The Golden Age of Basketball

The referee saw that Brown said nothing, so he walked away without intervening.

In the Rose Garden Arena, you still want to complain about Ah Gan, what a joke.

Gan Guoyang and Vandeweghe bumped fists and said, "You're still hanging out with the Clippers, buddy."

Vandeweghe said, "He'd better bench me as DNP because I don't want to play anyway."

"Are you preparing to retire?"

"After this season, probably soon. I've got everything I wanted, it's time to relax a bit."

Vandeweghe indeed had nothing more to ask for.

"Besides, without you, this lunatic, by my side, playing really becomes dull without any motivation."

In his seasons in New York, Vandeweghe didn't have many highlights.

Being beside Ewing, Cheche increasingly felt the gap between him and Ah Gan.

Not just in skills, but more in mental will and leadership character.

Ewing is tough, but his toughness seems more like rashness, and not true courage.

Moreover, Ewing often acted foolishly, saying inexplicable things that dampened morale, whether to teammates or the media.

He seemed to speak without thinking, which really hurt the feelings of teammates and fans.

In contrast, looking back on his Trail Blazers career, Vandeweghe couldn't help but sigh, as the whole team was tightly controlled by Ah Gan.

The game that night was quite intense.

Although Brown wasn't liked by the players, his coaching skills were still on point.

This year, under his complete guidance, the Clippers indeed displayed some strong team qualities.

With outstanding defense and attention to detail, the team's core consisted of Manning, Jackson, and Harper.

When playing against the Trail Blazers, it was competitive, at least not one-sided.

The Trail Blazers had a full lineup, but the main starters had played on and off for half a season, and the lack of synergy was evident.

Plus, Kossie was on bail pending trial and was suspended indefinitely, which weakened the Trail Blazers' strength.

However, Beelman made suitable adjustments to help the Trail Blazers maintain their performance.

In December, the Trail Blazers played well; their defensive efficiency slipped significantly, but their offense was maintained well.

The team's offense and defense focus shifted outward, with Porter, Lewis, and Petrović forming a backcourt triangle.

Gan Guoyang stood out alone on the inside, with Sabonis's playtime being controlled due to injuries.

In this game against the Clippers, Beelman used a starting lineup of Sabonis, Gan Guoyang, Lewis, Petrović, and Porter.

This lineup gave up the oppressive perimeter defense, pulled back the defense line, relying on rim protection and outside attacks to wear down the opponent.

Beelman didn't want to use up Sabonis's precious knees, nor did he want Gan Guoyang to spend the regular season doing extensive defense rotations, helping and switching on defense.

Lewis transitioned from being a defensive spearhead and offensive role player to a main offensive handler on the outside.

Petrović and Porter formed a double-barrel backcourt, providing extremely strong outside firepower.

Gan Guoyang played the role of a free agent in offense.

The team's Princeton System was fully mature.

In most regular time, Gan Guoyang became a part of the team offense.

In the past dozen games, his assists frequently reached double digits, having become an organizational master.

With Sabonis's coordination and screens, the Trail Blazers' offense was extremely flexible.

This compensated for the shortage of the bench, lack of combat power, and deterioration in details.

They relied on more scores to counter their opponents, using offensive efficiency to outdo the opponents, and also covered their issues with scoring.

Simply put, when the Trail Blazers scored more points than the opponent, the Trail Blazers won.

Involving calculations of offensive efficiency, Beelman, after repeated calculations, came to this strategy.

In short, it was a victory of mathematics.

Tonight, in the battle of spear and shield between the Trail Blazers and the Clippers, the Trail Blazers laughed last.

In the third quarter, Gan Guoyang, Porter, and Petrović joined forces to launch a 15:4 offensive surge.

They hit consecutive three-pointers on the break, rendering Larry Brown's proud half-court defense useless.

Moreover, Brown knew that Ah Gan hadn't even activated the hard drilling mode in positional play.

He was just cooperating with teammates on the perimeter, playing like a small forward.

Tonight his three-point touch was excellent, the Clippers had to send a tall guy to defend him.

Defensively, Ah Gan guarded the basket loyally, controlling all defensive rebounds.

