The Golden Age of Basketball

(Due to the sudden incident yesterday, I didn’t even have time to ask for leave online, and there will be two updates today)

When the two sides put the main lineup back on the field, the Blazers still maintained a suppressive posture against the Suns.

The Suns do suffer a lot in terms of lineup structure. There is no one inside who can match Gan Guoyang one-on-one. Whether it is Adams or Jones, there is no way to stop this increasingly skilled insider.

Perhaps only double-teaming can slightly alleviate Gan Guoyang's damage to the Sun's inside line.

"Gan got the ball in the low post, which is his favorite position. Sanders stepped forward and double-teamed Gan Guoyang. Gan passed the ball back to Valentine, and Valentine passed the ball back to Gan...Gan Turn around, hook with the left hand! Go in! Beautiful left-hand hook, Gan's hook is getting more and more proficient!"

Gan Guoyang began to think about changing the means of attack after being double-teamed by the Suns twice and failed.

Because Gan Guoyang used to grind the sun's inside line directly to the basket and then cast a small hook, so the sun began to let the players on the line come over to double-team Gan Guoyang and prevent Gan Guoyang from squeezing the middle.

Therefore, Gan Guoyang changed his strategy. He pretended to turn inside and squeeze in, but after receiving the ball again, he turned outside and turned to the baseline. Then he used the left-handed hook that he also practiced hard in summer and hit a two-pointer.

The score between the two sides has changed to 51:40 at this time, and the Blazers gradually widened the difference to 11 points.

In defense, the Blazers' players have also gradually become more handy, and some covert and illegal defenses have been played very smoothly by them.

One of the great advantages of zone defense is that it is not easy to be smashed by the opponent's fist. Once the opponent has one or two strong single points in man-to-man defense, the defense line is easily broken up as the game deepens.

The regional defense is a relatively "labor-saving" defense. Players help each other. Although it will cause relatively large loopholes in the entire defense line and loss of points is inevitable, the team's defense line can still maintain its formation.

Of course, a more important reason is that at that time, the three-pointer, the nemesis of zone defense, had not yet become the league's mainstream scoring method.

"Beep beep!" At this time, the referee's whistle blew again. It turned out that Gan Guoyang had hit the side ball again while defending. He paid too much attention to Sanders without the ball, and was called an illegal defense by the referee.

"I just glanced there a few times, can't I just look there? I didn't turn around, and I didn't have the tendency to pinch him!" Gan Guoyang ran to the referee to argue a few words, and now Gan Guoyang is no longer a rookie last season , The referee has to give some face to players like Gan Guoyang.

"You guys have played side kicks several times. I can't let you do this all the time. I have to give you a foul." The referee really looked like a torch. Although he turned a blind eye to such side kicks, he should call a penalty It's time to blow.

Gan Guoyang pretended to shake his head helplessly, but he knew that it was inevitable to be blown up by the referee, and he couldn't always let the Blazers take advantage.

And the Blazers' defensive goal has been achieved, which is to destroy the Suns' offensive rhythm, make their offense fragmented, and make them score in a more laborious way, so the Blazers can win with less effort.

With Adams' free throw, the score between the two sides came to 51:41, and the Blazers still had a 10-point advantage.

"The Suns continued to attack. Sanders held the ball and forced a breakthrough! After being interfered by Gan, Adams grabbed the rebound and made a layup, but still missed. Paxson got the rebound."

The best player in the Suns is Sanders. There is no way, Vandeweghe's defense is indeed a bit weak, and Sanders can easily beat him alone.

But with Gan Guoyang's supplementary defense, it is not so easy for Sanders to score consecutive goals.

Paxson was the only substitute left on the field, and Ramsey was not going to continue to play Drexler in the first half. It is important to control his playing time so that he can heal his leg injury.

With such a lineup, the Blazers began to grind their offensive positions with the Suns, and they wanted to hit the success rate.

Gan Guoyang made 8 of 6 shots in the first half, made 14 free throws and scored 9 points, plus [-] rebounds. The Suns had nothing to do with him.

But Gan Guoyang's performance was not over. He ran to the low post on the left and pretended to ask for the ball, but the Suns' defense line was tight at this time. If Gan Guoyang held the ball in the low post, he would be double-teamed.

So Paxson, who was holding the ball, hesitated for a while, and instead of passing the ball to Gan Guoyang, he passed the ball to Vandeweghe who inserted from the right.

After Vandeweghe received the ball, he immediately dribbled the ball and broke through the middle. At this time, Gan Guoyang had left the low position and went out, leaving room for Vandeweghe to break through.

The Suns naturally shrunk their defense inside, and Adams stepped forward to close the door, blocking Vandeweghe's breakthrough route.

