The Golden Age of Basketball

Mitchell Sampson's missed shot in the opening game did not eliminate the Blazers' determination to score the first goal in the interior. The reason why Ramsey asked to take the lead in the south interior was to eliminate the psychological shock caused by the Rockets Twin Towers to the players. In addition, there are tactical considerations.

In the last game lost to the Rockets, the Blazers did not suffer a big loss inside. Instead, they were beaten by the tall, strong and fast Rockets on the outside, and finally lost the home court.

In this game, Ramsey hopes that the inside line can put pressure on the Rockets' twin towers from the beginning, forcing the Rockets' outside line to devote energy to taking care of the inside line.

The Rockets' perimeter players are all tall and powerful, and their expansion-type oppressive defense put a lot of pressure on the Blazers' perimeter.

The Blazers are known for their fast offense from the perimeter. Once this is restrained by the Rockets, it will be even more difficult to win the game.

The Rockets' lineup was originally constructed to restrain the Lakers, but the Blazers are very similar to the Lakers in style, so they are easy to be deflated when they encounter the Rockets.

If it is a single-round insider, the Rockets Twin Towers are terrifying, and the Blazers' insider strength is not bad. The Cavaliers are not bad. Ralph Sampson and Gan Guoyang are both good offensive and defensive players. They are all-stars, but they are short. Some.

Therefore, facing Ralph Sampson, Mitchell Sampson tried his best to get a position at the basket, and try to get a deeper position, otherwise this singles will not be able to play.

Valentine once again passed the ball to Mitchell Sampson in the low post on the left, using exactly the same singles tactics as the previous attack. [

After Mitchell Sampson received the ball, he headed back, trying to cut deeper with his low center of gravity.

Ralph Sampson is tall and has a high center of gravity, and his body is still slender. His defense in the low post is not as stable as Olajuwon.

He used a little trick, Mitchell - as soon as he pushed back, he sneaked back to hide, so that Mitchell could not find a point of support.

This blow is really damaging. The low-post singles players hate this kind of unloading force the most. If they are not careful, they will fall down.

Mitchell Sampson didn't expect Ralph to make this move because of too much force, his whole body lost his balance and fell to the ground all of a sudden.

"Beep!" The referee's whistle blew, pointing to Ralph Sampson and calling him a foul.

"I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything~ Why did I foul!" Sampson complained to the referee with a innocent face, and there were bursts of boos at the scene.

However, the referee's penalty cannot be changed. Mitchell Sampson still fell to the ground, which was not a light fall.

At this time, Gan Guoyang rarely stepped forward and stretched out his hand to Mitchell Sampson, meaning to help him up.

During the game, it is inevitable for players to fall, and basketball players are tall, and it is really troublesome to stand up, so teammates usually go up to help.

Because Gan Guoyang and Mitchell Sampson have never met each other, the two never supported each other. This time Gan Guoyang took the initiative to reach out to pull Mitchell Sampson, which surprised Sampson.

"thnks" Mitchell said thank you to Gan Guoyang after being pulled up.

This may be the most polite term the two have used since they became teammates. Obviously, the relationship between the two is slowly easing.

The game continued, and the Trail Blazers served a sideline kick.

This time the Blazers' main attack direction shifted from the left to the right, and Vandeweghe looked for opportunities with the ball on the outside. [

Gan Guoyang mentioned the top of the arc, ready to make a screen for his teammates, but the Rockets' outside line is very wide, sticking to the pick-and-roll without changing defenses, and they are very deadly on one defense and one defense.

After passing a few times without a chance, the ball was handed over to Gan Guoyang for a transition. Gan Guoyang looked around with the ball and found that there was no good chance to pass the ball.

The only option was to hand the ball back to Valentine, but that meant reorganizing and time was running out.

"Go by yourself!" Gan Guoyang heard Ramsey's roar next to him. Ramsey always emphasized in training that when tactics fail, he must solve the problem quickly and powerfully alone.

Gan Guoyang chose to break through from the front, dribbling directly from the top of the arc and rushing to the inside of the Rockets!

Olajuwon didn't expect Gan Guoyang to come up with such a move, and the Rockets' defense was very wide, so the protection of the three-second zone was very poor, and Gan Guoyang rushed in in one step.

I have to admit that breakthrough is the simplest and most powerful weapon to break through the opponent's defense on the basketball court, even if the breakthrough is a bulky center.

