"Good evening everyone, today is Tuesday, May 7th, and welcome to Bill Shanley's NBA commentary show. Tonight at Memorial Coliseum, the Portland Trail Blazers will take on the Denver Nuggets in Game 5. In the previous four games, the Trail Blazers and Nuggets had ended in a 2-2 draw, a surprising, but not so surprising, result. The Trail Blazers won two straight games at home and lost two games in a row at home in Denver. Now that both sides are back on the same page, Game 5 will be a crucial one, and whoever can win this game will have the initiative in the series. Thankfully, this key game is being played in Portland, so let's wish the Trail Blazers the best of luck as the game is about to begin. ”

On the evening of May 7, Shaunley sat behind the Trail Blazers bench as usual to explain the key game between the Trail Blazers and Nuggets tonight.

As Shaunley said, a 2-2 draw between the Trail Blazers and Nuggets was a surprising, but not so surprising, result.

Judging from the regular season matchups, the Trail Blazers did not have an advantage in the face of the Nuggets, but fell behind 1:3, and the only game they won was a game that was scheduled at the end of the season.

The first two Trail Blazers won two games in a row, and the first game was won by Ramsey's rational tactics and the team's high morale at home.

In the second game, the Trail Blazers went all the way and took advantage of the Nuggets' lack of horses.

But then in the Denver game, the Trail Blazers players were obviously unprepared, plus the Nuggets' own strength was close to the Trail Blazers, the playing style was more restrained than the Trail Blazers, and the Devil's home advantage was advantageous, so they pulled back two games in a row.

Therefore, the Trail Blazers were beaten twice in a row after taking a 2-0 lead, which is both surprising and reasonable - this team is still too immature.

After the entrance ceremony and the singing of the national anthem, there were only a few minutes left before the start of the game, and the starters of both sides were making final preparations on the sidelines, and the coaches were telling the players some important details.

At this point in the game, there are no tactical secrets to speak of, and what is more important is the details and fighting spirit.

"It's a good feeling to be back at home." Kenny Carr said to Gan before he came on the court.

The entire Memorial Coliseum, like any previous game, was filled with spectators early, and they used the noise and noise to create the best atmosphere for the Trail Blazers to play, after all, this is the only professional team in Portland, and it is the greatest pride and sustenance for all sports fans.

"yes, but I always feel that it's not the same as the first game." But Gan Guoyang felt that after a trip to Denver, the feeling when he returned to his home court was completely different.

"The game is about to start, and the center forwards of both sides are standing in the center circle ready to jump the ball, and tonight's referees are Earl Strom and Hugh Hollins. Okay, the game is on, the referee throws the ball into the air! ”

With the old referee Earl Strom throwing the ball into the air, this crucial battle of Tianwang Mountain officially kicked off.

Gan Guoyang touched the ball first on the jump ball and flicked the ball to Valentine, and the first quarter started with the Trail Blazers' offense.

In the pre-match preparation meeting, Ramsey put forward two most important requirements, one is to reduce mistakes, and the other is to increase the attack on the inside.

Judging from the first four games, the first two games had a good effect against the Nuggets, because the Nuggets made a lot of turnovers in high-tempo games, and the Trail Blazers were more efficient offensively than the Nuggets.

But in the last two games, the Nuggets began to bring the game into a more rapid pace and put thought into the rotation of interior players, making it as uncomfortable as possible for Gan Guoyang, the interior pillar of the Trail Blazers.

After all, Gan Guoyang still lacks playoff experience, and his adjustment and response skills are obviously insufficient, which also leads to his insufficient contribution to the team in the two games lost by the Trail Blazers.

And as soon as this match started, Gan Guoyang began to actively play in the low post again, as he did in the first game.

"Gan asks for the ball in the low post, and the Trail Blazers' first offense is going to start from the inside. I think it was the right choice, and in the two games in Denver, Gan didn't pose much of a threat to the Nuggets on the inside, which was very puzzling. ”

But he may soon understand why Gan's contribution on the inside was so limited when he played in Denver.

Valentin had just hoisted the ball to Gan when Leaf immediately stepped forward to wrap it.

Leaf's bag can be said to be very fast, and this is thanks to his good positioning, when he defended Valentine, he did not stare at Valentine, but stood between Gan Guoyang and Valentine.

At the same time, Liv also looked back at Gan Guoyang from time to time, as long as Gan Guoyang went further in, Liv also moved inward, not caring about whether Valentine would suddenly use cold arrows on the periphery.

In other words, the Nuggets have made it clear that even if they let the Trail Blazers shoot outside, they can't let Gan Guoyang open on the inside.

This strategy was discovered by the coach of the Mavericks in the last round, but unfortunately he was beaten down by Gan Guoyang in the second game, and he has not been able to stand up since then.

Now the Nuggets are using a more targeted and tighter package to deal with Gan Guoyang, because they have realized that investing defensive forces in Gan Guoyang has achieved the greatest results.

