The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 1528 - 17: Shaken
At the end of the third quarter, the gap between the two sides remained at 15 points.
Jordan returned to the bench with a heavy expression, unable to hold back his anger at his teammates, criticizing their terrible defense.
The Bulls players remained silent, not daring to talk back to Jordan’s criticism. After Horace Grant left the team, and the Bulls won three championships, no one dared to go against Jordan.
But everyone knew in their hearts, was it really the players’ bad defense?
Not at all. Even Jordan himself got scored on by Isaiah Riddle and Kobe several times.
A former Timberwolves troublemaker, a tardiness king, and a second-year rookie managed to score repeatedly on Jordan; was it Jordan’s poor defense?
Jordan’s defense was definitely on point, but the Trail Blazers used clever screens, large-spaced running, high tower support, and defensive attraction to give the outside more relaxed scoring opportunities.
The Bulls were already missing Pippen, and Jordan’s coverage on the perimeter defense was somewhat overwhelming.
Before the game, Phil Jackson realized Chris Mullin’s importance to the Trail Blazers and tried hard to lock down Mullin.
But as the game progressed, Jackson discovered it wasn’t Mullin supporting the Blazers’ offense, but Mullin leveraging the Blazers’ system to showcase his value.
Locking Mullin down was useless; Mullin could fade away, and Isaiah Riddle could step up. If Riddle wasn’t doing well, Kobe could stand out.
The Bulls had no way to choke off the source of the Trail Blazers’ offensive system. The duo of Ah Gan + Sabonis, the former socialist high towers, were the Bulls’ nightmare.
They were more mature, more in sync, and more insolvable than in the early ’90s.
Sabonis’s four years in Spain not only allowed his body and mind to recover but also didn’t let his skills deteriorate.
This season, Sabonis averaged 19.5 points, plus 7 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.8 blocks.
Still not the stats of a super center, but his scoring and assists have reached their highest in his Trail Blazers career, and his blocks are the most since the 1990 season.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Sabonis replaced Gan Guoyang, teaming with Little O’Neal to dominate the Blazers’ second-unit offense.
In the final quarter, Larry Bird still trusted Sabonis more than Ben Wallace; they needed to withstand the Bulls’ final surge.
Right off the bat, Sabonis faced Lang Li’s defense at the right zero-degree angle, shooting and scoring a mid-range jumper.
Lang Li, in the third quarter, was knocked out of bounds by Gan Guoyang and sat on the ground, injuring his tailbone. After checking in the locker room, he returned to the court.
Lang Li is considered a heavy center in the league, standing 2.18 meters tall and weighing over 260 pounds, but he still couldn’t withstand Gan Guoyang’s savage collision.
However, Lang Li quickly responded to Sabonis with a mid-range jumper off the catch on the offensive end.
The Blazers’ defense wasn’t very layered, with the Triangle Offense involving three passes and two leads, and Lang Li soon had an opportunity to shoot at the top of the arc.
But the Bulls couldn’t rely on Lang Li’s mid-range shots to turn the tide, and the Blazers weren’t afraid of Lang Li’s shooting.
Both teams wasted two offensive opportunities each again—entering the fourth quarter, the stamina and shooting percentages of both sides were declining.
Jordan and Gan Guoyang were both resting on the bench, with Gan Guoyang experiencing the joy of hands-on-hips defense at the small forward position late in the third quarter.
He realized that if he kept playing like this, his average playing time surpassing Wilt Chamberlain’s wasn’t a big problem.
Wilt Chamberlain set an amazing record of averaging 48.5 minutes per game in the 1961-1962 season.
His average playing time was longer than the 48-minute full game because he played every minute, including overtime.
Even at 35, the year he retired, he could still average 43 minutes per game.
Now, with greater intensity in the NBA and more stamina consumption, Gan Guoyang is already a monster with top-level stamina.
This season, his playing time reduced to 38 minutes, giving young players more opportunities and saving energy for the playoffs.
The Bulls watched as their second unit couldn’t effectively narrow the score gap on the court. When the Blazers couldn’t score, the Bulls couldn’t either.
Once the Bulls scored, the Blazers quickly reciprocated. With an advantage in the interior, the Blazers controlled the rebounds well.
Dennis Rodman, whether facing Ah Gan, Sabonis, or Little O’Neal, couldn’t gain much advantage.
This is also why Rodman is often criticized. Once he hits high-level games or playoffs, his rebounding severely decreases.
For example, last season, in the regular season, Rodman contested with Gan Guoyang atop the rebounding ranking, averaging 16.1, but it shrunk to 8.4 in the playoffs.
This wasn’t just decreasing; it was diving.
Especially in the Finals against Karl Malone, he didn’t gain any advantage in rebounds.
In the ’97 Finals, it was Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen who really fought for rebounds.
Pippen led the team with the most rebounds, 8.3, and Jordan averaged 7 rebounds per game, reaching double figures in three games, whereas Rodman only did in two.
Jordan + Pippen could out-rebound the Jazz’s short backcourt, but can they compete with the Blazers for rebounds? What a joke.
In the ’91 and ’92 Finals, the Bulls greatly suffered in rebounding, making their "surprise-attack-rebound" tactic ineffective.
Many second-chance opportunities were erased, forcing them to go toe-to-toe with the Blazers on tactics, eventually getting hit head-on multiple times. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
This season, let alone playoffs or Finals, even in this Christmas battle, the Blazers dominated in rebounds.
