The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 480 - 97: The Tumor

Riley’s timeout was indeed not timely enough.

Rationally, he knew that this game was a must-win for the Lakers.

But emotionally, he hadn’t reached that point of desperation.

The previous frenzy of kicking doors at home had caused his emotions to peak too early.

Now, with a bit of that release, Riley wasn’t very on his game tonight.

During the timeout, Riley loudly reminded his players to stay tight, to clamp down on the Trail Blazers on both offense and defense.

Though he said that, Riley himself seemed to lack confidence.

Having been uprooted at home, the initiative in the series was no longer in the Lakers’ hands.

Defensively, aside from heavy double-teaming, they found no way to handle Gan Guoyang.

Jabbar’s aging was a critical weakness for the Lakers; without a challenger in the paint, the Lakers could continue their domination in the Western Conference.

Once a new inside dominator like Gan Guoyang emerged, Riley and the Lakers had less and less confidence.

The paint was still decisive.

After the timeout, the Lakers made no significant adjustments offensively, still relying on Jabbar to attack.

After receiving the ball, Jabbar, with his slow steps, avoided Gan Guoyang’s block with a sweeping hook shot, scoring two points.

This old superstar was the Lakers’ most reliable Sea-Calming Needle; Riley dared not think what the Lakers would do to confront those rising new insiders if Jabbar retired.

On the Trail Blazers’ offensive round, Hornacek stayed on the court.

Mychal Thompson replaced Bill Walton, with Gan carrying on his play.

Vandeweghe sat down to rest, Porter paired with Hornacek in the backcourt, Drexler replaced Kossie.

Gan Guoyang got the ball in the low post; the Lakers immediately double-teamed, and Gan passed to Thompson. As the double-team dispersed, Thompson passed back to Gan Guoyang.

This time Gan Guoyang burrowed deeper, turned around after receiving the ball for a jump shot, and scored, using his hips and legs to hold off Jabbar while leaning forward to prevent him from jumping to interfere.

Gan had a good grasp of such technical details, a crucial factor in his high success rate in solo situations.

With an off shooting day from the outside, Magic Johnson chose to squeeze near the three-second zone and hit a turn-around hook shot.

This was an important scoring move for him—the intensity of the fray in the second quarter had dropped, and Johnson tried to push inside.

Porter missed his outside shot, and the Lakers counterattacked, with Johnson cutting into the paint for a hook shot again, narrowing the score to 33:36, just a 3-point deficit.

Afterwards, Gan Guoyang came out to play the pick-and-roll with Porter, drawing the defense before delivering a direct pass into the paint to a cutting Hornacek, who scored an easy layup.

That was Gan’s fifth assist of the night; Hornacek scored 6 points, his performance becoming more and more comfortable on the court.

The Lakers committed a turnover in the subsequent counterattack, with James Worthy dribbling the ball out of bounds, possession to the Trail Blazers.

Hornacek attempted a central drive off a screen, but his layup was disrupted by Jabbar and missed; the ball, in a scuffle that looked destined to fly out of bounds,

Gan Guoyang leapt to save the ball, crashing into the stands, while the ball flew back into Thompson’s hands, who then cut to the basket for an easy layup!

"Ah Gan’s diving save! Woh! What a sacrificial play, the Trail Blazers have rebuilt their lead, 33:40, up by 7 points!"

Bill Schonely loudly praised Gan’s bravery; it was a gutsy move, completely losing balance and crashing into the baseline crowd.

A few female fans took the opportunity to grab at Gan’s body, too many hands for him to bother with at the moment; he quickly got back up and rejoined the game.

The Lakers, after the loss of ball, seized the opportunity to launch a fast break, a five-on-four situation, but Johnson’s pass was intercepted by Drexler.

Drexler, seizing the moment, sent a long pass to Gan, who had just gotten up and returned to the court, and Gan slammed the ball in an uncontested dunk!

The entire Memorial Coliseum erupted, 33:42, the gap widened to 9 points, and the situation became increasingly dire for the Lakers.

Tonight, the Trail Blazers’ offense and defense didn’t overly rely on Gan Guoyang; he became part of the team, and they all played exceptionally well.

James Worthy posted up Thompson and turned around for a hook shot that missed, Drexler grabbed the rebound.

The whole crowd stood up; it was a good chance for the Trail Blazers to extend their lead.

But the Lakers were tenacious, A.C. Green blocked Drexler’s drive to the basket from the middle lane.

