The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 569 Heartwarming
With a height of 6 feet 10 inches, Gan Guoyang is a natural all-rounder on the defensive end.

Moreover, this guy has relatively short legs and a low center of gravity, so he can turn and move very quickly when facing smaller defenders, and he can keep up with them in most situations.

Apart from guards like Jordan, Thomas, and Tim Hardaway who have incredible speed and explosiveness, Gan Guoyang can defend all other backcourt players in the entire league one-on-one.

Moreover, because they don't lose their position, smaller players have no way to deal with larger interior players after losing their speed advantage.

Moreover, the penalties for traveling and wrist-twisting were quite strict back then.

Although dribbling and ball handling no longer require straight up and down movements like in the 60s and 70s, referees still closely monitor obvious steals and dribbling maneuvers.

The players of the 80s and 90s grew up in the 60s and 70s, where schools emphasized basic dribbling skills. Their street dribbling techniques were clearly different from those in the academic style.

Tim Hardaway's crossover technique is very solid when used, with clear footwork and high difficulty to execute. Other small guards rarely use it.

All of these factors greatly reduced the difficulty for Gan Guoyang in defending these smaller guards. Many times, he didn't come out to defend because he had to protect the paint and rebounds, and he couldn't focus all his energy on locking down one of the opponent's guards.

Magic Johnson was an anomaly among guards. Standing at 6 feet 9 inches tall, his greatest advantage against most defenders was his height and strength.

Over the years, Johnson has always maintained a dribbling technique of not switching hands. When facing a frontal defense, he mostly turns to the side or backs down to push away the defender, relying on his height, wingspan, strength, and his large buttocks to protect the space where he has the ball.

In official games, Magic Johnson rarely uses the crossover dribble technique; his main dribbling techniques are the back turn and consecutive crossover dribbles.

In high-speed mobile warfare, Johnson would typically change direction in front of his body; in positional warfare, when the pace slows down, he would change direction much less frequently.

Firstly, he has a high center of gravity, and most of the players defending him are smaller guards, making it easy for him to be intercepted when dribbling past them.

In his early years, he would make four or five turnovers in a game, many of which were intercepted by opposing guards. Later, Johnson would subconsciously turn to the side or back when dribbling to protect the ball in his hands.

Secondly, Johnson's explosiveness is average among black players. When facing the basket with the ball, it is difficult for him to use his dribbling to start and outrun the defender (unless he travels).

He relies more on his height and wingspan advantage, along with his later-developed face-up shooting ability, to consistently score points in each game.

When Johnson is dribbling and playing one-on-one, he acts more like a power forward or even a center than a guard.

Therefore, mismatch is the essence of Magic Johnson. Once the mismatch advantage is gone, his effectiveness will be greatly reduced when facing a defender with similar speed, strength, height, and mobility.

In this respect, Magic Johnson is not as good as Larry Bird, who often had to face defenders with better physical attributes than him.

At this point, Bird could rely on his unparalleled skills to solve the problem. Although his physical limitations made his hard-hitting ability somewhat lacking, Johnson was still a bit worse than Bird.

Therefore, it's easy to imagine what Johnson's situation would be like when he faced Gan Guoyang, a defender whose physical attributes were a level above all others.

It was impossible to squeeze in with your back turned. Gan Guoyang carefully controlled his steps and strength to avoid being caught blocking foul by the referee.

Then they stuck to him the whole time, constantly interfering with his long arms, almost completely covering Johnson.

This amazing defense forced Magic Johnson to pass the ball to James Worthy in the low post for a tough shot.

James Worthy didn't play well against Korsey tonight; his turnaround shots lacked rhythm and missed.

Sabonis grabbed the rebound and the Trail Blazers launched a fast break.

Porter's outside shot missed, Green grabbed the rebound, and the Lakers retained possession.

Johnson wanted to launch a counterattack, but Gan Guoyang stuck to him like glue.

