The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 169 - 64 Gambling

The Trail Blazers and the Bulls ended the half at 68:59, with the Trail Blazers leading by 9 points.

Gan Guoyang notched up 20 points in the first half, yet he seemed to exert little effort on the offensive end.

He simply scored continuously in one-on-one plays early in the game, and thereafter his offense entered a "let it be" state.

There was a lot of coordination with teammates, shooting within the tactical system, and of course, points from participating in fast breaks.

Most of Guoyang’s brainpower and attention were on the defensive end, just as Ramsay said, he plugged whatever gap there was.

The team had a surplus on offense, as the Trail Blazers had many strong scorers, but defense required more contribution from Guoyang.

In the first half, he changed his chewing gum three times, and by the second quarter, he noticed Jordan had also started chewing gum, escalating their rivalry to a white-hot level.

A typical regular-season game would pass with just going through the motions, but in key games, the energy players put in is entirely different.

The expression on Drexler’s face was worse than the Trail Blazers’ locker room environment during the halftime break.

In the first half as he faced off against Jordan, he had a terrible time with two turnovers, two fouls, and just 2 points to his name.

Had he approached the game with a normal mindset as usual, his performance wouldn’t have been bad since the Bulls’ second unit didn’t exert too much pressure.

However, Drexler was burdened by the pre-game hype, overly eager to show up against Jordan after being compared to him.

Ramsay didn’t criticize Drexler during the half-time break; instead, he comforted him, "Play smarter, Clyde, and level your mind."

If it were last season, Ramsay would have certainly started scolding, and Drexler would have been berated mercilessly; but Ramsay had changed a lot now.

By comparison, Parkson’s performance was quite normal; facing Jordan and the Bulls’ perimeter, he cut and positioned himself well without holding onto the ball too much, shooting when he had the chance and passing when he didn’t.

With 13 points in the half, the second-highest on the team, he was a crucial perimeter tactical scorer for the Trail Blazers, along with the isolation capabilities provided by Vandeweghe, ensuring the team maintained its lead.

Ramsay reminded the players in the locker room to reduce some perimeter shots in the second half and to increase attacks inside as the Bulls’ interior was a weak link.

If the third quarter saw a decline in shooting accuracy due to fatigue or performance issues, there was a risk of the Bulls striking back.

Ramsay had great insight; he could sense that the players’ physical exertion was immense.

This was the last game of the away series, and after a long journey and consecutive away games, the players’ physical condition had reached a critical point.

The Trail Blazers players were highly concentrated and performed well in the first half, but that actually took a significant toll on their energy.

Even then, they were only ahead by 9 points, and a change in momentum could lead to rapid collapse.

Sharing the same judgment was Bulls head coach Lou Holtz. In the home locker room, Holtz encouraged his players: "In the second half, we’ll tighten our defense and strengthen our intensity. The Portland people began to show signs of fatigue in the latter half of the second quarter. A 9-point difference isn’t much, and the third quarter will be our chance to turn things around."

While encouraging the players, Holtz also devised the basic defensive strategy for the second half: to tighten up inside, giving the Trail Blazers more opportunities to shoot from the perimeter.

He was gambling that the Trail Blazers wouldn’t be able to hit their outside shots in the second half, and as for offense, he believed in Michael Jordan.

After Jordan joined the team, Holtz quickly established the offensive strategy of "from start to finish, leave it to Jordan," granting Jordan considerable freedom.

This approach was starkly different from old-school coaches like Ramsay, Dick Motta, and Bill Fitch. Born in the 1940s, Holtz came from a professional basketball player background and had been a player-coach. He understood the psyche of the players and could be friends with them.

In his coaching career, Holtz was always humorous and seldom screamed at players, which made him very popular among the younger ones.

Whether as a player or a coach, Holtz had a very distinct style in defense: he liked and dared to take risks.

As a white point guard, he was very fond of gambling for steals and double-teams during defense to reap excessive defensive gains.

After becoming a coach, this style continued. In the previous season’s regular games, Holtz boldly benched the team’s core guard, Reggie-Seth, in favor of rookie Mitchell Wiggins and Ennis Whatley, moving Daley to the bench.

