Gan Guoyang scored 12 points and made 4 assists in the first quarter. His explosive start was truly worrying—could he make the ga irreparable in just one quarter?
Jackson didn’t see it that way. He believed Gan was digging a hole for Jordan, but with Gan’s scoring ability, there was indeed that possibility.
In any case, after so consideration, Jackson decided not to focus on Jordan but instead asked the others to step up their defensive intensity and aggressiveness.
"Don’t let their ball move. Disrupt every single pass! Scottie, you must double-team Gan decisively—keep harassing him, don’t stop."
Jackson emphasized defense and then carefully planned the tactical choices for the second unit, knowing the performance of the bench would be crucial to winning or losing.
A key reason the Pistons lost 0:4 to the Bulls was their weak bench. With the starters exhausted, too few players could step up to sustain them.
The Trail Blazers were different; they had plenty of strong and skilled players, and the Bulls had to take note. Jackson wanted to see what tricks the Trail Blazers would use with their second unit.
The Trail Blazers’ second unit was usually led by Sabonis and Reggie Lewis, but the true heart of the lineup was Petrović. His fierce ball-handling offense allowed the Trail Blazers to score quickly.
Tonight, Petrović’s parents and siblings were in the stands watching the ga. As Petrović took to the court, he glanced at the stands; seeing his family gave him peace of mind.
Right now, the situation in Croatia was growing more tumultuous. According to friends back ho, Croatia was likely to declare independence in June, which would lead to the outbreak of civil war.
If his family was still in the country at that ti, Petrović would undoubtedly return to Croatia to be with them.
Gan Guoyang, through his relationships at the embassy, brought Petrović’s family over, easing Petrović’s concerns.
Still, Petrović was deeply worried about Croatia. He hoped he could perform exceptionally well in the Finals to inspire the people back ho.
He knew that many in Croatia were closely following the Finals. In Croatia, he was seen as the Jordan of their hearts.
As the second quarter started, Petrović indeed seized control of the ga. He repeatedly used screens from Sabonis and Mychal Thompson to shoot from the periter with the ball in hand.
Faced with the Bulls’ high-intensity periter defense, Petrović maintained decisiveness in his shooting, showing absolute confidence.
Under Bobby Berman’s ticulous guidance, he had beco the Trail Blazers’ best sixth man, a "microwave" on the court—he could score as soon as he stepped in.
The Bulls had a parallel figure in Horace Grant. Whenever Gan was off the court, Grant always thrived.
He repeatedly cut to the basket, using his speed to break away from Sabonis and Thompson and successfully attacked the rim.
Grant could also hit mid-range jumpers from the periter. Armstrong and Hodges nailed long-range shots.
In the 1991 season, the team that attempted the most three-pointers and had the highest shooting percentage was the Portland Trail Blazers.
The team with the second-highest shooting percentage was the Chicago Bulls—and that was even with Jordan dragging down the average.
Armstrong, Hodges, and Parkson were all excellent shooters, showing Klaus was spot on with his scouting eye. This era demanded strong shooting guards to stretch the floor.
Take Walter Davis, whom Jordan favored—because of changes in playing style over the years, he could no longer contribute his expected value in high-level gas.
The ga didn’t turn dull with Jordan and Gan Guoyang off the floor; on the contrary, both teams battled intensely back and forth.
Phil Jackson, usually calm and collected, was surprisingly restless, constantly standing on the sidelines to direct and reminding Armstrong to slightly slow down the pace.
"Shit, the pace is way too fast; this isn’t our style."
As Jackson watched the score climbing rapidly, unease crept into his heart.
Though the score was close, the ga was completely under the Trail Blazers’ control.
Under Berman’s coaching, the Trail Blazers weren’t a fast-break team, but they were an offense-driven team. They excelled at head-on offense and preferred a fluid playing rhythm.
While the Bulls weren’t a weak defensive team, overall they leaned more towards defense, preferring to use tough defense to disrupt opponents, leveraging counterattacks and periter strikes to wear down their enemies.
This was determined by the structural makeup of both teams. The Trail Blazers had a superior interior presence, allowing them to stabilize their offense around the paint; in head-to-head battles, the Trail Blazers held the advantage with a solid baseline ga.
The Bulls were a periter-focused team, with defense as their hallmark. If it ca down to half-court offensive efficiency, they were excellent, ranked second in the league—but unfortunately, the Trail Blazers were first.
Jackson desperately wished to drag the ga into chaos, forcing Gan out of his comfort zone in set plays. Ideally, he wanted to push the Trail Blazers’ offensive dominance to the periter, where the Bulls could use pressuring defense to throw them into disarray.
But Jordan’s "independent decision-making" in the first quarter had disrupted the rhythm, leaving Jackson feeling his grip on the ga slipping.
More troubles awaited the Chicago Bulls in the second half.
Petrović had scored seven straight points, and the Trail Blazers’ bench was suppressing the Bulls.
This pushed Jordan to act even more brazenly—after returning to the ga in the second quarter, Jordan’s offensive hunger intensified.
anwhile, Gan Guoyang continued to counter both offensively and defensively. In one-on-one situations, neither player could be stopped.
The Trail Blazers deployed a three-man trap with Lewis, Kossie, and Porter, relentlessly driving Jordan towards the sideline, towards Gan.
User Comments
0 comments from readers