Before the start of the playoffs, the Trail Blazers finally decided on their starting lineup, center Gan Guoyang, power forward Sampson, small forward Van Dewic, shooting guard Drexler, and point guard Colter.

In the playoffs last season, Ramsey put Kenny Carr in the starting lineup to replace Sampson, mainly because after Drexler was brought to the starter, the bench lacked enough offensive firepower, and Kenny Carr's defensive style matched with Gan Guoyang, which was more suitable for the playoffs.

This season, Sampson's offensive ability began to decline, and he began to take on more blue-collar jobs on the court, and the burden of interior offense was more on Gan Guoyang.

On the bench, after a season of adaptation, Paxson has become a qualified backup point guard, and the growth of Jerome Cauchy and the arrival of Terry Porter have also made the Trail Blazers' bench thicker.

In the final games of the season, Ramsey began to rest injured veterans such as Van der Veric and Sampson, giving young players more opportunities to play.

Therefore, the Trail Blazers' performance has also seen a certain degree of ups and downs, either 137:110, 27 points advantage over the Denver Nuggets, or 130:131 one point gap to lose to the weak Golden State Warriors again.

Regardless, the Trail Blazers finished 63-19 and overwhelmed the 61-21 Lakers by two wins, returning to the Western Conference regular season title after eight years.

On Sunday, April 13, the final game of the regular season, the Trail Blazers traveled to owner Larry Weinberg's luxury yacht on the Willamette River to begin their celebration of the regular-season title.

"Hopefully in two months' time, we'll be in this boat and we'll be around the city and start celebrating the championship! I really, really miss that summer of 1977. Weinberg said expectantly at the gala dinner.

In the summer of 1985, the main goal he proposed to Inman was to take a long-term view, train new talents, and strive to win the championship in the late eighties.

But Gan's growth rate is so amazing, just like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, these two guys won championships in their rookie season and second season respectively, and became the league's strongest superstars.

Now it seems that Gan Guoyang has such potential, but there are two problems in front of him, one is Gan Guoyang's skin color, until now, there are still many people who think that a yellow person can succeed in the NBA, but it is impossible to dominate the NBA; The second is that the two mountains of Bird and Johnson have not yet fallen, or they are at the peak, and it is really difficult to climb over them.

Even so, the Trail Blazers' double defeat of the Celtics in the regular season and the Lakers to regain the first place in the West still ignited the hope of competing for the championship in Weinberg's heart, and he also brought the whole team to his yacht to reward him for the upcoming playoffs.

The first round of the playoffs is also out with the end of the final game, the Trail Blazers' opponent in the first round will be the San Antonio Spurs, the Spurs are a year older than last season, the combination of Gilmore and Gervin is past their prime, this season may be the last playoff game for the Spurs in recent years, and they are about to start a long rebuilding period.

For the first round of games, the Trail Blazers are certainly not very worried, but the team of young players who take the lead in the face of the last fight of the old players still has to be extremely careful, if the boat overturns in the gutter, it is really disgraceful, and the first black eight in the history of the NBA will be born in advance.

For the second round, the Trail Blazers don't seem to have to worry too much, because the opponent in the second round will be between the fourth-place Denver Nuggets and the fifth-place Dallas Mavericks, both teams were defeated by the Trail Blazers last season, and there is no significant improvement between the two teams this season, and the Nuggets have also declined, falling from third in the West last season to fourth in the West, and were caught up by the Rockets behind.

The situation in the East is not the same as in the West, where the Lakers are threatened by the Rockets and Trail Blazers, while the structure of the Troika in the East remains, with the Celtics, 76ers and Bucks continuing to compete for supremacy.

It's just that judging from the situation and historical record of the regular season, it is not difficult for the Celtics to break out of the East, after all, they are too strong this season, and although the 76ers continue to maintain the third place in the East, Barkley is also growing rapidly, but they can't help the collective aging of the outside, and Dr. J's time in the NBA is running out.

The Bucks have tragically been killed by the 76ers four times, and are likely to meet the 76ers again in the second round this season, which will undoubtedly be a battle for revenge.

As for the Pistons, they haven't put together a roster yet, and they are estimated to only cause a little trouble for the Celtics - but small troubles will quickly turn into big problems.

