The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 330 Frustrated
Gan Guoyang's hands were burning hot; he knew he had made it as soon as he released the last shot of the first quarter.

Years of rigorous training, coupled with Dr. Ogilvy's visualization exercises, have made Gan Guoyang's imagination and creativity on the field stronger and stronger.

He had mentally simulated various game scenarios and technical moves more than once, most of which could not be performed in regular games.

Only on a grand stage like the finals, when a person's adrenaline surges, their attention is highly focused, and their body is in peak condition, they become invincible.

During the break, sitting on the bench, Jack Ramsey told everyone not to bother Forrest Gump, except for Cort who was responsible for feeding him water.

A Gatorade drink with a straw was stuffed into Gan Guoyang's mouth. Gan Guoyang spread his hands out on his knees, his palms relaxed, trying his best to maintain the hot muscle memory for shooting.

Although we don't know if this will actually work, we think, let him pretend if he wants to, since he can score 20 points in a quarter.

The break was short, and both teams returned to the game. For the Celtics, Ainge replaced Marquese Johnson.

In the first quarter, the Trail Blazers did a good job limiting Marquez Johnson, with Drexler as the primary defender and Gan Guoyang assisting, and Marquez was contained.

For the Trail Blazers, Jones replaced Bill Walton. The Trail Blazers are determined to use their three big men to protect the paint, leaving the backcourt to Gan Guoyang and Drexler.

Judging from his defensive performance in the series, Gan Guoyang's strategy of losing weight last summer was correct. After losing weight, he became more agile and could match up against forwards and guards on the perimeter.

Like Kevin McHale, who was tall and agile, he often stepped out to help Bird defend the opponent's strong small forwards, such as Worthy, Wilkins, Dantley, and so on.

In the paint, at 6 feet 10 inches tall, he can defend most centers, and his help defense is also excellent.

At the start of the second quarter, KC Jones handed the responsibility of guarding Gan Guoyang to Kevin McHale. Anyway, the Celtics' frontcourt players were matched up against Gan one after another, and no one could escape.

McHale's performance in the paint improved tonight. His performance in the first four games was indeed below par, which greatly reduced the efficiency of the Celtics' most reliable scoring option in the paint and made their half-court offense increasingly difficult.

With Gan Guoyang focusing his energy on the small forward position tonight, McHale has the opportunity to showcase his exceptional skills under the basket, his agile footwork, and his snake-like, supple, and all-pervasive upper body control.

Sometimes, even when the defender has clearly locked up the position and McHale can't move his feet anymore, he can still use his agile upper body and long arms to scoop the ball into the basket.

However, this move is not very effective against Agan's help defense. Gan Guoyang has an extremely fast reaction speed, and he and Thompson had studied McHale's moves in detail before the game, which worked very well against him.

Now that Thompson and Jones are guarding the paint, McHale has more room to operate. In the second quarter, he received the ball in the low post right away, used his body to squeeze in, suddenly accelerated and turned, his upper body entered the three-second zone, and made a quick low-handed layup, which went in off the backboard for two points.

Thompson did a good job containing McHale; without proper help defense, this play simply couldn't be stopped.

The Trail Blazers were on offense. Gan Guoyang slowed down a bit and passed the ball to Thompson, who also outplayed Bird in the low post.

He made a turnaround jump shot, maintaining an 11-point lead.

McHale executed a classic step-back move, shaking off Thompson and scoring.

In the pivotal Game 5, McHale finally showed some of the flair of the league's second-best low-post scorer.

The first one is on the opposite side.

This time, Gan Guoyang called for the ball in the low post, and McHale held him off from behind.

McHale's defense was different from Parish's; he wasn't as tall and strong as the Chief.

But he is more agile, has long arms, and very fast hands, making him a better shot blocker than Parish.

After receiving the ball, Gan Guoyang did not rely on his strength to overpower McHale, nor did he immediately turn around and shoot from the baseline. Instead, he walked to the baseline, turned inside, and faked a shot to shake off McHale—he knew McHale wanted to block the shot.

Then, with a quick step to get out of position, he easily made a layup with his left hand, scoring two points!

Bill Shawnley couldn't help but exclaim, "Sonny scored two points over McHale's head using McHale's signature move!"

Such a score undoubtedly hurt the opponent's morale. McHale, who was usually quite arrogant, was also wondering: When did this kid learn this?

Gan Guoyang seemed to have guessed McHale's doubts, and as he returned to the backcourt to defend, he shouted to him, "Coach Kevin, your demonstration was great, I just learned it!"

McHale tried to score again under the basket, but this time Gan Guoyang double-teamed him. McHale passed the ball to Bird, who made a jump shot from the outside.

"You still have time to double-team? Don't you even know who you're guarding?" Bird said to Gan Guoyang.
"I just wanted to give you some confidence, otherwise it's really discouraging to see you not scoring any points," Gan Guoyang responded.

