Chapter 85 Is he more suitable to play center?
The one who was hit the hardest, of course, was Damon Stoudemire.
Zhang Hao really didn't notice that there was someone following him. When he ran back, his eyes were on Oliver Miller who was still at the free throw line on the opposite side. The gap between his eyes and Damon Stoudemire's was nearly 30 centimeters.
Zhang Hao found that defending from the front was not so easy. Oliver Miller was as flexible as Jason Williams, and he was also huge in size and had the awareness to use his body to avoid being bypassed.
In other words, Zhang's flexibility is no worse than that of flexible guards, and with the advantages of height and arm span, he can quickly change direction and go around to the other side of Oliver Miller's interference to poke the ball out.
And you have to be lucky enough to poke the ball in the direction of your teammates to have a chance to launch a counterattack.
"Is it true that I'm the only one who can defend centers? What's going on! I'm a small forward! A forward! A forward... Hey, a center is also a forward? Bullshit!"
Back in the backcourt, Zhang Hao high-fived his teammates and came to Oliver Miller again.
This guy... Oliver Miller was very unhappy with the previous goal. He continued to rely on Zhang Hao to ask for the ball. His movements were very rough, and he tried his best to stop Zhang Hao behind him.
Zhang Hao really couldn't get out, the opponent's power was really too terrifying!
Seeing this, Damon Stoudemire was delighted and passed the ball to Oliver Miller.
Oliver Miller leaned back against Zhang Hao with all his strength, stretched out his hand to catch the ball... but he leaned against nothing! He sat back with his buttocks!
The ball hit Oliver Miller and bounced out of bounds. The referee signaled that the Raptors had a turnover and the Nets had the ball.
Remove the chair!
Zhang Hao used a trick that most inside players disdain to use, which was to move the chair!
This defensive style is considered to be a weak defense in the eyes of inside players these days.
Zhang Hao looked at Oliver Miller who was lying on his buttocks in a Pingsha Luoyan position, and felt his face getting hot. He reached out to pull him up.
Oliver Miller ignored Zhang Hao's hand and stood up with Tony Masenburg next to him.
Zhang Hao curled his lips, ignored it, and ran to the frontcourt. He defended in both rounds and felt a little happy.
If you don't have enough experience or basic skills, then rely on your physical fitness and your brain to find a solution.
The Nets served the ball from the backcourt, but because the ball was dead, the Raptors made mistakes and had no fast break opportunities, and continued to fall into a positional battle.
The players have different opinions about Zhang Hao's defense just now. The players on the Raptors team must think that Zhang Hao is shameless for using this kind of defense that only a wimp would use. Of course, some people also think that with Zhang Hao's physique, there is no other way except to use these little tricks.
The coaches of both teams had very different opinions – excellent timing!
To move the chair, one must also seize the moment when the opponent exerts his full strength to ensure success. The moment when Zhang Hao moved the chair just now happened to be the moment when Oliver Miller exerted his full strength.
"Could it be that Axel is more suitable to play center?" Randy Whitman had this thought.
There is no shortage of short centers in any era.
On the court, Charles advanced to the frontcourt and continued to play pick-and-roll with Jason Williams.
Of course the successful tactics had to continue, Zhang Hao made an emergency stop and ran back to the outside.
Tony Massenburg's awareness is pretty good. This time Zhang Hao's counter-run failed to directly break away from the defense, so Tony Massenburg rushed out desperately.
But Zhang Hao reacted faster! He rushed to the free throw line and just stepped on the top corner of the right side of the free throw line, and suddenly changed direction again and ran back to the inside!
Charles reacted quickly as well, throwing the ball into the legal collision zone. Zhang Hao rushed outside the legal collision zone and took a step to receive the ball. At this time, Damon Stoudemire rushed in from the side!
Knowing that he couldn't defend, the moment Zhang Hao received the ball, Damon Stoudemire rushed over and hugged Zhang Hao's waist.
If Zhang Hao is the type who excels in explosive power, there is a high probability that Zhang Hao will not be able to exert force to jump after being pulled by Damon Stoudemire. It is as if Damon Stoudemire is hanging on Zhang Hao's arm.
But Zhang Hao did not rely on explosive power, but hard strength, jumping while hanging on Damon Stoudemire!
