The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 177 The Shadow Is So Big

By the end of the third quarter, the Trail Blazers had taken the lead, 92-88. The Trail Blazers scored an astonishing 44 points in the third quarter, outscoring the Lakers 44-22 in that quarter and completing a remarkable comeback.

Gan Guoyang hit six three-pointers in a row, scoring 28 points in one quarter, more than the entire Lakers team combined.

The Lakers, who were playing exceptionally well in the first half, were completely overwhelmed by Gan Guoyang alone.

His offensive success rate was so high that the Lakers had no chance to launch fast breaks and could only slowly grind down the game.

As the game progressed, his performance deteriorated. By the time Gan Guoyang made his fourth three-pointer, the Lakers players were already thinking, "Let's stop playing and watch him shoot, let's see how many he can make."

It was a regular season game after all. Although Riley said before the game that they were determined to win, the players still lacked the spirit of going home if they didn't win, and they were caught off guard by the sudden three-pointer.

During the break between the third and fourth quarters, Riley was so angry his neck was red. At that moment, he fully understood a statement that Coach Adolf Rupp had once made:

"I've always envied coaches who can completely lose their minds; no one would know the difference."

In Riley's view, Rupp was a strict, rational, and highly disciplined coach who emphasized the most basic things in basketball every day.

That's why he was able to lead an all-white team, with a starting center who was 195cm tall, to the NCAA National Championship.

But Rupp often said that puzzling thing. It wasn't until Riley became a coach himself that this sentence kept coming to his mind during those moments when he was going crazy and almost losing his mind, but he was trying his best to control himself. Only then did he begin to deeply understand the strong contradictions that come with being a coach.

Tonight, at this moment, this contradiction reached its peak, and Riley could no longer control his emotions.

He slammed his paintbrush against the whiteboard, breaking it in two, then yelled at the players, "You just watched him sink that three! What the hell are you doing? Are you blind? Are you cripples? Why don't you go over there and punch him! Even if you get ejected, you can't let him attack like that!"

During summer training in Palm Springs, Riley introduced a rule of "no easy layups," requiring players to do their utmost to disrupt every offensive attack, even if it meant pulling the opponent down.

Their hypothetical enemy was the Boston Celtics, and they were determined to get revenge in June of '85, but they never thought of doing the same thing to the Portland Trail Blazers.

The players were speechless. "You told us to stick to the established strategy during the timeout, so why are you letting us take over now? Are you trying to punch Forrest Gump? Are you dreaming?"
Magic Johnson, seeing that Riley was completely enraged, said, "Coach, that's Forrest Gump. Who dares to hit him? They'll be thrown to their death."

Johnson's words calmed Riley down a bit. Yes, Forrest could even take down Gilmore and Laimbeer, who on the Lakers could stop him?
If the Lakers were to throw a punch at Forrest Gump, it would likely cause a brawl, and the Lakers would not come out on top. Their image would also be affected, and a media storm would be inevitable after the game.

Riley sighed, straightened his hair, tightened his tie, and said, "Cooper, if Agam gets the ball on the perimeter, stick close to him and don't give him a chance to shoot. When he goes inside, Kareem, you guard him."

This is the normal defensive arrangement. Just send one more person to keep an eye on him. Although this will cause some problems with the defensive rotation, it is still better than letting Gan Guoyang continue to shoot three-pointers.

On the Trail Blazers' bench, everyone from the coach to the other players was silent. Ramsey stood there with his arms crossed, dressed in a light blue suit and velvet trousers, an outfit that seemed out of place on the first day of the new year in 1985.

What made him feel even more out of place was his own tactical thinking and the changes happening on the court. He never imagined that a center could hit six three-pointers in a row.

本赛季目前为止单场三分球命中最多的球员是骑士队的沃德-B-弗林，他在去年12月27号骑士对阵公牛的比赛中三分球8投5中，拿下全队最高的30分。

But the Cavaliers still lost to the Bulls, because Michael Jordan scored 45 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, rendering Flynn's amazing three-point shooting useless.

Other players like Daryl Griffiths, The Sleeper Floyd, and Mike Evans were also considered to have made 4 or 3 three-pointers in a single game, which was quite a lot at the time.

Moreover, their accuracy is very high, usually 4 out of 4, 5 out of 4, or 6 out of 4. It's not because their shooting skills are particularly superb, but because once they find their shooting touch is off, they will stop shooting. They will only keep trying when they are shooting very smoothly.

