The Golden Age of Basketball

Bird has always admired Gan Guoyang very much, because in Gan Guoyang, Bird saw a lot of things in himself.

Bird belongs to the "heterogeneous" in the league. Since the 70s, as the racial boundaries were broken in the NBA, more and more blacks entered the league. Until today, blacks have become the backbone of the entire league. The stars are all black players.

Of all the teams in the league, the Celtics are a special one because they are the only team with more white players than black players, which of course has to do with the poor racial environment in Boston, where black players are reluctant About coming to Boston.

Even so, they are still the most powerful team in the league, so the best white players in the league are all under the Celtics.

And Bird is definitely a well-deserved white king, a wonderful flower in the history of the NBA. His skin color makes him the "white hope" in the eyes of white people in American society. In the future, until he retires for many years, people are looking for "" Bird's successor".

But Bird was sometimes bothered by his skin color, especially when he first entered the league. Many people thought that this white man who couldn't run or jump could survive in the highly competitive professional league.

When he conquered the league with his own performance, some people believed that he relied on his skin color advantage to gain a foothold in the league, and it was the league who praised the "white hope" in order to maintain the attention of the white society to the NBA. .

Of course, there are fewer and fewer people who say this now. On the one hand, Bird’s performance is really convincing. It is not just any player who has won the regular season mvp for three consecutive years. of.

On the other hand, this white man from rural Indiana is extremely tough on the field, constantly swearing, and tons of trash talk, which not only made him "notorious" on the field, but also won him the respect and love of many black fans. .

From this point of view, Gan Guoyang is indeed very similar to Bird. Compared with his white identity, Gan Guoyang is a yellow skin that is more vulnerable. Before Gan Guoyang, the yellow skin in the United States was completely insulated from sports.

Therefore, Gan Guoyang first conquered the ncaa, and then he gained a firm foothold in the nba. His style in the game has many similarities with Bird, tough style of play, full of trash talk, and the game style of revenge, let Gan Guoyang In two seasons, everyone's contempt for him was dispelled.

Not only that, but in this league of the weak and the strong, this style of play and style has won him more respect and love from the fans. Every time Larry Bird played against the Trail Blazers, he had to talk to Gan Guoyang in his mouth. Compete with each other - of course, this makes Bird feel very enjoyable.

When Gan Guoyang said to Bird in the finals, "If I don't make it, you don't want to make it either", it means that this game, the two sides must be endless, and until the end of the game, both sides will spray each other endlessly.

Gan Guoyang's block hit the ball out of the baseline, so the Celtics sent the ball to the sideline. Through two clever moves, the Celtics emptied the inside run. Dennis Johnson took a risk and went straight inside. Catch the ball and put it down.

As a result, Gan Guoyang seemed to have been prepared for a long time. He stretched out his long arm from behind and blocked the ball again, but this time he didn't hit the ball out of the baseline.

The Blazers' fast-break engine, Drexler, received a pass from Vandeweghe at the first time, and his rapid advancement was almost unstoppable. It was his two dunks in the first quarter that woke up the Blazers. Boston Garden Plaza, fast break layup is not so easy.

"Drexler, layup, cut off by Danny Ainge! Ainge took the ball from Drexler, and the ball went back to the Celtics."

The Celtics are not like the Rockets. The players on the perimeter are not of outstanding height and physical fitness, but their defense is very "chicken thief". Such a small move has a lot of shots in the next three ways, and the key is very precise. Gan Guoyang The ball that was blocked just now was not because of Bird's speed, but because of his good prediction.

The Celtics, who have regained control of the offense, need to stabilize. The 7-point gap will be overtaken by the Blazers at any time. The Celtics need a safer point difference.

"Dennis Johnson, Walton goes up the pick-and-roll, Johnson goes down the middle, floats, misses. Walton gets the rebound, layup again, misses, Bird gets the rebound, shoots around the rim …The ball went in, the basketball rolled into the basket, and Bird scored 8 points in a row, pulling the difference between the two sides to 9 points."

"**!" Watching Bird score a goal under his nose, Gan Guoyang also roared.

For this ball, Dennis Johnson was not afraid of the center where the Blazers were heavily assembled, but continued to rush from the center. As a result, under the interference of Gan Guoyang, he missed the throw; Walton picked up an offensive rebound and the layup was also hit by Gan Guoyang The interception did not go in.

But at this time, Bird has already got stuck in another very good position under the basket. The inexperienced Cauchy was blocked by Bird. Bird got the rebound without much jumping, and then avoided Gan Guoyang He blocked the shot and stumbled the ball into the basket with both hands.

