On December 22, 1984, at Summit Arena in Houston, 20 minutes before the start of the Houston Rockets-Portland Trail Blazers game, the stadium was already full.

Vendors selling popcorn and soft drinks are everywhere in the arena, and Houston fans are waiting in their seats in colorful and assorted clothes.

This is the first time Gan Guoyang has come to Houston, the space city he once fantasized about playing.

Of course, Gan Guoyang can't forget that he "was" a fan of the Rockets, squatting in front of the TV in the school commissary at noon countless times, watching the Rockets game with his classmates.

He was excited by every outstanding performance of Yao Ming, and he was also choked by every setback of Yao Ming, which constituted the main content of Gan Guoyang's nearly ten years of fan career in later generations.

So, when he first came to the home court of the Rockets — even though it was more than 20 years ago — there was a sense of affection for no reason — even though the Houston fans were not at all kind to him.

Houston fans in Texas are as wild and uninhibited as cowboys, and unlike Trail Blazers fans, the fans at the Rockets' home stadium are more scattered, less exuberant and enthusiastic, and always have a casual style.

Of course, this does not mean that they don't care about the team's victory, nor does it mean that they will let go of Gan Guoyang, the "Houston enemy".

Gan Guoyang's stunner in the 1984 NCAA Finals shattered the University of Houston's dream of winning the NCAA title, which also made local fans dislike the Chinese center.

If it is in Detroit or Philadelphia, Gan Guoyang will probably be greeted by fans all kinds of times when he warms up on the court.

It's just that in Houston, or in most western cities, most of the people who come to watch the game are middle-class, and parents bring their children to watch the game, so it's quite rare.

But Gan Guoyang is also ready to be booed by the fans, and he vows to avenge the defeat in the last game.

Compared with Gan Guoyang's single-minded desire for revenge, Drexler's thoughts are much more complicated.

Drexler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and his family moved to Houston, where he completed his high school and college studies.

After graduating from college, he entered the 1983 NBA Draft, when the Houston Rockets held two high-pick picks, the No. 1 pick and the No. 1 pick.

Drexler was promised by Rockets head coach Del Harris that the Rockets would sign Drexler with the third pick, so Drexler turned down a number of requests.

However, before the draft began, Del Harris was fired by the Rockets, and Bill Feige, who stepped down from the Celtics, became the new head coach of the Rockets.

The Rockets' promise to Drexler came to naught, and Drexler was told that the Rockets might not pick him out in the draft.

Later, Drexler received a trial call from the Trail Blazers, and he was eventually taken by the Trail Blazers with the thirteenth pick.

Not only did this shatter Drexler's dream of continuing to play in Houston, but it also made it impossible for him to be teammates with his good friend Olajuwon, and the two had to be rivals against each other.

Now, Drexler's good teammates are enemies of the University of Houston, sending them to Gan Guoyang.

The thought of this makes Drexler's mixed emotions indescribable.

After the usual opening ceremony and player introductions, the game was about to begin, and the DJ heard a boo when he reported Gan's name.

Gan Guoyang is no longer surprised by this, on the contrary, this kind of boo can stimulate more fighting spirit.

Drexler still didn't get a chance to start, so he could only sit on the bench and watch his teammates play against the Rockets.

'We have to start with momentum and if we get ahead of them on the road, it's going to be very difficult for us. Ramsey gave his final pre-game instructions that he hoped the Trail Blazers would be able to change their inconsistent form and get back on track.

The starting lineups of both sides are the same as in the previous game, and the Trail Blazers are still five people: Gan Guoyang, Sampson, Paxson, Vanderwig and Valentine; And the Rockets continue with a three-round lineup with center Akim Olajuwon, power forward Ralph Sampson, small forward Rodney McGray, shooting guard Lewis Lloyd and point guard John Lucas.

"Good morning, Akim." Gan Guoyang looked at Olajuwang opposite and said hello.

"It's night." Olajuwon glanced at Gan Guoyang and said coldly.

"It's night in the United States, but it's morning in China." Gan Guoyang said with a smile.

However, Olajuwon obviously doesn't think this joke is funny, in his heart he has never let go of the NCAA Finals game, and naturally he will not regard Gan Guoyang as a friend.

