"You weren't as good as you could have in the last game, and you were obviously better in the regular season against the Mavericks, is it because of the intensity of the playoffs that you didn't particularly fit in?"

"It did make a little bit of an impact, it was my first playoff game, I underestimated the intensity of the playoffs and we weren't particularly prepared, which put us on the back foot. You know, when a team that is unprepared is on the back foot in a situation, then it's going to be pretty bad. As for the Mavericks, their toughness is what we lack, but in the next game, we will hit them back with a tougher performance. ”

On April 19, the third game day of the '85 playoffs, the Trail Blazers didn't play today, and their second game with the Mavericks will be played tomorrow.

In the training hall of the Trail Blazers, Gan Guoyang was interviewed by reporters, explaining his views on the loss of the game and his personal performance, and then the Trail Blazers closed the training hall and began the last high-intensity tactical joint practice before the second game.

The second game was a pivotal game for the Trail Blazers, who lost their home-court advantage in the first round, and if they lost this game again, the Trail Blazers would be on the brink of a best-of-five first-round game in 1985.

So, in the second game in Portland, the Trail Blazers must go all out to win.

“No-easy-ball！ No-easy-ball！ (No easy goals!) "In the training gym, after all the reporters were brought in, the Trail Blazers were practicing full-court confrontation.

Ramsey shouted "No-easy-ball" and asked the players to maintain a high intensity in training and not give the opponent any chance to score easily.

"Beep!" Ramsey, as the referee, blew the whistle for the foul. Gan Guoyang fouled Van Devic as he blocked a layup.

"Good KiKi, you'd better rush in and kill the other party like this tomorrow night." Gan Guoyang said to Van Dewych.

In the last game, Vanderwich scored a team-high 25 points and shot 55 percent from the field, but most of his scoring came from outside jumpers, so he only made two free throws in the game.

And the Mavericks' backup small forward, Wonder player Joe Vincent, alone scored 14 free throws — the Trail Blazers only had 18 as a team, and his impact caused a lot of damage to the Trail Blazers.

"But you can't foul again, you can't do it six more times." Vanderwich said to Gan Guoyang.

In the last game, Gan Guoyang's foul in the first overtime six was definitely a key point in determining the trend of the game, and after Gan Guoyang was sent off, the Mavericks' players no longer needed to pinch the inside.

Mitchell Sampson, another of the Trail Blazers' interior attackers, also had five fouls and was dogged by Sam Perkins at full length, and the Trail Blazers lost their inside and outside contact in overtime and fell into a scoring drought.

And without Gan Guoyang on the defensive end, the Mavericks' breakthrough was even more unscrupulous, which also made the Trail Blazers unable to return to the sky in the end.

The training continued until dark, everyone was sweating, and the intensity of the training was already in time for the official game, but not a single player complained, and everyone was focused on it, as if this was a preview of the second game.

After the training, Gan Guoyang rarely did not practice, because today's training intensity is really very high, and I am afraid that practicing again will affect the next day's competition.

However, Gan Guoyang still went to the gym for half an hour of low-intensity strength training after taking a shower, and for him, he felt uncomfortable not touching the barbell for a day.

"Hey Culp, how's the other team's play?" After a day of training, Gan Guoyang thought that he didn't know the situation of other competitions, so he asked Carp.

"Other competitions? I'll take a look at ......," Culp said, turning over today's report, "There are only two games today, the Bulls and the Bucks, and the Jazz and the Rockets. The game between the Bulls and the Bucks was over, and at 109:100 ET, which started at 5 o'clock Eastern time, the Bucks took out the Bulls. ”

"Bucks? I think Michael is in trouble. Gan Guoyang listened and thought that the Trail Blazers were double-killed by the Bucks this season, and Gan Guoyang knew that the Bucks were terrible.

Their tough perimeter defense, Marquis Johnson and Moncreffe, and even the Trail Blazers' perimeter offense were hindered by them.

Jordan will certainly not feel good when he meets the two of them, Drexler and the Bucks played, scoring a total of 24 points in the two games.

"How many points did Jordan score?" Gan Guoyang continued to ask.

"23 points, 10 assists, four rebounds, three steals." Culp replied.

This is a very good statistic, in fact, Jordan also tried his best in this game, it should be said that he played normally.

Gan Guoyang couldn't help but feel nervous when he heard this, and he realized that he had fallen behind in the performance of the first playoff game.

"The second game should still be in progress by now, the results are not out yet, let me see if there is a live ......" said Culp as he turned on the TV in the gym.

