The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 539 - 42: The Champion

After Gilmore came on the court, he immediately delivered a huge block to Jabbar.

The Old Train had calculated his timing well, using his years of experience against Jabbar to block the shot known as the most difficult to cover—the Sky Hook.

Firstly, Jabbar had aged, slowing his reaction; secondly, he was ambushed by the Old Train, going through his routine and finding his process had been figured out.

After blocking Jabbar, Gan Guoyang rushed out from the side, grabbed the ball.

Gan Guoyang didn’t pause or pass; instead, he pushed the ball rapidly down the court himself for a fast break.

The Lakers’ defense retreated quickly, but it must be noted that their transition defense wasn’t as solid as it had been during Riley’s era.

This was the price paid for Nelson’s loosening of the team’s reins.

Gan Guoyang thus took the ball across the halfway line himself, dodging AC Green’s steal attempt, burst down the middle uncontested, and dunked the ball with a single-handed Statue of Liberty slam!

The scores were tied, and after the basket, Gan Guoyang flexed his well-developed biceps for the Lakers players to see.

When this big truck revved up, no one dared to block him.

Not only would you fail to stop him, but you would also give him a free throw, and as for a malicious charge, that’s something you wouldn’t dare do—did you want to restart the game?

Since the start of the season, Gan Guoyang had become increasingly forceful in some games.

There was no choice; the defenses against him were becoming tighter and more barbaric.

To his face, everyone was respectful, not daring to say a word of trash talk, but their hands never stopped moving, and afterward, they would apologize.

Gan Guoyang no longer used wrestling because doing so would definitely result in his ejection from the game. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

He started to swing his iron elbows, which could be disguised as "accidental" contact.

But just how unintentional these were only he knew, not to mention the impacts when velocity was involved.

The tragedy of Rambis was still haunting the Lakers players.

With that block and dunk, the Trail Blazers not only tied the score but also gained momentum.

In the positional game, Gan Guoyang expanded his defensive coverage, leaving the paint and Jabbar confidently to Gilmore.

The Lakers were somewhat caught off guard as their perimeter faced oppressive defense, with Johnson eventually forcing a shot that missed.

Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound, slowed the pace down, and set up a play for Porter.

At a 45-degree angle with the ball, Jabbar had come out to defend; Gan Guoyang passed a direct ball to the inside, where Gilmore, using his height advantage, caught the pass, turned around, and dunked it with both hands!

Nielsen, seeing the bad turning, realized that the Trail Blazers were now playing with Twin Towers.

But having just called a timeout, Nielsen could only hold back and let the players figure it out on their own.

Johnson decided to take it upon himself; he backed Drexler down into the paint using his sizeable posterior, but Gan Guoyang suddenly came over to help trap him.

Gan Guoyang doubled very early; two steps from the three-point line, Gan started his rush.

Johnson immediately passed the ball to AC Green who, at the top of the arc, was not confident enough to shoot mid-range.

Green drove down the middle, only to be blocked by Gilmore.

Kossie grabbed the defensive board and passed to Porter, Gan Guoyang shouting, "Slow! Slow down! Set up!"

Porter, originally wanting to fast break, slowed down to play a positional game.

Gan Guoyang had played many games against the Lakers and had watched many of their tapes.

The Lakers were the best in the League at capitalizing on chaos, often seizing opportunities in scattered plays.

Their full-court intercepting defense was strong, and opponents would often think they had the Lakers’ offense under control and attempt to counterattack.

Instead, the ball would be stolen and countered by the Lakers.

Such plays were countless in Lakers’ games.

Their ability to turn defense to offense and then back again was extremely strong.

Gan Guoyang understood that at these game-defining moments, you must not rashly initiate a counterattack.

The Lakers lost twice to the Rockets and once to the Trail Blazers because both the Rockets and Trail Blazers had superstar centers. They didn’t engage in scattered play or give the Lakers a chance to counterattack.

In the positional game, Gan Guoyang received the ball at the 45-degree spot; his catching point was quite far out.

This forced the Lakers to defend Gan with AC Green alone, making it hard for Scott to double-team in advance.

After backing Green down a bit, before Scott’s double-team arrived, Gan Guoyang spun around for a difficult long-distance jump shot!

