Jasikevicius, a player who relies on his mind due to average physical dynamics, will be in trouble when facing Gan Guoyang.
Sure enough, at the start of the second half, Gan Guoyang stood right in front of Jasikevicius, shocking this King of Europe.
"Oh my God, Sonny, are you standing in the wrong place?"
"No, wherever you stand, I stand. I'm your fan."
"Stop joking..."
Gan Guoyang can communicate with Jasikevicius in Lithuanian, which he learned from Sabonis.
Because of Sabonis, many young Lithuanian players are fans of the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang.
Tonight Sabonis is sitting courtside, wearing glasses, next to his wife and son, watching the game between China and Lithuania.
When he saw Gan Guoyang sticking to Jasikevicius, he knew it was trouble, muttering, "Ah Gan is bullying the youngsters again, hang in there, hang on."
But it's really hard to withstand, Jasikevicius can't be as carefree as in the first half, with no pressure on both offense and defense, fully focused on organizing the offense.
First, at half-court, he has to face Gan Guoyang's oppressive defense, with a 6-foot-10 height, absolute strength, and sense of pressure, trying to use power for breakthrough is totally useless.
He can only accelerate, shake off, can't shake off, go back, find someone, can't find anyone, gets pushed to the corner, passes the ball to a teammate coming to support.
A completely non-threatening defensive pass, failed to organize the initial pass, but Jasikevicius immediately ran to the wing, looking for a new position to receive the ball through movement.
However, Gan Guoyang does not chase, he won't waste energy chasing runs, instead stands at the top of the arc, overseeing everything, judging the ball's path, blocking Lithuania's central attack.
Jasikevicius runs to the inside, Yao Ming is inside, even if he receives the ball, it's useless, circles to the right wing, Gan Guoyang has already moved over, as soon as he receives the ball, Gan Guoyang will certainly come forward.
Even if it's far away, his height and defensive coverage can still affect Jasikevicius.
Now, Lithuania's offensive organization is in trouble.
Low post attack fails, Yao Ming takes the rebound, China team counterattacks.
Gan Guoyang dribbles past half-court, with skilled ball-handling, ignoring various disruptions.
Then, in the non-existent defense from Jasikevicius, he directly pulls up for a three-pointer and hits it!
Yunas sees this and knows it's trouble, but calling a timeout now is too early, he can only shout instructions from the sidelines.
If only Lithuania still had Sabonis, he knows Ah Gan's plays and can assist in organizing from the middle, reconstructing the team's offense.
But Sabonis has retired, from both the NBA and the national team, he truly can't play anymore.
Jasikevicius gets blocked by Gan Guoyang, and Lithuania's positional offense immediately stalls.
They rely more on individual ability to force attacks, greatly reducing offensive efficiency, while the basket is firmly guarded by Yao Ming.
Gan Guoyang takes control of the ball, his presence as the ball-handler is too threatening, Lithuania's defensive attention is fully focused on him.
Often facing two or three defenders converging, Gan Guoyang promptly passes the ball, or he can shoot before the defenders gather.
After scoring consecutive strong three-pointers and two-pointers and assisting Wang Zhizhi, Hu Weidong in scoring, China team makes an 11:4 run to tie the game.
Yunas has no choice, calls a timeout to reorganize, rotates personnel, adds an extra guard to free up Jasikevicius, avoiding Ah Gan's sharpness.
In FIBA, just like in the NBA, coaches ultimately discover that avoiding Ah Gan is the best strategy to avoid definite losses.
Gan Guoyang sees this and relaxes his defense on Jasikevicius, returning to the three position on offense, giving primary control to Guo Shiqiang and Hu Weidong.
Since his first comeback in 1996 to now, Gan Guoyang's play style has completely reverted to a human starโas he puts it, "I'm only half a body ahead of Michael."
Changes in rhythm, with fast and slow, acceleration, and constant speed, he can no longer be as wild as during his youth, suffocating opponents to death.
However, this way, Gan Guoyang has more opportunities for hands-on-hips thinking, better observing game dynamics, he uses his brain more and more.
Both teams enter a stalemate; Lithuania regains their offensive touch, while China relies on Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi's advantage inside, continuously scoring.
Tonight Yao Ming is in very good form, unstoppable inside, Gan Guoyang continuously feeds him from the three, Yao Ming scores repeatedly with hooks and layups.
The scores see-saw back and forth from 65 all the way to 80, entering the final decisive stage.
At this time, Lithuania finally unveils their secret weaponโcontinuous screens, creating offensive space for Jasikevicius.
The FIBA screen rules differ slightly from the NBA's. Before 2000, the NBA was very strict about illegal screens.
Basically, when players set a screen for teammates, the rule was to stay still, any movement would be called a foul.
Because the NBA didn't want too many screens disrupting one-on-one duels between players.
So stars like Jordan, Kobe, Allen Iverson, are all out against isolation experts, rarely relying on screen assists.
Even inside stars like David Robinson, Ewing, Olajuwon, rarely come out to set screens for teammates on offense.
Including Stockton-Malone, tagged with a screen label, actually use screens less often in key moments of important games.
