The Golden Age of Basketball

In the second quarter, Gan Guoyang's blow to Rasmussen was fatal. After this quarter, Nuggets coach Doug Mo never replaced Rasmussen, and the young man lost all confidence after being beaten.

In comparison, as a veteran, Wayne Cooper, although still unable to stop Gan Guoyang's consecutive scoring on the field, can still better protect the inside line, unlike Rasmussen, whose soul has been knocked out.

"Gump asked for the ball in the low post again, Dunn stepped forward to double-team, Gan passed the ball back to Colter, Colter broke through, floated! Missed, Cooper got the rebound."

"The Blazers' offensive momentum has finally been delayed. The Nuggets can take a breath and see if they can recover the score. 15 points is a hurdle and must be bitten."

Before Colter missed the throw, the Blazers had already hit an 11 to 2 small shot, widening the score gap to 15 points, which was also the biggest difference between the two sides in the first half.

Gan Guoyang is a big loophole that can never be made up for the Nuggets. Whether it is Cooper, Rasmussen or Schayes, Gan Guoyang's one-on-one defense in this game is basically free, and Doug Mo's on-the-spot reaction It was a little slow, and it was too late to implement double-team tactics.

"English singles with the ball on the right, turned over the baseline and made a jumper, and the goal was scored! This goal is too important for the Nuggets. They have not scored for 3 minutes. It is really rain in the desert."

For the Blazers, English is also a big hole. Coulter has double-teamed the ball early, but English cleverly walked the baseline and turned around, and then made a jumper from a small angle and hit a Difficult goal.

But English desperately scored a single, turned around and Gan Guoyang made a quick move, received a pass from Drexler, quickly turned his back single, turned over a small hook, and hit a two-pointer!

"Solid positioning, solid top man, solid hook, post-up singles in the fast break, embodies Gan's extremely solid low-post skills." Dick Stockton used several "good" in a row to describe In Gan Guoyang's attack, in the fast attack, few players would give up the chance to force a layup and use post-up singles, because if they can't score, they are likely to be double-teamed or even cut off by the opponent.

The reason why Gan Guoyang played this way was because he was extremely confident in his back-up technique. His technical movements were done in one go, and Calvin Knight, who was defending him in a misplaced position, didn't even have a chance to foul him. He hit the hook on the head.

After scoring the goal, Gan Guoyang curled his lips and made a helpless expression, as if to say, "Nate, you are really too short."

However, Knight's shortness also has the advantage of being short. One inch is long and one inch is strong, and one inch is short and one inch is dangerous. The magic weapon of a short insider-flexible footwork and ultra-long attack range.

"Nate went around the middle to catch the ball, shot, it was a fake move, he broke through for a layup, the ball went in, and he avoided Gan's block."

Knight is sometimes more like a small forward on the offensive end. He has the same shooting skills and breakthrough ability as a small forward, but at the same time, his strength and confrontation ability are not comparable to ordinary small forwards.

It can be said that Knight has won the true meaning of "the taller is not as fast as I am, and the faster is not as strong as I am" among short insiders. In the second quarter, the Nuggets relied on English and Knight to barely maintain the point difference at 15 points Within that time, the two sides entered the intermission.

"Great job guys, but we haven't played our best yet, I mean the Blazers-style offense didn't show up, we got 65 points, but the scoring was too concentrated, Gan scored 26 points by himself. Gan, I I don't mind if you score 60 points in a game, but it will be very tiring to win like this, and the role of other players is not just defense. We have to attack, we have to stretch, make good use of our 13-point advantage, and take the lead in the third quarter The opponent's wounds were ripped wider, letting them bleed to death. The rhythm is on our side." Ramsey put down his harsh words again at halftime, demanding that the team open fire to kill the Nuggets.

The reason why Ramsey dares to say this is not only his confidence in the Blazers, but also his understanding of the characteristics of the Nuggets.

Also as the coach of an offensive team, Ramsey deeply knows how difficult it is for a team that has always lacked high-intensity overall defensive capabilities to chase points when they are behind by a large score. It just so happens that the Nuggets are such a team. The high-pressure defensive ability is not even as good as the Blazers.

So as long as the rhythm of the first half is not taken into the ditch by the Nuggets, Ramsey is sure to press the Nuggets until the end of the game. After all, the trump card in his hand is more mature than last year.

Sure enough, as soon as the third quarter came up, the Blazers used a stormy offense to penetrate the Nuggets' defense in the first three minutes of the second half, and suddenly opened the score gap to 3 points. Now the Nuggets had to call paused.

