Iverson received the serve and advanced to the frontcourt, and it was expected that Zhang Hao would take a step in the top arc.

Facing Zhang Hao's defense, Iverson did not come hard and passed the ball to Eric Snow, who moved to the free throw line, and started running without the ball.

During the preseason, Zhang Hao's single defense greatly improved, which had already attracted the attention of top NBA players.

Unlike ordinary players who think this is an exaggerated description by the media, the top players all think that what the media is saying is true, and Zhang Hao's defense has been greatly improved.

In their opinion, it is normal for Zhang Hao to put this kind of thing on him.

Even if Zhang Hao comes back after a year of rest, it will not become weaker in their opinion, and it is likely to become stronger.

However, the defense strength of the other Supersonics teams is beyond the expectations of the 76ers!

When Artest, a rookie, changed defense to Duncan, he fought with Duncan without fear.

With Ratliff assisting in defense of Duncan, Ruben Patterson also brought in to defend Iverson. It was difficult for the 76ers two major stars to connect the ball.

However, the 76ers are no longer the season when the two No. 1 picks got together. Snow made a quick decision and made a strong breakthrough at the basket. Kassel couldn't defend it. Ratliff, who had originally covered the basket and cut into Duncan to assist in defense, made a step outside the reasonable collision zone. Snow dangled the basket, and Campbell received the ball and made a layup... Zhang Hao quickly retracted from the right bottom line, and Campbell almost got his layup off!

Fortunately, Campbell made a layup and made a move to make a force, and the ball avoided Zhang Hao's hand and fell into the basket.

This ball is really not Campbell's offensive awareness, it's a pure coincidence.

Zhang Hao's team actually focuses on defense, and it has been so rough from the beginning. Even when the 76ers were preparing for the game, it was speculated that the Supersonics could only be based on defense, the five starting players of the 76ers still felt uncomfortable.

The Supersonics team's attack exceeded, and Zhang Hao continued to attack, with Kassel helping Zhang Hao pass the ball.

In this slow-paced and high-intensity game, Kassel can still ensure the stability of the pass, but the defense of the 76ers began to change. Zhang Hao continued to cut and was hit by a pincer and passed the ball. Ratliff's close shot was interfered with by Duncan's assisted defense. Zhang Hao failed to rush and Campbell grabbed the defensive rebound.

While Zhang Hao was rushing to rob, the rest of the supersonic team had already retreated and returned.

The 76ers are more sure of this little detail. The Supersonics are just to fight to the defensive. The Supersonics' offensive style is also very simple, with Kassel assisting, Zhang Hao's main attack + passing.

I just want to compete with the personal ability of superstars!

Iverson and Duncan were not afraid, but they still wanted to try to start with the team offense. Snow did a good job in that round just now.

But this time, the 76ers wanted to make the last round successful attack as usual. When Snow broke through the free throw line and passed the ball to Campbell, Artest, who had saved it, was intercepted!

Campbell used a foul in time to prevent Artest from passing the ball to Zhang Hao to prevent Zhang Hao from attacking.

Four of the 5 players on the 76ers' court are defensive masters. To be honest, Iverson is considered a defensive master in his size, and they are all surprised by the defensive awareness and execution ability that Artest just showed.

Good physical fitness, excellent explosive power, not afraid of confrontation...even has the awareness of this blocking tactic!

In addition to being young, his basic skills are not good enough and his experience is not enough. Artest's talent in defense, even as an opponent, the 76ers players cannot deny it.

The Supersonics attacked again. As the 76ers expected, the Supersonics caught Zhang Hao and went to the death. Zhang Hao turned around and scored the ball. Ruben Patterson cut into the baseline to catch the ball and made a layup, causing Duncan to foul that quickly retracted and went to the free throw line to make one of two free throws.

The contraction started a little earlier, and the ball could be defended. Duncan made a judgment when Ruben Patterson made a free throw.

As the game deepened, Iverson and Duncan became more and more surprised by Zhang Hao's performance. Compared with the offseason one year ago, there seemed to be no big change, and their playing style was still the same, but every offensive method became more difficult to defend against.

