One Year Left to Play

Chapter 575 - 176: Beating Them to Death with Respect_2

The Suns opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run, directly tying the game and forcing the Lakers to call a timeout.

However, the Suns’ counterattack ended there. After the timeout, Zhang Hao hit a turnaround fadeaway against Barkley for a 2+1 play. Then Van Exel made two consecutive close-range floaters, returning with a 7-0 run!

This 7-0 run crushed the Suns’ momentum.

Afterwards, the Lakers maintained their lead steadily, eventually winning 111-105 against the Suns in an exciting but secure fashion!

With 25 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 blocks, Zhang Hao achieved another 20+5+5 performance tonight. However, fans always feel there’s something slightly different about his 20+5+5 compared to others...

The game was very exciting, with some fans on-site feeling sorry for the veteran Barkley, as if they were witnessing Elgin Baylor’s unheard-of brilliance.

In this game, if the Suns hadn’t been hit by a 12-4 run midway through the second quarter, causing them to trail by 10 at halftime, they could’ve fully leveraged their fourth-quarter momentum to take the lead. Even if the Lakers responded fiercely, they would only have been chasing.

But the Lakers, after being hit by a burst, returned a 7-0 run, regaining the lead directly, rendering the Suns’ strong start to the second half and fourth quarter ineffective.

From this, it’s clear to see the difference between Zhang Hao and other rookies.

Too calm. Facing Barkley’s 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists with 2 steals in the first three quarters, Zhang Hao remained consistently calm, using a single turnaround fadeaway in the fourth quarter to blow the horn of the game-ending play, always exploiting his advantage without venturing into unfamiliar territory like Michael Finley when facing trouble.

From this, fans deeply understand how distinct Zhang Hao is compared to other rookies...

...

...

At the end of the season, whether it’s the battle for rankings or playoff spots, a single game can decide a lot of things.

After losing to the Lakers, the Suns’ hopes of claiming the sixth spot in the West became rather slim.

The Lakers, however, moved one game closer to clinching the number one seed in the West.

With 4 games left, after finishing the game against the Suns, the Lakers embarked on a three-game road trip.

On the 16th, 18th, and 20th, they played three consecutive away games against the Mavericks, Spurs, and Kings, and on the 21st returned home for a back-to-back against the Blazers to end the regular season.

With the mentality of winning every game, the Lakers, on April 15th, rested for a night in Dallas before challenging the Mavericks on the 16th.

The Mavericks have become increasingly interesting this season. Which team had the most tabloid news after the All-Star Weekend?

It wasn’t the Los Angeles Lakers or Clippers, nor the New York Knicks, not even the Bulls with tabloid giants Jordan, Rodman, and Pippen, but the Dallas 3J with their love triangle.

Zhang Hao was stunned when he saw the news about the Dallas 3J being exposed!

He had heard that the Dallas 3J broke up because of a woman.

But he thought it was at most the three chasing one girl, developing grudges among each other, not cooperating well, and then being traded by the Mavericks.

But after reading the news, he realized how wild African Americans in the United States can be...

On March 17th, Donnie Briscoe attended an awards gala in Dallas.

On the morning of the 18th, curious about why Donnie Briscoe had such a strong attraction for his two teammates and having focused on Briscoe for a while, Jim Jackson, who had fallen for her, didn’t want to miss the opportunity and visited Briscoe’s house in Dallas to confess his love.

Maybe he hit the spot. Although Briscoe didn’t accept his confession, her body was quite honest, and things escalated.

Near noon, after completing his "interview," Jim Jackson was told to go back and wait for news, as Briscoe needed to think about it.

Briscoe had lunch plans with someone. That someone was Kidd... They had a little fun during the day, using two balloons, but Kidd had to leave in the afternoon.

That evening, Jamal Mashburn, recovering from injury, came to spend the night at Briscoe’s house, as they had previously arranged.

This is quite normal in the United States, where a woman will test compatibility even if she hasn’t accepted a man yet.

Alone in the house, there’s a saying that thirty is wolf-like, forty is tiger-like, and Briscoe was in her wolf-like age, inevitably starting a fierce battle in the living room.

But who would have thought, Kidd and Jim Jackson, infatuated with Briscoe’s body, couldn’t resist coming again in the evening, arriving at her house together. The key point was, however, that Kidd had the key!

This day became the darkest for the Dallas 3J...

Since then, the Mavericks have been on a 15-game losing streak up to now!

The team, which had been hovering around a 50% win rate for quite a while, now faces a difficult path to the playoffs, initially suffering terrible records, yet providing limitless hope for Mavericks fans.

But this incident was captured by paparazzi who originally intended to shoot Grammy-winning Donnie Briscoe. In America... things are always peculiar; Donnie Briscoe actually became even more famous, while the Dallas 3J became the butt of jokes.

Zhang Hao initially assumed maliciously, but he never expected the Dallas 3J would truly need three men to satisfy one woman!