"Hey Otis, is your game over?"

"yes Gan, I'm in the hotel right now, oh my god, we're doing terrible."

"If you're good enough, I don't care about the king's results."

"But I also had a terrible performance, with only six points; And he scored 25 points, but the shooting percentage was a little low, 8-of-21. ”

"Maybe you should go back to your home stadium and get some adjustments, but we're going to have an away trip next month."

"Really? Then I can only wish you the best of luck............"

………………

"Gan! It's time to play! ”

"Understood!" Gan Guoyang just hung up the phone. The call was from Chicago by Otis Thorpe.

On October 30, the Kansas Kings and Chicago Bulls game has ended, and the Portland Trail Blazers vs. Seattle SuperSonics game has not yet begun.

Because it's on the West Coast, the game in Portland will be about 4 hours behind the Midlands.

"Clyde, let's make a bet, I think I'll score 25 points tonight." Gan Guoyang said to Drexler next to him while shooting training.

"You should go and talk to Coach Ramsey that if he sees you score 24 points, he'll immediately put you on the bench and never let you score 25 points." Drexler said with a smile to Gan Guoyang.

"As long as you give me more balls, I think it's okay." Gan Guoyang also said that several goals scored by Gan Guoyang in the last game were passed to him by Drexler, and in Ramsay's tactics, there was no Gan Guoyang single.

"Don't think about it, Jim Paxson is back, I've been put on the bench again, it's a question of whether I can play or not." Drexler said helplessly.

Gan Guoyang remembered that Jim Paxson, the team's scoring guard who had missed the first game due to injury, returned from injury to catch up with the team's second game.

Ramsey then made changes to the starter, returning Drexler to the bench and starting Jim Paxson.

The Trail Blazers' outside shooting ability has been further enhanced, but the vitality of the fast break will obviously drop by a piece.

"Oh my God, I think you're a lot better than Paxson, and you were very good in the last game, so why put you on the bench again?" Gan Guoyang was a little upset about Drexler.

And for Jim Paxson, Gan Guoyang's favorability towards him is average, not because he robbed Drexler of the starter, but because Jim Paxson is neither too enthusiastic nor too cold to Gan Guoyang in his training and life, anyway, the relationship is average.

At first, Gan Guoyang didn't understand what was going on, thinking that Paxson didn't like him, but later learned that this guy graduated from Dayton University, and when Gan Guoyang played in the NCAA, 8 into 4 was to kill Dayton University.

So for this reason, Paxson has always had some thoughts about Gan Guoyang, and he doesn't like Gan Guoyang's outgoing and arrogant very much, so the relationship between the two is naturally very average.

"You better think about yourself first, the opponent's inside line is not weak today, be careful, there is a chance for you to perform."

Gan Guoyang listened to Drexler's words, and couldn't help but look back at the supersonic player opposite, two white big ones were practicing shooting.

"No problem, I'll get 25 points."

…………

The opening ceremony of the previous game was repeated again, and Gan Guoyang felt a headache when he thought that such a ceremony would be performed at least 82 times a year.

But it's a great feeling to get up from the bench, clap with all the substitutes under the DJ and then stand on the pitch and he feels like he's the owner of the pitch at that moment.

It's just that he wasn't the last to play, and that most valuable spot belongs to the team's current number one star, Kiki Van der Verki.

Gan Guoyang thought that this position would be hiss one day.

But now he's more focused on this matchup and the opponent he's going to face, Seattle center who stands in the center circle and awaits him, Jack Sikma.

Gan Guoyang did not watch Sikma games, the NBA at that time, especially when Gan Guoyang first arrived in the United States in the early 80s, was quite bleak, and even the 1980 finals were not broadcast live but recorded.

Although the Seattle SuperSonics were the NBA champion in 1979, they began to decline in the 80s, being overtaken by the Lakers, a dominant family, and eventually the team's champions left.

And the only remaining main members of the championship are their center forward Sikma.

I still have heard of Sikma Gan Guoyang, knowing that the other party is an all-star center and an experienced veteran, but Gan Guoyang is not timid, on the contrary, he is very excited, and he is looking forward to the confrontation with the masters, so that he can learn a lot.

Sikma was a blonde white man, and the white center was generally softer and slower at the time, and Gan Guoyang also felt that the veteran seemed to be a little weak when fighting for the ball.

The Trail Blazers got the ball, and Gan Guoyang's second NBA game began.

At the beginning, Gan Guoyang still went to a high position, according to Ramsey's meaning, Gan Guoyang, as a center, must first have the ability to connect the whole team, and then he can become the core of the attack.

