The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 260 Major Disadvantage

At the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers led the Lakers 41-30 by 11 points.

The Lakers' 30 points weren't a small number, but the Trail Blazers' 41 points in a single quarter was terrifying.

This was based on Gan Guoyang's extremely efficient low-post isolation play, scoring 17 points in a single quarter, making all 3 of his free throws, and only missing one shot.

Such high efficiency fueled the Trail Blazers' offense, catching the Lakers off guard and putting them at a disadvantage from the start.

Furthermore, after Rambis returned to the locker room, the Lakers' interior rotation was missing a piece. Riley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a dispute, and Magic Johnson complained that Maurice Lucas did not run his position properly according to the play, resulting in two missed attacks in the last two minutes of the first quarter, while the Trail Blazers seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

A heated debate ensued among the Lakers, causing the players' mentality to waver early on, and they failed to focus on the game.

On the Trail Blazers' side, everyone remained calm. Walton performed his role as a substitute admirably, and while Cort didn't score, he didn't make any mistakes either.

When Gan Guoyang was shoved by Rambis, the Trail Blazers players remained calm, not feeling that Gan Guoyang had been bullied, but rather that Rambis was just being unreasonable.

They weren't worried about getting into a brawl; their goal was to stop Gan Guoyang if necessary and prevent something even more bloody from happening.

During the preseason training camp, Mitchell Thompson experienced firsthand what Gan Guoyang's wrestling was all about, and the two practiced together once.

Since then, Thompson has come to understand the power of wrestling. It's different from boxing. NBA players have thrown so many punches at each other, and only one player like Kermit Washington and Tomjanovich have emerged.

As for wrestling, if Gan Guoyang wants to, and you're subdued by him, he can easily cripple you; it all depends on his control.

What if it gets out of control?
So he stopped Gan Guoyang; this powerful weapon brought peace to both opponents and teammates.

As for Rambis, he didn't know what had happened; in any case, he still didn't appear on the court after the start of the second quarter.

In the second quarter, Riley had no choice but to keep Maurice Lucas on the court to match up against Gan Guoyang. At least Lucas's offense was decent after coming off the bench, and he scored two goals.

However, Johnson was dissatisfied with Lucas's attitude of only focusing on his own shooting and refusing to integrate into the team's playing style. At the beginning of the second quarter, he tried to communicate with Riley, but Riley shook his head and disagreed with Johnson.

"I'm the coach, listen to me," Riley coldly told Johnson, determined to maintain his authority when it came to player selection and lineup decisions.

He knew that Magic Johnson didn't like Maurice Lucas, and when the team had a meeting in the locker room, Johnson would ask his teammates for their opinions on tactical issues.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke first, Michael Cooper spoke second, and James Worthy was supposed to be the third, but Lucas thought it was his turn and interrupted to answer.

Magic Johnson immediately shut him up, saying, "It's not your turn to answer yet!"

The locker room fell silent. Lucas stood up and stormed off.

When playing away games, Lucas requested to sit in a VIP seat as a veteran (VIP seats are limited on each flight), but the Lakers put him in economy class.

Dissatisfied, he got off the plane and told Riley that he was qualified and should sit in the VIP cabin. Riley told him to go back to his seat, saying that the Lakers did not sort players entirely by experience and seniority.

The two confronted each other at the boarding gate, cursing and accusing one another. Lucas didn't board the plane until five minutes before takeoff. Riley was furious, his face red with anger. Afterwards, Lucas filed a complaint with the players' union, and a representative called Riley, who was told he needed to handle the matter...

If he were with the Utah Jazz, Stockton would definitely be willing to trade his limited number of VIP cabin opportunities to Lucas, so he could profit from the difference.

But this is the Lakers, they are the championship team. According to their relationship with Magic Johnson, Lucas is not even in the top tier. How could they let him sit in a spacious VIP seat?

AC-Green witnessed both of these events and told Gan Guoyang about them. Therefore, Gan Guoyang knew that Lucas was not popular or respected in the Lakers team, especially since Lucas and Rambis were vying for the starting forward position, which made him very resentful of that black-rimmed, four-eyed guy. How could he possibly come up and beat Gan Guoyang to avenge Rambis?

On the contrary, Lucas was closer to the Trail Blazers players. At the start of the second quarter, during free throws and dead balls, he was able to chat with old friends like Walton and Thompson.

He even exchanged a few words with Jack Ramsey, who was standing on the sidelines. The old man greeted Lucas with a smile, and they all seemed to have a good relationship.

Lucas's performance further frustrated Magic Johnson and Pat Riley, and most importantly, Gan Guoyang continued to score inside in the second quarter.

Last year, Lucas couldn't defend Gan Guoyang when he was with the Suns. This year, with the Lakers, his tactics have declined in the low post, and his physical condition has deteriorated, making it even more impossible for him to guard Gan Guoyang one-on-one.

