The Golden Age of Basketball

"Welcome to the 1985-1986 NBA playoffs brought to you by cbs. Today is the first day of the playoffs. We will bring you the Portland Trail Blazers game against the San Antonio Spurs at home. This is the matchup between No. 63 in the West and No. 19 in the West. I'm Dick Stockton, and today's guest is Tom Heinsohn! The Portland Trail Blazers have an astonishing 1984 wins and 60 losses this season After the 60 draft, they rose rapidly relying on their second pick and became the seventh team in nba history to win more than 76 games in the regular season. They seemed to experience some confusion at the beginning of the season , but in the middle of the season, the chaos was quelled again. The whole team came together and played an outstanding record that shocked the league. Now, the real test is coming, whether they can go further in the playoffs than last season, Let me wait and see." Dick Stockton's first six [-]-win regular season teams are the Celtics, Lakers, Knicks, Bucks, [-]ers and Bullets.

Even in 1978, when Bill Walton won the regular season mvp and the Trail Blazers won the No. 58 season in the Western Conference, their record was only 24 wins and [-] losses. The team went to a peak in the regular season together.

Tom Heinsohn immediately took over the conversation and said: "This season's Western Conference is undoubtedly exciting. In the past six seasons, the Lakers have entered the Finals five times and formed an absolute dominance. This season is the Western Conference. The most likely season to break the monopoly of the Lakers. The growth rate of the two young teams, the Rockets and the Trail Blazers, is amazing, and the defending champion does not seem to be in such a good season this season, but their experience is still unparalleled. Of course, It's too early to tell, the Blazers are still in the first round, and their opponent, the Spurs, is getting old, but never underestimate the strength of a veteran."

"That's right, I still remember that everyone thought the Celtics were old in 69. In the seventh game in Los Angeles, the owner of the Lakers prepared the championship balloon. As everyone knew, the old Russell took away his last A ring." Stockton talked about the past.

"Hahaha, yes, that was one of the most important victories for the Celtics. I hope the Celtics can repeat this scene in Los Angeles this year." Tom Heinthorn, as a veteran of the Celtics, listened The kind words to the Celtics naturally brought interest.

From the conversation between the two cbs commentators, it can be seen that they did not take the Spurs seriously, and their conversation focused on the finals, division finals, and favorites such as the Lakers and Celtics. Well, after all, the first place in the division is against the eighth in the division. This gap in strength is indeed a bit big.

When the Blazers were preparing for the game, they did not concentrate on studying the tactics of the Spurs. Instead, they allocated part of their energy to pay attention to their possible opponents in the second round or even the Western Conference Finals. This is undoubtedly a mentality of underestimating the enemy. .

As an experienced coach, Ramsey sometimes cannot avoid such a mentality. After all, this year's Trail Blazers will be his last chance to win the championship. He really wants to lead this team to the finals. To win the championship, like the first round against the Spurs, you have to play at least three games, which makes people feel like a waste of time.

The players are also getting more and more confident. In the pre-match interviews, they all showed their confidence in the team. Many fans directly played the "sweep" sign, which means that the Blazers should sweep the Spurs and enter the next round as soon as possible.

A sense of underestimation pervaded the Blazers, a common mistake of teams with little playoff experience who haven't learned enough.

Gan Guoyang also watched a lot of series games in later generations. He has seen black eights, and he has seen away games leading 2:0 and then being overturned. Now he has become a real player. He can smell that the teammates of the Blazers are a little too relaxed. .

During the warm-up before the game, everyone looked very relaxed. Coulter and Drexler competed to shoot three-pointers. Kenny Carr simply practiced dribbling under the crotch with the ball and started playing.

This feeling made Gan Guoyang a little worried. He also walked aside and talked to Ramsey. Ramsey just nodded, asking Gan Guoyang to play well and control the rhythm of the field.

………………

At 4:17 p.m. PT on April 7, the first playoff game between the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio and the Spurs finally began as the referee threw the ball in the air.

"Gump won the ball on the jump ball and the game officially started with the Blazers starting lineup Gan, Mitchell Sampson, Kiki Vandeweghe, Drexler and Steve Coulter ;The other side of the San Antonio Spurs starting five is Jill Moore, George Gervin, Alvin Robertson, Joe Sandwald and Mike Mitchell. Gervin was originally going to be traded in the offseason He went to the Bulls, but he didn't pass the physical examination, so he stayed in the Spurs in the end, and this playoffs will be his last playoff trip, and he is likely to retire after this season." George - In the original history, Gervin was going to be traded to the Bulls in exchange for point guard Wes Matthews, but in this time and space, it did not take place. Gervin continued to stay in the Spurs to finish his last season.

"Gan took the ball in a high position, turned around and broke through, and gave the ball to Sampson. Sampson dunked under the basket, the first point of the game!"

Gan Guoyang used his speed to easily pass Jill Moore, and the Spurs power forward Mitchell had to step forward to double-team. As a result, Gan Guoyang gave the ball to Sampson in time, and Sampson dunked easily.

One attack is enough to see that the Spurs' defensive ability is declining with the aging of Jill Moore inside, and their outside line does not have the strong ability to harass and oppress like the Lakers, so their average points per game this season is a collapse. Thousands of miles, ranked sixth from the bottom in the league.

