The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 192 - 84 Stop fighting_2

Fitch pointed out Gan Guoyang’s trickery, as he always positioned himself at a shallow 45-degree angle facing Sampson and used his speed and power to drive towards the basket after a step-back turn, always taking the baseline side.

It was to leave the Rockets’ middle defense wide open, creating opportunities for Thompson and Vandeweghe to cut in. Once Olajuwon and McGrady came to help, it was highly likely that gaps would appear.

"Should we just watch him attack the basket and score without helping on defense? Ralph can’t guard him; he can’t even stay in front of him for the first step!" Olajuwon said bluntly.

But his words angered Sampson, who retorted, "You think you can do any better? You don’t pass the ball on offense, you just bullheadedly force your way in!"

"I wouldn’t get cleanly beaten by him in one step!"

"You not passing the ball has cost us a lot of opportunities!"

The two argued with each other on the bench, accusing one another, and Fitch put an end to this kind of internal strife.

"Shut up, both of you shut up! What do you think you’re doing? Look at the state you’ve both gotten into. If you don’t want to win, just give up now. You want to sit out the second half? Is that it?"

The two stopped arguing, but the anger did not subside; instead, it slowly accumulated in their hearts.

Olajuwon thought Sampson couldn’t withstand Gan Guoyang’s defense, while Sampson thought Olajuwon played too selfishly, hogging the ball without passing it on.

After the timeout, the Rockets recovered somewhat in the latter part of the first half, with veteran John Lucas taking control of the game. He reduced feeding the ball inside and increased perimeter ball movement and penetration, exploiting the Twin Towers’ gravity to stretch the Trail Blazers’ defense and attack their weaker perimeter defense.

In response, Ramsay substituted Jerome Kersey, the beastly strongman who was the second most energetic player on the Trail Blazers after Ah Gan.

As soon as he came on, he blocked his opponents on defense and then ferociously dunked on Sampson in transition!

Sampson, tormented by Gan Guoyang on both ends of the court for half the game, became increasingly irritable and discouraged, losing his composure on defense, too eager for blocks and forgetting the importance of positioning.

After slamming down the dunk, Kersey roared at Sampson, who picked up the ball and threw it at Kersey, nearly sparking a conflict.

Gan Guoyang rushed over to hug Kersey, pulling him away, "Calm down, buddy, hitting people isn’t right!"

The referee called a foul on Sampson, and he had to go sit down again.

Fitch didn’t miss the opportunity to mock him, saying, "You might as well go play volleyball. You’ve got the height, there’s no physical contact, and you can still hit people."

Sampson didn’t talk back, but he kicked a chair hard.

"It seems you’re also interested in soccer." Fitch added.

With a mouth like Fitch’s, the fact that he hadn’t been beaten up by players during his many years in the NBA spoke to the players’ good quality; they weren’t that bad.

At halftime, the Rockets were trailing the Trail Blazers by 10 points, 48:58.

The score below 50 points for two quarters showed just how badly the Rockets’ offense was performing.

Even worse, Gan Guoyang hadn’t really exerted himself in the first half. His 14 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 6 assists were already remarkable, but the third quarter would be when he truly sealed the deal.

During the halftime break, Bill Fitch kept emphasizing that the perimeter players needed to engage more in the offense. Their inside and outside game was disjointed, not well integrated.

"We’re like a deformed person with uncoordinated limbs. Look at your passes, your movement, we’re one entity! Not five separate parts on the court doing whatever they please!"

"Also, Ralph, Ajim, you need to band together against Ah Gan, not let him pick you off one by one!"

Fitch identified the crux of the problem—Olajuwon and Sampson were not pulling together. Otherwise, with their combined strength, they could take on any interior lineup in the League.

On the court, they played for themselves; off the court, there was no communication.

The locker room at Memorial Coliseum was cramped, with Olajuwon and Sampson’s lockers right next to each other, and they could hardly sit down without their long legs touching.

Olajuwon nudged Sampson with his hand, and Sampson nudged back.

"What are you doing?"

"It’s too cramped here."

