The Golden Age of Basketball

Good luck always comes alone, but bad luck often comes together.

The 1:2 lag turned the situation of the series around, but for the Blazers, it was not that bad. After winning the fourth game, they could tie and return to the home court for the Tianwangshan battle.

But before the fourth game, Drexler sprained his left ankle during training. The team doctor confirmed after examination that Drexler will miss at least two games, that is to say, Drexler will have to wait until the fourth game. It takes six games to play.

At that time, whether the Blazers could return to Houston was still a question.

Injuries are unavoidable during the playoffs. Throughout the season, Drexler has been plagued by foot injuries, and his attendance rate is up and down. In the high-intensity playoffs, no one can Don't want to, but it happened after all.

Now the situation of the Blazers has become extremely bad. Drexler is the key point of the team's perimeter tactics, a very important core player. Protection and other aspects of strength are damaged.

The Trail Blazers, who were originally lacking in athletic ability, lacked the strongest assault point on the outside line, which made things worse.

On May 5, at the summit arena, the fourth game started.

In order to deal with Drexler's sudden injury, after some consideration, Ramsey pushed Jerome Cosey into the starting lineup, and Jim Paxson continued to be the sixth man.

Cauchy has the same athletic ability as Drexler, and he has a better defense, but he does not have Drexler's offensive talent at all, and the burden of offense is more on Gan Guoyang and Vandeweghe.

Just like in the previous game, the Rockets let Ralph Sampson face Gan Guoyang, with the front and the back cover, trying to prevent Gan Guoyang from scoring high at all costs.

Gan Guoyang made a desperate move, holding the ball and attacking the inside line throughout the game, scoring 25 points in the first half, allowing the Blazers to lead into the second half.

But the crazy scoring in the half court made Gan Guoyang exhausted a lot of energy. Every time he took a shot on the offensive end, he had to spend a lot of energy. On the defensive end, his task was also extremely heavy. Mitchell Sampson is no longer likely to be alone Fix Ralph, because Ralph Sampson started to use more face-up jumpers against Mitchell, he and Olajuwon no longer use double low post, but use high and low post to increase offensive flexibility .

Gan Guoyang won double 18 in the playoffs last time. He was facing veteran Jill Moore. He felt too tired after the game. Now he is facing Olajuwon and Sampson. No matter how good his physical strength is, he took [-] shots in the half , Most of them are singles, and they will feel overwhelmed. This is the Western Conference Finals.

In the second half, Gan Guoyang's physical problems began to be exposed. In the third quarter, he could barely hold on. In the fourth quarter, he finally couldn't hold on. The offensive shooting percentage plummeted. The Rockets' high-intensity defense finally took effect.

Without Drexler, the Blazers' offense lacked a link connecting the inside and outside. In the first three quarters, both Gan Guoyang and Vandeweghe played 120% of their offensive ability, but in the fourth quarter, too many singles The fatigue caused by it, as well as the poor performance of the role players, caused the Blazers to suffer a lot.

Just like the first game between the two teams, the Rockets resisted for three quarters and collapsed in the last quarter. The Trail Blazers, who resisted for 35 minutes in this game, were finally defeated. The point difference suddenly widened to 12 points.

The Trail Blazers, who originally maintained their lead in the first half, and whose advantage was eroded a little bit later, fell in the deadly wave of the Rockets' offense-they couldn't prevent the Rockets' continuous impact at all, and all kinds of outside lines were passed by one step. Even if Gan Guoyang is Avalokitesvara with Thousand Hands inside, there are two big Buddhas on the opposite side!

Powerless!

The Trail Blazers, who lacked a general, finally lost the fourth away game with 107:119. After winning the first leg of the Western Conference Finals, they encountered the same situation as the Lakers and lost three games in a row.

Only one game away from being eliminated.

Gan Guoyang scored 41 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 blocks in this game. Vandeweghe scored 29 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. But the other players were in no condition. The overall performance was not as good as the Rockets, so they could only swallow the bitter fruit of failure.

…………

"The Blazers are about to suffer the same fate as the Lakers, and the Rockets are unstoppable."

"The Blazers lost a general, and the Rockets won three games in a row."

"A repeat of the semifinals? Can the Blazers regain their confidence?"

.........

After the game, the media's attention was focused on the Western Conference Finals. After all, the Eastern Conference Finals on the other side is really nothing to watch. It is only a matter of time before the Celtics enter the Finals.

Now it seems that the Rockets are close to the finals. Many newspaper editors have begun to write articles recalling the finals in 1981. The Rockets also defeated the Lakers and led by a super center.

In the past few years in the West, it seems that only the Rockets are the biggest pain for the Lakers.

