Chapter 492: Chapter 148: The Unstoppable Jordan + O’Neal!

The Zen Master’s reliable strategy, if the lineup isn’t strong enough, might crumble even worse, but when the lineup is powerful, there’s no problem.

Now, the Eastern Team has weathered that phase. Although they were 9 points behind in the first quarter, at the beginning of the second quarter during this "default leave-the-court-time for both team’s unimportant All-Stars," they put out a lineup with strong defensive intensity, answering back with a 13 to 5 run against the Western Team! 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Both O’Neal and Moning were on the court simultaneously, making the mid-range area a scoring vacuum for the Western Team.

Although the Western Team had stronger mobility and could stretch further out, what use is it for Payton and Kidd’s backcourt line to stretch further out? Their three-pointers at a level akin to a slum brother’s haunting antics, Jordan and Terry Brandon left them wide open, focusing on last season’s All-Star MVP Richmond and the versatile Barkley. In four minutes into the second quarter, the Western Team scored only through a fast break by David Robinson and a Kidd’s "seen-a-ghost" three-pointer, tallying up 5 points.

Then, the Eastern Team easily took 13 points.

With the score trailing to just 45-46, a mere 1-point difference, Del Harris called a timeout!

"This young man, so insidious!"

To the 58-year-old Del Harris, the merely "50-year-old" head coach Zen Master was just a young lad.

The Eastern Team chased the score down too swiftly. In an All-Star game, you couldn’t simply swap out players just because they weren’t playing well as soon as they got in. Del Harris hesitated but had to call a timeout only when the point difference was just 1 with no improvement in sight.

However, things were better now. All the Western Team players had played for at least 4 minutes; Del Harris could start to operate.

After entering the timeout, the Zen Master focused as well, contemplating and laying out plans.

If you only looked at a 9-man rotation, the strength gap between the two teams wasn’t significant; the major area was the depth of both team’s point guards, and if the sole purpose was winning, then the difference in roster strength could be completely ignored.

Therefore, the coaching team’s adaptability was key to seeing which side could gain the advantage in regular time!

With a 1-point difference, from players to coaches, both teams entered a state of full commitment!

...

From this stage of the game onward, Zhang Hao’s dominance significantly declined.

It’s not that his importance diminished; his playing style, in stronger lineups, might even become more potent. Yet, surrounded by such a group of experienced, strong teammates, listening to directions and focusing on doing what he should was most important.

And he did just that.

Just as he abandoned going toe-to-toe with Jordan after one offensive exchange at the beginning, he was well aware of his limitations. To make a positive contribution in such a game, he mustn’t force himself to show off too much.

When directed, he followed the core’s orders, whether it was the Magician, Stockton, or Kidd, just executing; when no directives were given, he strived to utilize his off-ball positioning awareness and ability to analyze teammates’ and opponents’ movements to find opportunities for passes and shots or to create as much space as possible for teammates. He wouldn’t slack just because he didn’t receive the ball when he thought there was an opportunity.

For an off-ball shooter, thinking there’s a chance but not receiving the ball due to objective reasons is quite normal.

On the offensive side, besides maintaining this simple playstyle, there’s another point—seizing counterattack opportunities!

Zhang Hao played 5 minutes in the second quarter. Once, a counterattack dunk significantly boosted the Western Team’s morale. After the official timeout in the third quarter, a cut-in catch dunk brought about the same effect.

Overall, however, in these two middle quarters, his influence on the whole picture wasn’t significant, and his playtime wasn’t much, playing 4 minutes in the second quarter and 5 minutes in the third quarter.

By the end of the third quarter, having played 21 minutes, he scored 17 points, grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out 5 assists, and made 1 block. After scoring 11 points, grabbing 2 rebounds, and dishing out 4 assists in the first quarter, he only scored 6 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, dished out 1 assist, and made 1 block across the second and third quarters.

He wasn’t dissatisfied, though, instead becoming excited because of the high-level performances put on by teammates and opponents in a game full of All-Star players.

His teammates and opponents were too remarkable!

The Eastern Team, with O’Neal’s single quarter performance of 6-of-8 from the field and 4-of-6 from free throws, scored 16 points, overturning the Western Team by two points at the half with the score at 76-74, winning the quarter 44 to 33.