Johnson tried to use his speed to break free; he was experienced and accelerated forward along the sideline with one hand while dribbling.

In this situation, the defender is likely to be called for a blocking foul by the referee due to chasing and pushing.

Gan Guoyang was very clever. He chased after Johnson and then called Porter over to double-team and delay him.

Porter had positioned himself in advance, waiting outside the right three-point line, blocking Johnson's path forward.

Johnson slowed down, dribbled between his legs and switched to his left hand, but Johnson's change of direction lacked explosiveness, and Gan Guoyang was not afraid at all.

Gan Guoyang positioned himself correctly, spread his arms, and blocked Johnson's path, forcing him to stop and engage in positional warfare.

Another impenetrable frontal defense; Gan Guoyang's height and wingspan greatly limited Johnson's vision.

Johnson instinctively stuck his butt out and tried to push it in, but he couldn't get it in. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar couldn't get it in, so how could you expect to?

Without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this year, Johnson can no longer simply toss the ball into the paint and hand it over to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to solve the problem.

The Lakers' offense revolves entirely around Johnson; once he's contained, the rest of the team doesn't know how to run.

This is why Gan Guoyang dared to confidently come out and lock down Johnson. In the past, at least you had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to restrain me. What do you have now?
Worthy couldn't even handle Kossie tonight, and besides, I have Sabonis in the paint, so it doesn't matter if I don't defend the paint.

Magic Johnson was not giving up. He challenged Forrest Gump one-on-one, shifting his position and passing the ball around in his hands. No matter how he changed direction, spun around, or used his arms to push or block, he just couldn't shake off the sticky Forrest Gump.

Finally, when Johnson passed the ball to Byron Scott, time was running out; the 24-second shot clock was about to expire.

Scott received the ball and was still rushing inside, about to jump and shoot, when the buzzer sounded, indicating a 24-second violation.

Gan Guoyang laughed when he saw this and said, "Magic, are you playing 'One-on-One Basketball' and there's no pass button? Or am I too tall and blocking your view?"

The "One-on-One Basketball" game that Gan Guoyang mentioned is a very old basketball game on the Atari 2600 platform, even older than "Forrest Gump vs. Bird" which Gan Guoyang endorsed. It was released in 1977. Gan Guoyang once played it on Gan Guohui's game console, and it was extremely rudimentary.

This early basketball game was characterized by only supporting one-on-one matches, and could not simulate the multi-vs-multi-scenario nature of a real basketball game.

Johnson didn't respond. He knew this was Forrest Gump's psychological warfare, and he had to stay calm and figure out how to score a goal over Forrest Gump's head.

That would be the best response.

But Gan Guoyang then completely denied Johnson any opportunity to attack the basket with the ball.

Magic Johnson's problem was that he wasn't a shooting guard. If Jordan were in that situation, he could use off-ball movement to create opportunities.

When the ball is not in play, it is very difficult for a big man to keep an eye on the ball. As long as he lies in wait on the side and makes an opportunity, and with the help of his teammates' screens, he can make back runs and cuts to the basket and always find an opportunity to receive the ball and attack the basket.

But Johnson is the absolute ball-handling core, and under Don Nelson's careful guidance, Johnson is irreplaceable in the Lakers' system.

If Johnson passes the ball to Byron Scott or Cooper to organize the offense, the system's effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

Even when he was off the ball, Gan Guoyang was not going to let Magic Johnson off the hook, keeping a close eye on him. Johnson's off-ball movement was quite average.

Even when there were gaps in the defense and Johnson created great scoring opportunities for his teammates by passing the ball, Gan Guoyang still kept an eye on Johnson and prevented him from scoring.

The Lakers' offense started to fall apart.

Johnson's mindset also started to waver.

For a moment, Johnson missed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar terribly.

At that moment, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was watching the game from the stands behind the substitutes' bench.

If Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were playing, Gan Guoyang wouldn't dare to leave the perimeter defense so open.

