The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 2220: Chapter 32: Never Changed

If you’re in third place, the first round has to face the Spurs, and the Spurs are much harder to deal with than the Jazz.

They have Pau Gasol in the interior, and Billups, Ginobili on the perimeter, all tough guys.

The Trail Blazers and Spurs played six games in the first round, already tied 3:3 and going to game seven.

If Glory faces the Spurs, they’re likely to get through, but a 4:0 is unlikely.

Compared to the Spurs, the Jazz is too immature, lacking playoff experience, and their core Boozer is fully countered by Gan Guoyang, unable to perform half his level. No matter how the Jazz plays, it’s a sure lose situation.

So Glory confidently let their performance drop, even starting the series in Salt Lake City, just to let veterans like Gan Guoyang, Mutombo, and Holi rest more, without overexerting in the first round.

Salt Lake City and Las Vegas are very close; after finishing the fourth game, the entire Glory team stayed in Vegas waiting for the Warriors, minimizing their travel distance so far.

After resting for several days, on May 7th, the Western Conference playoff semifinals kicked off, with Golden State Warriors facing Glory at away.

After defeating the Mavericks, the Warriors were in extremely high spirits; they enjoyed championship-level treatment in Oakland and San Francisco, a remarkable achievement worth celebrating in Warriors history.

Entering the semifinals, the Warriors’ task for this season was considered complete; they were not expecting to win the championship.

Each subsequent win would be a bonus, especially facing the best in history, the Warriors were full of confidence.

Facing the Mavericks, the Warriors employed a highly successful defensive tactic, using strong wing players to rotate against Nowitzki.

Jackson, Harrington, Barnes and others attacked Nowitzki like a wolf pack, constantly hitting his base, engaging in physical confrontation, and disrupting his shooting and offensive rhythm.

Facing such defense, Nowitzki lost his footing; his ball handling, shooting, and face-up offense all had problems, unable to perform at normal efficiency.

He averaged only 19 points per game in the six-game series, far below the regular season’s 24 points, with only a 38% shooting rate, completely inadequate efficiency, suffering a double loss in both production and efficiency.

Furthermore, in the first-round games, Warriors’ Chinese player Yi Jianlian performed well; he did not join in the siege of Nowitzki, but guarded the basket and provided outside firepower in offense.

Though a substitute, his playing time wasn’t much, yet in the first, fourth, and sixth games, Yi Jianlian scored threes, highlighting the Mavericks’ defensive gaps.

This semifinals with Glory could be described as an internal battle of Chinese players, with three Chinese ball players playing for two different teams, making this series highly anticipated.

Before the game started, during the warm-up, Gan Guoyang went to the Warriors’ bench and teased Old Nelson: "Hey! Tang! For this series, how many points are you planning to limit me to?"

In the first round against the Jazz, Gan Guoyang averaged 31.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, demolishing the Jazz’s wing positions. Facing the Warriors, he’s curious about what tricks Old Don Nelson has.

Don Nelson chuckled dryly, truthfully admitting he didn’t know, as he hadn’t set any particular target for his players.

He knew facing Ah Gan, a mindset of accepting minimal losses was necessary; being too tense may result in losing one’s direction.

Judging from the first round, 42-year-old Ah Gan was in excellent condition, able to contribute a series average of 30 points, astonishingly strong.

Before the playoffs began, many doubted Ah Gan’s ability to make core-level contributions.

Entering the semifinals, many started to fear, wondering how much longer Ah Gan would continue to play, how much longer he would dominate the league.

This cloud and shadow had loomed over the league for too long, suffocating everyone.

Some experts suggested letting Ah Gan win another championship, retire satisfied, rather than continually stunting young players, hindering emerging stars—a bad phenomenon.

"Below 40 points, Sonny," Don Nelson conceded, casually stating below 40 points.

"Alright, seems your strategy will be quite successful," Gan Guoyang replied politely.

Their verbal sparring was simple; Nelson reminisced about replicating the miracle of defense and offense from the first round against Nowitzki and the Mavericks.

