Doug Moe’s strategy had an unexpectedly great effect; the Nuggets’ offensive success rate was very high. They shot with incredible speed, passed with seamless understanding, and without much hesitation, they took their chances whenever they appeared.
Natt and Cooper didn’t go low, but they would repeatedly run counter and cut backdoor, forcing Gan Guoyang to follow inside and guard the basket.
English, Lever and others took their shots one after the other; the Trail Blazers were hit hard before they had a chance to stabilize.
For the Trail Blazers, this wasn’t the most lethal issue; the deadliest part was they over-rested themselves, and their own outside shooting touch was horrendously bad.
Gan Guoyang was the only normal one; he realized sothing was wrong toward the end of the first quarter, as the ga had completely entered the Nuggets’ rhythm.
The Nuggets were one of the few teams in the league who scored more in the playoffs than during the regular season; they were even faster than in the regular season.
The Nuggets were like a high-speed running machine, getting faster and bolder in their attacks, and their defense didn’t fall behind.
During the regular season, the Nuggets had the highest number of steals across the entire league, and their ability to force turnovers was also the strongest, because almost every team that played against the Nuggets would be dragged into their high-speed rhythm, making mistakes easily.
The Trail Blazers tried to slow the pace back down in the second and third quarters, but it was no use; slowing down resulted in even lower scoring efficiency, running a shootout to regain their shooting touch seed to be their only fighting chance.
Gan Guoyang felt as if he was back in the regular season; that exhausting last-minute ga-winning shot, as well as the away ga with 44 points and 33 rebounds, they won, but it was incredibly draining.
However, the Nuggets were getting into their groove, leading by 5 points in the first quarter, by 10 at halfti, and even as Gan Guoyang scored repeatedly in the third quarter, the Nuggets kept scoring too.
The Nuggets just shot—Dan Issel shot, English shot, Natt shot, Cooper shot, and nobody went for strong moves under the basket.
But if the defense slackened even slightly, Natt, Cooper, or Issel would cut to the basket, run counter and steal so points on the pass.
Danny Shayes, the son of the legendary player Dolph Shayes, was one of the few substitutes who would occasionally post up and play low.
However, after being blocked twice and stolen from by Gan Guoyang, Danny Shayes completely abandoned this approach and understood why Doug Moe told everyone not to play one-on-one in the low post randomly.
Only in a fast break mismatch situation, like a guard defending a center, would the Nuggets employ a cumberso back-to-the-basket play to score, solidifying their advantage.
This light cavalry style of play ant that even as Gan Guoyang led the Trail Blazers in a mad chase in the third quarter, they still couldn’t turn the situation around.
In the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers took a risk by employing a half-court trap, causing Nuggets turnovers several tis, but the Nuggets displayed tenacious defense. Twice, the Trail Blazers’ counterattacks were stopped by the Nuggets’ interior defense.
The screams in the morial Coliseum were non-stop, the fans’ hearts were in their throats, but the Trail Blazers could never even the score.
Until the final stage of the ga, the score reached 145:139, both teams scored so high without overti in a playoff ga.
Eventually, in this offensive battle, the visiting Nuggets won 145:141, leading the series 1:0, leaving all the Trail Blazers fans in morial Coliseum utterly disappointed.
Gan Guoyang, although he scored 31 points and 19 rebounds, saw his 31 points diluted by the high overall ga score of 286 points by both teams.
If it were a ga of 100 to 100 , the impact of 31 points would undoubtedly be huge, but as the rounds increased and the tempo quickened with more shots taken, Gan Guoyang’s role seed relatively diminished.
Doug Moe really was a talent, he ca up with this thod to deal with the Trail Blazers, who had a single core and were not mature, causing them to falter in the opening ga.
In the second ga, the Trail Blazers could not afford to lose; after battling through two overtis, the Trail Blazers finally secured a win on their ho court, 124:128, bringing the series to a 1:1 tie.
However, the Nuggets team had already seized the ho-court advantage, and going to the Denver Plateau posed a fatal challenge, particularly testing the players’ physical endurance.
Doug Moe clearly understood that running in high altitude was difficult, hence gas against the Nuggets were the most running-intensive and exhausting in the League, with many teams collapsing on the Colorado Plateau.
Denver took advantage of this, finishing the regular season with an incredibly strong ho record of 34 wins and 7 losses, while their away record was only 16 wins and 25 losses, showing a huge difference in win rates.
From this, one can see how much of a boost the high-altitude ho-court gives to the Nuggets team.
Back when Gan Guoyang was at Gonzaga University, he suffered during a road trip ga; the only ga they lost was at the University of Colorado, where exhaustion was too much to bear.
On May 4th, as the Nuggets welcod the visiting Trail Blazers at the McNichols Sports Arena, Gan Guoyang had scored 44 points and grabbed 33 rebounds here, striking a heavy blow to the Nuggets with a defeat on their ho court.
But tonight, the Nuggets’ morale and condition had peaked; Doug Moe, having removed his black suit, wearing a white shirt and carelessly knotted striped tie, his hair as ssy as if he’d just woken up, started shouting at his players from the sidelines—this was the Doug Moe people were familiar with.
In Portland, Doug Moe was just in disguise, holding back and keeping cool to steal a victory, but now in Denver, he was ready to demolish the Portland people.
The Nuggets celebrated a ho victory with a commanding 114:133 win, updating the series score to 2:1 in the Nuggets’ favor, and the next ga would still be played in Denver.
Following the win, Doug Moe, amidst the crazy cheers of the fans, raised his arms and shouted. In the post-ga interviews, Moe had a lot to say, intending to share thoughts he had never ntioned before.
He pointed out Jack Ramsay didn’t seem like a collegiate coach at all, "The Nuggets are more like a team team, even though English scored 40 points in the third ga, he was still part of the team offense. The Trail Blazers, on the other hand, look more like one person’s team, a team built to chase a new star."
"Jack is letting this go unchecked, allowing the situation to continue, which I think is good. Dr. Jack should make so changes. But the playoffs are tough, Ah Gan is a great player, and if he was with the Nuggets, I would have him scoring 40 points on average per ga."
"However, it seems that if the Portland people want to win a ga, they need Ah Gan to score 60 points, which probably doesn’t align with Dr. Jack’s basketball philosophy."
Ramsay’s "indulgence" of Guoyang surprised many coaches in the League. They didn’t understand what was happening with the Trail Blazers, or what had occurred between Guoyang and Ramsay.
Gan Guoyang indeed played like a miracle, but Doug Moe thought Dr. Jack was violating his past principles, those he had used to criticize player coaches like himself, such as letting George Gervin take a high volu of shots, and now he was doing the sa.
Ramsay didn’t respond to this at all, appearing much quieter than in any past season. At the age of 60, he seed to have realized sothing, becoming much more serene.
Guoyang, in response to Doug Moe’s remarks, had only one thing to say, "Coach Mo is indeed a great coach, he gave a good hint."
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