The Trail Blazers finally showed the demeanor of a strong team in Game 3 against the Mavericks, and they showed overwhelming superiority on both the offensive and defensive ends of the second half, which allowed them to complete a comeback that was not too big or small.

After the game, the media was most interested in the excellent performance of the two young players in the game, Gan Guoyang and Drexler.

Since the second half of the regular season, the Trail Blazers have become more and more like a team that plays around these two young men, and Drexler's superior passing ability, coupled with Gan Guoyang's strong under-basket finisher, their combined power has begun to show its edge.

What's more, one of the two is a first-year rookie and the other is a second-year rookie, which makes one have to imagine what a formidable combination it will be when they both reach their peak.

It's just that now, these two young people have not yet reached the time when they can really carry the banner of the Trailblazers, and in many cases, the team still needs mature stars like Sampson and Vanderwich to stand up and help the team get out of the predicament.

Therefore, when Gan Guoyang and Drexler were both limited in the first half in the fourth game, it was clear that the pair still had a long way to go.

"Increase your transfer balls, transfer balls! Gan, you're moving the ball too slowly, stop being too active on the line, try to play high and focus on defense. Sampson, you come on the court to replace Karl and step up the interior offense. ”

On April 25, what could be the finale of the first round of the series, the game continues at the Mavericks' home court. For the Trail Blazers, this battle will not be easy, and the Mavericks, who are on the verge of elimination, will definitely fight to the death, grab this home court, and then go to Portland for a do-or-die battle.

In the first quarter, when Drexler and Gan Guoyang again tried to rely on a duo to attack the Mavericks' basket, they found that the trick didn't work.

Although the blocking and dismantling of the two are of high quality and good cooperation, Gan Guoyang, who is the offensive endpoint, and Drexler, who is the initiation point, both have a very fatal flaw, that is, both of them have problems with their mid-range shooting.

Fortunately, Drexler's jump shot still has a certain amount of accuracy in the case of a good rhythm, while Gan Guoyang is not good, as a center who continues to gain weight and strength, even if he tirelessly practices shooting in training, but in the official game, his jump shot has been abandoned.

Two players who did not have a mid-distance blocked and picked up, and once the opponent caught the weakness, the result was obvious, and the Mavericks adopted a strategy of not changing the defense for the two in the fourth game, and if Gan Guoyang received the ball, someone stepped forward to close the door.

In this way, when the opponent blocked and dismantled, the player who defended Gan Guoyang vacated a position for the player who defended Drexler to pass through, Drexler shot, and the defender couldn't keep up, but it was basically impossible for him to break through.

And Gan Guoyang is the same, if he cuts out and makes a pickpop after the block, then she will have a lot of shooting space, but he wants to pickroll, sorry, Mavericks don't give him a chance.

There are a lot of shooting opportunities and space, but two people can't shoot at all! One was that the shooting rate was not good, and he gave up after two shots, and the other was that he would not shoot at all, so the blocking and pick-and-roll cooperation of the two was completely abolished in the first quarter.

Ramsey also called a timeout immediately, and it seemed that the young players were really "hairless and insecure". ”

"Paxson, you replace Clyde, shoot resolutely, you have to be resolute, and hopefully you can get your feeling back." Ramsey also made a substitution adjustment, replacing Drexler with former starting point guard, Jim Paxson.

Since Paxson was reduced to the bench due to injury, his performance in the second half of the regular season and three games in the playoffs has been average, and his leg injury has been affecting his performance, and his scoring and shooting percentage have declined significantly since March.

Still, Ramsey has a lot of trust in the former All-Star shooting guard, who is the team's most consistent outside shooting point outside of Vanderwicki, and his shooting can be a huge help to the team when necessary.

In the first quarter, the Trail Blazers' outside shooting rate was not high, and the Mavericks' defense was shrinking more and more, which caused the Trail Blazers' offense to stagnate to a certain extent, and the team also trailed the Mavericks by 7 points at 14:21.