Damon Stoudemire couldn't hold back, nor did he have time to let go, as Zhang Hao lifted him into the air!
The moment the referee blew the whistle, Zhang Hao jumped up and slammed the ball into the basket with both hands!
After Zhang Hao landed, Damon Stoudemire, who had previously hugged Zhang Hao from the side, hugged Zhang Hao from behind with both hands, with the back of his feet and his knees almost touching the ground...
The scene was ablaze! This scene was so brutal!
Just relying on brute force, he completed the cut-in dunk by hanging on Damon Stoudemire!
"Slam Dunk Master" was triggered again, morale continued, and there were three more rounds!
The referee indicated that the goal was valid and he would go to watch the replay.
Zhang Hao lowered his head and looked at the little flying squirrel hanging on his waist with a confused look on its face. He felt that he had to say something, otherwise the other party would think he was provoking him.
"Hey, can you move aside for a moment?"
Hearing this, Damon Stoudemire quickly let go of his hands, then... fell to his knees on the floor... and quickly got up.
So embarrassing!
If I had known, I wouldn’t have come in to help defend. Even a foul couldn’t stop the opponent!
Watching Zhang Hao high-fiving his teammates to celebrate, Damon Stoudemire was still confused - " What on earth did this guy eat to grow up? His strength is too exaggerated."
Amid the frenzied cheers of the fans, Zhang Hao came to the free throw line and looked around the field. He was extremely excited and took a deep breath. There was still a long time left in the game and he had to play well.
The referee watched the replay several times and found that apart from hugging Zhang Hao, Damon Stoudemire did not use any other force. He simply wanted to stop Zhang Hao from dunking directly, which was a tactical foul rather than a flagrant foul. It was just that Zhang Hao was too brutal, which made Damon Stoudemire feel that it was a flagrant foul.
The referee confirmed that Damon Stoudemire committed a common foul and Zhang Hao's goal was valid and he was awarded a penalty!
This period of time allowed Zhang Hao to adjust his mood and make the free throw steadily.
24 to 18, the difference is 6 points!
It was the Raptors' turn to attack again, and Zhang Hao was still defending Oliver Miller.
Oliver Miller now didn't know how to get a seat. If he acted roughly, the other party might take away the chair.
In normal positioning, his flexibility is much better than it looks, but he is an inside player after all, and his flexibility is not inferior to that of inside players, while the rookie on the opposite side is not less flexible than the guards.
Damon Stoudemire had the ball outside the three-point line. Facing Charles' defense, it was difficult for him to shoot. Listening to the booing of the fans at the scene, he was very unhappy. He had just lost face!
Oliver Miller was hesitant about positioning himself, and the other teammates...Damon Stoudemire decided to do it himself!
Damon Stoudemire was really awesome in this breakthrough. He may be the fastest NBA player in history. His breakthrough skills and rhythm changes are excellent. Even though Charles was excellent in defense, he was still passed by Damon Stoudemire.
After passing Charles, Damon Stoudemire went straight to the basket.
Ever since he started playing basketball, Damon Stoudemire has believed that as long as he charges forward, he is invincible. He saw Zhang Hao let go of Oliver Miller and rush over to defend, then rushed directly into the inside and made a turnaround jump shot at the baseline... He didn't expect Zhang Hao to turn around so quickly, and the jump shot was hit by Zhang Hao who turned around and jumped up!
Successfully protected the rim for three consecutive rounds!
The ball flew off course and hit the rim, and Jason Williams, who had a keen sense of rebounding, came in and grabbed the defensive rebound.
Zhang Hao was roughly blocked by Oliver Miller and failed to launch a counterattack, but it didn't matter. Charles steadily advanced to the frontcourt and engaged in a positional battle. The strong point of this lineup is positional warfare.
When retreating, Oliver Miller ran along the center line at a low speed and Zhang Hao spat trash-talked: "Do you dare to confront me like a man?"
Zhang Hao replied: "You look like a man."
After saying that, Zhang Hao immediately accelerated.
Oliver Miller couldn't keep up, and this time his retreat set the Raptors back. When Zhang Hao rushed into the three-point line, the other Raptors had to come up to provide backup defense.
Charles passed the ball to Edwards, who used Zhang Hao's detour to run into an open space, and the latter made a layup from close range.
26 to 18, the score difference widened to 8 points!
