The Golden Age of Basketball

"Issel, pay attention to marking Gan after playing. If he is still on the court, don't let him shoot open! Increase our defensive pressure, to limit their shooting percentage, we must cheer up. This game We didn't win the game completely, don't be careless, don't underestimate the enemy!"

In the 8th minute of the first quarter, when Gan Guoyang received a pass from Drexler after the pick-and-roll and made a mid-range shot, allowing the Blazers to lead the Nuggets by 22 points 10:12, Doug Mo had to call Second timeout in the first quarter.

After Gan Guoyang hit a fast-breaking mid-range shot, Doug Mo didn’t make targeted adjustments to Gan Guoyang’s sudden transformation into the little prince of the mid-range shot. He believed that Gan Guoyang just accidentally caught two , Not really developed a mid-range shot.

After all, the season has come to this point. If Gan Guoyang, who has not shown his mid-range shooting ability for a season, is suddenly possessed by Elvin Hayes at this time, no one will believe it. (Hayes was also No. 11 and retired after Gan Guoyang's previous season in the league.)

But after the timeout, Gan Guoyang's performance made Doug Mo have to believe that either Gan Guoyang is really possessed by Elvin Hayes, or Gan Guoyang has always been able to shoot mid-range shots, but it's useless to hold back. With this game, I am going to zoom in.

On the offensive end, as long as Wayne Cooper dares to let Gan Guoyang take two steps, Gan Guoyang will really dare to shoot, and his shooting posture is standard, fast, decisive, and the arc of the ball is very high. For King's fans, watching the high-arcing ball slowly fall and finally hollow into the net is a kind of torture.

The Nuggets' defense was also in a mess because of Gan Guoyang's mid-range strike. They didn't know whether they should go out to defend when Gan Guoyang pulled out, and whether Gan Guoyang could get the ball at a high position. Let him take two steps.

This kind of hesitation caused the Nuggets' defense, which was not considered tough, to be hit by the pick-and-roll duo of Gan Guoyang and Drexler.

The poor defensive end made the Nuggets' offense stagnant. Without sufficient backcourt rebounds, they had no chance to counterattack, and almost every offense had to grind their positions. [

The Blazers' position defense is getting stronger and stronger, and the pressure on the ball is getting stronger and stronger. Everyone spares no effort to defend every opposing Nuggets player. This also leads to the powerful Nuggets. In the first 8 minutes It only got 10 points.

"Beep! The timeout is over!" The referee's whistle sounded, and the 20-second timeout passed quickly. Doug Mo looked at the lineup where the Blazers re-entered the field, and Gan Guoyang was still in it. He wanted to let Doug - It seems that there is nothing wrong with Mo playing.

But Doug Mo was only paying attention to Gan Guoyang, but he didn't notice that Jim Paxson also replaced Drexler and came to the court.

Maybe Paxson really isn't as talented as Drexler, and what he did after Game [-] was really wrong, but one thing Paxson was right about was his performance against the Nuggets. His performance was indeed better than Drexler's - except for this game, because Gan Guoyang's sudden mid-range shooting allowed Drexler to get several assists and successfully break through several times.

"Come on, Paxson, show them some color." Gan Guoyang walked beside Paxson and said, punching his arm.

"I know, Gan, I won't let Coach Ramsay down." Paxson said as he turned his head and glanced at Coach Ramsay lightly, feeling guilty in his heart.

After questioning Ramsey that day and asking Ramsey to change the starting lineup, Paxson regretted it a bit. After all, Coach Ramsey contributed a lot to his success today.

However, after several years of nb career, Paxson has grown a lot, but also lost a lot. He is no longer as humble and low-key as he was when he was a rookie. He thinks it is natural for him to start in the Trail Blazers. Yes, until Drexler came along.

This black kid from Houston showed unparalleled talent in basketball, his super physical fitness, sensitive ball, and wide vision, all of which made Paxson feel the crisis.

However, Ramsey has always stood by Paxson's side, which made Paxson gradually feel that Ramsey should be on his side, after all, he was trained by Ramsey.

But in the course of the season, the competition between the two for playing time has never ended. Until the end of the season, Paxson began to suffer from foot injuries, and Drexler took the position smoothly and played brilliantly. Since then , Paxson became impatient.

He had talked with Ramsey alone several times. Ramsey always assured Paxson that he would give him enough playing time, but everything still had to proceed from the interests of the team.

When the playoffs began and Drexler's starting position became more and more stable and his performance was getting better and better, Paxson finally couldn't sit still. He chose the wrong way at the wrong time, against a The old man who should be respected has made a mistake.

The temper he developed over the years as an nb star made him unwilling to bow his head to Ramsey and admit his mistakes, even though he had already regretted it in his heart. After losing to Tianwangshan in the fifth game, he listened to Ramsey's affectionate talk and generosity. Due to his tolerance, Paxson could no longer wear a proud mask to face this fatherly coach. He sincerely apologized to Ramsey and expressed his deep apologies to all Trail Blazers players.

