Chapter 806 - 253: Finally Mastered the Crossover Dribble Move!

Throughout the game, Raheem played for 29 minutes. In the first quarter, when his stamina was good for those 10 minutes, he managed to get 6 free throws and made 4 of them. But it wasn’t easy to get them. With 0 for 3 from the field and 2 turnovers in the first quarter, it was clear how hard Raheem had to work for good shooting opportunities. But the Lakers were prepared, and if they couldn’t defend, they simply committed a foul.

In this situation, the consumption couldn’t be small!

In the next three quarters, during 19 minutes, he only got 4 free throws, making 3 of them. Although he scored a field goal, it was still a three-pointer from the corner...

Even in the garbage time of the fourth quarter, Ben Wallace and Jason Williams didn’t spare Raheem!

Shooting 1 for 13, with 7 out of 10 free throws, Raheem ended up with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 turnovers, and 3 personal fouls.

After playing a little over 3 minutes in the first half of the fourth quarter, Raheem was substituted out.

There was no surprise in the score; the Lakers led 70 to 58 after three quarters by 12 points. When Raheem was substituted out, the score was 78 to 64, with the Lakers leading by 14 points.

The point differential wasn’t particularly big, but for any team that wants to win, they would have put in their main players to fight at this time.

But the Grizzlies’ head coach didn’t want to win, not even considering putting the young core on the court to break through.

The sophomore player, who just turned 20 on the opposite side, was simply a demon!

Raheem sat on the sidelines, pinching himself several times, wanting so much to wake up from the nightmare.

However, this wasn’t a nightmare; it was a nightmare coming true...

Too excessive!

Raheem felt that the group on the opposing side was simply too excessive!

He wasn’t Iverson, he hadn’t done anything, he was low-key and humble, he didn’t even laugh when he saw Barkley’s appearance before the game...

Not just the Grizzlies players and coaches, the fans on site also thought Zhang Hao was really... The fans didn’t know how to describe Zhang Hao’s dark sense of humor.

Unlike other stars who like to bully young players, others just bully a little, but Zhang Hao wants to play young players until they collapse!

But when their own team wins and avoids a losing streak, seeing this scene from the sidelines, although feeling a little sorry for the rookie of the visiting team, the process was really interesting...

...

The final score of the Lakers vs Grizzlies game was 98 to 81, with the Lakers easily securing the victory, improving their record to 28 wins and 7 losses.

The final viewership of this game surprised Time Warner, as it was higher than the other game broadcast by the American Cable TV Station between the Utah Jazz and the SuperSonics!

Initially, the paid viewership for the Lakers vs Grizzlies game was average, typical of the paid viewership when the Lakers face an opponent that isn’t a popular team. It wasn’t bad though, with almost 3 million advance pay-per-view subscriptions, and the game was priced at $1.99, yielding quite a decent return.

But compared to nearly 5 million pay-per-view subscriptions for the Jazz vs SuperSonics game, there was a big gap, and the Jazz vs SuperSonics game was priced at $2.99.

Once the game started, there would definitely be an increase in pay-per-view numbers. Not every viewer watching the game would make an advance reservation.

Of course, generally speaking, popular games not only have higher advance pay-per-view numbers, but the increase after the game starts is also greater, usually seeing about a twenty percent increase in pay-per-view numbers after the game starts.

However, tonight’s situation was unusual. After the Lakers vs Grizzlies game started, the pay-per-view numbers more than doubled!

Ultimately, the pay-per-view numbers for the Lakers vs Grizzlies game reached 7.22 million, while the Jazz vs SuperSonics game was 6.91 million!

Time Warner didn’t anticipate such a situation, that a second-place Western team playing the bottom-ranked team in the league would have a higher viewership than a game between the first and third place Western teams!

Moreover, there wasn’t any explosive individual performance; Zhang Hao only played for 31 minutes, shooting 15 for 24, including 2 out of 4 three-pointers, and 4 out of 5 free throws, casually scoring 36 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocks, and 4 steals, with the game never being very intense. Even though the Lakers’ overall offense was average, they crushed from start to finish.

But the process... Zhang Hao’s 3 blocks and 4 steals included 2 blocks against Raheem, and also 3 steals against Raheem!

This kind of viewership indicates that the game’s popularity was on the rise, with post-game hype surpassing the already popular Jazz vs SuperSonics game!

Zhang Hao’s penchant for bullying his fellow high-draft rookies is no longer a secret.

But for bullying rookies, Zhang Hao had not previously exhibited this kind of dark interest.

For example, when playing against the Timberwolves, Zhang Hao didn’t target Marbury, focusing instead on Garnett. At the start of the season against the Raptors, only Damon Stoudamire was targeted.

However, after tormenting Iverson, Zhang Hao seemed to have opened a new world and found even more interesting things, and now Raheem was suffering as well.

Moreover, Raheem’s level of misery was no less than Iverson’s!

Shooting 1 for 13 in total, with 5 turnovers, if it weren’t for making a three-pointer, he would have been Gao Yuanyuan!

Previously, Zhang Hao bullied players of his own generation by himself, but now, he’s getting his teammates involved!

The media and fans have no evidence proving that Zhang Hao asked his teammates to target Raheem, but they still suspect it!

Raheem, currently the best-performing frontcourt player from the 96 draft class, and Iverson, the best-performing backcourt player from the same class, both have it so rough, what about the other talented rookies...