At that time in the NBA, almost no player shot like Gan Guoyang did.

Half a step inside the three-point line, he turned and shot directly.

The ball traced a high arc through the air and swished through the net!

The shot went in, and Old Nelson had no choice but to make a substitution.

Nelson called another timeout, he swapped out AC-Green and Jabbar for Edwards and Duckworth.

This year, the Lakers’ frontcourt resources can be said to be explosively abundant.

The Lakers’ three seven-foot giants, all were prepared by Jerry West for Gan Guoyang.

Duckworth and Edwards, one new and one veteran, both are tall and versatile, with competent offense and defense, and both have a decent shooting range.

Jabbar came off early to rest, avoiding the cutting edge of Gan Guoyang and Gilmore.

Edwards has a good mid-range shot, which allows him to draw out and coordinate with Scott, Cooper, and Johnson.

After the Lakers switched their big men, the pace of the game was further slowed down.

The situation that Jack Ramsay worried about, Gilmore not being able to keep up with the Lakers’ speed, did not occur.

On the contrary, he and Gan Guoyang formed a defensive wall in the paint, forcing the Lakers to rely heavily on mid-range jumpers to finish attacks.

The Trail Blazers gradually gained the upper hand on the court, at one point stretching the lead to 7 points.

However, Gilmore quickly revealed his issue: at 38 years old, after playing most of the third quarter, he began to struggle with his stamina.

On defense, he started to miss assignments and give up defensive rebounds, with Duckworth picking up the slack repeatedly.

At the same time, the Lakers, with their offense revolving around the perimeter, slowly found their rhythm, doggedly keeping pace on the scoreboard.

With Jabbar off the court, Johnson consistently broke through, executed floaters, and made shots, even assisting Edwards with successful shots.

This season, Johnson continued to elevate his offensive ability.

His target was no longer Bird, but Ah Gan.

The Lakers gradually caught up in the score, and a three-pointer from Scott helped them close to within 1 point.

Ramsay knew that the Old Train had hit his limit, so he called a timeout to rest Gilmore and brought Thompson back in.

Seeing this, Nelson promptly put Jabbar and AC-Green back in.

The contest between the two sides reached a fever pitch, with both coaches engaging in a battle of wits.

Now Nelson really did have a lot of cards to play with a well-stocked frontcourt, wing, and backcourt.

He now realized that the feeling of fighting a wealthy battle was indeed different.

At the end of the third quarter, Nelson even boldly pulled Johnson to put in Wes Matthews, letting Matthews play the last two rounds and make a push.

Indeed, Matthews rapidly nailed a three-pointer!

Helping the Lakers overturn the score, 82:83.

However, the Trail Blazers were not to be outdone, there were still 5 seconds left in the third quarter.

Gan Guoyang quickly inbounded the ball from the backcourt, and Drexler took the ball and sprinted down the court.

After inbounding the ball, Gan Guoyang headed straight for the basket without looking back.

The Lakers’ defense was all focused on Drexler.

Charging near the three-second area, he tossed a high lob into the paint, Gan Guoyang leaped high, finished an alley-oop dunk over AC-Green!

The moment the ball was dunked, the third quarter ended with the buzzer lighting up, and the Trail Blazers took back the lead!

84:83, the Trail Blazers entered the fourth quarter with the lead.

The scoring Gan Guoyang and Drexler exchanged high fives.

Tonight, Gan Guoyang’s performance was evidently different from previous games.

Facing some opponents, Gan Guoyang couldn’t even be bothered to dunk.

He would solve problems with concise post moves and mid-range shots.

Playing against the Lakers was different, Gan Guoyang brought out all his skills, dunking inside when he could, showing no mercy!

The two strongest teams in the Western Conference were set to clash in the final quarter.

And this was just a regular-season game, Don Nelson actually still had a trick up his sleeve.

The strategy that made him famous with the Bucks could be used even better with the Lakers, it was his ace in the hole.

He hadn’t played this card in this game, opting to save it for the playoffs, to deal a fatal blow to the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang.

As the defending champions, the Trail Blazers were an open book to all opponents already.

That was the difficulty of defending the title, always being in the spotlight for opponents to target.

In just three short years, the Trail Blazers had gone from being the challenger issuing challenges to the defending champion answering them.