The Golden Age of Basketball

() Gan Guoyang still remembers that in high school and college games, Bellman was always like a slave owner with a whip. Any player who dared to relax in defense would be whipped.

But when it comes to the Trail Blazers, the players' defense, especially the perimeter defense, often becomes dispensable.

The insiders Gan Guoyang and Sampson are both excellent shot-blockers and defenders on the defensive end, but they are both medium-sized insiders in terms of height and weight, and they cannot completely sit in the three-second zone like Mark Eaton. Come and slap one by one .

Gan Guoyang once imagined standing in the three-second zone to block every attack of the opponent to the rim as he did in college, but he found that in a high-level confrontation like the NBA, without the assistance of outside players, it is difficult for him to rely on himself to block the opponent's outside breakthrough. Totally impossible.

He himself often pays the price for too many fouls.

After playing more than ten games, Gan Guoyang has learned to give up defense at the right time, but it feels really bad to watch the opposing player score on the basket, which makes him very, very depressed.

Not to mention, Gan Guoyang's resentment will naturally grow when he sees that the team's loss of points is often caused by lack of perimeter defense.

Among them, Vandeweghe's defense is undoubtedly worthy of criticism. Although he can contribute about 30 points per game, he often becomes a cash machine on the defensive end.

In the first game against the Kansas Kings, the opponent's small forward Eddie Johnson scored 30 points; against the Lakers, Worthy scored 14 points on 9 of 21 shooting; Old teammate English scored 45 points; in the last game against the Warriors, Sauter scored 48 points on him.

In this match against the Jazz, Dantley was about to score in double figures just after the opening moment.

Gan Guoyang really wanted to rush to Vandeweghe and ask him why he didn't work hard to defend?Is he not talented?Defense does require talent, but defense requires attitude.

Vandeweghe missed many goals, or defended with his eyes, and Gan Guoyang couldn't make up for it.

But Gan Guoyang is not easy to say some things.

Although Gan Guoyang has always been outspoken, often not big or small, and even dared to fight Bob McAdoo, but Vandeweghe is different, the relationship between the two is actually very good in private.

On the first day of team training, Vandeweghe, a UCLA veteran, found fault with Gan Guoyang. As a result, the two became good friends practicing shooting together.

After training every day, Gan Guoyang took time to practice shooting with Vandeweghe. Gan Guoyang tried to regain his mid-range jumper this season.

Vandeweghe also had a good relationship with Drexler, and Vandeweghe admired Drexler very much.

When Drexler and Ramsey had conflicts, Vandeweghe would always speak for Drexler, and decided that Drexler would definitely be a superstar in the future.

Needless to say, the relationship between Gan Guoyang and Drexler, the two are the best friends.

With these two relationships, plus Vandeweghe is the team's biggest star and a friendly senior, no matter what Gan Guoyang does, he can't just point fingers at Vandeweghe.

So sometimes, Gan Guoyang would rather Drexler play small forward. Drexler is not a defensive expert, but at least he is physically strong, defensively conscious, and will not miss people.

However, Ramsey's solution to this problem was different from what Gan Guoyang thought. He also knew that Vandeweghe was not good at defending, so he simply did not ask Vandeweghe for defense.

It is to completely liberate Vandeweghe's offensive firepower, let the whole team run and play, use offense instead of defense, lose one and score two, and use goals to make up for defensive shortcomings.

This made Gan Guoyang still very uncomfortable. He still needs to practice for a long time for such an NBA rhythm.

"Serve fast, Gan! Make free throws! Run! Run! Run! (Run, run, run!)" Ramsey shouted from the sidelines, telling Gan Guoyang to serve quickly so that he could launch a quick attack.

Gan Guoyang has always felt that if Ramsey is not a coach, it would be good to be a tenor singer. His roar is always full of energy and tirelessness.

Gan Guoyang served the ball to Valentin, and then began to run to the frontcourt.

"Run! Run! Run!" These three words are written on the top of Ramsey's tactical board. No matter how Ramsey changes tactics before the game, these three words will always be placed in the most eye-catching position.

In Ramsey's view, no matter what tactics, they can only be effective if they run.

In this game against the Jazz, Ramsey kept urging the players to run and run.

