The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 304 Silence
"Sonny Gan scored 11 points, 3 blocks, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in the first quarter. He grabbed a rebound, dribbled the ball across the court, and dunked it at the basket. Hakeem Olajuwon couldn't defend Gan's offense, and the Trail Blazers led the Rockets 25-21 after the first quarter!"

At Paramount Music Hall, during the break between the first and second symphony orchestra performances, the substitute musician who had been listening to the live broadcast of the competition with headphones on went on stage to report the first session of the competition to the audience.

Upon learning that the Trail Blazers were leading in the first quarter, the audience erupted in cheers, even more enthusiastic than the applause that followed the end of the performance.

Gan Guoyang's performance in the first quarter was as strong as ever.

He rarely falls silent in the first quarter because the first quarter is crucial for setting the tone for the game; once you fall behind, the game becomes very difficult.

The Trail Blazers are an offensive team, unlike some defensive counter-attacking teams that like to fall slightly behind in the first half and then launch a comeback in the second half to finish the game off.

The Trail Blazers often dominate from the first quarter to the last, giving their opponents no chance to emerge.

Gan Guoyang has strong physical strength. He doesn't need to hold back at the beginning and save his strength for the end. He can play at the same intensity throughout the game.

This is what makes him so formidable; defending against Gan Guoyang is extremely painful, whereas everyone else has a break to catch their breath.

Gan Guoyang was different; one-on-one defense against him was a huge torment, and Olajuwon felt this pain after the first quarter.

This was even more difficult than during the regular season. The intense competition on both offense and defense, the constant physical contact, and the power gap made it even more challenging for Olajuwon.

Hakeem Olajuwon was not discouraged. He recalled what Coach Lewis had told him during the NCAA finals: "Forrest Gump is more flashy, but you will win the game."

It wasn't easy for the proud man to accept this; who would easily admit that their opponent was more capable than themselves?

Even within the Rockets, Hakeem Olajuwon never considered himself inferior to Sampson; in fact, his stats surpassed Sampson's.

Sampson was simply older, joined the team earlier, and became famous earlier; Olajuwon believed he was the strongest player on the team.

But Forrest Gump?

"I have to win."

Hakeem Olajuwon reminded himself once again that what he wanted was to win the game, not to beat Forrest Gump.

"Akim, in the second quarter, let Ralph guard Forrest, and you'll still be responsible for help defense, just like you did with Karim."

During the break, Bill Fitch made a strategic change, assigning Sampson as the primary defender and Olajuwon as the help defender.

In short, these two strategies are just a matter of trying them out. In the last round against the Lakers, Sampson was the main defender against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Olajuwon helped defend, which worked very well.

This defensive combination worked very well against Gan Guoyang before. You can't stop Gan Guoyang by strength, but you can cover him by height.

At the very least, it can disrupt his turnaround jump shot; Sampson's height and long arms make it effective to lift his arms.

The reason Olajuwon was assigned to defense at the start was mainly because they didn't want to invest too many defensive resources in Gan Guoyang.

The Trail Blazers are not the Lakers. The Lakers' power forwards are all blue-collar players without independent offensive capabilities, but the Trail Blazers have Thompson, and Walton is sitting on the bench.

The connection between the three highs is Bill Fitch's biggest worry and headache. If Hakeem Olajuwon can't handle Forrest Gump and has to rely on the Twin Towers to deal with him, how will he deal with the three highs?

But there was nothing they could do; the first quarter proved that Olajuwon simply couldn't defend against one-on-one situations.

"Coach, let me try again."

"You've already tried."

“I’ll call for backup. You said Forrest Gump was a challenge, and I haven’t failed the challenge yet.”

Bill Fitch looked at Hakeem Olajuwon and nodded in agreement.

At least tonight, Fitch decided not to change his strategy and continue to have Olajuwon defend him one-on-one.

Fitch realized that if they couldn't fully build up Olajuwon's confidence in Forrest Gump, the Rockets might never be able to beat the Trail Blazers.

At the start of the second quarter, both teams had their rotation players on the court, with Bill Walton replacing Gan Guoyang.

Both teams had very low shooting percentages and a lot of turnovers tonight, indicating that the game was extremely intense.

Both sides fielded very strong lineups, the pace of the game was relatively slow, the positional battles were simple, and the confrontations were extremely intense.

The playing styles of the two teams reveal a clear divergence between these rising stars and established teams like the Lakers and Celtics.

The Lakers and Celtics are essentially college basketball. Although they have superstars, they play a very team-oriented style, with a lot of coordination and movement. The Rockets, however, defeated the Lakers not through movement or tactics, but through simpler and more effective methods: rebounding, steals, height, intensity, speed, small-ball play, and individual skill.

