With full of doubts, Gan Guoyang returned to Portland as soon as possible. The Trail Blazers will play against the Los Angeles Lakers at home in the evening.

The Lakers' situation this season is not so ideal. Half a season later, they cut McAdu in the offseason and got Morris Lucas's move now seems not as good as on the books.

Lucas himself has no problem with his performance. He can contribute almost 10 points and 7 rebounds per game. As a substitute insider, he is excellent enough.

But the problem is that he is too old. He has been fighting on the court for 15 years when he entered the league in 1974. On the offensive end, he can rely on his experience and talent to contribute to the Lakers. However, on the defensive end, he and Kareem, who is older than him, really have difficulty guarding the team's three-second zone.

This also puts the Lakers' outside pressure on the outside. When they face teams with strong inside power like the Rockets and Trail Blazers, if Jabbar cannot cause enough trouble to the opponent's young inside on the offensive end, the trouble will return to the Lakers.

Jabbar still has the ability to score 40 points in a single game, but at the age of 38, he has to save some oil in the fuel tank.

What's worse is that on January 22, the Magic was injured in the battle with the Celtics in Boston Garden Plaza, and the Lakers were also swallowed by the flames of revenge from the Celtics away, and they were defeated 95:110 and returned.

Immediately afterward, they lost to their city brother Los Angeles Clippers, and the Western Conference's strong rival Denver Nuggets, suffered the longest three-game losing streak, and their first losing streak this season.

In this game against the Trail Blazers, Magic Johnson still failed to return to the team, and the Lakers faced the danger of four consecutive losses in the face of the powerful emerging team that has risen this season.

However, the fatigue of the Trail Blazers running continuously gave the Lakers a chance, because this game was the third game in four days for the Trail Blazers, and they were not played in one place, but changed to three venues.

Therefore, the entire Trail Blazers team was not in shape at the beginning of the game. They were still comparable in the first quarter. They were directly beaten by the Lakers 33:18 in the second quarter, and they were 15 points behind.

"Four days and three games, two away games and two home games. More importantly, they have played 50 games so far and are still ranked first in the West. Do you know how many games the team in the East has played? 41 games! There are 9 games missing, so I really don't know how the league arranges the schedule."

During the game, watching the Trail Blazers beating by the Lakers without Magic, the commentator on the sidelines began to constantly complain about the league's schedule. He believed that such an arrangement was too much to take care of senior teams like the Celtics and was unfair to the Trail Blazers.

But this cannot change the situation where the Trail Blazers are at a disadvantage on the court. Even Gan Guoyang is a little overwhelmed and hastily been running around for a long distance. Even an iron man like him can't stand it. Who told him to go to Notre Dame University to watch the game?

However, the Lakers were in high spirits. Jabbar faced Gan Guoyang who was not in shape, scored 25 points on 11 of 22 shots, while Michael Cooper took over the Magician's gun and acted as a point guard, and gave the highest 12 assists in the game.

Morris Lucas, the Trail Blazers' veteran, was not polite to face the old owner, and came on as a substitute for 20 minutes, and scored 14 points efficiently from 5 of 7 shots.

In the end, the Lakers also beat the Portland Trail Blazers with a 118:95 away game with 23 points. While ending their three-game losing streak, they also avenged the last game of being defeated by the defense at home.

After the game, the mood in the Trail Blazers was not too depressed. It was reasonable to lose this game. In the fourth quarter, Ramsey also replaced all the main players and rested. The whole team should have a good rest.

Fortunately for the Trail Blazers players, a long holiday is coming soon, which is the All-Star Game to be played in Dallas on February 9.

In addition to Gan Guoyang and Drexler, the two are among the top in the All-Star voting, and will serve as the starting center and starting shooting guard for the Western Conference All-Stars respectively.

Drexler originally wanted to continue participating in the dunk contest, but was dissuaded by "military advisor" Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang said, "You should not be called a dunk player, you should become an all-round player." Drexler believed the reason for his high-sounding reputation.

In fact, the main reason is that Gan Guoyang really has no more creativity in his mind. Drexler can't do some creative ideas. He is afraid that Drexler will be embarrassed if he goes back this time.

Moreover, Gan Guoyang didn’t know who won the championship of the 1986 Dunk Contest in history. Anyway, it was definitely not Drexler. It would be less to destroy history.

A few days before the All-Star Game, February, Ramsey gave the players a day off, allowing them to rest and adjust their condition. Then in the first game in February, the Trail Blazers, the Lakers' Lakers' city brother, took the action, sweeping away the opponent at a huge gap of 156:115 and 41 points at home.

