"At the start of the playoffs, no one believed we could make it to the end. Now, I guess the people of Los Angeles must be believers!"
Old Tang’s speech was very effective, greatly boosting the confidence of Portland fans.
On May 9th, the Rose Garden Arena hosted the first semifinal game between the Trail Blazers and the Supersonics.
That night, the tickets were once again sold out, with over two hundred temporary seats added on-site.
The frenzy of Portland fans provided strong psychological support to the Trail Blazers players.
In the regular season, many fans said, "Championship or not, it doesn’t matter as long as we can watch Ah Gan play."
But when it comes to the blood-and-steel playoffs, no one refuses victory and a championship.
The Supersonics feel the same.
After more than two years of rebuilding, the Supersonics have already completed their basic framework.
Their wild and energetic playing style stands out in the league, causing headaches for many strong teams.
Kemp, Payton, Rice, and McMillan — the core members of the Supersonics — are all very young.
They can sprint across the court, relentlessly switching defense, double-teaming, and fast-breaking, causing opponents to crumble in chaos.
In last year’s semifinal opener, they stole a victory from Portland with their astonishing defense.
Their SOS defensive system was already very mature; what was immature last season were the players.
They were eventually outplayed by the experienced and shrewd Trail Blazers through patient half-court offense.
Then they lost four straight games and were eliminated 1:4.
This season, the Supersonics’ players have become more mature.
They have the best stealing ability in the league on the defensive end — an average of 11.5 steals per game.
Correspondingly, they have the league’s best turnover-inducing ability — opponents average 18.5 turnovers per game.
These stats sufficiently illustrate their ferocity and aggression on defense.
The Supersonics are the team that uses switch defense the most on the defensive end, switching a lot in numerous possessions.
Their goal is to maintain the stability of their defensive formation, even if it means mismatches, big or small.
Payton, McMillan, Kemp, and others frequently engage in mismatch defense.
Small defending big and big defending small are routine matters; George Karl likes this chaos and disorder.
This is where Karl and Larry-Brown are entirely different.
It’s said that Brown uses a ruler during defense training to measure the distance between players, ensuring precise positioning.
In contrast, Karl often doesn’t practice defense but focuses on fitness, allowing players to switch whenever they meet an opponent during games, with no additional thought.
Nowadays, the Trail Blazers are not afraid of Brown’s meticulousness; the Princeton is precisely for accurate positioning.
The more obsessed they are with the completeness and accuracy of the formation, the more the Trail Blazers can tear apart the defense with passing according to the strategy.
Especially with a versatile all-rounder like Gan Guoyang, there’s no way for Larry-Brown’s tight formation to respond.
In contrast, facing a ’neurotic’ team like the Supersonics, who are ’mania’ patients, the Trail Blazers have to put in some effort, perhaps even encountering significant trouble.
Princeton, and similar passing and cutting systems, are centered around finding space through screens, movement, and backdoor plays.
High screens, wing screens, low hand-off passes, all utilize two-man screens to find space for movement, cutting, and shooting.
The Supersonics’ defense targets this kind of space, using stamina consumption and defensive mismatches as a cost, using extensive switching to block all gaps.
They don’t care about your height or build but will not hesitate to harass you, even destroy you.
In the regular season’s four encounters, the teams fought to a 2:2 tie.
Although the Trail Blazers gave up early in the last game, conceding a win to the Supersonics.
The Supersonics did win one hard-fought match in the Rose Garden Arena.
Enough to demonstrate that the Supersonics have the power to challenge the Trail Blazers.
George Karl is very confident in the team’s system and setup — this guy has always been confident.
In the pre-game interview, he said, "We are underestimated by many; we are very good. In terms of strength, we’re not inferior to the Trail Blazers; we will strive for victory with all our might."
Compared to the past, Karl is much more low-key, speaking steadily, without trying to provoke Ah Gan with words.
In the ’80s, he already suffered once; people should learn from their mistakes.
He put more energy into pre-game preparations.
The Supersonics are equally well-prepared, swearing to dethrone the champions.
The game between the Trail Blazers and the Supersonics started half an hour later than the Suns and Nuggets game.
Before going on the court, Gan Guoyang glanced at the TV and saw the Suns trailing the Nuggets by 5 points at the start of the fifth match.
He thought if Barkley lost the battle for the fifth game, it would be embarrassing.
The first team in history to be upset as an 8-seed, they would surely be laughed at for life.
No time to bother about Barkley, Gan Guoyang and his teammates focused on the first game of the semifinals.
The Trail Blazers’ starting lineup remained unchanged, with Gan Guoyang still in the power forward position.
Sabonis stood at the center circle for the jump ball.
And the Supersonics adopted a five-center lineup.
Standing at the center circle to jump against Sabonis was their power forward Kemp.
Their center position was also played by the power forward Sam Perkins.
During the midseason, the Supersonics finally couldn’t endure Bennett Benjamin anymore.
They traded him to the Lakers in exchange for Sam Perkins.
It was a great trade; Perkins brought experience and offense to the Supersonics’ inside.
After acquiring Perkins, the Supersonics immediately went on a 10-game winning streak.
This ultimately locked their regular-season record in third place in the Western Conference.
Of course, after the playoffs started, the Supersonics actually preferred to stay in fourth.