The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 563 - 63: Above the Plateau

The NBA playoffs, when the home team leads 2:0 and comes to the first away game in the third match, is known as the ugliest game of each series.

Because of the 0:2 deficit, the team returning home desperately needs a win to turn things around, as losing the third match and falling behind 0:3 means there is no chance for a comeback.

Therefore, the third game tends to be extremely intense, with the home team pulling out all the stops on defense, compounded by biased officiating and the atmosphere created by the home crowd, posing a severe test for the away team.

If it were the 1987 Trail Blazers, they could continue to topple their opponents away from home with a 2:0 lead.

But in 1988, they had lost that focus, they needed to take a break, to catch their breath.

As for how long they would need to catch their breath, it depended on whether they could adjust their state of mind properly.

There was only one day between the third and the fourth games.

On June 17, at the Capital Centre, both teams greeted the fourth battle.

Winning the third battle was very important for the Bullets.

Wes Unseld said in a pre-game interview that the team had found their rhythm, which was crucial.

Indeed, the Bullets players were gradually adapting to the atmosphere of the finals, and as they defeated the Trail Blazers in their own way, confidence began to swell within them.

All along, they had not been viewed favorably, being considered the team most likely to be eliminated from the upper half of the bracket since the first round.

Yet they eliminated the Cavaliers and moved on to the semifinals.

In the semifinals against the formidable Detroit Pistons, they were still underestimated.

Especially after the fifth game, when they trailed significantly with a 2:3 score, they stood on the brink of elimination.

But they hung on through games six and seven, grinding the Pistons down with sheer perseverance.

In the Eastern finals against the Celtics, they were once again looked down upon, but they took Mount Tai with a 3:2 lead, only to fail to conclude the series in game six.

Playing game seven in the Boston Garden was a nightmare for any Eastern team.

In the stuffy and noisy arena, with the die-hard Boston fans, the Bullets players got a real taste of what it was like to be against the world.

Despite this, the Bullets persevered, wrecking the foundation of the green empire with solid defense and tireless rebounding.

Starting this season, the Boston Celtics would say goodbye to the division finals, and their dominion over the Eastern Conference would officially come to an end.

The journey endowed the Washington Bullets with a tenacious will, they had the ability to survive adversity, and they even enjoyed it.

In the evening, the Capital Gymnasium was packed, with nearly twenty thousand fans making the atmosphere electrifying.

On the huge central display screen in the gymnasium, highlights from previous games of the Bullets were played over and over again.

Charles Barkley’s slam dunks, Moses Malone’s rebounds, Bernard King’s jump shots, Moncrief’s steals, Steve Colter’s assists.

And on the sidelines, the unflappable Wes Unseld and the mastermind Dick Motta.

In a pre-game comment, Bernard King said, "Every round of the series, everybody doubted us, but we’ve made it to the end. Just like when I came back from injury, no one believed I could still perform well. Few people know how much pain and difficulty I went through to stand on this court again, and even fewer know what we went through this season. We will continue to move forward, and we will never give up."

Bernard King voiced the collective determination of the Bullets; before the fourth game, they were united as never before, sworn to even the score.

At this moment, the Portland Trail Blazers had become Maryland’s biggest enemy, the scourge of the Capital Centre.

Before the game started, Gan Guoyang stood at center court, standing beneath the giant display screen, waiting for the game to begin.

If his mouth hadn’t been moving, slowly chewing gum, people might have thought he was a stone statue.

His expression was calm, his gaze untroubled, ignoring the noisy pre-game commentary.

He was ready for the battle at the Capital Centre that night.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, head coach Jack Ramsey was somewhat nervous.

He knew the critical importance of the fourth game; if they lost and the scores were leveled, the dynamic of the series would change.

Media in the Washington area seized the opportunity to bombard the Trail Blazers with barrages of distracting information.

They revealed conflicts within the Trail Blazers’ locker room from the season, disclosed the insider story of why Vandeweghe was benched, and rumors that Larry Weinberg was selling the team because, despite winning championships, they were not profitable, among other things.

The veracity of these reports was mixed, and whether true or not, they were meant to disrupt the Trail Blazers.

The Washington Post even deliberately launched a poll asking whether Drexler or Ah Gan was the true core of the Trail Blazers.

While the fans in the Washington area were somewhat conscientious, casting most of their votes for Ah Gan, there was always a minority who voted for Drexler.

The Post didn’t expect people to blindly vote for Drexler; the very act of initiating the poll was a challenge and provocation to Gan Guoyang’s status.

TV show hosts in Washington made a big deal out of this, questioning who truly owned the Trail Blazers and who would stay in Portland over the summer.

Ramsay himself was subjected to leaks, with some saying that he planned to retire after winning the championship, and the press was relentless with their questions.

This troubled Ramsay, who did indeed plan to retire but could not admit it.

Announcing his retirement now would be no different from the earlier disclosure about selling the team halfway through the season.

Ramsay remembered discussing his retirement decision only with his family; who could have leaked the information?

Or was it merely a guess by the Washington reporters?

Considering the earlier leak about the sale of the team, Ramsay suspected that someone was targeting the Trail Blazers.

In any case, these off-court distractions were inescapable; television, newspapers—players were bound to come across and hear about them.

Yet in the face of all this turmoil, Ah Gan appeared very indifferent.

