The Golden Age of Basketball

Bill Laimbier's jump ball in the finals has yet to beat Sabonis, and this time is no exception.

Sabonis touched the ball first. In Gan Guoyang's words, "Even if Sabonis doesn't jump, Lambiel can't touch the basketball, because the guy jumps and doesn't jump is the same."

Sabonis flipped the ball to Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang took the ball into his arms. At the same time, after getting the ball, he looked at the Piston players vigilantly. After making sure that he would not be attacked, Gan Guoyang gave the ball to Tete Li Porter, enough to show his caution.

"You're as timid as an ostrich, why don't you stuff the ball into your ass and bring it over slowly." Bill Lambiel said to Gan Guoyang behind him, seeing how cautious Gan Guoyang was.

"I'll unscrew your head later and put the ball on it." Of course Gan Guoyang counterattacked decisively.

But Gan Guoyang did not ask Porter for singles, and Adelman's attack center of gravity in the opening game was not Gan Guoyang, but Drexler.

After halftime, Drexler asked directly at the 45-degree waist on the right side. Isiah Thomas was defending him. Drexler had the advantage in terms of height, weight and strength. Porter He decisively threw the ball to Drexler. Drexler was also very straightforward, dribbled the ball twice, turned his back and hit the board to shoot into the basket.

Drexler's performance in the first three games of the finals was regular, not particularly bad but not particularly brilliant, making it hard to feel that he is the second star of this team.

Chuck Daly's vision is as bright as a torch. He quickly saw that there is no future for blocking Gan Guoyang against the Blazers. Many teams have used living examples to prove that the result of double-teaming Gan Guoyang will not be worth the loss. His The style of play is too flexible and the attack power is too strong.

The No. [-] player of the Trail Blazers who really played a role in the playoffs was actually Terry Porter. His strong shooting ability made him the most threatening point on the perimeter, so Daly chose to pinch Terry Porter. , the previous game was a good success story.

For this reason, Daly also specially let Joe Dumars, the defensive gate of the team's back line, defend Porter alone, so that Thomas was also arranged to defend Drexler.

At the beginning of the game, Daly still maintained this arrangement, but in doing so, it was a little too small for Drexler.

Although Drexler's shooting is flawed, his breakthrough, especially his low-post offensive ability is underestimated, because the team's low-post firepower is mainly contracted by Gan Guoyang, and he doesn't have too many opportunities to play. Means he doesn't.

Therefore, Adelman put the focus of attack on Drexler in the opening game, hoping that he could quickly open up the situation.

Sure enough, Thomas really suffered a lot from defending Drexler. He was hit twice in a row, both in low post singles. Daly knew that Dumars could no longer be allowed to face Portland. Mars went to deal with Drexler, so that Porter would no longer have to be entangled by Dumars, and the Blazers' backcourt shackles were untied.

In the last game, Drexler didn't show much form. Today, he played in form at the beginning of the game. As a result, Dumars came up to defend, but it was useless. Drexler continued to score goals from the low post and scored the third in a row. .

In contrast, the Pistons only hit one goal in the first three shots, and they also desperately need to score.

If there's one glaring flaw with this Pistons team, it's their lack of a strong low-post scorer.

In 1988 they had Dantley, no matter how black hole Dantley was on the defensive end, how stingy he was, a time bomb in the locker room, and a bad relationship with Daly, as long as he came to the court, the coach needed him to be there. Low post scoring, the 6-foot-5 forward can score, he can score free throws.

Now the team's small forward has been replaced by Aguili. If this was Aguili four years ago, he would not be worse than Dantley, but now, his state is far worse than Dantley, and his weight is still Exceeding the standard, his knees are wrapped in thick knee pads, and he no longer has the aggressiveness he used to have in the low post.

However, this kind of Aguilar is already the most reliable low-post attack point for the Pistons. Daly still has to rely on Aguilar to score points in the low post, because the Blazers' perimeter blockade is too strong in the opening game, and they urgently need to break the scoring shortage.

