One Year Left to Play

Chapter 594: Chapter 182: A Legend Is Being Born! (Part 3)

Overall, the media narrative is consistent. When Mr. Zhang plays well, breaks such records, and becomes the key to winning, he is always praised. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Mention was made that the Lakers didn’t create an advantage in regulation time against the Kings, and there are hidden dangers and so on. Zhang Hao initially ignores this, knowing that this is exactly where the Lakers need to adjust next.

The first round is when the current Lakers roster adapts to the playoffs.

But knowing it is one thing, for now, it’s time to enjoy a little.

Finally, after the excitement, Zhang Hao feels a bit melancholy—"Are we the weakest 60-win team in history?"

Besides the news related to himself, Zhang Hao also saw the reports ignored from the other 3 games last night.

Those 3 games involved 6 teams facing off horribly!

The first game of each round in the playoffs is broadcast nationwide on TV, but last night the spotlight was stolen by one person alone.

Olajuwon put up a stat line of 21 points, 7 boards, 13 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks, helping Drexler score 41 points and Horace net 27 points, leading the Rockets to a 113-96 upset over the Utah Jazz.

The defending champions start a comeback mode for the second year in a row, yet couldn’t make the headlines!

Last night’s upsets were greater than the night before. Facing the East’s third-ranked Pacers, the Pistons won 98-85, the first game of the series in an upset.

Grant Hill shone in his playoff debut, grabbing 21 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals, but in the face of Zhang Hao’s single-game 40 points, it was overshadowed.

The East’s second Magic were quite solid, crushing the seventh-seed Hawks 112-90.

The Hawks game even had a detailed description, where in the first quarter due to excessive fouls, they committed 3 fouls in half a quarter. At the 11-15 mark during the first half quarter, inexplicably, they started hacking O’Neal, gifting him 10 free throws in a single period, resulting in O’Neal hitting 7 out of 10. The Hawks imploded on the spot.

...

As Zhang Hao ate breakfast, he was reading various newspapers analyzing his 40 points game, praising his personal performance, and by the way glancing at the media’s analysis of their insufficient strength or lacking ball-handling star status, which isn’t exactly negative, overall he felt quite pleased.

On the other hand, tonight at the Four Seasons Hotel in South Coast Miami, the unnamed number 23 who would be playing the second game of the series against the Heat was also looking for news early today.

With a pile of newspapers and several TVs, after searching all morning, he was upset: "Why is there no talk of Jordan’s successor this time? Why? Why!"

...

After finishing breakfast, Zhang Hao continued training at the gym.

After the first game, neither the Lakers coaching staff nor the players managed to relax, instead, they became even more tense than before the first game.

If it wasn’t for Zhang Hao’s 21 points outburst in the final quarter, the outcome wouldn’t be so certain.

Being number one in the West is certainly something to be especially happy about but being number one also represents additional pressure.

Like last season, in the bottom half of the playoffs, 48 wins and fifth in the West entering playoffs, the first round against 57-win Supersonic without any mental pressure, indifferent to winning or losing, they played freely, with a mentality that losing was normal but winning felt awesome, they crushed the Supersonic 3-1.

And this season, with 26 more wins in the first round, losing would truly mean societal death. freёweɓnovel.com

After yesterday’s game, the Lakers coaching staff were originally thinking about tomorrow’s game and preparing from a tactical perspective, but this morning, players who proactively went to the gym for training voluntarily requested tactical training in preparation.

Zhang Hao also wants to quickly practice the things thought out during last night’s preparation training with his teammates.

The focus is still on defense, offensively... honestly speaking last night’s offense wasn’t great, aside from two isolations, the rest lacked technical content, obviously it’s impossible to defend counter through the whole game, that would be exhausting, maintaining full-strength defense + counter-attack threat, a game might be played for 20-odd minutes at best.

Such a style is indeed inadvisable, only facing the Kings can they smoothly turn the tables.

James Worthy also arrived at the gym to guide the players’ training... mainly coaching Zhang Hao.

The Magician also played a guiding role.

This morning, when Zhang Hao arrived at the gym, he called James Worthy with many questions.

Mainly on how to reduce unnecessary movement on defense, which means making more precise judgments defensively, this is the most direct way to reduce the consumption during intense defensive plays.

As for the offense, if without technical foundation you can come up with solutions easily, then what’s the point of having techniques?

That can only be a step-by-step process, observing how to adjust and strengthen your offense through the game.

Also, to see if the coaching staff can come up with ways to enhance his offensive performance, provided the team can play better.

Otherwise, if his individual shooting opportunities increase while the team’s overall offense worsens, Mr. Zhang wouldn’t be willing either, it’s better to be a good decoy point.

By completing what’s determined feasible, in other words, strengthening defense, focusing on things within your capability and perfecting it to the best of your ability, this is the attitude a professional player should have.

After a day of interaction and training, Zhang Hao displayed some aspects that even James Worthy and the Magician, who already have the best possible impression of him, found incredible.

This rookie, after performing like that last night, is meticulously analyzing and summarizing what he did well and poorly in the game, and not just roughly, but very meticulously! To the extent that even a trainer group might not be able to research so thoroughly in one day!

As mentioned by the friendly channel Time Warner Cable Sports, both the Magician and James Worthy felt it—A legend is being born!