The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 383 The Era Ends
Relying on Gan Guoyang's efficient low-post ball-handling and isolation plays, the Trail Blazers established a good rhythm on offense.

This makes it very difficult for the opponent to catch up. You have to organize, cooperate, play tactics, and make adjustments to finally launch a highly efficient attack.

In response, the Trail Blazers spread out in all four directions, and Gan Guoyang easily scored several baskets after receiving the ball in the low post. Anyone would feel frustrated and think that the game was unwinnable.

If you protest? The Trail Blazers will say, "If you're so capable, then play like that yourself."

The Celtics can really play like that; they also have Kevin McHale, a great low-post scorer.

However, McHale doesn't have the stamina of Gan Guoyang, who can sustain a continuous series of low-post solo kills throughout the entire game.

At that time, in NBA history, only Wilt Chamberlain could play like Gan Guoyang; they both had amazing physical abilities.

Because interior players typically engage in a lot of physical contact, they inevitably need to rely on tactical coordination on offense to execute simple plays and finish plays.

Otherwise, one's physical fitness will not be able to keep up. Gan Guoyang's numerous high-efficiency low-post one-on-one plays are themselves a tactical flaw.

He can not only score points easily and efficiently, but also save his teammates' energy and greatly reduce the team's mistakes.

This was counterintuitive at the time, as playing too much one-on-one was often thought to harm the team and dampen teammates' enthusiasm for the game.

Traditional basketball philosophy emphasizes teamwork, passing, and movement to create beautiful basketball.

However, the NBA's high-intensity games, dense schedule, and frequent long journeys leave players extremely tired.

Typically, players enter a dazed state as the season progresses into its second half.

Many NBA players, when recalling their playing careers years later, often completely forget their regular season games.

Because people become dazed and numb, like in a long-distance race, in the second half of the season they just run and play based on instinct, and then forget about it afterward.

The kind of beautiful basketball that involves a lot of running and passing in college is very effective in playing in small regional leagues or in a tournament that is concentrated in one place for a month.

However, in professional basketball, with more teams and a more complex and challenging schedule, tactics that involve a lot of running and passing often consume more energy and lead to more mistakes as the game progresses.

在NBA引入失误统计以来，70年代联盟的场均失误在20个左右，到80年代逐渐下降到18个、17个。

This season, after the Trail Blazers started giving Gan Guoyang a lot of isolation plays, their turnovers dropped to a record low of 14, which is 3 to 4 fewer than the average.

Similar situations exist with the Chicago Bulls and the Dallas Mavericks, who reduced their turnovers to below 15 because their tactics relied heavily on isolation plays, featuring players like Jordan and Mark Aguirre.

The Trail Blazers made a lot of mistakes in the first two seasons. They had many fast breaks and made a lot of bold passes in their offense. While this brought unexpected winning results, it also resulted in a lot of basic mistakes.

This situation has improved significantly this season, and the Celtics are in a similar situation. They play slower this year, rely more on the Bird-McHale duo in their offense, and have turned their turnovers to an all-time low.

In the second quarter, after Gan Guoyang entered the game and the Trail Blazers successfully took the lead, the Celtics immediately regained the advantage by relying on McHale's low-post attacks.

McHale is more physically strong than last season. Even when Gan Guoyang switches to defend him in the low post, he can still create space and score with his right hook shot.

On the defensive end, in order to counter Gan Guoyang's almost unlimited low-post offense, the Celtics tried to collapse the defense as much as possible, even if there were large gaps on the perimeter.

The Celtics are not a defensive pressure team. As the league's physical attributes improve and there are too many white players, they are becoming less aggressive on the defensive end.

They have one of the fewest steals in the league, but they have the best defensive formation in the league, full of flexibility and a congested three-second zone, often forcing opponents to take a lot of shots from the perimeter.

In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers' outside shooting was off, and Gan Guoyang, after being double-teamed while holding the ball, failed to get any assists despite several accurate passes.

This is a disadvantage of playing more one-on-one – teammates may not be in form or may be slow to start. Gan Guoyang tried to adjust by giving his teammates more opportunities to attack with the ball.

