The Golden Age of Basketball

() "Keep your focus and competitiveness from the first second, this is the Lakers, lax will only make us die worse."

Gan Guoyang remembered what Ramsey said to him before the game. This is a game against the Lakers, and he must go all out.

From the moment of scrambling for the ball, Gan Guoyang did his best!

He didn't slap the ball in his own direction, but got ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, relying on his outstanding bounce speed, and slapped the racket directly to the frontcourt.

The basketball flew unbiased to Mitchell Sampson, who was wedged between the two Lakers.

Sampson also didn't expect Gan Guoyang to shoot the ball this way. The ball was not stable in his hands, and two Lakers players grabbed it.

But the strong Sampson still protected the ball, and he saw in the crowd that Gan Guoyang had started to run forward.

"Oh my god, the Blazers center, Gan, ran to the front court, Sampson threw the ball in the crowd, Gan bent down and picked it up, only magic followed him. Gan dribbled fast break , he tossed the ball to the backboard! The ball bounced back for an alley-oop dunk!"

"Beep!" The referee's whistle sounded.

But the whistle couldn't stop Gan Guoyang from dunking the ball into the basket with one hand, and his men had already fallen heavily to the ground.

"Hmm~~" There was a muffled booing from the arena, obviously everyone was stunned by Gan Guoyang's opening performance.

Under the interference of Magic Johnson, Gan Guoyang threw and dunked himself, blasting the ball into the basket, and at the same time caused Johnson's foul.

"Are you okay Gan?" Drexler stepped forward and asked, Gan Guoyang was pulled by Johnson, lost his balance in the air, and fell to the floor.

"I'm fine, I'm fine now." Gan Guoyang slowed down on the ground, feeling that there was no problem, and jumped up from the ground, it seemed that there was indeed no problem.

The referee signaled Johnson to make a foul, and at the same time picked up the ball and pointed to the free throw line for Gan Guoyang to add a penalty.

"Oh, this year's Chinese No. [-] show gave the Lakers a bad start and made free throws. Let's see how Magic will deal with it."

Gan Guoyang made a free throw and scored three points for the Blazers in the opening game.

"It seems that this guy is in great shape, I hope he can keep the whole game." Coach Ramsey thought in his heart.

At this moment, the Lakers had launched an offense. Johnson quickly advanced through the half court. Their small forward James Worthy circled from the left to the right, relying on the cover of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Rambis to get rid Overwhelmed Valentine's defense and found the point guard on the bottom line.

Johnson was standing on the left side of the court at this time, and without any pause, he suddenly flicked his left hand. The ball passed through a diagonal line, flew past the heads of the two Blazers players, and came into Worthy's hands like a positioning missile.

Worthy made a shot, but unfortunately the opening felt rather stiff, and the ball hit the basket and missed.

Gan Guoyang made preparations at the basket early, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is 37 years old this year, could not rush for an offensive rebound, so Gan Guoyang grabbed the ball with one hand.

"Wow, Gan grabs the rebound like a young Moses Malone, one-handed it...but he throws the ball up the court!"

Gan Guoyang did not hesitate after taking the rebound, because he had seen Jim Paxson.

Because Magic Johnson is 6 feet 9 as a point guard, it is impossible for Valentine to guard him, and Jim Paxson can only be used to guard him.

This also brought convenience to Jim Paxson's counterattack. As soon as he saw Gan Guoyang get the backcourt rebound, he immediately started, and the basketball flew straight into Paxson's hands as if he had eyes.

Paxson received the ball at the top of the arc, dribbled and took off, and made an easy layup, adding 2 points for the Blazers. 5:0.

Johnson didn't dare to foul anymore after following Paxson, otherwise he wouldn't be able to play in the first quarter.

"The Lakers got off to a bad start and were beaten by the Blazers twice in a row. Is anyone wondering who is the magician? Gan's vitality is surprising." Zeke Hearn said helplessly.

But the game has just begun. If these two balls can disrupt the Lakers, the Lakers will not be the king of the West.

Johnson is still dribbling the ball very calmly, while pointing around with his left hand, directing the movement of his teammates.

When he reached the three-point line, Johnson habitually turned his back to the basket and put his butt against Drexler to protect his ball.

Due to his height, Johnson is often prone to steals by smaller guys when in possession, so he always handles the ball with his back to the basket on the outside.

The other three Lakers players moved to the left, and the three formed a line that kept the Blazers behind.

On the right side, it was given to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who blocked Gan Guoyang at the waist.

Although Gan Guoyang is young and strong, his height has always been his disadvantage. As soon as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leaned back, he found that he could hardly see what was happening on the court.

Johnson handed the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who dribbled the ball, turned right and moved inside, and hooked the ball with his left hand!

