight on the left mid-range with Kurt Thomas, anticipated the ball movement as soon as Sedale-Srte rushed inside and cut in first!

Kurt Thomas was tightly guarding, but Zhang Hao received the ball on the left side of the three-second zone and used his force to shove Kurt Thomas aside. Meanwhile, Campbell was strenuously holding off Moning as Zhang Hao jumped before Moning could get back into position!

Seeing this, Moning stopped his attempt to retreat into the inside. Going in now meant he would merely be additional scenery, even willingly so.

As Zhang Hao leaped high, holding the ball above his head about to slam it down and as the crowd started to cheer wildly, an arm entangled around Zhang Hao’s neck!

"NO..."

The moment Zhang Hao felt the breathlessness, he heard the shocked cries from the spectators outside the baseline!

"Ah..."

A second later, a piercing scream penetrated the ears of nearby people.

"Ah..."

With a short interval, another piercing scream resounded.

Fans on-site stood up instantly, whether in shock or shouting curses...

"Cough cough cough..."

Then a series of coughs ensued... accompanied by an apparently desperate scream as if trying to say something but unable to utter a word!

The venue suddenly turned quiet, only the sounds of coughing and screaming audible.

The players from both teams didn’t react immediately, but the referee did, quickly rushing over to prevent the conflict from escalating, prevent fights, at least prevent full-blown chaos.

The officiating main referee now regretted allowing the confrontation to escalate. Referees also have penalty tendencies, and Steve Javie, tonight’s main referee, favored seeing matches filled with confrontations. He was indeed the referee in charge of the Bad Boys team matches back then.

The league arranged Steve Javie as the referee for Heat’s games, he truly didn’t expect the Lakers noble team would resort to a combative, eye-for-eye playstyle with the Heat, leading to a player losing control during the game!

Lakers players reacted, already preparing to deal with Kurt Thomas.

Heat players, shocked at Kurt Thomas’s dirty actions, were also poised to assist.

But ultimately, everyone’s actions came to a halt...

The moment arrived so fast! They saw Zhang Hao pulled down by Kurt Thomas’s malicious foul yet somehow, Kurt Thomas ended up being the one underneath, with Zhang Hao over him!

Zhang Hao clutched his neck, flipped onto the floor, coughing, while Kurt Thomas lay on the floor twisting his waist and clutching his neck, wailing painfully...

What’s going on here?

How does the one who fouled viciously seem worse off?