Larry Bird is so ubiquitous, you treat him as an outside line to defend, but he is also a good power forward, he was a power forward when the Celtics won the championship in 1981, and he can play against Moses Malone On the head, he averaged an astonishing 15.3 rebounds per game and was the team's number one rebounder.

On this ball, Bird showed his strong upper limbs, ground strength, good positioning awareness, and good time difference control at the basket. He successfully avoided Gan Guoyang's block and released the ball with an ugly posture. go in.

"This is the terrible thing about Bird. You think he can't run fast or jump high, but he can always appear in the right place at the right time." Tom Heinsohn is not stingy about his compliments.

The Celtics continued their stable and efficient offense in the second quarter. The addition of Bill Walton added another passer to the Celtics lineup, which increased the defensive pressure on the Blazers again.

Walton's transfer speed is extremely fast, and he rarely stays in his hands. Although his offensive ability has degraded, it still cannot be ignored. For this reason, the Blazers switched back to man-to-man defense. Otherwise, the Celtics would pass three passes. Two downs would definitely exhaust Gan Guoyang, who was wandering around, to death.

At the same time, Gan Guoyang, who opened his eyes, also began to put more energy into the offense. He did not face the Rockets like he did in the last round. Speaking of it, it is useless. They can figure out how to deal with Gan Guoyang in minutes.

As a result, Gan Guoyang resorted to "scratching points **" to reduce his number of singles, play more pick-and-rolls with Drexler, and then look for opportunities to pick up misses at the basket and open jumpers after receiving the ball.

Although this style of play is not as shocking as scoring in consecutive singles, the score will not lie. At 49:54, the Blazers bit the score and maintained a gap of about five points.

Gan Guoyang also saved a lot of energy.

"Gan's style of play is very relaxed and efficient, which is enough to prove that the Blazers have a well-functioning offensive system, especially the pick-and-roll between Gan and Drexler. I think their pick-and-roll cooperation is generally underestimated. The most effective means of cooperation for the Blazers."

Tom Heinthorn is very insightful in addition to praising the Celtics and Bird. In the regular season, Gan Guoyang and Drexler’s pick-and-roll cooperation is not particularly mature. Last season’s playoffs , the two often have magical strokes, but they are not considered conventional tactics.

In this year's playoffs, Drexler began to cooperate more and more with Gan Guoyang in the pick-and-roll, and was able to play a relatively rich variety of tactics. Weaknesses are still obvious.

But Drexler's super athletic ability, excellent vision and passing start, coupled with Gan Guoyang's high-quality screens, comprehensive scoring methods, and more skilled cooperation, make this duo more and more powerful.

"Bird's jump shot at the top of the arc, didn't go in, Gan got the backcourt rebound, passed it to Drexler, pushed the fast break, the Celtics retreated quickly...Gan followed up, stepped forward and gave Drexler made a screen, Gan rolled over and cut, alley-oop! A beautiful alley-oop, the two sides were only 3 points away, and the Celtics called a timeout."

Seeing that the Celtics retreated very quickly, Drexler shifted to a stop, and Gan Guoyang, who followed him, immediately went to the left and made a screen for Drexler. The quality of the screen was very high, and the Celtics Not many people retreated, so after the cover, Gan Guoyang turned around and went straight to the basket. Drexler passed the ball knowingly, Gan Guoyang dunked the ball, and Wharton, who was defending him, couldn't keep up.

"Beautiful pass to Clyde." After Gan Guoyang scored a goal, he boxed with Drexler. Drexler pursed his lips and smiled. He has always been so "shy".

"We have to put more pressure on them on the defensive end. You guys are too relaxed. Yes, you have a good offense, but if you can't defend the opponent, everything is useless. We defend the pick-and-roll too casually. Remember, put two Don’t give Drexler a breakthrough, and don’t give Ganshun a jumper, that’s my request.” Casey Jones emphasized to the players that the Celtics were slightly lax on defense because of their relatively smooth offense. As a result, the Blazers took advantage of the loophole, and the score was approaching.

"The opponent may be underestimating the enemy, but we must not relax. We must seize their weakness of underestimating the enemy and give them some color." Ramsey also saw that the Celtics were always in a relatively relaxed state throughout the first half , The offense was smooth and the morale was very strong, but the score did not open. The reason is that the Celtics' defense did not really increase their strength.

If the Celtics recover in the second half, the Blazers are likely to be in trouble.