Needless to say, the Trail Blazers' status is coming. After January, they continued to make great strides in the league. After winning the Lakers, they used a 11-game winning streak to shake the whole of the United States. During the Trail Blazers' 17-game winning streak, the topic of "Who can end the Trail Blazers" will be brought out to discuss again. Now everyone is waiting for the Trail Blazers' second defeat.

Originally, people thought that the Lakers could block the Trail Blazers' footsteps at home, but they didn't know that the Lakers were crushed into pieces of paper without doing too much resistance. Others naturally didn't know what Riley was thinking, and they felt that the Lakers might really have no way to compete with the Trail Blazers.

However, even the strongest team will have ups and downs. As the season gradually deepens, fatigue, injuries, burnout and other problems will appear one by one. At the same time, the Trail Blazers, who have become the target of public criticism, have also become the research object of various teams. The coaching teams of all teams are carefully studying the Trail Blazers' tactics and rotation characteristics, and try to use various methods to deal with the Trail Blazers.

The first to find a breakthrough was the Sacramento Kings. Before January 6, the Kings had already fought with the Trail Blazers twice. The Kings, who lacked the inside strength, lost twice and basically had no room for resistance. Their starting center was Jim Peterson, who was once the substitute of Olajuwon in the Houston Rockets.

This 6-foot-10-tall white man basically becomes a white dough when he meets Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang can pinch whatever he wants. Such a player focuses on the inside, and of course the King can't stop the Trail Blazers.

Then on January 6th, the Kings went to challenge the Trail Blazers away, but almost overturned the Trail Blazers to the ground in the Memorial Stadium.

The Kings made sufficient preparations and targeted arrangements before the game. First, they launched the most tight attack on Gan Guoyang on the defensive end.

Gan Guoyang is not so afraid of pinch attacks now. First, although his assists are average, the speed and experience of transferring the ball are already very good. It is not so easy for the opponent to rely on pinch attacks to disrupt Gan Guoyang's rhythm; second, as long as Sabonis is present, the attack range of Gan Guoyang's activity will be expanded, which makes it more difficult for the opponent to attack Gan Guoyang.

However, even the most powerful star with his personal ability will definitely suffer in one-on-two situations, not to mention one-on-three. The king launched a cruel three-man attack on Gan Guoyang.

In addition to Jim Peterson, there is also a former Rockets player in the Kings, that is McGray. After the Rockets' double tower collapsed, he was also replaced by the Kings in a deal with Peterson. He was a strong figure as the starting small forward and caused a lot of trouble to the Trail Blazers in the battle between the Rockets and the Trail Blazers. His quick attack gave Gan Guoyang a very headache.

In addition, there is also a future Rockets player in the Kings' starting lineup, which is their point guard Kenny Smith, a cunning, experienced outside player with weird shooting stances.

Peterson, McGrey, and Smith, three players who are more or less related to the Rockets formed a double-team group to launch a crazy attack on Gan Guoyang. Since Gan Guoyang asked for the ball in the inside, Smith was ready to move towards Gan Guoyang. McGrey was also ready at all times. Once Gan Guoyang received the ball, the two would rush forward to double-team without hesitation. No matter how strong Gan Guoyang's personal ability and fast speed, it would be impossible for him to crack the targeted three-person double-team, and he could only pass the ball out.

There was also an old fried dough stick Danny Anji sitting on the bench of the King. He also had a lot of experience in dealing with Gan Guoyang. He was not very good at harassing and attacking, and his outside shots were as accurate as ever.

The King's move is obviously on the brink of illegal defense, and the Trail Blazers are one of the promoters of this kind of defense that has become popular in the league. Now Gan Guoyang is also beginning to suffer from this kind of defense.

Double-match Gan Guoyang is obviously not enough, because other Trail Blazers players have got more scoring opportunities. Drexler, in good shape, has been restrained by Gan Guoyang in this game. He is so eager to get it on the outside and inside, but no matter how he scores, the Kings have always firmly double-match Gan Guoyang and not relaxed.

At the same time, on the offensive end, the Kings also came up with one of their sharp weapons in this game - a three-pointer.

The Trail Blazers' defense is very distinctive. The players' calls and support are very in place. In addition, the frontcourt players' single defense ability is extremely strong. Under the training of Bellman, the players on the court can immediately change their defensive posture with just a few simple actions and slogans. At the same time, as the defensive core of this team, Gan Guoyang provides extremely stable backcourt rebound protection and free throw line, and quickly assist in defense near the three-second zone.

When the Kings did not have a strong offensive point in the interior, and the opponent blocked the space inside and did a good job of blocking the space inside, the three-pointer became their best choice. The widening of the large space weakened the echo connection between the Trail Blazers players. After many runs, the gap was easily pulled out. The key was that the Kings' three-pointers were surprisingly accurate in this game.

