The fans at the scene had the strongest senses. As soon as Dell Curry dunked, Zhang Hao appeared under the opponent's basket like a ghost and completed the dunk.
The fans who noticed that Zhang Hao overtook the opposing defender Antoine Lyles and left him far behind felt dazzled!
Many people know that Zhang Hao can jump, mainly because he was selected in the NBA lottery. After he was selected in the high school dunk contest a few months ago, it was mentioned many times by the media. More NBA fans learned about this. Nets fans naturally know that their rookie won the dunk contest in high school.
It’s just that Zhang Hao grew a few centimeters taller after being selected. In the physical data released by the Nets, Zhang Hao has the height and wingspan of a real power forward. His jumping ability may not be affected too much, but his speed should be affected by growing taller, right?
However, it seems that there is nothing at all! Although they don't know whether Zhang Hao was fast in high school, if Zhang Hao's speed is affected by his height growth, how fast must he have been in high school?
Zhang Hao's counterattack acceleration just now was simply too fast! It's no problem to describe it as outrageous.
After the dunk, Zhang Hao ran back to the backcourt again in a low-key manner, ready to defend.
He really wanted to keep a low profile, and he changed hands in the air only because he was afraid that his right-handed dunk would affect his touch.
His teammates saw his dunk during the training game and thought it was very low-key.
But opponents and fans at the scene don't think so...
The players on the Hornets team who happened to see Zhang Hao's counterattack became interested in Zhang Hao's amazing counterattack, and the fans at the scene also had a higher opinion of their high school rookie.
Dell Curry was a well-known college talent 10 years ago. If he hadn't broken his leg in his freshman year, he would have had a chance to be selected to the All-American first team in all three sports: football, baseball, and basketball. But even if he gave up football, he was selected in the first round of the top 10 in both baseball and basketball. To this day, he is still a figure that fans occasionally mention when they mention talent.
Zhang Hao is a rookie, a high school rookie at that, and he is competing against Dell Curry. The opponent seems to be serious. How can Nets fans not be excited?
In a preseason game, Zhang Hao made the atmosphere of the fans at the scene look like the playoffs. Those who didn't know would think it was two superstars competing against each other. But when they looked, they saw that it was two pitchers, one of whom was a rookie...
In addition to running and shooting, Zhang Hao also tried very hard to defend and observed Dell Curry's playing style and habits. Gradually, he began to find the right position and the time to double-team. Gradually, even if Dell Curry was prepared, he was disturbed by Zhang Hao's assist defense.
After all, Dell Curry is only a part-time point guard. What he is best at is running without the ball, catching the ball and shooting, and cutting into the basket. He has been developing in this direction for many years. His ball-holding style of play is relatively average. It's okay against Kenny Anderson, but he's really not good against Charles, not to mention that he has Zhang Hao to help.
The fans at the scene were pleasantly surprised to find that not only did Zhang Hao compete against Dell Curry, but he also had a slight advantage!
Dell Curry is the best sixth man and the league's top off-ball shooter!
As for Dell Curry, a pitcher, who was at a disadvantage because he held the ball and played one-on-one... Nets fans don't care!
When Zhang Hao wants to shoot, he has Charles to help him, but with Dell Curry's current teammates, he has to do it alone. The Hornets' head coach is also very casual in changing players. Anyway, except for a few main players, the other players are just at that level. Dell Curry, the veteran who is at the top of the team's scoring list, wants to play around, so their head coach Alan Bristow lets him do it.
Bristow joined the Hornets as an assistant coach in 1988 and later became the head coach. Dell Curry also transferred to the Hornets in 1988. The two have a very good relationship. Bristow will still give Dell Curry this face.
However, the more the game went on, the more miserable Dell Curry felt!
They didn't defend Zhang Hao well. It was difficult to defend against a shooter without the ball. His teammates on the court were not very good at defense. They were all fringe players. They even wanted to defeat two famous players, Charles and Gilliam. Zhang Hao was having a great time shooting.
On the other hand, Dell Curry couldn't beat Charles' one-on-one defense and Zhang Hao's double-team!
If he had Boggs, would he be afraid of Zhang Hao? But Boggs was out, and Zhang Hao had Charles!
Dell Curry is angry!
"Young people have no moral principles!"
…
After the official timeout in the second quarter, the scoring gap between Zhang Hao and Dell Curry gradually widened!
Moreover, because Zhang Hao shot more easily, the Nets' overall scoring became easier. When the Hornets players on the court began to notice that Zhang Hao's mid-range shooting accuracy far exceeded expectations and began to pay attention to defending Zhang Hao, Gilliam, who had not been replaced, seized the opportunity to continuously attack the basket. While the scoring gap between Zhang Hao and Dell Curry widened, the Nets overtook the score.
At the end of the first half, the Nets led the Hornets by 8 points, 62 to 54, and went into the halftime break.
Zhang Hao played for 18 minutes in the first half, made 11 of 18 shots, scored 25 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. He held the ball for only 26 seconds and dribbled the ball only twice. These two dribbles were not to complete an attack, but to dribble the ball, only twice!