Gan Guoyang's situation is the same as theirs; once he gets into a shooting rhythm, he can't stop shooting.

But you're a center, a strong and fierce inside player, and you played like a mini-Moses in the first half.

In the second half, Ramsey thought Gan Guoyang would just play with mid-range shots and combine drives and shots to break through the Lakers' defense.

Unexpectedly, things turned out very badly. When Gan Guoyang took his first three-pointer, Ramsey had already suffered from cerebellar atrophy.

By the time I got to the sixth basket, I felt that my years of hair loss seemed to be improving, and there was an urge for hair to grow back in the bald spots. "You have to be decisive when you shoot. When you release the ball, your eyes should only be on the basket, and you don't need to care about anything else."

"Once you take the shot, you have to believe that you can make it. If you miss, it's okay. It's because the rim is crooked, not because of your shot."

"A three-pointer is one point more than a two-pointer. If I had made six two-pointers, we would still be down by two points now, so a three-pointer is a good thing."

During the break, Gan Guoyang, who had successfully boasted, inspired everyone on the bench with his confidence.

Instead of pretending to be deep and silent, he seized the opportunity to boost the team's shooting confidence, as their shooting had indeed been quite poor lately.

While daily training recovery and physical treatment are important, mental adjustment is equally significant. After this game, the Trail Blazers' overall shooting percentage began to gradually recover.

By the time the fourth quarter began, when Pat Leigh tried to use Cooper to guard Gan Guoyang, it was too late; the rest of the Trail Blazers had already found their rhythm.

Paxson and Vandeweghe were both able to hit jump shots on offense, and even Drexler dared to take outside shots—but they just didn't make them.

The Trail Blazers gradually widened the score gap, from 92-88 to 110-102. With half of the fourth quarter gone, the Trail Blazers led by 8 points.

Just like the first game between the two teams at the Forum Arena, Gan Guoyang dominated the Lakers in the third quarter.

In the last game, he scored 20 points in a row. In this game, he exploded with three-pointers, scoring 28 points in a single quarter and single-handedly crushing the Lakers' offense, defense, and morale.

By the fourth quarter, the Lakers were struggling to keep up, and it would be extremely difficult for them to regain their form and turn the tide.

The Lakers are an offensive team, and if their rhythm is disrupted at crucial moments like the third quarter, it will be difficult for them to regain it in the fourth quarter.

It's like a long-distance race. If you get distracted and slow down near the finish line, it becomes very difficult to catch up.

Ultimately, the Trail Blazers held onto their victory, winning 124-118, a six-point advantage, at the Forum.

Gan Guoyang scored only 10 points in the first half, but relied on his explosive performance in the third quarter to score 42 points and grab 17 rebounds.

He didn't attempt another three-pointer in the fourth quarter, knowing his shooting touch had worn off and that taking another shot would be a waste of possession.

If a three-pointer is missed, besides wasting the opportunity, there is a major side effect: if the opponent gets the long rebound, it is easy for them to launch a fast break.

Furthermore, with Gan Guoyang positioned on the perimeter, no one in the paint could grab offensive rebounds, greatly increasing the chances of the team being attacked on fast breaks.

Gan Guoyang didn't want to miss his shot and give the Lakers a chance for a fast break. It would be terrible if Magic Johnson got the fast break rhythm going in the final stages.

This composure and rationality, which prevented him from getting carried away by his earlier scoring spree, helped the team retain their victory and delivered another disappointment to Los Angeles fans.

Before leaving the court, an NBC reporter interviewed Gan Guoyang, asking him about his thoughts on hitting consecutive three-pointers in the game. Gan Guoyang said, "I was just lucky tonight. The baskets at the Forum are as wide as the ocean, and I seized the moment to make some shots that would have been difficult to make in the past. There are always moments like this every season. It's about whether you can seize them and turn them into a beautiful victory, rather than just focusing on your own performance. That's it."

Meanwhile, in the Lakers' locker room, a composed Pat Riley addressed the entire team one by one.

When Riley learned from Byron Scott that Gan Guoyang had made a long-range shot while warming up at the Forum Arena that morning, standing in the second row of the stands, he flew into a rage.

He requested that the forum gymnasium be closed to Gan Guoyang in the morning from now on, and that he not be allowed to come there too early for shooting warm-up training.

This regulation was written into the security rules of the forum stadium and has been strictly enforced by successive waves of stadium staff.

This continued until the Lakers left the Forum and moved to Staples Center, which shows how big the shadow was—as big as tonight's basketball hoop.

(End of this chapter)