For the Blazers?Sorry, come back next year, or Gan has tried his best, but he is not good enough, or the Blazers are just a regular season team, etc.

Of course, this is just the part of criticism. Regardless of winning or losing, there will always be critics, so naturally there are also those who are optimistic about the Blazers.

The media in Portland agreed this time that there is still hope for Portland, and the Blazers have not been eliminated. There are also examples in history where they fell behind 1:3 and regained their lead, such as the Lakers in 1970.

Chamberlain is also paying attention to this series. He said in an interview with a media in San Francisco that he believes that the Blazers will enter the finals, and he will go to the scene to watch Gan Guoyang's game.

For all this, Gan Guoyang didn't know anything, because after the fourth game, he entered the state of fully preparing for the next game, and began to study the video seriously, and communicated with Ramsey and Behrman how to crack the Rockets. defense.

Yes, there is no point in being passive. If you lose, you lose. As long as the series is not over, you must continue to fight. This is what Gan Guoyang thinks in his heart.

In fact, if Drexler was in the fourth game, the Blazers would have a great chance to win, because Gan Guoyang and Vandeweghe are in good condition, what is lacking is the third attack point and the ball-handling breakthrough player. Kesler can do both.

However, Drexler has to pay in the sixth game, and whether the Blazers can survive the fifth game is a question. The painful lesson of the Lakers is in front of them.

Gan Guoyang is very calm, but some people are not, such as Gan Youwei.

From the start of the playoffs, Gan’s restaurant closes on time at seven o’clock every night, and the whole family gathers around the TV to watch the Trail Blazers game—although everyone in the Gan family is a basketball fan, as long as Gan Guoyang is on the court, the whole family will be happy. Will cheer for him.

Naturally, they also watched the Western Conference Finals. The whole family was excited at the end of the first game, but a week later, watching the Blazers lose game after game until they fell behind 1:3, what Gan Youwei was most worried about was not the Blazers. Instead of winning or losing, he was worried that Gan Guoyang would fall into a low ebb because of losing, just like he did in high school back then.

So, when the game was over and Gan Guoyang returned to Portland with the team, Gan Youwei called Gan Guoyang at his residence in Portland at night.

"Guoyang, have you eaten yet?"

"I've eaten earlier, what time is it, and I'm calling so late."

"It's so late, I just got off work, and many people come over for supper at night."

"What are you doing, go to bed early, my cousin said you can take a rest, eat shares and play mahjong, and you don't need money, so don't tire yourself out!"

"It's okay, it's okay, it's not that we close the door when you have a game, the sky is over these two days, and the business is brought back... Well, in business, there are losses and wins, so even a little bit of profit has to be fought. Lost Well, next time you do business, you can earn it back, and if you earn it, you have to think about making good use of the money you earn to earn more money, uh, anyway, you must have a good attitude, remember, keep a normal mind!"

When Gan Youwei talked about the principles of doing business from closing the restaurant, he actually wanted to tell Gan Guoyang that winning or losing is a common matter in military affairs. If you lose, you lose. Come back next time, but don't torment yourself.

It's just that Gan Youwei didn't know how to speak directly. He was afraid of touching Gan Guoyang's pain, so he came around in circles.

But after hearing Gan Youwei's words, Gan Guoyang's heart was still warm. Suddenly he thought of the scene of Gan Youwei calling in a hurry after losing the California championship in high school, and his nose became a little sour again.

"Okay Dad, I'm fine. I'm not a kid anymore. I didn't lose in the finals last year. Winning or losing is a matter of war. I understand. And the game isn't over yet, so don't vaccinate me." .”

"Yes, the game is not over yet, let's work hard!" Gan Youwei also encouraged Gan Guoyang, and hung up the phone under Gan Guoyang's urging.

After the phone call, Gan Guoyang lay heavily on the sofa. Although he said he was fine and was seriously preparing for the fifth game after the game, Gan Guoyang also admitted in his heart that the other players of the Blazers were almost relieved. If the next game takes a slight hit, like trailing by 10 points at halftime, the team will fall apart like it did last year.

Therefore, if we want to win tomorrow, we must have a big victory to reverse the momentum. Otherwise, it will be really difficult to fight in a dog-tooth match without Drexler's Blazers.

But it is not easy for a team that is behind 1:3 to win a big victory over the opponent.

So far, Gan Guoyang has no idea how to crack the Rockets' defensive strategy against him.

At this time, the phone at home rang again.

"Hi, Forrest Gump." It was Wang Fuxi's voice.

"What's wrong, Fuxi."

"I bought a ticket to Portland tomorrow, and I want to see your game."