The Golden Age of Basketball

"In the last five seconds, the Trail Blazers still had a chance. With a gap of two points, the timeout was over, but the Trail Blazers' players hadn't returned to the court, and Ramsey was still telling them something... The atmosphere has reached the most exciting tense moment."

In the ups and downs of the second game, Gan Guoyang's two fouls in the first quarter left the game early for a rest, the Blazers fell into a passive position, and the Rockets began to gain the upper hand relying on their inside advantage.

The Rockets' advantage continued to expand and continued until the fourth quarter. Until less than 2 minutes before the end of the game, the Rockets still maintained an 8-point lead.

Gan Guoyang suffered from foul trouble throughout the game, and his playing time was fragmented, making it difficult to stay on the court continuously and contribute to the team.

This is very difficult for the players. Players need time to get into the game. If they keep going up and down, they will not find the feeling of the game, especially on the offensive end. Gan Guoyang only scored 17 points in this game. It is the lowest score since the playoffs.

However, the Blazers' substitute players are still strong, more or less making up for the loopholes caused by Gan Guoyang's benching on the offensive end, but they are still eight points behind in the end.

Seeing that the game was gradually falling into the control of the Rockets, and time was being consumed a little bit, Vandeweghe was the first to stand up. When the Rockets missed the offense, Vandeweghe was outside the three-point line during the fast break and counterattack. With a cold arrow, a 23-foot three-pointer narrowed the point difference between the two sides to 5 points. This was also the Blazers' first three-pointer in this game.

Immediately afterwards, in the defense, Gan Guoyang finally let out a bad breath in the first quarter, causing an offensive foul by Olajuwon, the Rockets made a mistake, and the Blazers regained the right to attack.

This time it was Paxson's turn to show his power. Paxson still felt the same in this game. Ramsey also put Paxson on the court at the last moment. He lived up to expectations. When Drexler missed a layup, Gan Guoyang fought hard The ball was dialed out, and Paxson, who was outside the three-point line, just caught the ball, shot without hesitation, and scored another three-pointer.

The Memorial Stadium detonated instantly, and the 8-point gap suddenly became two points, and the Blazers saw the hope of a comeback.

Then the two sides each wasted an offensive opportunity, and the Rockets had the ball 30 seconds before the end of the game.

The Blazers used a successful defense to prevent the Rockets into a 24-second violation. With more than 5 seconds left in the game, they got the last chance to attack.

"Beep beep beep beep!" The referee blew the whistle hastily, reminding the Blazers players to enter the game as soon as possible. Ramsey is still dragging the players to give instructions on the tactical details. After all, the last five seconds are too important .

Ramsey's tactic is not complicated, but he has made several preparation options in case of various unexpected situations. The tactic he designed is a set of relatively safe coordination that he has used before. Drexler serves from the outside, Gan Guoyang responded from outside the three-point line, and Drexler directly used Gan Guoyang's cover to cut in after sending the ball.

If the Rockets' defenders are not tight enough, Gan Guoyang will pass the ball to Drexler to let him break through and throw. If it is tight enough, Paxson will go around to the middle to catch the ball from the right side, and Gan Guoyang can choose Pass to Paxson.

If Paxson can't catch the ball, then Gan Guoyang can choose to attack by himself. Although the distance from the three-point line to the basket is a bit far, he can make breakthroughs and throw shots from this outside.

This is a very big test for Gan Guoyang's ability to judge and handle the ball, but Ramsey is willing to put such responsibilities on Gan Guoyang's shoulders. The performance is worth looking forward to.

Under the urging of the referee, the Blazers players "reluctantly" returned to the court to meet the test of the last five seconds.

"Drexler served from the outside...Gan received the ball, he didn't pass, Paxson... still didn't pass, Gan Guoyang broke through with the ball, pay attention to the timing...Three-point shot!"

The Rockets' defense made Gan Guoyang have no chance to pass the ball at all. Drexler was pressed by Lloyd. Paxson ran to the top of the arc with the help of Sampson's cover, but Ralph Sampson changed defense and stuck to Paxson. It was too dangerous to pass the lob to Mitchell Sampson. Vandeweghe was in the left corner as a pawn to attract defensive attention, and there was no chance to pass it to him.

Gan Guoyang could only break through horizontally with the ball by himself, but Olajuwon defended very well and blocked Gan Guoyang's breakthrough route. After dribbling to the top of the arc, he suddenly pulled up to shoot a three-pointer.

"Three-pointer..."

