The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 147 - 45 I Adapt to the Situation

The game had been underway for five minutes when both teams entered a timeout period.

Gan Guoyang took a towel from a teammate to wipe his sweat as he came off the court.

A teammate offering him a towel and water was a symbol of status within the team.

Guoyang had claimed the first 9 points for the Trail Blazers, after which the Lakers began double-teaming him.

The double team meant opportunities for others; Thompson and Vandeweghe successively made their shots.

However, the score was 13:14, with the Trail Blazers trailing by 1 point because the Lakers were playing faster and better on offense.

Playing against the Lakers was indeed a completely different experience, not just in intensity but also in pace—and this was just the regular season.

In both offense and defense, you hardly had any chance to catch your breath or react, decisions had to be made quickly.

Before the match, you might think you could play your own game at your own pace, but in reality, you had to sync up with the Lakers to get into the rhythm of the game.

Otherwise, any sluggishness would be completely exploited by the Lakers’ offense, as nobody can stop Magic Johnson’s push.

He’s fast, you also have to be fast to keep up on offense, so Ramsay emphasized during the timeout:

"We need to move more actively! Get moving! Not just rushing forward blindly, we need to increase lateral movement too. Parkson, KiKi, you guys need to enhance the baseline movement to create space for Gan. Guoyang, you have to pay attention to opportunities on the wing, our offense has to be more flexible. Let’s not ramp up the defensive intensity yet, to avoid foul trouble!"

As Ramsay drew up plays, it was clear he considered Guoyang as the tactical core, with Parkson and Vandeweghe moving around him to create space.

This was Ramsay’s way of testing the waters, as Guoyang had had an excellent start to the game—not the kind of straightforward play against the Kings or Supersonics, but as a tactical centerpiece.

He had the ability, even though he was only 20 years old—after all, Magic Johnson was the same age when he won the Finals MVP.

Parkson and Vandeweghe seemed fine with it, professional players usually don’t openly challenge their coach during a game.

But as star players on the team, whether they should assist a rookie tactically, they were not entirely sure yet.

Parkson had a strong performance in last year’s game against the Lakers, and even though the team couldn’t win, his stats were consistently good.

Vandeweghe, as a rising All-Star, had been traded to Portland with high hopes of making an impact; his performances in earlier games had earned him a good reputation there.

On the other hand, Trail Blazers’ point guard Valentine was very cooperative; he had decided during training camp that Gan was a reliable inside player—a good inside man could often help a point guard soar.

Coming back from the timeout, Vandeweghe held the ball at the top of the key, exchanging passes with Valentine, and Vandeweghe drives in, Worthy defended well.

Worthy’s length and mobility made it difficult for Vandeweghe to shake him off using just footwork and speed.

Vandeweghe then passed the ball back to Valentine on the wing, and Valentine immediately passed it inside where Guoyang caught the ball, turned around, took three big lateral steps, and launched a hook shot!

Jabbar didn’t expect that after a lifetime of hook shots, today a 20-year-old would hook one back at him, and he was a step behind.

Guoyang used his speed to get past Jabbar and found space to land the hook shot—the Lakers’ problem of not having a strong power forward was highlighted again, as no one came over to challenge Guoyang’s hook shot.

The Trail Blazers took the lead, but that lead lasted less than 5 seconds, as the Lakers’ Jabbar, who had lost possession, didn’t dawdle but instead quickly got the ball out from the baseline for a long one-handed pass!

Worthy had already sprinted past midcourt, caught the ball and drove towards the basket for a layup, drawing a foul from Vandeweghe.

Vandeweghe shook his head in resignation; against other teams, he was the one leading the fast breaks.

Against the Lakers, he found himself trailing behind Worthy, eating dust—a gap in natural talent.

This year, like Jabbar, Worthy had also started wearing goggles, earning him the nickname "Cobra."

And what people praised most about Worthy was his Cobra-like speed, whether it was turning around or taking a shot, he was extremely fast.

Olajuwon and Guoyang, among others, have said that facing Worthy in the paint is the most challenging because he’s just too fast.

Moreover, he is tall, his arms are long, and he shoots with an outstretched arm, all of which greatly increase the difficulty of disrupting his shot.

Luckily, Worthy also had his weaknesses—one being his short range, as he almost had no ability for mid to long-range shots.

Worthy made one of two free throws, tying the score at 15:15. Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound, passed to Valentine, then said to Vandeweghe, "I’ll screen for you, shoot over him."

"I will," Vandeweghe replied; he did indeed want to take a shot over Worthy.

"Try a three-pointer?"

"A three? Forget it..."

Although Vandeweghe was a pioneer of three-point attempts, in such a close score situation, he wasn’t about to take risks.

True to his word, Guoyang went up high to set a screen for Vandeweghe. Vandeweghe accelerated with the ball, and the screen blocked Worthy.

Ah Gan was probably the 1980s center who set the most solid screens—back then centers didn’t like to set pick-and-rolls.

Jabbar stepped up to defend, just half a step more, and Vandeweghe surged past with acceleration, a left-handed layup scored!

