On April 27, Eastern time, the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Washington Bullets by 134-109, 25 points on their home court, and eliminated the opponent with a total score of 3-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who were short of a major player, used a four-forward and one-guard roster throughout the first round, and their former main shooting guard Andrew Tony and center Moses Malone both missed the playoffs due to injury, and they were replaced by two rookie players of the team, power forward Greg Stokes and power forward Terry Katrich, who played as center and power forward respectively.

Charles Barkley, on the other hand, moved to the shooting guard position, which allowed them to entangle with the bullets for four games, and finally exploded in the fifth, with Cartridge playing 27 points in the final 27 minutes, scoring one point a minute.

Barkley had 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 assists in a single game, and finally got his first triple-double of the playoffs, and in the first game against the Bullets, he scored 26 points, 22 rebounds, 9 assists, and a quasi-triple-double, which was also a shocking performance.

It's just that his next little play was quickly overshadowed by the dazzling light of the other two new stars in 84, and the fat man was immediately ignored, which made Barkley quite depressed, you must know that after Moses Malone was injured, Barkley did get more opportunities to perform, but the other two were too rebellious.

In this way, with the 76ers and Bullets series deciding out, and the Eastern and Western semifinals matchups all out of the way, it was a year with no surprises overall, at least in the first round, as the teams in the top half of the region were victorious.

Among them, the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, and Milwaukee Bucks all swept their opponents, while the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks made it a little harder and entered the second round without much suspense.

Just as the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Bullets was over, in Los Angeles, the first game between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers had already begun, as both teams eliminated their opponents 3-0 and had rested long enough that the Western Conference semifinals were the first to ignite the fire.

For Gan Guoyang, staying home after training, drinking a cold beer and watching the live TV broadcast of the Western Conference semifinals is really a pleasant thing, not to mention that Wang Fuxi also returned to Portland from Spokane to accompany Gan Guoyang at home.

"Forrest Gump, I've run out of detergent at home!"

"There's still one in the cabinet below, and I've bought a lot of them."

Gan Guoyang watched TV and drank wine, while Wang Fuxi cleaned up the mess after dinner in the kitchen, and Gan Guoyang instantly felt that the best thing in life was nothing more than that.

"Welcome to CBS Television's 1985-1986 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals, where the Houston Rockets take on the Los Angeles Lakers on the road, and I'm Dick Stockton. This is the second in the West against the third in the West, although the Rockets are second in the West, but their regular season record is a little worse than the Lakers, so the Lakers have home-court advantage, and today I will enjoy this game with you is the familiar Mr. Tom Heinthorne. ”

"Hi everyone, I'm Tom Heinsohn and I'm excited to talk about this game tonight."

The familiar CBS opening music and presenter Dick Stockton's commentary played on the TV, and the two commentators have done most of CBS's commentary work this season, which naturally includes a lot of games between Gan and the Trail Blazers.

However, this is the first time that Gan Guoyang has really listened to the two of them explain the game this season, because he usually stands on the court and is commentated, instead of sitting in front of the TV and listening to the commentary while watching the game.

Before the game, the TV station also broadcast interviews with Lakers players, and all five of the Lakers' starters said that they were full of anticipation for the game, with a relaxed expression on their faces, and expressed their yearning for the Celtics in the Finals.

After listening to the words of the two, Gan Guoyang smiled, shook his head, and felt that the Lakers really didn't understand the way of character, and he must have praised the Rockets before the game, showing his deep concern about the game.

Of course, character is always secondary, strength is the most important, Gan Guoyang in the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers last season was also a big accumulation of character, but the result was easily 1:4.

Then, the TV station began to introduce the starters of both sides, and the Rockets' starting lineup changed from the regular season, with veteran John Lucas being cut by the team before the playoffs and Robert Reid starting in place of Lucas.

But Reid is not a point guard, but a small forward, so that the Rockets' starting five removed the point guard, and the backcourt became a double small front plus a scoring guard, and the height of the three in the backcourt was 6 feet 6, 6 feet 7, and 6 feet 8, so that the average height of the Rockets' starters was further improved.

"They are specifically designed to deal with the Lakers......" Gan Guoyang saw at a glance the doorway of the Rockets' arrangement, because the Lakers' backcourt height is also unparalleled in the world, and the opponent often has to let the small forward or scoring guard go to the Lakers' point guard in order to prevent the magic, so his point guard will obviously suffer when defending.

Gan Guoyang clearly remembers that in the Western Conference Finals last season, Drexler had to defend against the Magic, and Valentin had to go to the opposite Cooper and Byron Scott, but he couldn't prevent it at all, and the backcourt was almost shot.

