The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 607 - 12 The New Season Begins_3
Later, when Nielsen wanted to make a trade, the Trail Blazers, for the sake of team cohesion and stability, no longer agreed to the deal.
After all, the team had an abundance of resources in the paint; James Edwards wasn’t an absolute necessity.
During pre-game warmups, Kukoc, Raja, Divac, and Petrović gathered to chat, asking each other about their experiences playing basketball in America.
Kukoc squeezed Petrović’s shoulder, noting that he seemed to have gotten stronger, while Divac appeared to have slimmed down.
Petrović said, "Tony, starting from today, the gap between us is going to grow wider and wider."
Kukoc couldn’t help but laugh, replying, "Look at the way you’re talking yourself up. You haven’t even played an official NBA game yet. How big do you think the gap can be?"
Petrović responded, "The difference between us is a Divac."
Divac: "..."
Come evening, the game officially began. Due to muscle tightness, Hornacek would miss the game, giving Petrović the chance to start.
Petrović entered the court wearing Trail Blazers’ number 44 jersey; this was his first preseason game as a starter.
The Split team, the European champions of 1989 and home to NBA-caliber players like Raja and Kukoc, certainly lived up to their reputation.
During the game, they tangled with the Trail Blazers, scoring alternated rapidly, and plenty of baskets were made by both sides, making the match intensely fierce and exciting.
The Trail Blazers gave Petrović ample room to perform. Faced with his familiar European teams and Kukoc, he unleashed his great power, eager to demonstrate his superior and varied offensive skills in the game.
And he did just that: his shooting, his various drives to the basket, floaters, mid-range shots—he dominated the game and won the home crowd’s cheers time after time.
Both teams battled until the last 8 minutes, with the Trail Blazers leading Split 109:106, just three points ahead.
Beelman called a timeout and then told Gan Guoyang, "Let’s finish the game early."
Gan Guoyang asked, "Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer? The last five minutes."
"Make it eight minutes, to be safe."
Beelman still felt the pressure, fearing that having too much fun and losing the game would be embarrassing.
Gan Guoyang nodded. Up to that point, he had been in a relaxed, going-through-the-motions mode in the game.
As the timeout ended and play resumed, Gan Guoyang encouraged everyone to step up their defensive intensity.
"The regular season," Gan Guoyang said, demanding regular-season intensity.
The Split team, which had been playing wisely, suddenly seemed to forget how to play basketball.
The Trail Blazers destroyed their offense with high-intensity man-to-man defense.
Gan Guoyang made his move out of the Three Second Zone, snatching a series of steals.
He then carried the ball from the backcourt, launching a fast break, dunking twice and drawing a foul on a layup.
He also assisted Terry Porter, whose three-pointer hit the mark, creating a 9:0 offensive surge, halting Split in their tracks.
Even Petrović struggled to keep up with the high intensity of the attack and defense; it was too fast and too forceful.
Even Petrović became the weak point in defense, and when Kukoc tried to go one-on-one with Petrović after the timeout, he was once again intercepted by the helping Gan Guoyang.
Kukoc realized that this NBA’s number one center was too fast; his silent, pinching defense accurately stripped the ball from his hands.
Another counter, Gan Guoyang didn’t speed up but slowly advanced the ball over half court, then casually shot a three-pointer from the arc.
It hit the mark.
Split missed on their offensive play, Sabonis grabbed the rebound.
Gan Guoyang received Sabonis’s pass at the arc, shot a three-pointer.
Another hit.
Gan Guoyang blocked an opponent’s layup inside, leisurely counter-attacked.
He dodged the defense at a 45-degree angle, shot a three-pointer, and scored again!
Gan Guoyang, with three consecutive three-pointers, delivered a 9:0 run, all seemingly effortless.
The FIBA three-point line was really too short; this distance was his high-scoring area in the NBA.
His iron-like physique coupled with machine-like shooting precision left his opponents powerless to stop him.
What was once a three-point gap turned into a 21-point lead—the difference in strength between the two teams was indeed too great.
What initially seemed like an evenly matched, splendid game was just the Trail Blazers simply playing along, humoring their opponents.
In the end, the Trail Blazers won with ease against the Split team, 136:110, securing a 26-point victory and claiming the championship trophy of the McDonald’s Championship.
After finishing the preseason games in Europe, the Trail Blazers flew back to Portland on the 23rd to play the remaining two preseason games. The 1989-1990 regular season was about to begin.
This year’s Trail Blazers’ training camp was a bit longer than usual because there were quite a few newcomers to the team, and Bobby Beelman had to carry out a lot of tactical training and pairing experiments.
The pressure was still heavy on Beelman, knowing that being a head coach felt completely different from being an assistant coach.
He was acutely aware that, although the October preseason camp and June’s Finals were nearly eight months apart, a solid and well-prepared training camp could determine whether you made it to June and whether you could reach the finals in the games of June.
So it didn’t take long for Sabonis and others to realize that their head coach, Bobby Beelman, wasn’t the least bit gentle; in fact, gentleness was completely off the table. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Basically, by the second hour of training, the entire gym would start to fill with the scent of "full metal jacket".
Becoming a head coach, Bobby Beelman’s fire powered up, living up to his nickname of "the epitome of human profanity."
In the preseason camp, Divac’s level of English profanity improved more than his basketball skills.