Paxson's introduction may have alleviated some of the problem, while Ramsay's other substitution was a bit out of the ordinary, bringing on Norris for Kenny Carr.

Norris was the fourth bench on the inside for the Trail Blazers, and he sits on the fringes of the team's rotation and is the quintessential ninth man on the team.

But this player is very characteristic, he has a thick physique, strong strength, a certain ability to attack inside, and he dares to fight, and he can sometimes play an unexpected good effect on the court. When it comes time to disrupt the situation on the pitch, Ramsey often sends Norris on the pitch.

"Attack Norris with all your might, attack! Gan, you have to defend well and at the same time attract the attention of the opponent and create opportunities for Norris. Ramsey is hoping that Norris will be a surprise player.

Ramsey also had some compulsion because Mitchell Sampson strained his thigh slightly in training yesterday, and although he was in the squad for this game, Ramsey was not sure that sending Sampson on the pitch would make his injury worse.

If the injury gets worse, it will be a big loss for the Trail Blazers, so out of an abundance of caution, he still puts Norris in the official rotation, and if it doesn't work out, he will consider putting Sampson on the lineup.

“yes，im-ok！ (Okay, I'm fine!) Norris said in his deep and gruff voice, this power king second only to Gan Guoyang among the pioneers, has an aura that is not afraid of anything.

After the timeout ended, the two sides returned to the court, and the Mavericks also adjusted their lineup, and they replaced the team's sixth man, Joey Vincent.

Joey Vincent, the lowest-ranked of the Mavericks' three young talents in 1981, had an impressive rookie season, averaging 21.4 points per game.

However, as a second-round pick, his comprehensiveness is limited after all, so he has also become the team's final substitute player, a typical microwave oven, and he comes up to grab points.

It seems that the Mavericks also want to use Vincent's scoring ability to maintain the advantage on the court.

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle and the Trail Blazers served forward.

Paxson served out of bounds, Gan Guoyang stood on the left corner, Vandewich stood on the left baseline, Valentin stood at the top of the arc, and only Norris stood alone under the right basket.

Valentin and Vanderwig took turns to pretend to catch the ball, but it was Gan Guoyang who actually came up to catch the ball.

Gan Guoyang stepped on the three-point line to receive a pass from Paxson, and then Paxson immediately ran inside, and Valentin had already started to cut in from the middle, taking away Davis's defense.

At this time, Paxson ran to the top of the arc with the help of Gan Guoyang, and at this time, the Mavericks' center had two options, one was to run to make up for Paxson, and the other was to continue to stare at Gan Guoyang.

Wallace Bryant chose to continue to stare at Gan Guoyang, because although Gan Guoyang's shooting is not good, he has the ball in his hand, and once he breaks through, no one can stop him inside!

He didn't know that this time it was Gan Guoyang's arms, and Ramsey used this efficient quick catch-and-shoot tactic when he set up the tactics during the timeout - the famous Chicago tactic.

Gan Guoyang immediately passed the ball to Paxson at the top of the arc, and Paxson did not hesitate after receiving the ball, even if he was still standing outside the three-point line, he still shot, a three-point shot!

It was too late for Blackman to step up to the defense, and he could only pray that Paxson's three-pointer would not go in.

With the frequency of three-point shooting by the players at that time, the number of three-point shots in the game was really pitiful, but Paxson's ball was unexpected, and the position and rhythm of the shot were also very good.

"Huh!" Ball hollow into the net! A three-pointer!

"Yes!" Paxson also clenched his fist hard, this three-point shot is still very difficult for Paxson, who has been in poor form recently, not to mention that the team needs to score now.

Gan Guoyang also stepped forward to high-five Paxson, if the ball was replaced by Derexler and he cooperated, Drexler would definitely not be able to shoot, the three-point line is no different from the middle line of the court for Drexler.

This three-point not only narrowed the gap between the Trail Blazers and the Mavericks to 4 points, but also changed the situation on both sides of the court, because the Mavericks knew that they could no longer shrink their defense, and now that the Trail Blazers had two accurate shooters on the outside, they would only be hit more by long-range attacks.

