In the second quarter, Gan Guoyang's blow to Rasmusen was fatal. After this quarter, Nuggets head coach Doug Mo never replaced Rasmusen again, and the guy was beaten to no confidence.

In comparison, as a veteran, Wayne Cooper still failed to stop Gan Guoyang's continuous scoring on the court, and at least he could protect the inside line better. Unlike Rasmusen, his soul was knocked out.

"Gan asked for the ball at the low post again. Dunn stepped forward and double-teamed it. Gan passed the ball back to Corte. Corte broke through and threw the ball! He didn't make it, and Cooper got the rebound."

"The Blazers' offensive momentum has finally been delayed for a while. The Nuggets can take a breath and see if they can recover some of the scores. 15 points is a hurdle and must be bitten."

Before Cort missed his throw, the Trail Blazers had already scored a 11-2 climax, widening the score gap to 15 points, which was also the biggest score difference between the two sides in the first half.

Gan Guoyang is a big loophole that can never be filled for the Nuggets. Whether it is Cooper, Rasmusson or Shayce, Gan Guoyang is basically free to defend this game, and Doug Mo's on-the-spot reaction is a bit slow, so it is really too late to implement the double-team tactic.

"English played single with the ball on the right, turned the jump shot from the bottom line, and scored! This goal is so important to the Nuggets. They haven't scored for three minutes. It's really a rain in the desert."

For the Trail Blazers, Inglish is also a big loophole. Cort has double-teamed this goal in advance, but Inglish cleverly turned around at the bottom line, then jumped from a very small angle and hit a difficult goal.

But English scored one single with a desperate effort. He turned around and quickly got a pass from Gan Guoyang. He received a pass from Drexler. He quickly made a single with his back, turned over and hooked his hand, and hit two points!

"Solid positioning, solid top man, solid hooking, and back-on singles in fast attack reflect Gan's extremely solid low-post skills." Dick Stockton used several "goods" in a row to describe Gan Guoyang's attack. In the fast attack, few players would give up the opportunity to force layups to use back-on singles, because if they couldn't score, they were also likely to be double-teamed by the opponent or even cut the ball off.

The reason why Gan Guoyang played like this was because of his incredible confidence in his skills. His technical movements were completed in one go. Calvin Knight, who was misplaced to defend him, didn't even have the chance to jump and foul. He watched Gan Guoyang pressed him to hook him on his head and hit him.

After scoring the goal, Gan Guoyang curled his lips and made a helpless expression, as if saying, "Knight, you are too short."

However, Knight also has the advantage of being short, one inch long and one inch short and one inch short and one inch dangerous. The reason why Knight can be so strong in the NBA's interior is that he has his advantage, that is, all the magic weapons for short insiders - flexible steps and extremely long attack range.

"Knight went around to the middle to receive the ball, shot, a fake move, and broke through and made a layup. The ball entered, and he avoided Gan's block."

Knight is sometimes more like a small forward on the offensive end. He has the same shooting skills and breakthrough ability as a small forward, but at the same time his strength and confrontation ability are not comparable to ordinary small forwards.

It can be said that Knight is so deep that he is short inside, "the taller one is not as fast as me, and the fastest one is not as strong as me". In the second quarter, the Nuggets rely on England and Knight to barely maintain the gap within 15 points, and both sides entered the halftime break.

"Young guys did a good job, but we haven't played in the best form yet. I mean the Trail Blazers-style offense did not appear. Although we scored 65 points, the score was too concentrated. Gan scored 26 points by himself. Gan, I don't mind you getting 60 points in a game, but winning like this will be very tiring, and the role of other players is not just defense. We have to attack, pull away, take advantage of our 13-point advantage, tear the opponent's wounds into a bigger place in the third quarter, and let them bleed to death. The rhythm is under our control." Ramsey put down his harsh words during the break and asked the whole team to fire and beat the Nuggets to death.

The reason why Ramsey dared to say this is not only because of his confidence in the Trail Blazers, but also because of his understanding of the characteristics of the Nuggets.

Also as the coach of an offensive team, Ramsey knows deeply how difficult it is to chase points when a team that has always lacked high-intensity overall defensive ability is to fall behind in big scores. It just so happens that the Nuggets are such a team, and their high-pressure defensive ability is not even as good as the Trail Blazers.

So as long as the rhythm of the first half was not brought into the ditch by the Nuggets, Ramsey was confident that he would keep playing until the end of the game. After all, the ace in his hand was already more mature than last year.

Sure enough, as soon as the third quarter came up, the first three minutes of the second half decided, the Trail Blazers used a stormy attack to break through the Nuggets' defense line, and suddenly widened the score gap to 21 points. Now the Nuggets had to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the Nuggets could only maintain the 21-point gap, but could not catch up. Sure enough, it was too difficult for a team that had always lacked strong defense to complete a big reversal.

