Chapter 827: Chapter 32 Be Your Own Support_3
Gan Guoyang didn’t push his teammates nor did he yell in the locker room; he comforted Beelman and asked him to relax.
Before the start of the second half, Gan Guoyang said to everyone: "Charles said before the game that he would thrash me, and if we lose this game, I would lose face. So, in the third and fourth quarters, I will take control of the game, and I just need everyone’s support. This is a personal grudge between me and Charles; you all just relax, defend well, make the shots you’re supposed to, and that’ll be OK. If we lose, it’s my responsibility; it means Charles has suppressed me."
Gan Guoyang spoke so casually, and everyone’s attention was shifted to the "personal grudge" between Gan Guoyang and Barkley.
Thus, the subsequent game became very interesting.
After returning from the All-Star game, Mychal Thompson and rookie Antonio Davis bet 50 US Dollars on who would score more, Barkley or Gan Guoyang.
Barkley had already secured 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the first half, aiming for a 40+20 tonight.
Gan Guoyang only scored 11 points, got 7 rebounds, and made 3 assists in the first half; his performance was mediocre.
Davis thought about it and decided to bet on Barkley.
Thompson grinned slightly, saying, "Then I have no choice but to bet on Ah Gan."
The young man, so naive, completely unaware of Ah Gan’s temperament.
Despite his light-hearted words, the second half would surely be a fierce storm.
After all, Ah Gan had put his pride on the line, and under no circumstances could he afford to lose this showdown.
Sure enough, in the third quarter, Gan Guoyang began to focus on offense, and he chose to avoid the triple-team of the Suns.
He repeatedly coordinated with Porter and Petrović to set screens at the perimeter, then punished the Suns from mid-range and beyond the three-point line.
Since the Trail Blazers’ shooting percentage was poor tonight, the Suns’ defense was tightly packed, aimed specifically to target Ah Gan.
In the second half, Gan Guoyang was determined to lift the team’s shooting percentage, so he resolutely used shooting to attack the Suns.
Gan Guoyang’s mid-range was very precise, having once dominated the Lakers in the 1988 playoffs, the peak year of his mid-range performance.
In the later years of ’89 and ’90, his mid-range jumper was fluctuating in accuracy, primarily due to increased muscle mass which slightly affected his touch.
This season, Gan Guoyang increased his usage of hook shots and back-to-the-basket plays inside, decreased mid-range shots, and increased three-point attempts, achieving a ratio of 5:3:2 overall.
His mid-to-long range shooting spots shifted from the two corners to primarily the arc top and the 45-degree angles, to align with the Princeton System.
In this regard, Gan Guoyang’s tactical adaptability is indeed very strong, discarding his scoring sweet spots as needed, all for the tactical system.
With Gan Guoyang’s artillery set up outside, continuously hitting mid-range and three-pointers, the Trail Blazers gradually narrowed the score gap.
Sam Bowie knew he couldn’t defend Ah Gan’s mid-to-long range shots; he vividly remembered the game at Mavericks, where Ah Gan’s incredible touch reversed the home court advantage.
So during a timeout, Bowie reminded Barkley, "Charles, Ah Gan is now firing all his shots from outside, you have to handle him."
Barkley looked up at Bowie and said, "I need to handle Ah Gan? Then what did we trade you for?"
Sam Bowie said, "I can only deal with Ah Gan in the paint, but now he’s moving around our defense. It’s up to you now, Charles, boss!"
Charles Barkley crossed his arms and thought for a moment. It was indeed true; the cunning Ah Gan was too precise in his outside shooting, it wouldn’t make sense to have Kevin Johnson or An Ji guard him, would it?
"OK, I’ll take care of Ah Gan."
Though he said so, Barkley was uneasy inside.
After the timeout, when Gan Guoyang got the ball outside, Barkley guarded Gan Guoyang one-on-one.
Gan Guoyang didn’t play any fancy tricks with Barkley, just one move: a hand-off with Porter, a pick and roll, then cut outside, Porter passed back to Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang directly took a jump shot.
Barkley was short, his jump to block couldn’t effectively disturb Gan Guoyang, and moreover, Gan Guoyang was very crafty, leaning slightly forward in his shot, occupying a large shooting space. If Barkley got too close, it would be a foul.
After being called for foul on two shooting attempts, Barkley couldn’t help but complain to the referee and then got a technical foul—these consecutive fouls became a turning point in the game.
Gan Guoyang, scoring and from free throws, blasted 24 points in the third quarter, helping the Trail Blazers take the lead, entering the fourth quarter with a score of 86:84, leading the Suns by 2 points.
In the fourth quarter, when the Suns still focused their defense on Gan Guoyang, they didn’t expect that other Trail Blazers players had also regained their strength, gradually opening up their shooting.
Petrović, Porter, and Sabonis all made three-pointers in the fourth quarter. The Suns’ defense was too concentrated on Gan Guoyang, exposing vulnerabilities.
The Trail Blazers launched an attack and widened the gap with the Suns.
Although the Suns, under Barkley’s lead, struggled tenaciously and came close to narrowing the score to just a 2-point difference by the end of the fourth quarter.
But at the critical moment, Petrović drove into the basket beneath the cover from Gan Guoyang and performed a fierce one-handed dunk over Sam Bowie!
Petrović rarely dunks, but in the final moments tonight, he reached peak condition, helping the Trail Blazers to a 4-point lead.
After a time-out, Barkley, holding the ball, faced off against Ah Gan in a knight duel, making a wrong choice: a step-back three-pointer.
He wanted to quickly catch up but overlooked his poor shooting percentage; even Ah Gan seldom attempted this difficult technique because it’s not highly reliable.
The Suns’ home crowd cheered for the forceful play, but the ball did not fall into the net, hitting the rim hard, and because of excess force, it didn’t bounce into, but bounced far off, resulting in a long rebound.
Sabonis grabbed this rebound and passed it swiftly to Reggie Lewis, who was storming down fast. With an open path ahead, he easily scored a dunk!
This play secured the victory for the Trail Blazers, who defeated the lately strong Phoenix Suns in an away game 117:111, by 6 points, strengthening their position as the Western Conference leader.
Charles Barkley candidly accepted his defeat after the game, saying, "I didn’t perform well, didn’t guard Ah Gan, nor could I break through his defense, but next time, next time I will win."
Barkley scored 36 points tonight, whereas Gan Guoyang exploded with 45 points, unmatched in explosive scoring ability.
Mychal Thompson received 50 US dollars from Antonio Davis and joked, "Betting on Ah Gan, it’s hard to lose. We should set some odds in the future; otherwise, it’s not fair. If tonight Barkley had won, I should give you... 500 US dollars."
Antonio Davis responded, "Then next time I’ll still bet on Charles Barkley."
"Then you might never win money from me in your lifetime."
