The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 207 It Takes Two to Clap
Bill Laimbeer in the 1985 season had not yet become a complete bastard.

At that time, he was an All-Star white center with very accurate mid-range and long-range shooting, and one of the very few interior players in the league who could make three-pointers.

Although he liked to use dirty moves to hurt and provoke opponents and disrupt their emotions on defense, this had not become the style of the entire Detroit Pistons; it was just a personal bad habit of Laimbeer.

The Pistons' starting five consisted of Bill Laimbeer, Thomas, Kelly Tricopp, Terry Taylor, and John Long. Apart from Laimbeer, Thomas was small in stature, while Tricopp, Taylor, and Long were all offensive players.

The Detroit Pistons are third in the league in scoring this season with 117 points per game, but they also allow 115 points per game, ranking third in the league as well, making them one of the worst defensive teams in the entire league.

Pistons head coach Chuck Daly is consciously trying to build a defensive team, but the Pistons' current roster simply doesn't meet the requirements. They don't have a reliable defender on the wings, and in the paint, they only have Bill Laimbeer as a player whose defense is barely passable—and even then, they have to rely on some underhanded tactics.

Isaiah Thomas is a small guard who likes fast-paced offense and has his own rhythm in the game.

Sometimes Daly tries to slow down the pace of the game to stifle the opponent's offense, but that makes Thomas uncomfortable, and the rest of the team doesn't like it either.

A slower pace means everyone will be more tired, and their stats will drop. The coach's instructions are one thing, but whether the players are willing to follow the coach's instructions is another.

The Pistons are the team of these scorers. Thomas is the team's darling. Terry Taylor and John Long are both students at the University of Detroit. They were basketball stars in the Motor City before entering the NBA. The Pistons selected local stars in the draft to boost the team's popularity, regardless of whether they could form a suitable lineup.

Like Vandeweghe, Kelly Tricopp is generally perceived as a white player who can only attack and not defend. Moreover, Tricopp's scoring ability is not as good as Vandeweghe's. This year, his attendance rate has been greatly affected by injuries, and he has fallen out of the All-Star ranks.

Chuck Daly stood on the sidelines. Although his hair was perfectly styled, his suit was impeccably pressed, and his gleaming gold watch shone with an exquisite light, his heart and spirit were a complete mess, utterly awful, as awful as could be.

This is the last stop of their seven-game road trip to Detroit at the end of the season. In the previous six games, they went to Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Seattle. They only won the game against the Golden State Warriors and lost the remaining five games. The team is in a bad situation.

In the game against the Chicago Bulls, rookie Michael Jordan easily scored 32 points, along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists, against the Pistons.

The Pistons lost the game by one point, 110-111. Jordan made a crucial shot in the final moments, but the Pistons missed the game-winning shot and suffered a heartbreaking defeat.

Since the All-Star Game, Jordan has been almost slaughtering the Pistons, venting all his resentment towards Thomas in the game.

Thomas tried to explain to Jordan, and the two had a discussion and clarification in front of the media before the game, but Jordan didn't take it seriously.

He later bluntly stated that Thomas was "just acting," which further exacerbated the conflict between the Pistons and Jordan, but the Pistons had no way to deal with Jordan.

The entire league has no way to deal with Jordan, and tonight they will face another even more formidable rookie, Forrest Gump.

But Daly, who was sitting on the sidelines waiting for the game to start, was not most worried about how to deal with Gan Guoyang, but about how they would leave Portland and return to Detroit after tonight's game.
It was pouring rain outside the memorial stadium, with a waterfall-like curtain of water on the high glass curtain wall, and lightning flashing in the sky.

According to the weather forecast, there will be heavy rain and thunderstorms all day tomorrow, which will delay their early morning flight or even cancel it.

On April 4th, they will face the Milwaukee Bucks at home, an extremely tough opponent. If they cannot go back to rest early on the 3rd and return on the 4th, it means the whole team will start a tough battle in extreme fatigue.

If they continue to lose like this, they may lose home-court advantage in the playoffs.

"Damn the schedule!" Daly cursed the league's schedule for the fifty-eighth time this season.

The numerous consecutive away games, unreasonable flight routes, and dense match schedules have left coaches and players exhausted as the season draws to a close.

