The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 235 - 121: It Takes Two to Tango

The 1985 season’s Bill Laimbeer had not yet become a thorough asshole.

At this time, he was an All-Star white center with an extremely accurate mid-to-long-range shot, one of the few big men in the league who could hit threes.

Although he liked to use nasty moves in defense to hurt and provoke opponents, disturbing their emotions, this had not yet become the style of the entire Detroit Pistons, only Laimbeer’s personal vice.

The Pistons’ starting lineup consisted of Laimbeer, Thomas, Kelly Tricap, Terry Tyler, and John Long; aside from Laimbeer, Thomas was small in stature, and Tricap, Tyler, and Long were all offensive players.

The Detroiters had the third-highest average score per game for the season, reaching 117 points, but they also conceded an average of 115 points per game, ranking them third worst in the league in defense.

Although Pistons head coach Chuck Daly was keen on shaping a defensive team, the current Pistons roster was simply not up to the task. They lacked a reliable defender on the wings, and Laimbeer was the only decent defensive player in the frontcourt—and that was by resorting to some underhanded tricks.

Isiah Thomas was a point guard who liked to push the pace, and he had his own rhythm of the game.

Sometimes Daly wanted to slow down the pace to curb the opponent’s offense, but doing so made Thomas uncomfortable, and the other players also disliked it.

A slower pace meant everyone would be more tired, and stats would decrease. It’s one thing for a coach to give orders, quite another whether the players are willing to execute those commands on the court.

The Pistons were a team of scorers, Thomas was the team’s darling, and Terry Tyler and John Long were both University of Detroit students who had been basketball stars in Motor City before joining the NBA. The Pistons chose local stars in the draft for the sake of team popularity, rather than considering whether they could form a suitable lineup.

Kelly Tricap, like Vandeweghe, was the kind of white player with the general impression of being all offense and no defense, and Tricap’s scoring ability was not even as good as Vandeweghe’s. His attendance had been greatly affected by injuries this year and he had fallen out of the All-Star lineup.

Chuck Daly stood on the sidelines, his hair perfectly coiffed, his suit neatly pressed and gleaming, a shiny gold watch radiating refined light, but his heart and spirit were a mess, a complete mess.

This was the final stop of Detroit’s seven-game road trip at the end of the season. In the previous six games, they had traveled to Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle. They only won against the Golden State Warriors and lost the remaining five, the team’s condition was very poor.

In the game against the Chicago Bulls, rookie Michael Jordan easily scored 32 points against the Pistons, along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

The Pistons lost the game 110:111 by a one-point deficit; Jordan scored a crucial shot in the final moments, and the Pistons missed the game-winning shot, suffering a regrettable defeat.

Since the All-Star Game, Jordan had been near slaughter level against the Pistons, taking all his grievances against Thomas out in the games.

Thomas tried to explain to Jordan, and before the game, they communicated and clarified in front of the media, but Jordan didn’t take it seriously.

He later bluntly said Thomas was "just acting," which further intensified the friction between the Pistons and Jordan, but the Pistons couldn’t do anything about Jordan.

The entire league had no answer for Jordan, and tonight they would face another tough rookie, Gan Guoyang.

But sitting courtside waiting for the game to start, Daly was not most worried about how to deal with Gan Guoyang, but about how they were going to leave Portland and return to Detroit after tonight’s game?

Outside Memorial Coliseum, it was pouring rain; water curtains cascaded down the high glass walls like waterfalls, and lightning flashed across the sky.

According to the weather forecast, it would be torrential rain all day tomorrow, accompanied by thunderstorms. Their early morning flight was going to be delayed and might even be canceled.

On April 4th, they were scheduled to face the Milwaukee Bucks at home, a very tough opponent. If they were unable to return rest and recuperate earlier on the 3rd, facing the Bucks on the 4th meant the whole team would start the hard fight in extreme fatigue.

If they kept losing like this, they might lose the home-court advantage in the playoffs.

"Damn this schedule!" Daly cursed inwardly at the league’s scheduling for the fifty-eighth time that season.

A glut of consecutive road games, irrational flight routes, and a packed game schedule left coaches and players exhausted as the season drew to a close.

Of course, Daly knew that when he was exhausted, the opponent often was just as tired.

