Losing the third ga was a considerable blow to the Trail Blazers players.
The intensity of the ga showed that the Trail Blazers were not willing to give the Lakers a chance to turn the tables, they wanted to win.
They aid to lead the series 3:0 directly, removing any suspense from the outco, but the Lakers were incredibly resilient, clinging on without letting go.
Every ti the Trail Blazers thought they could seal the deal, there was always soone from the Lakers who stepped up with a response.
Jabbar’s offensive rebound, Magic Johnson’s long shot, Byron Scott drawing fouls on penetrations.
The two sides were evenly matched in this ga, and Gan Guoyang’s ejection was a turning point, possessing an elent of contingency but also a trace of inevitability.
As the support pillar in the paint and the core of offense and defense, his stamina was nearly limitless, but his foul count was not.
The Lakers reduced their periter shooting this ga, with Worthy, Jabbar, Johnson, Cooper, and others taking turns attacking the Trail Blazers’ interior.
While Gan Guoyang was consistently blocking shots, he inevitably committed fouls, and tonight the referees’ whistles seed sowhat biased towards the Lakers.
It was apparent that so plays were designed by the Lakers to draw fouls, specifically to knock Gan Guoyang out of the ga early.
Guoyang managing to stay in the ga until the second overti already proved his exceptional ability to control fouling, but he still reached five fouls.
All the little details that accumulated throughout were magnified at the end, resulting in Guoyang’s offensive charge being called a foul, and he was ejected with six fouls.
Without Guoyang, the Trail Blazers beca like headless flies, getting pumled by Wes Matthews, continuously losing points.
In the end, the Lakers pulled one ga back, changing the series to 1:2, keeping a glimr of hope for the Lakers.
Following this loss, dia outlets such as The Oregonian, which have always supported the Trail Blazers, began to question, "Why is it that the Trail Blazers find it difficult to defeat the Lakers at the morial Coliseum?"
In both the playoffs and the regular season, the Trail Blazers’ record against the Lakers at ho has always been poor, which started to concern people about the fourth ga, wondering if the Trail Blazers could be overwheld by the Lakers.
After all, the third ga gave an impression of being a turning point in the series, with the victorious Lakers not even celebrating but leaving the venue with serious expressions, intent on securing the fourth ga as well.
The long-standing dominance of the Lakers and their regular season prowess exerted considerable pressure on the Portland people, and though they lost to the Rockets last year, they haven’t lost enough yet, at least the Trail Blazers haven’t truly defeated them.
Gan Guoyang was speechless toward such dia speculation; he felt these outlets were making a mountain out of a molehill.
The morning after the ga at ho, while reading the newspaper, he said to Wang Fuxi, "Without enough samples, wins and losses have no pattern. Ho or away is just a change of venue for playing the ga."
As Wang Fuxi was preparing food for Guoyang, she said, "But the fact that you perform better at the Great Western Forum is as solid as iron."
"Is that so? I think I perform excellently in every ga, no matter which venue it is."
"Don’t play dumb; you love trouncing the opponents in Los Angeles, but once you get to Portland, you seem sowhat less interested."
Wang Fuxi served Guoyang so beans to replenish protein after he had co back from a run earlier that morning.
He hadn’t arranged for any training for himself today, and the coaching staff also gave the team a day off; after a triple-overti battle and a loss, the players needed to recover both physically and ntally.
"Alright, you have a point. I do enjoy seeing the silence of the fans in the away gas, like watching the ho team players in deep mourning."
"So in simple terms, making your own fans happy isn’t as exciting for you as making the opposing fans suffer. You’re a bit of a sadist."
Having been with Guoyang for so many years, Wang Fuxi understood him quite well; Guoyang enjoyed challenges and making his opponents suffer.
"I still rember every ti you win a championship, you’re always so nonchalant. For you, the joy of winning a championship is secondary; making the rest of the League’s teams feel miserable for not winning is what really matters to you. It’s like whenever you make a significant play, you have to call Michael; otherwise, the victory feels aningless."