Vandeweghe didn't force a shot, nor did he fall into Adams and get an offensive foul. He turned his head and passed the ball to Gan Guoyang who was walking out!

At this time, Gan Guoyang was completely empty, and other Suns players did not come up to defend. Gan Guoyang was not polite, and shot from a position 15 feet to the left.

"Shua!" A mid-range shot was made, a 15-foot jumper!

"Yes!" Gan Guoyang clenched his fists after scoring the goal. Obviously, such a mid-range shot made him more excited than a successful dunk. This is the result of hard training for more than a year.

Ramsey on the sidelines also applauded after seeing Gan Guoyang throwing the goal, and then sat on the bench on the bench.

In this game, Ramsey can be said to be very smooth. He yelled at the players no more than twice. Even if the team was chased by the Suns all the way, he was not impatient. After all, he was very confident about the strength of this Trail Blazers. ——This is the most powerful Blazers team since 1977.

With the sound of the buzzer, the first half of the game ended, and the Blazers entered the intermission with a 55-point advantage at 43:12.

The score of 43 is indeed too little for the Suns. Under the NBA basketball environment and tactical thinking at that time, a team should generally score around 60 points in the first half and around 110 points in the whole game.

The Suns' abnormal performance on the offensive end is not only due to the absence of the team's generals and the disadvantaged lineup structure, but also because they are very uncomfortable with the Blazers' defense.

The new defensive system Bellman brought to the Blazers was not very oppressive in the first half. It can be seen from the Suns' mistakes that they only made 3 turnovers.

But the offensive rhythm of the Suns was destroyed. Singles and forced shots occupied the main part of the Suns' offense, which made their shooting rate quite bad, only 30.00%.

In comparison, the Trail Blazers played with ease, they did not use a strong offense, and their fast offense comparable to the Lakers did not appear many times. Drexler's injury was part of the reason, and there was The Blazers didn't do their best.

During the halftime break, the atmosphere in the Blazers' locker room was quite relaxed. After experiencing the first half of the game, Bellman finally eased down from his over-stressed state.

"The defense is good. It would be nice if there were fewer illegal defenses. But I still want to emphasize, don't ignore your personal defense, don't always think that someone will come to wipe your ass, this is facing the Suns , If we face the Lakers, it will definitely not be so easy." Ramsey, as always, likes to vaccinate players.

Indeed, in any case in the NBA, one defense and one defense is the mainstream defensive strategy, and making corresponding changes on this basis is the current main idea of ​​the Trail Blazers coaching staff.

Ramsey also used this to remind players not to rely too much on this kind of "heretical way", and improving the level of personal defense is the kingly way.

But Gan Guoyang knows that with the development of the NBA, although personal defense will always be the mainstream of the NBA, various defensive systems and strategies will emerge as the times require, which will have a profound impact on the technical and tactical development of the NBA.

If this trend is inevitable, then let the pioneers follow this trend, and even become the "pioneer" of the trend.

The second half of the game continued at the Memorial Stadium. The score of 55:43 and the 12-point difference were not so insurmountable.

So the Suns launched a fierce counterattack as soon as they came up. They still seized the defensive loopholes of the Blazers at Vandeweghe, and grasped the advantage of point guard Humphries over Valentine, and used the players' personal abilities to attack basket.

At this time, Gan Guoyang's disadvantage of not guarding the basket was highlighted. He needs to move a longer distance to return to the basket to defend, and Sampson's defensive effect is worse than Gan Guoyang's.

So, Sanders and Humphries started scoring consecutively.

But the most deadly problem for the Suns is that they can't defend the Blazers with strong individual capabilities. Although Vandeweghe was blown up on the defensive end, he was in excellent form on the offensive end. Another one on offense.

For a team without defensive strength, it is very difficult to even out a large point difference. The opponent will not always cooperate with consecutive attacks and miss, giving you a chance to counterattack and chase points.

This kind of situation of coming and going is obviously beneficial to the Blazers.

"Gan and Drexler pick-and-roll, Drexler passes the ball, Gan breaks into the paint, double-handed reverse dunk! Oh ~ the Suns are fragile inside, I think the Blazers are already thinking about their opponents in the next game. "

Gan Guoyang and Drexler made a pick-and-roll inside cut. After receiving Drexler's ground pass, Gan Guoyang broke into the inside and passed through the sun's double attack. He successfully kicked back and pushed the atmosphere of the Memorial Stadium to a climax. most**.

The score at this time was 98:77, and the suspense of the game had been lost. The Blazers ushered in a good start at home and a big victory.

After the game, Gan Guoyang, who scored 27 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks, said in an interview with reporters: "Our state is very good, and I have great confidence in us. Although it is the first game, I think we We can make it to the finals this year.”