The Celtics aren't a team to take lightly, especially after losing the Finals last year and coming back to the top this year.

However, the first three rounds were too easy, the week before the finals were rested, the opponent was the young team Trail Blazers, who had fought hard for seven games, and the outside world has been optimistic, and the players will still have some slackness.

Especially after the start of the game, the clumsy performance of some nervous Trail Blazers players, and the earth-shattering cheers of the fans in the stadium made the Celtics more and more relaxed.

Therefore, when Vanderwich received a pass from Gan Guoyang and hit a jumper on the left baseline, the Celtics players were shocked to realize that the Trail Blazers had narrowed the gap to only one point.

"Vanderwicki's jump shot, as consistent, as ever, but more importantly Gan's pass, he was very timely after receiving Drexler's pass, and the Celtics' defense was a little bit careless."

After a timeout, the Celtics couldn't pick that up late in the second quarter, and the duo of guards Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge, who played an important role in the first quarter, lost their power in the face of the Trail Blazers' rearranged defense, and they were always forced to the baseline, and then had to stop passing the ball, and could no longer move freely in the middle.

Larry Bird is still undefensible, but Kevin McHale is closely guarded by Gan Guoyang, Gan Guoyang is not shaken at all, you have to shoot with you, you want to shake him off for a layup, no way.

Gan Guoyang suddenly opened up in strategy, and together with Drexler, the two greatly drove the Trail Blazers' offense, and Ramsey also decisively sent a two-shooter combination of Paxson and Vanderwicki, and the two accounted for all eight points of the last four attacks of the Trail Blazers in the second quarter.

"Gan was under the basket, grabbed the rebound in the frontcourt, he passed the ball back to Van Dewy, Van Dewig passed the ball to Paxson, Paxson broke through the middle, threw it! The ball is in! At the end of the first half, Paxson hit a buzzer-beating two-pointer, and the Trail Blazers took the lead at the end of the game! 61:60, halftime between the two sides. ”

The Trail Blazers unwittingly pulled the score back, scoring high enough for both sides in the first half, and Larry Bird scored 21 points in the half, and one man shot the Trail Blazers' backcourt.

But the Trail Blazers' backcourt is also more blossoming, Vanderwicki, Paxson, and Drexler all have extremely high shooting percentages, but the Trail Blazers' interior line, except for Sampson's consecutive points in the first quarter, there is not much bright performance in scoring.

Gan Guoyang only scored 8 points on 3-of-5 shots and 2-of-2 free throws in the first half, but he unexpectedly handed out four assists, you must know that in the last round of the Western Conference Finals, he handed out a total of 9 assists in seven games, an average of a little more than one per game.

Gan Guoyang's change caught the Celtics a little off guard, they were bent on blocking Gan Guoyang's score, but they didn't expect Gan Guoyang to suddenly become a master of strategy.

What worries the Celtics even more is that Gan Guoyang, who only made 5 shots in the first half, must retain plenty of physical strength, Gan Guoyang's terrifying scoring ability in the third quarter has been known to the league after a battle in the Western Conference Finals, not to mention that he set a single-quarter scoring record in Garden Square this year.

"We played too relaxed, where was our defense? The Trail Blazers had six turnovers in the first quarter, but in the second quarter, there were only two. We didn't have a lot of movement in defence, we didn't have a lot of urgency, and yes we played well in attack, but the opposition was also good in attack. Also, in the third quarter, I don't want to see the number 11 score on top of us again, we need to control him on the defensive end and put him under pressure on the offensive end, and not let him lead us by the nose. ”

At halftime in the Celtics' locker room, Casey Jones expressed his displeasure to the players, and the Celtics got caught up in the rhythm of playing against the Trail Blazers, completely failing to show the demeanor of the No. 1 defensive team in the playoffs, allowing opponents to score 60 points in the half.

Jones made a serious summary of Gan Guoyang's play in the third quarter before the finals, and he believed that Gan Guoyang scored in the third quarter There are two prerequisites, one is the feeling of his first three attacks, once Gan Guoyang turns on the scoring mode, it must be a continuous score in the case of excellent hand, and the first three boards are Gan Guoyang's test to find the offensive feeling.

Second, if you don't put enough pressure on Gan Guoyang on the offensive end, then Gan Guoyang's scoring will be even more unscrupulous, and the rockets in the last round will be the victim.

In the third quarter of the fifth game, when Gan Guoyang scored consecutive points, the Rockets were in a mess and began to rely on the outside to shoot outside, instead of insisting on Olajuwon or Sampson attacking the inside line guarded by Gan Guoyang, allowing Gan Guoyang to put more physical strength on the offensive end, and the Rockets were beaten down.

