Chapter 569: Chapter 174: What Should I Do About My OK? (Part 2)
On the other hand, Garnett, with 3 out of 12 shots and scoring 8 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, which was pretty good. His performance might earn him an $80 million contract.
Seeing Zhang Hao score, Garnett became anxious. The next time he got the ball, regardless of the opportunity, he just thought about shooting, but the Lakers caught on to this point and targeted him.
Garnett’s ambition lasted for about two hours and three quarters of the game, then he started to shut down again in the final quarter.
Zhang Hao’s performance was 9 out of 16 shots for the first three quarters. He clocked out after three quarters, with the Lakers leading by 21 points at 79-58. The game entered garbage time.
Zhang Hao and Garnett, the former is recognized as the strongest player from the ’95 batch, and the latter is touted by the US media as having the highest potential of the ’95 batch, because, in terms of physical attributes, Garnett is even better than Zhang Hao.
This is the United States; Garnett is an African American and always gets some extra points.
This matchup attracted the attention of many teams interested in this batch of rookies with talent exceeding expectations, and many scouts came.
Originally, many expected that Garnett, facing the strongest of his batch, would explode, just like Zhang Hao does when furious against those superstars.
But unfortunately, Garnett slapped those media who eagerly anticipated his "talent" with reality.
...
The Lakers smoothly took down the Minnesota Timberwolves, moving a step closer to 60 wins, with a record of 59 wins and 16 losses!
Easily defeating the Timberwolves and scoring 24 to 8 to beat Garnett, Zhang Hao gained 15 days of life, feeling pretty good.
At this point, Zhang Hao didn’t have many complaints about the weird flight schedule... until the night of April 10th at 9:30...
On April 10th at 7 p.m., the Lakers arrived at the Denver Plateau to challenge the Nuggets.
After enduring a fierce brick-throwing battle, the Lakers still fell short.
The Lakers did fairly well this time, focusing on defense when shots didn’t go in successfully restricting the Nuggets to just 83 points the entire game, but the Lakers themselves went 33 for 84, shooting less than 40%.
The Lakers suffered a narrow defeat to the Nuggets at 78-83, barely having lost another game to the Spurs, trailing the Spurs with a record 60 wins and 16 losses by just half a game, their record changed to 59 wins and 17 losses, widening the gap with the Spurs to a full game again.
Thus, on April 12th, back at the home court, the Lakers gave the Warriors a fierce blow...
Once again, the Warriors were used as a punching bag, scoring 99 points in an away game against the Lakers, losing miserably to the Lakers with a score of 99 to 123.
The Warriors knew why; the Lakers had just lost to the Nuggets, a rare occasion this season witnessing Zhang Hao losing to a team with a player from the same draft class in the first eight picks, then they encountered a rampage of 35 shots, making 16 out of 35 including 3 out of 10 three-point shots, adding 7 out of 7 free throws to explosively score 42 points, 11 boards, 2 steals, and 3 blocks from Zhang Hao!
Tonight, Joe Smith scored 14 points, 9 boards looking rather good, but during the 34 minutes Zhang Hao played, most of the time was matched against him, throwing wildly over 20 times during the matchup... even if it was bricks, he kept throwing, surprisingly ending up pretty well, with a 45% shooting rate scoring 42 points...
Joe Smith was really in despair—"What did I do to deserve this?"
...
Finally, 60 wins!
During the game against the Warriors, seeing the number one pick from the same batch, Zhang Hao couldn’t help but think of the tragic moment in the previous game against the Nuggets, losing the game which led to the termination of the first task goal of the final mission "This is My Stage".
Against the Nuggets, he scored 16 points, higher than the second overall pick Antonio McDyess’s 9 points, but the team lost by 5 points, and the last two shots were his, yet the point difference was 5 points instead of a single shot solving the problem, playing 41 minutes he continuously previewed a certain number 8 player possibly entering the NBA, at the crucial moment as a result of him the Lakers didn’t score a single point.
Though the teammates didn’t blame him as a rookie, the media merely teased "Isn’t it that you can’t score at the decisive moments?", but he was really furious, missing out on a 10-day lifeline reward after wrecking fellow rookies in the top 8 picks!
Fortunately, it’s already the end of the season, otherwise, he would have been heartbroken.
Thus, while facing the Warriors who had overall poor defense, where his Lakers team had a rebound advantage, he went on a throwing spree, thoroughly venting out.
Then, he discovered that he really broke Jordan’s record...
Achieving 60 wins overnight and surpassing Jordan, he once again topped the headlines of various media after his "Decision 2".
The morning after finishing the game against the Warriors, Zhang Hao woke up to see the news praising him again, feeling extremely joyful.
Playing against the Nuggets and Warriors were originally his last two encounters of the season with fellow rookies in the top 8 picks, losing out on a 20-day lifeline reward which was really unwilling, quite heartbroken, but breaking Jordan’s record made it less painful.
Last night’s feeling of seemingly truly being dominated by the number 8 jersey... Thinking about it was quite exciting, it truly made him unable to maintain a calm state as usual, to throw like that without necessity, he really couldn’t have achieved that.
It’s not that he couldn’t shoot that much, but that simply wasn’t his style, it’s just that the Warriors’ inside was only defended by Joe Smith, while others didn’t stand a chance.
"Another minor goal:
Goal: Special signing player Zhang Hao assists the Lakers in achieving at least 60 wins in the 1995-1996 season. (Lakers current record is 60 wins and 17 losses, completed)
Congratulations to the host for obtaining a progressive reward: one top-tier star experience card.
