The news of Gorbachev's visit to the United States quickly occupied the main pages of major television, radio, and newspaper media in the United States, and Gorbachev's decision to go to Portland to watch a Trail Blazers game also kept the entire city of Portland busy.

Although the police and security departments of Portland had been notified and prepared long before Gorbachev's arrival, it was not really certain whether and when Gorbachev would come to Portland to watch the game, and no one thought that Gorbachev would go to Portland to watch an NBA game so soon.

However, many commentators have also analyzed that the reason why Gorbachev is going to Portland to watch Sabonis's Trail Blazers game so soon also contains deep meaning.

At this time, the Soviet Union was in internal and external difficulties, and Gorbachev was eager to open up the situation diplomatically, and after coming to power, he pursued a "peace offensive" in foreign policy, and took the initiative to establish good relations with Europe, the United States, and China to alleviate the pressure brought about by domestic contradictions.

Therefore, one of the important purposes of Gorbachev's visit to the United States is to ease US-Soviet relations, and when the new US president has just taken office, Gorbachev's visit to the United States has a more friendly connotation.

Because of this, Sabonis, who was previously unable to enter the NBA due to the rigidity of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, is now able to enter the most important basketball league in the United States, which is undoubtedly an important symbol of the easing of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and has strong political significance - although the real reason for Sabonis to come to the United States is Gan Guoyang, but no one will pay attention to these details at this time.

Gorbachev's presence made the whole of Portland feel like a formidable enemy, and on the night of December 12, all police leave in the city of Portland was canceled, and security work was quickly and quietly unfolded.

But for the Trail Blazers, they will face the Los Angeles Clippers tomorrow, who are not particularly strong, and for Gorbachev's live spectators, the whole team has been notified by the league, and the Trail Blazers' plan for this is simple - to adapt to all changes.

Indeed, with the strength of the Trail Blazers, as long as they play well at home, there is no reason to be afraid of the Clippers, and Gorbachev's visit does not mean that the Trail Blazers must win. ”

The only one who has some pressure may be Sabonis, but in terms of nationality, Sabonis is actually Lithuanian, and the national contradictions in the Soviet Union at that time have become increasingly acute, and the foundation of the country's union has been shaken.

Sabonis didn't think much of it as an athlete, and now that he was also a player from the Soviet Union, he had just won great international glory for the Soviet Union, and now that the country's top leader was coming to see his team's game, he must be excited and nervous.

Before the game, Adelman still put Sabonis in the starting position, and Adelman also withstood pressure from many parties, including the team manager and the owner, who had some doubts about Sabonis's ability, and the surprise at the beginning of the season has been forgotten by them.

"Come on, Avidas, I bet not only the head of the map is watching you tonight, but the whole of the Soviet Union, the whole of Europe and even the whole world will be watching you and show you the best player in Europe! Well! In the tunnel before entering the field, Gan Guoyang grabbed Sabonis's head hard and said to him while shaking his head.

After saying that, Gan Guoyang punched Sabonis's thick chest hard, and then under his leadership, the Trail Blazers players entered.

Compared with all the previous night games, there were obviously many more police and stadium security personnel at the game site tonight, and there were also many FBI agents in the audience to ensure safety.

After all, it is the leaders of the two strongest and largest countries in the world who are going to watch the game live, and if something goes wrong, it will be really amazing.

It wasn't just Gorbachev and Reagan who were there tonight, but NBA commissioner David Stern was also there, and he knew it was a great opportunity to promote the NBA, and there weren't many opportunities for national leaders to advertise for free like this.

Other than that, this game is not much different from the other games of the Trail Blazers, it is still the recipe, it is still the taste.

Sabonis started under a lot of pressure, but tonight he was under a lot less pressure on the defensive end, because he played against Greg Kate, a man on the edge of the bench who came to the Clippers but became the starting center when he arrived with the Clippers, which is enough to see how bad the Clippers' interior line is.

The other Clippers player is Sabonis' old friend, the big forward he met at the Olympics, this year's No. 1 pick, Danny Manning.

Manning, who is the top pick, has had a great performance since entering the NBA, showing excellent talent on the inside, flexible footwork, and spiritual offensive skills to give hope to the Clippers.

However, Manning was miserable tonight, as Sabonis had a psychological advantage as an opponent who had beaten him at the Olympics, when Manning and David Robinson failed to take advantage of the Soviet Union's interior wrestling and unexpectedly lost the match.

The second is that the player Manning wants to play against tonight is Gan Guoyang, who has the title of "rookie killer".