Johnson will keep supplying ammunition to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and then Abdul-Jabbar will punish Gan Guoyang's defensive choices with a hook shot.

But what about now? The Lakers' frontcourt consists of Duckworth and Edwards, who also have offensive capabilities, but they can't deliver a fatal blow to the Trail Blazers.

The Trail Blazers have two Eastern European giants in the paint, Sabonis and Divac. They are a huge defensive barrier even if they just stand there and don't move.

Not to mention Sabonis's defensive ability is quite strong, so strong that Gan Guoyang began to feel at ease entrusting him with the three-second zone.

The gap between the two sides once widened to 11 points. When Don Nelson called a timeout, Johnson had not scored a single point in the full five minutes on the court, and did not even take a proper shot.

As Johnson left the court, he confronted the referee, arguing that Forrest Gump had committed some fouls on his defensive actions. The referee for the night, Forrest Gump's good friend Strom, rolled his eyes at Johnson and said, "Trust my judgment; I'll definitely call the fouls."

Johnson complained helplessly, "In your eyes, if Forrest Gump doesn't hit someone, he hasn't committed a foul!"

The referee's standards do have a significant impact on both the offensive and defensive sides.

If the referee is strict, it will definitely benefit the attacking side.

Especially in this kind of man-to-man marking and entangled defense, if the referee gives two whistles, the defending team will be afraid to make any moves.

However, in this era, referees have always been more lenient in their calls, and the league hopes that intense competition will attract more fans.

After the timeout, Gan Guoyang stopped guarding Johnson one-on-one because the team had already taken the lead.

To protect Forrest Gump and conserve his energy, Bellman instructed Gan Guoyang not to focus on marking the Magician anymore, but to provide occasional help defense and double-teaming.

Gan Guoyang said, "Squatting against Magic Johnson is just giving him an assist. If I want to defend him, I'll just face him and shut him down. Otherwise, I'll ignore him and let him play one-on-one. He can't kill anyone."

After the timeout, Johnson was freed and immediately hit a mid-range shot from the top of the arc, scoring two points.

They then assisted Quentin Daly on a jump shot from the baseline, bringing the score to four points in a row.

Gan Guoyang's low-post attack missed, and the Lakers launched a counterattack. Worthy received the ball in the low post, turned around, and passed it to Buy Cooper on the outside, but the three-pointer missed.

But Worthy grabbed the offensive rebound and scored on the putback, bringing the score to six points in a row.

The Trail Blazers needed to score, and Porter drove to the basket after a screen but his left-handed floater missed.

Gan Guoyang grabbed the offensive rebound, missed the putback, grabbed it again, rose again, and put the ball into the basket over Edwards.

Gan Guoyang's domineering scoring ability is every team's nightmare.

When he's determined to score in a single round at a crucial moment, it's incredibly difficult to stop him.

Freed from his restraints, Johnson sped up the pace relentlessly, and James Worthy even attempted three-pointers on fast breaks.

James Worthy used to be a forward who rarely even took mid-range shots; most of his shots were taken near the paint.

Once the distance increases, his accuracy will plummet.

But at Don Nelson's request, James Worthy worked hard to improve his mid-range and long-range shooting ability.

Don Nelson has always intended to trade Worthy for a shooter.

Riley expressed considerable interest in Worthy and was willing to trade Glen Rice.

However, after considering various factors and consulting with Johnson, Don Nelson still did not initiate the trade.

After all, Jerry West has already left the Lakers, and Nelson has no rivals in management, so there's no need for him to trade away a veteran and disrupt the locker room atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Worthy doesn't have much shooting talent. This three-pointer was right on target, but it lacked power and was clearly too short.

Gan Guoyang made a precise judgment, squeezed under the basket, and with a small hand outstretched, the ball grazed the front edge of the rim and bounced right back into his hands.

