The San Antonio Spurs visited Portland on the 13th, and it was widely believed that the Spurs should not pose much of a threat to the Trail Blazers, and after losing George Gervin and Gilmore in quick succession, the Spurs are no longer that Spurs.

In the 1987 draft, the Spurs chose David Robinson, who was already famous in the United States at the time, but Robinson had to delay his entry into the NBA for two years because he was going to serve in the Navy.

Since 1983, for five consecutive years, the NBA's draft champions have all been centers, which is enough to show the status of interior players in this era.

The long-awaited sequel to Sabonis and Robinson's Olympic feud had to be postponed because Robinson was unable to compete, and although Robinson outperformed Sabonis at the Olympics individually, Sabonis' team had the last laugh.

But Sabonis' recent form hasn't been too great, and he's hit the "rookie wall."

Sabonis didn't get a lot of playing time since the start of the season, but his performance was impressive, and his delicate hand work and clever playing style brought a breath of fresh air to the NBA audience accustomed to hand-to-hand interior players, and his No. 12 jersey quickly sold out in the Portland area.

But with Williams' injury and Sabonis being pushed into the starting lineup, his performance began to decline, and Sabonis, who clearly lacked NBA experience, was not very comfortable with the starting position, not only Sabonis, but also the other starters.

The problem is mainly in defense, when Gan Guoyang is the starting center, the three-second zone in defense does not need to be assisted, but Sabonis becomes the starter, Gan Guoyang comes to the position of power forward, and the defensive range expands, so the three-second zone often needs occasional help from outside players, Drexler and Cauchy are not very used to this.

Once the defense is not good, the NBA's outside players often score points on the head, and they have to pay for fouls, and Sabonis's self-confidence on the offensive end has also been affected.

Moreover, NBA teams have also begun to study Sabonis's style of play, at that time, the NBA interior players are getting stronger and stronger, and the defensive actions are becoming more and more brutal, Sabonis will be very uncomfortable once he is taken care of by the opponent's muscular man, he is not like Gan Guoyang, he has long been in the NBA, and takes wrestling on the court as part of the game, Sabonis's delicate skills need space assurance, and he still lacks such ability and experience to deal with those blue-collar muscular men.

So in the face of the Pacers, bullets in the game, although Sabonis continued to start, but the performance was mediocre, the defensive end has improved slightly since being taught a lesson by Ma Long, but the help defense, standing still need to be improved, and the offensive end of his gorgeous passes is also getting less and less, there is no doubt that he has certain psychological problems, this is the process that most NBA rookies will go through, but Sabonis seems to have come earlier.

Against the Spurs, Sabonis continued to start, and the Spurs' starting center was the 6-foot-9" Frank Brikowski, a hard-hitting white interior player who was drafted by New York in 1981 but didn't enter the NBA until 1984 to play as a supersonic bench.

He reached the pinnacle of his career with the Spurs last season, averaging 16 points and 7 rebounds per game, and the Spurs also used him as a transition player before David Robinson's arrival, and when Robinson returned from military service, he could play power forward directly.

A 6-foot-9, a 7-foot-3, no matter how you look at Sabonis, they all have an absolute advantage, but in the confrontation between the two, Sabonis was played by this cunning old fox, and after being fouled by Brikowski in the opening game, Sabonis began to restrain his hands, and his pace under the basket could not keep up with Brikowski, and was stolen by the opponent three times in a row in the three-second zone.

Adelman couldn't sit still on the court, but Gan Guoyang still encouraged Sabonis on the court, and at the same time rewarded Brikowski with a big hat and a malicious foul in the matchup, giving the guy a lesson.

However, Sabonis can't always rely on Gan Guoyang to get ahead, and his starter undoubtedly messed up the opening tone of the Trail Blazers, disrupting the rhythm of the whole team's game, and the players played the court.

Deluxler, who was sent off for elbowing Payson in the last game, became the first point of attack for the Trail Blazers in this game, while Gan Guoyang had to reduce his shots because of Sabonis's poor performance and Williams' absence.

In this game, Gan Guoyang sent 9 big hats and 5 steals on the defensive end, but the two sides still struggled until the last moment of the game, the reason is very simple, the shooting rate of the Spurs starters tonight was too high, and four people shot more than 55 percent, and some difficult goals made many of the Trail Blazers' defenses come to naught.