Because the Jazz has twin towers, two giants, one is extremely tall and the other is nimble and agile. Once they fall to the ground and fight, it is difficult for the Blazers to take advantage.

So Ramsey asked every player to run on the field at full speed before the game, otherwise the Jazz twin towers would easily form a defensive formation.

As a result, the twin-tower was turned into a twin-fools by Gan Guoyang's outstanding footsteps and sensitive positioning.

The main reason why Gan Guoyang is not afraid of the Twin Towers is his advantage in confrontation. Although height is important for insiders, strength is even more critical. Gan Guoyang's strength bug is enough to make up for his lack of height.

The second is that Gan Guoyang has excellent mobility and good face-to-basket attack skills during offense, which allows him to attack from a place far away from the basket.

The farther away from the basket, the less powerful the twin towers are.

The main fear of the Twin Towers lies in the filling and blocking of the three-second zone and the strong protection of the backcourt rebounds.

Gan Guoyang's play style, which can be low-positioned and hard-hitting, can also be erratic on the edge of the three-second zone, which greatly reduces the power of the twin towers.

Gan Guoyang had just reached the top of the arc when Valentine was already rushing towards the three-second zone with the ball in his arms like a bulldog.

Valentine is not tall, but has a strong physique, especially his thighs, which are as thick as big tree stumps, and look like a thick and short bulldog.

His passing ability is actually pretty good, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have attacking ability.

He saw that the Jazz players were still not stable and the defense was not formed, so he decisively chose to break through.

It's just that he underestimated Mark Eaton's mobility and height. Gan Guoyang watched as Mark Eaton didn't jump much. He rushed forward and stretched his arms, and pushed down Valentine who rushed into the air.

Vandeweghe, who hurriedly followed, picked up the ball and made a gesture to shoot, but Eaton was already standing beside him, covering the entire basket like a towering tree.

Vandeweghe didn't choose to challenge Eaton's blocks-Eaton averaged 5 blocks per game, and he just started brushing it today.

He turned around holding the ball, saw Gan Guoyang who was cutting in from the middle, and handed the ball in his arms to Gan Guoyang, who had already begun to accelerate and rushed up, like a handbag.

Gan Guoyang didn't score in the opening game, and because of his teammates' defensive problems, he was depressed. Regardless of 21 [-], he would dunk the ball immediately after taking off the ball!

Spectators have already stood up from the sidelines to appreciate the violent dunk that may come.

Of course Eaton would not let Gan Guoyang break ground on his head, but his reaction was a bit slow, and it seemed difficult to stop Gan Guoyang who had already charged up.

Gan Guoyang's jumping is not top-notch, but he has a top-notch waist and coordination.

When he hit Eaton in the air, he felt that it might be difficult to climb the mountain.

But he maintained his balance, retracted his outstretched right hand, passed the ball to his left hand, and made a low layup with his left hand before falling down, throwing the ball to the basket with his feeling.

"Beep!" "Boom!" The referee whistled, and Gan Guoyang also fell heavily on the floor.

"Did the ball go in?" Gan Guoyang asked Vandeweghe, who came forward to pull him up.

"What do you think, listen to the cheers?" Vandeweghe said as he pulled Gan Guoyang up from the floor.

The decibels of the entire memorial gymnasium increased a lot, and applause and cheers filled Gan Guoyang's eardrums.

Gan Guoyang couldn't help recalling the scene when the game was interrupted due to the madness of the audience when he copied a rock-the-baby in the Creighton University game.

"Feeling-good!" Gan Guoyang patted his butt and stood up, knowing that he was going to the free throw line.

The previous complaints caused by Vandeweghe's defensive misplacement also temporarily dissipated because of Kiki's pass.

"Sorry, Mark." Gan Guoyang looked at Eaton who was standing aside and said helplessly, and he really meant what he said.

However, other Jazz players thought that Gan Guoyang was provoking Eaton. Eaton was an honest man who never talked trash, so his teammates naturally wanted to stand up for him.

"You should say sorry to the basket, you're going to throw bricks at him later." Jazz's Rick Green said before Gan Guoyang made a free throw, trying to interfere with his free throw.

Gan Guoyang ignored him. After getting the ball, he didn't make any preparatory actions, and just opened his hand to shoot. He felt that he felt pretty good now.

