The Golden Age of Basketball

One month, whether it is long or short, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers, the two strongest teams in the Western Conference, met again. This time, the game was still held in Los Angeles. The first three matches were all arranged at the Lakers' home court. The first two games against the Trail Blazers achieved a complete victory, which put the pressure on the third and last home court for the Lakers.

Before the game, Riley made an unexpected statement, claiming that Gan Guoyang should not be ranked first in the mvp list, and the first place should be given to the magician.

"Yeah, that's what I think, the Blazers have a great record, and Gan's individual performance is also great, but the value of an MVP is not only reflected in these places, he should be able to make his teammates better. In this In this regard, Magician is better than Gan, and his statistics and personal performance are not bad at all, and Magician should be ranked first."

Riley's remarks naturally attracted a backlash from the Blazers. Drexler told reporters before the game: "If Gan is not the most valuable player, then this award is meaningless. "

Buck Williams and Terry Porter also supported Gan Guoyang. On the contrary, the protagonist Gan Guoyang appeared very humble in the interview. He said: "Riley's words are not completely unreasonable. I also think that as a A super point guard who won three championships, Magic played like an mvp, and I still have a lot to learn from him."

Gan Guoyang's modesty also exceeded many people's expectations. Not only did this guy not lose on the court, he also did not lose on the court. Everyone still remembers that before the Western Conference finals last year, Gan Guoyang and Pat Riley There was a war of words, and Riley thought that Gan Guoyang would never be as good as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Gan Guoyang claimed that Riley's hairstyle was the worst among all coaches, worse than Jack Ramsey - Jack Ramsey is bald.

The war of words between the two lasted from Game [-] to Game [-], but in Game [-], Riley suddenly stopped talking. Afterwards, the Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers in Game [-] and entered the Finals .

Now that the two sides are still playing the regular season, Riley has started to release his own propaganda weapon, which is enough to show that he attaches great importance to this game, but Gan Guoyang does not fall into Riley's trap. He has learned the lesson from last year.

In last year's battle of words, Gan Guoyang deeply realized the impact of this kind of off-court sound on the player's field. In the top league with high confrontation like nba, any change of factors may lead to abnormal performance. After all, Riley is Old fox, this kind of thing has zero influence on him, and Gan Guoyang is still young, and his mentality will inevitably fluctuate when he is stimulated by Riley. Taking control of the trend of the series, he was shunned by Riley.

Now, Gan Guoyang faced another provocation from Riley, which was still a provocation during the regular season. He unexpectedly chose to retreat and soften it, and prevaricated it with polite words. Lakers at that time.

Unlike a month ago, the state of the two sides has dropped one by one. The Blazers are in a bit of a mess under the siege of the entire league. Although they still have more wins and fewer losses, they have not swept all directions as easily as they did at the beginning of the season. .

The Lakers got rid of the bad state in December. After losing to the Trail Blazers, Byron Scott returned to the team. They first played a wave of eight consecutive victories, including against the Heat, Cavaliers, and , against the Mavericks and other teams all won by more than 12 points, and the offensive enthusiasm and defensive intensity of the entire team have been upgraded to a higher level.

The Lakers only lost one game in January, and that was against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The old Lakers surrendered to the wolves of Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley. The winning streak was ended in the basketball mecca.

But then the Lakers played a wave of four consecutive victories. Magic Johnson also relied on his outstanding performance to basically lock in the best of the month in January. His overall performance in points, assists, and rebounds also made Riley say "Magic The teacher is the real mvp" has been recognized by many people.

Before the game, Riley's psychological tactics didn't get very good results, but the fortune teller was not particularly worried about it. He had his own calculations in his heart. Riley knew that the Lakers under him were extremely talented, but the opposing The Blazers are also amazingly talented. Playing against the Blazers many times has often proved to be not a particularly good decision, especially when the Lakers are getting old.

On the contrary, the Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers twice in the playoffs because of the effective defensive tactics, which gave weight to the tilt of the final victory balance.