Now, he stands on the court like a reborn man, and he will bring a fatal blow to the Nuggets. You must know that in the previous five games, Paxson made 33 of 25 shots against the Nuggets and only missed 8. 75 ball with a horrific [-] percent hit rate. [

It's just that he didn't play enough time, so the damage to the Nuggets wasn't big enough, and Doug Mo ignored this terrible outside shooter.

"The timeout ended, the two sides returned to the court, the Blazers replaced Drexler with Paxson, and Sampson replaced Kenny Carr; the Nuggets, Doug Mo put on Dan -Issel, it should be hoped that he can limit Gan, Mike Evans replaced Leaf, and both sides began to enter the normal rotation period."

"That's right, we should see if the Nuggets' offense can improve after this round of adjustments. Leaf seems to have been completely figured out by his old coach Ramsey, and he is very limited. The Nuggets' offense Without Liv's organization, it looks even more chaotic."

A major change in the Blazers' defense against the Nuggets is to strengthen their defense against Leaf, constantly using double-teams and pressure to affect Leaf's handling of the ball. Without Leve's sharp pass, the entire Nuggets' offensive quality has declined. the whole grade.

"Evans had the ball, Issel made a screen, Evans drove in with the ball, layup... missed, the ball was interfered by Sampson, Sampson got the rebound, opened up The attackers are about to launch a counterattack.”

"The Nuggets' offensive choice doesn't seem to be very good. Could it be that their tactic after a timeout is to let Evans break through the singles?" James Brown said, shaking his head.

However, Doug Mo's tactics are really to let Evans play singles.

Because offensive organization is not Mike Evans' strong point. As a substitute, his ability lies in his ability to dare to shoot and dare to attack. In the last game, he made a shot at a critical moment and gave the Blazers a deadly knife.

Therefore, Doug Mo sent him up because he wanted to rely on his momentum to drive the current weak offense of the Nuggets.

It's a pity that the ball didn't go in, but it gave the Blazers a chance to counterattack. Valentine still went into the fast break cautiously. The essence is to spread the wings and follow up inside.

Paxson and Vandeweghe rushed to the bottom line from left to right, and Valentine went straight into the three-second zone from the middle.

Since Paxson and Vandeweghe were on the two wings, the formation of the Nuggets' defense was stretched wide. The door opened in the middle, and Valentine suddenly accelerated and went straight to the basket. Evans stuck to Valentin tightly. Ding didn't give him a good chance to layup.

Valentine did not make a strong attack, but passed the ball behind his head to Gan Guoyang, who was following behind. The next step is to make Gan Guoyang hit someone with the ball.

"Gump throws the ball, he misses the layup, the ball goes to Paxson, the man guards Paxson, the corner jumper... Goes in! It's so easy, it's too easy for him."

After scoring the goal, Paxson raised his right hand high, stretched out a finger, looked at Ramsey on the sidelines, and immediately went back to defend.

"At 24:10, the Trail Blazers' lead has reached 14 points, and the Nuggets are still helpless on the offensive end...Issel holds the ball at the top of the arc, let's see if this veteran can relieve the Nuggets' offense crisis……"

Before Frank Graber could finish his sentence, Issel was copied by Gan Guoyang when he broke through with the ball, and the Blazers stole it.

"Gan steals the ball, and the Blazers counterattacked again. Gan threw the ball directly to Paxson. Paxson took the ball and went straight to the basket, and made a layup! A beautiful layup, avoiding the opponent's defense."

If the ball were replaced by Drexler, it would have dunked directly on the opponent's head, while Paxson cleverly avoided the opponent's block and succeeded in laying up on the other side of the basket.

Paxson returned to the defense, and at the same time raised his right hand again, this time he stretched out two fingers.

Afterwards, the Nuggets finally scored a goal, and Evans' play did indeed have an effect. After breaking through to the inside, he escaped Gan Guoyang's giant palm with a small throw, and finally won the game for the Nuggets. At the 12th point, there are less than 2 minutes left before the end of the first quarter.

Less than 20 seconds after the Nuggets scored, Paxson raised his right hand for the third time.

"Paxson caught the ball at the top of the arc with a double screen, shot...and hit again, Paxson has made three goals in a row after coming off the bench!"

After scoring three goals in a row, Paxson stretched out three fingers.

Paxson's gesture of raising his hand instantly became the last gesture that the home fans wanted to see. He was like an executioner, every time he chopped off a head, he had to stretch out a finger.

But three fingers are far from enough.

When Paxson raised his right hand for the eighth time in the second quarter -- plus his left, five fingers on the right and three fingers on the left -- it meant the shooter had hit eight of eight shots.

"Paxson, 38 of 18 shots! I can't believe it. The Nuggets called a timeout again. The score is already 20:3. The Trail Blazers lead by [-] points! The second quarter has just started [-] minutes."

Doug Monet's timeout, and for the Blazers, Ramsey has not even used a timeout, because the players have played very well.

"Nice job, Jim." Ramsey said to Paxson who was coming off the field.

"This is for you, Mr Ramsay."