A month's time, not long, not short, Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers, the two strongest teams in the West met again, this time, the game was still played in Los Angeles, the first three meetings between the two teams were all arranged on the Lakers' home court, and the first two games against the Trail Blazers won all, which made the third game and the last home court of the Lakers under great pressure.

Before the game, Riley made an unexpected remark, claiming that Gan Guoyang should not be ranked first on the MVP list and that the first place should go to the Magic.

"yes, that's what I think, the Trail Blazers have a great record and Gan has a great individual performance, but the value of a MVP is not just in those places, he should be able to make his teammates better. In this regard, Magic is better than Gan, and his statistics and personal performance are not bad at all, and Magic should obviously be ranked first. ”

Riley's remarks naturally drew a backlash from the Trail Blazers, with Drexler telling reporters before the game: "If Gan isn't the MVP, then this award is meaningless." ”

Buck Williams and Terry Porter also strongly supported Gan, on the contrary, the protagonist Gan Guoyang was very modest in an interview, saying: "Riley's words are not completely unreasonable, I also think that as a super point guard who has won three championships, Magic's performance deserves to be an MVP, and I still have a lot to learn from him." ”

Gan Guoyang's modesty is also beyond the expectations of many people, this guy not only does not lose on the court, but he also does not lose off the court, everyone still remembers that before the Western Conference finals last year, Gan Guoyang and Pat Riley had a war of words, Riley believes that Gan Guoyang will never be as good as Abdul-Jabbar, and Gan Guoyang claims that Riley's hairstyle is the worst of all coaches, worse than Jack Ramsay - Jack Ramsay is bald.

The war of words between the two lasted from the first game to the sixth game, but in the seventh decisive game, Riley did suddenly stop talking, and then the Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers in the seventh game to enter the Finals.

Now that the two sides are still playing the regular season, Riley began to release his propaganda weapons, which is enough to show that he attaches great importance to this game, but Gan Guoyang does not enter Riley's sleeve, and he has learned the lessons of last year.

In last year's verbal battle, Gan Guoyang deeply realized the impact of this off-court voice on the players' court, in the NBA's high-confrontation top league, any change in factors may lead to abnormal performance, Riley is an old fox after all, this kind of thing has zero impact on him, and Gan Guoyang is still young, and it is inevitable that his mentality will fluctuate when stimulated by Riley, which is also the reason why Gan Guoyang played well in the Western Conference Finals, but he was one step away from greatness - he was not able to control the trend of the series, He was taken down the ditch by Riley.

Now, in the face of another provocation by Riley, or a provocation during the regular season, Gan Guoyang unexpectedly chose to retreat and soften, prevaricating with polite words, and Gan Guoyang also knew that the current Trail Blazers were not completely sure of facing the Lakers at this time.

Unlike a month ago, the state of the two sides has dropped one by one, and the Trail Blazers are a little embarrassed under the encirclement and suppression of the whole league, although they still have more wins and fewer losses, but they have not swept all sides as easily as they did at the beginning of the season.

The Lakers got rid of the bad form in December, and after losing to the Trail Blazers, Byron Scott returned to the team, and they first played a wave of eight consecutive wins, including more than 15 points against the Heat, Cavaliers, Spurs, Mavericks and other teams, and the offensive enthusiasm and defensive intensity of the entire team have been raised to a notch.

The Lakers lost just one game in January, against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where the aging Lakers surrendered to the wolf-like Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, ending the Lakers' winning streak in the basketball mecca.

But then the Lakers played a wave of four consecutive wins, and Magic Johnson basically locked in the best of the month in January with his excellent performance, and his comprehensive performance in points, assists, and rebounds also made Riley say that "Magic is the real MVP" has been recognized by many people.

Before the game, Riley's psychological tactics were not very effective, but he was not particularly worried about this, he had his own calculations in his heart, Riley knew that the Lakers under him were extremely talented, but the Trail Blazers on the opposite side were also amazingly talented, and many times against the Trail Blazers often proved to be not a particularly good decision, especially when the Lakers were getting older.

On the contrary, the Lakers' two wins over the Trail Blazers in the playoffs were due to the effective tactics on defense, which weighed the balance of victory in the end.