Defensively, trying to reduce Ah Gan’s efficiency, dragging Yao Ming, while offensively using speed, bombarding, aiming to exhaust the overall slower Glory.

As the match truly began, Don Nelson realized it wasn’t that simple.

Nelson’s defensive strategy was similar to the first round against Nowitzki: wing rotation, confrontation, and then sieging Gan Guoyang.

But Gan Guoyang’s situation was completely different from Nowitzki’s; Nelson assumed Gan Guoyang would mainly use mid-range shots; the defensive purpose was to suppress Gan Guoyang’s mid-range shooting efficiency, causing him to be less effective.

Unexpectedly, Gan Guoyang wouldn’t follow the expected path; he began breaking through with the ball facing the basket extensively, utilizing his strength advantage to push in, attacking the basket at close range.

Conversely, Yao Ming, positioned for front defense, moved outward, becoming artillery instead, receiving the ball and shooting from medium to long range.

After several seasons of adjustments and honing, Yao Ming’s mid to long-range shooting became reliable; coupled with his height, once he found his touch, he became a super artillery.

In the first quarter, Gan Guoyang altered his usual pattern of restraint in the first half and exertion in the second, quickly initiating attack mode, penetrating the interior for scoring and drawing fouls.

His goal was to scatter the Warriors’ wing group, preventing the wolf pack from drawing blood and entering a frenzied state, quickly starting to counter them.

Just like against the Jazz, Glory quickly established a 10-point lead.

However, the Warriors differed from the Jazz; their offensive firepower was more dispersed, faster, and better in chaotic battles.

This was completely different from the Jazz’s methodical play, so Glory indeed felt a bit uncomfortable facing the Warriors’ fierce and rapid counterattack.

In the latter part of the first quarter, the Warriors responded to Glory with an 11:2 run featuring three-pointers and fast breaks, narrowing the gap to 1 point.

Immediately, the Warriors brought on the second lineup, and during the second quarter transition, they quickly surged to take the lead!

This was something the Jazz couldn’t achieve in the first round; they couldn’t even lead in a certain stage of the game.

But when Gan Guoyang and Yao Ming returned to the game, they began using highly efficient half-court offensive play, gradually dismantling the Warriors’ offense and defense.

Gan Guoyang was simply pounding in the low post, while Yao Ming received the ball and shot from the high post, using their high-low cooperation as the axis; Allen Iverson moved without the ball, received and shot mode, Raja Bell lurked on the perimeter waiting for three-point opportunities, Gerald Wallace was the cutting ghost.

Glory used a very stable and efficient half-court offensive lineup to gradually pile up the score.

They tied, overtook, gradually widened the gap—Warriors’ offense fluctuated too much.

Baron Davis attempted to attack Iverson’s mismatch, Raja Bell promptly shored up.

Let Barnes shoot from outside; even with open shots, his accuracy wasn’t impressive.

At halftime, Glory led the Warriors by 7 points, not a big lead, but Don Nelson knew Ah Gan hadn’t fully unleashed, and a major hidden danger was already planted for the Warriors.

They committed too many fouls in the first half.

Jackson had three fouls, Harrington had three, Yi Jianlian had two, Barnes had two.

Half of these fouls were on Ah Gan, with Gan Guoyang maximizing his strong and experienced advantages.

The image of a mid-range shooting fanatic was completely different from the regular season; in this game, Gan Guoyang was very careful with mid-range shooting, absolutely avoiding wasted shots.

Only shooting when absolutely confident or in his hot zone; otherwise, always attacking the basket.

Eliminated Nowitzki watched Glory and Warriors’ first half at home, realizing the flaws in his approach against the Warriors.

From the beginning, he shouldn’t have relied on shooting as the ultimate weapon, repeatedly attempting in tight situations, trying to regain his touch. Without it, he lost his weapon.

A player’s real weapon is himself, his brain, his rational choices during confrontation, not relying on certain techniques.

But Nowitzki has a long, long way to go to truly reach this realm, a path filled with thorns, yet he decided to continue down it rather than taking a different route.

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