Chapter 801: Chapter 24 Secret Weapon
The game began after the jump ball between Gan Guoyang and Divac.
Divac, wearing the Celtics’ green No. 12 jersey, had gotten stronger compared to last season.
However, in the jump ball, his explosiveness was far less than Ah Gan, and the Trail Blazers took the lead in offense.
The Celtics let the young Divac mark Gan Guoyang on defense, while Parrish dealt with Sabonis.
Gan Guoyang, stationed in the low post, said to Divac: "They assigned you to guard me? Is this picking on the rookie?"
"If you have any sympathy, take it easy on me, Sonny." Divac decisively conceded.
Having played in Portland for a year, being dominated by Gan Guoyang in the low post for a year, he knew very well what kind of monster Gan Guoyang was in that position.
In the regular season, he hardly ever displayed his full low-post power, because there was no need.
To save energy and to provide enough space under the basket for his teammates, he willingly played the role of facilitator on the perimeter, or used mid-range shots as his weapon.
After all, his mid-range shooting was just as lethal, and the three-pointer was his secret weapon, often catching his opponents off guard.
Only Divac, who frequently trained with Gan Guoyang, knew that Gan Guoyang’s core talents were concentrated in his low-post offense.
This was the key competitive edge that led him to repeatedly reach the pinnacle in the NBA; all other techniques were complementary skills revolving around the low post.
Gan Guoyang started as a center, and although his height was not advantageous in the league, he dominated All-America through strength and skill.
The perfect combination of these two elements gave him unmatched scoring ability in the low post, making him extremely difficult to defend.
In the 1991 season, Gan Guoyang’s seventh year in the league, his low-post offensive skills had become exceedingly refined.
He seamlessly integrated strength, low-post footwork, hook shots, turnaround jump shots, layup skills, and buried them into his muscle memory.
Not to mention that defenders didn’t know what Gan Guoyang would do next after receiving the ball in the low post, sometimes even Gan Guoyang himself didn’t know what he would do next.
He completely adjusted his next move according to the opponent’s defense; double-teams often had no effect, triple-teams were somewhat effective.
At the start of the regular season, there was generally no specific defensive targeting, and everyone played one-on-one; Gan Guoyang pinned Divac in the low post, backed him down, and made three consecutive shots, all successful!
A turnaround forward shot, a challenging reverse inner left-hand hook shot, and one was a plain back-to-the-basket bulldozer, easily turning around under the basket to score.
However, the Celtics did not fall behind; they also successfully scored on their first three possessions, making the score 6:6.
On the fourth possession, Gan Guoyang received the ball on the left side, spun towards the basket, and was encircled by Parrish and Bird, then passed the ball to the middle where Lewis took a mid-range shot but missed.
Divac grabbed the defensive rebound; with the triple-team, the Celtics finally defended against Gan Guoyang’s offensive attempt.
In the counterattack, the Celtics executed a beautiful cooperation, with Brian Shaw passing the ball to Bird in the corner.
Bird used a feint to get rid of Kossie, drove toward the basket, drawing Gan Guoyang’s defensive attention.
Suddenly, he passed without looking to a cutting Brian Shaw in the middle, who faced the help defender Sabonis and shot a high arcing toss, scoring the two points!
Passing, moving, then passing again, this Celtics team retained a continuous style from the 1980s.
Although the wheels of time relentlessly moved forward, there were always staunch traditionalists who refused to follow the trends and stayed put.
The pace of NBA games in the 1990s, compared to the 1980s, had undergone a lot of changes.
The speed slowed down, more set-plays were used, defensive intensity increased, and the role of star players in isolation plays became more prominent.
The Celtics once had a formidable lineup, a constellation of stars, but they played true team basketball.
Leading the league in assists, most passes, most running distance, and least turnovers.
From any angle, they were an outstanding basketball team, impeccably pure basketball.
However, since 1986, the door to the NBA championships had closed on them.
Rule changes, a decline in talent, targeted from all sides, Boston’s decline was evident.
Even so, the Celtics retained their tradition and continued to implement their team basketball, striving for a place in the league.
After Gan Guoyang started off hot, knowing the Celtics would begin double-teaming, he changed his strategy and ran the Princeton Offense with his teammates.
Jerome Kossie found an opportunity under the basket, received a pass from Gan Guoyang, and dunked it backwards.
And again, Bird passed to a teammate cutting under the basket, this time Hornacek.
Gan Guoyang came over to help defend, disrupting Hornacek’s layup, and the shot didn’t go in.
Parrish grabbed the offensive rebound, about to dunk it back, but was blocked by Gan Guoyang who had quickly reacted and turned around!
In such situations, other players would have just watched the dunk happen; only a defender with quick reactions like Gan Guoyang could defend against two and block a sure-shot.
This superhuman defensive ability fortified the Trail Blazers’ three-second zone like a fortress, requiring enormous effort to breach.
"What a beast," Bird cursed quietly; how could that shot have been blocked.
Then, Hornacek successfully stole the ball from Porter, regaining the offensive possession for the Celtics.
Attempting a counterattack, the Trail Blazers fell back quickly; Bird got the ball, circled the three-second zone, and still passed out to Hornacek to reorganize the set-play.
