The only semi-final in the playoffs that didn't decide the winner is about to begin soon, and fans at Denver were ready to watch the Nuggets advance to the 1985 Western Conference Finals at home.

For the Denver Nuggets, although the possibility of entering the Finals is slim due to the existence of the Lakers, being able to reach the Western Conference Finals is definitely the best reward for their continuous improvement in the past five seasons, for those who have entered the reconstruction since the 1981 season.

The Nuggets players were all full of confidence. When they lost two games first, they won three games in a row, which undoubtedly greatly boosted the team's morale. The team's locker room reached an unprecedented level of unity.

In addition, this is the last season of veteran Dan Isel, so the Nuggets hope to go as far as possible, as the best gift for this veteran before retirement.

"Good spectators, the game is about to begin. Let me introduce the starting lineup of both sides, including the Trail Blazers who play away, center Sonny Gan, power forward Kenny Carr, small forward Chichi Van derwich, shooting guard Clyde Drexler, point guard Daniel Valentine; Nuggets, center Wayne Cooper, power forward Calvin Knight, small forward Alex Inglish, shooting guard T.R Dunn, point guard Fat Leaf. There is no change compared to the previous games. After five games, both sides should be said to have a very understanding. I think this game will be a time to compete for morale and energy, and the game will definitely be very exciting!"

Gan Guoyang once again stood in the middle circle, watching his opponent in these games, former Trail Blazers center Wayne Cooper.

In the last game, Cooper suppressed Gan Guoyang well. He and Dan Iser joined forces to prevent Gan Guoyang from being disturbed on the defensive end. At the beginning, Cooper gave Gan Guoyang a block.

"Hey Cooper, do you remember the block you gave me? There is an old Chinese saying that goes, "It's impolite to come but not come back," and another saying that goes, "The grace of a drop of water blocks the spring of repaid," I hope you can understand what I mean." Gan Guoyang took advantage of the referee's signing to compete for the ball, and used his own "Chinglish" (Chinese English) to spray trash words at Cooper.

Of course, Cooper couldn't quite understand what the sentences in the Analects of Confucius translated by Gan Guoyang himself meant, but he could roughly understand that Gan Guoyang wanted to get the stage back.

As a blue-collar player in the inside, Cooper has always been relatively low-key, played conscientiously, and performed his duties on the court.

However, the effective restrictions on Gan Guoyang in the last game also attracted widespread praise from the media. Some exaggerated media believed that the Trail Blazers' replacement of Cooper was a huge mistake. If Cooper hadn't been in the Nuggets, Gan Guoyang's performance would have been even better.

"Knock-it-off.(Stop it.)" Cooper smiled faintly at Gan Guoyang, and then threw out a sentence, full of mockery.

"You're ready, the game is about to start. Are you all OK?" Li Jones, the referee on duty, interrupted the conversation between the two and signaled that the game was about to begin.

The two nodded and signaled that they were ready, and the referee threw the ball into the air.

"Strike the ball, Gan was the first to touch the ball, the Trail Blazers gained the right to attack, and the game officially began!"

As Gan Guoyang gave Drexler the ball point in the game, the Trail Blazers took the lead in attacking, and this game, which was life and death for the Trail Blazers, finally began.

After Drexler took the ball, he did not hand over the ball to Valentine, but took the ball through half the game. It seemed that the Trail Blazers' first offense would be organized by Drexler.

In terms of talent, Drexler has no problem as a point guard except that he is a little worse in dribbling and is a bit too tall.

His ability to read opponents' defense and his ability to understand his own offense are top in the league. Many times, his passes are much fatal than his shooting.

In the first attack, Drexler was very cautious. He, Gan Guoyang and Van dervich formed an absolutely strong side of the attack on the right, while Carl and Valentine moved to the right.

This is a very big change compared to the previous game. In previous games, Ramsey always had to leave a strong attack point on the weak side. Generally, this candidate is Van der Vanesse to balance the balance of the half-field attack.

But this time, Ramsey placed all three players with the strongest attack power on the right side as the strong offensive side, and Van dervich brought it up to provide Drexler with a single block cover.

Inglish is thin and his ability on the defensive end may not be as good as Van derwich. The tall and thick Van derwich easily made a pick-and-roll with Drexler, and Drexler immediately took the ball and broke inward from the right side.

In this case, Inglish did not dare to make up for the defense of Drexler because Van der Wich's outside shot was too accurate and the threat of pick-and-roll cut was extremely great.