In fact, Gan Guoyang himself has not been out of rookie status for a few years, but he is known for teaching rookie players in the league, and once there are rookie players in the opponent's lineup every game, the opponent's coach will remind him not to provoke Gan Guoyang.

But on the court, Gan Guoyang is the typical type that you don't provoke him, he will provoke you, Reggie Miller is the worst one to be rectified by Gan Guoyang, and the same is true of Manning tonight.

I don't know if the Clippers coach forgot to remind Manning that Manning was the main player with the ball at the beginning of the game, and after receiving the ball in the high post, he faced Gan Guoyang for the first time, which was the first time Danny Manning encountered this rookie killer.

"Chestnut head, don't be afraid, fire at me." Gan Guoyang said to Manning, he had already started to give Manning a nickname, Manning's head was indeed pointed.

Gan Guoyang knows that rookie players are not afraid of the sky when they first enter the league, and they are the most unbearable to provoke, thinking that he was also provoked by Larry Bird back then, and now he is familiar with this hand.

Sure enough, Manning held the ball and lowered his waist, looking ready to attack.

Gan Guoyang's provocation to others is by no means arrogant, in fact, before the game, he will study the technical characteristics of the opposing side very carefully, for example, he watched the video of Manning's several games, and he knew that this thin strip-like big forward, the breakthrough of the basket is very flexible, but he is more good at walking his right hand, which is a common problem of most rookie players, and the left hand is not skillful.

And his dribbling is relatively high, Gan Guoyang carefully watched his dribbling picture, made rhythm statistics, and kept his step points and starting habits in mind - Gan Guoyang, a rookie who didn't enter an inside line in the NBA, would study him like this.

Manning took a deep breath and then suddenly accelerated his dribble to the basket from the middle.

Gan Guoyang did not block Manning's breakthrough route, nor did he start to pull the ball, although in Gan Guoyang's opinion, he had two chances to break Manning's ball, but he still put Manning inside.

Manning broke through to the basket, but Sabonis took a large position under the basket, and Manning found himself with no way to get rid of Gan's defense and shoot Sabonis on the head, a hesitation that put him in the circle of the Trail Blazers' defense.

Gan Guoyang wrapped Manning like a spider web, Manning stopped the ball, turned around to protect the ball, and wanted to pass the ball out, but found it extremely difficult, as a result, he could only force a turnover jumper, but the jump was not sufficient, and he was greeted by a big hat of Gan Guoyang.

"Welcome to the NBA, rookie." That's what all NBA veterans have to say when they teach rookies a lesson.

Manning's nightmare didn't end there, he made a total of seven shots in the entire first half, not to mention a single goal, and the first three shots were all blocked by Gan Guoyang.

It wasn't until the start of the second half that Gan Guoyang said to Manning, "You can start scoring now," that Manning relied on free throws to score two points.

On the other side, Clippers center Greg Kate really has no offensive ability, which reduces the pressure on Sabonis' defense to a minimum, so Sabonis began to exert his power on the offensive end, assisting, passing, combing offense, and also holding the ball in the low post alone, scoring a season-high 18 points in the game, grabbing 7 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists.

The Trailblazers fans at the scene also gave Sabonis the greatest support, and every time Sabonis scored, the applause and cheers of the fans were warmer than Gan Guoyang's goal, which was completely absent before.

Everyone, they gave Sabonis enough face, and also Gorbachev enough face.

Gan's scoring hotness has decreased from the previous week, and he has scored 21 points in two consecutive games without scoring 30 points, but he has contributed 17 rebounds, six blocks and three steals, and he is clearly making up for the team's defensive holes in Williams' absence.

When the game ended, the Trail Blazers defeated the Trail Blazers by 115-90, 25 points, sitting in the general audience, but in fact, Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, who were surrounded by agents, stood up with the audience and applauded the Trail Blazers who gave a wonderful game, while the Clippers players could only serve as a foil.

When Gan Guoyang and his teammates walked back to the locker room, they found that there was already a tight battle near the locker room, not only a large number of agents, but also many reporters gathered outside the cordon, these reporters were not allowed to bring photographic equipment, only paper and pen.

There was one person who stood out, a smiling Chinese reporter with glasses, who, unlike the others, was able to stand inside the cordon, which meant that he could go straight into the locker room.

This is Wu Zhiwen, who has been granted a charter, and he is one of the few reporters who has been allowed direct access to the Trail Blazers' locker room, and this is the privilege he has that is the envy of other reporters.