Of course, Daly knew that when he was exhausted, it often meant that his opponent was also very exhausted.

But after four minutes of play in the first quarter, Daly couldn't sit still anymore, and the Trail Blazers, led by Gan Guoyang, went on a 12-4 run. Gan Guoyang scored 10 points in a row, using his footwork and speed to repeatedly drive to the basket against Laimbeer.

He drew two fouls from the Pistons' interior defense, scored 4 points from the free-throw line, and added 6 points with a hook shot and a turnaround jumper, displaying an energy that seemed unstoppable.

"Damn it, damn it, how come this kid doesn't look tired at all? Time out, referee, time out!"

Daly got up and asked the referee for a timeout. Just four minutes into the game, the Pistons looked like they were about to collapse.

As the players returned to the bench, Daly was the first to question Laimbeer: "Bill, didn't I tell you before the game not to provoke Forrest Gump!"

Nowadays, league coaches, in order to protect their players' health and prevent their interior defense from being destroyed, warn their players not to verbally provoke Gan Guoyang, and even more so not to try to interfere with Gan Guoyang with malicious actions, as such behavior is tantamount to suicide.

This is the effect that Gan Guoyang achieved with his amazing destructive power, especially the way he slammed Lambiel. Daley still feels lingering fear to this day; he was genuinely worried that Lambiel would die on the court.

Daly is one of the few coaches in the league who truly understands Laimbeer. He knows that although Laimbeer's behavior on the court is bad, he gets hit more often than he hits others. Many times, he does this to provoke his opponents and prevent them from playing well.

In this respect, Ranbil and Gan Guoyang are indeed very similar, only their methods are different, one uses scheming and the other uses open tactics.

Laimbeer felt wronged after hearing Daly's words. He explained, "I didn't! I didn't provoke him! He came up to me and said, 'I'm going to score 50 points on you!' Fuck, I even greeted him!"

Daly stared at Lambiel's innocent eyes for three seconds and said, "I don't believe it. You should tone it down. It takes two to tango."

Lambiel was so angry he wanted to throw the towel. It seemed that his acting skills in lying were so good that Daly could no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood, so he simply stopped believing him.

Daly's timeout didn't have much effect because the Pistons players were indeed too tired tonight; even these athletic elites couldn't withstand the seven-game road trip.

Moreover, tonight's game is the second game of a back-to-back away game. They just played the Los Angeles Clippers yesterday. To make matters worse, due to scheduling conflicts, they will first play the Los Angeles Lakers, then go to Seattle to play the SuperSonics, then fly back to Los Angeles to play the Clippers, and then travel overnight to Portland to play the Trail Blazers.

Originally, the games against the Clippers and Lakers could have been played back-to-back in Los Angeles, and Seattle and Portland were also very close and could have been played together. However, due to scheduling issues, they foolishly traveled back and forth between the three cities and chose the longest route to complete all four games on the West Coast.

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 21-33, with the Trail Blazers leading the Pistons by 12 points.

Gan Guoyang scored 14 points in a single quarter, and it looks like he's really going to score 50 points tonight.

Compared to Daly's agitation, Ramsey on the Trail Blazers' bench was much calmer.

During the break, Rick Adelman asked Gan Guoyang, "You took a lot of shots today, were you that aggressive? Are you going to teach Laimbeer a lesson?"

Gan Guoyang shook his head and said, "No, I'm doing this to defeat the Pistons. Let me tell you, Rick, Laimbeer is the soul of the Pistons. Defeating him will defeat the Pistons."

"This is Detroit's seventh away game. They're already depleted enough tonight, do we really need to target them like this?"

"You don't understand Rick. Basketball is a long war, and this is just a small step."

Adelman's eyes were clear; he clearly couldn't understand what Gan Guoyang was saying. He felt he was losing his ability to comprehend and keep up with Gan Guoyang's train of thought.

When the second quarter began, Adelman told Ramsey about Gan Guoyang's idea. Ramsey nodded and said, "Strategist."

Adelman thought to himself, "What kind of strategist is this? Dr. Jack, what are you talking about? Can't you two communicate yourselves from now on?"
I was stuck in the middle and couldn't understand anything, I felt like an idiot!
(End of this chapter)