novelraw Chapter 397 - 118: Malone the Bully!
Chapter 397 - 118: Malone the Bully!
The game is about to start, and the starting players from both teams are on the court.
The Lakers’ starting lineup is set: Van Exel, Anthony Peeler, Zhang Hao, the Magician, and Campbell are on the floor.
The Utah Jazz have sent out Stockton, Horace, Chris Morris, Malone, and Felton Spencer as their starting lineup.
Zhang Hao approaches the center circle to prepare for the jump ball. As for tasks, since the goal is still unknown, there’s no need to overthink it. When it’s time to trigger, it will happen naturally. If it doesn’t trigger, just treat it as if there’s no task—thinking too much about it is just pointless.
Looking at Felton Spencer across the court, he’s different—not the super meat shield Ostertag from the last encounter with the Brooklyn Nets.
Spencer, 213 cm tall and weighing 120 kg, is also a big meat shield, averaging 5.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
At 7:30 in the evening, the referee blows the whistle on time to start the game and tosses the ball into the air... Zhang Hao jumps high and taps the ball backward first...
The Lakers are on the attack first!
After landing, Zhang Hao immediately bypasses the opposing center and rushes towards the opponent’s basket, starting with a fast break!
"Single Rider (Gold) triggered..."
But he is blocked by the prepared Malone!
Malone is not as arrogant as David Robinson and did thorough research on Zhang Hao, the popular rookie, before the game, preparing for Zhang Hao’s opening fast break.
A rough and fierce block by Malone, along with a sidestep, nearly knocked Zhang Hao out of breath when his chest collided with Malone’s arm!
With the opening attack blocked, Zhang Hao can only give up, and the Lakers fall into a half-court offense.
After the game began, Zhang Hao encountered trouble.
Since joining the Lakers, Zhang Hao has faced strong teams like the Bulls and Spurs. Although both teams paid attention to him and had targeted defenses, they were ultimately more wary of his ability to disrupt with off-ball shots, always thinking about comprehensive defense, so he just needed a bit of patience to get opportunities.
Perhaps it was because Zhang Hao’s fame wasn’t as big as it is now, and he didn’t pose as strong a threat to the opponents.
The Utah Jazz’s defense is different from those two top teams, they’ve locked their sights on Zhang Hao!
Malone’s physical confrontation, Chris Morris’s pursuit, Spencer standing under the basket without jumping—wherever he went on the three-point line, they followed him relentlessly.
Pushing and pulling, rough actions... It felt like they were defending him as a real superstar!
This kind of treatment was usually reserved for inside players like Olajuwon, David Robinson, Ewing, O’Neal, Moning when they played against the Utah Jazz!
The thing Zhang Hao felt most deeply was the Utah Jazz’s control of the "whether to double-team early" aspect—utilizing their home-court advantage and rules very well. Many of their defenses were in a gray area; in a different arena, the Utah Jazz might have been penalized for many early double-team violations, but not here in Salt Lake City—nothing was called!
The Utah Jazz’s offense was very strong, using Stockton and Malone’s pick-and-roll cooperation to easily create scoring opportunities at the start.
And the one who continuously scored at the start wasn’t Malone but Stockton, who looked like an ordinary middle-aged man!
After three points from a pick-and-roll, two mid-range shots from pick-and-roll—Stockton started with 7 straight points, then assisted Chris Morris for a three-pointer, and passed to Horace, who further passed to Malone for a baseline jump shot... The Utah Jazz opened with a 12-point run! Scored on all five possessions!
The Utah Jazz’s average shooting percentage this season reached 49%, a bit lower than the Pacers and SuperSonics but even higher than the Bulls.
The reason why their scoring is lower than these three teams is because their pace is super slow! Their ability to control the tempo is extremely strong, and their seemingly cumbersome lineup has extraordinary abilities in fast-break defense and transition defense coordination, with Stockton, who seems neither fast nor strong, playing a crucial role in limiting Van Exel’s speed; sometimes Zhang Hao already had an opportunity on transition, but Van Exel couldn’t pass the ball!
Malone also did an excellent job defending the Magician’s passes when counterattacking.
The Lakers initially planned not to worry about whether the opponent scored, intending to accelerate with their plays, but the Utah Jazz were well-prepared for this!
With years of cooperation and the experienced team defense ability built around the dual-core system coached by Sloan for many years, the Lakers almost had to resort to half-court offense.
Finding it hard to get open shots, unable to drive in, fast breaks were locked down... Zhang Hao played for over 3 minutes after the start, and except for jump balls and inbound passes, he barely got any chance to touch the ball!
Zhang Hao had no opportunities, but fortunately, the Magician was very serious tonight, more so than when playing against Jordan, taking advantage of Zhang Hao’s threat and seizing the moment to score 5 consecutive points at the start. He also created a three-point opportunity for Anthony Peeler and a close-range baseline jump shot for Campbell, both of which were seized.
During this time, Zhang Hao, who found out that the defense against him was particularly fierce, actively created opportunities to distract the opponent’s defense, and the Magician made good use of this.
At the start, the Lakers made 5 out of 4 shots, scoring 11 points and firmly holding onto the score.
Finally, with the Lakers double-teaming Malone and blocking Stockton’s pick-and-roll shots, Horace’s three-point attempt after receiving the ball missed, breaking the Utah Jazz’s 12-point streak!