The Golden Age of Basketball

Hubie Brown's guess was correct. After confirming that the opponent in the semifinals was the Phoenix Suns, Adelman decided to make Duckworth the team's starting center, so that the Blazers would have absolute physical strength in the paint. Advantages, 7-foot Duckworth, 6-foot-10 Gan Guoyang, the opposite Suns are taking a lightweight road, the center is 6-foot-10 Mark West, and the power forward is Tom Chambers. People are one size smaller than the Trail Blazers in terms of weight, height and strength.

Mark West, like Gan Guoyang, entered the league in 1984. At that time, he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks, then he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, and was sent to Cleveland next season. When it came to the Phoenix Suns, they finally got a stable starting center position.

Mark West has a strong body and a big mouth. He likes to spout a few words when he has nothing to do. He is also very courageous. A brain dumped to Kevin - Duckworth.

Kevin Duckworth has a gentle personality. Although he is a little lazy, he is also very hardworking under the encouragement of Gan Guoyang. However, he made his first start tonight, and it was still in the playoffs. He was inevitably a little nervous. After competing with West, West hopped the ball from the air to Hornacek.

As the shooting guard of the Suns, Hornacek is actually the real offensive organizer of the Suns. Although Kevin Johnson is the point guard of the Suns, he averaged an astonishing 12.2 assists per game in the regular season. It is still an offensive type, and many assists come from the ball after hitting the inside. In terms of positional warfare organization and fast offensive rhythm control, the Suns still have to rely on Jeff Hornacek.

"Hornacek's advancing speed was very fast. The Suns wanted to hit the Blazers with an unsteady landing, but Hornacek's ball was destroyed. Gan poked the ball out of the baseline, and the Suns made a sideline kick."

Hornacek pushed forward quickly and wanted to catch the Blazers by surprise. Tom Chambers had already rushed to the inside to catch Hornacek's lob, but Gan Guoyang didn't stare at Tom Chambers, but went straight up. The forward oppressed Hornacek and played Hornacek's ball out of the sideline, buying time for the Blazers to establish their defensive formation.

"Gan was very accurate in judging the timing. Hornacek walked from the sideline. Just after halftime, Gan immediately came up to press and squeezed Hornacek into the corner of the half-court, which almost caused his mistake." Hu said. Bee-Brown knew that Gan Guoyang had to take a lot of risks with this shot, because this kind of fast advance inside is the easiest way to leak a big gap for the opponent to cut and break through. It is not too easy to lose points, so in general, inside players are To fill the basket, even if the opponent wants to play without a firm foothold, they can only choose to jump from the outside, so the threat will be much smaller.

If Gan Guoyang played the center forward this time, he would definitely not press Hornacek, but because Duckworth was there, he boldly intercepted the ball and caused it to go out of bounds. The defensive end creates pressure on the Suns.

Sure enough, when the Suns re-sent the sideline ball, the Blazers were ready to fight. Kevin Johnson took the ball at the top of the arc and dawdled for a long time but failed to find an offensive breakthrough. The anxious Sun coach yelled outside, but he could only pass the ball Tom Chambers stepped forward to meet him. Chambers faced Gan Guoyang and wanted to rush to the basket, but under Gan Guoyang's interference, he missed the throw.

"Chambers misses the floater, but Mark West gets the offensive rebound and layup! The Suns get their first point of the game!"

Mark West somehow grabbed the offensive rebound and ruined the Blazers' opening defense. A simple offensive rebound is sometimes more effective than a smart play.

"You want to block, Kevin, how can you let that fat guy grab an offensive rebound?" Gan Guoyang patted Duckworth's arm. Duckworth seemed obviously reluctant to let go, and he wasn't quite used to it yet. The first feeling.

In the ensuing game, Mark West suddenly became the surprise player of the Suns. Gan Guoyang didn't care about being stuck in the backcourt because he had to spend energy to defend and help defend outside players.