Bill Fitch is gradually building a new model of basketball, eliminating what he considers too cumbersome and trying to win games in a simpler, more primitive way.

In the semifinals, their field goal percentage and free throw percentage were lower than the Lakers', and they had 15 fewer assists, but they had 15 more blocks, 21 more rebounds, 14 more offensive rebounds, and 40 more free throws than the Lakers.

They won not because of more accurate shooting or more sophisticated tactics, but because of better physical fitness, better rebounding, more shooting opportunities, and more free throws earned through physical contact.

Similarly, with the Trail Blazers, Ramsey has rarely yelled "run, run, run" at his players this season. Sometimes he even tells them to slow down and not launch fast breaks every time.

He focused more on defense, meticulously crafting and fixing the team's defensive traps, while leaving more of the offensive work to Gan Guoyang, Drexler, and Vandeweghe.

Both veteran coaches are trying to keep up with the times, and the games between the two sides are different from the past. The rivalry between the giants is becoming more and more intense.

Drexler and McGrady got tangled up during a defensive play, and the referee blew the whistle to separate them, thus beginning their feud during the 1983 NBA draft.

Drexler had always hoped the Rockets would select him with the third pick, but the Rockets chose McGrady instead, and Drexler fell all the way to the fourteenth pick.

He suffered not only emotional deception but also financial loss and the inability to serve his hometown, which made Glider feel terrible for a long time.

So every time he plays against the Rockets, he wants to prove that he is better than McGrady.

Ramsey was temporarily replaced by the glider, and the bigger Kenny Carr was brought in.

Gan Guoyang also took to the court, as his rest time during the playoffs is very short.

Ramsey's principle for using Walton is: rest him when he can, and bring him on only when it matters most.

The principle for using Gan Guoyang is: no rest unless absolutely necessary, use him to the point of exhaustion as long as he doesn't die.

Gan Guoyang didn't care; he liked to stay on the field and constantly put pressure on his opponents.

As soon as he entered the game, Hakeem Olajuwon also returned to the court, and the two continued their battle under the basket.

The initial tension and awkwardness had vanished without a trace, and Hakeem Olajuwon and Gan Guoyang were practically inseparable.

"McGray gets the rebound, Sampson dribbles up the court and passes to Olajuwon, Olajuwon goes for a layup... but it's blocked by Gan! Red comes up from behind for a putback, but it's blocked by Gan again! Akim gets the ball back, but Gan knocks it away!"

Hakeem Olajuwon was frustrated to discover that he was not only no match for Forrest Gump in terms of strength under the basket, but also a beat slower in terms of reaction speed.

Compared to any other center in the entire league, Hakeem Olajuwon was the fastest, except against Forrest Gump.

Gan Guoyang, who had made the steal, did not pass the ball. Instead, he dribbled the ball again and charged from the backcourt all the way to the frontcourt!
The Rockets players were at a loss for how to defend, so Floyd rushed in and fouled, sending Agan to the free-throw line.

Gan Guoyang stepped to the free-throw line and made both shots, bringing his total to 13 points and 5 blocks. He almost single-handedly suppressed the twin towers.

Tonight, instead of listening to Chamberlain's advice to focus on just one target, he decided to kill both of them at once.

Sampson was practically helpless under Gan Guoyang's close defense; he was too obsessed with outside shooting.

He only made one of his six shots; his height couldn't compensate for the lack of strength, and he couldn't even get into the paint.

On the defensive end, Gan Guoyang consistently moved to the baseline rather than the upper line, deliberately denying Sampson any opportunity to double-team him.

When Walton entered the game, the Trail Blazers' paint became impenetrable, and they protected the defensive rebounds very well.

The twin towers tried to aggressively grab offensive rebounds like they did in the semifinals, but with limited success. Instead, they were caught off guard by the Trail Blazers' fast breaks due to their slow transition defense.

The second quarter was the one in which the two sides widened the gap. After Gan Guoyang entered the game, the Trail Blazers went on a 12-3 offensive run against the Rockets.

The point difference quickly widened to more than 10 points, and the Rockets' offensive and defensive rhythm, centered around their twin towers, began to collapse, forcing Bill Fitch to call another timeout.

But the Trail Blazers were getting stronger and stronger. In the second quarter, Drexler scored on a series of fast breaks, including layups, dunks, and even pull-up jump shots.

At halftime, the Trail Blazers led the Rockets 58-47, an 11-point advantage. The Rockets' 47 points in the first half indicated a major problem with their offense.

Throughout the first half, Gan Guoyang remained silent, neither communicating with Olajuwon nor Sampson, nor uttering any trash talk.

But this silence only made people more afraid, especially with the score being so low, which made the two towers feel like they couldn't breathe.

(End of this chapter)