These words left Guoyang at a loss for words; he was also reflecting if perhaps he could shift his mindset for the fourth ga.
Most players perform better at ho, where they are more relaxed and familiar with their environnt, especially the younger players.
So young players seem completely unable to play on the road, yet they can hold their own against their opponents on their ho turf.
Young players like Kossie and Hornacek could have perford better at ho.
But because the team relied on them as the absolute core, their creativity and display on the court were stifled.
Hornacek and Curry barely got any playing ti, and when Kossie did play, he was more of a defensive worker; he hardly got any offensive opportunities aside from so easy, uncontested shots.
From daily practices and regular-season gas, Gan Guoyang could tell that their talent was not limited to this.
Hornacek, this unremarkable guy, could perhaps beco a starter on a weaker team; he had made trendous progress from the start to the end of the season.
Gan Guoyang did not want these talented teammates to end up like Dale Ellis, shining for other teams.
The next day, Gan Guoyang attended the team’s pre-ga training and discussed strategies for the fourth ga with Bobby Berman.
"For the fourth ga, we should make so changes. I can act as a decoy, focus more on supporting and passing, reduce my own shots, and create more opportunities for others. We need a victory where the whole team shines to boost morale. If we lose the ho court advantage in the fourth match, it would be greatly disadvantageous for us,"
Gan Guoyang volunteered to reduce his playti; first, to give others more opportunities, second, to confuse the Lakers unexpectedly, and third, to give himself a chance to rest and catch his breath.
Beelman thought Gan Guoyang’s idea made sense, so he communicated with Jack Ramsay.
During the pre-ga preparation eting, the coaching staff debated repeatedly, and Ramsay thought that making such a change was very risky.
Most coaches tend to beco more conservative with their player lineups as the series progresses, hardly giving a chance to those who have not perford well earlier in the series.
By the sixth or seventh ga, the use of player rotations may beco exhaustive, potentially leading to extre situations where only six or seven players rotate in.
However, Ramsay is a coach who is bold and unconventional in his rotations. The 1977 Trail Blazers were the youngest champions in history.
The average age of that Trail Blazers team was 24 years, featuring 3 rookies, 3 sophomores, and 2 third-year players—including their star Bill Walton.
All 12 players in the playoffs made more than 10 appearances each, with the core rotation being these sophomores and juniors, fully harnessing their potential.
So, he was not one to shy away from using new players, definitely not a conservative coach in his player managent.
After serious consideration, Ramsay realized that the Trail Blazers’ over-reliance on Gan Guoyang in the previous gas was indeed too heavy.
If Gan Guoyang only perford average (which for Gan Guoyang ant 30 points, 15 boards) or was unable to play due to so reason, the remaining Trail Blazers lineup wouldn’t know how to play.
In a seven-ga series, the team cannot rely on Gan Guoyang scoring over 40 points every ga to win; others must be able to stand out and put pressure on the Lakers.
Otherwise, the Lakers’ pressure would beco increasingly tighter, and as the series progressed, it would beco more difficult for the Trail Blazers, whose roster potential was indeed less than the Lakers’.
After a lengthy discussion and simulation, Ramsay gave his opinion: he agreed with the strategy of Beelman and Gan Guoyang, and they needed to catch the Lakers off guard in the fourth ga.
But Ramsay stipulated one condition, saying, "To ensure we are foolproof, Ah Gan’s playing ti needs to increase. Since he will be focusing on passing and less on scoring, it shouldn’t be too tiring."
When Gan Guoyang heard Ramsay’s condition from Beelman, he could hardly believe his ears.
"What? Because I’m going to play less, I have to play more?"
Beelman nodded and said, "That’s right, less is more. I see no problem with that."
Gan Guoyang couldn’t help but give a thumbs up to the coaching staff in his heart, marveling at their flawless logic!
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