"fuck-you~" When the ball was still flying in the air, Gan Guoyang turned around and sprayed Green for the first time.

"Shua!" The goal was scored, and Gan Guoyang's free throw was still quite stable.

Gan Guoyang's arrogance is based on his self-confidence.

And Gan Guoyang has another idea. Rick Green is the Jazz's starting point guard, and Stockton is his backup at this time.

If Green can be beaten down, Stockton can play.

Sure enough, back in defense, Gan Guoyang focused on Green.

Green played his career representative season last season, averaging 139 per game this season, and made the Jazz achieve the second best result in the Western Conference, thus being selected to the All-Star team.

As an All-Star, he played more confidently on the court and dared to shoot more.

But he didn't know that Gan Guoyang had been eyeing him a long time ago, gave up his defense against Eaton, and when Green tried to rely on the pick-and-roll to make a 45-degree jumper on the right, a slap slapped his shot.

This is also the limitation of the twin towers, which makes Gan Guoyang dare to let Eaton supplement the outside line. If the inside line is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or a mobile inside line, Gan Guoyang generally dare not rush out.

The most frightening thing about Gan Guoyang's blocking is that he is not particularly tall and often makes opponents underestimate his control height. In fact, his wingspan is very scary.

Moreover, Gan Guoyang's moving speed has always been his advantage, and outside players will be blocked by Gan Guoyang if they are not careful.

Gan Guoyang's blocking can't help stopping the opponent's attack, and he can always get the ball. He never likes to hit the ball in the audience like playing volleyball.

"I think it's better for you to sit on the bench." Gan Guoyang still didn't let Green go, handed the ball to Valentine and continued to talk to Green.

Green looked depressed, but he didn't have time to fight back, because Valentine rushed forward like a dog again.

There is nothing to say about Vandeweghe's offensive performance. He has an excellent sense of position. He circled from the right side to the bottom line in the counterattack, pierced through the Jazz's defensive formation, and pulled out at the top of the arc relying on Sampson's cover. He passed a point guard, received a pass from Valentine and went straight to a jumper, and the ball went in!

After the Blazers scored five points in a row, they finally opened up the point difference slightly, forcing the Jazz to call a timeout.

"You should take your No. 12! Only No. 12 is suitable for you!" Gan Guoyang still didn't stop talking, and shouted directly at the Jazz bench.

Green must be very regretful for saying that trash talk to Gan Guoyang now. He seems to have opened a Pandora's box at once.

At that time, trash talk had just begun to prevail in the NBA, and most of the team's players still used their skills to solve problems, while a few big mouthers developed mental attack methods.

After entering the NBA, Gan Guoyang still couldn't let go of these seniors, and he was even more eager to learn when facing superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson.

But after ten games, he no longer cares about these things, especially in the two games against the Lakers. Facing Worthy and his old enemy McAdoo, Gan Guoyang's mouth is not idle at all.

Playing the Jazz today, Green asked for bad luck. He is destined to not feel good in this game.

"Hey, you're all right, kiki." Back on the bench, Ramsey looked at Vandeweghe and asked.

At this time, Gan Guoyang looked at Vandeweghe and found that he was swinging his arms, and gently rubbing his back with the other hand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I feel pretty good." Vandeweghe stopped, saying he was fine.

However, Gan Guoyang knew that the latissimus dorsi was where Vandeweghe lightly rubbed. He had also been injured in that position before. Could it be that Vandeweghe had a back injury?

"Okay, we did a good job. As long as we run, the Jazz's twin towers will not be able to play. But we must pay attention to reducing unreasonable shots in the counterattack. Kiki and Clyde should be more than two waists. Make pivots, Gan to strengthen your cuts. Valentin pay attention to selection, and the shot from the flank is your task."

Ramsey's fast offense is not to hit fast, but to use fast advancement to create dislocations in the frontcourt, and Vandeweghe is the main maker of dislocations; now he is going to send Drexler to expand the results.

Gan Guoyang was once again thrown into a high position to be an assaulter and spoiler, but he likes this role very much now, especially in the first half, which makes him play easier.

The timeout ended and the two sides returned to the field.

At this time, Stockton was finally replaced, and Gan Guoyang was about to face his old friend on the court for the first time.

"e-on, john (come, John)."