Chapter 891 273: End-of-Season Reinforcement!

After the game with the Hawks, the Lakers arrived in Houston the next day, rested for a night, and at 6 p.m. on February 27th, they faced the Rockets on the road.

The Lakers made clear adjustments tonight, aiming for stability.

On the Rockets side, Olajuwon has been improving as the season progresses, currently averaging 22.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 2 blocks. The Rockets' record has improved to 30 wins and 27 losses. Among other competitors, only Ewing has stayed healthy without missing games due to injury. This year, Olajuwon unexpectedly played every game, becoming a contender for the All-NBA team by just being consistently present.

This season also shows a trend—the NBA centers are moving from a flourishing era to a singular dominance.

The Lakers played quite well tonight, limiting the Rockets to 98 points on defense. Unfortunately, their offense was lackluster, affected by back-to-back defenses from the Knicks and the Hawks.

Despite Zhang Hao scoring 21 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks, Barkley scoring 18 points, 8 rebounds, Kenny Anderson with 18 points, 6 assists, and Doug Christie with 14 points, 5 rebounds, the other players had few points, with the Lakers only scoring 91 points in total.

91 to 98, after a 9-game winning streak, the Lakers suffered two consecutive losses!

...

...

Due to the back-to-back home and away games, the morning after playing the Rockets, the Lakers rushed back to Los Angeles. The Grizzlies arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, and tonight, the Lakers will face off against the Grizzlies in a back-to-back.

After returning to Los Angeles, Zhang Hao went home first.

With two consecutive losses, the Lakers have only experienced two back-to-back losses in the regular season after acquiring Zhang Hao. Once when O'Neal just returned from injury, and now with O'Neal injured again.

Although losing is something a professional player must get used to, Zhang Hao still felt a bit frustrated.

However, today Le Lin came to Los Angeles, and when Zhang Hao arrived home, he saw Aprile Clark and Britney preparing lunch, which made him happy. He started teasing the little girl landlord...

"Smelly tall bamboo brother, Le Lin's face is going to be pinched off… boo-hoo..."

Le Lin had struggled many times but could only resign to fate now. Besides, having her face pinched was actually quite comfortable...

Zhang Hao felt a bit regretful as he wasn't sure what happened to this little girl; she suddenly started losing weight and didn't have as much fat on her face as before.

After teasing the little girl landlord, Zhang Hao read a book for a while, waiting for lunch to adjust his mood. He still had to face Raheem tonight.

As expected, he was sure to outplay Raheem.

They need to plan well how to teach Raheem a lesson.

After two consecutive losses, the Lakers definitely need to take it out on an opponent, and the Grizzlies, being the league's last place...

The little girl escaped the evil grasp of the high school player, went to watch TV, and soon ran back again, nearly stumbling to the ground, but fortunately, Zhang Hao reacted quickly and scooped her up as she slipped: "Be careful, what's the rush?"

The little girl was startled, patting her flat chest… thinking of Aprile Clark made her annoyed!

One day, I will grow up too!

Putting aside this sad thought, the little girl hurriedly said: "Brother, brother, come and see!"

Saying this, the little girl leaned out the door, almost falling as Zhang Hao held her.

Zhang Hao carefully held the little girl and walked towards the living room.

She only remembered to tell Zhang Hao to watch the news, and when they reached the living room in front of the TV, the little girl finally remembered what to say and quickly exclaimed: "The essence of human movies has signed with the Lakers!"

Zhang Hao also saw the news conference scene on TV, where the news anchor had just mentioned the Lakers completing the signing.

At this moment, his phone rang…

...

"Dominique, with your addition, our chances of defeating Jordan and winning the championship just got bigger!" Jerry West was quite excited.

Who would've thought that Dominique Wilkins, who didn't want to join them last summer, would voluntarily buy out and join now?

Of course, even though last summer Jerry West did reach out when he heard Dominique Wilkins sought a comeback, he did not expect the veteran to be in even better shape after resting for a year than in the 94-95 season!

Hearing this, Dominique Wilkins chuckled bitterly.

He felt rather unfortunate; why did every team he joined have its center injured?

Previously, when he was traded from the Hawks to the Clippers, the last season, where the Clippers achieved 41-41 wins, didn't require much to get him. He and the team were ready to do big things, and despite previously suffering an Achilles tear, he averaged 29.9 points in his first comeback year, 1992-93, second only to Michael Jordan that season, still performing excellently.

But just as he joined the Clippers and played a dozen games, their 213 cm tall and 129 kg talent center Stanley Roberts suffered a cruciate ligament tear, ending his season.

In the summer of 1994, he left the Clippers and joined the Celtics.

The Celtics had selected a center in 1993 named Dino Radja, who spent most of his rookie season as a backup to Robert Parish but still managed an average of 15 points and 7.8 rebounds, looking very promising. In his rookie season, he missed only two games, which weren't due to injury, but because he was detained for DUI, leading to a two-game suspension by the league.

But when he got to the Celtics, Dino Radja, who started in his sophomore year, constantly suffered injuries, making him the Celtics' leading scorer.