The Golden Age of Basketball

The Nuggets also made a personnel rotation after the timeout. The Nuggets head coach made a bold substitution. Instead of using veteran Wayne Cooper, he let the team's rookie Rasmussen replace Calvin Nye. Especially, I hope this rookie can compete against Gan Guoyang to a certain extent.

"Hi, Blair, long time no see." Gan Guoyang greeted Blair Rasmussen in a "friendly" way when he saw him playing.

In the regular season, Blair, as a rookie at the end of the bench, did not get any chance to play against the Trail Blazers, so Gan Guoyang naturally did not remember this opposing center who had met in college—and the two were in college. It's just one fight.

Because of Rasmussen's amazing performance in the first round, the Trail Blazers coaching staff noticed him and were wary of him during tactical preparations, and Gan Guoyang also remembered that there was such a man.

Blair Rasmussen has heard Gan Guoyang's "notoriety" for a long time. He knows that this guy is a trash talker just like "Big Bird" Bird.

So Rasmussen just smiled friendlyly at Gan Guoyang, didn't say anything more, and devoted himself to the game.

After Rasmussen came on the court, the Nuggets actually became weaker on the offensive end. Rasmussen and Schayes are both players who lack the ability to attack independently. In addition to picking up leaks on the offensive end, their greatest significance is to give the Nuggets The perimeter player screened the pick-and-roll.

The screen effect of the two big white men is pretty good. Leaf relied on a double screen inside to kill the basket. This time, facing Jones' supplementary defense, Leve scored the ball with a layup and stabilized it. The situation on the field.

Soon on the defensive end, Rasmussen's single defense against Gan Guoyang played an effect. Gan Guoyang missed the hook after receiving the ball, Schayes controlled the backcourt rebound, and the Nuggets launched a counterattack.

English caught the ball in the counterattack and broke through the middle, dodged Gan Guoyang's block, hit a small throw, and the Nuggets turned the score again.

"The Nuggets' timeout worked. Schayes and Rasmussen's double-high inside line played a certain role on the defensive and offensive ends. Let's see how the Blazers will respond."

At this time, the disadvantages of the Blazers playing Jones appeared. Jones did not have the offensive power of Mitchell Sampson at all. On the offensive end, the Blazers lacked a single point. It is unrealistic to rely purely on Gan Guoyang's inside scoring. After scoring 12 points in a row in the first quarter, Gan Guoyang needed a buffer.

It is impossible for Ramsey to call a timeout again, it depends on the players' self-adjustment ability on the court.

At this time, the value of Vandeweghe is reflected. With his excellent offensive ability, he can stand up and use singles to continue the life of the team when the team's offensive system is not functioning smoothly.

"Vandeweghe hit English with his back and turned around and threw it! The same trick as English just now, the goal was scored."

Vandeweghe "returned him the same way", hit English on the back after asking for the ball from the waist, turned inside and turned to the middle, and made a difficult left-handed throw, which gave his former teammate a blow.

The first quarter ended quickly. After some intrigue, the two sides took advantage of each other, so the score remained tight. The Blazers only maintained a weak lead of 28:27, one point.

In the second quarter, after Gan Guoyang scored 13 points and 4 rebounds in one quarter, he sat on the bench and began to rest. Sampson replaced Jones and Kenny Karl replaced Gan Guoyang.

The Blazers began to play fast in the second quarter. Ramsey also replaced substitutes Jerome Cosey and Terry Porter on the outside.

This is the experience and strategy that Ramsey learned when he played the Nuggets last year. He must establish an advantage in the first half, and strive to take away the opponent in the third quarter, and not leave the decisive battle until the last moment. The winning rhythm that the player is most familiar with and best at.

In the semi-finals last year, Ramsey needed Gan Guoyang to invest in this high-pressure defense. At that time, he played almost the entire first half of the first game.

A big improvement for the Blazers this season is the growth of several young players on the outside, especially Ke Xi, whose energy on the defensive end is what the Blazers have been longing for from the outside.

"Cauci's defense is like a mad dog, and English is covered by impenetrable marking, beautiful defense." The Nuggets did not dare to let English rest for too long, and they rested at the end of the first quarter In 2 minutes, they will re-enter the field in the second quarter to face Cauchy's entanglement.

The Blazers' substitutes' desperate defense and full-force sprint offense at both ends of the offense and defense played an effect. They gradually opened up the score. It was rewritten to 37:31, and the point difference became 6 points.

The Nuggets called a timeout, and this timeout was also what Ramsey wanted, because the Blazers players were actually a little tired. If the head coach of the Nuggets endured and played for a while, it might be able to wear down Blazers, let Ramsey take the initiative to call a timeout.

"Don't give them a chance, beat them at this time, let us lead into the second half, take the rhythm, understand? Don't worry too much about defense, focus on offense! Punch them to death!" Ram Qi yelled at Gan Guoyang from the bench.

