The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 126 No Future
During the Lakers' era in the Western Conference, teams were scrambling to build up their interior players in order to counter Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers' formidable frontcourt.

Besides the starting trio of Edwards, Nance, and Adams, the Suns also had Maurice Lucas on the bench—the second-best contributor to the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers' championship run.

As backup options, there are also Charles Jones and Rick Robbie at the end of the bench. In short, ensuring sufficient height on the court is the basic principle for dealing with the Lakers.

Judging from the results in last season's Western Conference Finals, it was pretty good; it dragged the exceptionally talented Lakers to a sixth game, with the match going down to the wire.

The Suns missed their final shot and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 99-97, ending their Cinderella-like playoff run in 1984.

McLeod believes that the Suns found a way to deal with the Lakers in Games 5 and 6; they just lacked some luck and changed their lineup too late.

In the first four games, the Lakers, led by Johnson, unleashed a barrage of attacks. Johnson recorded 24 assists in a single game, and multiple players on the team scored in double figures, giving them a 3-1 lead in the series.

But in Game 5, the Suns successfully cut off Johnson's connection with the others, forcing the Lakers into one-on-one situations with Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they managed to salvage the series in Los Angeles.

In the sixth game, they were just one goal away from forcing extra time. If they won extra time, they would have to go to a tiebreaker, where anything could happen.

One of the key adjustments McLeod made when the team was down 0-2 was to start Maurice Lucas, a strong forward, and make Kyle Messi a substitute.

His inside partnership with Larry Nance caused the Lakers a lot of trouble on both ends of the court, prompting Pat Riley to put James Worthy into the starting lineup in Game 6, which was the only way they managed to defeat the Suns and advance to the Finals.

After the start of the second half, McLeod followed suit and put Lucas in the starting lineup, replacing Adams at small forward, effectively forming a powerful power forward duo with Larry Nance.

Lucas was a player with an extremely fiery temper, and the image of him exchanging punches with Daryl Dawkins in the 77 NBA Finals became a stain on the NBA at the time.

This hot-tempered forward not only got into a fight in the NBA Finals, but also in the ABA, he once grabbed head coach Hubie Brown by the collar on the sidelines and told him to be more respectful when he spoke to him in the future; he glared at the referee and said that if he called another foul on him, he would kill him, which made the referee afraid to foul him again; and in his rookie season, he punched "The Train" Gil Moore in the chin during a game, knocking him unconscious.

This notorious forward has toned down his temper a lot in the past two years; at least he doesn't fight anymore. With the Suns, he recovered his physical condition, returned to the All-Star team, and became an important part of the team.

Larry Nance is best known for his dunks. In the first Slam Dunk Contest, he defeated Dr. J Irving with a stunning performance and won his first Slam Dunk Contest championship.

But Nance's skills go far beyond just dunking. In fact, when Gan Guoyang participated in the draft, the scouts' comparison in the report was Larry Nance.

Because Nance is also 6'10" tall with an excellent wingspan, he has a pick-and-roll mid-range jump shot, can dribble and break through the basket, and his dunks after driving to the basket are very fierce.

On the defensive end, he was the Suns' leading shot blocker. He was fast and had excellent help defense. In the 84 Western Conference Finals, he blocked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar twice, which enraged Abdul-Jabbar, who then slammed the ball into the basket with consecutive dunks in the ensuing possession.

Looking at it this way, Gan Guoyang is indeed very similar to him, especially in the second game where Gan Guoyang scored 41 points with fast breaks, which is exactly the same as Nance's style of fast breaks.

However, when the two stand face to face on the court, it becomes clear that although Nance and Gan Guoyang are both 6'10", Gan Guoyang is obviously a size larger than Nance.

Gan Guoyang has the frame of a center, with broader shoulders and a thicker build, while Nance is thinner and narrower, and most importantly, Nance's butt is too small.

In the second half, Lucas and Nance partnered in the paint, forming a small-ball lineup. McLeod hoped that the two could contain Gan Guoyang on both offense and defense, while also making the team's offense more aggressive.

The Suns have increased the pick-and-roll offensive plays between Nance and the guards, using the changes after a single screen as the starting point for their offense. Nance does have a knack for mid-range shooting.

On the defensive end, the Suns tried to match up Trail Blazers veteran Maurice Lucas against Gan Guoyang, hoping to teach the kid a lesson with strength and physicality.

Although Edwards is tall, his defense is really average. With his height and wingspan, he rarely gets more than one block per game, and his footwork is also not fast enough.

Lucas was stronger and more robust, with thick upper limbs and a fierce personality. Some young men knew his infamous reputation and would be cautious when facing him.

Then, at the start of the second half, Gan Guoyang dribbled past Lucas into the paint, dunked with one hand, and drew a foul from Lucas in the process...

Lucas was stunned for a moment, then yelled at the referee, "I fouled? How did I foul?!"

The referee tonight was Jess Kersey, who told Lucas that he had pushed someone, and that the two points counted, plus a free throw.

Gan Guoyang high-fived Thompson and Paxson, stepped to the free-throw line, and made the extra free throw.

Thompson and Paxson were both feeling really good, especially Thompson, who had been bullied by the Suns' interior defense quite a bit in last year's playoffs.

Thompson played terribly in that series, his stats were completely outmatched compared to the regular season, especially when surrounded by Maurice Lucas, which drew a lot of criticism from the Oregon media, who believed that he shouldn't have given up Lucas for Thompson in the first place.

