Chapter 699: Chapter 67: Just Kidding
Rambis was right, he truly wasn’t afraid of Ah Gan anymore.
After coming to terms with Gan Guoyang’s "maliciousness", he understood it was a survival of the fittest game.
Rather than being entangled and struggling, it was better to enjoy it, just as Ah Gan said, "Losing the game won’t kill you anyway."
So, Rambis being unable to guard Ah Gan was purely due to lack of ability, as well as Gan Guoyang having an explosively good touch tonight.
Fitzsimmons saw Rambis getting blown out by Ah Gan but had no better strategies to use since there really wasn’t anyone else.
Moreover, he couldn’t afford to abandon Rambis, as Rambis was still useful on defense, and his backcourt rebounding was the best the Suns had.
In some rounds, he did cause Ah Gan "a bit" of trouble, such as drawing fouls while rebounding, and grabbing 7 defensive rebounds in the first half.
Unfortunately, most of these defensive rebounds by Rambis didn’t turn into counterattack ammunition for the Suns.
There was no solution in the positional play, so the Suns, who could only play fast, ran into the Trail Blazers’ Ah Gan + Thompson frontcourt duo in the second quarter.
Once the Trail Blazers didn’t have Sabonis’s speed slowing them down and fell back extremely quickly, Ah Gan swiftly took the Three Second Zone at the earliest opportunity, forcing the Suns to settle the offense with outside shooting.
Eddie Johnson, after making two three-pointers, couldn’t score again—not just in this game, but he didn’t make another three-pointer for the entire series.
In the second quarter, Gan Guoyang crippled the Suns’ defense with his quick, decisive one-on-one plays.
His positioning, receiving the ball, and shooting were very fast; each offensive play didn’t take more than three seconds, and with turnaround jumpers, direct power shots, all crisp and clean, leaving the Suns with no way to counter.
During the half-time break in the locker room, Fitzsimmons was clueless about how to arrange the defense.
This season’s Ah Gan was completely different from last season’s.
In ’89, Gan Guoyang was far from this hot and made quite a few mistakes.
The seven games were fiercely contested, yet this season’s Ah Gan seemed like a new person, significantly more focused.
And the Trail Blazers’ roster was much stronger than last season’s, with Sabonis being a factor the Suns couldn’t solve.
They realized after the series began, this guy was not the declining Mark-Eaton who could only defend without any offense.
Sabonis posed a huge offensive threat inside; once he got the ball under the basket, no one from the Suns could stop him from putting the ball in the basket.
Under these circumstances, the Suns’ already weak interior defense was stretched even thinner, unable to spare anyone to deal with Ah Gan.
As a result, for most of the second quarter, the Suns had no choice but to let Rambis guard Ah Gan alone—what’s the difference between that and seeking death.
Kevin Johnson then began to understand why Rambis said on the bench, "We’re already dead."
Of course, Kevin Johnson was not willing to accept defeat; he performed very poorly in the first half, only scoring 5 points under Ah Gan’s harassing defense.
His shooting touch was thoroughly disrupted, going 2 for 8, a very low shooting percentage, and he was tightly marked on fast breaks.
Correspondingly, Tom Chambers scored 17 points, the highest for the Suns.
But Chambers was purely a scorer, a finisher; he couldn’t connect the team’s offense like Kevin Johnson did.
Under these conditions, 17 points were merely a drop in the bucket for the Suns; if they wanted to overturn the game in the second half, it would all depend on Kevin Johnson’s performance.
The noise in the Memorial Coliseum reached its peak at the start of the third quarter, as all the fans waved their red and white handkerchiefs, creating a terrifying home court atmosphere.
For Kevin Johnson, none of these were issues; the real problem was the "killer" on the opposite side, wearing number 11.
In the first half, Gan Guoyang’s defense on Kevin Johnson was textbook-level ’big guarding small’, from intensity to strategy, thoroughly understanding Kevin Johnson’s playstyle.
