One Year Left to Play

Chapter 551 - 168: Men in Suits Are Never Good Guys! (2)

O’Neal was just thinking to himself, "The defense is still terrible," when he heard another sentence from the side.

"Your boss can’t defend anymore, you should go out and help! Can’t help at all, no wonder Olajuwon swept you."

Even Campbell couldn’t take it anymore and sprinted back, thinking how can someone who usually doesn’t talk say something that makes even teammates feel like punching him?

That’s too harsh!

Even Campbell wanted to step in, and on O’Neal’s side, he was about to explode!

Once up front, he continued calling for the ball to go one-on-one!

Shouldn’t be going one-on-one now, should be running back and forth to tire out that big body over there, right? Anfernee Hardaway still passed it over.

Campbell put in all his effort on defense... He definitely couldn’t defend, what he needed to do was tire them out and disturb them as much as possible.

As long as O’Neal doesn’t have enough energy to do a dunk, and uses a hook shot instead, there’s a chance to interfere.

There’s no official league stats, but according to the media, O’Neal played 28 games before the All-Star weekend this season, averaging 3.3 dunks per game, the highest in the league, but in games with 20+ shot attempts... slowly tire him out!

O’Neal got the ball and started going one-on-one, decisively pushing into the paint again, Zhang Hao once again shrank back from the free throw line.

In O’Neal’s view, Zhang Hao was once again waiting for the moment he gets under the basket for a dunk to try and block him. He wasn’t thinking of a number 24 jersey switch, turned and passed the ball to the top of the arc as Zhang Hao approached!

Anfernee Hardaway was about to shout "Pashmi" when he saw the ball had already been passed over. He thought O’Neal was finally getting serious, received the ball and took a long step, and shot a long two-pointer... Wide open, and it’s in!

"Oh, as expected your boss is impressive, oh no, Penny is scoring again, we’re in some danger, need to work harder!"

Just as Anfernee Hardaway made the shot, Zhang Hao started "talking to himself", and went to get the ball for the inbounds pass right after.

Campbell felt he should wear earplugs while playing...

This rookie gentleman of ours, no matter if others play well or not, no matter what they do, he can always find something to criticize.

It’s just ridiculous!

He felt he definitely shouldn’t become an enemy of this gentleman, it might be more painful than retiring on the spot!

However, he still had to help this gentleman deal with O’Neal...

Life is so bleak... let’s just take solace in wearing O’Neal out.

O’Neal’s mouth was completely shut, had a gloomy face, and ran back silently.

After trash-talking, Zhang Hao temporarily stopped focusing on O’Neal, riling up O’Neal is related to the game, but separate from playing the game.

When it’s time to defend with all effort, do it fully, and focus on offense when attacking.

With Horace Grant, Zhang Hao proactively cut to the basket, used a Campbell screen to try and slip out from the left side of the key area for a shot opportunity.

O’Neal immediately switched to defend Zhang Hao, meanwhile, Van Exel made a right-side breakthrough!

Horace Grant was initially planning to help defend Van Exel and at the same time with O’Neal to block passing lanes to the paint and weak side left. Who would have thought that usually lazy on off-ball screens, O’Neal suddenly became serious?

This level of effort is a good thing, but this was not the right way to defend, Horace Grant decisively made a choice, didn’t dare to expand, only switching to prevent Campbell from receiving the ball.

For Zhang Hao, seeing Van Exel get an open chance was exciting... but Van Exel was too careless when he shot without defense! After so long of observation, although not as keen as Jason Williams in this regard, Zhang Hao also realized that Van Exel’s shooting arm extension speed after releasing the ball was too quick... too much force!

In the details, Zhang Hao did not have the same grasp as Jason Williams, but he had some impressions of the general brick direction of Van Exel’s shots, and following those impressions, just as the ball started to come down, Zhang Hao had already turned to move to the rebound spot...

Sure enough, it was a miss! Not guessing wrong, Zhang Hao got to the rebound spot first, then a huge force came from the side... Although O’Neal was a step slow, he also judged the rebound spot the moment the ball hit the rim, and came in!

Just when Zhang Hao felt he couldn’t hold it, suddenly he felt another force emerge... just in time to hold off O’Neal!

"Rebound Protector (Bronze) triggered,"

Pretty lucky, at the moment of reaching the rebound spot first, the quarter-chance triggered the "Rebound Protector"!

Being in position first and securing it, Zhang Hao definitely jumped up first, shooting up towards the ball with a wild poke...

It was really a random poke, even though he held his ground, it was just holding ground, during the jump, his body was leaning, the bonus only helped maintain that initial hold; when he encountered O’Neal mid-air, Zhang Hao couldn’t hold on, got bumped and flew...

Piaji, he fell hard to the floor, Zhang Hao deeply felt O’Neal’s brute strength! Even if he’s not at his peak, only 24 years old, it’s still terrifying to the extreme!

The referee’s whistle blew, O’Neal fouled on the rebound!

O’Neal was stunned, feeling incredible that the force Zhang Hao used to block him was unnaturally strong, just like Campbell boxing him out. Naturally unwilling to lose out, when Zhang Hao jumped, he also jumped, but this time after such fierce contact, Zhang Hao suddenly seemed like those ordinary agile 100-kilogram interior players, though a bit stronger, was still easily bumped away!