Chapter 667: Chapter 53: Heartwarming
At 6 feet 10 inches, Gan Guoyang’s average height for an interior lineman gave him a natural versatility on defense.
Moreover, this guy had relatively short legs with a low center of gravity, which allowed him to turn and move quickly when facing some smaller guards, keeping up with them in most situations.
In the League, apart from players like Jordan, Thomas, and Tim Hardaway, who boasted speed and explosive starts, Guoyang could defend against the rest of the backcourt players one-on-one.
Also, due to his not being out of position, smaller players had no solution after losing their speed advantage against the big-sized interior linemen.
Moreover, that era was fairly strict about calling travels and carrying violations.
Although not as strict as in the 60s and 70s, where dribbling had to be straight up and down, obvious travels and holding the ball while dribbling were still closely watched by the referees.
Players of the 80s and 90s who grew up in the 60s and 70s had their basic dribbling skills drilled into them at school, and street ball dribbling techniques clearly diverged from those of the academy style.
Tim Hardaway’s Crossover technique, when used, was very solid with clear footwork and difficult to perform, rarely used by other smaller guards.
All these factors greatly reduced the difficulty for Guoyang to defend these small guards, many times he didn’t step out to guard them simply because he had to protect the Three Second Zone and rebound, unable to focus all his energy on locking down a single guard.
Magic Johnson was an anomaly among guards, standing at 6 feet 9 inches, his main advantage against the average defender was his height and strength.
Over the years, Magic Johnson consistently refrained from changing hands while dribbling, often using a side step or back to his defender to push them away, relying on his height, wingspan, strength, and his big butt to protect his dribbling space.
In professional games, Magic Johnson seldom resorted to in-front change of hands dribbling to get past his man; his main technique was the turn-around and the continuous dribble between the legs.
Usually, in fast-paced transition plays, Johnson would change direction in front, but in slower, set-piece plays, he would use less changing direction.
Firstly, because of his high center of gravity, most defenders guarding him were smaller guards, which made frontal dribbling penetration prone to steals.
In his early years, he committed four to five turnovers per game, many of which were frontal steals by the opposing guards, making Johnson later dribble with a conscious side step or back to the defender to protect the ball.
Secondly, Johnson’s explosiveness was average among black players; facing the basket while dribbling, he rarely managed to rely on his startup speed to directly overpower his defender (unless by traveling).
More often, he relied on his height and wingspan, plus his developed shooting ability later in his career, to score consistently every game.
When playing one-on-one with the ball, Johnson behaved more like a power forward or even a center, rather than a guard.
Hence, for Magic Johnson, mismatches were his essence; once the mismatch advantage was gone, facing a defender similar to him in speed, strength, height, and mobility, his effectiveness was greatly reduced.
In this respect, Magic was not as good as Larry Bird, who often had to face defenders with better physical qualities.
At those times, Bird would rely on his unmatched skills to overcome those challenges, and although limited by his physical abilities, his ability to power through was stronger than Johnson’s.
So, when Johnson faced Guoyang, a defender who was superior to him in all-round physical abilities, one could imagine his predicament.
Backing down was utterly ineffective; Guoyang was very cautious in controlling his steps and strength, not giving the referee a chance to call for a blocking foul.
Then it was sticking close throughout, long arms constantly disrupting, nearly smothering Johnson completely.
This astonishing defense forced the Magic to pass, giving the ball to the low post James Worthy for the hard play.
James Worthy struggled tonight against Kossie, failing to find a rhythm in his turn-around shots, missing.
Sabonis grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Trail Blazers initiated a fast break.
Porter’s outside shot didn’t go in, Green secured the defensive board, and it was still the Lakers’ possession.
Johnson wanted to launch a counterattack, but Guoyang clung to him like glue.
Attempting to use speed to break free, the veteran Johnson charged forward along the sideline dribbling with one hand.
In such situations, it was easy for a defender to be called for a blocking foul due to chasing and pushing.
Guoyang, smartly, followed Johnson and then called Porter over for a double team to delay him.
Porter got to his spot early, waiting just beyond the right three-point line, blocking Johnson’s path forward.
Johnson slowed down, dribbled between his legs to switch to the left hand, but Johnson’s change of direction lacked explosiveness, and Guoyang wasn’t worried at all.
Guoyang positioned himself correctly, spread his arms wide and sided up, stopping Johnson to settle into a half-court game.
It was another solid frontal defense; Guoyang’s height and wingspan greatly limited Johnson’s vision.
Johnson habitually jutted his butt inward, still unable to move him—Jabbar couldn’t be moved, what made him think he could?
This year, without Jabbar, Johnson couldn’t simply toss the ball into the Three Second Zone for the Sky Hook to solve the problem anymore.
The Lakers were completely relying on Johnson for offense, and once he was contained, the others didn’t know how to run their plays.
This was also why Guoyang dared to step out boldly and lock down Johnson; in the past, you guys at least had Jabbar to distract me, but what do you have now?
Worthy couldn’t even handle Kossie tonight, plus with Sabonis on my side inside, it didn’t matter if the Three Second Zone defense was neglected.