Wrapping Gan Guoyang, firstly, Gan Guoyang's own ability to transfer the ball is not strong, so the tactical cost paid by the bag is relatively small; Second, Gan Guoyang occupies an important position in Ramsay's tactical system, and the combat effectiveness of the pioneers who are out of touch inside and outside will obviously drop by a notch.

Taken together, Gan Guoyang has become the team's most easily targeted "Achilles' ankle"!

This is the playoffs, and an immature player, even if he is a genius, will be hit by the most ruthless and brutal blows from his opponents.

"Gan passed the ball out, and Valentin took the ball and shot it directly! The ball didn't go in, the rebound was picked up by Calvin Knight, and the Nuggets launched a counterattack. ”

Valentin was obviously still in a hurry for this ball, after Gan Guoyang passed the ball, although he was empty in front of him, he was still a little far away from the basket, this ultra-long two-point shot that stepped on the three-point line, but it bounced out of the basket.

Calvin Knight didn't choose to pass the ball after getting the rebound, but dribbled straight from the backcourt to the frontcourt!

As a power forward of about the same height as a guard, Knight has a natural advantage in speed and strength at the same time.

"Knight, break through to the basket with the ball, go to the basket! The ball went in...... Calvin Knight's fast-break layup gave the Nuggets the opening point. ”

Knight's quick counterattack can be said to have surprised everyone, and the Trail Blazers' players were not quite ready before they were caught off guard by Knight.

"Retreat! You have to get out of the way quickly! Don't let them play speed! Ramsey yelled on the sidelines, and he repeatedly told him before the game to keep the pace down and improve the success rate of the attack.

But this is good, as soon as it comes up, it will make people fight one.

"Steady, steady! We're going to score a goal! Valentin began to slowly dribble forward at this point, and he began to carefully organize the Trail Blazers' offense.

"Carl, bring it up!" Valentine shouted, and Kenny Carr immediately mentioned the top of the arc to do a pick-and-roll for Valentin.

This time, Leaf's attention finally focused on Valentine, and he wanted to think about bypassing Carl's block and defending Valentine.

However, Valentin did not rely on Karl's cover at all, it was a fake pick-and-roll, and Valentin broke through directly from the right side.

Valentine's physique was naturally inferior to Leaf, but his speed had an advantage, and he suddenly broke through to around the three-second zone.

Wayne Cooper, the Nuggets' inside line, immediately came out to make up for the defense, and this time Gan Guoyang was leaked clean, and Valentin calmly threw the ball into the air in the face of the two old teammates, Cooper and Leaf.

Gan Guoyang jumped up from the middle, caught the ball with both hands in the air, and dunked vigorously!

"Beautiful passes, nice air relays! From the combination of Valentin and Gan, they scored the first point of the game for the Trail Blazers, a very morale-boosting goal. ”

The fans at the scene also felt very excited, and cheered for Gan Guoyang with warm cheers and applause.

But a dunk doesn't add more points to the team, and the difference between its effect and a normal shot isn't as big as it seems.

Soon, Inglish was on offense, adding two points to the Nuggets with a 13-foot shot at 45 degrees on the left side.

Inglish's simple style of play is by no means as shocking as Gan Guoyang's dunk, but when a player can shoot such a shot on the opponent's head again and again, the psychological shadow he brings to the opponent is incomparable to one or two dunks.

"hat-a-**ing......" (This fucking ...... Gan Guoyang watched Inglish shoot with his slightly lame straight-arm master, and when Drexler turned over and threw the ball in, he felt a depression in his heart that could not be released.

At this time, Drexler felt the same way, and after four games, he found that he could not contain Inglish's play.

While all NBA players know that there is no way to completely limit some NBA stars, it has to be said that it is frustrating to be repeatedly scored by Inglish with a move on the head.

In response, after Drexler ran and received the ball on the outside, he took advantage of a blocking cover by Gan Guoyang to shoot from the outside.

"Drexler's shot...... The ball is in! His posture is really ugly...... "Obviously, Drexler's shooting posture is even more ugly than Inglish's, and his kicking in the air looks like a toad hanging in the air.

The two sides drew again, and this deuce situation occurred a total of 41 times in the following 40-odd minutes of play.

A 41-game draw meant that the lead changed hands 41 times, and as the game progressed, the smell of gunpowder began to grow stronger.

On the Trailblazers' side, Gan Guoyang and Drexler both received technical fouls, and even Van Dewig, who has always been calm-tempered, even had a technical foul.

On the Nuggets' side, the two leaders of Inglish and Dan Isemer, who are also leading the way, have been whistled by the referee for technical fouls, and it seems that at such a moment, if you don't eat a technical foul, you can't prove that you are playing with your heart.

The verbal battle between the two sides was also escalating, trash talk filled the whole game, physical movements became bigger and bigger, and there were a few times when there was almost a direct confrontation.

In this way, the game continued in a suffocating atmosphere until the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, when the score on the court became 101-102, and the Nuggets led the Trail Blazers by one point.

This score is obviously small between these two teams, and it is enough to show the intensity of the game between the two sides.

At this point, Ramsey had two timeouts left on his hand, one long and one short, and he decisively used a short timeout to set up an offensive for the Trail Blazers.