This led the Bulls to a seven-game winning streak, with the seventh victory scored against the then second-ranked in the Western Conference Portland Trail Blazers, 100:99, a close one-point win.

Lu Holtz was under tremendous pressure at the time because the Bulls were not a coach-driven team, nor were they driven by the general manager, but by the board of directors.

The seven-member board of directors, comprising the team owner and several major shareholders, held the power to decide everything, but none of them, including the owner, truly understood basketball.

Their many decisions were based merely on personal preference, or judged by the market and fans’ reactions, lacking in basketball expertise and foresight.

The owner liked Reggie-Seth, and so did the fans in Chicago. Seth’s performance on the court was the only solace amidst the dismal record.

During the winning streak, fans at the Chicago Stadium chanted "Reggie" continually; they bought tickets just to watch Seth play.

The Bulls had always been one of the most chaotically managed teams in the league. Their biggest stroke of luck was drafting Michael Jordan in 1984 and decisively trading away Seth.

After Jordan’s arrival, almost everyone’s mind began to clear gradually—just like Gan Guoyang heading to Portland, the Portland management and coaching staff also began to perk up.

Because encountering a good player is like starting a good relationship; it makes one feel comfortable both physically and mentally, and everything returns to normal.

Whereas a bad player is like a bad relationship; it dulls the senses every day, yet one is too entangled to extricate oneself.

In the second half, Lu Holtz gambled with a defensive contraction tactic, betting that the Trail Blazers’ players were not fit enough and their shooting percentages would drop.

He bet correctly.

After the start of the third quarter, the Trail Blazers’ perimeter offense encountered problems.

Their coordination remained fluid, but the shots weren’t falling anymore.

Vandeweghe, Parkinson, and Valentine’s shots kept missing.

The Bulls shrank their defense under the basket, with three to four players joining in to protect the defensive boards, resisting Gan Guoyang’s offensive rebounds.

The Bulls gave up on fast breaks, and after grabbing the defensive rebounds, they handed the ball over to Jordan to organize the offense.

In his rookie season, neither Lu Holtz nor Jordan himself had a consensus on how to define Jordan’s position on the court.

His height and physique allowed him to play from point guard to small forward. During fast breaks, he resembled a small forward, and when shooting with the ball, more of a shooting guard.

To help Jordan grasp the team’s offense faster and better, Lu Holtz often let him play as point guard.

Jordan rediscovered his offensive rhythm from the second quarter, leading the team in a beautiful set offense, just like during his time at North Carolina.

A mini surge of 7:0 at the start of the third quarter allowed the Bulls to close the gap to just 2 points.

Ramsay wanted to call a timeout, but Gan Guoyang gestured for the old man to wait a bit, asserting that he could make a play.

So Ramsay didn’t call the timeout, and Gan Guoyang, receiving the ball high up facing Jones, watched as Ulrich suddenly came from the wing to double-team him.

Gan Guoyang passed to Vandeweghe, and Ulrich immediately returned. Without the ball, Gan Guoyang cut inside low, while Vandeweghe, on the perimeter, didn’t shoot, knowing he was shooting poorly.

The ball was passed straight to Gan Guoyang who was deep in the low post—receiving the ball there meant he could turn around and go straight for the basket, and Jones wouldn’t be able to stop him.

But the moment Gan Guoyang caught the ball, a black hand reached out from behind, stealing the ball right out of his hands.

It was Jordan, and after the steal, he launched a long pass to the frontcourt where Ulrich charged forward, caught the ball, and dunked it!

The teams were tied at 68:68.

After the successful steal, Jordan, chewing gum, said to Gan Guoyang, "Gan, it’s not only you who can set traps."

At that moment, Ramsay called a timeout, and back on the bench, Gan Guoyang spit out his chewing gum.

He urged himself to stay calm inside, but his temper kept rising uncontrollably to his head.

His ears were still sharp, hearing Ramsay’s setup during the timeout, but in his heart, he already had a different plan.