The Golden Age of Basketball

Ramsey's No. [-] plan is actually not an "odd array". In the Trail Blazers' lineup for the playoffs, Valentine, the most stable No. [-] position, was missing, so in the game, Drexler Often part of the point guard duties, he also has the ability.

However, leaving Colter off the field and completely letting Drexler take the No. [-] position, this still has a big change for the Blazers.

First of all, for Drexler, although it is not difficult to control the ball and organize an offense across the half court, some of his usual habitual play styles will not be brought into play, such as his air cuts in positional offenses, shooting after receiving the ball, and Break through directly.

As a defender, Drexler's dribbling skills are not so superb. His power to start a breakthrough with the ball is more than one grade worse than Jordan's. Running without the ball is very important for Drexler's offense. Important position, now that he wants to hold the ball more, it depends on his adjustment ability.

Vandeweghe moved down one position and came to the shooting guard. This is also Ramsey's complete functionalization of Vandeweghe-you don't do anything except shoot and score. If you can pick up a rebound, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, hurry up Run back to stand back or participate in a fast break.

Some of Vandeweghe's singles tactics in the low post were temporarily given up by Ramsey, leaving more space for Mitchell Sampson and Cauchy.

Sampson's performance in the first two rounds should be said to be very average. Due to the existence of Gan Guoyang, Sampson did not have too many scoring requirements on the offensive end, so he just scored points piecemeal, and completed blocking and rebounding on the defensive end. The basic work such as repairing and defending has been completely blue-collarized.

But now, Ramsey believes that Mitchell Sampson must take on more offensive tasks, so that he can put enough pressure on Ralph Sampson on the defensive end, if he does not put pressure on Ralph Sampson , to consume his physical strength, it is too difficult for Gan Guoyang to stand up to the twin towers alone.

As for Kexi, putting him up is the last x factor, jumping up and down to actively defend, rushing to grab rebounds to make up defenses and pick up leaks. Ramsey only hopes that this guy will not be too nervous to go on the court and turn the basket upside down.

"The timeout is over and the game continues. We see that the Blazers have made a decision to replace Colter. Is this going to be a lineup without a point guard like the Rockets?" Seanley saw that the Blazers The player's formation, in fact, the Rockets are also like this, there is no point guard, let the shooting guard Lloyd play the first position.

"I don't know if such a substitution will be effective, or if this adjustment is too fast." Xiao Enli expressed his concern. Indeed, such a big change was made after a slight trouble at the beginning. It may be a blow to Colter, but it also shows the lack of self-confidence of the Blazers.

Of course, Ramsey has his plans. He has already started preparing for this "No. [-] plan". It was originally arranged in response to Valentine's injury. There have also been a lot of routine exercises in training, so Ramsay is still confident.

"Drexler and Gan did a pick-and-roll, Drexler broke straight through, passed back to Gan, Gan passed the ball to Sampson, Sampson made a jumper! Goal! Steady veteran here Time worked."

On the first ball after the timeout, the Blazers used a simple tactic to tear open the Rockets' defense. When Drexler was attacking with the ball, it was the most efficient combination to perform a pick-and-roll with Gan Guoyang. He used Gan Guoyang's The high-quality blocker easily found a gap to break through. With Olajuwon supplementing the defense, he passed the ball to Gan Guoyang who went down the middle.

Ralph Sampson on the right side naturally came forward to defend, and Gan Guoyang passed to Mitchell Sampson. Of course, the pass was very low, because Lloyd lost his defense People, Sampson, who naturally went to cover the open space, almost cut off Gan Guoyang's pass.

Fortunately, Mitchell Sampson still got the pass, made a direct jumper at a 45-degree angle 13 feet from the basket, and hit the board.

"Beautiful pass, Gan!" Mitchell Sampson pointed to Gan Guoyang and said, Gan Guoyang also nodded. The two hadn't cooperated like this for a while.

Ramsey's adjustment was immediate. The Blazers players didn't feel uncomfortable with this formation. Their offense quickly became smoother. Vandeweghe felt overwhelming in this game. He shot when he caught the ball from the outside. , which made McGregor extremely helpless.

In the last round, McGregor mainly defended Worthy. Worthy is a small forward who likes to attack in the low post. He basically has no jump shots. In this game, Vandeweghe has a deadly jump shot. In the first quarter, he entered his own shooting rhythm. As long as Dre Once Kesler and Gan Guoyang pick and roll, the Rockets' defense will have a loophole. The Blazers pass three passes and two passes, and Vandeweghe can often get a pretty good shot.

He seized all these opportunities, so the Rockets were really helpless.

"Gan grabbed the offensive rebound, passed it back to Vandeweghe, and Vandeweghe made another shot! The goal is scored! The sixth goal, Vandeweghe has scored 13 points in the first quarter!" Vandeweghe made a shot in the first quarter No. 13 points, 22:17, the Blazers overtook by 5 points and stopped the Rockets.

