Unyielding, he went up during garbage time and helped the Lakers score 34-19 in the final quarter, clawing back a 15-point deficit, but the final score still had a 15-point gap because they trailed the Bulls by 30 points after three quarters!

In the first quarter, they were pounded, 19-28, almost losing by 10 points in a single quarter.

The second quarter was alright, the Lakers scored 16 points, and the Bulls also only scored 18 points, so the gap wasn’t widened further.

But come the third quarter, after two days of rest, with good stamina and a burning desire to hammer the Lakers, the Bulls erupted, scoring 34 points in a single quarter while holding the Lakers to just 15!

A net win of 19 points in a single quarter allowed the Bulls to extend the lead to 30 points, leading 80-50 over the Lakers, pushing the game into garbage time.

In the final quarter, the Bulls rested all their starters and sent out a pure bench lineup of Randy Brown, Judy Buichler, Jason Caffey, Dick Simpkins, and James Edwards, not even bringing out their sixth or seventh man.

Even though in the final quarter, Zhang Hao scored 21 points, bringing his personal total to 40 points, only two players on the team scored in double figures — himself and Campbell with 11 points. The highest-scoring players from the perimeter, Van Exel and the Magician, both had 8 points...

In the end, the Lakers lost to the Bulls by 15 points, ending their 17-game winning streak!

...

"Glorious Imprint 2:

With both Zhang Hao and Michael Jordan having led their teams to 17-game winning streaks and both ending similarly, this task concludes."

"Glorious Imprint:

Zhang Hao’s streak ended in the 1995-1996 season against Michael Jordan. This task concludes."

The crushing defeat came so swiftly, like a tornado...

Zhang Hao looked at the two tasks related to Jordan ending simultaneously... feeling complicated but also relieved.

The opponent was truly too strong!

With two days of rest, he prepared as best he could, discussed how to deal with the Bulls with his teammates, and worked hard, but when the game started, it was a different story.

Their opponents pressed them aggressively without saying a word. Jopilo, who hadn’t said a word for three quarters, was an insurmountable force on defense.

Unlike last time when the Bulls played back-to-back and were affected physically, the Lakers didn’t score over 20 points in any of the first three quarters. Once the Bulls executed their season-signature explosive third quarter, the Lakers were already defeated.

After an unwilling struggle in the final quarter, overnight, while reviewing the game and observing the Bulls’ superb defense, Zhang Hao felt at ease.

It was purely observational, and Zhang Hao approached the game review with a learning mindset, despite being the one getting thrashed...

"There are things to be happy about, aren’t there? I’ve had 40+ six times... Jordan won so fiercely, yet his score wasn’t even half of mine..."

In last night’s game, the highest scorer for the Bulls was Pippen with 18 points, Jordan had 17 points, Kukoc had 15 points, and others were in single digits. The Bulls played hard on defense and executed team plays offensively in the third quarter, clearly prepared to press them on defense, and the third quarter was just a habitual outburst.

Looking closely, the Lakers’ shooting percentage for the whole game was 48%, excluding the fourth quarter they’d still shot 44% over the first three quarters, but they only had 71 attempts in total for the whole game. The Bulls had 70 attempts in the first three quarters alone, as the Lakers had 22 turnovers all game! 19 of those were in the first three quarters!

Just like Jordan said after the game last night, "we just won a regular-season game", after a night’s rest, Zhang Hao also felt "we just lost a regular-season game".

At 9 in the morning, Aprile Clark drove Zhang Hao to the airport; the winning streak had ended, but time didn’t halt. After losing to the Bulls last night, they had another away game today, facing the Nuggets tomorrow, the 3rd.

Meeting up with his teammates, Zhang Hao didn’t sense too much depression over the end of the winning streak among his teammates. When occasionally mentioning the 17-game winning streak, he mostly sensed regret, but more so, he felt that his teammates seemed much more relaxed!

It was like a weight lifted; the constant winning streak, the constant fear of losing, the nerves that were perpetually tense, seemed to have all been relaxed.

"Think positively, if we really got an 18-game winning streak but didn’t get the championship in the end... wouldn’t that be like the 73-win team?"

...

...

The end of the Lakers’ 17-game winning streak didn’t cause their popularity to dip much, especially Zhang Hao’s popularity, which only increased nearing the end of All-Star weekend voting!

Many fans don’t watch the game, and a lot of the media doesn’t care about the flow of the game either; they care about results and stats.

Zhang Hao scored 40 points against the Bulls, his sixth 40+ game of the season, including one 60+ game. Sports Illustrated and the American Cable TV Station hyped Zhang Hao at the last moment of All-Star weekend voting.

Just by listing Zhang Hao’s 60+ triple-double game in the news, no matter how much it is praised, nobody would find a problem with it, even boasting about the game against the Bulls isn’t out of line.

On the evening of February 3rd, after the Lakers’ road game against the Nuggets ended, it further proved Zhang Hao’s outstanding performance...