Gan Guoyang outmaneuvered Lucas three more times in the low post, with two hook shots and a reverse layup after a spin move along the baseline, leaving Lucas helpless.

Lucas was unfazed, but Riley was furious. He called a timeout and yelled at Lucas, "How did you defend Forrest Gump?! You just let him score like that!"

Lucas shrugged and said, "Kareem let Forrest score 15 points, why don't you yell at him instead of me? How much money do I get?" Riley was speechless, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was furious, and Johnson was so angry he laughed. If it weren't during the game, Johnson would have wanted Lucas to get off the court.

Lucas didn't care anymore. He knew he was unpopular. With the Lakers, he was just the seventh or eighth man, with no tactical role on offense and having to take the most dangerous blame on defense.

Riley replaced Lucas with AC Green and told Green, "Try to play defense and make sure you cause Agan a lot of trouble."

Green nodded. He was very obedient and completed all the coach's instructions perfectly.

He knew he couldn't defend against Gan Guoyang one-on-one, so he started to move in front of him, trying his best to prevent Gan Guoyang from receiving the ball.

Gan Guoyang didn't try to fight Green. Since the team was in the lead and he was having trouble receiving the ball, he decided to try a different spot.

Vandeweghe and Drexler are both capable scorers, and Gan Guoyang has gradually shifted his focus to screens and defense.

So it seems that Green's defense is quite effective, because Gan Guoyang stopped scoring as soon as he entered the game.

In reality, Gan Guoyang had toned down his aggressive stance against Green and temporarily sheathed his sword; the game remained under the control of the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang.

Johnson seized an opportunity midway through the second quarter to try and gain momentum, constantly accelerating to launch fast breaks, but the success rate of the counterattacks was not high, as Gan Guoyang was too quick to get back on defense.

Towards the end of the second quarter, Jack Ramsey fielded a lineup of three tall players: Walton, Gan Guoyang, Thompson, Drexler, and Vandeweghe.

With Vandeweghe moving to the shooting guard position and Drexler moving to the point guard position, the Trail Blazers have surpassed the Lakers in size, and Drexler's 6'7" height is a perfect match for Magic Johnson.

Vandeweghe can't defend anyone anywhere, but he plays more comfortably at the shooting guard position, which is a relatively weak spot for the Lakers.

As for Gan Guoyang, although Ramsey did not admit that he was playing Gan Guoyang as a small forward, he said, "We have two centers or two power forwards on the court. You are the libero."

He simply didn't want Gan Guoyang to shoot three-pointers, and Gan Guoyang wasn't thinking of shooting three-pointers either. When the three tall players came on the court, their biggest role was defense, and their mobility was maximized.

When the Lakers launched a counterattack, Gan Guoyang, positioned on the outside, could immediately retreat to defend, and James Worthy and Michael Cooper were both blocked by Gan Guoyang during the counterattack.

Magic Johnson eventually faltered, and instead of passing the ball during fast breaks, he drove hard to the basket and made a layup, finally breaking through Gan Guoyang's defense with his speed.

However, on offense, Gan Guoyang tormented the Lakers' defense with his top-of-the-line shot, while Walton was unleashing his power in the low post, receiving Gan Guoyang's passes one after another, getting past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and slamming home a one-handed dunk!

The Trail Blazers went on a 13-4 run late in the second quarter, extending their lead to 18 points. At halftime, the score was 74-56, leaving the fans in the Great Western Forum stunned.

Has the Portland team evolved to this point this season? Are they completely unbeatable now?

As the halftime whistle blew, Pat Riley left the bench without looking back and went back to the locker room through the player tunnel.

The Lakers players were dejected; they had been badly beaten in the first half. Gan Guoyang had 27 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists in the first half, with a field goal percentage of 80% and a free throw percentage of 100%, showing his true strength.

When Riley returned to the locker room, he wanted to figure out what was going on with Rambis and why he hadn't returned to the game.

He found Lambis sitting in a chair, his glasses off, his eyes red like a rabbit's. He had clearly been crying, and he shed tears again when he saw Riley.

Riley yelled at him, "You fucking aren't going to play, are you just going to cry like a woman in the locker room?"

Rambis sat there dejectedly, crying, "I can't play anymore. Please don't make me guard Forrest Gump anymore. Please, Coach, please."

The team's trainer told Riley that a psychologist had just seen Rambis and said he was under too much stress and needed to rest and recover.

Riley was shocked. He hadn't expected that Lambis would actually be broken down by Gan Guoyang. Had he been too harsh on Lambis?

But in NBA games, it's normal to get crushed when facing star players. However, thinking about the team's miserable state in the first half, Riley felt a little like crying.

"Shit, this is terrible, this is really terrible."

Before the game, Riley was full of confidence and hoped to establish an advantage over the Trail Blazers through this game.

Now things are really bad; we're at a complete disadvantage, a huge disadvantage.

(End of this chapter)