So Drexler was flat in front of him, Dunn was left behind by him, and the only barrier for the Nuggets in the three-second zone was Wayne Cooper.

But Cooper was very calm. He did not come out to make up for defense, but watched Drexler make a powerful slam dunk with one hand! 2:0!

"Drexler's dunk, oh, let us see the charm of the glider. However, Cooper did not come out to make up for defense. Compared to letting the glider score, they seemed to be more afraid of letting Gan open it." Frank Greber also saw that Cooper gave up on the defense and letting Drexler score, but he didn't want Gan Guoyang to have the chance to catch the ball and score.

"That's right, the Mavericks' lesson in the last round was defeated. Once the inside was opened, the Blazers' powerful outside line would undoubtedly be even more unscrupulous."

"Are you so afraid of letting me score?" Gan Guoyang said to Cooper when he returned to defense.

"No, you don't have the ability to score, stinky brat." Cooper was also a little angry by Gan Guoyang's provocation. In addition, the result of the game, Cooper began to feel that he had found the trick to deal with Gan Guoyang, a newcomer.

The two were nagging, and the Nuggets had launched a counterattack.

For the Nuggets, the greatest confidence given to them in these three games is that the Trail Blazers cannot curb them on the defensive end.

The Nuggets are not afraid to make the Trail Blazers easy to score, because they can score more easily on the offensive end.

In the first game, Gan Guoyang's restraint on the Nuggets' outside conduction ball was just a flash in the pan. In the later game, the Nuggets expanded their running range and transfer speed. In this case, even if Gan Guoyang has two legs, it is impossible to cover the defense in all directions.

"Cooper mentioned that he was on the line to catch the ball, and the Nuggets started their repeated cover and running attacks again. I don't know who will be... Cooper was attacked by Gan and Valentine and was intercepted!"

Originally, Cooper took the ball at a high position to cover Liff's ball, squeezed over Liff and rolled around Cooper from the left to cut inward, but Valentine, who was against Liff, did not continue to defend Liff at all, but instead attacked Cooper with Gan Guoyang.

This attack caught Cooper off guard and missed the ball under the double-team of Valentine and Gan Guoyang. Valentine fell to the ground and got the ball, and smashed the ball into the frontcourt before the Nuggets rushed up.

"Gan got the ball, and the Nuggets' backcourt was empty. Gan looked back and no one followed, dunked with one hand! Add two more points for the Trail Blazers."

4:0, Gan Guoyang performed a one-handed buckle that was exactly the same as when he was warming up, full of strength and seemed to be challenging all Nugget fans.

"How about it, a beautiful dunk, unfortunately, you are not under me." Gan Guoyang ran back to the backcourt after scoring the goal, and then squeezed Cooper with his body while nagging in his ear.

Cooper was squeezed tightly by Gan Guoyang who rushed forward, but Gan Guoyang did not take action. He just leaned on Cooper with his body, which was not considered a foul, and his mouth was not clean.

Cooper suddenly became angry and threw Gan Guoyang hard with his arm, trying to push Gan Guoyang away from him.

According to Gan Guoyang's power, Cooper would not even think about pushing Gan Guoyang down, but Gan Guoyang fell to the ground like he was hit by the powerful Vajra palm!

"Beep! No. 42, push someone for a foul." The referee's whistle rang, and Cooper was sentenced to push someone for a foul!

After the referee made this penalty, there were booing everywhere, and everyone was booing Gan Guoyang, believing that his ball was obviously pretending.

Gan Guoyang completely ignored the boos from the fans on the scene, stood up with the help of his teammates, and re-entered the attack.

"Gan created a foul by the Nuggets. The ball rights returned to the Trail Blazers. It seems that the Trail Blazers are in good momentum at the beginning. See if they can expand their advantage. Drexler is still in the possession of the ball. This time, Gan came out to play a pick-and-roll for Drexler. Drexler held the ball and broke through the middle and passed the ball outward, passing it to Gan at the bottom corner. Gan received the ball at 15 feet... The ball went in! Gan jumped at the mid-range distance of 15 feet!"

No one expected that Gan Guoyang actually made a 15-foot mid-range jump shot from the outside.

The Nuggets' defensive strategy is very obvious. If Gan Guoyang walks in after pick-and-roll, then even if Drexler scores directly, Gan Guoyang cannot catch the ball and make a layup, because Drexler cannot break in like this forever, but Gan Guoyang can always catch the ball and make a layup easily.

