Starkhouse watched Zhang Hao walk toward the technical booth and immediately went up, wanting to taunt.

However, Zhang Hao seemed to ignore him, approached the technical booth, fixed his magnesium powder, and turned to walk toward the center circle...

Ignored!

Starkhouse’s jealousy and anger had reached their peak!

The Lakers still had Van Exel, Anthony Peeler, Zhang Hao, the Magician, and Campbell as the starting lineup.

Zhang Hao was increasingly adapting to the small forward position. Although his speed wasn’t as advantageous as when playing power forward, his strength was a bigger advantage.

The small forward heading to the center circle for the jump ball was justified.

The 76ers sent out Freddie Maxwell, Starkhouse, Clarence Weatherspoon, Salon White, and Derek Alston as their starting lineup.

Looking at the 76ers’ strongest scorer Starkhouse with a 79 rating, 86 offensive rating, 58 defensive rating... averaging 20.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, with a 40% shooting rate, and even 1.1 steals...

"Indeed, the defensive style of the 76ers’ shooting guard."

The strongest player for the 76ers was Clarence Weatherspoon, rated 82, the best besides Coleman, who was almost out for the season. He was an outstanding small forward, averaging 16 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 1.4 blocks.

Apart from these two, Zhang Hao couldn’t find any highlights in the 76ers lineup.

At this moment, the two top rookies of the ’95 class were thinking completely differently; one was thinking about how to overshadow the other’s limelight, and the other was analyzing how to win the game, analyzing the opponent’s weaknesses, looking for opportunities to score more than the opponent, and also win the game.

The task target for the mission "This is My Stage" had already been triggered. The opponent was Jerry Stackhouse.

At 8 PM, the Lakers’ back-to-back second game began as the referee blew the whistle to start the game, throwing the ball into the air...

Campbell watched Zhang Hao successfully defeat Derek Alston to win the jump ball, feeling deeply disappointed—the task of jump ball was already far from him...

Last season, he had a jump ball against Derek Alston and was completely defeated!

"Back in the day, I was quite the jumper guy too... No! My goal isn’t jump balls; it’s to defend O’Neal!"

Campbell didn’t even run to the front court because Zhang Hao won the jump ball and immediately rushed out, with the opponent’s poor retreat defense, Campbell was ready to applaud Zhang Hao’s fast break.

Van Exel caught the jump ball but didn’t advance; he made a long pass directly!

Zhang Hao caught the ball a step inside the free-throw line while the 76ers’ interior players hadn’t retreated yet.

However, Starkhouse was in his path!

Sprinting Zhang Hao, as in the past when he encountered the opponent’s perimeter lining up on a fast break, switched the ball to his left hand, used his arm to fully shield, and charged the basket with three large steps!

The moment Zhang Hao collided with Starkhouse, who was pressuring him, Starkhouse felt an irresistible force, as if he was hit by a large iron hammer. At that moment, Starkhouse felt like he was going to die!

Starkhouse was struck in the chest by Zhang Hao’s elbow, directly halting his momentum, and was knocked backward, falling onto the floor!

Zhang Hao felt a bit of obstruction, but it was unimportant; he made his third step after two strides, jumped up, and slammed the ball into the basket with one hand.

After dunking the ball, Zhang Hao immediately felt something was wrong, and soon, the crowd frantically cheered, and he felt relieved instantly.

Since he was arranged to start the jump ball, he always received cheers when he completed a fast break at the start.

Then, the referee blew the whistle, Zhang Hao looked at the referee, the whistle was because the 76ers called a timeout!

"?"

Zhang Hao looked puzzled at the 76ers’ bench, the 76ers’ team doctor was already up, and besides that, Zhang Hao felt many unusual glances, turned his head to look, Starkhouse was lying on the floor clutching his chest and pounding the floor...

Zhang Hao blurted out: "Flop?"

The referee heard this and felt that Starkhouse was indeed flopping, but clutching his chest, it didn’t look like it!

When Starkhouse heard Zhang Hao’s words, he nearly fainted!

And now nobody knew what was going on, it seemed like Starkhouse had actively collided with Zhang Hao and then... was knocked over?

Even if Zhang Hao was strong, the opponent knew he was strong, after all, he could maintain running position stability under Malone’s confrontation, but wasn’t this too exaggerated!

A collision directly knocked down a strong perimeter player?

The 76ers’ team doctor began examining Starkhouse, at this time everyone’s eyes were on him, especially his teammates, all gathered around to scrutinize...

Zhang Hao roughly guessed this was the passive effect of "Malone’s Elbow."

"No wonder Malone’s mid-range shots were so accurate after picks, who dared to switch and defend on the perimeter?"

Rarely, Zhang Hao explained, "I really just slightly bumped him, and he actively rushed toward me... I didn’t do it on purpose!"

Was it a flop?

At most, during confrontation, he happened to hit a very painful place...

Others could only think of it like this.

The referee didn’t whistle, according to the rules, Starkhouse’s defense against Zhang Hao in confrontation was reasonable.

Zhang Hao didn’t raise his elbow, just protected the ball during a sprint, reasonably using his arm to keep space from the opponent, the referee saw this clearly.

And look, Starkhouse, who had recovered, just stood up.