Thanks to Zhang Hao's successful rim protection for three consecutive rounds and consecutive scoring after that, the Nets broke the tense situation in one fell swoop and no longer wasted time fighting with the Raptors.
Continuing with this morale, the Nets played better and better. After the first quarter, the Nets led the Raptors by 11 points, 33 to 22, and entered the intermission!
After the official timeout, the Raptors only scored 6 points in 5 minutes and 38 seconds!
At the beginning of the second quarter, Zhang Hao was replaced by Jason Williams and PJ Brown, who partnered in the interior, while Charles, Edwards and Almon Gilliam partnered in the outside.
Zhang Hao sat on the sidelines to rest.
Randy Whitman looked at Zhang Hao's statistics...9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 1 steal...two turnovers. With such performance, the turnovers don't need to be too worrying.
It is true that the Raptors are weak, but Zhang Hao is very good at seizing opportunities and his mind is quick. He actually found a way to defend Oliver Miller.
Although Oliver Miller is not that strong, he is very useful against the Nets. This is what Randy Whitman is most worried about, but Zhang Hao has come up with a solution...
When it came to the rotation stage, the situation on the field was still good. There was no need to worry. The leading advantage had become increasingly obvious. The Raptors' momentum as a new team had been crushed by Zhang Hao's performance in the first quarter.
Randy Whitman hesitated for a moment and asked the head coach next to him, "Butch, do you think Axelsen is more suitable to play center? Will he grow taller?"
"..." Butch Baird looked at Zhang Hao's skinny body. This time it was his turn to remain silent. He looked at Randy Whitman's expectant eyes and said, "I think so."
"It won't work even if he knows how to play center. Don't even think about letting Aix play center. He still needs to grow, both physically and technically."
“……???” Butch Baird’s head was filled with black lines – what was I thinking?
…
The situation of the game has been brought back on track by Zhang Hao for the Nets. If it weren't for Zhang Hao's counterattack dunk that greatly boosted the morale of the Nets, and the key was the excellent defense in those three rounds, the Nets might have to fight for a long time with the Raptors, who were in high spirits at the beginning of the season.
If the game goes on and on, and the Raptors' outside players take advantage of Oliver Miller's inside containment, it's hard to say who will win or lose. They are all NBA teams, and the last-placed team has the possibility of winning against the first-placed team in the league, and it has happened many times in NBA history, not to mention their Nets team.
But it was thanks to Zhang Hao's few rounds of breaking the deadlock that the Nets established a clear lead and at the same time broke up the Raptors' momentum.
In the second quarter, thanks to Almon Gilliam's 9 points in a single quarter and the pick-and-roll offense of Charles and Jason Williams, the Nets scored 18 to 12 in the first half of the quarter.
When Zhang Hao came on the court, the score was 51 to 34, and the lead had expanded to 17 points.
At this time, the Raptors had already started to fight in chaos. The chaotic fight was quite suitable for Damon Stoudemire to lead a group of teammates with excellent athletic abilities to charge wildly, but it was also suitable for Kenny Anderson!
Moreover, the point guards on both sides have similar characteristics, but Kenny Anderson is stronger!
At the end of the first half, Zhang Hao's personal score increased to 15 points, and the Nets entered the halftime break with a 21-point lead of 69 to 48.
The second half turned into garbage time, and Randy Whitman put Zhang Hao, Charles, Jason Williams, Edwards, and Vaughn Fleming on the court.
Let Zhang Hao practice catching the ball, turning around and shooting in positional warfare!
The result of the game was not unexpected. The Raptors had no ability to turn the tables. If their morale had been high at the beginning, and they played better and better and shot more and more accurately, their new team might have defeated any opponent. But once they were defeated, they were like a ball of loose sand .
120 to 91, the Nets slaughtered the Raptors by 29 points and started two consecutive wins!
Zhang Hao also played 14 minutes in garbage time and played 32 minutes in the whole game. He made 9 of 19 shots and 5 of 5 free throws, and got 23 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 4 turnovers...
Looking at himself going from 6 out of 10 shots with a hit rate of 60% and only two turnovers in the first half, to 9 out of 19 shots with a hit rate of less than 50% and 4 turnovers at the end of the game... Zhang Hao felt that developing new technology was so difficult!