"You could move over a bit."

"You’re the one who should move over."

They began arguing again, and Fitch felt what he said was like a fart in the wind.

Actually, worse than a fart, since at least a fart would make everyone cover their noses and look over, but these two had no sense of cooperation and instead were throwing childish tantrums.

"Enough, enough, get ready to go back on! Damn it, what kind of schedule makes us come to Portland for Christmas!"

Fitch already sensed it was going to be a terrible game.

Actually, the Rockets were only 10 points behind at halftime, which was enough to show their talent.

Even when their tactics and morale were doubly suppressed, they still relied on individual ability to keep the score close.

If they fully adjusted in the third quarter and launched a beautiful offense and defense, they could definitely turn the game around.

But it wasn’t the Rockets who put on a beautiful display of offense and defense in the third quarter, it was the Trail Blazers, or to be specific, Gan Guoyang started to power through at the beginning of the third quarter.

"Sonny, catches it at a 45-degree angle on the right, drives in, hooks the shot... it’s good! Woh, Moon Hook!"

At the start of the third quarter, the very first ball, Gan Guoyang scored with a hook shot that went over the outstretched arms of Sampson.

Because Bill Schonely’s radio commentary wasn’t very clear, "Move hook" gradually became "Moon hook," and everyone got used to it.

Sampson tried to respond in the low post, but Guoyang stole the ball with a front cut, sprinted down the quick break, received the ball on the right flank while running, and scored again with a hook shot!

Olajuwon and Sampson had already rushed back in full defense, but this kind of move, where you don’t go to the basket but run to the baseline and suddenly hook it, you can’t really defend against it, you can only hope he’s off his touch.

Gan Guoyang started his offensive performance in the third quarter.

"Still on the right side, he accelerates past Sampson, hooks it, and scores again!"

"Sampson adjusted his steps, trying to block... fouled him, Gan to the free-throw line."

"This time Gan didn’t go for the hook shot, he went straight under the basket, Olajuwon didn’t help defend, and it’s a slam dunk!"

Gan Guoyang scored 10 points in a row in the third quarter, leading the Trail Blazers on a 10:2 scoring run!

Fitch stood on the sidelines in despair, he didn’t want to call a timeout anymore, he wanted to see just what these foolish kids could turn into.

Then, Sampson and Olajuwon got into an argument once again, Sampson was the first to blame Olajuwon, "Why didn’t you help defend?"

Olajuwon flared up instantly, "You saw what my help defense was like in the first half, I gave Ah Gan six assists."

"The coach told me not to help defend; you can’t hold your own man so you’re blaming me?"

"You better take care of yourself, you’re getting played like a sieve!"

"You’re the one messing up the game, thinking only of yourself winning."

"It’s you who’s getting played like a sieve, not me!"

"Get lost."

"Say that again?"

John Lucas was dribbling the ball past half-court, organizing the offense, then he saw that the two big men weren’t following up.

Looking back, the two were arguing more and more fiercely, about to come to blows.

Olajuwon swung at Sampson first, Sampson dodged and threw a punch from above at Olajuwon.

The two Rockets centers were now fighting like boxers in their own backcourt.

Gan Guoyang had just crossed the midcourt line when something felt wrong, where were those two?

Turning back to look, he saw they were fighting and hurried over to stop them.

"Stop fighting, don’t fight anymore!"

Rockets substitutes all rushed up and pulled Sampson and Olajuwon apart, creating a chaotic scene.

However, in all the chaos, Gan Guoyang was mysteriously punched in the back, unsure of who did it.

"Damn it! Who the hell hit me?"

The referees whistled repeatedly, and the Rockets players pulled Olajuwon and Sampson back to the bench.

The game was suspended and only resumed after 10 minutes.

No one came forward later to admit to hitting Gan Guoyang, and it was not clear from the video footage either, as the scene was too chaotic.

Though the punch wasn’t heavy, it became the only time in Gan Guoyang’s professional career that he was hit.

From then on, Gan Guoyang decided never to break up fights again, as it was too easy to get sucker-punched.