"Bang~"

This may be the winning goal, hitting the front of the basket, Gan Guoyang missed a three-pointer, and the game ended.

Gan Guoyang, who missed a three-point shot, stood still outside the three-point line for a long time, with his hips on his hips and his head lowered, watching the Rockets players cheering together, his heart was heavy.

"The series has just begun. It's not your fault, Gan." Drexler walked to Gan Guoyang's side to comfort him. He knew that Gan Guoyang hated losing, especially in this game, because of his poor fouls and excellent Gan Guoyang must be in great pain if he fails to kill and loses.

In contrast, Olajuwon fulfilled his promise. In this game, he scored 37 points and 16 rebounds. He was the Rockets' MVP, completely overshadowing Gan Guoyang's 17 points and 11 rebounds.

After the game, Gan Guoyang was bound to be criticized verbally and in writing. Regarding his foul in the first quarter and the choice of the last shot, he became the target of criticism from the media, fans, and the public.

Even the local media in Portland criticized Gan Guoyang's performance mercilessly. On the front page of the "Oregon Sports News", the cover was Gan Guoyang's lonely figure standing on the court after missing the lore.

It looked as if Portland had already lost the series. In fact, the two sides only drew 1:1. The Trail Blazers players are still full of confidence in the series. The Rockets fought until the last second. As long as Gan Guoyang returns to normal, it is only natural to win the Rockets.

Many fans who supported the Blazers also thought so, but they didn't expect that since Gan Guoyang would perform abnormally, other players would naturally do the same.

In the first two games, the Blazers' role players played at a super level, like Paxson, Kenny Carr, and even Ken Johnson at the end of the bench, all performed brilliantly.

In comparison, the Rockets' bench has never been bright, and the reason is simple because they are away.

For superstar players, there is not much difference between away and home games, but for role players, the home and away games still have a great impact, especially the impact of the whistle, which is sometimes critical.

The Blazers players ignored this point. Like Paxson's super high shooting percentage of 18 of 15 shots in the two games, it is even more difficult to reproduce at the Summit Arena in Houston.

………………

On May 5, after a two-day break, the Trail Blazers arrived in Houston and started preparing for Game 15 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Trail Blazers players should say that they are still ready to meet difficult challenges. The summit arena has not been captured in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

But the difficulty of this game is beyond the imagination of the Trail Blazers players, including Ramsey, perhaps after this game, both the Trail Blazers players and coaches should be able to understand the state of mind of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The biggest adjustment the Rockets made in the game was to let Ralph Sampson face Gan Guoyang in defense, and then let Olajuwon make up for Gan Guoyang at the right time, giving up the defense against Mitchell Sampson.

This trick worked. The Rockets used this trick to deal with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the semifinals. Sampson relied on his height to push up behind him. No matter what Gan Guoyang did, he only opened his arms to interfere, never took off, and never shifted his center of gravity casually. .

Olajuwon set up a fly swatter behind Sampson. Although Gan Guoyang has a strength advantage and can resist Sampson's small hook, he can't keep an eye on Olajuwon's full take-off defense from behind Blocking, Kareem was blocked several times in the semifinals. No matter how good Gan Guoyang is, his height and experience are not as good as Kareem, so he was naturally seriously disturbed.

Mitchell Sampson was liberated and became the inside offensive point of the Blazers, but the Rockets didn't care at all. They knew that relying on Sampson, the Blazers couldn't kill anyone in the third and fourth quarters. of.

To make matters worse, the Blazers' outside line finally missed the mark. The role players seized the fleeting opportunities in the previous games, but at the summit arena, blacksmithing became the main theme.

The first scoring point inside was suppressed, the substitute microwave ovens were powered off, and the Blazers were quickly defeated.

When the biggest point difference between the two sides in the third quarter became 21 points, Gan Guoyang tried to use his offense to drive the team, but the offensive feeling suppressed in the first half and the physical energy consumed a lot could not be adjusted if he wanted to. of.

The Rockets' strategy of defending against Gan Guoyang, assisting in defending, and covering blocks was consistent from beginning to end. Gan Guoyang played extremely hard, and scoring a point was harder than eating shit.

The Blazers have never been a team that is good at making comebacks. This is the characteristic that people have summed up for the Blazers in the past two seasons. The players seem to have accepted this characteristic. "All sentient beings".

After winning the first game, the confident and smug Blazers suffered a head-on blow in Houston. This script was almost exactly the same as the Rockets' last opponent, the Los Angeles Lakers.

It can only be said that the ups and downs of life really come too fast, too fast to imagine, too fast to bear.