Chapter 803 - 251: Signs of Maturity (3)

If you add Barkley, who made 6 out of 13 shots to score 15 points and 14 boards, the two of them got 50 points. Everyone else combined only got 34 points...

Compared to Van Exel, Kenny Anderson didn’t play as well during the game against the SuperSonics.

Facing Payton’s defense, Kenny Anderson shot 3-for-12, scoring only 7 points with 6 assists. His low scoring was one thing, but when considering the time holding the ball, his offensive organization wasn’t as efficient as Zhang Hao’s.

Facing Payton who scored 18 points, 6 boards, 9 assists, and 3 steals, Kemp who scored 17 points, 14 boards, and Schramm who scored 29 points, the Lakers lost 84 to 93 away, suffering their 7th defeat of the season, making their record 27 wins, 7 losses.

...

...

On the morning of January 7th, Zhang Hao got up on time at 6:15, reviewed last night’s game, the early morning recap, and simulated training, planning the training schedule for the next six consecutive home games.

The focus was to find time to train crossover steps continuously for seven or eight hours every day like he did during the previous four consecutive home games.

There was a bit of frustration from losing the game.

However, even Barkley played very hard last night, battling Kemp neck and neck... Zhang Hao was still quite happy.

Because today is Mr. Zhang’s birthday, yesterday’s game, his teammates actually worked very hard, so did the defense, but the outside shooting just wouldn’t go in, what can you do?

By noon, back in Los Angeles, the good news arrived.

Today, besides being his birthday, it’s the finale of "Ultraman X"!

At noon, Pierce and the little girl, still on holiday, came to Zhang Hao’s house, and Zhang Hao also invited Kenny Anderson, Jason Williams, Barkley, O’Neal... and other teammates to his house for lunch.

Zhang Hao and Aprile Clark had discussed it earlier, hiring a chef for lunch.

After lunch, a group of people gathered around the TV to watch the "Ultraman X" finale broadcast on Time Warner Cable Sports.

O’Neal originally didn’t want to come, seeing Zhang Hao showing off the TV show he shot, felt like flipping out and leaving.

But!

O’Neal really envies him! He wants to be the protagonist in TV and movies!

But after coming to Los Angeles, although he contacted some Hollywood producers and directors, they were only willing to arrange a cameo for him.

Look at him...

Zhang Hao invited O’Neal over just to see his frustrated expression, the frustration yesterday from the Lakers being pressed down by the SuperSonics due to O’Neal’s absence finally dispersed.

Unlike O’Neal, most Lakers players aren’t interested in being a "superhero".

Still in college, Pierce isn’t interested in being a superhero either. If he were to be an actor, he’d want to act opposite women, not opposite monsters.

However, when Pierce considered acting opposite monsters, it felt kind of exciting...

...

January 7th and 8th, the Lakers have rest days.

A kid’s birthday could keep them happy for a long time, while an adult’s birthday comes and goes.

By the 8th, a prep day for the upcoming home games. The Lakers had arranged little training, focusing mostly on rest mid-season.

At 10:30 AM, after the two training sessions ended, Zhang Hao returned home and started training cross-step dribbling.

Training with a training card is a completely different feeling compared to watching videotapes to learn or having someone teach you.

As soon as he started today’s training, it seemed like his mind knows what to practice; after pondering the rest after a set of training moves, analyzing which moves from the previous set were not well executed...

After each hour of training, he can feel his progress!

The most direct is that by 7:00 PM, after finishing today’s 6-hour crossover dribbling training, Zhang Hao received a system notification that dribbling improved to 77!

Before, no matter how much he trained, dribbling didn’t improve past 76.

Zhang Hao wasn’t very concerned about this either, as initially, he wasn’t a dribbling type of player, and later, when he started strengthening his dribbling, he grew taller... having today’s dribbling is already quite good.

But since it can improve, he is, of course, very happy!

...

On January 9th, the Lakers’ first game day of the 6-game home stretch arrived, welcoming a challenge from the Vancouver Grizzlies.

This opponent is truly the worst team in the league in a literal sense.

Real bad teams like the 76ers have position overlaps, internal conflicts, and various issues; the Celtics were bad largely due to deliberate tanking; Spurs were helpless after David Robinson was out for the season, and even potentially affecting his career, so they tank to get Bo Duncan...

The Grizzlies are purely bad!

This game, Zhang Hao is quite focused on; the opponent has players like Sheriff Raheem with whom he is somewhat familiar.

In the evening, as the Lakers and Grizzlies game was about to begin, after the players entered the arena, Zhang Hao chatted with Raheem before the game.

The feeling Raheem gave to Zhang Hao was that of an exceptionally good rich young gentleman, the conversation was quite pleasant, Raheem is a well-mannered person, modest and low-key yet confident, he neither envies nor belittles himself over Zhang Hao’s superior skill currently despite being better back in high school, he was filled with nostalgia when talking about who’s who from their training camp...

But just as Zhang Hao and Raheem were chatting happily, the Grizzlies’ coach called Raheem away.

It seemed like just a normal pre-game routine of advising the new young core on how to play, but when the coach looked at Zhang Hao, it felt like he was being regarded as a thief!

The Grizzlies’ coach had no choice! As a team just entering their second season in the NBA, they are currently relying on Sheriff Raheem, their third pick, to lead the team to rise in the future. What if he gets bullied by Zhang Hao?

See what happened to the 76ers’ point guard top pick, too tragic!

Just as Zhang Hao was confused, a task notification appeared...