The referees called a foul against the Trail Blazers for an over-the-back violation during the rebound attempt, it was the Lakers’ ball. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Both teams then missed consecutive shots, as if a lid had been put on the goal of Memorial Coliseum.

After a 2-minute scoring drought, the Lakers patiently moved the ball, finding an opportunity on the left side.

Michael Cooper hit a three-pointer! 36:42, the Lakers stubbornly closed the gap.

At this point, the second quarter had already entered its latter half, with less than four minutes left.

Gan Guoyang hadn’t rested for even a minute in the first half, so Ramsay called a timeout to give Gan a break.

On the bench, Gan Guoyang spoke up, "I won’t rest for a minute in the first half, but I need you guys to step up on both offense and defense, to widen the lead even more!"

The implication was clear, the more they led by, the more he might be able to steal some time to rest!

Jack Ramsay handed the clipboard to Gan Guoyang, suggesting, "Why don’t you talk?"

Gan Guoyang shook his head, "Playing is exhausting enough, now you want me to coach too? Don’t be lazy, Jack!"

After the timeout and back on the court, Ramsay set up a play which had Gan Guoyang and Thompson crossing at the elbow positions.

This off-the-ball cross was meant to confuse the defenders, and as soon as Gan Guoyang moved out, the Lakers’ defense got dragged along.

Thompson cut to the basket, Drexler made a direct pass to him, and he scored an easy layup!

36:44, an eight-point lead. Michael Cooper then took a pass from Johnson and hit a jump shot, 38:44.

Still a six-point game, it seemed the teams would end the first half with a relatively small margin, probably within ten points, around five points or so.

Just then, there was a shift on the court as Terry Porter controlled the ball past half court, suddenly accelerated and drove straight to the basket, scoring a high-difficulty, left-handed, in-air layup!

Johnson wanted to fight speed with speed, crossing the half court into the three-point line and taking a mid-range jumper, which missed.

His shooting was very off tonight and still hadn’t improved, only scoring from one mid-range shot.

The Trail Blazers countered, Porter drove into the three-point line, stopped abruptly and took a jump shot, scoring!

Porter scored four points in a row, 38:48, bringing the lead to ten points!

Riley immediately called a quick timeout, but the Lakers’ offense didn’t improve.

Jabbar caught the ball in the low post, was double-teamed, and passed to Scott.

Scott’s mid-range shot missed and the scramble for the rebound ensued under the basket; Worthy got the offensive rebound, but his layup was blocked by Gan Guoyang!

In the subsequent frantic battle under the hoop, Johnson got the ball and drew a foul from Drexler on his layup attempt.

Relying on free throws, the Lakers finally scored, but their shooting percentage tonight was alarmingly low.

With a little over two minutes left in the first half, the Lakers had only scored 40 points.

Riley hadn’t anticipated such a poor offensive showing from his team tonight, with the player’s shooting percentage being frustratingly low.

The Trail Blazers’ offensive efficiency was average because Gan Guoyang had given up many opportunities tonight to let his teammates take shots.

The pace of the game was under the Trail Blazers’ control and they were playing more and more comfortably.

Drexler, taking advantage of a screen from Gan Guoyang, once again drove to the basket, scoring with an airborne change-of-hands layup!

In this game, Drexler was the protagonist on the offensive end, and his dunks and layups were very impressive.

The Lakers tried to exploit James Worthy, but their two low-post offense attempts failed.

On the counterattack, Drexler received a pass from Gan Guoyang on the flank, drove through the middle, and scored with a dunk.

Then a ball was passed to the corner, and Vandeweghe hit a three-pointer!

The Trail Blazers finished the second quarter with a 7:0 offensive run.

The score reached 40:55, with the Trail Blazers leading the Lakers by as many as 15 points.

When Johnson’s last long-distance three-point attempt missed, the Lakers ended the half with only 40 points.

During the half-time break, Bobby Berman found it almost incredible, saying, "The Lakers only got 40 points."

Gan Guoyang replied, "And I only scored 16 points."

"But we’re leading by 15 points, this was our best half."

"That’s right, we blew the Lakers out in the first half."

"Stick to it in the second half, we’re definitely going to take this game."

"As long as we keep playing like this, we can win the series."

In the locker room, morale was high as everyone spontaneously turned their gaze towards Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang felt uneasy, saying, "What are you all looking at me for? Is it because I scored less that we’re leading by more?"

No one else spoke, only Ramsay said, "That could be the case, luckily you’ve realized your mistake in time."

Everyone burst into laughter, the locker room filled with a cheerful atmosphere.