Chapter 843: Your New Nickname

Chapter 843: Chapter 263: Your New Nickname

Unable to stop the SuperSonics, the Lakers chose the simplest method—let’s see whose offense gives out first!

Zhang Hao, Barkley, and Kenny Anderson were tasked with alternating between Zhang Hao and Barkley in the post, while Kenny Anderson would be the support and take over when they needed a breather.

When either Zhang Hao or Barkley was playing isolation, the other would position at the high post on the opposite side, leaving the paint to Jason Williams to either crash the boards or finish off plays. Byron Scott stationed himself on the same side as the post player for support.

Simple and direct!

On defense, Zhang Hao didn’t try to guard Kemp anymore, scoring as he liked. As long as the Lakers outscored the opponents while he was on the court, it was fine. In this approach, his post-up scoring would surely outpace Payton’s.

With these issues solved, he could focus entirely on trying to win the game.

Kemp was truly fierce, except for that year against the eighth seed, his playoff stats were almost always better than the regular season. He treated the game against the Lakers like a playoff game and helped lead the team to a 16 to 17 score in the first part of the third quarter!

Zhang Hao and Barkley worked tirelessly, with Zhang Hao scoring 7 points and Barkley 5 points and 1 assist, only managing to trim one point from the deficit, trailing 75 to 84, still 9 points behind.

After the official timeout, Payton returned well-rested after sitting out half the quarter, ready to secure the victory with Kemp, seeing that the Lakers had benched Barkley and Kenny Anderson! This was their chance!

Then, the lineup of James Robinson, Brian Shaw, Zhang Hao, the Magician, and O’Neal continued to pound inside!

In the latter part of the third quarter, O’Neal focused on scoring, just using his power to grind through plays, ignoring everything else.

What does it mean to break ten skills with one force? O’Neal’s dominant post-ups truly gave the SuperSonics a taste of it.

The SuperSonics worked hard on offense and tried to find solutions on defense, but when O’Neal faced McIlwai, a couple of bumps would lead to a spin and hook shot, three bumps to a direct dunk. If double-teamed, he passed it out, with Zhang Hao and James Robinson available for shots, and Brian Shaw and the Magician as intermediaries.

After O’Neal had ground through several rounds and needed a break, just when the SuperSonics took a breath of relief, Zhang Hao took over again…

Both using bulldozer tactics, draining more energy than turnaround jump shots, Barkley and O’Neal needed breaks, and Zhang Hao seemed quite worn, but he didn’t show any signs of slowing, driving the SuperSonics crazy—Did he not care about how to play the fourth quarter?

Fortunately, the duo of Payton and Kemp was powerful, and the SuperSonics’ shooters were performing well tonight. Despite the Lakers scoring 18 points in the latter half of the third quarter, the SuperSonics also scored 13 points.

A single-quarter score of 35 to 29 saw the Lakers trail by just 93 to 97 after three quarters, cutting the deficit to 4 points!

…

O’Neal was still not fully adjusted to his career-high weight. While he could complete his usual plays with less power, he was not accustomed to it, leading to poor control. In the latter part of the third quarter, he attempted 6 post-ups, made 4 shots, issued 1 assist, was fouled once, and shot 4 for 3 with the free throws, gathering 8 points and 1 assist, indeed feeling quite exhausted.

Normally, within an average game including fouled free throws, O’Neal would average about 25 shooting attempts, with 6 to 10 being post-ups spread out; however, he concentrated nearly an entire game’s worth of post-ups within just this half of the quarter. Though efficient, by the end of the third quarter, he needed to sit and rest properly for a while.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers sent out Zhang Hao, Kenny Anderson, Barkley, Jason Williams, and Byron Scott.

On the SuperSonics side, Payton led the team for a while as George Karl let Kemp rest.

The Lakers started on offense with Barkley aggressively launching the attack, and Payton countered with a high post turnaround jump shot.

At first, Payton was able to hold his own against Barkley, even gaining a slight upper hand, with the fourth quarter starting at a 7 to 6 run, bringing the score to 104 to 109. After the first five possessions of the fourth quarter, the SuperSonics had extended their lead by one more point.

The Lakers attacked again. Seeing Barkley no longer calling for the ball but spreading the floor instead, keeping the threat of mid-range shots and offensive rebounds, the SuperSonics sensed an opportunity!

Payton was in excellent offensive form and was confident he could substantially hinder Kenny Anderson on defense; he felt the time was ripe to widen the gap again!

But… Barkley spreading the floor wasn’t to free up space for Kenny Anderson to break through but to allow Zhang Hao room to post up!

Everyone thought that, having scored 28 points by the end of the third quarter, most from post-ups with bulldozer tactics, Zhang Hao would surely be showing signs of fatigue by now?

However, Zhang Hao, having played 9 minutes in the third quarter and taken over post-ups after O’Neal did it 4 times, had already sweated through it!

Now, his physical condition was virtually identical to the beginning of the second half!

Getting closer to the basket makes scoring easier. This principle holds very true on a basketball court. Though the SuperSonics excelled with three-pointers in this era, threes are fundamentally in service of penetration, even in the small-ball era 20 years later. The core objective of shooting threes is still to create more space open!