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On April 16th, there is still one day before the start of the playoffs, before the start of the playoffs, the teams are not moving, the mouth cannon first, anyway, it hasn't started yet, the loss is not a loss, the mouth moves first.

The Celtics and the Lakers are both determined to step on the Celtics' corpse and become the first team to successfully defend the title since 1969.

The 76ers' level of mouth cannon is declining with the decline of strength, and Moses Malone can no longer be as "Fo, Fo, Fo" as he was in 1983, but the big-mouthed Barkley is starting to emerge, saying in an interview after practice that he is not afraid of anyone or any team, and when asked about the rebounding king, Barkley feels that the top two people on the rebounding list have lowered the level of rebounding in the entire NBA.

The top two on the rebounding list are Gan Guoyang and Ranbir, a Chinese, a slow and can't jump white, which is really incredible, and Gan Guoyang also quickly responded, saying that when Barkley can get the rebounding king, Gan Guoyang will invite Barkley to eat a hamburger for a season for free.

Olajuwon also said before the game that they will break out of the West this season and reach the Finals, which is also the third team before the playoffs besides Lake Kai to say that their goal is to win the championship.

Of course, Olajuwon's remarks have been ridiculed by many media, because if they can get through the first round, then the opponent in the semifinals will be the Lakers, and between the Lakers and the Rockets, the vast majority of people are of course bullish on the Lakers.

Gan Guoyang disagreed, believing in an interview after practice that the Rockets would be their strongest opponent, and that between the Lakers and the Rockets, he was bullish on the Rockets.

Gan Guoyang said this, of course, there is a reason, the Lakers are not in too good shape this year is one of the reasons, in the game with the Lakers, Gan Guoyang can experience that the Lakers' internal aging line, Morris Lucas is not very suitable for the Lakers' system, and Abdul-Jabbar won the Finals MVP last season, becoming the oldest FMVP in the history of the league, his forward momentum seems to be one point less.

Although the Rockets only won 53 in the regular season, their vitality and impact are amazing, Gan Guoyang thinks he can suppress the Rockets' proud interior twin towers, but he also admits that the Rockets' tall, strong outside line is their weapon to win.

Of course, the most important reason is that Gan Guoyang heard the prophecy from the blind Chris, saying that the Rockets will win the championship this season - if Gan Guoyang is dead.

Since Gan Guoyang is not dead, he naturally will not sit back and watch the rocket emerge.

Therefore, in the preparation for the playoffs, the Trail Blazers focused mainly on dealing with the Spurs and Lakers, and did not seem to be very interested in the Rockets.

Gan Guoyang raised his doubts, he believes that more energy must be put into dealing with the Rockets, to carefully study the characteristics of the Rockets in the regular season against the Trail Blazers, and to always pay attention to the performance of the Rockets in the playoffs.

Like Gan Guoyang's agent David Falck, Ramsey also discovered Gan Guoyang's extraordinary super sensitivity in the two seasons of getting along with Gan Guoyang, so he still accepted Gan Guoyang's advice and properly rehearsed some tactics against rockets in training.

However, after all, the meeting with the Rockets will have to wait until the Western Conference Finals, and if you can't solve the opponents in the first round and semifinals before that, everything will be empty talk and a joke.

Gan Guoyang didn't want to be ridiculed by the teams and fans while preparing for the Western Conference Finals while capsizing in the first round.

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On April 17, after a four-day break, the Western Conference playoffs finally kicked off at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, and on the 16th, the San Antonio Spurs arrived in Portland to begin what was widely expected to be a short trip to the playoffs — though they didn't think so.

In the 1983 season, the Spurs reached their peak, losing six games against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

At that time, Gilmore was still able to compete with Abdul-Jabbar, George Gervin was still able to score 30 or 40 points in the series, and the Lakers were weak that year, they didn't have the team's top small forward James Worthy.

Although even if such a Spurs enter the Finals, it is estimated that they will be swept out by the invincible existence of that year-Philadelphia 76ers, but for Gervin, even winning the division championship once is a comforting honor.

The last time they lost the divisional finals, they were still in the East, losing to the Bullets, and you know, the Spurs averaged more points than the Bullets throughout the series, but the overall score was 3:4.

Now, they don't have much chance anymore, but the veteran doesn't die, and they have to fight one last time.