At this time, CBS TV was broadcasting the playoffs in Houston, and the game was already in the third quarter.

At the beginning of this season, the NBA's playoff spots have expanded to 16, and the division champions no longer enjoy first-round byes, so the intensity of the game will undoubtedly increase, and it is more likely that there will be a big upset.

Under Stern's urging, major television stations began to broadcast the NBA playoffs, including the first round of games, and the miserable situation of only recording the Finals like in 1980 will never happen again.

Contrary to Gan Guoyang's expectations, when he turned on the TV, it was not the Houston Rockets with the twin towers who were in the lead, but the Utah Jazz who were fighting away!

They always maintain this slight lead on the court, and no matter how hard the Rockets try to catch up, the Jazz can always rely on Dantley's singles to position this advantage.

And the two people that Gan Guoyang pays the most attention to, John Stockton and Olajuwon, also have their own different performances.

At least in the second half, Stockton didn't look like a rookie at all, as a backup point guard, he was calm and experienced on the court, and controlled the pace well.

His shot was very cautious, but once he saw the opportunity, he did not hesitate, and he fell with a knife in his hand, giving the rocket a fatal blow.

Especially with one shot and two free throws at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Gan Guoyang could feel that these four points had knocked down the momentum of the Rockets.

On the other hand, Olajuwon, Gan Guoyang simply saw his first performance in him, or Olajuwon's performance was even worse than Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang shot cautiously and had a very high hit rate, but he was too impatient on the defensive end and couldn't find opportunities on the offensive end.

Olajuwon, on the other hand, shot more hastily, facing the Jazz's inside double-high, and reluctantly attacked several times when chasing points, and was rebounded by the Jazz in the backcourt to counterattack, which allowed the Jazz to play a climax to pull the score away.

The Rockets' game was the same as the Trail Blazers, with Sampson being the first to be fouled in the fourth quarter, and he was the Rockets' most consistent scoring point.

Then the Rockets fell into a scoring drought, Olajuwon also fouled five times, and his singles couldn't break through Mark Eaton's giant barrier, on the other hand, the Jazz, Dantley can still score consistently, so the point difference can only widen.

"Oh my God, Jazz won!" By the time the game was over, Gan Guoyang had already finished his strength training and sat in the gym to watch the game with Culp.

In the end, the Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets by 119-102, 17 points on the road, and once again staged the next gram.

"Hell, it's the away team winning again." Culp also said.

At present, the first game of the first round of the Western Conference has been completed, and it is surprising that in the four groups, except for the Los Angeles Lakers who beat the Suns at home with absolute strength, the other three high-ranked teams, Denver-Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, have all suffered home losses and were defeated by low-ranked teams.

"Maybe this is the playoffs......" Gan Guoyang listened to Culp say this, and his understanding of the playoffs deepened, the regular season and the playoffs are really two worlds.

By the 19th, the first game of the first round of the NBA playoffs had all been played, and the fires of the playoffs had finally burned some flavor.

As Culp said, the first game in the West was a game down, with the Lakers losing their other two, three, and four games, while in the East it was the opposite, with all four teams playing at home in the high rankings winning their first game.

In the first game of the playoffs on the 16th, the Philadelphia 76ers easily defeated the Washington Bullets 104-97 at home, Moses Malone scored a game-high 26 points, and the fat Barkley grabbed 12 rebounds.

The Detroit Pistons, who are fourth in the East, beat the New Jersey Nets by a big score at home, 125-105, a 20-point difference is really a huge gap in the playoffs.

And Jordan's Bulls also lost to the Bucks today, but yesterday's Boston vs. Cavaliers, although the Celtics won, it was unexpectedly difficult.

The Cavaliers, a thousand-year-old team, took advantage of the spring equinox of the playoffs to climb to the eighth position, and when they met the defending champion, they were naturally used as cannon fodder.

But the Cavaliers were clearly not just slaughtered, and they exploded into an astonishing battle force in Boston Garden Square, and even tangled with the Celtics until the last second.

In the end, the Celtics relied on Larry Bird's 40-point performance and a crucial three-pointer to win a hard-fought 126-123 victory at home.

As you can see from the first game, the East is full of giants, and since the 80s, several teams have dominated the East Conference, and it seems that this pattern will not change for a while.

In the West, the Lakers are still dominant, the playoffs are the oldest and most stable, and there is still a big gap between several other emerging strong teams and the Lakers.

However, the playoffs are the best arena, there is no experience without lessons, and strong teams are gradually rising in such a competition, and the game on the 20th will come soon.