He neither encouraged his teammates as he had in the past nor actively responded, mocking the Washington reporters.

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He didn’t do anything, didn’t say anything; when faced with the journalists’ interviews, he just shrugged his shoulders and then bent down to tie his shoelaces.

Right up until he stepped onto the court, Ah Gan seemed as calm as a frozen lake, as if he had been sealed in ice.

Jack Ramsey tried to communicate with Gan Guoyang before the game started, but was stopped by Bobby Berman.

Berman said to Ramsay, "Jack, Ah Gan is on the highlands, he can’t see or hear the noise. Let him focus on the game."

Ramsay seemed to understand something, his anxious heart settled, and he sat on the bench waiting for the game to start.

For Gan Guoyang, the season was in its final stages, whatever noise, whatever locker room conflicts, whatever selling of the team, whatever disputes about the leader—all of it didn’t matter anymore.

What really mattered was the game before him, winning this one game.

He didn’t need to do anything unrelated to the game, he didn’t even need to care about his teammates anymore.

As long as you are still on the court, still alive, still playing for the Trail Blazers, that’s enough.

Tonight’s main referee Jack Madden tossed the basketball into the air, and Gan Guoyang jumped for the ball against Moses Malone.

Gan Guoyang touched the ball first, Porter got the ball and passed it to Drexler, and the game began.

On the Trail Blazers’ first offense, Gan Guoyang set a screen for Drexler up high, drawing the Bullets’ defense with their coordination.

Moncrief, Moses Malone, and Barkley all surrounded them.

The Bullets’ defense had two distinctive features: high intensity and high density.

Unlike the Detroit Pistons’ solid turtle shell, the Bullets didn’t play a fake zone defense.

Dick Motta knew that the individual defensive abilities of his men were actually mediocre, except for Moncrief.

So the Bullets were adept at stacking defenders on the strong side, creating a numerical advantage, making the defense on the side with the ball particularly dense.

If the opponent moved the ball from the strong side to the weak side, they would then use tireless rotation and positioning to cover the gaps—Moncrief was key to this.

Such defense inevitably left big gaps, and at that time, the Bullets bet on the opponent’s poor shooting touch, and with intense full-court pressure, aimed to lower the shooting percentage.

Over seven games, the opponent would inevitably explode with hot shooting, making the Bullets suffer.

But if they could endure to the end of a seven-game series, the opponent might not be able to take it anymore.

The Pistons and Celtics were both exhausted in game seven, missing even open shots, and got eliminated by the Bullets.

Drexler passed the ball to Thompson on the other side, and Thompson’s mid-range shot missed.

The Bullets got the rebound and started a counterattack. With consecutive passes, Moses Malone cut to the basket.

He received Colter’s pass, turned around and tried to use his strength to push for space and layup.

But he couldn’t push through, forced a shot, the ball teetered on the rim and sadly missed.

Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound and sparked a counterattack to Drexler, who quickly penetrated.

But under the basket, he once again encountered the Bullets’ dense defense, Drexler passed the ball, but it was intercepted by Barkley who had followed up.

The Bullets didn’t play a fastbreak, but slowed down, waiting for Moses Malone to get into position before again passing to Malone for a post-up against Guoyang.

Malone still couldn’t budge Guoyang, passed the ball to the other side to Barkley in the low post; if Malone couldn’t play through, then Barkley would.

If the Trail Blazers switched Ah Gan onto Barkley, then Malone would play through; the trick was to avoid the confrontation.

Barkley played Thompson in the post, the Trail Blazers double-teamed, and Barkley passed to Bernard King.

King drove in one step from the middle, took a direct jump shot and scored, getting the first points of the game.

Then Drexler missed a mid-range shot, Barkley scored from mid-range against Thompson.

Porter’s quick shot also missed, and Moses Malone grabbed the offensive rebound in the midst of action and scored.

The Bullets started with a 6:0 run against the Trail Blazers, to the delight of the fans in the Capital Centre.

This also made Dick Motta and Wes Unseld believe they had a chance in tonight’s game.

For the Bullets, the longer the series dragged on, the better; they liked and were good at endurance matches.

They intended to wear the Trail Blazers down to exhaustion, just as they did against the Pistons and the Celtics.

The Trail Blazers didn’t call for a timeout; Ah Gan got the ball at the top of the arc and unexpectedly shot a long two-pointer, scoring.

He got the first points for the Trail Blazers in the game.

The Trail Blazers suddenly double-teamed Colter at the top of the arc, who passed it to Bernard King.

King drove down the middle, forceful shot in the paint, blocked by Gan Guoyang.

King’s familiar shooting area was also familiar to Guoyang.

Barkley got the ball and shot again, blocked again.

Malone got the ball, his shot wasn’t blocked but was contested and missed.

The Trail Blazers counterattacked, Porter cut in from the wing, and passed to the following Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang faked a middle shot then burst under the basket for an easy dunk.

Afterward, the Trail Blazers defended the Bullets for a full 24 seconds.

On offense, the Trail Blazers played their regular routine of the season: Guoyang faked cutting inside, but actually ran to receive the ball on either baseline to prevent being double-teamed. After catching the ball, he faced his defender one-on-one, and pulled up for a mid-range shot.

This move was extremely efficient, and Guoyang scored again!

Scoring 6 straight points, the score was tied, and the Capital Centre suddenly became much quieter.