In the noisy environment of Boston Garden, the game was interrupted by the referee's sharp whistles. The game, which was very smooth in the first quarter, started to get into more and more fouls in the second quarter. Gan Guoyang kept calling his teammates to the sidelines to communicate. He asked Drexler, Porter, and Vandeweghe to increase their ball-handling and offense. He would set screens in the middle and attack the Celtics with offensive rebounds.

"The Bostonians are trying to disrupt our rhythm. Don't be afraid, go in and attack. I'll support you with the rebounds."

This is an adjustment that Gan Guoyang has made to the one-on-one tactics. He often plays a supporting role, allowing the backcourt to initiate the offense. He supports his teammates with rebounds and high-quality screens.

Porter used Gan Guoyang's screen to hit consecutive mid-range jump shots, and Drexler also broke through with the ball. Gan Guoyang followed behind, and the opponents dared not defend too tightly, otherwise they would just give Gan Guoyang rebounds and points.

The Celtics maintained excellent teamwork on offense, with Larry Bird skillfully orchestrating the team's offense, playing more and more like a dedicated point forward.

The two teams battled closely throughout the first half, and the score was tied at 54-54 at halftime. Bird hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the second quarter.

The fans at Boston Garden cheered, but they didn't realize that with Bird's brilliant performance, they had only managed to tie the score by halftime.

Furthermore, throughout the first half, the Trail Blazers used a nine-man rotation, with Kenny Karl, Jones, Curry, and Hornacek all taking turns playing time off the bench.

KC Jones used a six-man rotation, or even less, because sixth man Jerry Cicin only played for five minutes, while players like Kate and Robertson only played for two or three minutes to give the starters a rest.

This is the most criticized aspect of KC as head coach: he uses too many key players.

Bird's average playing time this season has reached an astonishing 40.6 minutes, almost catching up with Gan Guoyang.

During halftime, in the dismal visiting locker room at Boston Garden, Gan Guoyang and his teammates said, "In the third quarter, we'll take the game away together. We want to tell the Celtics fans that the era of the Bostonians is over."

After the 1986 NBA Finals, the Trail Blazers players had lost all fear of the Celtics and the old, intimidating Boston Garden.

They've won the championship here before, and they're even stronger this year.

After the start of the third quarter, the Trail Blazers suddenly increased their pace on both offense and defense.

The attack was more compact than in the first half, and the defense was more robust than in the first half.

Instead of focusing on scoring in the low post, Gan Guoyang moved to the mid-range and hit two consecutive mid-range shots.

Then, on the defensive end, he and Thompson double-teamed McHale, forcing McHale to make a mistake, and Drexler scored on the fast break with a dunk.

Gan Guoyang immediately switched to double-team Bird. Although Bird successfully passed the ball to the inside, Gan Guoyang immediately returned to the three-second zone and blocked Parish from behind.

Instead of rushing to counterattack, the Trail Blazers confidently played a half-court game, opening up space on the strong side for Gan Guoyang to score one-on-one, then double-teaming him. Gan Guoyang then passed the ball to Vandeweghe for a three-pointer, which he made.

Bird panicked and launched a fast break. Parish received the ball under the basket, but his high-arcing jump shot was interfered with by Gan Guoyang, and the ball was taken by Drexler.

Drexler made a long pass to the frontcourt, Vandeweghe received the ball, faced Bird's defense on the left 45-degree angle, and made another three-pointer!

In the first four minutes of the second half, the Trail Blazers went on a 12-0 run without any turnovers or conceding a single ball, forcing the Celtics to call a timeout and silencing the noisy Boston Garden.

After that, the Trail Blazers, who had taken a 10-point lead, did not give the Celtics another chance to come back. Although the Celtics persisted in chasing the score, the situation was completely under the control of the Trail Blazers.

Ultimately, the Trail Blazers defeated the Boston Celtics 112-103, a nine-point advantage, on the road, securing victory in this highly anticipated matchup.

Auerbach left the game with three minutes remaining, his experience suggesting that the Celtics were no longer a match for the Trail Blazers this season.

Perhaps the Celtics' era in the 80s is truly coming to an end.

(End of this chapter)