Last season, the entire league team averaged only 1.6 three-pointers, less than two. However, in this game, Kenny Smith and their shooting guard Rick Berry showed superb shooting skills. Berry made 3 of 3 three-pointers, with a 100% shooting percentage. The Kings made 6 three-pointers, with a shooting percentage of up to 50%.

These six three-pointers are not as simple as scoring 18 points. The opponent's outside opening forced the Trail Blazers to change their defensive formations and change to man-to-man defense, which gave the Kings a better offensive opportunity.

In this game, the Trail Blazers were tactical for the first time, while the Kings relied on their full preparation and extraordinary performance to get into a difficult battle with the Trail Blazers away. The scores of both sides continued to tie, and they played all the way to overtime, and the overtime tied again to the second overtime.

In the second overtime, Drexler, who scored 50 points in the game, had exhausted his energy, but his opponent's physical strength had been overdrawn. At this time, Gan Guoyang, who was bothered by double-teams, finally got the chance to break through the shackles. He scored 9 points in the second overtime and hit the key hook, making a final decision, and finally helped the Trail Blazers secure the victory. In the end, the Trail Blazers fought hard in double overtime at home, defeating the Kings 145:142 and achieving 12 consecutive victories.

In this game, Drexler scored a season-high 50 points, but his performance in the backcourt defense was disappointing, and he was shot through by the Kings' shooter; while Gan Guoyang still scored 27 points under the Kings' strict defense, while continuing to be efficient and stable in the protection of rebounds, scoring 15 rebounds.

But the Trail Blazers' defense was not good tonight. Gan Guoyang was blocked on the offensive end alone, and the defense end was like a tinkerer on the broken boat. If it was made up for the leak here, Gan Guoyang was even more out of reach on the outside.

………………………………………

Although the Trail Blazers won this game, the Sacramento Kings showed all NBA teams a good way to deal with the Trail Blazers: lock Gan Guoyang in defense and shoot long shots in offense.

Of course, this method was not just thought of by the King. Double-teaming Gan Guoyang is a consensus in the face of the Trail Blazers, but double-teaming like the Kings tonight is so thorough and lasting for so long, and it is quite rare to let Drexler score 50 points. This also reflects from the side how important Gan Guoyang's tactical position is in the Trail Blazers. This is different from Gan Guoyang, who has a single scoring method in the previous few seasons. Now his rich and diverse offensive methods are a weapon to destroy the opponent's defense.

Strengthening long shots can be considered as the Kings' feel tonight. Other teams cannot always have such a good three-pointer feel, but reducing the inside entanglement, not fighting head-on with the Trail Blazers' thick frontcourt, and using more middle distance and three-pointers to deal with the Trail Blazers has become a consensus among all teams.

In general, through this game, the Sacramento Kings sounded the clarion call for the entire league to encircle the Trail Blazers. Based on the first two guidelines, each team has used its own restraint tactics to cause trouble for the Trail Blazers.

On January 7 and January 10, the Trail Blazers played against the Seattle Supersonics for two consecutive games. The Supersonics inherited the Kings' experience and shot wild three-pointers in the game against the Trail Blazers. They made 19 three-pointers in the first game, but their shooting percentage was poor and they were wiped out by the Trail Blazers at home.

Then came to Portland, and the Supersonics once again made 11 three-pointers from the outside and hit 7 goals! Supersonics substitute, "X-man" McDaniel made a substitute for 28 minutes, and made 14 shots and 12 shots and 29 points. Buck Williams had no choice but to be in front of him and was old.

In the end, the Supersonics gave the Trail Blazers the second defeat of the season. Their experience was to get three points away. At the same time, someone had to come out to disrupt the situation and give the Trail Blazers a blow at mid-range.

On January 17, the Utah Jazz once again hit the Trail Blazers in the Memorial Stadium. The Jazz's new coach Jerry Sloan let Karl Malone and John Stockton use all the tricks in defense. Malone played against Sabonis, making Sabonis appear for the first six-foul in his career. Sloan made Stock fight against Drexler often, and the small moves made Drexler unbeatable, with 5 of 15 shots in the game.

For the remaining three, Sloan asked small forward Jaffaroni to keep a close eye on Gan Guoyang, Mark Eaton was ready to defend at any time, and Darrell Griffin was pure cannon fodder. He went up and fouled against Gan Guoyang, destroying Gan Guoyang's offensive rhythm.

At the same time, Bailey stood up on the Jazz's bench, and the 6-foot-11 sixth man also became the disruptor. He used the Trail Blazers' rotation to play and scored points. He made two three-pointers and scored 23 points, helping the Jazz give the Trail Blazers third defeat.

In the remaining games in January, the Trail Blazers suddenly found that their opponents seemed to have become stronger. Every game was extremely difficult. The situation of solving the opponent in three quarters never happened again. Every time the stalemate reached the last moment, it was up to the team's superstars to deal with it. The team's loss number also changed from 1 to 5, which means that the Trail Blazers lost 5 games in January alone.
Chapter completed!