Compared with the Trail Blazers, the Rockets' inside offense has not opened up. Ralph Sampson faced Mitchell Sampson's single defense and has never been able to exert a matchup advantage. Olajuwon was defeated by Gan Guoyang. He struggled with all his strength, and only scored 5 points on 2 of 4 shots. Of course, Gan Guoyang hadn't started the first quarter yet. The Rockets also guarded against him strictly, and caught several rebounds.

In the first quarter, Ramsey's thinking has been very clear, Gan Guoyang fought hard to defend, Sampson attacked and pressed, Drexler dispatched, Vandeweghe scored, Cauchy made trouble, a set of combined punches came down, the Rockets were a little bit Mess.

The head coach of the Rockets, Fitch, is not a fuel-efficient lamp. He has also seen Ramsey's tricks, and he decided to use his strength to defeat the enemy.

Apparently, Ramsey is taking the technical route. Since winning the championship in 1977, he has been such a coach who wins by chance. The Rockets made it to the Western Conference Finals and trampled the Lakers to death, relying on a domineering impact.

In the series against the Lakers, the common scene is that the Lakers were blocked by the Twin Towers on the defensive end, or were intercepted, and then counterattacked. Olajuwon and Sampson directly hit the basket with the ball, or other forward players Hit the rim, fail to get up to Olajuwon and Sampson to grab offensive rebounds to supplement the defense. In the end, Rambis or Kubrick had to catch a foul and let the Twin Towers hit a three-pointer.

In the five games, the Twin Towers grabbed a total of 40 offensive rebounds, an average of eight offensive rebounds per game, and 31 blocks on the defensive end, 10 more than the entire Lakers team. This is not a tactical problem at all. It's the difference in style of play and player characteristics.

Bill Fitch used the Rockets' talent in athletic ability to the extreme, dropping ten times with one force and breaking the speed with force, so that the Lakers' "show-time" could not be up.

Now, the Blazers actually have many similarities with the Lakers on the offensive end, such as powerful inside scoring points, fast, light cavalry-like outside, so Fitch decided to repeat the old trick, clamping down on the Blazers' offense, and at the same time taking turns in the offense Hit inside.

After the timeout, Fitch replaced Lloyd first and let Levi play. This old point guard is still very good at controlling the rhythm. After John Lucas, he is the only point guard for the Rockets. .

"Ralph Sampson is on the right side, Levi's lob, Ralph squeezes Mitchell, back turn jumper! Missed! Rebound, it's Gan... Or Olajuwon, by Rui Red gets it, Reed crosses to the paint, McRae catches and dunks. The basket is empty."

A typical Rockets offense started with a single from one of the twin towers, Ralph Sampson, who turned over and missed a jumper, and Olajuwon rushed to grab a rebound.

But Gan Guoyang didn’t go astray when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hit it. He withstood Olajuwon’s impact and threw the ball into the air. It was taken by Reid who rushed in from the outside.

At this time, the Blazers' defensive formation has completely disintegrated. McGregor steals the rebound, catches the ball and scores, but Cauchy has nothing to do.

This offense is a signal, which means that the Rockets will enter hand-to-hand combat mode, which will be a huge test for the Trail Blazers players.

However, the first quarter ended quickly, and Vandeweghe failed to continue scoring. Although the Rockets wanted to charge, Gan Guoyang controlled the backcourt rebounds twice, and they couldn't charge. The great battle was delayed for a while.

When the second quarter started 2 minutes later, the two sides finally began to spark fierce sparks.

Paxson replaced Vandeweghe. Since becoming the team's substitute, Paxson has entered the state very quickly, and he is playing to score.

His two jump shots allowed the Blazers to continue to expand their lead.

The Rockets are a bit lost in shooting, and their shooting percentage from the outside is not very good, but they don't seem to care.

"McGregor used the screen to shoot directly, but still missed...Ralph Sampson made a dunk! Pressed Mitchell Sampson, the referee blew his whistle, oh, there seems to be some conflict between the two sides!"

McGregor missed a pull-up jumper at the corner, but Ralph Sampson on the right leaped high, pressed his whole body against Mitchell Sampson, and dunked the popped ball with one hand The basket, but he hit Mitchell Sampson on the head with his left elbow.

The referee's foul was still blown to Mitchell, because he also had a pulling action below and was caught by the referee. One of the two Sampsons was pulled and almost fell, and the other got an elbow on the head. People's anger naturally came up.

"You fucking look at the kid."

"Fuck you, you fouled."

The two sprayed their mouths uncleanly, and began to push and shoved their hands. Players from both sides surrounded them, and the referee immediately stepped forward to stop them.

Fortunately, the game had just started, and the anger had not yet accumulated, and the players dispersed as soon as the referee's whistle blew.

Mitchell Sampson's foul could not be cancelled, and Ralph Sampson made a three-pointer.

35:31, the Rockets began to catch up with the score.

And with this ball as a watershed, the struggle between the two sides became more and more intense.