The Golden Age of Basketball

Riley's first change came quickly, that is, in the second quarter, Mitchell Sampson, the old Blazers player, was sent.

After having Mitchell Sampson, the Lakers' lineup has a record four No. [-] picks. Except for the position of shooting guard, they have a No. [-] pick in every position, which is outrageously talented.

When he was in the Blazers, Mitchell Sampson's state has been declining since 1987, and he has been overlapping with Gan Guoyang in function, which made the Blazers finally trade him to the Spurs.

But the Blazers did not expect that Sampson would eventually go to the Lakers, and in the 1988 Western Conference Finals, he successfully caused trouble for Gan Guoyang and helped the Lakers eliminate the Blazers and reach the finals.

For the Blazers, this is a tit for tat. For this reason, the Blazers have learned a lesson this year and traded for Buck Williams to strengthen their fourth position and increase the time when Sampson double-teams Gan Guoyang. fear.

After Sampson came on the field, he lightly shook hands with Gan Guoyang. In Gan Guoyang's rookie season, the two had some conflicts, which led to a relatively normal relationship between the two after that, in a state of neither salty nor dull.

However, Sampson is a big man with a cheerful personality. As the No. [-] pick, he is not as competitive as those superstars, so he is very easy to get along with. Gan Guoyang and him became rivals, and the relationship became better.

Riley is known as a "magic fortune teller", but Riley's magic fortune is mostly not manifested in tactics, but in the grasp of the player's psychology. He believes that Gan Guoyang played quite smoothly in the first quarter. If teammates disturb Gan Guoyang's mental state, there will be some interference restrictions on Gan Guoyang.

"That Riley guy wants you to come up and contain me?" Gan Guoyang walked to Sampson and said suddenly.

Sampson looked at Gan Guoyang and didn't speak, but Riley did tell him that. He didn't ask Sampson to flank Gan Guoyang, but he believed that the existence of Sampson was a shadow to Gan Guoyang, just as He did that to McHale.

But is Gan Guoyang really that easily influenced?

The score at the beginning of the second quarter was 27:28. The Blazers trailed the Lakers by one point, and the scores of the two sides have been staggered.

The second quarter had just begun, and the Blazers had a particularly swift attack for the first time. Drexler returned to the field after half a rest in the first quarter, relying on Gan Guoyang's cover to enter the inside line, a beautiful fingertip challenge The basket was hit, and Sampson, who defended up, blocked it very well, but Drexler's pick was too clever. With a flick of his finger, the ball quickly spun in the air, drew a high parabola, and finally fell into the basket. mesh bag.

"Wow, singer-roll! After both Irving and Gervin retired, only Drexler can still see a trace of his fingertips." Zeke Hearn, who is well-informed Also applauded for this beautiful goal.

Drexler always idolized Dr. J Irving when he was a child, and Irving's fingertip pick is as beautiful as his dunk.

Magic Johnson was still on the sidelines at this time, and he played the entire first quarter, with Byron Scott and backup point guard David Rivers on the court, which reduced the pressure on the Blazers' defensive players. A lot, no longer have to focus on defending Johnson's pass.

As Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is on the verge of retirement, Sampson is already an 11-year veteran in the league. The aging problem of the Lakers' inside line has been accumulated for a long time. Therefore, in the offense, Sampson has become a mid-range shooter and a basket cutter.

His threat in the low post has been lost in Portland, so the Lakers who have opened up the space have a lot of room for breakthroughs. Byron Scott also relied on Sampson's cover to directly break through and reach the inside.

In the last season, Scott has risen to become the Lakers' scoring leader with his scoring average of 21 points per game. With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar getting old, he made up for the vacancy in the Lakers' firepower. , Become a magician with one attack, one defense and two protection methods.

When the magician is not on the court, Scott, who is extremely versatile, is the outside engine of the Lakers. His speed and explosion are excellent, his shooting is excellent, and he has a good grasp of breakthrough rhythm. Kurt played well in the game against the Blazers and was the biggest pain point for the Blazers outside.

"Byron Scott breaks through the middle, the ball drops... gets knocked off by Gan, the ball rolls to the ground, Buck Williams goes down and grabs the ball, passes it to Gan, who then passes it to Porter."

The weakness of Scott's breakthrough is that his dribbling is relatively high, and his ability to change direction is not strong, and he is more straightforward. Gan Guoyang's stealing ability has improved by leaps and bounds since last season, and he has also fully studied Scott's breakthrough. Knocked the ball out of Scott's hands.

