The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 559 - 59: The Meaning of Victory
Gan Guoyang’s sky-high putback dunk made the Los Angeles fans feel as if the King of Los Angeles had returned.
This season, Gan Guoyang’s win rate at the Great Western Forum has not been high. So far, he has only won one game.
It was the game that Hornacek had clinched with a buzzer-beater.
Los Angeles fans also thought, "Ah Gan finally can’t continue to hurt us in Los Angeles."
But as the game went on, Gan Guoyang played more smoothly and became unstoppable on the offensive end.
After the successful putback dunk, the pressure was all on the Lakers’ side.
The Trail Blazers’ success rate in attack was obviously ridiculously high.
After the timeout, their success rate was 100 percent.
This meant the Lakers had to keep up and also achieve a 100 percent success rate in order to compete.
Normally, a success rate of 50 percent would already be considered high.
percent would be incredibly high.
In a high-intensity matchup, no one can withstand such a streak of scoring during crucial moments.
Jabbar’s difficult shot just now was already somewhat lucky.
The experienced Johnson tried to break into the basket to draw a foul, which was a good choice.
But Gan Guoyang defended very well; he slipped past Johnson’s close defense, allowing Johnson to drive to the basket in the end.
However, Johnson’s last layup fell short; the ball circled the rim but ultimately fell out, not in!
Gilmore grabbed the defensive rebound—an absolutely crucial board, and the Old Train secured the ball firmly.
Gilmore didn’t pass the ball to the guards but to Gan Guoyang instead. As soon as Gan Guoyang saw Johnson and Cooper rush toward him, he immediately called a timeout.
99:96, the Trail Blazers led by three points, with just over two minutes left in the game, less than three minutes.
The Trail Blazers were in control, but victory was not yet secured; a 3-point lead was not stable at all.
A single mistake in offense or defense could lead to wasting all their efforts.
Moreover, the Trail Blazers faced another problem: Gilmore was tired.
He could only sustain effort for so long; any longer would be detrimental to the team.
So, Jack Ramsay had no choice but to substitute Gilmore for Thompson.
Fortunately, Thompson was in great form tonight, and upon learning of his son’s birth, he was filled with even more energy.
"Let’s win this game and celebrate the birth of little Thompson!"
During the timeout, Gan Guoyang encouraged his teammates.
"Mitchell, what name will you give your son?"
Thompson said, "Michael, just one letter difference from my name. Mine is ’A’ (Mychal), his is ’E’ (Mychel)."
"For Michael!"
"For Michael!"
The players encouraged each other, ready to get back into the game.
The Trail Blazers’ sideline play was exactly identical to the previous one.
Gan Guoyang ran to the top of the arc to receive the ball, putting the Lakers’ defense in a dilemma.
This time, as soon as Gan Guoyang got the ball, he drew all the Lakers’ defensive attention.
He suddenly made a no-look pass underneath the basket, where a cutting Thompson caught the ball and finished with a one-handed dunk over the defense!
Not only did the shot go in, but it also resulted in a defensive foul on James Worthy!
Don Nelson paid the price for his compromise.
His original lineup of three guards included pairing two 7-footers in the interior.
This ensured flexibility on the perimeter while maintaining sufficient height and rim protection.
Now, to accommodate James Worthy’s ego, he asked Worthy to play power forward.
Against other teams, even against the Pistons or Celtics, this lineup would still be very strong and effective.
But it didn’t work against the Trail Blazers, with Ah Gan in the mix, as your interior lacked a dynamic anchor, surely that was a huge disadvantage.
The loss of an offensive rebound and a defensive foul cost the Lakers the game.
Mychal Thompson made the additional free throw, 102:96, and the Trail Blazers extended their lead to six points.
It was a fairly safe advantage, and of course, the Trail Blazers didn’t relax and maintained their defensive formation.
Gan Guoyang gave up on his one-on-one defense against Johnson and moved back into the three-second zone to secure the basket area.
This was a safer strategy; with the lead, they couldn’t afford to give the Lakers an easy scoring opportunity.
Johnson broke through the middle, passed the ball to the baseline, but Byron Scott’s three-pointer didn’t connect.
But Jabbar fought hard for the offensive rebound—his only offensive rebound of the game.
After securing the board, Jabbar immediately called a timeout, and returning to the bench he said to Nelson, "We should have called a timeout just now, you were daydreaming, coach!"
Nelson was indeed distracted; not just Nelson, but Johnson as well—he forgot to call for a timeout, wasting a precious dozen seconds.
Because Nielsen had been thinking he shouldn’t have used a lineup with three guards alongside Worthy and Jabbar.
