Why is he suddenly acting all proud?

Teammates are quite puzzled, and the opponents are also confused by Zhang Hao’s celebratory gesture.

Zhang Hao has really tried hard to showcase his toughness, but because he looks young, unless someone deliberately targets him or holds preconceived notions, they see this as him being proud.

High schoolers are always a bit special, huh...

Joe Smith doesn’t like Zhang Hao anymore, aside from the initial envy, jealousy, and resentment, there’s also the grudge from that elbow. He wouldn’t care about being the instigator anyway, but Zhang Hao’s move leaves him baffled... He just feels Zhang Hao’s gestures make him want to hit him for some reason!

At the same time, he vaguely feels that Zhang Hao might retreat under pressure...

Joe Smith is quite unfortunate; originally, if Zhang Hao weren’t around, his rookie season’s impressive mid-range shot would have been commendable.

However, Zhang Hao’s mid-range shot is clearly a notch better, and not just that. With the more famous Zhang Hao present, people mentioning young players known for mid-range shots wouldn’t even think of Joe Smith, who is also a rookie.

But Zhang Hao can see it; today’s evaluation of Joe Smith’s mid-range shooting suddenly reminded him of this. As for why Zhang wasn’t showing toughness during the match against Garnett a few days ago... Garnett just doesn’t measure up.

When Garnett starts to toughen up, hey, turns out someone’s already tougher.

Back in the backcourt, Zhang Hao feels winning won’t be so easy; the personal skills of the opposing players are indeed quite strong.

And on his statistics, scoring isn’t as simple. The Warriors retreat quickly and have strong athletic capabilities, making counterattacks hard. In half-court play, Joe Smith doesn’t dare make big defensive moves against him anymore, but the double-team is tight.

Joe Smith not only resembles Garnett in build and playstyle, his defense is quite similar too. At this stage, he may be seen as a strengthened version of Garnett, and he’s doing a great job blocking Zhang’s positioning shots. Often, when Zhang receives the ball, Joe Smith is quick to get there.

This is somewhat like Garnett’s restraint on Nowitzki; at their peak, even when Garnett’s teammates were that bad, against Nowitzki with his star-studded team, their records could still be balanced. Who’s stronger isn’t easy to say, but in direct matchups, Garnett could usually make Nowitzki’s shooting, rebounding, and passing perform not as well as usual.

Tonight, BJ Armstrong’s open shots were great, Jerome Kersey was good at cutting in, and Joe Smith hit a jump shot from the free-throw line. With Spree once again ignoring Adelman’s offensive tactics and focusing on his one-on-one ball distribution, thanks to teammates hitting their shots upon receiving them, Spree posted 5 points and 3 assists in half a quarter, helping the Warriors score 16 points in half a quarter!

On the Lakers side, Zhang Hao scored 6 points in half a quarter, along with Campbell and Van Exel’s scoring, leading the Warriors by 1 point with a 17 to 16 score into the official timeout.

"Let’s think about how to create a leading advantage for the team first. Leave the task aside; a 17-game winning streak, if we don’t get it, going into the next game against the Bulls wouldn’t put us in a slump..."

Returning to the bench, Zhang Hao immediately made a decision.

Looking at the smug Ugly Nezha across, Zhang Hao sighed, a first-team all-defense player is no joke!

Without personally facing Spree, Zhang Hao wouldn’t know that the guy shouting "21 million US Dollars can’t keep a family fed" and causing campus chaos was so fierce when young!

The Warriors’ management must have cracked their heads, trading away Weber who fits Spree best, and also drove Old Nelson out of the team, otherwise these years should have been Spree’s journey from a first-team all-defense player to superstardom.

So strong! If it weren’t for Van Exel’s almost-lying-down backward three-pointer going in, their Lakers would have started trailing!

Among two-way stars, Zhang Hao recalled the players he’s faced since entering the NBA, excluding Stockton’s type, aside from Jordan, Zhang Hao thinks it’s Spree. Grant Hill doesn’t give Zhang Hao as strong a pressure.

"A person’s encounter might be even more important than their own capabilities... Damn it!"

Zhang Hao was thinking that Spree was finally going to rest, only to see Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin coming in!

"What kind of superstar backcourt is this? How can the outside rotation produce an 18-win 25-loss record? Even if it’s not a fit, don’t they know how to trade...? Oh, right, using Weber to trade for Guglielota, then trading Guglielota for Marshall halfway through the season, eventually turning Marshall into Big Fatty Miller...

Seems like this record is understandable after all..." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Del Harris also finds it troubling, the biggest hassle in playing against the Warriors is they have too many stars, and it was the Warriors themselves who messed up their inside lineup, otherwise they would have been a 50-win team even during Tim Hardaway’s two-year injury.

Looking at the league’s top tonnage player across from him... another player causing headaches.

"This Warriors team, even if they win games, won’t win many, yet why are they so hard to deal with?"

Del Harris’s thoughts were just like many other coaches in the league.

Suddenly, Del Harris thought of some clips he’d seen in the past...

On the other side, recalling how his defense against Spree wasn’t good and needed improvement, Zhang Hao felt a chill down his spine...