Gan Guoyang didn't understand this very well, he felt that as long as he could keep scoring goals, he could do it, but the coach asked him to do it, and he had to do it.

He came to the top of the arc and Valentin gave him the ball to make a transition and then cut inside himself to find an opportunity.

With Drexler on the bench, the Trail Blazers' outside energy will depend on Paxson and Van der Veric.

These two guys are average athletic, but they shoot accurately, and they play very well, and they are very good at taking advantage of rhythm and time differences.

Sampson made a screen for Paxson on the left, Paxson went around the right, and Gan Guoyang made a through ball into his hands.

Paxson was about to throw, and Al Wood, who was defending him, jumped up to block, but ate Paxson's feint.

Paxson threw a 12-foot jumper against Sobos.

"Huh!"

"Beep!"

As the ball went in, the referee's whistle blew, and Paxson had a chance to hit a three-pointer.

There was a cheer at the Memorial Stadium to welcome the return of the star defender, whose injury has been a concern for fans and teams over the summer.

It's just that Drexler doesn't feel so good sitting off the court, and the better Paxson plays, the fewer opportunities he has.

The free throws were made, the Trail Blazers led 3-0, and Paxson got the Trail Blazers off to a good start.

But then, the Trail Blazers got into a bit of trouble.

Unlike the Kansas Kings in the last game, the Seattle SuperSonics are a team that is strong inside and weak on the outside, and in addition to having center Jack Sikma in the frontcourt, there is also a person that Gan Guoyang is familiar with, that is, their power forward, Tom Chambers.

Gan Guoyang first watched the first NBA preseason game when he arrived in the United States, the Golden State Warriors against the San Diego Clippers, and Chambers was a rookie of the Clippers, who was traded to the SuperSonics after two years with the Clippers and became the team's main power forward.

Chambers is 6'10 tall, also a white player, and like most white forwards, he eats with a jīng mid-range hand.

However, if he is just a thrower, it would be easy to deal with, but he is a big forward with all kinds of skills.

No sooner had Paxson's three-pointer been completed than Seattle launched a quick counterattack.

Chambers took the ball in the corner position, observed his teammates on the field, and did not choose to pass, but broke through directly from the middle!

Mitchell Sampson was unprepared and was rushed in by Chambers, and Gan Guoyang couldn't care about Sikma behind him when he saw this, so he stepped forward to make up for it.

Chambers turned around with the ball on his back, bypassing Gan Guoyang and preparing to go straight to the basket.

Gan Guoyang reacted very quickly, turned his head and jumped out of his long arm to block, but it was still a little bit worse, Chambers threw a very difficult low-hand basket, and the ball wiped the board into the frame.

The Trail Blazers' shot was the result of a noticeable lack of concentration on defense, with everyone looking for their opponent and giving Chambers a chance.

Then the Trail Blazers' offense began to become sluggish, and both Vanderwich and Paxson couldn't get their hands right, and they didn't hit three shots from the perimeter.

On the contrary, the supersonic side is resolutely playing the inside line.

Sikma made Gan Guoyang feel the strength of the NBA All-Star center for the first time, this center who looked a little slow and soft, received the ball twice under the basket, relied on the footsteps of Sè, a hook hand, and a wiping basket after a feint, scoring 4 points in a row, which made Gan Guoyang extremely depressed.

When Chambers scored on a fast-break counterattack with both hands on a dunk dunk, the SuperSonics went on an 8-0 run, and the Trail Blazers did nothing but score a three-pointer from Paxson.

Ramsey had to call a timeout and he had to adjust his tactics because the Trail Blazers didn't look good to start the game.

"Play with intensity, intensity! Since we can't shoot well, let's play more inside and rely more on our interior. Then, we combine the inside and the outside, and strengthen the cut from the top of the arc to the inside, and we need to impact the front court. Gan, you make decisions with the ball in the low post, don't go too deep, and leave some space on the inside. ”

Gan Guoyang was stunned when he heard Ramsey's words, he couldn't believe his ears, Ramsay had arranged tactics for himself?

In the training of Pingrì, the Trail Blazers will also practice the tactical movement of other players when the center plays low singles.

In addition to the ordinary opening up the defense and cutting the basket around the center, the most practiced is the high post front cover and rushing to the basket.

And the center's choice of passing or playing alone is entirely up to the center's own judgment, which means that Ramsey handed over the tactical choice on the field to Gan Guoyang and let him control the team's attack.

This was unexpected by Gan Guoyang, who has never liked Ramsey very much, in addition to Drexler's reasons, but also because Ramsey really doesn't like to use newcomers, as evidenced by the fact that he was pressed on the bench for a long time in the first game.