Although theoretically, this lineup had no issue, if it were Riley, Riley would use this lineup too.
Because even Riley would lose to Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers.
Nielsen’s dilemma was that he knew how to deal with the Trail Blazers.
He knew the three-guard lineup was highly likely to be effective.
He should have played Edwards in the power forward position.
While ensuring the basket and rebounds were protected, they should have moved actively and repeatedly to let the guards dominate the offense.
They definitely could have torn through the Trail Blazers’ defense, just like Cooper’s two three-pointers that flipped the score.
But he compromised, he felt frustrated, yet he didn’t know how to release this emotion.
Was he supposed to yell at Worthy? Worthy wasn’t at fault either, apart from playing against the Trail Blazers, he was actually in very good form.
Nielsen could not stay calm anymore, he lost his temper, calling for a timeout.
When Earl-Strom came over to urge him on, he yelled at Strom fiercely.
Strom said, "Nielsen, don’t take your emotions out on me unless you want to be thrown out!"
Nielsen roared, "Throw me out then! You have the guts to throw me out! F*ck you, f*ck!"
Strom’s officiating tonight had no issues and was not very controversial, he made good calls.
Seeing Nielsen so agitated, Strom hesitated for a moment with his whistle in his mouth but didn’t blow it.
He said, "I know you’re upset about losing the game. Do you want to leave the court early? Not a chance."
With that, Strom urged the teams to continue the game, then ignored Nielsen.
With his assistant coach’s reassurance, Nielsen returned to the bench; he truly was angry, angry at himself.
Back in the game, the Lakers still passed the ball to Jabbar, and Scott cut through the middle, receiving Jabbar’s pass.
The result was that Gan Guoyang charged up and swatted the layup with a smack!
The blocked ball was caught by Thompson, and the Trail Blazers, whether on offense or defense, were already in full rhythm.
In contrast, the Lakers were in disarray, their morale was low, and though Scott attempted to avoid the block with his layup, he still couldn’t escape the fate of having it swatted.
With that block, the Trail Blazers already had the victory firmly in their grasp.
Drexler brought the ball past half-court and still gave it to Guoyang at the top of the arc.
Michael Cooper closed in to defend, and Guoyang passed the ball to Hornacek.
Hornacek then passed it to Porter on the wing, who then fed the ball to Mychal Thompson down low.
Thompson seized the opportunity, going one-on-one against Worthy in the post, and his turnaround hook shot scored!
A man who’s become a father is different after all, Thompson scored 5 points in a row!
The last man to be this strong after becoming a father was Dell Curry.
His son, Stephen Curry, was born in March, and since then, Dell Curry’s performance shot up.
His 5 for 4 three-pointers in the semi-final against the Mavericks were his highlight of the year.
Thompson, having become a father, turned the tide in what might have been the most critical game of the season, reversing his regular season’s slump and playing a key role.
104:96, the lead extended to 8 points, and the Trail Blazers had virtually pocketed the fruits of victory.
Although Scott scored a three-pointer, giving the fans a glimmer of hope,
as Drexler’s steady free throws went in, and Cooper’s three-pointer missed, the score was set at 106:99.
When the buzzer signalled the end of the game, the Trail Blazers players cheered as they ran back to the locker room.
Back in the locker room, everyone shouted "Mitchell", "Mitchell", "Mitchell"!
Then Guoyang, slightly embarrassed, announced to his teammates that he was going to be a father too.
The locker room erupted into madness, everyone came over to hug and kiss Guoyang, congratulating him on becoming a father ahead of time.
At this moment, the team’s atmosphere was incredibly harmonious, and with victory in hand, the team could temporarily forget all the previous miseries.
This perhaps was the meaning of victory.
By June 3, the Trail Blazers returned to their home court, and with a 4-point advantage, they beat the Lakers again, 119:123.
They won the series with a 4:2 lead over the season’s strongest opponent and advanced to the finals.
The people of Portland had taken a firm step towards defending their title.
[Kossie said, "1988 was a magical year, Dell Curry became a father, Mychal Thompson had his first son during the Western Conference Finals, then Ah Gan announced in the locker room that he was going to be a father, followed by Hornacek getting married and also about to be a dad.
After game five of the Western Conference Finals, we all went crazy, celebrating in the locker room, celebrating both the victory and the arrival of new life.
Honestly, at that time, I still couldn’t understand why one would want to have the next generation or why to get married.
My childhood experiences made me fear marriage, fear having a next generation, so it wasn’t until much later that I decided to have a child of my own."]
————Published in 2021, excerpt from Jerome Kossie’s biography "Jerome Kersey—Overcoming The Odds," written by Kerry Eggers.