In a sense, Olajuwon, like Gan Guoyang, is a perfectionist who has a tireless pursuit of basketball skills.

Olajuwon has honed himself day and night since coming to the NBA, and his turnaround jumper has become more and more proficient, and all that is missing is the test of the playoffs.

His steps are more agile and changeable, and although he is not in the "dreamy" situation, he can already make his opponent miserable.

Defensively, his blocks still have a great deterrent, although he can't "play volleyball" as casually in the NBA as he did in college, but his average of 2.7 blocks per game makes him the second rookie in '84, second only to Gan Guoyang's 2.9.

But he still felt that he was looking at the back of the 11th, struggling to catch up.

In the first game against the Trail Blazers, although the Rockets won, Gan Guoyang sent the twin towers off the court alone, and his amazing performance of 33 points obviously overshadowed Olajuwon.

In the last game, Gan Guoyang scored 43 points in a single game in Golden State, setting a new high for this rookie's score, which made Olajuwon even more depressed.

In the game against the Bulls four days ago, Olajuwon scored 24 points in the game, giving the Bulls a loss, and Jordan scored only 18 points.

In this way, Olajuwon was very happy, but when he saw the news report of Gan Guoyang's 43 points in a single game, he couldn't be happy again.

As the champion of '84, Olajuwon is only third in the list of best rookies this year, and the top two occupy the first place in points per game in the season, and the other dominates the rebounds per game list, which puts Olajuwon under great pressure and great motivation.

"I'm going to beat you so much that your dad doesn't even know you." Olajuwon responded to Gan Guoyang Dao.

"Then I'll beat you up until my dad knows you!" Gan Guoyang heard Olajuwon's provocation and shot back unceremoniously.

Before the game started, the two were already full of gunpowder.

However, the jump ball player sent by the Rockets was not Gan Guoyang, but Ralph Sampson, who is 7-foot-4 tall.

In the last game against the Rockets, although Olajuwon played well, Gan Guoyang knew that Sampson was the key player of the Rockets, and his agility that was not commensurate with his height made the Trail Blazers suffer.

Sampson, the top pick of the Trail Blazers - Mitchell Sampson has no way to take this kind of player, and Ramsey has to resort to the method of wrapping, which also makes the Trail Blazers' release full of loopholes and gives the Rockets many opportunities.

Ralph Sampson, who already has a year of NBA experience, and Olajuwonbi, are significantly more experienced and more difficult to play against in games.

So Ramsey had already asked before the game to let Gan Guoyang go to defend Ralph Sampson and hand Olajuwon to Mitchell.

Ralph Sampson is tall and has long arms and excellent jumping, and in this case, although Gan Guoyang is stronger, he can't get the upper hand in the scrum.

Sampson was the first to touch the ball and flicked it towards his own player.

However, Valentine, the Trail Blazers' point guard, used his flexibility to take the lead in the scramble and pulled the ball away from the Rockets.

The Trail Blazers players were moved, Vanderwig and Paxson rushed towards the opposing half of the court from left to right, Valentin passed the ball to Paxson, and Paxson dribbled directly to the basket.

The Rockets didn't want to let the Trail Blazers score the first point like that, and their veteran point guard John Lucas clung to Paxson and constantly interfered with him, pushing Paxson down when he was making a layup.

John Lucas, as a veteran player who has been in the league for 9 years, is naturally experienced, and he pads under Paxson for a while, and the position is just right, and he does not foul and at the same time makes Paxson very uncomfortable.

Paxson is not known for his physical fitness, but he was groomed by Lucas, lost his balance in the air, and a simple layup was made big by him.

The Rockets players who followed behind won the rebound, and the Trail Blazers' quick offense didn't succeed, and now it was the Rockets' turn to move quickly.

The experienced Lucas had a pretty good tempo, dribbling ahead of Paxson and Van Dewech to hit back the Trail Blazers with a fast break.

But seeing that the rest of the Trail Blazers were in a good position, and Paxson and Vanderwich were quick to return to the defense, they slowed down and prepared to play positional offense.

The Rockets are a typical double-tower tactic, double-high and one-sided, which side has the opportunity to pass to which side, if you encounter a weak team inside, the twin towers you and me one by one, can really beat the opponent to death.

However, Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson are not in deep positions, so they give the inside line a lot of opportunities to run and cut into the air, so Gan Guoyang and Mitchell Sampson do not dare to go around the front, if you go around the front, the back will be empty.

John Lucas paused at 45 degrees on the left side of the ball to feed the ball inside, but Olajuwon on the left didn't mean to attack on his own, so Lucas transferred the ball to McGregor on the side.

McGregory is a rookie who was acquired by the Rockets in 1983 with a scout pick, an all-around small forward who graduated from the University of Louisville.

His performance in all aspects is fairly balanced, and he is a very competent small forward, but obviously he is a bit far from the requirements of the Tanhua pick.

He held the ball on the outside, turned from left to right and found that he couldn't pass the ball inside, and the opening Trail Blazers defense was very dead, so in the right corner position, he faced Vanderwig's defense and shot an 18-foot jumper.

"Huh!" The ball actually went in.

I have to say that Vanderwig is not a good single defender, he graduated from UCLA with outstanding awareness, but sometimes he is really powerless, so he can only put McGregory into this mid-range shot.

A ball is nothing, and the Trail Blazers serve to organize the offense.

The biggest feature of the Trailblazers' offense is "fast", their speed is not only reflected in the fast attack and rapid counterattack, but also their offense is also very fast in positional warfare, and they rarely grind until 24 seconds without shooting.

In Ramsay's words, if you don't shoot in the first 10 seconds, why do you think you'll be able to throw the ball in the next 14 seconds?

Ramsey's offensive thinking is actually very advanced, because the longer the attacker drags on, the worse the attacker's offensive feeling will be, and the defender will defend more and more, especially until the end of the shot, often missing.

Rather than this, it is better to complete the attack quickly in front, or even grab the shot, sometimes such a shot seems unreasonable, but in combination with the whole game, such a shot is often more efficient.

The Trail Blazers' positional offense unfolded very quickly, and after one or two small matches, players were able to shoot directly, and this time Ramsey took the lead in arranging Sampson to play singles in the low post.

The Trail Blazers' formation was quickly pulled away, giving Sampson a good one-off position in the low post on the right, and Valentin passed the ball directly to Mitchell Sampson.

This is a duel between the two champion Sampson, the old Sampson's position is very deep, so as soon as he gets the ball, he is very close to the basket, a turn, a hard top, the basket is close at hand.

If it were someone else, Mitchell Sampson would have easily put the ball in, but it was Sampson Jr., who was 5 inches taller than him, Ralph Sampson, who defended him.

Ralph Sampson didn't jump up to block, and he knew that jumping up and blocking in that position would result in a foul.

He relied on his height and reach to stand straight under the basket and used himself as a dam to fend off the opposition's offense.

Mitchell Sampson was really affected, and when he made a layup, he pushed too hard and threw directly across the bridge.

McGree got the rebound, then turned and threw the ball straight to the frontcourt, where Olajuwon was already rushing to the Trail Blazers basket.

After Olajuwon received the ball, he did not pass the ball to others, but dribbled straight to the basket himself, and Gan Guoyang had already blocked Olajuwon in front of him to stop his fast attack.

At this time, Olajuwon had not yet reached the point where he dribbled like a defender, and he did not dare to rush again after a few dribbles, and stopped and threw 13 feet from the basket.

Gan Guoyang did not step forward to block, but turned around to guard the basket, ready to grab the rebound.

Sure enough, Olajuwon was too anxious to shoot the ball and smashed it on the neck of the basket and didn't score, Gan Guoyang withstood Ralph Sampson who followed from behind and Lloyd on the side, and grabbed the rebound steadily.

"Nice rebounds! Score one steadily! Ramsey applauded the rebound from the sidelines.

Gan Guoyang's anti-fast attack should be said to be quite calm, he did not choose to save Olajuwon, but let him move forward, protect the basket himself, and you have to shoot with you outside.

When Olajuwon made a shot, he did not rush forward to interfere, but first went to protect the rebound ball to prevent the Rockets' follow-up secondary attack, which is actually the easiest opportunity for opponents to score points in the fast break.

After winning this goal, the Trail Blazers slowed down a little, they had to score one first, and Ramsey's order to the Trail Blazers was: The first ball must be scored inside!

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