Chapter 408: Encirclement and suppression

Needless to say, the state of the Trail Blazers is that they continue to soar in the league after entering January, winning the Lakers and shaking the United States with an 11-game winning streak, and the topic of discussion during the Trail Blazers' 17-game winning streak "who can finish the Trail Blazers" is going to be brought out for discussion, and now everyone is waiting for the Trail Blazers' second loss.

Originally, people thought that the Lakers could stop the Trail Blazers at home, but who knew that the Lakers were crushed into paper by the Trail Blazers like a roller without much resistance, others naturally didn't know what Riley was thinking, and felt that the Lakers might really have no way to compete with the Trail Blazers.

However, no matter how strong the team is in shape, there will be ups and downs, as the season gradually deepens, fatigue, injuries, burnout and other problems will appear one by one, and the Trail Blazers, who have become the target of public criticism, have also become the research object of each team, and the coaching staff of all teams are carefully studying the tactics of the Trail Blazers, rotation characteristics, and trying to deal with the Trail Blazers in various ways.

The first to find a breakthrough is the Sacramento Kings, before January 6, the Kings have played the Trail Blazers twice, the lack of interior strength of the Kings lost twice, basically there is not much room for resistance, their starting center is Jim Peterson, that is, the former Houston Rockets Olajuwon substitute.

This white thin man with a height of 6 feet 10 basically became a white dough when he met Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang could pinch it as much as he wanted, such a player mainly played inside, and of course the king couldn't stop the footsteps of the pioneers.

Then on January 6, the Kings went to the away game to challenge the Trail Blazers, but almost knocked the Trail Blazers to the ground at the Memorial Coliseum.

The Kings can be said to have made full preparations and targeted arrangements before the game, first of all, they launched the tightest pinch attack on Gan Guoyang on the defensive end.

The current Gan Guoyang is actually not so afraid of pinching, first, although his assists are average, the speed and experience of transferring the ball are already very good, and it is not so easy for opponents to rely on pinching to disrupt Gan Guoyang's rhythm; Second, as long as Sabonis is present, Gan Guoyang's active attack range will be expanded, which also makes it more difficult for the opponent to flank Gan Guoyang.

However, no matter how strong the individual ability is, the star will definitely suffer in the case of one against two, let alone one against three, the king is a cruel three-man attack on Gan Guoyang.

In addition to Jim Peterson, the Kings team also has a former Rockets player, that is, McGray, after the collapse of the Rockets' twin towers, he was also traded to the Kings in a trade with Peterson, as the starting small forward, he is strong, and has caused a lot of trouble for the Trail Blazers in the battle between the Rockets and the Trail Blazers, among which his quick pinch attack gave Gan Guoyang a headache.

In addition, the Kings have a future Rockets player in the starter, their point guard Kenny Smith, a cunning, sophisticated outside player with a bizarre but accurate shooting posture.

Peterson, McGregory, and Smith, three players who are more or less connected with the Rockets, formed a package group to launch a crazy pinch attack on Gan Guoyang, from the beginning of Gan Guoyang's inside ball, Smith was ready to move in the direction of Gan Guoyang, and McGray was also ready at all times. Once Gan Guoyang catches the ball, the two will rush forward without hesitation, no matter how strong Gan Guoyang's personal ability is and how fast he is, it is impossible for him to crack this kind of targeted three-person package, and he can only pass the ball out.

On the King's bench sat an old fritter Danny Angie, who also has a knack for dealing with Gan Guoyang, who doesn't have a lot of harassment and pinching, and his outside shooting is just as accurate

The Kings are clearly on the verge of illegal defense, and the Trail Blazers are one of the promoters of this kind of defense that has begun to spread in the league, and now Gan Guoyang is also beginning to suffer from this kind of defense.

It is obviously not enough to just wrap Gan Guoyang, because the other players of the Trail Blazers have more scoring opportunities, and Drexler, who has been in good form recently, is even more comfortable with Gan Guoyang's containment in this game, and he is taking and taking what he wants on the outside and inside, but no matter how he scores, the Kings have always firmly wrapped Gan Guoyang and not relaxed.

At the same time, on the offensive end, the Kings also took out one of their sharp weapons in this game - three-point shooting.

The characteristics of the Trail Blazers' defense are very distinct, the players call each other and support each other are very in place, and the single defense ability of the frontcourt players is extremely strong, under the training of Bellman, the players on the field can immediately change their defensive posture with just a few simple actions and slogans. At the same time, Gan Guoyang, as the defensive core of this team, provides extremely stable backcourt rebounding protection and free throw line, and quick help defense near the three-second zone.

The Kings did not have a strong offensive point on the inside to contain Gan Guoyang, and the opponent did a good job of blocking the space on the inside, the three-point shot became their best choice, and the large space was opened to weaken the echo between the Trail Blazers players.