Unlike in his high school days, Kevin Johnson was no longer the small guy who could only rely on speed to break through without a jump shot.
Kevin’s mid-range shooting was extremely precise, and he liked to shoot from a slightly right position in front, where his shooting percentage was higher than the league average.
And especially on the front left position, at the left baseline, Kevin Johnson’s shooting percentage drops significantly; that spot is where he is not accustomed to shooting from.
Therefore, Gan Guoyang constantly cooperates with Terry Porter in defense, driving Johnson to the left side, and whenever he tries to shoot from the right, they double-team and close in on him.
Although this defensive tactic allows Kevin Johnson space to pass and assist, particularly at the middle, it provides Tom Chambers with many opportunities to move.
However, apart from scoring through shooting, Chambers had no other way to help the team; with Sabonis squatting inside the three-second zone and not stepping out, it didn’t give the Suns any chance to assault the basket.
Chambers, relying solely on his shooting, couldn’t break the Trail Blazers’ defense.
Fitzsimmons demanded that Johnson find a way to station his activity area on the familiar right side.
"Don’t fall into Ah Gan’s trap, play our game, not be led by the nose," he said.
Fitzsimmons was right, but it was truly not easy to execute.
Ah Gan is a master of deception, particularly good at taking the initiative in confrontations and disrupting the offense’s mindset.
Kevin Johnson kept reminding himself not to be affected by Ah Gan’s defense, to focus on "my style of play".
How I play, how the opponent defends, rather than the other way around, how the opponent defends, and how I adjust my play.
So, as the third quarter began, Kevin Johnson continued to speed up, resolutely sticking to his familiar right path.
When Gan Guoyang came up to double-team, he threaded a direct pass inside, and Tom Chambers caught the ball and made a layup against Sabonis’s defense.
In the third quarter, Kevin Johnson gradually found his rhythm on offense; he persisted in taking the right path and established connections with Chambers and West.
By passing the ball and letting Chambers and West charge the three-second zone, they challenged Sabonis, changing the situation of merely shooting from the outside in the first half.
However, after more than five minutes into the third quarter, the gap was still 18 points, and even widened to 20 points after Porter scored on a counterattack.
Kevin Johnson might have a series of successful shots, but the Trail Blazers were scoring as well.
An 18-point difference from the first half can’t be closed by just scoring points.
When Porter scored the shot that extended the lead to 20 points against Kevin Johnson, Gan Guoyang approached Kevin Johnson and said, "Kevin, do you feel it’s much easier to play in the third quarter? Know why?"
Kevin Johnson didn’t respond, certain that Ah Gan would not have anything good to say.
"Because it’s already a 20-point difference, there’s no need to defend so desperately anymore, it’s time for a steady run."
Kevin Johnson, who is known for being honest and playing the game fairly, felt a sudden urge to throw the ball at Gan Guoyang.
Rambis was right; this guy is a born killer, he enjoys trampling over opponents, not just for the sake of winning.
Holding back his frustration, Kevin Johnson, in the next offense, made a strong drive inside after a screen, cutting in lightning-fast beside Gan Guoyang towards the basket.
He broke free!
Instinct told Kevin Johnson that with this speed and distance, he could finish with a layup.
Ah Gan even staggered a bit; Sabonis was far away under the basket, a rare opportunity for a direct attack!
Kevin Johnson accelerated, going in for a right-handed layup, but a huge shadow surged from behind, its long arm lightly tapping the ball out of Johnson’s hand.
The ball ended up in Sabonis’s hands, who immediately made a long forward pass to the frontcourt; Jerome Kossie caught it and attacked the basket, slamming it home.
The gap widened to 22 points.
Kevin Johnson fell to the ground.
But there was no foul on the play; he fell because he lost his balance.
Still blocked by Ah Gan, he looked at Kevin Johnson on the ground with a mocking gaze, as if a cat was looking at a mouse.
As if to say, "You really thought you got away? I was just playing with you."
