The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 492 - 109 Little Bug

The atmosphere at the start of the game was relatively harmonious, and Gan Guoyang managed to finish the first quarter smoothly, scoring 10 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and making 2 blocks, which was a normal performance for him.

To Gan, 10 points was just a regular showing, yet many players couldn’t score 10 points in an entire Finals game.

With isolation plays being allowed, every opponent facing the Trail Blazers had to be prepared for Gan to efficiently drop 40 points on them in a game.

That’s why Daley opened up the offense in the first quarter, letting his core players find their offensive rhythm to match Gan’s scoring intensity.

Dantley scored 7 points in the first quarter while Isiah Thomas got 8 points. The team’s two most important scorers found their offensive groove early on.

In the connecting segment of the second quarter, the three to five minutes of rest Gan took off-court were a critical juncture for the Pistons to change the game’s tempo.

Vinnie Johnson came in for Dumars and Thomas stayed on the court. Lan Bi’er left the paint while Melvin Turpin made his entrance.

Thomas began the second quarter with a successful mid-range jump shot. His offense felt quite good tonight, and the Pistons were leading by 3 points.

Walton and Thompson, these two old guys holding down the Trail Blazers’ frontcourt, instantly reduced the intensity.

The Pistons started to tighten the screws, escalating the confrontations. Turpin kept pushing and squeezing Thompson in the low post.

Thompson’s turn-around jump shot missed, banking a three-pointer, but Kossie picked up the offensive rebound.

His turn-around layup was blocked by Donaldson, and in the scramble under the basket, the ball was ultimately kicked out of bounds by Parkson.

Pistons’ ball possession.

The fans at the scene burst into applause.

The Pistons players were all thinking that playing without Ah Gan on the court sure felt good.

They truly hoped he would keep resting off-court and not come back into the game.

Chuck Daly shared the same sentiments, feeling much more relaxed with Gan off the floor.

If it had been Ah Gan who grabbed that offensive rebound, he would either muscle his way up for a layup or draw a foul, which was troublesome.

Afterward, Turpin received a pass from Thomas on the baseline and scored with a mid-range jump shot, making it 36:31, with the Pistons ahead by 5 points.

Then Walton’s low post offense was disrupted by Donaldson and didn’t go in, with the Pistons taking the defensive rebound and making a quick counter attack.

John Salley led the charge, caught Thomas’ pass, and scored with a stumbling layup!

38:31, the Pistons were leading by 7 points, their largest lead in the series so far.

Jack Ramsey called for a timeout. The Trail Blazers’ offense was ineffective during this period.

They’d chosen to attack the post twice, but the Pistons knew Walton and Thompson didn’t have the same low post energy. They defended strictly one-on-one, not giving the Trail Blazers any chances from the outside.

As a result, they contained the Trail Blazers twice with one-on-one defense and then scored with fast breaks.

The Trail Blazers’ frontcourt was ageing even more severely than in 1986, with Walton running on his last breath at this point.

This would be his last series in his career.

32-year-old Mychal Thompson had dropped from the previous season’s 14+7 to this season’s 10+5.

When Gan was on the court, he could rely on Gan’s defensive attractiveness to score some easy balls.

Without Gan, he no longer had the ability to single-handedly challenge younger interior players like Turpin in the low post.

The Pistons’ tall men lineup--Lan Bi’er at 29, Turpin at 26, Donaldson at 29--were all at the best ages for inside players.

In that era, medical technology was relatively backward, and player maintenance and nutrition were not scientific enough, leaving many with injuries from their student days.

Apart from monsters like Jabbar, most interior players declined dramatically after turning 30, getting worse year by year.

Not to mention Walton, who had been injured since his college days. It was a miracle he lasted this long.

Many star players retired at 32 or 33 years old. Twenty years later, this would be their prime, but in the 1980s, they were already retired.

The Triple Towers of 1986 could no longer reproduce their performance, and the Trail Blazers’ frontcourt became increasingly reliant on Gan as their go-to point.

However, Gan was worth the reliance. After the timeout, he immediately drew a foul from Turpin on the offensive end.

Standing at the free-throw line, he made both shots, giving the Trail Blazers some relief.

On the Pistons’ side, after some internal struggle, Daley patted Dennis Rodman on the bench, substituting him in for Salley.

Before Rodman took the floor, Daley told him, "Don’t guard Ah Gan directly, but keep an eye on him at every moment, entangle him like a snake. Every action, every word, every round, can you do that?"

Rodman nodded and said, "Of course, dad."

Rodman stretched his limbs and bounced onto the court.

The fans cheered again as Rodman was very popular in Detroit.

At first, no one had any impression of this 25-year-old old rookie.

After all, for a second-round pick, just surviving in the league was questionable.

