The Golden Age of Basketball

The Blazers who got the right to attack did not waste this fast break opportunity. Mitchell Sampson passed the ball to Valentine. After observing the dribble, Valentine made a diagonal pass and the basketball went straight To Drexler.

Drexler returned to the team in the last game of the preseason. After recovery training, he participated in this preseason and performed well.

So in this game, Ramsey also put Drexler on the starting list, and Drexler finally became the Trail Blazers' starting shooting guard.

"Clyde Drexler, received a pass from Valentine, dribbled for a layup! Fouled by Sanders, I don't know if his leg injury will affect his performance."

Drexler failed to score the ball on this ball. Sanders knocked Drexler away in the return defense, which affected his movement.

Obviously, Drexler was still affected by the leg injury. If he was in normal health, Drexler would have dunked the ball directly into the basket instead of choosing a layup.

With Drexler making two free throws, the Blazers took a 4-0 lead at the start.

This time, Humphries did not rush from the middle, but started to go on the wing. He passed the ball to Alwan Adams in the low post at a 45-degree position on the right.

Adams' position was very shallow, and Gan Guoyang didn't try his best to defend, because he had to allocate his attention to the area near the free throw line. [

The purpose of Bellman's promotion of Gan Guoyang is still very clear, which is to use Gan Guoyang's strong mobility to make up for the lack of single-defense ability of the Blazers' outside players.

You know, the Blazers are different from the Lakers. The Lakers' backcourts, Cooper, Magic, Worthy, and Scott are all tall, long arms, fast-moving, and outstanding defensive players.

When needed, the Lakers can resort to a very strong perimeter defense to make the opponent's offense fall into a state of disjointed and paralyzed.

Therefore, even though Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is old and basically unable to do anything other than single defense and guarding the penalty area on the defensive end, and even if he doesn't even grab rebounds in the backcourt, the Lakers still have a very good defensive level.

The Blazers can't, except for Drexler, Valentine, Vandeweghe, Colter, Paxson, they are either slow or short, young or injured. The defensive pressure is not good at all, and we must rely on the strength of the inside players support.

"Adams throws the ball back to Humphries, Adams goes for position, Humphries makes a pass, Adams goes to a deeper spot...turns around for a layup! Gan blocks the layup! Blazers deny it again The Suns shot, Gan accepted the ball."

Adams wants to adjust the rhythm by passing in and out, and at the same time be able to get to a deeper position.

Gan Guoyang did not prevent Adams from receiving the ball closer to the basket, because he was confident enough to defend Adams.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang gave Adams a nail-biting hat, another successful defense.

The Blazers' strategy in the offensive position is very clear, first find Gan Guoyang, and let Gan Guoyang solve the Sun's weak inside.

"Gan received the ball on the left side, the sun still didn't pinch, Gan dribbled the ball to the basket, turned around and hooked with his left hand! The ball scored, Adams did nothing, 6:0."

Facing Adams, who was inferior in height, strength and weight, Gan Guoyang showed no mercy. He gave full play to his advantages to experiment with the new technology he had learned during the offseason.

But the Suns players also quickly made adjustments. After Humphries dribbled the ball for half court, he immediately handed the ball to Adams who was raised to the top of the arc, and at the same time walked to the bottom line.

At 45 degrees, Walter Davis set a screen for Humphries and pushed Valentine.

Vandeweghe failed to switch defenses quickly, allowing Humphries to slip in from the baseline. Adams in the high position immediately made a through pass and passed the ball to Humphries who was deep in the hinterland. [

Since Gan Guoyang mentioned the high position, the Blazers' basket was relatively empty. Facing Sampson's defense, Humphries made a master throw, 6:2.

Behrman also shook his head on the Blazers coaching bench. In order to make up for the Blazers' outside control over the top of the arc and the horns, Gan Guoyang sacrificed the bottom line and the basket for this strategy.

Mitchell Sampson's defensive ability is actually underestimated. His blocking and supplementary defense are above the standard in the entire league's interior, but compared with Gan Guoyang, his weight and defensive deterrence are still poor Some.

At that time, when the Trail Blazers coaching staff was discussing, the core focus of attention was also whether Mitchell Sampson could make up for the defensive vacuum brought to the basket by Gan Guoyang's expanded defensive area.

In the end, this strategy was adopted. One of the reasons is naturally the trust in Sampson's defensive ability, but the main reason is that Sampson is not in the long-term plan of the Blazers to build the team.

"Run-run-run! (Run, run, run!)" There is nothing wrong with throwing a ball. Ramsey immediately roared loudly from the sidelines, clapping his hands continuously. For Ramsey, offense is the most important thing. The pioneers are the foundation of their lives.

It may be that Ramsey yelled too urgently. Valentine quickly dribbled the ball and passed it to Drexler after halftime. Drexler caught the ball at 45 degrees on the right side. After falling into position, he pulled up and shot directly.