The ball bounced twice on the rim and fell into the net.

This is an action that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been doing in his career for more than 20 years, but no one can completely stop him from shooting the ball, and neither can Gan Guoyang.

Although he tried his best to squeeze and push, but when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stretched out his long arm to make a hook movement, it was still so unreachable and unstoppable.

"Consume him! Consume him!" Ramsey yelled from the sidelines, reminding Gan Guoyang not to think about defending Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with every ball, but to make it more difficult for him to score. In this way, in the second half of the game, 37 The [-]-year-old Abdul-Jabbar may not necessarily have the stamina to score consistently.

Coming to the offense, Gan Guoyang did not go to the low position, but came to the high position to make a wall. According to Ramsey's arrangement, the main strategy of the Blazers in the opening game was to rely on the conduction from the outside to open up space and use breakthroughs to kill the Lakers inside.

The Lakers players have an advantage in personal ability, but their two insiders Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is old and Rambis is slow, so the Blazers want to use the vitality of the outside line to attack the Lakers inside.

However, the outside players of the Lakers were unmoved by Vandeweghe and Paxson's interspersed running, and still shrunk tightly around the three-second zone to protect their inside.

Thanks to Gan Guoyang's cover, Valentin had space to observe the situation on the field from the outside. He found that Vandeweghe was cutting from the right to the basket, and he made an overhead pass to pass the basketball to Vandeweghe.

But he underestimated the Lakers' defensive attention. The ball was stuck in the free throw line near James? Worthy touched the ball and changed the course.

Byron? Scott broke the ball, the Lakers launched a counterattack!

Scott passed the ball across the half court and the ball was in Worthy's hands. Worthy was about to dribble and advance quickly, but unexpectedly, Gan Guoyang appeared in front of him, almost surrounded by a pair of long arms.

This is one of the reasons why Ramsey put Gan Guoyang in a high position instead of letting him sink in a low position, allowing him to delay the Lakers' fast break.

Gan Guoyang's delay had an effect. Worthy almost lost the ball and barely controlled the ball. The Blazers team had already returned to defense, and the Lakers couldn't play fast break.

Worthy can only pass the ball back to Johnson and let him organize the offense.

"Quick, quick, quick! Worthy go to the right, Scott to keep up!" Johnson commanded loudly holding the ball.

At this time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was late, but he also did not go low, but stayed at the top of the arc; Lakers power forward Rambis also came to the right outside the three-point line to cover for the Magic.

The Blazers were so focused on Magic, thinking he was going to pick and roll with Rambis, that they didn't notice that Byron Scott, also on the right side, had made a cross-screen position with Worthy on the baseline In the exchange, Scott slipped to the weak side of the Blazers' defense.

Johnson had an insight into everything on the field. He was 45 degrees to the right, and he passed the ball to Scott with an unexpected cross pass.

At this time, it was too late for Valentine, who had lost his position, to make up for it. Scott made a 20-foot jumper and scored! 4:5.

"How the hell did the ball pass?" Gan Guoyang took the ball to the bottom line and was amazed by the magician's super passing ability.

In fact, Gan Guoyang felt during the training in Palm Springs that you must concentrate [-]% on a team with the Magician. You don’t know when he will pass the ball to your hands, and at that time you will find that there is a scorer in front of you. good opportunity.

Now that he is the opponent of the magician, Gan Guoyang knows that he must concentrate 120%.

Going back to the offense, the Blazers have not yet scored a goal in the positional offense. They need to use a goal to strengthen their determination to implement the tactical routine.

This time Gan Guoyang began to sink to the low position, but it was just a false move. After standing in the low position for a while, he immediately pulled to the high position, and by the way, he made a cover for Vandeweghe, so that Vandeweghe got into the low position smoothly.

The Lakers made a defensive mistake. They shrunk too much and missed the top of the arc.

After passing the ball to Vandeweghe, Valentine relied on Gan Guoyang's cover to get near the free throw line. Vandeweghe immediately passed the ball back to Valentine, and there was nothing in front of him.

Valentine made a shot, "Boom!" Unfortunately, the goal was missed.

"Dame! (Damn)" Valentine roared, this is a very, very good opportunity, but Valentine's shot was a little impatient, the ball swished around the basket and fell out. <-break! (The ball went in and out, it hurts)" Zeke Hearn had a chance to utter his famous line, teasing Valentine for failing to score an easy goal.

As a result of the missed goal, Abdul-Jabbar took the rebound and handed the ball to the magician, and the Lakers launched a fast break!

When the magician started to push forward quickly, no one could stop him. He found Byron Scott, a 20-yard long pass, Scott caught the ball and avoided the interception of two defensive players, and made a successful layup!

