On May 2, 1985, the Portland Trail Blazers continued their home game against the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.

After the thrilling moment in the final quarter of the first game, the nerves of the entire Portland Trail Blazers were tense, and for them, if they can win this home, then it means that they have one foot in the door of the Western Conference finals.

Since winning the championship in 1977, the Portland Trail Blazers have not been able to make it to the division finals, falling to the threshold of the semifinals several times.

And this year, it is definitely a good opportunity for the Trailblazers to go further.

Therefore, the Trail Blazers started with amazing morale in the second game, they did not play against the Nuggets like in the first game, but balanced offense and defense, and tried to suppress the Nuggets on both offensive and defensive ends.

Their opponents, the Denver Nuggets, were surprisingly at a low ebb of offense.

In the last game, Inglish, who scored 46 points in the game, no longer felt like it in this game, shooting 1 of 6 in the first quarter and no free throws.

The team's main scoring point was dumb, and the rest of the Nuggets' players didn't make up for it in time, but felt cold.

This is undoubtedly a major blow to the Nuggets, who rely on shooting to eat, and at such a time, their lack of advantage on the inside has exposed their tactical inadequacy.

In that era when three-point shooting had not yet formed a tactic, a team without an interior offense was destined to be a lame team, and once a team that relied on shooting to eat lost its touch in a game, then what awaited them was bound to be defeat.

In the wave of cheers at the Memorial Coliseum, the Portland Trail Blazers continued to play fast offense, and the Denver Nuggets' 40 percent shooting rate gave the Trail Blazers too many opportunities to counterattack.

Drexler, who was sent off in the last game, had a lot of energy to perform well in this game, and the slightly thin forward line of the entire Diggers team could not resist Drexler's fast horse and light attack, and in just one first half, Drexler relied on fast break to score 12 points, plus other offensive means, and scored 19 points in the half, which was a new record for his playoff half-time score.

"When the glider glided on the floor of the memorial stadium, I knew that no one could stop him from taking off." Seanley has no shortage of compliments in his commentary.

63:47, which is the difference between the two sides at the end of the first half, the Trail Blazers' score is lower than the previous game, but the Nuggets' score is even worse.

If it weren't for Calvin Knight's ability to consistently output for the Nuggets on the inside as a power forward, the Nuggets would have lost more.

At halftime, Ramsey said the most that the players must learn the lessons of the previous game and never let the Nuggets play offense again.

"I'd rather not score myself than let the Nuggets score easily!" Ramsey said.

Sure enough, in the second half, the Trail Blazers did not dare to relax in the slightest, and Drexler continued to take on his responsibilities in the previous game, to defend Inglish.

In this game, Inglish failed to get much bargain on Drexler, who kept sticking to Inglish's side like a strong pill to interfere with Inglish's attack.

At the same time, Drexler also began to pay attention to controlling his fouls, and he was more likely to disrupt the rhythm of Inglish's offense than to defend Inglish's inability to play.

This kind of close-to-harassing "personal bodyguard" defense is very, very annoying for players who focus on shooting, and Inglish, who killed all sides in the last game, shot into the water in this game - dumb fire.

Without the support of the leading stars, the Nuggets' offense has always been tepid, and the Nuggets rely on this style of play, and they can't catch up with the Trail Blazers no matter what.

When Vandewig hit two consecutive three-pointers from the three-point line in the fourth quarter of the game, bringing the score to 107-81 and widening the gap to 26 points, Doug Mo knew that the game was over.

So, Doug Mo replaced the main players and began to put the substitutes on the field, at this time, Ramsey also began to replace the main starters and replaced the substitutes.

There's not a lot of garbage time in the playoffs, and it's certainly a great workout for the Trail Blazers, who have a lot of young players.

Gan Guoyang played on the court for a while longer, but he didn't have the heart to brush up on the court, in this game, 18 points and 17 rebounds double-double data, he was already very satisfied, and the most important thing is that the team won.

Soon, with a dead ball, Gan Guoyang and Drexler were substituted together, and the Memorial Stadium soon burst into warm applause, which was the best affirmation for these two super newcomers.

"Great, you're going to be interviewing after the game." Gan Guoyang and Drexler walked off the field side by side and said to Drexler.

Drexler's 22 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in this game shined all over the court, and it is certain that he was selected as the best player of the game, so Drexler will definitely be interviewed by reporters on the sidelines after the game.

"I don't understand, you are not afraid of anyone, why are you afraid of reporters interviewing you."