Besides, Gan Guoyang is not bulky. He dribbles straight to the basket, and Sampson on the other side has to step forward to defend. If Gan Guoyang does not defend, he will dunk directly.

Gan Guoyang remained very calm when there was an interception and a chasing soldier before. He took the lead to take off, but observed in the air and found that Mitchell Sampson had been vacated.

So before Ralph Sampson's big hand came up, he made a clever pass in the air and passed the ball to Mitchell Sampson.

Sampson received the ball, dunked with both hands, and scored the first point for the Blazers. 2:2!

With a simple and effective breakthrough, the Blazers successfully passed the Rockets Twin Towers inside.

After the goal, Mitchell Sampson also extended his hand to Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang stepped forward to high-five Sampson.

Seeing this scene, Ramsey on the sidelines was still happy to see the goal. He felt that the two insiders could finally settle down and work together!

For Ramsey, he spent a lot of effort in coordinating the conflict between Gan Guoyang and Sampson in the previous month. He had to take care of Sampson's feelings and actively cultivate Gan Guoyang.

The Blazers' high-ranking draft picks were all arrogant and arrogant, starting with Bill Walton.

Before Ramsey, Lenny Wilkens, who was more rigid than Ramsey, couldn't coordinate the contradictions among the geniuses in the team, which kept the Blazers unable to produce results.

After Ramsey took office, he did a good job in this regard, but unfortunately he still failed to stop Wharton from leaving in the end.

Now he encountered this problem again, one champion and one second, somehow he didn't see right, and then the conflict intensified.

But the conflict came out of nowhere, and it was also inexplicably resolved. Once they were lifted up and clapped hands on the field, it can be seen that the relationship between the two is no longer difficult to tolerate.

Ramsey naturally didn't know that Gan Guoyang had already planned to take the initiative to show affection to Sampson and give him enough respect so that Sampson would no longer be hostile to him.

As Kenny Carr said, Sampson has no ambitions. He is like a senior gold collar of a big company. He does his job well every day. It is ok to play well for the team. As for the others, he is not Special care.

As long as he gets a salary that matches his own data and the respect of the players, at least he has no problem with his playing level.

Gan Guoyang's idea is that since Sampson has no ambitions, but has qualifications and abilities, then I will offer him well, give him enough respect, resolve the conflict between the two, and even gain Sampson's support.

As long as Sampson doesn't compete with him for the ball, at least in the interior, Gan Guoyang will become the real pillar of the Blazers by virtue of his performance.

Gan Guoyang seemed a bit "foresighted" this time, but in fact he just turned a corner and solved the immediate problem in a more secure and friendly way, which is also a symbol of a person's gradual maturity.

But facing opponents on the court, Gan Guoyang will not be safe and friendly.

After Mitchell Sampson scored, the Rockets quickly served from the backcourt, and Ralph Sampson passed a long pass directly to the frontcourt.

The Blazers' defensive formation has not yet been set up, and the Rockets have already rushed in with the ball. The Rockets are also good at quick offensive and defensive transitions.

The No. 32 shooting guard of the Rockets, Lewis Royd, if you just look at his back, eight out of ten people will recognize him as Magic Johnson, the same No. 32, similar body shape, and the slight hump back.

But his level is much worse than that of Magic Johnson. He took the ball and broke through directly to the inside. At this time, Gan Guoyang had already rushed back to the three-second zone.

If it is mg, Gan Guoyang must always be careful of mg's pass, you don't know when he will pass the ball to a player who has a chance.

Then he hesitated whether to go all out to defend or pay attention to other players around him, and in the end he often watched mg score a layup.

Royd obviously didn't have this level. He wanted to make Gan Guoyang foul, but Gan Guoyang didn't think that he wouldn't be fooled. Instead of making physical contact with him, he tried his best to use his long arms to interfere with Royd's layup.

As a result, Royd missed a layup, and the ball spun twice on the basket and fell out.

But the huge advantage of the Rockets Twin Towers emerged. Ralph Sampson, who was keeping up with him, easily picked up the offensive rebound by virtue of his height and arm length, and then put the ball into the basket under the attack of three people. . 4:2.

Gan Guoyang has nothing to do about it, the opponent is too tall, even if there is no Ralph Sampson, there is Olajuwon next to him.