In the entire second quarter, Zhang Hao made 7 of 11 shots, 5 mid-range shots, two dunks, and 3 of 4 free throws, scoring 17 points!
17 points in a single quarter, although it was a preseason game, it also made the fans at the scene excited!
This rookie has something!
The morale of the Nets team was boosted by Zhang Hao, and they became more and more excited as the game went on.
Compared to the Hornets who didn't care about the outcome of the preseason game at all, Dell Curry played for 18 minutes in the first half and scored 15 points and 4 assists. On the way back to the locker room, he was laughed at and teased by his teammates. The Nets players also smiled, but they were discussing how to play in the second half. They wanted to win!
The Nets players don't care about winning or losing because they have few chances to win. Last year, with Coleman, they only had a record of 30 wins and 52 losses. Without Coleman, and with Coleman replaced by a bunch of useless players, the media predicts that the Nets will have less than 20 wins in the new season. They are a strong contender for the No. 1 pick, so they naturally have an excuse if they lose, and there is no pressure of winning or losing.
But when there is a chance to win , even if it is just a preseason game, the Nets players want to win!
Randy Whitman seemed to feel that the team was a little different, seemed to have become more positive and more motivated, and no longer as completely stagnant as it was last season.
Obviously, this change was brought about by Zhang Hao.
Assistant coach Randy Whitman could feel Zhang Hao's passion for the game.
But the change was very small, very small, so small that it was almost negligible, because it could only be seen when they overtook the score and gained an advantage. This was just an ordinary preseason game.
In Randy Whitman's opinion, Zhang Hao played so well in the first half. As an assistant coach, he knew very well that the team's two point guards were helping Zhang Hao. Other positions in their team were not very good, but the point guards were absolutely outstanding. Looking at the entire league, their point guard line is first-class. The opponents had not defended seriously since the rotation phase after the first official timeout.
The combination of these two factors, plus the fact that Zhang Hao is really good at mid-range shooting and has good awareness, allowed him to perform so well.
In the second half, Randy Whitman did not intend to let Zhang Hao continue to monopolize the limelight. When it came to the real game, it was obviously not a good thing to keep feeding the ball to Zhang Hao and letting him shoot alone. It was even less good for the cultivation of Zhang Hao's playing habits. A pitcher without the ball should do what a pitcher without the ball should do.
Zhang Hao was substituted in more than half of the third quarter to help Kenny Anderson, slipping to the baseline or restraining the opponent in the mid-range to help his teammates score.
At this time, the "knowing too much" that Zhang Hao "disdained" played a role, mainly in his learning of assisting defense on the defensive end.
He found that knowing more running routes was very useful when analyzing the opponent's movement tendencies!
If all else fails, there will always be light in the west. Zhang Hao feels that knowledge is something that can always be used. It just depends on whether one has patience and can find opportunities to use it.
With this style of play, Zhang Hao has fewer opportunities to shoot, and of course his physical energy consumption is also reduced. If a shooter without the ball wants to create an open space, his teammates' off-ball pick-and-roll is one way, his teammates' containment is another way, and another way is to seize the opportunity and use speed to get rid of the opponent. His way of looking for opportunities is often the third one. When he doesn't care about creating his own scoring opportunities as the first choice, the consumption is naturally less.
With less consumption on the offensive end, we can devote more energy to assisting defense...Dell Curry!
Whenever Dell Curry is on the court, Zhang Hao will pick on him.
The overall defense is not good, but the simple goal is to keep up with the pace, ignoring other people, or even the effect of the backup defense, and just predicting Dell Curry's movements... It's done pretty well!
There was no conflict between Dell Curry and Zhang Hao, but they both started to compete with each other during the game. However, he did not have any good opportunities in the second half. In addition, he played more in the first half and had less playing time in the second half. He took a total of 4 shots, including 1 of 3 three-pointers. Another close-range jump shot was interfered by Zhang Hao, and he only got 3 points.
Dell Curry was so sad and angry when he saw Zhang Hao concentrate on defense after getting 20+ points!
The rookie on the other side was clearly trying to outsmart the veteran pitcher! Even a power forward was defending outside the three-point line. It was so obvious!
The situation of the game was also going in favor of the Nets. On the Nets side, the game became a real rotation of 9 main players, but the Hornets looked down on the Nets' strength. Hornets head coach Alan Bristow was experimenting with various lineups step by step, and it didn't matter how they played, they relied on their main players to win in the regular season.
With the two teams' input levels not equal, the Hornets replaced all six main players at 4 minutes and 27 seconds in the fourth quarter. At that time, the Hornets were already trailing by 19 points, 82 to 101.
Dell Curry, who played for 27 minutes, finally got 18 points and 6 assists, and watched the team lose by nearly 20 points... This is not important. What is important is that the rookie on the opposite side played for 30 minutes, made 13 of 22 shots, plus 5 of 6 free throws, and got 31 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks and 2 steals!
"How despicable! How shameless!
Just wait, I will kill you in the next game... Wait, I'm so much shorter than him, and his shameless defensive style... Damn!
You bastard, you'll be damned!"