The Golden Age of Basketball

"The Rockets timed out again, and there was 1 second before the end of the game, 1 second, the two sides were 112 tied, the Rockets made the last attack, overtime still ended the series, just watch for a second. This is for all Lakers fans It’s all suffering, they may not have expected that the Lakers would encounter such a situation, 1:3 behind, the fifth game is at stake, the Lakers have gone all out in this game, but it seems that they still can’t bring down the Rockets... Okay The timeout is over, let's see if there will be a miracle at this last second..."

On May 5, the day before the sixth game between the 7ers and the Bucks, the fifth game between the Lakers and the Rockets reached the final moment of regular time. The Rockets were behind by three points. Reid missed a three-pointer, but The Rockets grabbed the offensive rebound and organized the offense again. Reid received a pass from the same position and made a three-pointer to tie the score.

Immediately after the Lakers' last attack, Byron Scott missed a two-point jumper. The Rockets grabbed an offensive rebound and called a timeout. The Rockets still had a chance for the last attack, but only for a short second.

Around this second, the Rockets and the Lakers called a few timeouts back and forth. This was a battle of wits between the coaches of the two sides. The Rockets arranged offensive tactics, and the Lakers countered. Pay attention for a second.

The Lakers have reached the edge of a cliff, and the Rockets don't want to give the defending champion any respite. If they want to fight, they must be killed and die thoroughly, so as not to let their opponents backfire.

In this game, both sides tried their best at the beginning, and the Lakers set off an offensive frenzy in the first quarter. 14 seconds before the end of the first quarter, Magic Johnson hit a hook, then succeeded in stealing, and was interfered by Sampson for a layup. Miss, Sampson gets the rebound.

But then Cooper succeeded in stealing again. With one second left, he hit a three-pointer, and the entire arena was boiling. Unfortunately, the referee later ruled that the ball was invalid. Even so, the morale of the Lakers was booming. reached the apex.

However, the Rockets' three consecutive victories have allowed them to accumulate enough confidence to deal with the Lakers' tide-like offensive and the terrifying atmosphere at home. Rajuwon's performance in the third quarter was simply supernatural scoring consecutively.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rambis, and Maurice Lucas couldn't stop the two giants from overwhelming the interior. Especially Lucas, an important signing of the Lakers in the summer, missed shots repeatedly in the crucial third quarter. Only 6 points were scored in 2, which was disappointing.

Lucas even lost his mind because of this. In the fourth quarter, Sampson made a malicious foul on a shot after grabbing an offensive rebound, which pulled Sampson down severely. If Olajuwon hadn't pulled Sang Posen, the two sides are likely to fight each other.

However, Olajuwon, who was holding Sampson just now, fought Kubrick in a matchup 2 minutes later. In the end, Olajuwon was also sent off and could only sit on the bench Watch the rest of the game.

But that's it, the Rockets still withstood the crazy attack of the Lakers and got a last-second chance.

In one second, if you want to hit the ball, basically you can only touch the ball in your hand before you have to shoot. If you hesitate a little, the time will be too late.

"Rockets serve, last second...Sampson...he made it! He made it! It's over, it's over!"

The TV broadcaster probably couldn't believe his eyes, McGregor threw the ball, Ralph Sampson jumped to catch it at the corner, and he didn't even turn around, he just threw the ball back Throwing to the basket, the ball fell into the net bag after bouncing twice on the rim.

It's not like a shot, it's like a setter in volleyball, except no one makes the final smash, and the ball goes right where it should go, sending the Lakers to their graves.

Michael Cooper fell to the ground in pain, his face full of helplessness. He had tried his best in this game, scored 15 points and made the team's only three-pointer.

Perhaps he was thinking that if the three-pointer at the buzzer counted, the Lakers might have won the game.

But there was no if in the basketball game. To everyone's astonishment, the Rockets relied on Sampson's flying fairy-like lore to eliminate the defending champion and reached the conference finals.

That's right, it's the division finals. In the original history, they should have entered the finals directly, but now, they have to face the Portland Trail Blazers first in the west to compete for the championship of the west and the qualification for the finals.

Their opponents are already gearing up and waiting for a long time.

………………

After determining their opponents in the Western Conference Finals, the Blazers finally started comprehensive targeted training, and the coaching staff headed by Ramsey also began to rack their brains to think about strategies against the Rockets.

Fortunately, under the reminder of Gan Guoyang, Ramsey started to make some preparations early, and the Blazers swept the Nuggets 4:0, so he had more time to debug the plan in training.

For the Trail Blazers' coaching staff, the team's main problem is not how to deal with the Twin Towers, but how to deal with the Rockets' powerful perimeter.

In the series against the Lakers, Ramsey repeatedly conducted research. The performance of the Rockets' twin towers in the interior is definitely the basis for the Rockets to win. In five games, Akeem Olajuwon averaged 31 points and 11 rebounds per game. Blocks and 4 steals, Ralph Sampson 2 points, 20.4 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 4 steals, this is undoubtedly the most powerful inside combination in the playoff series in NBA history, none of them.