"Boom!" The ball hit the neck of the basket, the rebound was snatched by the Suns, and none of the Trail Blazers were in position.

Ramsey, who was still yelling "Run, run" just now, shut up immediately, as if he had been slapped by Drexler...

Of course, now that Ramsey sees Drexler's shooting posture, he also wants to slap him, but there is no progress at all.

But Drexler quickly made amends. At the top of the arc, he and Gan Guoyang quickly pinched the ball holder Walter Davis, and the two intercepted the ball together.

"Drexler steals the ball, and the front is flat! Drexler made a gliding dunk! The glider is flying in the sky of the Memorial Stadium again!"

In the absence of a defender, Drexler showed his superhuman jumping and gliding ability. The beautiful dunk made the Blazers fans crazy. Many people came to the Memorial Stadium to watch the game and waited for it This one from Drexler.

"Is your leg okay?" Gan Guoyang was more concerned about Drexler's injury than dunking. He stepped forward and asked after scoring.

"No problem, it feels great, I can win another slam dunk title this year..." Drexler said with a smile.

The highly motivated Blazers once again invested in the defense. Suns coach John McGraw has discovered that the Blazers' defensive strategy is very different from last season, and their pincers are extremely frequent.

Although this often caused relatively large loopholes in the Blazers' defense, the Suns' transfer of the ball was not smooth. Some players had opportunities, and others could not pass the ball to him in time.

But the Blazers' offense is as sharp as last season. Once the Suns can't score, the Blazers will launch a fast break. The Suns lacking height and speed can hardly stop the Blazers' sharp knives.

In addition to Gan Guoyang's absolute advantage in the interior offense, the score of the two sides was already 5:14 in the opening 6 minutes. The Blazers led the Suns by [-] points, and their shooting percentage was astonishingly high.

Seeing that the point difference was gradually widening, John McGraw immediately called a timeout to make some adjustments.

"Good job guys, our defense has achieved initial results, but we still need to be cautious, we need to be more tacit, and don't leave too much space for the opponent." Ramsey asked during the timeout.

In the past, Ramsey's defensive concept was relatively simple, relying on the players' personal defensive ability, plus the tacit understanding between each other, to interfere with the opponent's offense and lower the opponent's shooting rate.

Bellman's strategy is much more complicated. The reason why the Suns can't make a good pass even when there is an open space is not only because of the lack of personal ability of the players, but also because Gan Guoyang controls the free throw line, which is a "traffic hub" extending in all directions. road".

The entire Blazers' defensive formation is to close in the middle and release the bottom line, so the Suns players will go to the bottom line unknowingly, and the bottom line has the worst vision, and it is normal to not be able to pass the ball.

Therefore, the Suns' six points were obtained by fighting alone or by switching offense and defense, and they were somewhat helpless in attacking them in position.

For this reason, the Suns made personnel adjustments. They replaced the backup center James Edwards. This 7-foot inside veteran is a very versatile inside player. Grade, Adams also returned to the power forward position that is more suitable for him.

As soon as Edwards came on the court, Gan Guoyang’s defensive pressure instantly increased a lot. He had to pay more attention to the basket, because before facing Sampson was the Sun’s "mini" insider Charles Jones. His height Only 6'8.

The most notable feature of Edwards is his mustache. He looks like an old cowboy in the west, but his playing style is quite delicate and technical.

Sure enough, the Suns sent the ball directly to the inside Edwards on the first ball after the timeout. Edwards opened up Sampson who was defending him, and made a shot with a light hook, 14:8.

Edwards' influence is not only on the offensive end, he also started to play a role on the defensive end. He will defend Gan Guoyang, and it is obviously more difficult for Gan Guoyang to beat him than Adams.

"Gump got the ball in the low post again, he was facing the basket, he drove with his left hand! Layup on Edwards ... the ball didn't go in, Edwards got the rebound, and his defense was pretty good."

Gan Guoyang wanted to try to break through the basket for a layup, but he failed. Of course, Edwards was also uncomfortable. He weighed only 225 pounds and could not withstand Gan Guoyang's impact at all. He only interfered with Gan Guoyang's layup by virtue of his height and arm length.

"Come back to defense!" The Blazers in regular time still adhered to the habit of not attacking the frontcourt, but retreated quickly.

Seeing that the sun failed to seize the opportunity to counterattack quickly, they could only attack from the ground.

"Let me guard him." Gan Guoyang said to Sampson, and then quickly crossed positions with Sampson and came behind Edwards.

It seems that after Edwards came up, the Blazers had to change their defensive strategy and return to a regular defensive state, while Sampson played Gan Guoyang's previous role, mentioning near the free throw line to delay the Suns' pass. ball.

However, at this time, the referee's whistle blew, and referee Earl Stam pointed at Sampson and made a foul gesture.

"Let's see, the referee whistled for the Blazers' illegal defense! The Suns will execute a free throw."

After seeing the penalty, Behrman began to think in his heart: "Damn it, you really need to be more careful."

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