Gan Guoyang didn't pass the ball to the guard. Instead, he dribbled the ball across half-court and then made a three-pointer from a 45-degree angle, which went in smoothly.

This ability to launch sudden three-pointers was a rare skill in the NBA at the time, catching opponents off guard.

"Watch carefully and learn well," Gan Guoyang reminded Worthy to study his three-point shooting technique.

They had just narrowed the gap to 5 points, but suddenly it became 10 points again.

At halftime, the Trail Blazers led the Lakers 61-52, a 9-point advantage.

Gan Guoyang played comfortably and freely in the first half. When he returned to the locker room, he exclaimed, "I love playing on the Great Western Forum!"

Magic Johnson only scored 7 points and 6 assists in the first half, along with 3 turnovers—two of which were committed by Gan Guoyang in the second quarter.

In just the first half of the game, the entire Lakers team was gripped by a tremendous sense of crisis.

In their first meeting this season, from the coaches to the core players to the role players, they realized that they were unlikely to beat the Trail Blazers this year.

In the 88-89 season, the Lakers dominated the Trail Blazers in the regular season, winning 4 and losing 1.

Although Forrest Gump exploded in the playoffs and got into playoff form, the Lakers still gritted their teeth and made it through.

The Trail Blazers' core structure remains the same this year, but the addition of three European stars has drastically changed the situation.

In particular, Sabonis, Europe's top center, completely eliminated Forrest Gump's worries on the defensive end.

John Stockton, the point guard who knew Forrest Gump best, once said during a game that against a defender like Forrest Gump, you have to make him constantly make choices and keep his mind racing to make judgments. The moment he hesitates is your opportunity.

Once Forrest Gump has no worries and focuses solely on guarding one player, that player is likely doomed—unless you're an epic offensive player like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, or Hakeem Olajuwon.

Even they would have to go through a lot, let alone Magic Johnson with so many flaws in his offensive skills.

Johnson's attempt to gain a psychological advantage through one-on-one situations failed, at least in the first half.

Don Nelson and Johnson discussed their strategy during halftime and eventually reached a consensus: they needed to increase the pace.

You absolutely must not get stuck in the defensive position and go head-to-head with Argentine. At the same time, speeding up can move Sabonis around, preventing him from safely positioning himself in the three-second zone.

In the third quarter, the Lakers' offensive pace quickened, with Johnson launching attacks as soon as he crossed half-court.

Worthy, Cooper, and Byron Scott kept cutting and receiving passes before attacking the basket or taking mid-range jump shots.

The Trail Blazers initially lost their composure and were chased down by the Lakers, narrowing the gap to 4 points at one point.

Gan Guoyang stepped up again, first assisting Sabonis to hit a three-pointer, then grabbing an offensive rebound and assisting Kossi to score a layup.

Gan Guoyang has already recorded 7 assists tonight, almost matching Johnson's record.

My main point is, I won't fight you; I'll rely on my underlings to beat you all to death.

The score difference remained around 10 points.

The Lakers didn't give up. Johnson used clever passing and attention to detail to keep the score close and gradually close the gap.

Basketball games require both endurance and explosiveness. Endurance is needed to avoid falling too far behind when the game is even or even when you are at a disadvantage, while explosiveness is needed to turn the tide when you see a chance to turn things around.

Johnson has enough stamina, but his explosiveness isn't that great because he's a point guard.

In the latter part of the third quarter, when Gan Guoyang stepped up again and blocked Johnson in a one-on-one defense, Johnson once again missed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

If Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were here, he wouldn't have to face this giant.

Gan Guoyang made a strong tackle on Johnson on the defensive end, stealing the ball directly.

Then he dribbled to the basket and slammed it home with a one-handed gliding dunk.

Gan Guoyang saw a hint of dejection and despair in Johnson's eyes.

He comforted Johnson, saying, "It's just the regular season, it's not a big deal to lose."

Forrest Gump was a superstar who loved to encourage others and warmed people's hearts.

(End of this chapter)