"I'm not afraid, it's hateful, I hate someone who doesn't have much to do with the game, holding a microphone and asking this and that; I'm sure the female reporter didn't watch the game at all, or she couldn't read it. Gan Guoyang has always been very disgusted with interviews with reporters, but reporters still like to interview him.

"Even if you don't do interviews from the sidelines, there will always be reporters in the dressing room, at press conferences, and during training." At this time, the two had already sat on the bench, put on sportswear and waited for the end of the game on the sidelines.

The final score was fixed at 121-103, and the Nuggets' bench obviously played better, but it couldn't make them fill the 26-point hole.

The Portland Trail Blazers scored another game at home to make the overall score 2-0, and the format was a great one for the Trail Blazers.

"How many games do you think the Trail Blazers will be able to finish this series?" In the post-match interview, Gan Guoyang encountered the reporter's invisible trouble.

"I think it's going to be in seven games, and we're not going to play eight." Gan Guoyang dodged this dark arrow with a haha.

"Cooper is a former veteran of the Trail Blazers, and now he's in the Nuggets, and we find that he doesn't seem to be able to do anything about you in the matchup, and now in the West, is it only Abdul-Jabbar who is your real opponent?" As soon as one arrow passed, another shot at once.

"If you want to talk about Chinese kung fu, that's right, it's true that only Abdul-Jabbar is my real opponent." Gan Guoyang used Jabbar to practice Chinese kung fu as a shield.

Compared with the sideline interviews after the game, the interviews in the locker room are more casual, because they don't have to face the TV cameras, so some reporters will always ask some tricky questions, Gan Guoyang has now developed a good habit of "being cautious in words and deeds, gags", and try to speak as much as possible, without offending reporters too much.

Of course, if some low-level reporters go too far, they can't ensure that Gan Guoyang doesn't get angry.

After dealing with the "siege" of reporters, he took his luggage to the parking lot of the Memorial Stadium, where Wang Fuxi was waiting for him in the car.

"You played awesome today!" As soon as he got into the car, Wang Fuxi stepped forward and gave Gan Guoyang a kiss.

"yes, I think I'll be better at night!" Gan Guoyang smiled.

"Don't make a fuss, you're going to Denver tomorrow, it's a plateau, I think you'd better save some effort."

After playing two home games, the Portland Trail Blazers will head to the home court of Colorado's Highlands, where they will be put to the test on the road.

"It's okay, the plateau isn't as scary as everyone thinks, trust me, I'm going to be better in Denver than in Portland!"

"Well, I believe you~"

………………

On May 3, the day after Game 2, the Trail Blazers flew to Denver.

But when they arrived in Denver, they ran into trouble.

Denver's airport is very distinctive, it is located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and Gan Guoyang can see the snow-capped majestic Rocky Mountains from the plane.

The entire airport building looks like a rolling white mountain that blends in with the mountains behind it, and is full of natural beauty.

However, Gan Guoyang and his teammates were not in the mood to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the airport because there was a problem with the airport bus they were taking.

So the Trail Blazers had to contact the Nuggets and ask them to send a new bus to pick them up.

The Trail Blazers arrived in Denver around 10 p.m., and they could have gone straight to the hotel for lunch, but the new bus arrived late at 2 p.m., citing traffic jams in the city.

The Trail Blazers players didn't eat at the airport for tomorrow's game, so they were hungry and waited for the bus to come.

By the time they arrived at the hotel by bus, it was already close to three o'clock in the afternoon, and Ramsay had to cancel the team training scheduled for the afternoon.

That would leave the Trail Blazers with a simple shooting practice tomorrow morning and then a game of the third game of the semifinals against the Denver Nuggets directly at the McNichols Sports Center in the evening.

"It's a very crucial game, it's very, very crucial, and we've got to try to win it! In this way, the morale of the Nuggets will be completely broken! We're nine out of ten in the series. Ramsey said this at the all-team meeting after dinner.

But the players didn't seem to say anything, maybe they all felt that they were already 2-0 up and it was time to relax.

"Aren't the Denver fans too sad?" Gan Guoyang said suddenly, and as soon as his words came out, his teammates laughed.

"Don't think about that! If you don't want to be sad yourself, then let others be sad! Ramsay yelled.

The room fell silent again.

"If the game hasn't started yet, and you think, 'We still have a way out,' then the result of the game is almost out. Remember, Nuggets, there's no going back. ”

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