The details of breakthroughs are better, the skills of back play are better, and the skills of step withdrawal are more solid... In the past, Duncan's one-on-one defense could give Zhang Hao a greater limit, but now it is difficult to limit. You can only defend better by Campbell at the basket or George Lynch on the wing.

Of course, this is Zhang Hao's main attack in Duncan's relatively weak single defense, that is, a breakthrough at a high position. No matter how good Duncan's defense is and how irritable his physical fitness is, he is still a real center. He is working hard to defend, but Zhang Hao, who is now more outstanding in the high position, still can't defend.

After trying two rounds of poor defense, the 76ers took the initiative to change strategies, defended Kassel's mid-range shot, guarded the basket, and attacked Zhang Hao.

If Kassel really uses his running position to get a chance to catch and shoot, the 76ers will also accept it, but Kassel doesn't have that many opportunities.

Ruben Patterson almost didn't shoot, Artest made a shot, but after the defensive intensity came, there was nothing wrong with it.

The Supersonics have poor offensive efficiency, but they do a good job in defense. It is difficult for the 76ers to play and cooperate with the team. As they play, they become Iverson and Duncan's main attack.

Although Iverson did not choose to fight Zhang Hao head-on in singles at the beginning, and he was indeed restrained by Zhang Hao, he has been in the fourth year of the NBA and has always regarded Zhang Hao as the strongest opponent and thought of some ways to deal with Zhang Hao's defense.

One is that Duncan pulled to the high position, Iverson himself broke Zhang Hao to the basket, compressed his defense, and Duncan supported him at the high position. This is a team-cooperated style. Iverson tried it but it didn't work. The Supersonics' defense intensity was very high.

But there is a second one - a pick-and-roll breakthrough!

Iverson doesn't know much about pick-and-roll, but he only needs Duncan to help him block Zhang Hao. Although he can't get rid of the defense by relying on pick-and-roll, Iverson can handle other people's defenses by relying on his personal ability.

The Supersonics team used simple and direct strategies to achieve their goals, allowing both sides to compete for the stars and defense, but this is the limit that the Supersonics can achieve. Whether they can beat the defense depends on how well they are doing and whether Zhang Hao can play in the offense.

This is already the best strategy they can do to narrow the gap between themselves and their opponents' overall strength.

After the first quarter, the Supersonics fell 3 points behind 19 to 22.

It is indeed difficult to play. The Supersonics fell behind by 6 points at most 12-18, but fortunately, executive coach Paul Westfal made timely adjustments so that Zhang Hao no longer defended Iverson, reduced Zhang Hao's consumption on the offensive end, and used Travis Best to defend Iverson.

Anyway, I can't defend myself.

The Supersonics still play in the second quarter. When the rotation was conducted, only a pitcher who could truly maintain stability was sent, including Cassel, Dell Curry, James Percy, Ben Wallace and Zhang Hao.

Kassel played more than 9 minutes in the first quarter and took more than two minutes to play. He became familiar with this style of play in real actual combat, and played better in the second quarter.

Zhang Hao also played more resolutely. He shot when he had the opportunity. If he didn't, he would attract a team to use the vision advantage brought by his height to pass the ball. If his teammates could make the shot, he would make the shot. If he couldn't make the shot, he would have to pass it.

The Supersonics played better in the second quarter than in the first quarter, scoring 21 points and 40 points in the first quarter.

But the 76ers were more adapted to the Supersonics' defense in the second quarter, and the offense was slightly better, scoring 24 points in a single quarter.

After halftime, the Supersonics fell behind the 76ers 40-46 and entered the midfield break with 6 points.

...

Zhang Hao made a full half, making 7 of 13 shots, including 1 of 2 three-pointers, plus 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 18 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Seeing that Zhang Hao was playing like this and was still 6 points behind, his teammates all had the feeling of being dragged on themselves.

In the opening game of the regular season, they really had the first game after forming a team, and it was a live broadcast across the United States... The air pressure in the lounge of the visiting team was very low.

The key is that they have tried their best, but the other party still seems at ease. At most, they can only prevent the gap from being quickly widened.

"We haven't lost yet, we're just 6 points behind. We have to be patient and take it slowly, and opportunities will always come."

Zhang Hao's calm voice came into the ears of his teammates.

If you comfort me, it will definitely be effective, it's just a little bit.