Bird's offense was indeed quite poor tonight, especially with Gan Guoyang's one-on-one defense.

In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers' offensive efficiency dropped slightly, but they maintained firm control of the game's tempo.

Drexler missed his shot, and the Celtics finally seized a fast break opportunity.

But when Bird attempted a drive, Gan Guoyang knocked the ball out of bounds, forcing the Celtics to continue grinding out the Trail Blazers' defense.

Gan Guoyang, who scored 20 points in the first quarter, toned down his performance slightly in the second quarter, as the crucial third and fourth quarters remained. The Celtics attempted to regain control of the game in the second quarter, but to no avail, with Gan Guoyang's defense against Bird proving quite successful.

He was superior in strength, speed, reaction time, and height, and Gan Guoyang was extremely calm and highly focused.

Bird was horrified to discover that it was virtually impossible for him to overpower Gan Guoyang in a one-on-one fight.

He had to coordinate with his teammates, use screens, make off-ball runs, and break through Forrest Gump's defense the moment he caught the ball and shot.

Whether facing the basket from the outside or backing down at a 45-degree angle, Bird couldn't find a way to break through in a one-on-one situation.

Gan Guoyang is as tall as McHale and as strong as Moses Malone. What's more, he can lower his center of gravity and guard you like Michael Cooper.

Lakers' Cooper has always been recognized as the best player to defend Bird. He is shorter and thinner than Bird, and the reason he was able to defend Bird was because of his speed and low center of gravity.

Now Forrest Gump is just a bigger version of Cooper, and he's even better in every way. How can he fight him?
When Bird couldn't draw double teams and disrupt the Trail Blazers' defense, his imagination in half-court sets was greatly limited.

At this point, he must find a way to dictate the pace of the game, taking advantage of quick counter-attacks and chaotic skirmishes to score points or assist the opponent.

But the Trail Blazers played with extreme patience, and almost 80% of their offense was focused on the low post, specifically on Agan.

Gan Guoyang controlled a large amount of possession, keeping the pace of the game very slow, just like in the first game.

Seeing that they couldn't pick up speed, the Celtics started taking turns to isolate and attack, with McHale contributing the most shot attempts and points in the first half of the series.

However, Mitchell Thompson's defense remained flawless, and McHale struggled to score on every possession.

Near the end of the second quarter, the score was tied at 48-58, with the Celtics trailing by 10 points. They kept the score close in the second quarter.

Bird attempted a layup from the left baseline, facing the basket, but Gan Guoyang yielded the baseline path for Bird to drive to the basket.

Seeing this, Bill Walton, who was defending under the basket, immediately made way for Bird to break through, while he went to hold off Parish.

Bird attempted a dunk, but Gan Guoyang caught up from behind and blocked the ball from Bird's hands.

After a hard block, Gan Guoyang didn't launch a quick counter-attack after regaining possession. Instead, he passed the ball to Drexler and continued to play positional offense.

Gan Guoyang set up Walton from the high post, and Walton received the ball, turned, and hooked it in!

This was Bird's second consecutive shot, blocked by Gan Guoyang; the two shots were almost identical.

Gan Guoyang made way for Bird, and as Bird drove to the basket, Walton or Thompson would make way to prevent Bird from passing the ball.

Then Gan Guoyang came from behind and slapped the ball down – both plays were suspected of being fouls, but Jack Madden didn't call either.

Clearly, under the standards of the Finals, both blocks were good plays, traps set by Gan Guoyang for Bird.

I'll give you half a step, and if you rush in, I'll chase after you and block your shot.

Bird's fire was ignited, and on the next offensive possession, he still held the ball and faced Gan Guoyang.

This time, at the high post, Parish came over to set a screen, and Bird had a chance to shoot from the outside after the screen.

But he didn't shoot; instead, he chose to cut in from the middle. Gan Guoyang followed up, and Bird used Gan Guoyang as a step-up, and the referee blew the whistle.

A defensive foul was called on Gan Guoyang, and Bird went to the free-throw line to shoot.

After making the first free throw, Gan Guoyang came over and said, "Larry, you might not score in double digits tonight."

When Bird made his first free throw, he already had 8 points; another one would give him 9.

As a result, after Gan Guoyang finished speaking, Bird missed the second free throw, Walton grabbed the rebound and passed it to Gan Guoyang.

Seeing this, the Celtics players surrounded him, fearing he might hit another long-range three-pointer.

Gan Guoyang stopped playing, turned around and threw the ball to the referee outside the bounds, then left the court and went back to the locker room without looking back.

The first half of the game is over.

With a score of 49-60, Gan Guoyang had 31 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 steals, and 5 assists in the first half.

Bird had 8 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in the first half. When he left the court, he kicked the bench hard.

In all his years in the league, the last time Bird felt this frustrated was when he played against Forrest Gump.

(End of this chapter)