The firing on the outside line also made Gan Guoyang on the inside a lot more comfortable all of a sudden, and the three-second zone was a lot empty all of a sudden, and he could hold the ball on the inside line again.

However, the Mavericks' three shots are not vegetarian, Blackman, Aquili, Vincent are on the court at the same time, which makes the defensive pressure of the Trail Blazers increase dramatically.

This is the Trail Blazers' hard injury in the lineup, the outside offense and defense can not have both, sending Paxson and Vanderwig to attack well, but poor defense, sending Drexler and Cauchy, it is a good defense and not strong offense, and the effect of interspersing and matching is not very good.

It's not clear what to expect from playing against the Mavericks, but Ramsey is starting to worry about it, as the two sides have been in a state of attack since the first half, and the Trail Blazers still trailed the Mavericks by two points at 59-61 near the end of the first half.

With 27 seconds left before the end of the first half, the Mavericks made the final attack of the first half, and the ball was unsurprisingly in Aquiley's hands.

Aquili undoubtedly fought hard in this game, 10 of 16 shots in the half, 7 of 8 free throws, and has scored 27 points, in the position of small forward, Vanderwich really can't prevent him, Cauchy is useless to come up, and the inexperienced Caucy was deceived by the veteran Aquili several times.

In the last attack of the first half, Aquili received the ball on the outside, and the rest of the Mavericks pulled away, and it seemed that he was going to single Van Devec.

Although Van der Vic has an advantage in height, he has suffered too much in footwork and body, and Aquili has adjusted slightly on the outside, and the time is almost exhausted, and he suddenly rushes in from the right side.

Aquili's muscular frame pushed Van der Vicky out of the way and sprinted like a small tank to the edge of the three-second zone.

Gan Guoyang saw that he hurriedly moved sideways from the left side to make up for the defense, Gan Guoyang's speed was so fast, and when Aquili was about to make a move, a big hand shrouded him.

"Phew!" Aquili still shot, he had no other choice, shot backwards, but hit the iron under the interference of Gan Guoyang.

The ball was obviously too strong, so it smashed in front of the basket and knocked it out, Gan Guoyang turned around and took the rebound ball with a quick catch!

With less than 5 seconds left in the first half, Gan Guoyang didn't call a short timeout because he saw a slightly fat body running in the opponent's front court - it was Norris!

Norris didn't make much of a few minutes in the first quarter, and Ramsey put him up again at the end of the second quarter, this time running like a forward!

Although he doesn't have the speed of Drexler, Norris has been wandering near the three-point line when he was attacking before, and as soon as he saw that Aquili didn't shoot, he knew that the rebound would be collected by Gan Guoyang.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang got the rebound, and he didn't cause it after seeing Norris, and passed the ball directly to the front court.

Gan Guoyang's strength was so great that he just flicked the ball and flew quickly towards Norris, at this time the fans watching the broadcast in front of the TV could not even see the trajectory of the ball - partly because of the quality of the picture, and by the time the camera focused on Norris, this guy was already holding the ball and twisting his ass and rushing to the basket.

"Bang!" Slam dunk hard! Norris dunked the ball into the basket before the buzzer went off in the first half! The two sides are tied!

59:59, this is a very important goal for the Trail Blazers, even if they go into the second half with a one-goal deficit, it is a psychological pressure for the Trail Blazers, because they are the most likely to lose when they are behind at halftime.

Well, now the two sides are back on the same page.

"Don't leave the suspense for the next one, no one knows what will happen in a life-and-death battle." It was the only sentence Ramsey said at halftime, and the weight of this sentence even a rookie like Gan Guoyang knows.

Indeed, no one knows what will happen in a life-and-death battle, and any strength and tactical arrangement can be broken in a life-and-death battle, and you don't know when the opponent's role player will come out to give you a fatal blow, nor do you know what unexpected situations your players will perform poorly.

So for the Trail Blazers, here, in Dallas, sending the Mavericks home is the best option, because their home is here.