In this regard, the Rockets are different from the Blazers. The Blazers are "unless the ball falls into your hands, don't grab the frontcourt and return to the defense quickly." Because the overall height and speed of the Blazers are not good enough, they must give up the frontcourt rebounds. Return to defense to defend against the opponent's quick offensive and defensive transition.

The Rockets, on the other hand, said, "Even if the ball is snatched by the opponent, we must take the ball out of the opponent's hands and attack again!" Because the Rockets' height and speed have an absolute advantage against the entire league.

So this game is also a huge test for the Blazers' backboard protection.

In the offense, the Blazers' outside line was also the first to open. The Rockets just scored the ball, and the Blazers also quickly served the ball.

Unlike the Rockets, the Blazers' fast offense is good at shooting from the wing. They made three passes and two passes, and passed the ball to Paxson who reached the left baseline.

Without any hesitation, Paxson made a direct 18-foot zero-degree shot in the face of Royd who rushed forward.

"Shua!" The ball went into the net, and it seemed that Paxson had a good touch in this game. 4:4.

After scoring two more goals each, the two teams who are good at playing fast offense started a confrontation.

Since the game has just started, everyone is very energetic, and the consecutive goals of both sides set the tone for the game, and everyone's shooting percentage is very high.

Soon, you and I played smoothly on both sides, there were no fouls or mistakes, and the coach didn't need to call a timeout.

The two sides have been so united and friendly until the 6th minute of the first quarter. The Rockets McGregor made a layup with the ball, but was slapped out of the baseline by Gan Guoyang, causing a dead ball.

The buzzer sounded on the sidelines, the referee signaled, and the official paused. At this time, the score on the field was 16:15, and the Blazers led by one point.

The official timeout, this is a new thing that Stern has developed since he came on stage this season, that is, if no team takes the initiative to timeout after 6 minutes of each quarter, the referee will call the official timeout when the ball is dead next time, This timeout counts against the home team.

Because Stern signed an agreement with major TV stations and advertisers at that time to give them enough advertising time, he invented the anti-human mandatory pause of "official pause".

In this regard, Ramsey has nothing to say on the bench, because the players are playing well, he is basically satisfied, and there is nothing to adjust.

In this game, Ramsey was quite well prepared. His goal in the first quarter was to open both the inside and outside lines, to be able to shoot from the outside line, to play against the Rockets, and not to lag behind in the first quarter.

Then in the second quarter, when the second lineups of both sides played, it was time for Ramsey to release his trump card and strive for a one-shot advantage.

"Maintain our state, we can play more offensively, increase breakthroughs, and don't rely too much on shooting." Ramsey said something casually, mainly hoping that the players will make more breakthroughs, because facing the Rockets' defense, breakthroughs are difficult. It is a better solution.

However, it is unrealistic to expect Paxson and Vandeweghe to rely on breakthroughs to tear the Rockets' defense, and it is impossible for Gan Guoyang to always break through from the top of the arc. Now Olajuwon has strengthened his defense against Gan Guoyang.

The Trail Blazers didn't pay attention to Ramsey either. Gan Guoyang sat on the bench and sipped this year's nb's new drink-Gatorade.

In later generations, this drink can be described as thunderous, the Nike of sports drinks.

Like Nike, Gatorade at that time was just a small rural brand in Florida. At that time, Stern was soliciting sponsors everywhere after he came to power, but some big companies didn't like him.

Later, Stern received an invitation to cooperate with Gatorade, a little-known ordinary beverage factory, and the two parties established a partnership.

Later, Gatorade naturally relied on the platform of nb to grow bigger and bigger, becoming famous all over the world.

Gan Guoyang looked at the unknown Gatorade drink in his hands. At that time, many players still complained that the drink was too strong and unsuitable for athletes, but in the end he would perform the miracle of turning a crow into a phoenix together with nb.

"Buzz!" The 100-second official timeout ended, and Gan Guoyang put down his Gatorade drink and returned to the court.

He couldn't help getting a little excited when he thought that he was creating a miracle with all of this.

"Bang!" "Yeah!"

"Don't be in a daze, Gan! Guard yourself! Where have you been? The Forbidden City!"

Gan Guoyang was wandering, but the Rockets made a serve from the bottom line, Olajuwon made an empty cut to the basket and dunked vigorously to score, and the Rockets overtook by one point!

Ramsay looked at Gan Guoyang in a daze and cursed anxiously.

"Fuck, make a surprise attack! See if I don't kill you!" The depressed Gan Guoyang cursed in Chinese in his heart.