But Rodman quickly won over the Motor City fans.

He played with great energy on the court, fighting hard every round and every ball.

Moreover, his style was unique; he was terrible on offense, but he had a keen sense of defense and gave it his all.

His splendid saves, exaggerated layup motions, and the ability to stir up the atmosphere at the scene left a deep impression on the fans.

Within the Pistons, this guy was fearless, someone who dared to say anything and would harshly scold everyone after a bad game.

So the Pistons were a very strange team; unlike the Trail Blazers, Lakers, or Bulls, they didn’t have a true leader.

Everyone was an important part, to some extent the brain of the team. All could speak their minds and express opinions.

For them, lacking absolute talent, such a team-building mode and structure was actually the most sensible.

Chuck Daly had never played professional basketball; he was someone without natural basketball talent, so he knew how to mold these guys.

In the NBA, talent can indeed mean everything, but Daly thought of a way: if I take down your most talented guy, isn’t your talent useless?

Lan Bi’er would do that, Melvin would do that, Dennis Rodman, having learned by example, would do it too.

Hence, Rodman began his endless harassment of Gan Guoyang.

He knew he definitely couldn’t beat Gan Guoyang, couldn’t play dirty like Melvin or Lan Bi’er.

He couldn’t shove either; Melvin and Lan Bi’er had said that Ah Gan was like a bollard, immovable.

As for ramming into him? Melvin explained from experience that ramming Ah Gan was just like hitting a wall; not only would he get a dizzy head, but he’d also earn a foul.

Listening to Daley’s advice, Rodman used his brain and skill to continuously disturb Gan Guoyang in subtle ways.

For instance, when the referee called a foul, Rodman would go over and touch Gan Guoyang, stepping on him.

While defending, he would continually touch him, pluck at his jersey, and wipe the sweat on his body onto Gan Guoyang’s clothes.

Gan Guoyang was a bit of a clean freak; just enduring daily evening battles soaked in sweat with a group of black and white players was already at his limit.

Now the opponent was deliberately smearing sweat on him, and Gan Guoyang could hardly bear it.

He had just seen Dennis Rodman picking his nose on the court.

He first protested to the referee, but it was futile; the ref hadn’t seen it.

And even if they had, there wasn’t a rule against that kind of behavior.

"Dennis, I advise you to stop this," Gan Guoyang, who never threatened people, began threatening Rodman.

Rodman turned a deaf ear, continuing to do as he pleased, hassling Gan Guoyang like a Little Bug.

Like a buzzing mosquito—it doesn’t threaten your life at that moment but really gets on your nerves as it lingers nearby.

You get up to hit it, but it flies away swiftly. Sometimes you slap hard, only to hurt your own hand without hitting anything.

If you let your guard down and it bites you, it won’t just draw blood; it will itch for a long time.

And if it’s carrying something fatal like malaria, then it can indeed be life-threatening.

However, Rodman’s petty nuisances didn’t affect Gan Guoyang’s performance on the court in the second quarter.

Gan Guoyang led the Trail Blazers in a charge of 11:2, regaining the lead.

But under such harassment, Gan Guoyang became increasingly irritable.

In the process of attacking, he forcefully shoved Rodman, who stumbled into the stands.

The referee immediately blew the whistle, calling an offensive foul on Gan Guoyang, his second foul of the game.

The Pistons took advantage of this opportunity—Isiah Thomas made a change of direction and sped to the basket, directly targeting Gan Guoyang. His layup was good.

Gan Guoyang, already with two fouls, couldn’t fully commit to blocking and could only gesture halfheartedly. Then Thomas’s floater off the board scored.

With that basket, the Pistons clawed back two points. As the second quarter neared its end, the teams were tied at 62:62.

Rodman’s type of harassment was something Gan Guoyang had never encountered before, and this kid wasn’t just about making people feel disgusted.

Rodman truly had something in his help-defense and rebound positioning; Gan Guoyang had to be more cautious on offense.

The swift, up-close defense by Rodman made Gan Guoyang’s mid-range shots difficult.

He increased his face-up drives to the basket—such a head-on offensive approach took a greater toll on his own stamina.

Meanwhile, Rodman’s judgment on offensive rebound positioning was quite good. The kid was slippery; the slightest lapse and he’d steal a rebound.

With the Trail Blazers’ frontcourt aging overall, Gan Guoyang was like facing four young, energetic, and stylistically different big men alone.

Disgusted by Rodman’s antics, at the end of the first half, Gan Guoyang told himself to stay calm. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He knew that Daley was up to no good, aiming to take him down.

The second quarter was just the beginning; it was the third and fourth quarters where the real tricks would be played.

Gan Guoyang was calculating in his mind: he had to win tonight’s game.

The man, he had to deal with!