But in fact, Gan Guoyang still knows too little about this coach, and he has never tried to have in-depth communication with this coach.

At this time, the head coach sitting on the supersonic bench, Lenny Wilkens, was the head coach of the Trail Blazers, and he already had Bill Wharton on his hands at that time, and he had the members of the group who won the championship in '77, but he never managed to bring out the results.

Ramsey led the team to a championship in the first year after replacing him, and the Trail Blazers remained competitive in the years that followed.

Wilkens' glory came two years later with the SuperSonics, a strange team with a unique "point forward" position.

Compared with Wilkens, Ramsey's advantage is that he is good at developing and liberating the potential of players, especially the potential of interior players, and Wharton is completely liberated under his hands, bursting with great energy.

The reason why Drexler is not liked by Ramsay is that he is not the ideal team puzzle in Ramsey's mind, in fact, Drexler continues to play like this, and it is only a matter of time before Ramsay is recognized.

Gan Guoyang is different, he was pressed to the bench in the first game, purely because Ramsey felt that it was better to deal with the Kings and shoot from the outside, and he also had to take into account the mood of Mitchell Sampson, a veteran player.

It was only Gan Guoyang's performance at the beginning of the third quarter that really moved Ramsey, and he realized that this Chinese center, who was doubted by many people, may really have great potential.

So, he decided to try to give him more possession and command on the pitch to see how he could perform.

"Yes Captain, leave everything to me!" Gan Guoyang looked like he was "not ashamed", and it could be seen that he was very excited.

Ramsey only nodded slightly, but he liked Gan Guoyang's self-confidence, and even some "aggressive" xìng grid, he knew that last season's Trail Blazers lacked such a fighting dog, although they achieved the third place in the West, but they couldn't withstand it at the critical moment of the playoffs.

The short timeout ended quickly, and the two sides re-entered the court, with Gan Guoyang holding a basketball and serving on the sideline.

As soon as the ball was released, Gan Guoyang immediately came to the waist position, he did not ask for a deep position, but he still liked the feeling of asking for the ball in the low position very much.

With his back to the basket, chūn warm flowers bloomed, this is how Gan Guoyang felt in his heart at this time.

After he got the ball, he shook his head and looked at it, and found that Seattle was not packed, and the other players were staring at their respective people, which was a good opportunity for singles.

But Gan Guoyang did not hit with his back, but with his left foot as the axis, his whole body turned to the right, from the back basket to the basket in an instant, and at the same time vacated a space between himself and Sikma.

The movement of turning the basket from the back basket to the basket is very fluent, and as soon as Sikma reacted, Gan Guoyang had already broken through directly inward against him!

Sikma didn't expect that Gan Guoyang's strength was so great that he couldn't withstand Gan Guoyang's impact at all, and he was easily pushed away.

Gan Guoyang hit the inside line, and the other players in Seattle couldn't make up for it, and he unceremoniously made a split dunk with his left hand!

"Yay!" The stadium once again resounded with the cheers of the fans, and the impact of the Chinese center forward was unexpectedly strong.

"This guy always likes to fight according to his own ideas." Ramsey on the side shook his head again, in his opinion, Gan Guoyang was "Ren xìng" again.

Back on the defensive end, Seattle also gave the ball to Sikma, and it seems that they wanted Sikma to hit back to pay homage to Gan Guoyang.

After Sigma took the ball with his back, he turned around in the same way, changing from a basket to a basket, and it looked smoother.

Gan Guoyang actually didn't know that the simple footsteps he used to turn the basket with his back were named after Sikma, called "Sikma Steps", Gan Guoyang was really a little suspicious of having an axe just now.

However, Sikma did not have Gan Guoyang's impact, but after three shakes and two shakes, he shot against Gan Guoyang, trying to find a foul.

But Gan Guoyang's movements were well controlled, and he didn't foul at all, but turned around and grabbed the rebound and handed it to his teammates.

'He's been fantastic defensively, very, very smart. Ramsey was very satisfied with Gan Guoyang's single defense, and Gan Guoyang's strength and awareness made him quite difficult.

On the offensive end again, Gan Guoyang still seems unwilling to go according to Ramsey's arrangement, after receiving Valentine's pass, he did not hesitate, set up Sikma with his left hand, turned over a hook hand, and the ball went in!

"Maybe this guy is fit to score constantly." Ramsay, who was sitting on the bench, thought that he felt a little embarrassed to ask Gan Guoyang to do the same as Wharton, after all, Gan Guoyang was still young, and had only studied in college for two years.

But he has an unparalleled talent for scoring, and his hook is as graceful and accurate as the heavenly hook Jabbar.

Ramsey decided to let this kid fight happily according to his habits.