If Gan Guoyang retreated out after pick-and-roll, then Cooper would give up the control of Gan Guoyang to supplement Drexler, because in the regular season and previous games, Gan Guoyang did not show any offensive ability at mid-range.

In this ball, Cooper saw Gan Guoyang retreat to the bottom line, so he gave up his defense against Gan Guoyang without hesitation and turned to attack Drexler. Unexpectedly, Drexler could actually pass the ball to Gan Guoyang, and Gan Guoyang still shot the ball at mid-range!

Gan Guoyang was also happy after he scored this goal. He shook his head and grinned while returning to defense.

This playoff also exposed two of Gan Guoyang's biggest weaknesses. One is that he was double-teamed and was not mature enough to handle the ball. He has made great improvements through video recordings in the regular season, but in the playoffs, he seemed to be in a hurry again in the face of highly targeted defense.

The second is that his attack range is still too small. Although his hook range can reach a distance of 17 feet, the hook is not a jump shot after all. He has never had the trick of catching the ball after pick-and-roll. Therefore, once Gan Guo is too far from the basket, his threat on the offensive end will be greatly reduced.

But since the first day of regular season training, Gan Guoyang has never relaxed his training to restore his mid-range jump shot ability. It can even be said that he has practiced harder than anyone else.

However, during the game, he has never had the opportunity to display his new skills, and he doesn't need to pull out the central shot in the team's tactical system.

Now it is different. The Trail Blazers have reached the most dangerous moment. Gan Guoyang knows that it is time to take out his new weapon and make it appear.

"I really didn't expect that Gan actually made a mid-range jump shot. I think the Nuggets need to be careful next, which will definitely be a big test for their defense. Of course, we don't know if Gan scored the ball as a lucky ball." James Brown expressed concern about the Nuggets' defense.

At this time, for the Nuggets, it is more important to score a goal first. It doesn’t matter if the defense is not good. Poor offense is a fatal injury for the Nuggets.

The Trail Blazers have significantly increased their intensity in defense, and everyone's attention is highly concentrated. Valentine and Drexler on the outside are trying their best to suppress the Nuggets' passing line, making the opponent's passing unable to be so smooth.

Once the pass is not smooth, it will be difficult for the Nuggets players to quickly find a chance to take action after receiving the ball, so their offense begins to fall into a quagmire.

"The Nuggets still handed the ball to Inglish to deal with it. Inglish shook for a while, drifted past Van derwich, cut from the middle, Gan came forward to make up for defense, and Inglish passed the ball to Cooper on the ground, and Cooper made a layup... and was blocked by Gan! The ball was still in Cooper's hand, and Cooper shook twice, then made a layup... and Gan was suffocated again! Carl got the ball, and the Trail Blazers launched a counterattack."

Cooper cut in from the middle and received the pass from England at the basket. It was originally a very good layup opportunity. As a result, Gan Guoyang made up for defense in England and turned around and covered Cooper's layup. The speed was amazingly fast.

Cooper wanted to shake Gan Guoyang away for the second time, but Gan Guoyang didn't sway at all. Seeing that the attack time was about to come, Cooper had to force it to go again, but as before, he was slapped by Gan Guoyang again.

The Trail Blazers launched a counterattack, Valentine carried the ball forward, and Gan Guoyang and Drexler quickly inserted from the wing.

The Nuggets' defensive attention was all on Drexler because Drexler had already rushed into the three-second zone, and Gan Guoyang did run outside.

Valentine did not pass the ball to Drexler, but passed it to Gan Guoyang on the right.

Gan Guoyang received the ball at 45 degrees on the right, and Cooper was chasing him from behind.

Gan Guoyang glanced at Drexler who was about to rush to the basket and was about to pass the ball inward.

Cooper was deceived by Gan Guoyang and did not pounce on Gan Guoyang, but reached out to block Gan Guoyang's passing route.

But Gan Guoyang did not pass the ball at all. This was just a fake move by him. He put his hand back and held the ball in front of his chest, his feet together, and directly jumped and shot!

"Gan shot at a distance of 18 feet, very standard posture...the ball entered!"

"Swish!" The basketball drew a very high arc and finally entered the net hollow.

8:0, the Trail Blazers gave the Nuggets an 8:0 climax at the beginning. Gan Guoyang contributed 6 of them, and 4 of these six points came from mid-range shooting.

On the Nuggets' bench, Doug Mo had already stood up and made a pause gesture.
Chapter completed!