But after just four minutes into the first quarter, Daley couldn’t sit still anymore, as the Trail Blazers, led by Gan Guoyang, launched a 12:4 offensive surge.

Gan Guoyang alone scored 10 points during that span, slashing to the basket to score against Lan Bi’er multiple times by exploiting his footwork and speed.

This caused the Pistons’ interior defense to commit two fouls, while Gan Guoyang secured 4 points from the free-throw line, and used hook shots and turn-around jumpers to tally another 6 points, looking utterly energetic and unstoppable.

"Damn it, damn it, why doesn’t this kid look the slightest bit tired? Timeout, referee, timeout!"

Daley stood up, rushed to the referee, and called for a timeout; the game was only four minutes in, yet the Pistons were showing signs of crumbling.

The players returned to the bench, and Daley questioned Lan Bi’er first, "Bill, didn’t I tell you before the game not to provoke Ah Gan?"

In the League now, coaches, for the sake of their players’ health and to prevent their interior defense from being demolished, all warned their players not to verbally provoke Gan Guoyang or try to disturb him with malicious acts, as such behavior was akin to suicide.

This was the impact of Gan Guoyang’s astonishing destructive power, especially after the incident where he threw Lan Bi’er to the ground; Daley was still haunted by that moment, genuinely fearing that Lan Bi’er could have died on the court.

Daley was one of the few coaches in the League who truly understood Lan Bi’er. He knew that though Lan Bi’er’s on-court antics were nasty, he took more hits than he dished out; often his goal was to enrage the opponent, disrupting their game.

In this regard, Lan Bi’er and Gan Guoyang were indeed similar, only employing different methods—one used schemes, the other direct confrontation.

Upon hearing Daley’s words, Lan Bi’er felt aggrieved and explained, "I didn’t! I didn’t provoke him! It was he who came up to me and said, ’I’m going to score 50 points on your head!’ Fuck, I even greeted him nicely!"

Daley stared into Lan Bi’er’s innocent eyes for three seconds and said, "I don’t believe it. Cool it a bit, it takes two to tango."

Lan Bi’er was so angry he felt like throwing his towel; his acting skills when lying were apparently so convincing that Daley could no longer discern the truth and simply chose not to believe him.

Daley’s timeout didn’t have the desired effect because the Pistons were indeed too exhausted tonight; even these elite athletes couldn’t withstand a seven-game away streak.

What’s more, this game was the second of a back-to-back away series. They had just finished a game against the Los Angeles Clippers the day before, and due to scheduling conflicts, they had played the Los Angeles Lakers, then traveled to Seattle to face the Supersonics, before flying back to Los Angeles for the Clippers and then immediately going to Portland for the Trail Blazers.

Normally, the games against the Clippers and the Lakers could have been played consecutively in Los Angeles, and Seattle and Portland being quite close could have been paired together, but due to scheduling issues, they foolishly shuttled back and forth between the three cities, taking the longest route to complete the four West Coast games.

By the end of the first quarter, the score was 21:33, with the Trail Blazers leading the Pistons by 12 points.

Gan Guoyang alone had amassed 14 points, and it looked like he was indeed on track to score 50 that night.

Compared to Daley’s frustration, the Trail Blazers’ bench, where Ramsay was sitting, was much calmer.

During the break between quarters, Rick Adelman asked Gan Guoyang, "You’re taking a lot of shots today; is your attacking urge that strong? Want to show Lan Bi’er a thing or two?"

Gan Guoyang shook his head and replied, "No, I want to beat the Pistons. Let me tell you, Rick, Lan Bi’er is the soul of the Pistons. Break him, and you break the Pistons."

"This is Detroit’s seventh away game; they’re beaten enough tonight, do we really need to target him that much?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"You don’t understand, Rick, basketball is a long war. This is just one small step."

Adelman’s eyes were clear; he obviously couldn’t grasp what Gan Guoyang was saying and felt he could no longer understand or keep up with Gan Guoyang’s thought process.

When the second quarter started, Adelman relayed Gan Guoyang’s thoughts to Ramsay, who nodded and remarked, "Strategist."

Adelman thought, what strategist? Dr. Jack, what are you talking about? Can’t you two just communicate directly in the future?

I’m caught in the middle, not understanding, feeling like an idiot!