The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 552 - 54: The Extreme

The Trail Blazers’ charter flight landed at Portland Airport on the morning of May 27.

This was a red-eye flight; they didn’t stay in Los Angeles for long, heading to the airport immediately after the second game ended and flew back overnight.

The players all looked exhausted. Losing the game had soured everyone’s mood, especially since the second bout was a crushing defeat.

This was the Trail Blazers’ most painful playoff loss since Gan Guoyang had entered the league in 1984.

From the time they left the Great Western Forum until they landed at Portland Airport, Gan had barely said a word.

The team’s atmosphere was heavily oppressive. With Ah Gan keeping silent, no one else dared to speak up.

After disembarking from the plane and collecting their luggage to leave the terminal, they saw thousands of fans waiting to pick them up outside the airport.

Despite the Trail Blazers losing the first two games, the fans from Portland were still enthusiastic and fully supportive of their team.

Just as everyone was about to disperse, Gan Guoyang said, "See you at the training hall at two in the afternoon. I hope no one will be late."

Gan’s voice was calm and resolute. At two o’clock in the afternoon, everyone was on time at the training hall; nobody was late.

The first item on the training agenda wasn’t shooting, tactics, or physical conditioning, but watching the video of the second game together in the video room.

Little Spoelstra had already edited the video of the second game, cutting out the redundancy and keeping only the content of the competition between the two sides.

The lights in the video room were turned off, and the group sat in the darkened room, the glow from the television reflecting on everyone’s face, making them look even more troubled.

In that game, they were in trouble from the outset—less than 30 seconds into the game, Gan was called for a foul on defense.

Afterward, the Trail Blazers went into a long six-minute scoring drought. For an excruciating six minutes and 23 seconds, they didn’t score a single point.

This caused them to trail the Lakers by 17 at 15:32, putting themselves in a massive pit at the end of the first quarter.

Little Spoelstra included the entire six minutes and 23 seconds of the drought in the footage, including the TV station’s slow-motion replays.

The basket seemed like it had a lid on it to the Trail Blazers’ players as they just couldn’t make a shot.

Gan was consistently double-teamed by two Lakers players in the paint with endless traps and early double-teams.

He chose to pass to his teammates, but it wasn’t just the missed three-pointers; even the layups weren’t going in.

As the game went on, the team’s performance grew colder—they seemed to have completely lost their ability to play against adversity.

The second and third quarters saw the team’s condition worsen, turning the entire fourth quarter into garbage time.

Watching their disastrous performance in the game was like being put on the rack; everyone was fidgeting uncomfortably.

Finally, at 6:24, Gan forcefully made his own shot against a double-team and scored a mid-range basket to score his first point.

Gan’s earlier hook shots had also missed, so he didn’t think it was all his teammates’ fault.

After spending nearly an hour watching the game footage, Jack Ramsay turned on the room lights, and it was as if everyone had returned to the living world from hell.

When asked for their thoughts, Gan said, "The bad news is, we are down 0-2, and we have never played this badly before. The good news is, we can’t play any worse than this."

Gan’s words somewhat lightened the mood in the team.

Being able to return to Portland gave everyone a chance to catch their breath.

The Trail Blazers needed to adjust and find their game rhythm.

Ramsay and Bobby Berman had an all-night strategy meeting.

Bobby Berman suggested changing the starting lineup, putting Ah Gan back at the power forward position, and having Gilmore start.

Ramsay thought that this time, unlike playing against the Mavericks, the problem was in the backcourt, and the Trail Blazers needed to figure out a way to counter the three-guard lineup.

After much consideration, they could only think of one thing: to let Ah Gan play one-on-one defense.

Although it was a simple and crude approach, it was the best strategy they could come up with.

Drexler’s defense on Johnson could only be considered average, especially since Johnson had been improving his shooting this season, making it increasingly difficult to defend against him.

The key with Johnson was that they couldn’t double-team him, as his passing was too sharp.

When the Lakers used their normal offensive strategy, Johnson’s direct passes to the basket were less of a threat.

