Chapter 723: Chapter 81: The Great Wall Stands Forever_3
This led to the Trail Blazers being physically and mentally exhausted in the game on the evening of the 11th, and with Gan Guoyang standing idly by, the team’s fighting spirit was severely weakened.
On the other hand, the Pistons had gradually recovered from the beating they took in the first game.
What invigorated them even more was Isiah Thomas, who had gotten 58 stitches on his face and suffered a depressed facial bone, making a comeback in the third game after surgery.
He wore a specially made mask to protect the wounds on his face.
Although Thomas’s sportsmanship was questionable and his character doubtful, he was indeed an undeniable tough guy on the court.
When Thomas appeared, the entire Palace of Auburn Hills erupted in huge cheers, and the applause lasted for a long time.
In other cities, Thomas and his teammates were reviled by everyone, but in Detroit, they were the local heroes.
Gan Guoyang, who continued to be suspended, could only sit on the sidelines in agony, unable to join his teammates in battle despite being uninjured.
Back in Detroit, the Pistons, buoyed by the return of their leader, were spirited from the start and took the initiative on the court.
Thomas, enduring the pain and risking further injury, controlled the ball, moving back and forth on the court, using shots and breaks to attack the Trail Blazers’ basket.
The Trail Blazers were ultimately a team that played fair; everyone refrained from targeting Thomas’s injured face despite his serious injury.
If the Trail Blazers had been a bit dirtier and struck Thomas in the face again, Thomas’s series would have been over for sure.
But the Trail Blazers weren’t like the Pistons; they would firmly counterattack their opponents but would never intentionally harm them.
Without Ah Gan, lacking rest, playing an away game, with the opponent’s leader returning, and under many adverse factors, the Trail Blazers still put up a tough resistance.
They even managed to take the lead at one point in the first quarter, with Jerome Kossie and Hornacek’s outside shooting being exceptionally accurate, leading by 7 points at the end of the quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, Thomas, wearing a mask, led the Pistons in a counterattack. They didn’t dare to make dirty moves, but instead relied on tacit coordination and tough defense to strangle the Trail Blazers.
Lacking their strongest scoring point, the Trail Blazers’ offense could not keep up when it mattered most, and the Pistons quickly caught up mid-way through the second quarter.
At this moment, Petrović stood out; in the absence of other scorers, he dared to take shots and drive forcefully, scoring consecutively with the ball.
In the first half, the Trail Blazers maintained their lead over the Pistons.
However, by the third quarter, the Trail Blazers could no longer hold on and fell to the Pistons’ strong overall attack and defense.
In the high-intensity finals, the Trail Blazers, without Ah Gan, over-relied on outside shooting, leading to a scoring drought in the second half.
Having scored 57 in the first half, they only managed a meager 34 points in the second half.
In the end, they lost the game 91:101, a 10-point deficit, which also set the record for the Trail Blazers’ lowest score in a finals game.
Throughout the game, boos and insults towards the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan never stopped in the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Beside the court, Pistons fans held up many banners, harshly labeling Gan Guoyang as a "butcher," "murderer," "war maniac," "homicidal killer," and so on.
After the game, the Trail Blazers filed a protest with the League, requesting a change of hotel.
As a result, several hotels in Detroit stated that they were fully booked and could not accommodate so many people.
"You can go to Chicago and ask, there should be some rooms available there, just slightly further away."
Faced with other hotels refusing to provide services, the Trail Blazers had no choice but to stay in the original hotel, enduring endless harassment from Pistons fans at night.
For the Trail Blazers, the good news was that Gan Guoyang would return in the fourth game, and both teams would compete with their full lineups.
But the bad news, aside from enduring endless harassment from Pistons fans, was that the chief referee for the fourth game would be Jack O’Donnell.
After the first game, one of the Pistons’ major protests was the demand not to allow Earl-Strom to be the head referee for this series again.
Every time Strom officiated a game between the Trail Blazers and the Pistons, both teams would end up in a tough fight, with the Pistons always getting the brunt of it.
The Silver Dome Massacre, the third game of the 87 finals, and the first game of this year’s finals all had Earl-Strom as the head referee.
Although Strom held back Ah Gan’s legs to prevent him from continuing his rampage during the Silver Dome Massacre, it was a bit too much that we got beat up every time you were there, right?
Besides, it’s a public secret within the circle that Strom has a good relationship with Ah Gan and that referees have their own preferences.
David Stern agreed to the Pistons’ request; Strom was supposed to officiate at least two final games, but now all have been canceled.
After all, such a big incident in the first game meant that as the head referee, Earl-Strom could not shirk the responsibility, no matter what.
The fourth game was originally Strom’s job, but instead, the main referee was changed to Jack O’Donnell, who has always had conflicts with the Trail Blazers.
O’Donnell had a dispute with the Trail Blazers as early as 1986, primarily with Drexler, who refused to shake hands with O’Donnell after a game, leading to enduring hostility between them.
Afterwards, in several games, Jack O’Donnell targeted Drexler and the Trail Blazers, further worsening the relationship between the two parties.
Now that Drexler has gone to the Miami Heat, the conflict between O’Donnell and the Trail Blazers has not been resolved.