At the critical moment, Drexler, who contributed 41 points in the game, received a pass from Gan Guoyang, cut into the basket from the left side and made a layup, scored and caused a foul by Brikowski, and hit a free throw, so that the Trail Blazers narrowly defeated the Spurs by 2 points.

After the game, different voices began to emerge in the locker room, with some players, such as Kevin Duckworth, Richard Anderson and others, privately hoping that Adelman would remove Sabonis from the starting line-up and continue to substitute him, and then pick the starting interior from among the other players.

Adelman still suppressed these objections, he didn't want the team to have a conflict over the starting issue, but Sabonis's poor start was a real dilemma.

I thought that Sabonis's start could liberate Gan Guoyang to a greater extent, but I didn't expect to make the burden on Gan Guoyang's shoulders heavier, and Sabonis himself was also very anxious about this, and it can be seen from the performance on the field that he is very positive and very eager to contribute to the team, but it often backfires.

Sabonis has always been known for his calm handling of the ball and his ability to interpret the court on the international stage, but now he is not in the same state as he should be, he has lost his coolness, he has lost his ability to interpret, he is not adapted to the NBA whistle and the life of flying around a lot, all kinds of problems are beginning to be exposed.

After playing the game against the Spurs, Sabonis was unprecedentedly earlier than Gan Guoyang in the next day's training, and he arrived at the Jewish Community Training Center at four o'clock to start the day's training, which surprised Gan Guoyang.

"You're even earlier than me? Not getting enough sleep is not a good thing. Gan Guoyang said in surprise when he arrived at the training gym early and saw that Sabonis had already started training alone in the training gym.

'There's no time, I know there's a problem in the team about my start, I don't like that feeling, and I'm going to show everyone that I can start.' Sabonis said as he practiced his defensive footsteps with the obstacle post on the field.

"It's not like you, Avidas, you're not such an impatient person. You should calm down, I think Mr. Adelman was a little too hasty to put you in the starting lineup, but you have a lot more to learn, like learning how to withstand the humiliation of others, to withstand the violent shoving, to withstand the boos of the audience, to withstand the dunk on your head. You have to find your strengths Avidas, your strengths are your height and your passing, trust me, do what you have to do, what you are missing, your team-mates will make up for it because we are a team. Gan Guoyang picked up the ball and walked to Sabonis and said to him.

Sabonis's defense is indeed a big problem, so Sabonis wanted to improve his defensive level too much, and as a result, his advantages were abandoned, but how could the defensive level be said to be improved if it was improved, and in the end, Sabonis's performance on the field became a handan toddler, forgetting his footwork.

"However, Mr. Bellman told me that if you want to survive in the NBA, you have to defend ...... first."

"Oh~ Don't listen to that old antique guy, this guy has been coaching me since high school and likes to fiddle with his defensive formations. Listen to me, tomorrow's game, focus on attacking, passing, and I'll take care of the rest. Gan Guoyang said to Sabonis with an oath.

…………

At noon on December 12, 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington on a special plane, which was another top Soviet leader to visit the United States after Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959 and Brezhnev's visit to the United States in 1973.

But compared with the two visits to the United States 30 years ago and 15 years ago, the situation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1988 has changed dramatically, 1959 is the period of the rise of the Soviet Union, the red empire continues to expand their power around the world to compete with the United States, in 1959 the Cuban Revolution was successful, the flag of the United States changed its flag in the back garden, the red socialist flag was planted on the American continent, at that time, Khrushchev went to the United States with a winning attitude.

In 1973, when the Soviet Union was strong, the United States was mired in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, and the powerful polar bear showed an overall offensive advantage over the United States.

Today, however, the situation in the USSR is precarious.

The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and other socialist bloc countries experienced a severe economic recession, Gorbachev's several reforms ended in failure, the socialist countries began to show the precursors of general turmoil, and a dangerous atmosphere permeated the eastern part of Europe.

Gorbachev, who failed in economic reforms, began to turn his attention to the political field, began to gradually abandon the leadership of the CPSU, and at the same time began to seek détente with the United States in international affairs.

President Reagan's term expires this year, and his position will be handed over to the new president, George W. Bush, the father of future President George H.W. Bush, in January next year.

According to the original plan, after Gorbachev arrives in Washington, his second stop will be New York, the largest city in the United States, which is also the second city that most of the visiting leaders will go to after arriving in the United States.

But because of one game and two players, Gorbachev had to change his itinerary and change the plane's destination to the West Coast, a city that had little to do with politics, Portland.