Cauchy defended Aguilar on the field. Although Aguili's ability declined, he was still at the bottom. He did not choose to fight Cauchy head-on, but suddenly ran back from the waist and directly cut into the inside.

Thomas from the outside line directly lobbed the ball to Aguili. After receiving the ball, Aguili did not dribble and went straight to the layup.

But Aguili was a little anxious about the ball, and his knees meant that he couldn't take off with all his strength. As a result, he was hit by Sabonis who stepped forward to defend the ball behind him. The ball fell to the ground, and the two sides fought for it , In the end, the referee still judged that Aguili touched the ball out of the baseline, and it was the Blazers' ball.

At this time, Daly knew that the Pistons should be in some trouble.

In the first quarter, the Blazers played very patiently. This is not at all like the Portland Trail Blazers this season. In the past, they have always been in the first quarter based on the principle of "gaining more points by taking advantage of the lax defense". Thinking, crazily speeding up the offensive rhythm, quickly establishing an advantage.

But after the third game, Adelman knew that the Pistons are now used to the Blazers' "first-quarter offense" and are very good at destroying the Blazers' offensive feeling. If the Blazers are the rhythm masters of the league, then the Pistons are Masters of rhythm destruction, their rough defense and careless fouls, coupled with the one-sided atmosphere of the Palace of Auburn Hills, can make Blazers players who want to score easy fast break layups fall on the floor and look at the ceiling every minute.

Therefore, Adelman chose to play steadily and take full advantage of the Blazers' low-post offense. Drexler opened up the situation, Gan Guoyang made up the knife appropriately, and other players looked for opportunities and took the most stable offensive route.

The Pistons wanted to speed up instead. After observing it for a few minutes, Daly believed that such a success rate of duel offense was quite unfavorable for a team like the Pistons that mainly relied on outside scoring, so he decisively replaced Pooh- Johnson, who replaced Aguilar, started to play a three-back, intending to score more points to smooth the score gap.

Daly's thinking is also correct. The power of the three shots in the backcourt is indeed powerful. Dumars, Thomas, and Johnson made continuous breakthroughs, long-distance jumpers, and repeatedly played pick-and-rolls with Bill Laimbeer. The Pistons' scoring shortage soon disappeared. was broken.

However, the Pistons still couldn't keep up with the Blazers in terms of score. The Blazers maintained a lead of about 4 points. Until the end of the first quarter, Thomas hit a three-pointer from the outside and narrowed the gap between the two sides to 1 point. , The fans in the audience also cheered wildly, thinking that the situation has been reversed, because Porter missed the shot from outside the three-point line on the Blazers' last shot.

But after returning to the bench, Adelman expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the players.

"Very good, we are doing very well, the situation is under our control, the Pistons have begun to disrupt their formation, we must continue to maintain this state, this quarter we won a point, every quarter Win a little and we can win."

This is Adelman's victory philosophy. Although the strength and talent of the Blazers are so strong that sometimes they don't need to care about the details. Without the Pistons, if you are not careful, the entire series will be lost.

The second quarter was about to start. Before the players entered the field, Adelman patted Gan Guoyang on the shoulder. Gan Guoyang put down the towel and nodded to Adelman.

According to the rotation of the first three games, Gan Guoyang had to sit off the court to rest at the beginning of the second quarter, but this time Adelman did not let Gan Guoyang rest. He wanted Gan Guoyang to stay on the court and provide continuous firepower. Drexler was replaced by Jim Paxson and rested. In the first quarter, Drexler contributed 11 points and 4 rebounds. This was his best first quarter since the start of the Finals.

In this game, the keynote set by Adelman is to make the game a duo between Drexler and Gan Guoyang, constantly using their low-post offensive ability to put pressure on the Pistons, and keep this pressure until the game at last.

Gan Guoyang squeezed his fist before going on the court, thinking to himself: "We must beat the Detroit Pistons to death."