Gan Guoyang’s comnts after the ga sounded like the wry jokes of soone resigned to a loss.
Down 1:2, with two crushing defeats and one hard-won overti victory at ho.
The Nuggets truly had a stifling effect on the Trail Blazers in terms of lineup and play style, plunging the entire team’s morale into a trough at once.
After the third ga ended, Ramsay wandered the streets of Denver alone until two in the morning before returning to the hotel.
Rick Adelman had been waiting in the hotel lobby for Ramsay and only when he saw that Ramsay was unhard did he say, "Jack, you really have us worried, you hardly ever roam around after a loss these days."
Jack Ramsay had indeed greatly changed that habit this season, but the main reason was that the Trail Blazers seldom lost.
Gas as frustrating as the loss to the Nuggets were even rarer.
Ramsay said, "Don’t worry, Denver’s public security is much better than Los Angeles or Chicago; it’s just a bit cold at night."
In May, the evenings in Denver were still quite cool, and the two sat in the hotel lobby discussing what to do for the fourth ga.
Ramsay’s brow was deeply furrowed; he felt at a disadvantage in this matchup, which caused him great pain.
In the past, he indeed looked down on coaches like Doug Moe, considering them to have transitioned directly from professional players to coaches without any college-level training, making a ss of the team’s guidance.
Doug Moe was a man with ethical blemishes, having been involved in the 1961 betting scandal orchestrated by Jack Molinas, tarnishing both his and North Carolina’s reputation.
After entering the NBA as a coach, he was constantly embroiled in a string of clownish incidents: he liked walking his dogs, skipped practice to play golf, trained only for an hour a day, publicly called his wife "Big Jane," claid his ntal age would always be twelve, and was voted as the second worst-dressed coach on the sidelines by "USA Today" (first place went to the Jazz’s rotund coach Frank Layden), and so on.
However, in this series, Ramsay felt completely dominated by Doug Moe in every aspect, his ga preparations utterly ineffective in the actual contest.
Compared to Doug Moe, Ramsay’s life experiences were strikingly different, with his military career significantly shaping him.
During training with the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team UDT-30, he served as a platoon leader, where an important part of the training was morization.
When diving underwater, he had to lead his team to record the coordinates of various obstacles on the seafloor, like concrete blocks, barbed wire, and rock cages, on a small slate on their chests. They had to familiarize themselves with these obstacles to clear the way and guide the landing forces.
Since communication underwater was difficult, thorough preparation plans had to be made before each training, assigning each team mber’s area of responsibility, assembly tis and locations, and contingency asures for any unforeseen events.
Therefore, Ramsay developed a habit of making thorough preparations before a ga. He would watch ga recordings over and over, review statistical data, and simulate possible in-ga situations in his mind to devise contingency plans.
But Doug Moe?
He was known as a coach who did no pre-ga preparations and relied purely on on-the-spot coaching.
Moreover, after video replay technology beca widespread, he was the only coach in the entire league who hardly ever watched ga recordings.
His reasoning was, "I find watching ga recordings can be disheartening."
Doug Moe’s principle was always to look forward. Don’t worry about the ga that’s over; the next ga will bring its own set of conditions.
As for what exactly those conditions would be, you’d find out by playing.
With such an attitude, as if sliding on a waterlon rind and going wherever it took him, Doug Moe held his coaching position firmly, and the result wasn’t bad either.
After arriving at the Nuggets, he made the playoffs year after year, and Ramsay realized that, had Ah Gan not co to Portland this year, he might not have even matched up to Doug Moe.
Doug Moe could very well say, "If I had Ah Gan, my coaching record would be better than yours!"
This was a significant blow to Ramsay’s ntality, so he needed to wander the streets of Denver at night to alleviate his inner frustration.
Of course, his heart was much more serene than before. In the past, when his temper was at its worst, he would remain silent after a loss, refusing to speak to anyone, causing the team atmosphere to beco extrely oppressive.