Lucas was furious. In the next offensive possession, he received the ball, turned around, and shot a jump shot at Thompson, but missed. Gan Guoyang grabbed the rebound.

The Trail Blazers launched a counterattack, but Nance was smart; instead of rushing for the offensive rebound, he quickly retreated on defense, disrupting Paxson's layup.

The ball returned to the Suns, and Nance wanted to take on Gan Guoyang. After coordinating with the guard, he received the ball on the wing and drove into the paint to try and dunk!

Gan Guoyang came over to help defend, and the two collided in mid-air. Nan Siren was knocked to the ground, and the referee called a foul on Gan Guoyang.

The Trail Blazers' perimeter defense was completely ineffective, leaving Gan Guoyang to face their accelerated drives head-on. It's a miracle he wasn't dunked on. While Nance was shooting free throws, Gan Guoyang berated Paxson and Vandeweghe, but the two veterans didn't dare say much; their on-court performance spoke for itself.

Gan Guoyang almost single-handedly confronted the Suns' frontcourt and held his own. In the third quarter, Gan Guoyang began to increase his intensity on the offensive end.

Facing Lucas in the low post again, Gan Guoyang received the ball and faked a shot, then quickly turned around after receiving the ball with his heel, creating space before taking a step and jumping to dunk the ball into the basket with one hand!

Nance tried to help defend, but it was too late. Gan Guoyang caught the ball with his right hand and shoved it into the basket. It was impossible to block him.

Lucas was furious. He slammed the ball down and yelled at Nance, "What are we doing!"

Nance was somewhat helpless; he really couldn't defend against it, and it was already quite good that he managed to score two goals from the penalty kicks.

Last season, the two established a strong on-court bond, and before the second-round game against the Jazz, Lucas said, "Nobody can make me angry."

People had been worried that he would lose his temper in the playoffs, but Lucas believed that he was getting older and, like Walton, practiced vegetarianism, and that his temper had improved.

In the game against the Jazz, Lucas lost his temper after the young Thiel Bailey scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. In the second game, when he made a layup and was returning to the backcourt, he pushed aside Jazz guard Ricky Green, who was blocking his way, and the two almost got into a fight.

Nance told Lucas, "Let me try pushing someone too."

The Suns brought out their competitiveness in the game and held the Jazz to 37% shooting percentage to win the game.

In this game, Lucas tried to use the same trick again. When Gan Guoyang and Valentine rolled to the basket after a pick-and-roll, Lucas couldn't keep up and pushed Gan Guoyang.

To everyone's surprise, Gan Guoyang withstood Lucas's shoving, put the ball into the basket, staggered a couple of steps after landing, and then stood up.

Turning around, Gan Guoyang asked, "Did I just bump into someone? I didn't break the rules, did I?"

The referee blew his whistle and called a foul on Maurice Lucas, awarding Gan Guoyang a free throw.

"Oh, sorry, did I bump into you? I didn't feel anything. I'm so sorry, senior." Gan Guoyang apologized to Lucas.

When Lucas was substituted off the field, he angrily kicked over a beverage bucket placed next to the bench and threw away the ice packs that the staff offered to his knees.

With eight minutes and fifteen seconds left in the second half, Gan Guoyang's score had risen to 26 points and 16 rebounds, giving the Trail Blazers a 71-60 lead.

McLeod finally gave up and brought Edwards back in to play a normal lineup with Nance, while also increasing the playing time of Messi and Humphries.

This tactic actually worked well, as the Suns narrowed the gap to 5 points in the third quarter. Nance scored with a mid-range jumper after a pick-and-roll, and the small guard on the perimeter shook off his defender and took a mid-range shot.

Even if Gan Guoyang had three heads and six arms, he couldn't possibly defend every player on the Suns, especially on the perimeter. Western Conference teams will eventually realize that conserving their strength in the paint to deal with Gan Guoyang is suicidal.

Humphries may not have a psychological disadvantage against Gan Guoyang. USTC beat Gonzaga, so his performance after coming off the bench in the third quarter was quite outstanding.

After scoring six points in a row, Gan Guoyang got a little frustrated and finally seized an opportunity during a defensive play to block Humphries' shot—a way of venting Stockton's anger.

Even so, the composed Gan Guoyang did not block the ball like a volleyball player. Instead, he pressed the ball down and took possession, initiating a successful counterattack for the Trail Blazers.

With just a few dozen seconds left in the third quarter, Gan Guoyang suddenly intensified his defense, joining forces with Drexler to double-team Messi.

Drexler intercepted the ball and the two launched a fast break—the same scenario as in the previous game against the SuperSonics.

Drexler delivered a high pass, and Gan Guoyang leaped high to catch the alley-oop and dunk with both hands!

The Suns immediately tried to respond with a fast break, but Nance's layup was interfered with by Gan Guoyang and missed again.

Thompson grabbed the rebound and threw the ball forward. Gan Guoyang pushed aside Scott, who was trying to contest for the ball, and dribbled the ball a couple of times.

Looking up, he saw that time was running out, with only one second left, so he threw the ball from two steps away from the three-point line.

The ball arced high and flew through the net just as the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter, making a precise shot!

After scoring, Gan Guoyang raised his arms high and waved them like an egg beater, and his teammates rushed over to hug him.

The Suns, who were only down by 5 points, were swept by a 7-0 run and fell behind by 12 points.

After three quarters, with 31 points, 17 rebounds, and 7 blocks, Gan Guoyang brought a little shock to Phoenix.

At the same time, I made it clear to McLeod that with my arrival, stacking height was no longer a viable option in this league.

(End of this chapter)