Throughout January, Riley has been committed to improving the quality of the Lakers' defense and enhancing the players' enthusiasm for defense, so the Lakers, who have always crushed their opponents with offense, have limited their opponents' scoring to less than 100 points in eight of the 13 games in January, and the Lakers generally concede more than 105 points per game, which is enough to show that the Lakers' defensive efforts have been effective.

At the same time, Riley also benefited greatly from the way teams dealt with the Trail Blazers in January, watching several videos of the Trail Blazers' losses Riley watched repeatedly in his office, looking for the Trail Blazers' roster and tactical flaws, and developing new responses based on the Lakers' situation.

It was with these preparations that Riley dared to make a big fuss in his pre-game interviews and hit smoke bombs to distract the Trail Blazers players, and he was ready for everything on the court.

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"Good evening viewers, it's great to be able to bring you live commentary on NBA games, and tonight's game we're going to broadcast is the Los Angeles Lakers at home against the Portland Trail Blazers, and the battle for the top two spots in the West is eye-catching. I'm CBS narrator Dick Stokes, and sitting next to me is everyone's old friend Tom Hayin Thorne. ”

The vast majority of viewers across the country who turn on their televisions will hear Dick Stockton's familiar commentary, and he is usually in charge of such an important game.

Stockton explained the current situation of the two teams to the audience in the studio, but as a non-team person, he is not aware of some of the changes that the two teams are currently experiencing internally, especially the strong fighting spirit shown by the Lakers, so Stockton, like most people, is optimistic that the Trail Blazers will win this game.

However, Tom Hainthorne, as a former professional player, knows the importance of mental state to a team, and now it seems that the Lakers are booming, while the Trail Blazers are turning from prosperity to decline, and it is still unknown whether the wind will adjust as soon as possible on the road.

Sure enough, as Haiyin Thorne expected, the Lakers took the lead at the beginning of the first half of the game, they did not wrap Gan Guoyang like other teams, but focused on the two backcourt players of the Trail Blazers, allowing Porter and Drexler to make consecutive mistakes and were counterattacked by the Lakers.

After the Trail Blazers were stopped by the power effect at the beginning, the Lakers immediately switched their strategy and began to defend Gan Guoyang strictly, but they did not use a three-person package, but used A.C Green, Michael Cooper, the two best defensive players in the Lakers, to put the energy on the defensive end to Gan Guoyang.

Pat Riley believes that the shooting output of using a three-man package against Gan Guoyang is not optimal, and Cooper and Green's defensive ability is enough to cause problems for Gan, which is enough for Riley, and Worthy and Magic still need to focus on the offense.

The Trail Blazers are all out of rhythm from the beginning, the offensive tactical run, the echo rotation in the defense, the rotation of players are all messed up, plus the Magician, the Lakers' counterattack offense is ten times sharper than other teams, this "Show-time" type of impact is a great psychological blow to the players, the Trail Blazers were poured 33 points by the Lakers in the first quarter, and they only scored 22 points, a gap of 11 points, which set the tone for the game.

In the second quarter, the situation of the Trail Blazers was not better, the two sides entered the second team rotation, Riley deliberately put Scott on the bench in the lineup, and let Cooper start, in order to let Cooper go up to deal with Gan Guoyang, and then Scott came on the court to lead the second team to play the transition.

For the Trail Blazers, how to play a good second team transition seems to have become a big problem for them, after a month of running-in experience, Buck Williams has adapted to the role of the sixth man, and played quite well, but in addition to him, the Trail Blazers' bench is really a little embarrassing, the veteran Paxson who could have relied on was absent due to a recurrence of a foot injury, the Trail Blazers have a bunch of forwards, but the backcourt bench strength is too weak, Inman has been looking for a trade, but there has been no follow-up, At the same time, the message of the trade also made Danny Young and others unable to play with peace of mind.

In the games lost by the Trail Blazers, the opponent's sixth man played very well, and Scott was also like a tiger down the mountain, without the slightest rustiness about the identity of the sixth man, and came up to directly take over the Lakers' offense, and used his personal ability to expand the gap for the Lakers.

The scene was one-sided.

"At halftime, 66:41, a 25-point gap, oh my God, what's wrong with the Trail Blazers? They've won two straight games on this court, and now it looks like the Lakers are going to beat the last home court. ”