The Golden Age of Basketball

Full of doubts, Gan Guoyang returned to Portland as soon as possible, and the Blazers were going to play against the Los Angeles Lakers at home in the evening.

The situation of the Lakers this season is not so ideal. After half a season, they waived McAdoo during the offseason and got Maurice Lucas.

There is no problem with Lucas's own performance. He averaged almost 10 points and 7 rebounds per game. As a substitute insider, he is good enough.

But the problem is that he is too old. He entered the league in 1974 and has been fighting on the court for 15 years. On the offensive end, he can rely on experience and talent to contribute to the Lakers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is still old, is really difficult to guard the team's three-second zone.

This also puts more defensive pressure on the Lakers' outside line. When they face teams with strong inside lines like the Rockets and Trail Blazers, if Kareem Abdul-Jabbar can't cause enough trouble for the opponent's young inside line on the offensive end , then the trouble will return to the Lakers.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still has the ability to score 40 points in a single game, but at the age of 38, he needs to save some fuel in the fuel tank.

To make matters worse, the Magician was injured in the battle against the Celtics at Boston Garden Plaza on January 1. The Lakers were also engulfed by the flames of Celtics revenge in the away game, losing 22:95.

Immediately afterwards, they lost consecutively to their fellow city brothers, the Los Angeles Clippers, and their strong rivals in the West, the Denver Nuggets. They suffered the longest three-game losing streak of the season, and it was also their first losing streak this season.

Against the Trail Blazers in this game, Magic Johnson still failed to return to the team, and the Lakers faced the danger of a four-game losing streak against the powerful emerging teams that have emerged this season.

However, the fatigue of the Blazers' continuous running gave the Lakers a chance, because this game was the Blazers' third game in four days, and it was not played in one place, but changed three venues.

Therefore, the Trail Blazers team was out of shape at the beginning of the game, and they were evenly matched in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they were directly beaten by the Lakers 33:18, falling behind by 15 points.

"Three games in four days, two away games and two home games. More importantly, they have played 50 games so far, still ranking first in the West, and do you know how many games the No. 41 team in the East has played? ? 9 games! There are [-] games missing, I really don’t know how the league arranges the schedule.”

Seeing the Trail Blazers being overwhelmed by the Lakers without a Magician during the game, Sean Lee, the commentator on the sidelines, began to complain about the league's schedule. He thought that such an arrangement was too much for an aging team like the Celtics. , It's unfair to the pioneers.

But this can't change the situation that the Trail Blazers are at a disadvantage on the field. Even Gan Guoyang is a little bit powerless, and the long-distance travel is exhausting. An iron man like him can't bear it. Who told him to go to the University of Notre Dame to watch the game?

The Lakers are full of energy. Facing Gan Guoyang who is out of form, Kareem scored 22 points on 11 of 25 shots. Michael Cooper took over the magician's gun and acted as a point guard. A game-high 12 assists.

Maurice Lucas, a veteran of the Trail Blazers, was also unceremonious in the face of his former owner. He played 20 minutes off the bench and scored 7 points on 5 of 14 shots.

In the end, the Lakers also beat the Portland Trail Blazers by 118:95 and 23 points in the away game. While ending their three-game losing streak, they also avenged their last home game.

After the game, the mood in the Trail Blazers team was not too low. It is indeed reasonable to lose this game. In the fourth quarter, Ramsey also replaced the main players and rested. You should all take a break.

Fortunately, for the Trail Blazers players, a long holiday is coming soon, and that is the All-Star Game in Dallas on February 2.

In addition to Gan Guoyang and Drexler, the two are among the best in the All-Star voting, and they will be the starting center and starting shooting guard of the Western Conference All-Star respectively.

Drexler originally wanted to continue participating in the slam dunk contest, but he was dissuaded by Gan Guoyang, the "military adviser". Gan Guoyang said, "You shouldn't be called a dunk general, you have to be an all-around player." Kesler believed it.

In fact, the main reason was that Gan Guoyang really didn't have any more ideas in his mind, and Drexler couldn't come up with some ideas. He was afraid that Drexler would lose face if he went back.

Moreover, Gan Guoyang doesn't know who won the slam dunk contest in 86. Anyway, it must not be Drexler, and the things that destroy history can be done less.

A few days before the All-Star Game, that is, into February, Ramsey gave the players a day off, allowing them to rest and adjust their status. Immediately after the first game in February, the Blazers The Lakers' city brothers, the Clippers, took the knife and swept their opponents 2:2 at home with a huge gap of 156 points.