Or he would angrily vent to the dia, criticizing the players for their poor performance, leaving everyone silent as if they were frozen.
Now, he simply went out for a quiet walk and then ca back to discuss strategies with his assistant coaches.
Rick Adelman suggested, "Jack, let’s adjust the starting lineup for the fourth ga and use that lineup."
The lineup Adelman referred to ant starting Drexler and putting Parkson as Point Guard—it was a lineup with extrely strong offense.
Ramsay shook his head and said, "Making a last-minute change to the starting lineup is a sign of panic, we haven’t reached the most critical mont yet. The players’ confidence is important, so we shouldn’t adjust the starting lineup arbitrarily. If needed, this lineup can still be utilized during the ga."
Ramsay, with his experience, dismissed Adelman’s suggestion, and Adelman continued, "Well... then we should give Kossie more playing ti to strengthen our defense, the Nuggets are scoring too easily."
Ramsay still shook his head, "Kossie is too inexperienced, how can we expect him to turn things around?"
After being continuously rejected, Adelman thought to himself, if this won’t work and that won’t work, then what’s your great idea?
Right, if you could co up with sothing, we wouldn’t be down 1:2, wandering aimlessly in the middle of the night.
With his hand supporting his head, Ramsay pondered and then said, "Next ga, we’ll expand the rotation to give Kossie more ti on the court, but it’s to increase the starters’ rest ti. We need to engage in an offensive battle with the Nuggets and we must win the upcoming ga."
"An offensive battle? Can we manage it?"
"Why not, our regular season scoring was only slightly lower than the Nuggets’. My preparation approach was flawed. I’ve been focused on controlling the pace, taking it from them, but it led us to be consistently on the back foot. Doug Moe is a disciple of Dean Smith, and they understand the control of possession and tempo the most. I shouldn’t be competing with them, but rather playing to their style, which actually suits us better."
When Adelman heard Ramsay praising Doug Moe, he thought it was incredibly rare and finally, Ramsay rembered Moe was a disciple of Dean Smith.
With "tempo" at the core of Dean Smith’s basketball philosophy, he cultivated a number of coaches who seed quite different, like Doug Moe’s good friend Larry Brown.
But their differences were often superficial; deep down, they all adhered to Dean Smith’s basketball philosophy, which was the overall control of the ga.
By controlling macro aspects like possessions and shot timings, these coaches led their teams to subtly gain the upper hand and then clinched the ga with attention to detail.
Ramsay had now caught up to Doug Moe’s line of thinking and figured out how to counteract it. He couldn’t help but recall a line from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu from China, which goes "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles."
"The Art of War" was originally a book that Bob Knight had strongly recomnded to Stu-Inman, but Inman, the hapless guy, said he couldn’t understand it and let it gather dust in his office.
Jack Ramsay had also not been very interested in the book, thinking such books were all mumble-jumble, nothing like the detailed and useful things he had learned in the Arican military.
But after Gan Guoyang joined, he felt the charm of Chinese culture, and later on, borrowed the book from Inman’s office. He would flip through it from ti to ti, finding so phrases quite enlightening, though they seed a bit too abstract.
It wasn’t until this mont that Ramsay had an epiphany. He had overlooked Moe in the past, believing that he understood him and the Nuggets well, as he had watched many of their ga tapes.
He now realized he hadn’t truly understood Doug Moe; the answer was clear, Moe’s background and tactical thoughts were explicitly laid out there.
Ramsay had been blinded by his own arrogance, only attempting to solve problems his own way, yet neglecting genuine reflection and flexibility.
Having understood all of this, Ramsay suddenly didn’t feel so upset. He got up to go back to his room to sleep, planning to wake up early for training and to set out the new ga plan.
However, the next day, what Ramsay didn’t expect was that Gan Guoyang, who never arrived late for morning training, didn’t show up.
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