"Paxson, you go on the court to replace Clyde, we're going to play a cover shot!" As soon as Ramsey said this, it meant that Drexler, who played well in this game, probably had no way to stay on the court at critical moments.

Sweating profusely and bending over to be extremely focused, Drexler's expression froze significantly after hearing Ramsay's words, he silently straightened up, sat back on the bench, took a towel and put it on his head, and no longer looked at Ramsay's tactical board.

Ramsey also paused and continued: "Valentin, you have to be in charge of the ball, Paxson, Vanderwic, you are on the left flank, you use cross-positions with each other to find opportunities, and Gan and Sampson, you have to cover for Valentin on the line. But it's all an illusion, an illusion, we're going to leave the right side completely empty, Paxson, you have to take the opportunity to get rid of the defense and get on the right side, and try to get the ball open! Finally, rebounding, frontcourt rebounding, is very important! It can be brought back to life. ”

Ramsey is also forgivable for replacing Drexler off the court, after all, his shooting is too inconsistent, and in this game, Paxson, as a substitute, he has scored 12 points, shooting 6 of 6, Ramsey has no problem handing over this crucial attack to Paxson.

But this still hurt Drexler a little, you know, in the days of Paxson's absence, Drexler's performance at key moments is definitely a superstar.

The 20-second timeout passed quickly, and Ramsey didn't have time to give details about the tactic, which is in fact a very common tactic used by the Trail Blazers in training.

However, Ramsey overlooked one thing, in the Nuggets lineup, there are three players who used to be under his command, and they can be said to be very familiar with Ramsey's tactical arrangement.

And Doug Mo also has an in-depth study of Ramsey's tactical habits and details through Leaf, Cooper and Knight, and he has vaguely guessed what players Ramsay will send on the court at such a moment and what tactics he will use.

"The players on both sides are back on the court, the game continues, there are less than 2 minutes left before the end of the game, the Trail Blazers are still one point behind, it has reached the most critical moment, and this attack of the Trail Blazers will be very important."

In the stadium, all the fans had already stood up to watch the game, and the tension and atmosphere were enveloped in the entire Memorial Stadium.

Gan Guoyang served on the sideline, and the Nuggets' defense contracted very inside, so Valentin had no difficulty receiving the ball.

At this time, the Trail Blazers players had all squeezed to the left, and the Nuggets' defenders had to follow to the left, and a large piece was left on the right side.

Paxson and Van Dewec, the two lethal shooters, made a cross switch on the left baseline, Paxson switched to a position closer to the baseline, and then Van Dewejk took advantage of the situation to make a one-block cover for Paxson!

Valentine relied on the cover of Gan Guoyang and Sampson on the upper line, got rid of Leaf's entanglement, and found a position where he could shoot and pass.

By this time, Paxson had already crossed under the basket and went straight to the bottom right corner, and he was closely followed by Nuggets guard Dunn.

Valentin saw that Paxson had gotten rid of Dunn's defense and that his own shooting position was not very good, so Valentin didn't hesitate to pass the ball to Paxson.

However, the intention of this ball has been seen through by the Nuggets' power forward, former Trail Blazers player Calvin Knight, who has practiced this ball countless times in the team when he was in the Trail Blazers.

Knight reached out and rushed to the basketball flying in the air, but he was too short, and just poked the tip of his finger into the basketball, which changed the course of the ball.

Knight failed for a steal, but at this point, Paxson made a fatal mistake.

He watched the ball fly towards him but deviated from it, and instead of waiting for it to go out of bounds, he reached out to get it back.

"Don't touch the ball!" Ramsey saw Paxson reach for the ball, his heart jumped to his throat and he yelled loudly.

When Paxson heard this, he immediately wanted to retract his hand, but it was too late, and the ball hit his hand and went out of bounds.

"Beep!" The referee's whistle sounded, and then pointed to the Nuggets' frontcourt, "Nuggets' ball!" ”

The entire memorial stadium was silent, the male fans held their heads with their hands, and the female fans covered their mouths with their hands, and everyone's hearts were like a big stone.

The Nuggets immediately called a timeout, and they didn't want to give the Trail Blazers any chance.

'Well, we're just one point behind, and there's still plenty of time, so we still have a chance to defend this goal! The premise is that we must prevent it! 'Ramsey is still encouraging the players, but he can also see that the players are very frustrated.

Playing at home doesn't seem to bring much energy to the Trail Blazers, and the Nuggets haven't been distracted too much from the road, and they've become accustomed to the noise and restlessness of Memorial Arena.

Although the Trail Blazers were exchanging leads with the Nuggets throughout the game and playing inextricably, the Nuggets seemed more efficient and calm, while the Trail Blazers were more like playing with a breath.

And Paxson's mistake just now let out the breath that the Trail Blazers had saved up throughout the game.

"The Trailblazers are on the edge of a cliff, and they're in great danger." Shaunley said worriedly that he could not see the fighting spirit and hope of forging ahead and winning the game in the current Trail Blazers.

(It's been more abusive lately, but there will be outbreaks later.) ）