But the Mavericks certainly don't want to be eliminated at home, although the Mavericks are only ranked sixth this season, but this does not fully reflect their strength, and in fact, if it were not for the arrival of Gan Guoyang to disrupt the pattern of the West and bring many changes, this year's Dallas Mavericks will still be the top four in the West.

The cowboys, who were in a desperate situation, made the final struggle in the second half.

In the first half, Aquili, who scored 27 points, continued to attack with all his strength in the third quarter, his singles skills were so skillful and terrifying, and Gan Guoyang also experienced for the first time in the playoffs how terrible such a scoring master is in the game.

But although Aquili's offense is terrible, but on the Trail Blazers' side, Vanderwich is not a vegetarian, Vanderwig, who performed average in the first half, finally broke out in the third quarter, and his shooting began to find his crosshairs, and a step inside the three-point line is still his deadliest shooting distance.

Van Dewic couldn't stop Aquili, but Aquili couldn't stop Van Dewic either, and the two staged an exciting battle in the third quarter.

This time, Gan Guoyang was a spectator for a while, and this white-hot game atmosphere was difficult for him to experience in the NCAA finals, with high speed, intensity, and attention.

Both sides began to get into a state of selflessness, and so did Gan Guoyang, who began to throw himself into the fight for defense and rebounding, no more trash talk, no more yelling, no more communication — no one to communicate.

It was a complete white-knuckle battle, with both sides showing their housekeeping skills, and the offense became extremely difficult, with almost every rush into the opponent's interior line costing a lot of money, either falling to the ground or fouling.

That atmosphere continued into the fourth quarter, with 1:01 left to go, when the Trail Blazers tied the Mavericks 111-111.

"Beep!" The referee's whistle pierced the almost gelatinous atmosphere on the field, and the Mavericks called a timeout.

"Staring at people, staring at people, staring at everyone in you, don't make up for it easily, except for Gan, remember, you must remember!" Ramsey shouted loudly, at this time he was already shouting, Ramsey's defensive strategy at critical moments has always been like this, staring at the opponent, leaving the matter of supplementing the defense to Gan Guoyang alone, trying not to give the other party a chance to pull space.

"Cauchy, you play, replace Kiki, keep an eye on Aquili, his stamina is running out." Ramsey was replaced by Cauchy and asked him to consume Aquili, who finally ran out of energy in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points in the third quarter and not scoring in the fourth.

"Timeout is over, Mavericks serve!" The 20-second timeout ended quickly and the referee handed the ball to the Mavericks' player.

Bryant served the ball out of bounds, and it was still Aquili who received the ball, and regardless of his physical strength, whether he scored in the fourth quarter or not, he was the Mavericks' most reliable scoring point.

Cauchy pestered Aquilli like a kraft candy, and Aquilli was on his back, trying to squeeze out space.

Aquili suddenly turned around! Cauchy wrapped too tightly, but gave Aquili room to turn around, and he left Cauchy behind in one fell swoop.

None of the others came to help! Gan Guoyang saw Aquili rushing towards this side in the three-second zone, and there was no one in front of him! Gan Guoyang immediately let go of Bryant to make up for Aquilli.

But Gan Guoyang still finished a step, Aquili made a mid-range jumper at 19 feet, and the ball went in!

111：113！ The Mavericks are overtaken! The Mavericks are overtaken!

"Beep! Trailblazers pause! "The referee's whistle went again.

This is extremely dangerous for the Trail Blazers, after the Mavericks scored this goal, there are about 40 seconds left in the clock, and the Trail Blazers have scored a goal, and they must defend one.

'The ball has to be fast, we have to score it quickly so that we can attack again after we have defended a goal. Indeed, as long as the goal is scored quickly, then even if the Mavericks press the next goal for 24 seconds, then the Trail Blazers still have an offensive opportunity, Ramsey said.

Ramsey put Norris on the court again, and since Sampson really couldn't play, Norris's offense was stronger than Karl's, so putting him on the court was also hoping to work wonders.

At the same time, he put Drexler and Van Dewig on the court, plus Gan Guoyang and Van Dewig, which should be the strongest offensive lineup for the Trail Blazers.