Gan Guoyang scored 33 points, 21 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 blocks in the game, and he only played in three quarters. Three of the other players also scored 20 points. All 11 players on the field scored. feast.

The poor Clippers will be overwhelmed by the noble Lakers in Los Angeles, and they will have to help the Lakers pay off their debts in Portland.

After that, the Blazers went to Denver again, and had a big battle with their old rival Nuggets.

Alex English was unstoppable, holed the Blazers' front line, scored 42 points, and once again sounded the alarm for the Blazers' flank defense.

But the Nuggets' insiders also couldn't resist Gan Guoyang's outburst. With a super high shooting rate of 22 of 18 shots, he scored 45 points against the small Nuggets insider, scoring 5 points in a single game for the fifth time this season.

The two teams fought fiercely until the last moment. Vandeweghe, who was still poor on the defensive end, hit a key shot at the last moment, allowing the Blazers to lead by 5:120 with 119 seconds left in the game.

Immediately afterwards, Gan Guoyang once again staged a defensive lore. He accurately judged the passing line of the Nuggets, double-teamed English in advance, blocked English's last shot, and hugged the Blazers for a precious game. victory.

Of course, luck is not always on the Blazers' side. Two days later, on February 2, they also faced their old opponents in the playoffs last season, the Dallas Mavericks. The Blazers were not so lucky at the last moment.

The Trail Blazers, who originally led their opponents by 109 points at 107:2, made a fatal mistake when serving the backcourt ball and was successfully intercepted by Blackman. Blackman also caused a foul by Kenny Carr for a layup. If you enter, you will be fined.

After Blackman made a free throw, the Mavericks took the lead. In the key attack, Gan Guoyang missed the hook and the rebound was also grabbed by the Mavericks. All hits.

At that time, the three-point shooting level of the players was still very low. At the critical moment, the lack of three-point shooting was really slow like a snail. In the end, the Blazers failed to make up for their mistakes. The point difference lost the last game before the All-Star break.

But even with this defeat, the Blazers still rank first in the Western Conference with a record of 42 wins and 11 losses, and second in the league, second only to the Boston Celtics, and they have played 9 more games than the Celtics.

After the game, the Trail Blazers did not disband on the spot and have a holiday. Under the strong request of Gan Guoyang, the whole team still assembled for a whole day of high-intensity training on the second day. In Gan Guoyang's words, such training can enable us to Recover from a relaxed state faster after your vacation.

In fact, this can be regarded as Gan Guoyang leading the whole team to punish them for the low-level mistakes they made in the game, because the competition in the league will become more intense after the All-Star Game.

The current lineup of the Blazers is basically stable. The consecutive victories made Inman temporarily give up his plan to make a big deal, and he is at ease to keep this lineup with too strong offensive power until the end of the season.

The training lasted for a long time, and the main team and the substitute team had a fierce confrontation. Since the game just finished yesterday, the main team's physical strength was not as good as that of the substitute team.

There is no time and round limit for the confrontation between the two sides. From two o'clock in the afternoon to six o'clock in the evening, the scoreboards of both sides have already turned over three digits, and the two sides are still going on.

In fact, when the match ended basically depended on when Gan Guoyang didn't want to fight anymore. The old man Ramsey had already gone back to the office to drink coffee anyway, so he didn't care about the match.

When Gan Guoyang doesn't want to play, it must be when the main team leads more. Once the two sides are anxious or the substitute team takes the lead, Gan Guoyang will never call a stop, and the others can only follow him to continue playing.

For this reason, Bellman, who was flipping over the scoreboard on the sidelines, finally couldn't stand it anymore, because there were too many points on both sides, and no one could remember them clearly later, so Bellman began to fiddle with the scoreboard. One point, the main team scored two points, he counted three points, and played like this until 06:30, when the main team finally led the substitute team by 515 points 503:12, Gan Guoyang announced the end of the game and threw the ball to show that he did not want to play up.

At this time, everyone was exhausted, but no one complained. Since the team played this long-term marathon match this season, the competitive state of the players has generally improved, and their confrontation ability on the field has also improved. has been enhanced.

It's just that it's been a long time today, and Paxson even sat down on the ground.

"Hey, Gan, what do you think of me participating in the three-point contest?" When Gan Guoyang passed by Paxson, Paxson asked, patting Gan Guoyang's leg.

"Three-point contest?"

"That's right, this year's All-Stars newly set up a three-point contest, which corresponds to the dunk contest. What do you think of me participating in it? I scored a lot of three-pointers today, and it feels good."

"Not good, do you want to compete for second place?"