After Christmas, the Trail Blazers finally had good news, Buck Williams returned from injury after missing a number of games, and in the first game after his absence, the Trail Blazers lost to their opponents to end the winning streak, and the Trail Blazers struggled significantly in the following games.

It wasn't until before Christmas that the pioneers gradually got back on track, and this was all based on Gan Guoyang's willingness to sacrifice dirty work to get the result, and after Christmas, Gan Guoyang was unwilling to continue to be a coolie blue-collar worker.

The Trail Blazers' performance in Williams' absence has shown that there are some players on a team that the numbers can't tell, and it's only when you lose him that you feel how good he was when you were there.

Another question that arises after Williams' return is whether Sabonis can continue to stay in the starting line-up.

Although Williams didn't care about the fact that Sabonis was getting better and better during the substitution period, Buck still had a strong sense of crisis in his heart, and Adelman saw that Sabonis was playing well, so he asked Williams to sit on the bench and play as a substitute on the grounds that Williams had just returned from injury.

In the last game of the Trail Blazers in 1988, against the Sacramento Kings at home, Gan Guoyang scored 50 points on 20-of-29 shooting at home after Christmas, leading the team to a 125-109 victory, and fixed the 1988 Trail Blazers' record at 26-1, the league's best.

Gan Guoyang's MVP ranking is also ahead of the league, and in the game where Gan Guoyang scored 50 points, the fans chanted MVP, and for the Portlanders, and even for the entire Oregonian, Gan Guoyang has become their sports hero.

In this game, Gan Guoyang no longer did the blue-collar job as before, but took back the right to fire offensively, showing everyone his superb offensive skills, and proving to those who have questioned his performance in the past few games that he can become a scoring machine at any time if he wants to.

Sabonis also completed his task well, Gan Guoyang's demonstration in a few games is not a demonstration for others to see, Sabonis is extremely proactive in defense, and better assumes the responsibility of the defensive end, so that Gan Guoyang can let go of his hands and kill.

After half a season, he has been following Gan Guoyang for high-intensity training, and his physical strength is no problem at all.

The most important thing is that Sabonis's confidence has come up, for a talented rookie, confidence is sometimes more important than skill and experience, and the confidence accumulated from many excellent performances has allowed Sabonis to know what he should do on the court, and he is no longer reckless on the defensive end, he has learned to control his foul count, and he has learned how to deal with those muscular men.

Of course, it is impossible to improve dramatically in a short period of time, and a more important factor in Sabonis's ability to play normally is that the other players are starting to adapt to and even enjoy Sabonis's time on the pitch.

Although Sabonis was on the court, Cauchy and Deluxler had to disperse part of their energy to the three-second zone to help the interior line assist defense and fill in the leaks, when Williams and Gan Guoyang were on the court together, the outside players didn't need to care about the interior defense at all, and the interior line could instead divide their energy to help the outside line.

Now, Drexler and Cauchy are used to it, and even if they have to put more effort on the defensive end, on the offensive end, Sabonis is too comfortable.

He is like a watchtower on the court, with the ball in his hands, he can control the overall situation, and convert Drexler and Cauchy's air cuts into assists and points anytime and anywhere, his wonderful passes, his smooth transmission of the ball, and his reading of the opponent's defense, make the Trail Blazers' offense more sharp and smooth, with the team's ferocious fast attack, the Trail Blazers' offense is invincible, at least in the West.

But because of this, Williams was completely reduced to a bench, in the comeback game against the Sacramento Kings, Williams only got 1 point and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes of playing time, the ferocious Bucks in the past seemed to have experienced a small injury, and lost his sharpness, and he was originally positive and resolute after not having a starting guarantee, his enthusiasm was dampened.

Adelman, on the other hand, has always been a stubborn old man, and he is not good at adjusting the psychology of his players, and in his opinion, it is natural for professional players to play in the team and obey the arrangement.

Sabonis is in good shape, and he uses Sabonis to fit the team better, and Williams is in average condition when he returns from injury, so he presses him to the bench, but he doesn't care too much about the player's feelings.

Gan Guoyang still noticed the change in Williams.

………………

The Trail Blazers got a full week off after playing the game against the Kings on the 27th, and their next game won't be played until next year's No. 3, which is too long.

The Trail Blazers also gave the players a break to take time off to relax and better prepare for next year's game.