"The Trail Blazers' offense is steadily like the snow that never melts all year round on Mount Kilimanjaro. Whenever someone shoots photobullets, there are always people who can replace them. It is very difficult for the Nuggets to recover them." Dick Stockton commented on countless games and has seen many reversals. Stockton is still very clear whether a team can complete the reversal.

As time passed, the Trail Blazers had used ten players to rotate. At the end of the fourth quarter, even water dispensers like Ken Johnson were on the court. The Nuggets coach also replaced the main players one after another. After struggling for a quarter and a half, they finally chose to give up and save their hope for the next game.

When Gan Guoyang was replaced by Ramsey, warm applause came from the whole audience. The fans of the Memorial Stadium stood up one after another to cheer for Gan Guoyang's wonderful performance in this game. Gan Guoyang made 14 of 16 shots in the whole game, with a shooting percentage of 87%, scoring 31 points and 15 rebounds. He was undoubtedly the biggest contributor to the team's winning.

Drexler contributed quasi-triple double-digit data with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists. With Cort lacking organizational experience, Drexler took on more heavy responsibilities as the organizer in the offense.

The two guns Van derwich and Paxson played their role well - scoring. Whenever the Nuggets think of the situation, the two shots through the heart often hit the opponent.

When the game ended, the score was frozen at 127:110, and the Trail Blazers won the first semi-finals and got a good start.

……………………

The first two games of the Western Conference semi-finals had results, and the Eastern Conference also started a contest. The Boston Celtics, the number one in the Eastern Conference, used a steel-like defense in their first game against the Atlanta Hawks, especially in the critical third quarter, the Celtics beat the Hawks 34:17 and doubled the Hawks.

The Hawks scored more than 25 points in the first three quarters, and only scored 28 points in the fourth quarter of garbage time. Dominic Wilkins was unable to find the Celtics' defense. He made 4 of 15 shots in the game, and his shooting percentage was low and he scored only 13 points.

The Hawks, who defeated the Pistons before the start of the series, truly experienced the terror of the league's top team. There is no doubt that no one is optimistic about the Hawks being upset.

Another eye-catching showdown took place between the 76ers and the Bucks, and the grudges and revenge between the two teams can already be filmed a TV series.

Except for the 76ers who were unexpectedly eliminated by the Nets in the 1984 playoffs, they failed to enter the second round, from 1981 to 1985, the two teams met in the playoffs again and again, and the Bucks were beaten to pieces by the 76ers.

This time, Moses Malone was reimbursed for the season and was unable to participate in the playoffs, which can be said to be the best opportunity for the Bucks to take revenge.

However, the 76ers really restrained the Bucks in their style of play, and the psychological advantage of winning all four playoffs was too great. As a result, in the first game, at the Bucks' Nightmare Spectrum Arena, Charles Barkley made 12 of 19 shots and scored 31 points, and won 20 rebounds at the same time, and also sent 6 assists, 6 steals, and 2 blocks. He was a complete superstar performance.

Even though the Bucks performed well overall, they could not withstand Barkley's natural birth. They collapsed in the last quarter and were caught up by the 76ers and finally lost the game 112:118.

With this battle, Charles Barkley also beat Gan Guoyang, the Magician and Bird, and appeared on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. He allowed people to see the huge energy contained in the Under-size inside body.

However, the charm of the NBA playoffs is that you can never accurately predict the trend of the entire series before the game. Even if you play one or two games, the conclusions you get from observers are likely to be completely wrong.

Just after Houston lost his first game with the Lakers, most media and fans believed that the Lakers would successfully enter the division finals. The Rockets are too young to beat the Lakers who are at their peak in the playoffs.

On April 29, the Rockets slapped all experts with a head-on victory.

The Rockets' advantages in height and athletic ability finally really played a role. Rockets' coach Fitch was once the head coach of the Celtics. He has rich experience. He grasped the weakness of the Lakers' overall lineup aging, especially the aging of the inside. He attacked the inside on the offensive end, and made Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson crazy to make up for defense on the defensive end.

The Twin Towers went completely crazy in this game. Sampson scored 24 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 blocks, Olajuwon scored 22 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals and 6 blocks, hitting Old Jabbar so hard that he couldn't take care of himself. He was repeatedly pushed by the front and back covers on the offensive end, without any touch, and only 9 of them made 26 shots.

Relying on Magic Johnson's 19 assists, the Lakers were completely unable to beat the Rockets who were rampant in the inside. The Rockets killed the master with random punches and stole a victory at the Grand Western Forum 112:102, and they will see Houston in the next game.
Chapter completed!