In the back-to-back game, the opponent is still the strongest opponent in the Supersonics' season plan.

Fortunately, although the Supersonics replaced the three major outside lines in advance last night, Ben Wallace led Murch Breckle, Ruben Patterson, James Percy, and Artest to open the Blazers' substitute group in the last 8 and a half minutes, and won a few more points.

By noon, the league announced the awards for the last month of 2000.

Kobe won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month Award in December with his average of 30.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

The battle between Iverson and Kobe's first point guard is becoming increasingly fierce.

With his average monthly performance of 26.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists, Malone won the Western Conference Player of the Month Award in December.

Why can Malone be called a 'big-level' player when she turns 40 in three years?

This state-keeping ability is no worse than Jordan!

In November, Jordan just won the best of the month as a member of the team, while Malone made the best of the month in December.

After the Jazz beat the Hornets on the night of the 30th, the Jazz scored 10-6 in December, ending the first two match months, returning to sixth in the Western Conference with a record of 19-13.

In terms of the best coach of the month, the Bulls coach Larry Brown won the East, and the Lakers coach Rick Carlisle won the West.

These two are the two coaches who are recognized as the best performing so far in the season. If this momentum continues, the best coach will most likely be among the two.

Rookie of the Month... There is a player who is very interesting this month!

After being selected by the Warriors in the second round in 1997, he failed to sign. He went to Europe for three years to return to the NBA. He won the Western Conference Rookie's Monthly Rookie after Warriors center Danpier was out of the team due to injury in early December. He averaged 15.2 points and 8 rebounds per game in 14 games, winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month.

Mike Miller, the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, averaged 9.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

The Player of the Month and the Coach of the Month are divided into the East and West, mainly the "Superstar Exclusive Award" of the Player of the Month is divided into the East and West, which really gives more stars the opportunity to get more attention with this award.

But the rookie of the month was divided into the East and West, and in the first year, it became a joke.

...

This year's New Year's Eve battle is very lively. In addition to the West, there are also two exciting games in the East.

On December 31, the Bucks and Hornets had not paid much attention to this game. Ray Allen's 44 points and Balang Davis's 42 points made the game much higher than the last game of the Trail Blazers and the Supersonics in 2000.

At 5 p.m. on January 1, the game between the Bulls and the Sixers started.

Kobe showed one of his characteristics in his rookie year - when playing against the 76ers, he could always break through Duncan's mid-to-close defense.

The same is true this time, Kobe scored a high score of 37 points against the Sixers.

Fortunately, Iverson's 33 points are not bad either. Duncan steadily scored 25 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, and it is difficult to tell the difference between McGrady's 18 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

But with Mutombo, the 76ers, the Lakers have not tried it, so it’s hard to say, but the defense of opponents outside the Lakers has obviously become stronger than before Campbell’s injury!

The 76ers beat the Bulls 102-98.

The Suns were the worst in the Western Conference Final Four in December 30 to January 1. They lost to the Trail Blazers the day before yesterday, lost to the Lakers yesterday, fell to fifth in the West, and were almost caught up by the Jazz.

The Lakers are currently 26 wins and 6 losses, still leading the Supersonics by half a game.

At 8 pm, the Supersonics' home game against the Lakers started.

The game is ugly. Both teams did not score 90. The Lakers took the initiative to launch a high-intensity defense + star war.

On the Lakers, O'Neal scored 29 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks, Pierce scored 23 points, the Lakers did not score in double digits, and Payton only scored 6 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, and only made two 11 shots.

For the Supersonics, Zhang Hao scored 19 points, Jordan scored 21 points, Cassel scored 14 points, Ben Wallace scored 11 points, 17 rebounds and 6 blocks...

The Supersonics narrowly defeated the Lakers 86-80, winning four consecutive victories, and their record increased to 26-6. After directly playing against the Lakers, they surpassed the Lakers, which had 26-7 wins and lost half a game and topped the league first!

In addition to the 5-day regular life span reward, Zhang Hao also received the first reward of "Fishing Master", defeating O'Neal for the 6th time in 3 consecutive seasons, with a life span of 18 days!

...

...

Many people are waiting for the Supersonics to return to the league's first place, and the Supersonics have done it!

In fact, the Supersonics have been the first in the league since the start of the season until the Devil's schedule of 8 days and 6 games, but they have too few explosive points. Until the recent games, Zhang Hao and Jordan have performed explosively one after another, and they became the focus team after the start of the middle of the season.

On January 3, the Supersonics defeated the Nets 106-87. On January 5, the Supersonics defeated the Jazz 102-88, and won all five consecutive home games. After achieving 6 consecutive victories, the Supersonics' record improved to 28 wins and 6 losses!

On January 7, Zhang Hao celebrated his 24th birthday. On this day, the Seattle City Hall gave Zhang Hao a gift, setting January 7 of each year as "Zhang Hao Day". At the same time, another official festival name, "Gentleman's Day", was included in the city manual.

Seattle Mayor Ed Duncan encouraged citizens to wear suits when attending public places on this day in a press conference to announce the incident...

Although festival naming, street naming and other things are not a big deal in European and American countries. Many streets in European and American countries are named after someone, and each city has many festivals named after people, but for athletes, it is naturally a pleasure to have.

After three days off from the 6th to the 8th, another brutal schedule for the Supersonics began.

One and a half months before the season, until 8 days and 6 games, the Supersonics' schedule is relatively easy. The league can arrange more strong teams for them in the middle of the season.

On the morning of the 8th, the Supersonics set off from Seattle to Minneapolis and started a five-game journey.

The 9th is against the Timberwolves, the 11th is against the Raptors, the 12th is against the Wizards, the 14th is against the 76ers, and the 16th is against the Hawks.