To put it another way, even if the coach of a team said this, it might just give the players a little comfort in their hearts in an instant, but it will be immediately annihilated by the huge pressure and frustration.

Zhang Hao said this differently. The comfort of his teammates emerged in this moment and was quickly strengthened...

The score difference was slowly pulled apart after doing their best. They still tried their best and the other party was still at ease, dragging Zhang Hao back... All kinds of frustration turned into unwillingness!

In fact, the mood is similar. Zhang Hao's words became an introduction, which made his teammates think that "we played so badly but the boss still didn't blame us", which turned the pressure and frustration brought by the huge strength gap into unwillingness!

Who would want to lose? At least they don’t want to!

...

What Zhang Hao said is the truth. He really just felt that there was still half of the game and the score difference was not as difficult as possible. He fought as much as he should, and worked hard, rather than being depressed from the beginning of the season.

He knew that perhaps some of his teammates thought that when he came, their team was different, or that everyone thought they were different, and would always look at objective things from a subjective perspective and draw the answer they wanted from the bottom of their hearts, but when they encountered the real reality, they would seem even more frustrated.

This is the case with their Supersonics team now, and Zhang Hao just wants to convey the game view he will strive for to his teammates as long as he has the chance.

This is also something he must do this season to make it to the playoffs.

Only by persevering in this way can we get better and better in the next season, otherwise we may sink into more than ten years like the Kings and Timberwolves in his memory.

Fortunately, their Supersonics were not bad teams before, and they did not have the traditional team idea of ​​"we just can't do it". In the third quarter, Zhang Hao continued to lead the team, leading by example, shooting as much as possible, passing as possible, and trying hard to grab defensive rebounds to instigate counterattacks. Artest, Ruben Patterson, and Dell Curry started the starting team at the beginning of the third quarter. They did a good job and continued to polish the defense later...

However, the difference was still widened to 9 points when the third quarter was finished.

But Zhang Hao maintained confidence as always, and his attitude as usual made his teammates not choose to give up.

This has been done well. The Supersonics team only scored 22 points in the third quarter, of which 12 points were obtained by Zhang Hao alone, while the 76ers scored 25 points.

After the third quarter, the Supersonics fell 62 to 71 and entered the final quarter by 9 points.

Persevere and wait patiently, opportunities will always come.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the 76ers did not make long shots in four consecutive rounds!

Iverson scored two points, Duncan scored one by one and the other scored one by the mid-range shot. Billy Owens at the bottom corner missed two open three-pointers in a row. After a physical potion, Zhang Hao seized the opportunity at the start of the fourth quarter and attacked continuously. He first scored 2 assists with three passes, then scored 4 points with one shot and a counterattack dunk, helping the team scored 4 goals in five attacks, and scored 8-0!

When Zhang Hao grabbed the rebound and hit the ball into the basket with Snow, who had chased him back, the Supersonics chased the score to 70-71! Huby Brown called a timeout!

It's too tormenting to play against such an opponent!

Hubby Brown couldn't think of any good way. He just focused on defending his defense. What could he do? If he played against such a team, he could only rely on stars to solve the problem.

Iverson scored 27 points, 4 assists and 3 steals in three quarters, Duncan scored 19 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in three quarters. The two's performance was no longer better, and they stabilized their pressure on Zhang Hao and Kassel in the first three quarters, and Schramf led the team one after another.

But at this time, the star cannot be cut off. Flankers who get big gaps must seize the opportunity, especially pitchers in Billy Owens' tactics must seize the opportunity, otherwise there may be problems.

Just like the Supersonics, it is because wing pitchers such as Artest, James Percy, and Lewis are always unable to seize the opportunity, so they are dragging their backs.

But this time it was their 76ers pitcher who didn't seize the opportunity!

But the most important thing is that Zhang Hao was too fierce at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and he felt even more fierce than the third quarter!

34 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks. Zhang Hao's data looks ridiculous to Huby Brown!

Score, rebound, assist, grab one shot!

Hubi Brown and his players were very distressed. If they were not careful, Zhang Hao caught up with the score difference with his own strength.

And the Supersonics are extremely excited!

Just as Zhang Hao said, if you persevere, the opportunity will really come!
To be continued...