But Ramsey believes that the key to the Rockets' victory, or the winner, lies in their outside performance. Under their strong oppressive defense and the deterrence of the twin towers, the performance of other players other than the Lakers troika can be described as horrible .

Byron Scott, who averaged 18 points per game in the first round against the Jazz and became the team's second scoring point, dropped to 13 points in this round, and his shooting percentage dropped from 55% to 44%. , the other seven players have scored in the series, like Goodmanson, McGee and others have scored 5 or 6 points in each game, but when it comes to the series against the Rockets, let alone score No, not even playing time.

The role players were completely blocked, causing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, and Worthy to consume a lot of physical strength. Of the four games the Lakers lost, three of them collapsed in the fourth quarter because the main players were really tired.

Except for the Celtics, perhaps the only team that can make the Lakers feel tired is the Houston Rockets. Even the Trail Blazers can't beat the Lakers.

As for how to deal with the Rockets' super athletic and highly ranked lineup in the league, Ramsey tried to lose a few hairs on his head, and tried repeatedly during training.

As for the inside of the Rockets, Ramsey has decided to put the pressure on Gan Guoyang. Whether the Blazers can stand up to the twin towers is up to him.

Judging from the matchups in the regular season, Gan Guoyang is not afraid of the Rockets Twin Towers in the interior. Although he suffers from height, but regardless of speed, strength or skill, Gan Guoyang is not inferior to any of the two. More importantly, Gan Guoyang With a strong fighting spirit, from the end of the series with the Nuggets to the present, Gan Guoyang has been using ultra-high-intensity training to maintain his condition every day. Although Ramsay is concerned about his injuries, he also knows that as long as the series Once the game starts, there is no need to worry about his state.

As a power forward, Ramsey still trusts Sampson. Even though the veteran's performance was mediocre in the first two rounds, Jones and Kenny Carr shared a lot of his playing time in many cases. Seralph Sampson's performance against Mitchell Sampson, there is reason to believe that the veteran can handle it.

What worries Ramsey the most is naturally the small forward position. In the series against the Lakers, McGregor of the Rockets was the No. [-] candidate to defend Worthy. That's satisfying, but McGregor's importance on the court is obvious.

Whether Vandeweghe's offense can make up for his defensive loopholes again is what Ramsey is most worried about. After all, apart from scoring, the small forward really doesn't have much other functions.

At the same time, whether the immature backcourt composed of Drexler and Colter can break through the Rockets' high-walled defense will also be the key to determining the direction of the game. Drexler's lack of shooting ability makes Ramsey very Worried, and the experience of Colter and Porter at the point guard position is also a big problem. Facing the Rockets' lineup without point guards and forwards, how can they deal with defenders who are half a head taller than themselves on the field? brains.

Of course, the Blazers are not without advantages. The Blazers' bench is a great advantage. The reason why the Lakers lost the series has a lot to do with the fact that the bench players did not show their strength at all. Their key signings in the summer Maurice Lucas was still a 12+7 qualified substitute in the first round, but in the semifinals he became a weak chicken with 7 points and 4 rebounds.

Paxson, Kenny Carr, Cosey, and Porter on the Blazers' bench are much better than the Rockets' substitutes Peterson, Levier, and Wiggins. How to make good use of the advantages of the second team and avoid repeating The mistakes of the Lakers will also be the key to this round of the series.

Just as the Trail Blazers coaching staff was racking their brains to prepare for the Western Conference finals, the situation in the Eastern Conference was also released.

The 3ers fought hard in the sixth game and returned to the home court with a 3:76 tie, but unfortunately lost to the Bucks by 1 point, and were eliminated by the Bucks for the first time in six years.

The game was also thrilling. The two sides fought to the last moment. With Julius Erving's last shot near the free throw line, the 76ers lost the life-and-death battle 112:113.

After the game, Charles Barkley returned to the bench and sat on the bench as if the game was not over, waiting for the coach to arrange tactics and continue to complete the game.

But everything was over, the Bucks players were cheering and celebrating, the audience began to exit, the 76ers players began to walk to the locker room, only Barkley was still sitting there blankly.

Maurice Cheeks walked up to Barkley and spoke to him before Barkley and Cheeks returned to the locker room.

For Barkley, this is a painful loss. His performance in this series is definitely not worse than that of Gan Guoyang, Olajuwon and Jordan, but like Jordan, he loses, and if he loses, it means that everything is over .

So in an interview after the game, Barkley said "my-speaking-career-is-over (I won't say anything, everything is over)." Then he said nothing.

If the end of Barkley is temporary, he can make a comeback next year, and for Irving who missed the lore, his journey may really come to an end.

In the following season, the 76ers were eliminated by the Bucks again in the playoffs, Dr. J Irving retired, and an hour passed.