Buck Williams showed his hard work. He was still able to grab the ball on the ground without resting for 1 minute in the first quarter, and threw the ball back to Gan Guoyang very quickly.

Gan Guoyang crossed the ball to Porter on the left side, and he strode straight to the frontcourt. The Lakers only had David Rivers in the backcourt. He couldn't stop Gan Guoyang.

"Porter pass, alley-oop! Gan's alley-oop! Two-handed ball into the basket, beautiful defense, beautiful fast break, the Lakers are in trouble."

At this time, the Blazers only overtook the Lakers by 3 points, but Zeke Hearn was keenly aware that the Lakers were "in-trouble", and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar must have enough time to rest, and even if Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played, it would not be able to prevent Gan Guoyang from overturning the river.

After scoring the goal, Gan Guoyang smiled slightly at Riley on the sidelines, as if telling Riley that it is useless for you to go to Sampson.

Later, Gan Guoyang proved with his actions that Mitchell Sampson could not prevent Gan Guoyang from scoring no matter whether he defended alone or assisted in defense. The old and weak insiders of the Lakers not only had to block Gan Guoyang, but also had to withstand Drexler's collision , which made Mitchell Sampson miserable.

However, the Lakers deserve to be the Lakers. Byron Scott was defended by Gan Guoyang, but he was still able to score points from the outside with his personal ability to help the Lakers stabilize the situation on the court.

Worthy still has high efficiency in the low post, and the Blazers' defensive posture without double-teaming makes it easier for Worthy to score.

As long as the two last for a while, the Lakers will replace Magician, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be able to play again after a little more rest. At that time, the Lakers will be able to blow the horn of counterattack.

"Gump's pass... made a mistake, Scott stole the ball, fast break, James Worthy... Gan followed up and blocked the ball, Porter got the rebound." Zeke Hearn had already thought about it How to praise Worthy's fast break dunk, did not expect Gan Guoyang to catch up and block the ball.

It is even more difficult to block James Worthy's fast-break dunk in the NBA. Cobra's speed, bounce, bounce speed and wingspan are all top-notch. Gan Guoyang also put his life on this ball.

"The Blazers called a timeout, and both sides needed to readjust."

Leading by 5 points, the Blazers took the lead to call a timeout. The Blazers had already turned the situation around, but this was only the first half. Adelman was not too satisfied with the Blazers' offense. The Lakers' defense was still very aggressive. This made the Blazers, who have always distributed the ball reasonably, fall into a solo fight to a certain extent, but Gan Guoyang and Drexler were in good condition, which maintained the advantage in the situation.

However, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Magician are still sitting off the court. It is estimated that they will come back after the timeout is over. The possibility of defending the Lakers' offense is not high, but they consume the Lakers on both ends of the offense and defense, and keep suppressing them to deal with such an old team. is advantageous.

Adelman thought for a while, looked back at the bench, and said, "Sabonis, your time is up, get ready to play, we need you on the offensive end."

Since seven games, Sabonis has never been able to get a chance to play. Some people think that Sabonis will only play in garbage time, but he did not get a chance in garbage time, which shows that Adelman does not trust him at all.

But in the usual training, Adelman always told Sabonis to wait patiently, and asked him to carefully observe everything on the field.

After observing seven big victories, Sabonis finally got the chance to come off the bench in this crucial game against the Lakers. There was obviously some surprise on his face. He thought that in such a strong dialogue, he was the winner If there is no chance, his appearance will have to wait until the next game.

Gan Guoyang didn't expect that Sabonis was going to play now, and said to him: "Are you ready, buddy, give the old guy on the opposite side some oil?"

Sabonis nodded nervously, then shook his head again and took a deep breath.

The audience on the sidelines obviously also noticed the big man standing up on the Blazers' bench. They all knew that the Soviet player was going to play. Some fans started to applaud, while others whistled.

The arrival of Sabonis is considered a big news in the United States, and now at the Great Western Forum, he is finally about to complete his NBA regular season debut.

"The Blazers put on a player from the Soviet Union, Arvidas Sabonis, and replaced Buck Williams. We can finally play the Soviet giant in the nba. It looks like he will be on the court Against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I don’t know what lessons the 42-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will bring to this big guy.”

Obviously, everyone is widening their eyes to see what kind of strength this center who sent the United States to a defeat in the Olympics has.

On the sidelines, Adelman seemed very confident. He who had been standing on the sidelines sat down at once.

Adelman's confidence does not come from Sabonis, but he believes that when the giant tower of Sabonis is on the court, it means that Gan Guoyang will be completely liberated.