Chapter 1344: Chapter 22: The Vacant Paint
[November 29, 1996, the nineteenth day of the tenth lunar month, America just celebrated Thanksgiving.
Watching the game at the Rose Garden Arena with daughter-in-law Fosse.
The weather is drizzling, opponents: New York Knicks, wearing blue jerseys.
Team’s characteristics, strong defense, low scoring for themselves, even lower for opponents.
The game’s highlight, there’s a bald coach provoking my son, and my son is ready to teach him a lesson.]
Before the game between the Trail Blazers and the Knicks began, Gan Youwei, sitting in the front row VIP at the Rose Garden Arena, wrote the "preview" of this match in a notebook.
When Gan Youwei sensed his memory was fading, he started recording current events in a notebook, especially his son’s matches.
After Gan Guoyang’s return in 1996, Gan Youwei continued this habit, with these notes, he could connect many things in his mind, forming a strong web.
This web, woven with Gan Guoyang’s matches as nodes, can temporarily hold his memory, allowing forgetfulness to come slower, even slower.
Since even Gan Youwei knew about Van Gundy’s provocation, it meant everyone in Portland knew, and definitely fans across America knew as well.
In such a situation, if Gan Guoyang didn’t respond at home, he really wouldn’t survive.
Standing at the center circle for the jump ball, Alonzo Mourning sensed the focus and killing intent from Gan Guoyang, sighed in his heart, "Coach, you could provoke anyone, why Ah Gan?"
"If you provoke Jordan, at most he’ll dunk over my head; Ah Gan is directly facing me."
Sighing as he might, Mourning was still seriously and fully committed to the game, determined to stop Ah Gan tonight.
This is a psychological game, everyone knows both Ah Gan and Jordan are unyielding in revenge, and their means are severe.
However, there’s a latent thought perhaps in the Knicks players’ minds, that Ah Gan has really aged and might not respond to every provocation anymore.
In the last game at Madison Square Garden, Gan Guoyang chased fiercely all the way, but the Trail Blazers still lost in the end.
If Ah Gan loses to the Knicks again at home tonight, the attitudes of Mourning, Kemp, and others might really change.
Like the brutal African savanna, where hyenas fear the lion; upon the lion’s arrival, they tuck their tails and run away.
However, a day will come when the lion ages, and the hyenas spot signs of old age, perhaps even seeing it alone.
One dared to challenge it, trying to snatch the food from its mouth.
The result was the lion fiercely beat down the hyena, but the hyena didn’t die, instead managed to snatch a leg away.
With this experience, the other hyenas, thinking "give it a try," went for a second time to provoke and snatch.
If the lion could no longer kill any hyena, and lost another piece of food, the courage of the hyenas would grow bigger.
They would continue attacking this lion until it was thoroughly killed, disappearing from the savanna.
The essence of NBA competitions is no different from the biological cycle’s slaughter, survival of the fittest, only without the price of life.
But for a proud basketball star, honor and victory are their professional life.
Therefore, many superstars might extend their careers given their ability.
Yet, when they cannot fend off the hyenas’ harassment and provocation, they might choose to leave gracefully early.
Gan Guoyang is equally proud; he even resists bringing his standards down to Jordan’s level.
Faced with provocation and doubt, he certainly needs to make a beautiful counterattack.
Otherwise, the skepticism against him will grow, more will challenge and attack him.
Now, in the eyes of Mourning, Kemp, and others, there is still awe, along with traces of doubt.
He must clear away those doubts and make them understand Ah Gan is still Ah Gan.
In the jump ball, Gan Guoyang tipped the ball first and quickly dashed to the three-second zone.
The game started, and the Knicks immediately set up their defensive formation, Van Gundy preferred dense positioning.
Most of the Knicks players were concentrated around the three-second zone to increase the defensive thickness under the basket.
As for the open spaces outside, the Knicks minimized success rates using ball-handler pressure, big man interceptions, and diverse defensive traps.
The Knicks players all knew Ah Gan would surely explode tonight, so their defensive attention was focused on him, already prepared for help defense and encirclement.
As soon as Gan Guoyang received the ball in a low position, Kemp and Houston started drifting toward him, PJ Brown became the left-out object.
But Gan Guoyang neither forced a solo nor passed the ball to the open PJ Brown, knowing it’s a Knicks’ trap.
He chose to return the ball to the outsider Van Exel, then came out to set a pick for Van Exel.
Van Exel drove to the left with the ball, the pick-and-roll disrupted the Knicks’ defensive matchups.
Through a tiny gap, Van Exel returned the ball to the cutting Gan Guoyang, who caught the ball at the elbow and took a mid-range jump shot, scoring!
After scoring, Gan Guoyang chewed gum while running back to the defense, his eyes scanning the Knicks’ bench, with Van Gundy sternly seated on the bench.
Gan Guoyang had undergone more than an hour’s shooting warm-up before the game, just to find his rhythm quickly and avoid warming hands during the game.
Compared to their tight defense, the Knicks’ offense seemed lackluster, mainly relying on three key plays: Mourning low-post singles, Kemp high-position pick and roll, Houston and Rice wing jump shots.
