The Minnesota Timberwolves could win more than 20 games a year at most, but their lineup is not as good as the Brooklyn Nets where Zhang Hao was originally.

The game itself didn’t have much to watch. Today, the Timberwolves didn’t explode, and the Lakers quickly took the lead.

Only the one-on-one duel between Zhang Hao and Garnett caught the attention of the fans and even the players from both teams.

Zhang Hao is excellent, but as long as he plays against Garnett, he can feel Garnett’s overwhelming talent. As both rookies, their duel is quite attractive.

Garnett is not yet the top scorer who averaged 20+ for nine consecutive years in the future. To deal with Zhang Hao, the only thing he can do is find ways on the defensive end.

As for Zhang Hao, if he doesn’t cooperate with his teammates and takes on Garnett one-on-one, his technical advantage is really only in terms of combining strength. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

As the game went on, teammates and fans all discovered something— their super rookie is not that perfect.

Under Garnett’s defense, Zhang Hao’s most efficient plays in isolation are backing down for a turnaround fadeaway or forcing a spin move into the paint.

When Zhang Hao turns in mid-range, Garnett can use his predictive abilities and exceptional mobility to block him ahead of time.

When facing the basket, it’s even harder. Zhang Hao can’t move several opponents.

But once it comes to dynamic offense, Zhang Hao is much stronger than Garnett!

His sense of positioning, the use of teammates, timing of movement, and grasp of shooting moments... all these are where Zhang Hao excels.

The key is shooting. Both are high school rookies, and Garnett is even seven months older, but Zhang Hao’s shooting is completely beyond Garnett’s ability to compare.

In terms of isolations, Zhang Hao doesn’t have the ball-handling skills of Garnett, but he has a strong move that Garnett can only count on luck to defend; that is, rely on strength to back down.

In this area, Garnett doesn’t have it yet.

When the game reached 8 minutes and 35 seconds in the third quarter, with the suspense completely gone, Zhang Hao, who had shot 9 of 18, including 1 of 3 from three-point range, plus 3 of 4 free throws, was substituted out.

points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 blocks, this is Zhang Hao’s performance in 31 minutes of play.

Garnett played 29 minutes, shot 4 of 11, with 3 of 3 from the free-throw line, securing 11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.

By this time, the Lakers were already leading the Timberwolves by 21 points, 73 to 52.

The Timberwolves’ head coach Philip Sanders’ favoritism for Garnett made even teammates feel a bit sorry for Lightner.

Back in the day, Lightner was only second to Grant Hill in college fame, and because he was a white big man, he became a member of Dream Team I. But ever since entering the NBA, he has been doing just mediocre work. In this game, Philip Sanders benched Lightner, the team’s top player in his prime, after just a few minutes to let Garnett experience the strength of the best rookie.

Everyone could see that Lightner fought for shooting rights because the opportunities were becoming scarce, and he had no choice but to compete. But no matter how he performed, it seemed he couldn’t avoid being abandoned in the end.

But Garnett indeed has talent!

This is very realistic...

No surprise, without the explosion, the Timberwolves were no match for strong teams, and the chance of the Timberwolves, who have few outside shooters, exploding is not large either.

Eventually, the Lakers comfortably won against the Timberwolves, 108 to 90, securing a 9-game winning streak!

In this game, teammates and fans were more clearly aware of Zhang Hao’s strengths and weaknesses.

Zhang Hao’s playstyle and skill set indicated that he wouldn’t be the type of core player a team can be built around alone right now.

However, everyone could see, he is the kind of player who can almost fit into any offensive system. Trading for or signing a player with an inside-outside core playstyle wouldn’t impact him, and on the contrary, having a super strong offensive point could reduce the dependence on his scoring threat and allow him to play even better.

In the game against the Timberwolves, besides about 20 catch-and-shoot plays by Zhang Hao, Magician served as the offensive initiator. Due to the Timberwolves’ overall poor defense, Magician racked up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists in three quarters, achieving a triple-double for the first time after his comeback.

When Magician played well, Zhang Hao, if not in isolation, performed better than he usually did as the primary anchor.

This game seemed unimportant, with such a weak opponent, but it was actually quite important.

But after Zhang Hao scored 60 points in a single game, many people had extra expectations of him, expectations that Zhang Hao currently might not be able to fulfill.

Right in time for such a game to come, Zhang Hao wanted to duel with Garnett, the opponent wasn’t strong, and his teammates and coach gave him the opportunity to showcase his characteristics once again.

Zhang Hao’s performance tonight made teammates, coaches, and fans much more composed.

Their rookie is definitely not perfect, of course, still very impressive, but with a lot of room for improvement!

Zhang Hao himself didn’t think much, just wanting to properly compete with Garnett once, to see who is stronger... obviously, it’s still Mr. Zhang who is a bit stronger.

"I really want to play against Garnett every day, this sparring partner is just too great, can defend anything but is not that strong yet, just perfect to help me refine my skills. Should I invite him to train together in the summer?

But suddenly he seems to find me annoying, oh, high schoolers are hard to please... eh? Did I just insult myself?"

On the other side, Garnett was much more frustrated, they lost again!