After the timeout, the Nuggets could only maintain a 21-point gap, but there was no way to catch up. Sure enough, it was too difficult for a team that lacked a strong defense to complete a major reversal.

"The Blazers' offense is as stable as the perennial snow on Mount Kilimanjaro. Whenever someone runs out of bullets, someone can always replace him. It is very difficult for the Nuggets to recover." Dick Stock Stockton has commented countless games and seen many reversals. Whether a team can complete a reversal, Stockton still has a lot.

Time went by little by little, the Blazers had already used a ten-man rotation, and at the end of the fourth quarter, even the drinking fountains like Ken Johnson played, and the Nuggets coach also replaced the main players one after another, struggling for a quarter and a half They finally chose to give up and save their hopes for the next game.

When Gan Guoyang was replaced by Ramsey, there was warm applause from the audience. The fans in the Memorial Stadium stood up and applauded Gan Guoyang's wonderful performance. Gan Guoyang made 16 of 14 shots in the game, and his shooting percentage was as high as 87%. Of the 31, he scored 15 points and [-] rebounds, which is undoubtedly the biggest contributor to the team's victory.

Drexler contributed 17 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists in a quasi-triple-double. With Colter lacking organizational experience, Drexler played more of a role as an organizer in the offense important task.

The two guns of Vandeweghe and Paxson have played their roles very well-scoring. Whenever the Nuggets think of the momentum, the two shot through the heart with one arrow often make the opponent suffer.

When the game ended, the score was fixed at 127:110. The Blazers won the first game of the semifinals and got off to a good start.

………………

The first two games of the Western Conference semifinals had results, and the Eastern Conference also began to compete. In the first game against the Atlanta Hawks, the Boston Celtics, the No. In the third quarter, the Celtics beat the Eagles 34:17, doubled the Eagles.

The Eagles did not score more than 25 points in the first three quarters of the game, and only scored 28 points in the fourth quarter of garbage time. Dominique Wilkins was unable to be found by the Celtics. He made 15 of 4 shots in the game. The shooting percentage was extremely low and he only scored 13 points.

The Eagles, who beat the Pistons before the start of the series and were full of confidence, also truly experienced the horror of the league's top team. There is no doubt that no one is optimistic about the Eagles being upset.

Another set of eye-catching duels is between the 76ers and the Bucks. The grievances and hatreds between the two teams can already make a TV series.

Except that the 1984ers were accidentally eliminated by the Nets in the 76 playoffs and failed to enter the second round. From 1981 to 1985, the two teams met in the playoffs for the first time in four years, and the Bucks were beaten by the 76ers every time. .

This time, Moses Malone was reimbursed for the season and unable to participate in the playoffs, which can be said to be the best chance for the Bucks to revenge.

However, the 76ers really restrained the Bucks in terms of play style, and the psychological advantage of winning all four playoff games was too great. - Barkley scored 19 points on 12 of 31 shots, and also grabbed 20 rebounds, and also sent 6 assists, 6 steals, 2 blocks, a complete superstar performance.

Even if the Bucks played well as a whole, they couldn't withstand Barkley's natural talent. They collapsed in the last quarter and were overtaken by the 76ers. In the end, they lost the game 112:118.

With this battle, Charles Barkley also beat Gan Guoyang, Magician and Bird, and appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" this week. He let people see the huge energy contained in this under-size insider.

However, the charm of the nba playoffs is that you can never accurately predict the trend of the entire series before the game. Even if you play one or two games, the conclusions drawn by the observers may be completely wrong.

Just after Houston lost the first game against the Lakers, most of the media and fans believed that the Lakers would successfully enter the conference finals. The Rockets were too young to fight in the playoffs. Peak Lakers.

On April 4, the Rockets slapped all the experts with a head-to-head victory.

The advantages of the Rockets' overall height and athletic ability have finally really played a role. Rockets coach Fitch used to be the head coach of the Celtics. He has rich experience. He grasped that the overall lineup of the Lakers is aging, especially the interior The aging weakness, the offensive end stormed the inside, and the defensive end allowed Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson to make up defenses frantically.

The Twin Towers went crazy in this game. Sampson scored 24 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 blocks, and Olajuwon scored 22 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals and 6 blocks. Front top and back cover, no touch, only 26 of 9 shots.

Only relying on Magic Johnson's 19 assists, the Lakers were completely unable to beat the Rockets who were rampant inside. The Rockets punched the master to death and stole a victory at the Great Western Forum Arena 112:102. See you in Houston in the next game up.

For the Blazers and Gan Guoyang, this is also a wake-up call. After all, the lesson of winning two games and then losing three games in a row last season is still vivid. The playoffs cannot be sloppy at all.