Chapter 834: Chapter 35 Deserving the Salary_2
Petrović is the core figure of the Trail Blazers’ second unit; when he comes in as a substitute, he primarily plays as a Point Guard, pairing up with Dell Curry.
Even with Sabonis on the inside, when he coordinates with Petrović, he still takes on a supporting role.
A genius guard who grew up in Europe like Petrović requires ample space to grow and perform.
Having him run around, cut to the basket, and be a spot-up shooter would undeniably be a waste.
However, tonight Petrović was not decisive enough when facing the Bulls’ strong perimeter defensive trap.
Armstrong, Grant, and others would start their pressing defense from mid-court, disrupting the opponent’s ball-handling and further breaking down their initial passes.
With a poor initial pass, the offense can’t set up properly, and the success rate of plays plummets, eventually relying on the players’ individual skills.
Early in the second quarter, the Bulls quickly spurred a counter-attack climax, leveraging the Trail Blazers’ repeated offensive failures to launch fast breaks.
Grant, with his sharp cuts inside, kept attacking the Trail Blazers’ three-second zone.
At the start of the second quarter, Grant scored 7 points consecutively, helping the Bulls to take the lead.
However, Petrović immediately responded in the offense with a tough three-pointer, helping the Trail Blazers to regain the lead.
The two sides fell into a brief tug-of-war, with the Bulls subtly taking advantage with their home court boost.
And the Trail Blazers’ offense was stuck in isolation plays, luckily Petrović was on form tonight.
Finding himself struggling to organize the offense, he simply took the ball himself, continuously hitting jump shots and keeping the score close.
A sixth man substitute should have this ability and determination to take the ball and go for it.
When it came time for rotation, Gan Guoyang came on to replace Sabonis, letting the Lithuanian giant catch a break.
With Grant still on the floor, Gan Guoyang’s presence clearly gave Grant a sense of being outmatched in height.
There was no helping it, Ah Gan completely smothered Grant – taller, much stronger, just as fast if not faster, more explosive, and with longer arms.
This all-around advantage left no room for Grant, versatile as he is, and he was already pondering on taking a rest soon.
Tonight in the game, Bobby Berman did not put the inexperienced Antonio Davis on the floor with Gan Guoyang for the second quarter but opted for the more seasoned Pinkney instead.
Pinkney, a graduate from Villanova University, led his team to the NCAA finals and could be described as a working-class prince. He shares many traits with Grant, just without the same level of talent.
Paired with Ah Gan on the inside, he provides offensive blue-collar support and can work with Gan Guoyang for some high-low plays, capitalizing on offensive rebounds for second-chance points when Gan Guoyang draws the defense.
In plain terms, it’s sneaking in under Ah Gan’s shadow to poach, and in this respect, he’s better than Bryant and Davis, with a keen sense for positioning under the basket.
On the Bulls’ front, Jordan also returned to the court, leading the substitutes, both focusing on passing the ball to their teammates, assisting, instead of the fervor of head-to-head clashes like in his younger days.
Gan Guoyang at the top of the key, using his vision to direct the Princeton System.
As Adelman said, developing Ah Gan’s passing and organizing skills is a good way to maintain the overall level of the Trail Blazers.
Following the departures of Divac and Hornacek, a pair of skilled facilitators, the remaining task of organizing had to fall on Gan Guoyang’s shoulders.
This season, Gan Guoyang’s average assists per game reached 6.1, ranking at the top among inside players, even more than Jordan.
Jordan’s assists mainly come from tearing open the opponent’s defense, capitalizing on their lapses to create scoring opportunities for his teammates.
Even as the Trail Blazers cautiously enforced a one-on-one defense strategy, when Jordan had the ball and penetrated, if there was a need for help defense, there would be leaks.
Although Jordan and Grant may not get along off the court, their on-court cooperation has no issues; in fact, many of Jordan’s assists are to Grant.
Whenever Jordan breaks through, Grant would cut very syncing to the basket from the weak side, either ready to receive the ball to directly attack the basket or to vie for the offensive rebound.
This tactic was highly effective – taking advantage as the second offensive option, often successfully finding scoring off loose plays, rendering the opponent’s elaborate defense useless.
However, with Gan Guoyang defending two-on-one tonight, once Jordan passed inside, Gan Guoyang always found a way to quickly pivot and cover another.
This frustrated Jordan greatly, prompting him to stop passing and to attack the basket himself – holding the ball was most secure.
So in the second quarter, Jordan and Grant failed to coordinate successfully even once, let alone think about offensive rebounds.
With Gan Guoyang in the three-second zone, the backcourt rebound protection was impenetrable, his board-crashing presence commanding, elbows swinging fiercely during confrontations, occasionally throwing a kick in the air to signal opponents not to plot on taking rebounds from him.
His style was a typical "contemptuous approach" to rebounding; relying on strength advantage, he was confident in securing positions he chose, and opponents had no way to counter.
Therefore, opponents could only hope for luck to grab offensive rebounds; the ball would have to bounce too far, beyond Ah Gan’s range of control, without such luck they stood no chance.
Ah Gan has been dominating the rebounding charts since the 1984-1985 season, topping it for seven consecutive years – his rebounding prowess is certainly not to be underestimated and is an aspect easily overlooked by fans and experts alike.