Regarding some questions about the Lakers at the playoffs preparation meeting this year, the basic plan that the Trail Blazers have made at present is to let Colter defend against the Magic, and would rather be beaten one-on-one by the Magician than let the Magic play the Trail Blazers to death with a pass.

Now, the Rockets' approach to the Lakers and Magic in the second round will serve as a good lesson for the Trail Blazers — and of course, it would be better if the Rockets could keep the Lakers out of the division finals.

Gan Guoyang was thinking about these problems, the Lakers and Rockets game had already started in Los Angeles, Akim Olajuwon couldn't hold back the old Abdul-Jabbar in the scrum, and the Lakers got their first chance to attack.

The Lakers' starting lineup is still the same as in the regular season, with center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, power forward Rambis, small forward Worthy, scoring guard Scott, and point guard Magic.

"Abdul-Jabbar catches the ball, turns, dunks!" The Lakers' first score came very quickly, Abdul-Jabbar squeezed Ralph Sampson on the back side to receive a pass from the Magic, and then turned directly to a one-handed dunk, Sampson was completely blocked behind him, and could only watch Abdul-Jabbar score.

"Thin bamboo pole vs. thin bamboo pole, it seems that the old man still has more strength." In Gan Guoyang's eyes, these two guys are skinny bamboo poles, but judging from the regular season encounters, Abdul-Jabbar is obviously more difficult to deal with, anyway, Sampson doesn't play well against the Trail Blazers every time.

The Rockets quickly used a simple inside-out tactic, with Read's baseline jumper hitting a difficult shot close to a negative angle.

After the opening, the rhythm on both sides was very fast, especially the Lakers, the offense was smooth, and the shots were all within 10 seconds, and the cheers of the fans on the scene were also accompanied by waves of the Lakers' offensive climax, and the atmosphere of the Western Conference semifinals was already strong like the finals.

"Rambis misses the shot...... Abdul-Jabbar grabbed the rebound and dunked! It also caused a foul on Sampson and had a chance to hit a three-pointer. ”

"Abdul-Jabbar was criticized when he faced the Jazz in the first round, he was considered to be lacking in aggression and many said he was old. But tonight was Abdul-Jabbar's best first quarter since the start of the playoffs, and it's rare to see him fight so desperately for frontcourt rebounds. ”

Gan Guoyang also saw something different about Abdul-Jabbar, although the Lakers won 3-0 in the last round, but in the face of the Utah Jazz's powerful twin towers, Abdul-Jabbar played averagely, or gave people the feeling that Abdul-Jabbar didn't work hard at all, and the Lakers won the game by relying on outside players.

At the beginning of this game, Abdul-Jabbar showed a strong desire to win, because before the game, many people thought that Abdul-Jabbar would be bloodied by the Rockets' twin towers, and for Abdul-Jabbar, who has slapped his face countless times in his career, this is undoubtedly a provocation to him, and he wants to respond to doubters with practical actions.

In the face of the Lakers' flood of offense, the Rockets used their twin towers to start using a simple inside line to drive the outside line to stabilize the situation on the court, and Olajuwon and Sampson took turns to win singles and maintain a catch-up posture against the Lakers.

"Forrest Gump, try the toast I made!" Gan Guoyang was watching the game, Wang Fuxi took out the bread she baked from the oven and put it in front of Gan Guoyang.

"It's... Is this bread? Gan Guoyang looked at the yellow object in front of him that looked like a round baked cake and asked suspiciously.

"I did it the same way my mom made bread... For the first time, try it! Wang Fuxi looked expectant, in order to make this bread, Gan Guoyang went to the supermarket to buy an oven, and also bought flour and yeast.

Gan Guoyang carefully took out a piece of "bread" from the plate, it was still a little hot, Gan Guoyang blew it, put it in his mouth and bit it under Wang Fuxi's expectant gaze.

"Quack!" The sound that should not be made when eating bread came out, and after Gan Guoyang took a bite, he chewed the "bread" in his mouth and made the sound of "Ku Ku".

"Fuxi, are you sure this is bread, not baked cakes?" Gan Guoyang chewed the dried bread and turned his head to ask Wang Fuxi.

"I just did it the way my mom did? How can it be so hard? Wang Fuxi also put his finger on the bread he made and pressed it, it was indeed a little hard.

"Did you put yeast in it?"

"Yeast? What is yeast? ”

Gan Guoyang burst into tears instantly, sure enough, this guy didn't know that he needed to put yeast to make bread, so he made the bread into baked pancakes alive - and put some soda in the baked cakes.

"No, you're going to eat it! I'll remember to put that yeast next time. ”

Looking at Wang Fuxi's sharp eyes, Gan Guoyang could only silently say two lines of tears, and ate roast cakes with beer.

By this time, the Lakers had the upper hand in the game.