Gan Guoyang scored 33 points, 21 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 blocks in the game. He only played in three quarters. Three of the other players scored 20 points, and all 11 players on the court scored points, which was a feast.

The poor Clippers were going to be crushed by the noble Lakers in Los Angeles, and they had to help the Lakers pay off their debts when they arrived in Portland. It was so miserable.

Afterward, the Trail Blazers went to Denver and fought with their old rival Nuggets.

Alex Inglish was unstoppable, making a big hole in the Blazers' forward line, scoring 42 points, and once again sounded the alarm for the Blazers' wing defense.

However, the Nuggets' inside line could not resist Gan Guoyang's outbreak. He scored 45 points against the short Nuggets' inside line for the fifth single game this season.

The two teams fought until the last moment. Van dervic, who still performed poorly on the defensive end in this game, made a key shot at the last moment, and let the Trail Blazers take the lead with 120:119 with 5 seconds left in the game.

Immediately afterwards, Gan Guoyang staged a defensive finale again. He accurately judged the Nuggets' passing route, double-teamed Inglish in advance, blocked Inglish's last shot, and hugged the Trail Blazers for a precious victory.

Of course, luck is not always on the side of the Trail Blazers. Two days later, on February 6, also facing the Dallas Mavericks, the old opponent in the playoffs last season, the Trail Blazers were not so lucky in the last moment.

The Trail Blazers, who originally led their opponent by 2 points at 109:107, made a fatal mistake when serving the backcourt ball. Blackman intercepted the ball successfully. Blackman made a layup and caused Kenny Carr to foul. Two-pointer scored and extra free throws were required.

After Blackman made the free throw, the Mavericks overtook the key attack. Gan Guoyang missed the hook and the rebound was also grabbed by the Mavericks. The Trail Blazers could only adopt foul tactics, while the Mavericks' players withstood the pressure and hit all the free throws.

At that time, the players' three-point shooting level was still very low. At the critical moment, the lack of three-pointers was really slow and like a snail. In the end, the Trail Blazers failed to make up for the mistake they made. The gap between 111:115 and 4 points at home lost the last game before the All-Star game.

However, even in this defeat, the Trail Blazers ranked first in the Western Conference with a record of 42 wins and 11 losses, second only to the Boston Celtics, and they played 9 more games than the Celtics.

After the game, the Trail Blazers did not disband on the spot for the holiday. At Gan Guoyang's strong request, the whole team gathered for a whole day of high-intensity training the next day. In Gan Guoyang's words, such training can allow us to recover from a relaxed state faster after the holiday.

In fact, this is also considered as Gan Guoyang and his entire team to punish the low-level mistakes they made in the game, because the competition in the league will be more intense after the All-Star League.

The Blazers' lineup is basically stable. The continuous victory has temporarily dispelled Inman's plan to make big deals and remained at ease with this lineup with too strong offensive power until the end of the season.

The training lasted for a long time, and the main team and the substitute team had a fierce confrontation. Since the game just finished yesterday, the main team's physical strength was not as strong as the substitute team, and instead was suppressed by the substitute team.

There is no time or round limit for the two sides to fight. They have been playing from 2 pm to 6 pm. The scoreboards of both sides have already crossed the triple digits, and both sides are still continuing.

In fact, when the game ends, it basically depends on when Gan Guoyang doesn't want to play anymore. The old man Ramsey has already gone back to the office to have coffee, so he doesn't care about the competition.

When Gan Guoyang doesn't want to play, it must be when the main team is leading a lot. Once both sides are anxious or the substitute team leads, Gan Guoyang will never stop, and the others can only follow him and continue to play.

For this reason, Bellman, who flipped the scoreboard on the sidelines, finally couldn't stand it anymore because there were too many points on both sides, and no one could remember it later, so Bellman began to tamper with the scoreboard. The substitute scored two points and he calculated one point, and the main team scored two points, and he calculated three points. He played until half past six. When the main team finally led the substitute team with 12 points with 515:503, Gan Guoyang announced the end of the game and threw the ball to indicate that he didn't want to play anymore.

At this time, everyone was so tired that they were not as good as they were, but no one complained that since the team played such a long-term marathon-like confrontation this season, the players' competitive state has generally improved and their ability to compete on the field has also been enhanced.

But today it was a bit long, and Paxson sat down on the ground.

"Hey, Gan, how do you think I'm going to participate in the three-point competition?" When Gan Guoyang passed by Parkson, Parkson asked, patting Gan Guoyang's leg.

"Three-point contest?"

"Yes, this year the All-Stars has set up a new three-point competition event, which corresponds to the dunk competition. What do you think I will participate? I scored a lot of three-pointers today, and I feel good."
Chapter completed!