Chapter 832 - 260: The Emotionless Old Fox

Currently, the Utah Jazz are leading the Western Conference with a record of 34 wins and 7 losses, followed by the Lakers at 32-8, the SuperSonics at 30-11 in third, the Blazers at 26-15 in fourth, the Minnesota Timberwolves at 22-18 in fifth, the Rockets at 21-20 in sixth, the Clippers at 18-22 in seventh, the Phoenix Suns at 18-23 in eighth, the Kings at 17-24 in ninth, and the Warriors at 15-26 in tenth.

This season’s record has left Zhang Hao speechless, and it’s not just in the West; the East is quite similar. Teams aiming for the championship have excellent records, while the team standings are shockingly bad.

It’s clear that some teams can’t even lose more games intentionally. Accidentally winning a few more games could transform them from bottom dwellers to playoff contenders!

That’s exactly what happened with the Warriors. During a stretch, they continuously encountered basement teams and went on a 6-1 run, blasting from a 9-25 record to 15-26, distancing themselves from being labeled as tanking teams.

However, the Warriors owner is quite unhappy. There are rumors circulating that the Warriors owner plans to fire Rick Adelman.

Being unable to coach and achieve good results, when it’s time to tank, Rick Adelman still doesn’t work!

As for the Clippers, they are considered one of the lower-middle teams in the league that are trying very hard to win games, and indeed, they have significantly improved this year, actively vying for playoff spots.

Their general manager, Elgin Baylor, thinks luck isn’t on his side, so he won’t involve himself in the Bo Duncan situation. If there’s a chance to make it to the playoffs, he’ll strive to achieve that. His maneuvers during this summer were genuinely excellent, extremely well done.

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On the night of January 19, at 7 PM, the Lakers’ first game of a four-game road trip against the Clippers commenced.

The Clippers’ three main scorers, Rodney Rogers, Roy Out, and Malik Hilly, performed exceptionally well. Rodney Rogers scored 26 points, Roy Out scored 21 points, and Malik Hilly scored 22 points with 4 assists. Undrafted guard Derrick Martin organized the offense exceptionally well tonight, recording 7 points and 14 assists. Using the explosive shooting touch restraint of the three major scorers, six Clippers players scored in double figures.

Derrick Martin, this undrafted player, is truly an inspirational story—going from being undrafted to signing a ten-day short contract, to a sophomore signing a six-year, $5 million US Dollar long-term deal to become a millionaire...

For the Lakers, Barkley was quite good tonight, following his season-high 29 points from the previous game, scoring 17 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, and dishing out 6 assists. His passing is very good after creating the threat, and Jason Williams’ insane performance of 11 points and 22 rebounds is the key.

With Barkley and Jason Williams combining for 31 rebounds and Zhang Hao’s 33 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block performance, these three grabbed a total of 40 rebounds.

The Clippers defense has always been weak, and they couldn’t grab rebounds, although they scored 106 points throughout the game. Still, they couldn’t beat the Lakers, which had Zhang Hao, Barkley, and Doug Christie combining for 70 points, winning steadily with a score of 114-106 over the Clippers.

Midseason, the Lakers’ record improved to 33 wins and 8 losses!

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The first away game of the Lakers’ four-game trip, if called an away game, wasn’t much different from a home game, except it was held at Los Angeles’ other arena with the Lakers not getting ticket revenue. The majority of the fans were still Lakers fans.

The Clippers’ owner is adept at making money. He typically doesn’t worry about selling tickets and raises prices when playing popular teams, like when playing the Lakers. The ticket prices were set as high as when the Lakers play the Pistons and were still selling out...

In the last game, Zhang Hao just achieved a triple-double, and the fans were eagerly expecting to see Zhang Hao organize the offense on the court.

But they did not see it at all; Del Harris didn’t arrange for Zhang Hao to organize the offense, instead letting Zhang Hao focus on scoring, counterattacking, and defending the paint.

Del Harris didn’t specifically mention Zhang Hao’s organizing of the offense during team meetings or preparations.

Zhang Hao has made great strides in passing, and Del Harris can see that.

But Del Harris is well aware that when facing other teams, Zhang Hao would find it hard to achieve as many assists as he did against the Pistons. The Pistons emphasize defensively against Zhang Hao to the point of fear. Although other teams will also emphasize Zhang Hao, it won’t be to such an extent.

Progress is visible, but it’s clearly not sufficient.

Primarily, there’s no need for Zhang Hao to do more things. In Del Harris’ view, aside from defending the rim, guarding speedy perimeter players, counterattacking, and shooting, anything else would be unnecessary for Zhang Hao.

Signing Brian Shaw, trading for Kenny Anderson and Barkley, and Magician choosing to renew... What’s the point? Isn’t it to find better passers to deliver passes to Zhang Hao and O’Neal?

When O’Neal is on a hiatus, Zhang Hao has to score, defend the rim, protect letting fast guards get easy points, and more. He’s already doing enough; why would everything be done by Zhang Hao alone? Then, why bring back so many stars?

If everything relies on one person, Pistons fans would solely rely on Grant Hill. Why bother to criticize Alan Houston for leaving for money?

Progress is a good thing, Zhang Hao’s improvement in passing, and Del Harris won’t hinder that. If he wants to pass during the game and it works, Del Harris won’t object.