Last season, the entire league team averaged only 1.6 three-pointers per game, less than two, but in this game, Kenny Smith and their shooting guard Rick Berry showed superb shooting skills, Berry shot 3 of 3 three-pointers, 100 percent shooting, and the Kings hit 6 three-pointers as a team, with a shooting rate of 50 percent.

These six three-pointers were not as simple as scoring 18 points, and the opening of the opponent's perimeter made the Trail Blazers have to change their defensive formation to man-to-man defense, which gives the Kings a better offensive opportunity.

In this game, the Trail Blazers were led by the nose by the opponent tactically for the first time, and the Kings relied on full preparation and extraordinary play to get into a hard struggle with the Trail Blazers on the road, and the scores of the two sides continued to tie, all the way to overtime, and the overtime was tied again into the second overtime.

In the second overtime, Drexler, who scored 50 points in the game, has run out of energy, but the opponent's physical strength has also been overdrawn, at this time Gan Guoyang, who was troubled by the bag for a whole game, finally seized the opportunity to break through the shackles, he scored 9 points in a row in the second overtime, and hit the key hook, a final word, and finally helped the Trail Blazers lock up the victory, and finally the Trail Blazers fought hard in double overtime at home, 145:142 defeated the Kings hard, and won 12 consecutive victories.

In this game, Drexler scored a season-high 50 points, but his performance in the backcourt defense was disappointing, and he was shot through by the Kings' shooters; And Gan Guoyang still scored 27 points under the strict defense of the king, and at the same time continued to be efficient and stable in the protection of rebounds, scoring 15 rebounds.

But tonight, the Trail Blazers' defense is not good, Gan Guoyang is blocked on the offensive end alone, and the defensive end is like a tinker on a broken ship.

……………………

Although the Trail Blazers won this game, the Sacramento Kings showed all NBA teams a good way to deal with the Trail Blazers: defending Gan Guoyang and attacking from a long shot.

Of course, this set of methods was not just come up with by the king, and it is the consensus of many teams when facing the Trail Blazers, but it is really rare for the King to score 50 points at the expense of putting Drexle in the face of the Kings tonight, which also reflects how important Gan Guoyang's tactical position in the Trail Blazers is, which is different from Gan Guoyang, who had a single scoring method in previous seasons, and now his rich and diverse offensive means are a weapon for the destruction of the opponent's defense.

Strengthening long-range shooting is also a good feeling for the king tonight, and other teams can't always have such a good three-point feel, but reducing interior entanglement, not going to face hard with the Trail Blazers' thick frontcourt, and using more mid-range and three-point points to deal with the Trail Blazers has become the consensus of all teams.

In general, the Sacramento Kings sounded the clarion call for the league to encircle and suppress the Trail Blazers through this game, and on the basis of the previous two principles, each team has sacrificed its own restraint tactics to create problems for the Trail Blazers.

On January 7 and January 10, the Trail Blazers played two consecutive games against the Seattle SuperSonics, and the SuperSonics inherited the experience of the Kings and shot wild three-pointers in the game against the Trail Blazers, including 19 three-pointers in the first game, but the shooting percentage was poor, and they were wiped out by the Trail Blazers at home.

Then came to Portland, where the SuperSonics once again made 11 three-pointers from the outside and hit 7 of them! Supersonic bench, "X-man" McDaniel came off the bench for 28 minutes, scoring 29 points on 12-of-14 shooting, and Buck Williams was helpless in front of him.

In the end, the SuperSonics handed the Trail Blazers their second loss of the season, and they used their experience to make three-point convulsions, and at the same time, someone on the bench needed to come out and disrupt the game and give the Trail Blazers a blow from mid-range.

On January 17, the Utah Jazz once again beat the Trail Blazers at the Memorial Coliseum, and the Jazz's new coach Jerry Sloan let Karl Malone and John Stockton use small tricks in defense, Malone played against Sabonis, making Sabonis play six fouls for the first time in his career, and Sloan let Stocker often go to deal with Drexler, and the small action made Drexler overwhelmed, making him 5-of-15 from the field.

Of the remaining three, Sloan asked small forward Jafaroni to keep an eye on Gan Guoyang, Mark Eaton to make up for the defense at any time, and Darryl Griffin was pure cannon fodder, and he fouled Gan Guoyang and disrupted Gan Guoyang's offensive rhythm.

At the same time, the Jazz bench also stood up Pele, the 6-foot-11 sixth man also became a spoiler, using the Trail Blazers' rotation to score points, shooting two three-pointers, scoring 23 points, helping the Jazz to give the Trail Blazers a third defeat.

In the rest of the games in January, the Trail Blazers suddenly found that their opponents seemed to have become stronger, every game was played extremely hard, and the situation of getting the opponent in the third quarter never appeared again, and every stalemate until the last moment, it was up to the superstars in the team to deal with it, and the team's loss number changed from 1 to 5, which means that the Trail Blazers lost 5 games in January alone.

When the Trail Blazers defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 108-107 in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, relying on Gan Guoyang's final layup, their next opponent was the Los Angeles Lakers.