Because Gan Guoyang was guarding the basket down low, players cutting to the basket felt immense pressure.

Yet, with their three guards, the Lakers’ extensive mid-range and corner shooting reduced Gan Guoyang’s defensive impact.

This strategy, much like Nielsen’s fast break attack with two wings spread, had one goal for the Lakers’ offense: to lessen Gan Guoyang’s presence on defense by avoiding him.

Given that, they might as well let Ah Gan block the Lakers’ strongest point, to cut off the source of their offense.

During the afternoon training, Bobby Berman relayed the coaching staff’s decision to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang nodded to indicate no problem, and when asked if he could keep up with the pace, Gan Guoyang said, "I’m 5 pounds lighter than at the start of the season."

At the beginning of the season, Gan Guoyang’s weight had reached 265 pounds, making him an unstoppable force in the paint.

A season of both mental and physical toll had reduced Gan Guoyang’s weight.

It wasn’t that Gan Guoyang was intentionally losing weight; rather, the season had been so tough that the toll was significant.

Beelman felt a pang of sympathy for Ah Gan. He really wanted to tell Gan Guoyang that it wouldn’t matter even if they lost this round of the series.

This was only Gan Guoyang’s fourth season, and his achievements were already beyond what many players could hope for in their entire careers.

Victory and defeat are common in military affairs; no one can always be undefeated and keep winning.

This isn’t the ’60s, where the league only had eight teams and you only needed to win two playoff rounds to become champions.

With such a tough and lengthy schedule and the opponents being so strong and difficult to defeat, the players grew weary. The opponents had analyzed the Trail Blazers from all 360 degrees and knew them thoroughly.

Last night, Berman and Ramsay discussed all night and realized they had no hidden cards left; everything was out in the open.

Don Nelson, that crafty old man, still had a trick up his sleeve, saving his three-guard lineup for the playoffs as a surprise attack.

The Trail Blazers, from the first round, had faced targeted strategies every game, then had to forcefully break through and seize the initiative.

Playing this way was bound to be exhausting and wearisome, but that was the fate of the Defender, to face one challenge after another until being defeated by a challenger.

But Berman ultimately didn’t say it. He understood Gan Guoyang was a man who never accepted defeat.

The afternoon training session lasted unexpectedly long, with Gan Guoyang leading everyone through stamina exercises.

Everyone participated, and no one was allowed to leave early. After the stamina training, Gan Guoyang organized scrimmage games.

Having just finished a game the night before and taken a two-hour flight, everyone was so tired they could barely lift their legs.

Gan Guoyang, however, wouldn’t let anyone leave; they played 6 vs 6 continuously without pauses.

The scrimmage went on from dawn to dusk until Greg Anderson was the first to buckle, running to the side of the court and throwing up.

Seeing this, Beelman blew the whistle to pause the game and ran over to Gan Guoyang saying, "Ah Gan, let’s call it quits. We have a game tomorrow."

It was the first time Gan Guoyang had ever pushed his teammates to their mental and physical limits, in an almost cruel fashion, while also tormenting himself.

In the past, Gan Guoyang was always generous and tolerant, shouldering everything to move forward, giving his teammates confidence and strength.

But such confidence and strength have their limits; they can’t be squandered endlessly. When the team aimed for a third championship, it became very hard to galvanize the players. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It was easy for everyone’s attention to be distracted, easy to be disrupted by negativity.

Everyone had the same thought as Beelman: it wouldn’t be a big deal to lose this year; winning two consecutive championships was already remarkable, they could always try again next year.

Gan Guoyang didn’t see it that way; he used the torment during training to let everyone feel his own desire for victory and championships.

When a person’s body and mind reach their limits, they either collapse or focus their attention and unleash deeper potential.

In long-distance running, there’s a concept called "the wall," where it’s the most uncomfortable and easiest to quit.

But once you push past the wall, the body enters a brand new state.

As the Trail Blazers left the gym, each person felt as if they were about to float away.

The lengthy season had brought the whole team to their breaking point.

Whether collapse or explosion followed the breaking point would be seen in tomorrow’s game.