As a result, Gan Guoyang worked so hard to disrupt the rotation of the Suns outside, interfere with Kevin Johnson's breakthrough and Hornacek's organization, and also defend Tom Chambers alone. Their shooting percentage was a mess, but this The successful defense was solved by Mark West with an offensive rebound under the basket. After more than 20 seconds of full defense, he still lost two points. This was a great blow to the Blazers' defensive morale.

Not only that, without backcourt rebounds, the Blazers can't play a quick counterattack. They can only compete with the Suns. Fortunately, Gan Guoyang and Drexler are in good condition. In these two positions, Hornacek And Chambers is free.

"Hornacek's [-]! Missed, but Mark West got the rebound and he passed back to Kevin Johnson who drove down the middle for a layup! Foul by Blazers, Duckwall Foul by Kevin Johnson, free throw."

Hornacek couldn't be defended for this shot. He threw a three-pointer indiscriminately, and the ball collapsed far away. As a result, Mark West sucked the ball into his hand like a basketball vacuum cleaner. This is already His fourth offensive rebound of the first quarter sent Kevin Johnson to the free throw line and the Blazers were only three points ahead of the Suns.

"What's the matter with you, Kevin, block him, watch him, don't let the ball slip away from your fingertips!" Gan Guoyang stepped forward angrily and yelled at Duckworth.

And Mark West snickered at the side, muttering in his mouth: "This big stupid duck can't handle me, this big stupid duck can't handle me..."

Gan Guoyang became angry when he heard West's words. He knew that West had been spamming Duckworth a lot since the first quarter. Gan Guoyang didn't bother to find trouble because he didn't match up with West. West was so arrogant, Gan Guoyang knew it was time to teach him a lesson.

Kevin Johnson made a free throw. Gan Guoyang deliberately walked in the three-second zone after Johnson made the first free throw and switched to the other side. I don’t know if Gan Guoyang’s glance in front of him reminded Johnson of the past. Johnson missed the free throw for the second goal. Gan Guoyang made a quick block and stuck Mark West behind him. Then he scooped the ball with his long arm and the ball went into his arms. Mark West had no chance to grab the frontcourt at all. In terms of rebounds, you must know that they are facing the NBA's four-time rebounding champion. If it is not reimbursed for a year in the middle, it is not a problem to have five rebounding champions in a row.

After Gan Guoyang handed the ball to Porter, he quickly ran across the frontcourt. Porter understood and advanced quickly with the ball. Gan Guoyang did not go to the low post after halftime, but stood at the free throw line to ask for the ball.

This position is the easiest to get the ball. Porter also took advantage of the Suns players returning to the defensive running position, and directly lobbed the ball to Gan Guoyang. As soon as Gan Guoyang got the ball at the free throw line, Mark West was defending him. , Because the Suns' defense has not yet settled, everyone is misplaced.

After Gan Guoyang received the ball, he paused for a while, and then turned to the basket with a simple sigma step. Regardless of Sanqi 21, he broke through directly from the right side. Mark West naturally rushed forward and defended, but his strength was not enough to stop Gan Guoyang , Gan Guoyang didn't accelerate, and pressed Mark West at a medium speed and crushed it inward.

Hornacek on the side wanted to reach out for the ball, but Gan Guoyang dodged it skillfully with both hands. At the same time, he also started to start, and directly jumped against West with two steps.

"Gan made a breakthrough from the middle, pressed West and dunked directly! Oh, West was dunked to the ground, the referee didn't blow the whistle, and no one fouled. It was a good shot." Patrick saw Gan Guoyang's ball as well. I was taken aback, the ball was really too domineering, Mark West was about the same height and weight as Gan Guoyang, but Gan Guoyang was able to run West into it and dunk on his face through someone.

After scoring the goal, Gan Guoyang glanced at West who was lying on the ground, and said, "You can't handle me, you can't handle me..."

West looked at Gan Guoyang helplessly, and could only stand up from the floor with the support of his teammates. Indeed, if one-on-one with Gan Guoyang, West would definitely not be able to handle him, like Tom Chambers, and He basically gave up Gan Guoyang's one-on-one, hoping that Gan Guoyang's own hand would not score a goal.

At the same time, Gan Guoyang returned to defense and said to Duckworth: "Get him, duck, or I'll get you!"