This was still the effect of Zhang Hao’s dunk, which led to the Western Team’s morale boost and an 8-3 run. Otherwise, the score gap would have been larger by halftime.

In the third quarter, the Eastern Team opened with an 11-0 run, but before the official timeout, they returned with a strong pick-and-roll combination by Karl Malone and John Houston Stockton plus David Robinson, coupled with Richmond and Drexler’s precise shooting, bringing back a 15 to 5 run. After Zhang Hao came back onto the court, utilizing the speed advantage with David Robinson, the Western Team, once down by 13 points, narrowed the score difference to just 1 point by the end of the third quarter.

When the third quarter concluded, the Western Team trailed the Eastern Team by just 1 point with the score at 112-111, heading into the inter-quarter break.

The TV commentators, who initially were critical of the Zen Master’s first-quarter defensive adjustments, now couldn’t help but admire the Zen Master’s vision.

Apart from the first 4 minutes of the second quarter, when the Western Team had to allow every All-Star to play a few minutes, the Zen Master focused on defense; during other time periods, the Zen Master strengthened offense, which seemed mindless but actually was the key for the Eastern Team’s offense to skyrocket, turning the tide from an unfavorable opening to regaining control by the end of the third quarter!

Even though the Western Team narrowed the point difference to just 1 point, after the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jordan and O’Neal took turns asserting themselves. Especially O’Neal, who was dominating to the utmost level, with Olajuwon and David Robinson struggling to guard him one-on-one. The Eastern Team’s mid-range shooters, Jordan and Grant Hill, along with three-point shooter Terry Brandon, left the Western Team reluctant to double team, leaving O’Neal unstoppable in the paint!

At first, the Western Team managed to hang on with shooting. Still, the closer to the basket, the easier it was to score—a truth that remains constant—and even in the three-point era over two decades later, those three-point powerhouse teams would still rack up the most points through inside scoring. O’Neal seemed poised to lead the Eastern Team on a run to widen the score gap.

After playing for over 3 minutes, O’Neal spun past Olajuwon for a close-range soft hook shot, scoring, and drew Olajuwon’s seventh foul of this game, pushing the score to 125-121. With O’Neal’s free throw about to extend the lead back to 5, the Western Team called a timeout.

With 13-of-18 field goals and 8-of-13 free throws, O’Neal was in a dominant, fiery state, racking up 34 points.

The Western Team was at a loss here, with no solution. David Robinson couldn’t guard him alone, and although Olajuwon seemed still at his peak, once against O’Neal, it was apparent that Olajuwon’s status wasn’t as great as past data suggested, especially after going head-to-head with O’Neal, who was only 24 but already seemed unstoppable, particularly with Jordan as his backcourt mate ensuring the ball always got to O’Neal in the most comfortable position and timing.

Following this trend, the Western Team would lose! But everyone on the Western Team seemed at their wit’s end, from coaches to players, without an effective strategy against O’Neal, especially with Jordan’s superb passing rendering Olajuwon’s strategy against O’Neal ineffective and causing errors...

Zhang Hao, who hadn’t played yet in the fourth quarter, was anxiously observing... He felt at a loss as well, his teammates already excellent, but O’Neal+Jordan was simply too formidable!

Then, when Zhang Hao saw the big screen showing Olajuwon’s seventh foul replacing Chamberlain’s record-setting 1968 All-Star Game 6 fouls, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration!

Involuntarily, definitely not deliberately, Zhang Hao slipped into the gap, positioning himself beside Del Harris, as the Western Team players gathered around the coach seeking solutions.

The players were also pondering how to solve the problem... But to no avail.

If games were all won through tactical adjustments, what would be the need for star players?

Nobody really anticipated that Jordan+O’Neal would prove to be stronger than Jordan+Pippen! The Eastern Team’s rapid domination in the second quarter stemmed from the Zen Master’s sudden strategy to use Jordan+O’Neal as the offensive core, employing a simplified triangle offense.

At this point, Del Harris noticed Zhang Hao sneaking up beside him, instinctively getting a bad premonition...

"Coach, I have an idea..."