Although Ramsey usually yells at the players, it is usually when the players make mistakes. It is really rare for Gan Guoyang to "kill them with one punch" like now. This shows that after all, it is the semifinals of the division. Ram Qi also began to find status for himself.

Gan Guoyang also took off his sportswear and prepared to play after a 4-minute rest.

On the other hand, the Nuggets also expected that the Blazers were going to replace Gan Guoyang, so they immediately replaced Rasmussen.

"The Nuggets replaced Rasmussen. After Rasmussen played against Gan Guoyang in the first quarter, Gan Guoyang didn't score again. It seems that the Nuggets think Rasmussen can deal with Gan."

"That's right, someone said before the game that Rasmussen might be the 'Gan Terminator'."

Rasmussen was obviously encouraged by his own performance in the first quarter. As soon as he came on the court, he looked very positive, with his knees slightly bent, his hands on Gan Guoyang's back, and he began to mark seriously.

"Stop doing useless work, do you think you can guard against me, Blair? Do you still remember that you came to our school to play games?" Gan Guoyang said to Rasmussen.

Just halfway through Gan Guoyang's words, the referee had already whistled the Blazers to pass the ball to the sideline. Gan Guoyang suddenly started to push Rasmussen away and ran to the sideline to catch the ball.

Terry Porter passed the ball to Gan Guoyang, and then Gan Guoyang made a false pass with Porter. After Porter took away the defender, the left side was emptied, and Gan Guoyang wanted to single Rasmussen.

"Gan made a breakthrough from the middle with the ball in the basket. Rasmussen couldn't stand Gan at all, and Gan made a layup!"

Gan Guoyang made a direct breakthrough from the middle, Rasmussen could not withstand the bulldozer-like Gan Guoyang, and was quickly squeezed away, Gan Guoyang was able to layup easily, this trick is especially effective against some weak defenders.

"I haven't finished yet. You came to our school to play. I only played for 15 minutes. Do you know why?" Gan Guoyang returned to his own half after scoring a goal and continued to talk to Rasmussen.

"Dunn's jump shot, the ball missed, and Gan took the rebound. As long as Gan is there, it is almost difficult to make a second attack." After Gan Guoyang took the rebound, the Blazers did not launch a quick counterattack, and the players also needed to slow down. Slow down and attack in a dozen positions.

This time Gan Guoyang asked for the ball at the familiar 45-degree waist position, and the position where he asked for the ball was not deep, but after receiving the ball, Gan Guoyang began to push his butt all the way inward, then turned around suddenly, and hit a small hook on the baseline!

"Nice little hook, crisp and neat, Rasmussen was completely suppressed."

"I haven't finished talking yet. I only played for 15 minutes because I had a bad stomach before the game. My stomach was very uncomfortable. I went to the toilet five or six times." Gan Guoyang continued to say to Rasmussen. There was a visibly broken look on Simson's face.

"Hey! Blair, pay attention!" Seeing that Rasmussen seemed to be in a trance, English loudly reminded the rookie on the court.

After finishing speaking, English made a pass to Rasmussen after the pick-and-roll, but Rasmussen failed to catch it, Gan Guoyang took the ball from behind, and fell to the ground in chaos , Gan Guoyang firmly grasped the basketball with his pliers-like big hands and controlled the ball.

"Hold on, hold on, hit another one!" Ramsey reminded loudly from the sidelines, fearing that Gan Guoyang would throw the ball with his hands raised.

Gan Guoyang handed the ball to Drexler, and Drexler slowly dribbled the ball across the half court to organize an attack.

Gan Guoyang went to the top of the arc and made a pick-and-roll for Drexler. Gan Guoyang quickly cut in. While breaking through, Drexler saw the opportunity and passed a lob to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang jumped high to catch the ball. Instead of choosing an alley-oop, he feinted a shot after landing, passed Rasmussen and Wayne Cooper, dribbled to the other side of the basket, turned around and split with one hand. buckle!

"Bang!" Gan Guoyang scored three goals in a row with a powerful left-handed dunk, and the Memorial Stadium was full of joy.

"So, when I was playing that day, like I am now, scoring, scoring, I was just thinking, open the gap as soon as possible, so I can go to the toilet. That's the way it is, Do you understand, Blair?"

Gan Guoyang finally finished what he wanted to say after the blue was deducted, and at this time Blair Rasmussen finally broke down. The young man looked helpless and looked like he was about to cry.

The head coach of the Nuggets had to call another 20-second timeout. He could tell that Rasmussen couldn't guard Gan Guoyang at all.

"The Nuggets called another timeout. It seems that it is too difficult for Rasmussen to defend Gan."

"Yes, even though Gan is only a second-year player, it is said that his mouth stinks like Larry Bird on the court. I guess Rasmussen suffered both physically and mentally. Poor guy."

"Good luck to him, it's a surefire way to grow."