Whenever the Clippers' shooting percentage dipped, Porter, Petrović, and Lewis would initiate fast breaks.

It can be said that this lineup and playstyle of the Trail Blazers was quite sly in logic.

They would lose games, have bad states, and stumble in certain matches.

The issue was that they played with minimal effort and were tactically impeccable.

The only way to defeat them was: direct conflict.

Shoot more accurately than the Trail Blazers, have fiercer match-up defense, suppress shooting percentage one-on-one.

Trying to gain an upper hand in forming tactics was impossible.

This was also why the Trail Blazers were terrifying:

For many seasons, due to the presence of Ah Gan, their margin of error was frighteningly high.

No matter what problems arose in roster structure, player age, injury, or health.

As long as adjustments were made around Ah Gan, they could quickly piece together a high-efficiency, handy makeshift lineup and system.

Without offensive resources, they'd shrink in, fight hard on defense, highlighting Ah Gan's one-on-one prowess.

With insufficient defensive resources, they'd open wide offensively, highlighting Ah Gan's versatility.

If there were more forwards, they'd build the team with forwards, using a three-towers approach, rough play, wave-like defense and crash the offensive rebounds.

If it was guard-centered, they'd build the team with centers and guards, inside-out, Princeton, fast breaks, and surround shooting with threes.

Come 1993, this characteristic of the Trail Blazers remained unchanged.

And because Ah Gan became more versatile, their variations increased.

Brown attempted to adjust the lineup and keep up with the Trail Blazers.

However, after gaining a leading advantage, the Trail Blazers' offense became increasingly relaxed.

Gan Guoyang started to exert force in the fourth quarter, continuously hitting mid-range shots.

This guy began to seal the victory.

Brown tried to struggle, instructing players during a timeout to commit fouls aggressively.

Yet the Clippers players didn't listen to Brown at all.

Aggressive fouls? Are you crazy, Larry?

If it was in Los Angeles, it might be something to consider.

This is Portland; you want us to foul Ah Gan aggressively?

Why don't you go and shout aggressively at Ah Gan yourself?

It's just a regular season game, why go all out.

The Clippers inherently lacked a tough team culture.

And there was no grudge with the Trail Blazers.

If there was, it was between Sterling and Ah Gan.

The bosses' issues had nothing to do with the players.

So, Brown's words were basically wasted.

The Clippers players finished the fourth quarter normally.

The Trail Blazers won at home 119:107, defeating the Clippers by 12 points.

They secured their first victory of the new year.

After the game, Larry Brown stormed off.

Without shaking hands with Beelman, he left the court with his head down.

Shortly after this game ended, Brown internally submitted his resignation to the Clippers' management.

He said he would leave after this season.

The Clippers initially agreed but later tried to retain him, offering Brown a long-term contract.

Yet Brown was determined to leave, knowing he couldn't achieve much here.

In the following games, the Trail Blazers both won and lost.

The games they lost were often due to poor outside shooting and offensive slumps.

Once their offense weakened, they struggled to lift their defense, easily falling into disadvantage.

In the games they won, their offense flowed smoothly, and opponents found it hard to resist the highly talented offensive lineup of the Trail Blazers.

They began to turn into a team mainly focused on offense, with defense slightly lagging behind.

Of course, this was just the regular season, and things would certainly differ in the playoffs.

In January, the Trail Blazers achieved an 8-4 record, which was still passable.

By February, as the All-Star game approached, voting for it was in full swing.

Gan Guoyang and Jordan were still leading the voting charts by far.

The two were impeccable whether in stats, team performance, or individual display.

However, the NBA always needed new faces, new idols, and new heroes.

Especially in the great position of center, the topics about giants were never-ending.

On February 7th, just before the All-Star game, the Orlando Magic was set to challenge the Phoenix Suns on the road.

Rookie Shaquille O'Neal tore the Suns' home basket completely apart with his immense power during the game.

This terrifying strength and huge frame shocked NBA fans, as another monster had descended into the league.

Moreover, from a physical standpoint, he was even more daunting than Ah Gan.

People began to look forward to their first encounter during the Trail Blazers' Southeast road trip on February 11th.

The showdown between the new and old kings of power was incredibly anticipated.