But the only problem with this lineup is that they don't have a point guard! Then, Drexler can only control the ball.

However, Gan Guoyang served outside the bounds, but he couldn't find Drexler, because he was very fiercely entangled by Blackman.

Seeing that the time was about to come, Gan Guoyang did not call a timeout again, but threw the ball to Norris, who was on the catch, and this pass almost made Ramzi's heart jump out of his throat.

And Norris got the ball at the top of the arc but didn't know what to do, Ramsey's tactics were not like this at all, it was all messed up! Drexler and Paxson, as well as Van Deweic, couldn't get the ball.

At this time, seeing that the time passed quickly, Norris was heartbroken, and he didn't care, and broke through directly with the ball in the middle!

Unexpectedly, this move was completely unexpected by the Mavericks, and the Mavericks' defensive focus was not on Norris at all, just to let him go.

Who knew that Norris rushed in with the ball like a big buffalo, Perkins, who defended Norris, was inexperienced, he didn't expect Norris to be like this, and the defense was a step late.

Norris lays up on the right side, the ball hits the basket twice, and it goes in! Norris' layup goes in! Crooked!

"Well done Norris! Well done! Gan Guoyang couldn't hide his excitement anymore and rushed up to hug Norris.

"Don't worry, don't worry, the game isn't over yet." It's Norris who is unusually calm.

The Mavericks also immediately called a timeout, and at 113:113, the two sides were tied again.

At this time, Ramsey has nothing to arrange, he can only call the players to fight, the Trail Blazers have no timeout, and the Mavericks are gone, as long as they hold on, they can eliminate the opponent by scoring one! If you can't hold it, then the last attack will be very dangerous.

At the end of the timeout, the Trail Blazers were still Gan, Norris, Drexler, Paxson and Vanderwiczy, and Gan Guoyang could feel his breathing accelerating.

With 31 seconds left in the game, the Trail Blazers pressed for halftime.

The Mavericks struggled to deliver the ball, Aquili was denied the ball by Vanderwig's deadly defense, and Blackman took the ball.

Blackman had a mediocre game, scoring just 17 points so far.

Blackman dribbled, he was ready to break through, it was his most powerful killer, and he faced Drexler.

With 18 seconds left, Blackman broke through and rushed in from the familiar left flank, leaving Drexler seemingly thrown away.

No! Drexler pulled the ball from behind and he broke it!

Drexler counters with the ball! This will be the deadliest counterattack of the whole game!

The Mavericks' players went back to defense like crazy, and they couldn't let Drexler go to the basket easily.

In 12 seconds, Drexler slowed down, there was still enough time, the Trail Blazers had time to play a success rate, and Ramsey yelled "steady" on the sidelines!

The Trail Blazers players all ran through half court, and Drexler carefully controlled the ball for 9 seconds.

Drexler was ready to break down from the right side, and his breakthrough was one of the Trail Blazers' strongest weapons, 7 seconds.

But Drexler has an even more lethal weapon!

That's his pass, he saw Norris running back on the right! 6 seconds.

Drexler was caught and he passed the ball to the right! 5 seconds.

Norris receives the ball, and the 10-foot position on the baseline at a zero-degree angle is not Norris's best shooting point, but he still makes a shot. 4 seconds!

In many cases, a small person can often change the fate of a game or even a series.

And Norris, the little-known backup center, threw this shot that decided the fate of both teams in a crucial game

"Huh!" The ball is in! 3 seconds.

Three seconds! 115:113, Norris throws this deadly mid-shot! With only three seconds left for the Mavericks, they have no timeout!

"Stop! The last ball! Don't give them a quick break! Gan Guoyang yelled as he interfered with the Mavericks' serve on the baseline.

The Mavericks failed to pass, the ball was thrown out of bounds, and time ran out......

Dallas' home stadium was silent, except for the Trail Blazers players who hugged and celebrated.

Surrounded by them is the hero of the game, Norris.

The legend of a small creep.

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