Throughout January, Riley was committed to improving the quality of the Lakers' defense and improving the players' enthusiasm for defense. Therefore, the Lakers, who have always crushed their opponents with offense, had eight of the 13 games in January. The scoring is limited to less than 100 points. You must know that the Lakers generally lose more than 105 points per game, which is enough to show that the Lakers' defensive efforts are effective.

At the same time, Riley benefited a lot from the way the teams dealt with the Blazers in January. Riley watched the videotapes of the Blazers’ losses repeatedly in the office, looking for flaws in the Blazers’ lineup and tactics. , And formulate a new response method based on the situation of the Lakers.

It was with these preparations that Riley dared to speak out in pre-match interviews and played smoke bombs to interfere with the mental state of the Trail Blazers players. He was fully prepared on the court.

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"Good evening, viewers, I'm very glad to bring you the live commentary of the nba game. Tonight's game we are going to broadcast is the Los Angeles Lakers at home against the Portland Trail Blazers. The battle for the top two in the Western Conference is eye-catching .I'm cbs commentator Dick Stokes and sitting next to me is everyone's old friend Tom Heinthorne."

The vast majority of viewers in the United States who turn on the TV will hear Dick Stockton's familiar commentary voice, and important games like this are usually handed over to him.

Stockton explained the current situation of the two teams to the audience in the studio, but as a non-team person, he did not know some of the current internal changes of the two teams, especially the strong fighting spirit shown by the Lakers, so Stockton Tocton, like most people, is optimistic that the Blazers will win this game.

But Tom Heinthorn, as a former professional player, he knows the importance of mental state to a team. Now it seems that the Lakers' morale is booming, but the Blazers are turning from prosperity to decline. Whether the wind is in the away game How soon it will be adjusted is still unknown.

Sure enough, as Heinthorn expected, the Lakers took the lead just after the first half of the game. They did not double-team Gan Guoyang like other teams, but focused on the two backcourt players of the Blazers. , Let Porter and Drexler make consecutive mistakes, and the Lakers counterattacked again and again.

After the strength effect was achieved at the beginning to stop the Blazers, the Lakers immediately changed their strategy and began to strictly defend Gan Guoyang. They did not use a three-person double-team, but used AC Green and Michael Cooper. The best defensive player at home and abroad, he put all his energy on the defensive end on Gan Guoyang.

Pat Riley believes that using a three-man double team to deal with Gan Guoyang's throwing output is not the best. Cooper and Green's defensive ability is enough to cause trouble for Gan Guoyang. This is enough for Riley. Worthy And the magician has to focus on offense.

The Trail Blazers were completely out of rhythm from the very beginning. The offensive tactics, the defensive rotation, and the player rotation were all messed up. Plus, with the Magician, the Lakers' counterattack was ten times sharper than other teams. This kind of "show-time" impact has a great psychological impact on the players. In the first quarter, the Blazers were scored 33 points by the Lakers, and they only scored 22 points. The gap of 11 points set the tone for the game. .

In the second quarter, the situation of the Blazers was not better. The two sides entered the second team rotation. Riley deliberately put Scott on the bench in the lineup, and let Cooper start, in order to let Cooper go up to deal with Gan Guoyang, and then Scott played again to lead the second team in transition.

For the Blazers, how to make the transition to the second team seems to be a long-standing problem for them. After a month of running-in experience, Buck Williams has adapted to the role of the sixth man and has played well. Quite good, but apart from him, the Blazers' bench is really embarrassing. The veteran Paxson who could still be relied on was absent due to a relapsed foot injury. The Blazers have a bunch of forwards, but the backcourt is too weak. I have been looking for a deal, but there has been no follow-up. At the same time, the message of the deal also makes Danny Young and others unable to play with peace of mind.

In the few games the Blazers lost, the opponent's sixth man played very well. Scott was also like a tiger descending from the mountain. He was not unfamiliar with the identity of the sixth man. He came up and directly took over the Lakers' offense. Use personal ability to expand the point difference for the Lakers.

The scene presented a one-sided situation.

"The halftime game is over, 66:41, 25 points difference, God, what happened to the Blazers? They have won two consecutive games in this field, and now it seems that the Lakers are determined to surround the last home game gone."