At the end of the first half, Gan Guoyang’s three-pointer gave the entire Trail Blazers team a massive boost in morale.
Tonight is destined to be a tough battle, a struggle in the mud, with the final score possibly coming down to a 1 to 2 point difference. Every basket will be extremely precious.
The significance of this shot is not just three points, not just overtaking the Bulls for a psychological advantage, but more so the encouragement from the team’s new system rapidly becoming ingrained in every player’s core.
Sabonis’s dribble drive, cornering, and swift wide-range passing at the 45-degree angle disrupted the Bulls’ dense defense, ultimately creating an excellent shooting opportunity for Ah Gan.
In the past, it was always Gan Guoyang using his defensive attraction to create opportunities for teammates. Now, teammates can also create opportunities for Gan Guoyang through spacing and passing.
So, this is a very meaningful scoring collaboration, and it will be included in the Trail Blazers’ classic scoring highlights, becoming one of Gan Guoyang’s career classic goals.
Of course, the Chicago Bulls will not give up resistance because of a three-pointer, and both sides remain evenly matched.
Throughout the first half, the Bulls did a very good job of containing Gan Guoyang.
In the many years to come, a strong, steal-capable perimeter defender and a sufficiently heavy, mobile inside brawler became the standard configuration to counter Gan Guoyang’s outside attacks.
Without such a configuration, trying to lower Gan Guoyang’s offensive efficiency and contain his assault is basically a fairy tale, with hopes only pinned on his inaccuracy from the outside.
Jordan’s defense tonight is indeed outstanding. His harassment ability is stronger than Pippen’s, forcing Gan Guoyang to tread carefully, leaving him unable to focus more on offense while dribbling and having to concentrate on ball protection.
When a ball-handler devotes most of their energy to ball protection, offensive organization is basically ruined.
Although the game is low-scoring with frequent bricks, and somewhat ugly, it lacks nothing in excitement.
At the halftime break, Jordan told all his teammates in the locker room: "I’ll keep my eyes on Ah Gan in the second half. You guys take care of everyone else! I’ll do my job, you do yours, everyone stick to their roles, don’t think about the championship, don’t think about tomorrow, we only have today, just today, dedicate everything we have to this battle, regardless of the outcome, this is what I and we can do!"
Jordan’s rare eloquent speech in the locker room motivated the entire Bulls team.
No matter how much of a bastard Michael is off the court or how annoying he can be, he is impeccable on the court.
Ah Gan is indeed powerful, a giant of fear and loathing, but Michael has never backed down.
Even when losing, Jordan falls fighting, never allowing himself to fear, collapse, or eventually fall.
"Our journey has been long, so very long, so magical, so invigorating, we’ve almost reached the end. Should we fall here? Can’t we win even one away game? No, this is not what we want, everyone knows this isn’t it."
"No matter what system the Portland people are playing, no matter what breakthrough Ah Gan has made, he’s human. He will make mistakes, miss shots, lose games. We’re playing the same game, called basketball, and no one in this league knows better than us how to win basketball games! Let’s do this, guys! Let’s do it!"
Jordan grew more excited as he spoke; he didn’t want to fall here, didn’t want to lose to Ah Gan once more.
Win this game, go back to Chicago, and the championship will belong to the Bulls.
The Bulls, with high morale, returned to the noisy Rose Garden Arena, and both sides began the decisive battle of the third quarter.
Phil Jackson was far more clear-headed than he was at the start, knowing that at this time, setting up any nonsense tactics was useless.
Defense, except for Ah Gan, one-on-one marking, all out.
Offense, give the ball to Jordan. Even if he was only 3 for 11 in the first half, the ball should still go to Jordan.
In this year’s Chicago Bulls playoff games, Jordan mostly played low-key.
On offense, he looked like an ordinary shooting guard, running, receiving the ball, and taking jump shots.
Occasionally showing brilliance by rushing the basket to score, or highlighting his dunks during fast breaks.
So in many games, Jordan looked mediocre, but looking at the stats, he still scored 30 points.
In such games, the Bulls would comfortably crush their opponents, dominating from start to finish, and could widen the gap with a slight effort.
Once a game sees Jordan with numerous spectacular baskets, lots of drives to the basket, many free throws, and intense contested layups, slam dunks, and air suspensions, it indicates a tough match for the Bulls.
In such games, looking at the numbers, Jordan has many attempts, a not-so-high shooting percentage, scoring 40 or even 50 points, and the Bulls win with difficulty.
Indicating that the other members of the Bulls can’t deliver, forcing Jordan to step up and solve problems with personal offense.
Jackson realized it’s time for Michael Jordan to solve the problems now.
Great minds think alike, Bobby Berman thought the same.
The Portland Trail Blazers have also reached the time for Gan Guoyang to solve the issues.
At the start of the third quarter, Jordan positioned himself in the right 45-degree area against Reggie Lewis.
Pippen passed the ball to Jordan, who caught it, turned, and smoothly released a fade-away jumper.