Gan Guoyang didn't give himself a holiday to rest as usual, for him to practice in the training hall for two hours is the best relaxation, so in addition to taking out one day to accompany Wang Fuxi in the seven days, Gan Guoyang got up early as usual and went to the training center early for training.

Along with Gan Guoyang, there is another person, that is Buck Williams, who has not rested a day for seven days, and has spent all his time in the training gym, because the absence of injuries has made him need a lot of training to recover.

Gan Guoyang used Williams as a sparring partner in training, and also used himself as Williams's sparring partner to help the Bucks recover.

"Dribble, dribble, get rid of it, get rid of it! Your speed is there, your speed! I'm going to break your ball, protect your ball, protect your ball...... You can't pass me, you can't pass me......" In the arena, Gan Guoyang and Williams were engaged in one-on-one heads-up practice, Gan Guoyang's oppressive defense and chattering trash talk made Williams too annoying, how could he, who had degraded his offensive ability, deal with Gan Guoyang who could defend with all his might.

The physical confrontation between the two became more and more intense, Williams kept pushing Gan Guoyang with his other hand, and Gan Guoyang was like an iron door that he couldn't push no matter how he pushed, and Gan Guoyang kept sticking to find Williams' physical contact.

"Come on, Buck, aren't you a stag? Stand up to me, where is your strength? Take out your strength, we've fought so many games, count how many times you've built it for me? How many times have I been covered by you? Gan Guoyang continued to spit trash talk at Williams, the two were not on the same team in the past, and they would meet each other on the field, and Williams was not less slapped by Gan Guoyang because of his height disadvantage.

Gan Guoyang's words undoubtedly angered Williams, Williams, who was originally facing away from Gan Guoyang, suddenly turned to face Gan Guoyang, and then accelerated suddenly, regardless of whether his body had passed Gan Guoyang or not, he held the ball and slammed into Gan Guoyang like a suicide plane, wanting to directly push Gan Guoyang to the basket.

This is not an official game, Gan Guoyang will not pretend to fall and make a foul, he saw Williams crash with all his strength, Gan Guoyang also met with all his strength, and the two collided hard.

Gan Guoyang is tall and strong, Williams was hit by Gan Guoyang, just like Gan Guoyang still didn't reluctantly reach out to take out the ball in Williams' hand, this time Williams was on fire, he didn't say a word before he held the ball with both hands and shook it violently, knocking away Gan Guoyang's outstretched hand.

Gan Guoyang was also angry when Williams came, and he pushed Williams with both hands, how great Gan Guoyang's strength was, Williams took several steps back, and almost fell to the ground without standing firmly.

At this moment, both of them were on fire, Williams threw down the basketball in his hand and rushed towards Gan Guoyang, and the two scuffled together.

Gan Guoyang is tall and strong, and his arms are long, while Williams has a low center of gravity and wants to knock Gan Guoyang down from below, but Gan Guoyang's chassis is so stable that he is like a yokozuna-level sumo wrestler, grabbing Williams' shoulders and throwing Williams to the ground.

But Williams didn't give up, and immediately got up and rushed towards Gan Guoyang, this time he was directly on the fist, and Gan Guoyang was also unceremoniously, dodging Williams's fist while beckoning his fist towards Williams.

The two of them fought on the training ground like this, but fortunately, the staff of the training hall heard the abnormal noise, ran to the field and found that the two guys had changed from practicing basketball to boxing, and hurriedly stepped forward to pull the two apart.

It is not uncommon for teammates to quarrel or even fight on the training ground for the brave and ruthless professional players, and Gan Guoyang used his fists to teach Kenny Johnson, who had just transferred to the team, when he first returned last season, and he made the last move with Gan Guoyang Dingzhen in the confrontation training.

Williams has been in a really bad mood recently, and Gan Guoyang is still "ignorant of what to do" and frequently provoked, he finally couldn't hold back, he was also the boss of the team in the Nets in the past, and when the Trailblazers were willing to give Gan Guoyang a hand, but he got such treatment, which made him angry.

Williams, who was pulled away, turned away from Gan Guoyang, and the two of them stood awkwardly on the court.

Williams was hesitating whether he was going to leave, but he was wondering if he should say something.

At this time, Williams saw a hand stretched out in front of him, and it was Gan Guoyang who took the initiative to come over.

"Buck, if a fight with me can give you some vent, I'm willing to accompany you, but the team needs you, I need you, you have to come back as soon as possible."