After scoring, Guoyang and Vandeweghe high-fived, and Guoyang shouted, "I told you to shoot one, didn’t I?"

"I had to improvise; did you want me to get blocked?"

"Then you should’ve dunked it! I’ll dunk one later," Gan Guoyang said.

After talking to Gan Guoyang, Vandeweghe felt a surge of blood in his chest.

The frustration of being chased down by Worthy was instantly gone.

Vandeweghe suddenly understood what it meant to be a leader.

He keeps you constantly energized, and with him backing you up, you feel a sense of security.

The Lakers’ offensive possession was still very fast, not in running but in passing speed.

Wilkes received the ball at the left 45-degree angle to initiate the offense, passing to Johnson cutting through the middle.

Johnson took the ball into the paint, the Trail Blazers converged, and Johnson’s no-look pass found Worthy on the right.

Worthy dribbled in a step, Gan Guoyang came over to help defend, Worthy jumped, and passed the ball to Jabbar lurking on the opposite side.

Jabbar caught the ball and easily dunked it, a seamless set of offensive plays resulting in an easy score.

The Trail Blazers’ defensive rotations couldn’t keep up with the Lakers’ ball movement—it was too fluid.

But there was no time to digest the lesson, as the Trail Blazers quickly inbounded the ball and Gan Guoyang crossed half-court.

Scott knew he needed to slow Gan Guoyang down a bit, but Gan powered through with a ferocious drive to the basket.

With the Trail Blazers’ formation spread wide, Valentine lobbed the ball inside, and Gan leaped to catch it.

When he landed, Jabbar, Worthy, and Scott had surrounded him.

With the triple coverage, Gan found Worthy, pushed him off, and went up for the layup!

Blocked from behind by Jabbar, Gan still managed to grab the offensive rebound.

He went up strong again but missed, jumped again, tipped it again, still no, tipped it yet again!

Finally, he tipped the ball into the basket, racking up three offensive rebounds in the process.

After scoring, Gan thought to himself, now I finally know how Moses Malone gets all those offensive rebounds.

If I have two of these plays every game, wouldn’t that be six offensive rebounds a game?

Vandeweghe patted Gan, saying, "Didn’t you say you were going to dunk one?"

"I have to play it by ear," Gan replied with the same phrase as before to Cheche.

The first quarter ended with the Trail Blazers and the Lakers tied at 31-31.

Gan racked up 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block that quarter.

Although he was blocked twice, his energetic play in the paint kept the Trail Blazers in the game despite being at a tactical and talent disadvantage, matching the Lakers blow for blow.

Sitting on the bench, Gan downed water in big gulps. He sweated more in that one quarter than he did in the entire game against the Clippers yesterday, and it was refreshingly satisfying.

On the other side, on the Lakers’ bench, Jabbar was also hydrating. He scored 8 points and had 3 blocks in the first quarter, but the tense and heated atmosphere of the game was unsettling for him.

Jabbar hated the heat, hated players who didn’t stick to the script, and hated when a game turned into a reckless brawl.

In the Boston Garden with broken air conditioning during the finals in June, Jabbar had been so hot he could hardly breathe and had to sit on the sidelines, breathing from an oxygen mask.

At 37, he wasn’t the player who could effortlessly shoot 60 to 70 percent from the field like in the ’70s. He needed a good game tempo.

In the first quarter, he could feel that Ah Gan was desperately trying to disrupt the game’s pace. He had seen Ah Gan’s games, and this was not his usual style.

"Pat, let Rambis handle Gan. I’ll help on defense," Jabbar requested that Riley change matchups, asking Rambis to guard Gan Guoyang.

"Why are you backing down, Kareem? You need to crush him!" Riley was dissatisfied with Jabbar’s fighting spirit.

Not just Riley, but after losing the finals in ’84, the entire team had some complaints about Jabbar, feeling he slowed down the team.

On the court, he did seem a bit too old, at the same age Wilt Chamberlain was already lying on the beaches of Hawaii, sunbathing with beautiful women.

This old man never interacted with his teammates; while everyone was energizing each other in the locker room, he would sit and read a book.

Towards reporters and fans, he was exceedingly aloof. He remained silent during an interview with CBS, but could talk for two hours with two Finnish reporters because he didn’t want to talk about basketball.

The people of Los Angeles had mixed feelings about him as usual: sometimes sympathetic, sometimes repulsed—recently, he sued a cyclist who collided with his car on the road, taking him to court and making him pay 500 dollars.

The public found Jabbar’s pettiness both ridiculous and laughable, his salary being 200 times that of the other party, but Jabbar stood by his principles, unconcerned about how others judged him.

"I want to win games, not to argue with kids. If we want to win, we need better defense," Jabbar bluntly pointed out the team’s immediate issues.

"I know you all want to play faster, to get rid of this old guy. But if we’re to win, we need defense, we need stability!"

Jabbar’s sudden outburst left Riley a bit at a loss; he realized Jabbar was serious, it seemed that the confrontation with Gan had affected him.

The veteran sensed danger, so Riley abandoned his plan to bring in Bob McAdoo, deciding instead to bring on Kurt Rambis.