"Gan got a rebound from the backcourt, a long pass, a lob from Coulter, and an alley-oop from Drexler! Beautiful Blazers attack, they stabbed into the heart of the Spurs like a sharp knife! The Spurs called a timeout , In just 5 minutes, the Blazers were in full swing, leading the Spurs by 18 points with 7:11!"

In the opening 5 minutes, the Blazers showed overwhelming strength, beating the Spurs in both offense and defense.

Due to the unsuccessful transaction of Gervin this season, the Spurs continue to rely on the personal strength of Gervin and Gilmore on the one hand. Defense and offense, but he faced Drexler in the first quarter and failed to limit the performance of the glider at all.

Throughout the first half, the Blazers showed the strength that a regular-season championship team should have. They blossomed in full bloom, scored at every point, and the most important thing was that they contained the Spurs' offense well in defense. Played beautiful counterattacks many times and scored easily. This kind of game is almost no different from the regular season.

"Gan's wonderful pass, beautiful pass! Drexler went straight to the basket after receiving the ball, the two clapped and hugged, and the last goal of the first half turned the score into a 59:44, 15-point lead , The Blazers' offense is so beautiful, their rhythm is not very fast tonight, so the score of 59 points is not high, but their cooperation is quite perfect, a typical Ramsey-style offense."

"Yes, when Gan can send out 4 assists in the first half, it's hard for such a team not to win—although it's only the end of the first half now." Gan Guoyang still hurts him, but Gan Guoyang's assist data in the regular season is really ugly, averaging 1.8 per game, less than two. He can't pass the ball after being double-teamed, which is almost his only weakness at present.

"Get rid of the pretty guys, but the game is only halfway through. A 15-point advantage is not safe. We need to further expand the score advantage, try to end the game in the third quarter, and crush them with a wave of offensive impact." Ramsey I believe that the Spurs must be killed directly in the third quarter. The so-called long nights and dreams continue to take advantage in the third quarter, and you can rest in the fourth quarter.

But the idea of ​​being too impatient made all the Blazers players start thinking about where to drink and relax at night.

"Let the game end early, I already feel like drinking." Kenny Karl even said this to Gan Guoyang.

And this is not a good idea. The difference between the playoffs and the regular season is that high-intensity confrontation will cause players to fluctuate in state, and the impact of this state fluctuation will be magnified during the game. The reason why the playoffs are often the stage for superstars, but role players tend to get lost in different game rhythms.

After the start of the second half, the Blazers' offense was obviously not as good as the first half. In fact, the Spurs' defensive strength did not increase much. They just shrunk their defense appropriately and let the Blazers shoot from the outside.

This is also a common defensive strategy used by many weak teams when they fall behind, which is to gamble with you with contraction defense.

As a result, the Blazers really couldn't make shots from outside, and Colter was the first to bear the brunt, missing three shots. As a point guard, if he couldn't make shots like this, it would do great harm to the team. It was replaced by Ramsey.

Porter, who replaced Colter, was also foolish and bold. Seeing that the Spurs were desperately shrinking, he refused to let Gan Guoyang catch the ball. He also shot outside, but still couldn't make it.

Missing several offenses has done a lot of damage to the morale of the Blazers.

What's more terrible is that they began to be unable to defend against the Spurs' offense, because George Gervin stored up half of his strength and broke out in the third quarter.

"Gervin received the ball from the left and broke through, and the three defended and hit the basket! Singer-roll! It also caused Gan's foul. How many times is this? Gan's third foul, it seems that Ramsey is going to Gan put it down and rested for a while, if the extra penalty hits, the Spurs will tie the score."

George Gervin scored 13 points in a row in the third quarter. He broke through with the ball on the wing. , Either get it on your face or let Gervin invest in it. The superstar feels like it is really unstoppable, even if it is an old superstar.

For a championship-level strong team, it is very normal for players to feel bad and unable to make shots some of the time. What is most needed at this time is to use a strong defense to prevent the opponent from making shots, because defense does not rely on feel.

But the Blazers basically didn't defend well in the first half, because the Spurs' offense was really poor, but in the second half they were turned upside down by Gervin alone. It was too late to try to stop Gervin's advance with strength.

"Girvin's on Moore's screen, top of the key, 21-point shot! Goes in! God, 33-pointer, a top-of-the-key [-]-pointer, oh incredible, George Gervin, got [-] in the third quarter Points, completely turned the situation around. This may be George Gervin's last brilliance in the NBA, but he is still so dazzling, just like the season when he scored [-] points in a single quarter. Never underestimate a veteran The energy, the Blazers must call a timeout. They are obviously not mentally prepared for this situation, they are behind, how to play, how to get back the situation."

"It's very difficult. For a team that is not yet mature, the most difficult thing to adjust is their mentality. Especially in such a situation at home, they are a little confused!"

The Blazers were indeed beaten, and the defensive formation was completely dismantled. This rarely happened throughout the season, because the Blazers' defense is characterized by low strength, but strong resilience. The opponent can score easily, but The Blazers' defense will never collapse.

But now, they have collapsed, and this collapse undoubtedly comes from the heart.