The whole process takes no more than 5 seconds!

Fans in the Great Western Forum once again appreciated the show-time fast break, and they overtook the score!

After suffering two blows from the Blazers in the opening game, the Lakers easily turned the score over by relying on a stable offense and good defense.

Now, the Blazers urgently need to score in positional battles, and their first 5 points all came from fast breaks.

Valentine dribbled the ball across half court and passed the ball to Gan Guoyang who was standing at the high free throw line. Gan Guoyang observed the ball with both hands, and found that the Lakers' defense was quite meticulous and there was no gap.

At this time, Vandeweghe asked for the ball from the outside line on the right, and Gan Guoyang handed the ball to Vandeweghe.

In the previous games, Vandeweghe averaged 30 points per game and was the team's top scorer. This summer's new aid has also become Portland's number one star.

When the Blazers' situation cannot be opened, it is up to Vandeweghe to solve the problem.

Vandeweghe held the ball one step inside the three-point line. Facing Magic Johnson's defense, he suddenly held the ball and pretended to break through. His left foot had already taken a step.

Johnson moved in, but Vandeweghe did not continue inward, but dribbled and pushed back, and his whole body was two steps away from Johnson.

"It's-the-kiki-move! (This is Vandeweghe's step!) Vandeweghe made a shot from 20 feet! The ball was scored, and Magic Johnson was beyond his reach." Zeke Hearn said helplessly.

The Vandeweghe step is Vandeweghe's famous stunt. This is a practical tentative step, pretending to break through, but the actual person moves back, so as to widen the distance from the defender and gain shooting space.

"Gan, stand a little further in, go in!" Ramsey yelled at the side, reminding Gan Guoyang to go in a little bit when his teammates made long shots. Chances are higher.

"Your coach is really long-winded, or you don't understand anything, rookie?" Worthy on the side listened to Ramsay's words and sneered.

"He is old, are you also old?" Gan Guoyang retorted, mocking Worthy as a long-winded old man.

"Be careful, rookie."

During the Palm Springs training camp, Worthy was very upset with Gan Guoyang. He didn't expect this Chinese kid to be so arrogant.

Gan Guoyang had no time to chat with Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had already rushed to the basket.

Exactly the same as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's success in taking the ball in singles, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson connected on the right side, and the other three opened up the defense on the left side.

But this time Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not play singles. Just when Gan Guoyang was concentrating on trying to make Abdul-Jabbar uncomfortable, Magic Johnson cut in directly after passing the ball!

Paxson couldn't react in time to stop Johnson, and Abdul-Jabbar passed the ball into Johnson's hands with a ground pass, an internal and external pass coordination.

Sampson, who was defending Rambis on the other side, missed the defense and Johnson made a layup! 8:7, the Lakers once again overtook.

"Fuck!" Gan Guoyang smashed the ball hard, no matter whether he was hooking or passing the ball, he had nothing to do with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the two defenses, which made him extremely annoyed.

"Quick, pass the ball, don't procrastinate!" Valentine reminded, the opponent's goal is normal, he must launch a quick attack.

But it was too late when he dribbled the ball across half court, the Lakers' defensive formation was already set up, and the Blazers had to play positional offense.

At this time, the Blazers had problems with their offense. They failed to attack consecutive positions, and their confidence in implementing tactics was hit. The routines they used before were no longer feasible.

Facing the tight defense of the Lakers, the Blazers had no choice but to allow Sampson, a power forward, to break through on the outside. As a result, he knocked Rambis down and was whistled for an offensive foul by the referee.

"What are you doing! Don't mess up, pay attention to the choice of attack!" Ramsey yelled off the court, he was extremely dissatisfied with this attack choice.

On the defensive end, the Blazers were hit again. Worthy caught the ball at the free throw line and hit a jumper against Vandeweghe's defense. 10:7, the Lakers' offensive seemed unstoppable.

"Yeah!~~" The atmosphere in the Great Western Forum Arena was completely driven by the Lakers' consecutive shots. Compared with the Blazers, they were already in a mess.

Ramsey had to call a timeout, and he wanted to stabilize the situation on the court.

Gan Guoyang also felt helpless. In fact, the Blazers had already played very well. The start was full of momentum, and several tactical executions were successful, but the goal was not scored.

But in defense, they really have nothing to do with the Lakers, and he has nothing to do with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Only in the game did he feel how powerful Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is.

And he understands that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is far from doing his best, the same is true of Johnson, and even the entire Lakers are not doing their best.

They just ran back and forth a few times according to the usual routine.

Only 5 minutes into the first quarter, Gan Guoyang began to feel the horror of the Lakers, and the following game was still very long.