Therefore, Casey Jones demanded that he first resist Gan Guoyang's first three waves of tentative attacks, and if he held it, Gan Guoyang felt bad and was likely to give up the singles; Then he asked McHale and Bird to play more low post and attack more inside, preferably to cause a defensive foul on Gan Guoyang, so that he would consume energy on the defensive end and have no time to play on offense.

"That's right, give this 'kung fu boy' a little color, this is Boston Garden Square, it's enough to be captured once, and it's a shame to be taken down twice in a row. Although in order to win the championship, we should be shameless. ”

It was Cardinal Auerbach who appeared at the door of the locker room, who once again came to the team dressing room to wind up the players.

After all, throughout the season from the regular season to the playoffs, so far, the only loss to the Celtics at home is the Trail Blazers led by Gan Guoyang.

The players laughed when they heard Auerbach's words, and they were still very confident in their own quality.

………………

"How's it going, Gan, give them some color in the third section?" When the two sides returned to the field in the second half, Vanderwich stood next to Gan Guoyang and said to him.

"I don't know, I don't think my hands are getting warm." Gan Guoyang responded.

Before the game, in order to maintain his hand, Gan Guoyang even fed him rice by Shui Miao, and he didn't touch anything else except basketball.

However, such a "superstitious" method does not seem to be of much use, Gan Guoyang's hit rate in the first half was high enough, 60 percent, but he only shot five times, the number is too small.

Vanderwicki's first half was surprisingly good, and his jumper from the perimeter was the Trail Blazers' most consistent firepower output on the perimeter.

Gan Guoyang is now facing not only the problem of feel, but also the problem of receiving the ball, the Celtics are much better than the Rockets in the point of defending the ball and blocking the passing line, which they have been training against super centers such as Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone all year round.

Sure enough, when the game continued in the third quarter, the Celtics returned to their defensive characteristics at the beginning of the first quarter, with the two guards using their precise positioning and other frontcourt players to form a good defensive formation, and the defenders always maintained the threat of Gan Guoyang's catch, while one player was distracted by Gan Guoyang, ready to pack at any time.

This kind of defense is different from the Rockets' high-pressing defense, and it tests the player's experience more, and the pressure is not strong, but it hides a killing opportunity.

Colter hesitated and passed the ball back to Van Dewig, who broke through with the ball and forced a layup! Fouled! McHale caused Van der Vicky's dribble hit! ”

Gan Guoyang asked for a low post on the left side, but Danny Angie put Colt three steps away and retreated to Gan Guoyang's side, Colter wanted to shoot casually, but just didn't give him a chance to pass.

Coulter hesitated, did not make the decision to attack on his own, or gave the ball to Van Dewig, who ran from the right side to respond, Van Dewig took the ball and found that the Celtic defense in the middle was not tight, so he broke through with the ball.

Unexpectedly, McHale suddenly stood up from the side and blocked the breakthrough road, Van Dewig could not hold his foot, the two collided, and the referee awarded Van Dewich an offensive foul.

A mistake, but it was the beginning of a mistake for the Blazers.

In the next few attacks, the Trailblazers made all mistakes, either the pass was broken, or the passing line was not good, and the receiver had to jump up to catch the ball, and the person stood directly outside the line.

"The Trail Blazers' offense was in disarray, with Drexler making a bad pass and the ball out of bounds, their fourth turnover in the third quarter, and they've only scored two points on Drexler's free throws so far."

"I thought you'd cut in, you had to go faster."

"I'm already fast, you have a problem with the angle of the pass."

Gan Guoyang and Drexler had a small dispute, and after the two blocked and dismantled, Drexler thought that Gan Guoyang should cut deeper, and Gan Guoyang felt that Drexler's pass was too anxious and the angle was too small.

In fact, the crux of the problem is that the Celtics players blocked the passing line very well, and the Trail Blazers basically couldn't find the space to cut the ball in all their inward passes, and mistakes were taken for granted.

Immediately afterwards, McHale hit a turnover jumper under the basket, 63:72, and the Celtics not only overtook them, but also opened up the difference.

Ramsey called a timeout.

The Celtics' defense left the Trail Blazers at a loss again, and their original exquisite coordination was cut by the opponent's clever defensive formation, and the players were cut off from each other, and the offense could not play.

"We need to be more resolute! More decisive! Ramsey repeatedly stressed resoluteness and decisiveness during the timeout, and if Colter had been more decisive and more capable in the first shot, and could have hit a few consecutive shots on the outside, the Celtics' defense would have been self-defeating.

All subtle defensive formations tend to lose their effectiveness in the face of superior individual ability, but it seems that the Trail Blazers lack such outside players.

In the second half, the Celtics began to use McHale as the main defender of Devic, greatly limiting his offense, and Drexler also began to be constrained by Dennis Johnson.

"We need to be a little bit simpler, we need all the surprises."