Now stay in the west for a while, and then fight from the north to the southeastern part of the United States.

Defeated the Timberwolves 105-92, lost to the Raptors 92-97, slaughtered the Wizards 115-70, lost to the 76ers 81-88, and slaughtered the Eagles 106-75.

Apart from playing against the Timberwolves, Garnett was taken turns to defend Garnett only scored 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, and the next four games were full of excitement.

Unfortunately, after losing to the Raptors, he was defeated by Odom's 33 points and 9 assists and Carter's 27 points, the Supersonics turned around and gave the Wizards a 45-point massacre.

After losing to the 76ers by 7 points in the defensive battle, he turned around and hit the Hawks with 31 points.

Jordan's personality traits were well reflected in the Supersonics' style in the middle of the season.

In fact, the Supersonics took the path of a bloody battle, and the Supersonics also played the offensive performance that should have in the bloody battle.

But Odom and Carter made 8 three-pointers together, which made the Supersonics timid in the defense and finally lost.

When playing against the 76ers, it was Murchi Breckle's turn to rest, while Ruben Patterson's knee twisted and injured due to the previous game against the Wizards, and he was unable to fight.

In fact, Iverson didn't play in this game. The two teams were just defending, while the Supersonics lost.

Iverson did not appear in the game because of injury. Iverson was in excellent health this season, but because he was suspended.

The reason is very complicated. What is shown is that Iverson had a fierce dispute with the referee during the game, resulting in a warning for banning three games.

The punishment was as strong as the punishment for fighting with people in Bunch Wells nightclub, which was obviously unfair to Iverson.

Local fans in New York also painted the most beautiful scenery in the United States outside the NBA headquarters...

Iverson, who was watching the live broadcast at home during the game, felt it was even more unfair.

No one regards him as one of the players who 'never beat Zhang Hao', but in fact, except for the All-Star Game, Iverson has never beat Zhang Hao, but the 76ers have won the team where Zhang Hao is in recent years. However, Iverson has been absent for various reasons...

After 5 consecutive away games, the Supersonics' record became 31 wins and 8 losses, and was tied by the Lakers again.

...

The record of 3 wins and 2 losses in five consecutive away games is not bad, it is pretty good, but it loses continuously to the Raptors and the 76ers. In terms of public opinion, the Supersonics are still under a lot of pressure.

But this pressure is only for the fans. The Supersonics players don’t care, mainly because the veterans don’t care. What a big deal, they lose two regular season games.

After the five consecutive away games ended, on the 18th, the Supersonics returned to home court and defeated the Grizzlies 115-92. Zhang Hao won 60+5 days in one game!

After staying in Seattle for two nights, on the 19th, the Supersonics left Seattle again and started a four-game series.

At noon on the 19th, the league officially announced the second issue of the All-Star vote.

Iverson beat Carter with 1.37 million votes, Jordan with 1.29 million votes, Zhang Hao with 1.25 million votes, and Kobe with 1.2 million votes, ranking first in the current number of votes.

In the first voting period, Iverson's votes ranked 10th among everyone, behind O'Neal and Wang Zhizhi.

But recently Iverson's votes have grown rapidly, especially after being banned for various reasons for three games, the votes have risen.

Expert comments, the league did not expect that they would ‘end the unhealthy winds brought by Iverson’, which actually made Iverson’s popularity soar.

What’s interesting is the starting competition for the center position in the Western Conference. O’Neal currently has 1.08 million votes and Wang Zhizhi 1.05 million votes. At the end of the first phase, Wang Zhizhi was still 120,000 votes behind O’Neal, and now it is only 30,000 votes away.

After the number of votes in the second period was announced, O'Neal publicly accused... Zhang Hao, saying that Zhang Hao's fans voted too many votes for Wang Zhizhi.

After the video of O'Neal's interview was broadcast in the news program, there were really many fans of Zhang Hao who had not voted for Wang Zhizhi before and went to vote for Wang Zhizhi...

...

The No. 20 Supersonics defeated the Suns 98-86 away, and turned back to No. 21 and lost to the Clippers 79-92 away, almost angering Kidd and O'Neal, next to the Clippers.

The Lakers just lost to the Heat, and the Supersonics lost another game. Both teams had 33 wins and 9 losses, and the competition for the league's first place continued to be fierce.

The mid-season game has been played for most of the time, and the Supersonics team is mainly veterans, but it has been greatly affected. From the game, we can see that no matter how well the Supersonics coaching team's rest strategy is done, the veterans often have fluctuations in their condition.

Unlike the Jazz, the Supersonics rely on strategies to improve the veteran's form, and their stability is still not as good as the Jazz, but this has been done well.

On the 23rd, when the Supersonics challenged the Warriors away, Zhang Hao failed to score the fifth final win in his regular season, but Jordan grabbed the offensive rebound and threw the ball with 1.3 seconds left. When the ball fell, the final whistle had already sounded, but the ball entered!

Relying on Jordan's equalizer jump shot, the Supersonics dragged the game into overtime.

In overtime, he was 1 point behind the Warriors with 3.7 seconds left. This time it was Zhang Hao's turn. It took a while to catch the ball and take a three-pointer and hit it!

With 18 shots in 23, the final hit rate was finally lowered to below 80%.

Relying on the double winning streak of Jordan and Zhang Hao, the Supersonics narrowly defeated the Warriors 86-84, avoiding another two-game losing streak, delaying the arrival of the 10th loss, and improving the record to 34 wins and 9 losses!

On January 24th, the Supersonics came to Denver. After a night of rest, on the 25th, they arrived at Pepsi Center. This was the last away game of the month for the Supersonics.

Sometimes, the situation comes very suddenly.
To be continued...