In the first quarter, both sides had quite high shooting efficiency.
The Trail Blazers had the upper hand, and Gan Guoyang quietly scored 16 points.
Saying quietly, because most of Gan Guoyang’s points came from shooting after catching the ball.
Only once in a one-on-one play did he use a hook shot to bully Barkley.
Such scoring efficiency makes the Suns uneasy.
Barkley scored 6 points, had 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in the first quarter.
His playing style was the same as in the first match, choosing attacks selectively.
Most of the time, he organized, passed to teammates, and created opportunities.
Barkley didn’t impulsively go head-to-head with Ah Gan in offense.
He knew that in terms of offensive efficiency, he couldn’t compete with Ah Gan.
In the entire league, only Michael Jordan can challenge Ah Gan in high-efficiency shooting.
If Barkley lost his head and insisted on holding the ball and blasting against Ah Gan, the result would definitely be the Suns losing by a bigger margin.
At the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers led the Suns by 6 points, 36:30.
Scoring 36 points in a single quarter is quite terrifying offensive power, and Gan Guoyang was resting in the last minute.
Regarding this trump card, Beelman became increasingly cautious in its use.
He didn’t want the Suns to force another foul on Gan Guoyang in the final moments of the first quarter.
With two fouls on his back, Gan Guoyang would be in trouble; he carries such a heavy burden.
In the critical stage of the playoffs, Beelman subbed in veteran Wayne Cooper.
Experience at this time is very important, PJ Brown and Davis are still a bit tender.
Cooper really guarded the last minute, not letting the Suns further reduce the point gap.
A 6-point lead gives the Trail Blazers some room for error.
During the break, Calvin continuously massaged Porter’s calf to make him more comfortable.
Tonight, Beelman needs to control Porter’s playing time to around 20 minutes.
Although the second game is crucial, the series may need to go seven games; players’ health must be considered.
Porter can be absent against the Supersonics, but if he misses the game against the Suns again, the situation would be very critical.
Especially with the finals after the Suns, not expecting Porter to heal, at least shouldn’t worsen.
At the start of the second quarter, Porter continued to rest on the bench, and Beelman replaced him with Curry and veteran Bernard King.
Beelman’s requirement for veterans like Cooper and King, who are 35 years old, is just to hold for one to two minutes, just transition.
On the Suns’ side, John Salley was subbed in, receiving a pass from Sebalos in the lane for a layup but missing.
Cooper interfered desperately, pushing the ball out of bounds, still the Suns’ possession.
A brief clash between the second backup units, unrelated to tactics or strategy, focused purely on players’ on-the-spot performances and willpower.
The Suns are younger, with no veterans over 35 on their team, and Kurt Rambis already retired.
Besides Salley, the Suns’ interior also features Oliver Miller, a 22-year-old rookie with a height of 6 feet 9 but an astonishing 7-foot-7 wingspan.
What is the concept of 7-foot-7? It’s 2 meters 31, the same height as the NBA’s tallest player, Manute Bol; such a physical attribute is jaw-dropping.
However, Oliver Miller faces a predicament similar to the team’s leader Charles Barkley in the past: He eats too much, growing too fat.
In college, people speculated that his weight should be between 280 pounds and 335 pounds, which is terrifying for a 6-foot-9 player.
And for an interior player like Oliver Miller, who is short and very fat, the reason he attracted college and NBA attention is largely thanks to Barkley.
Barkley’s success made college coaches and NBA managers wonder upon encountering such heavyweights, "Could this be the next Charles Barkley?"
Previously, this type of short stout interior player often got eliminated during the transition from high school to college—Ah Gan’s bodyguard Quentin Stephens was one; if he had waited a bit for Barkley’s rise before playing, perhaps he’d have had better treatment, entering better colleges and maybe even breaking into the NBA.
In his rookie season, Oliver Miller controlled his weight and became an important interior substitute for the Suns in the playoffs.
He performed significantly better in the playoffs than in the regular season, his scoring increased, and leveraging his wingspan, he contributed an average of a team-high 2.5 blocks, as well as 5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
All major stats have risen comprehensively, a true little Barkley, together with Richard Dumass, became an undeniable force on the Suns’ bench.
After Salley’s ball was disrupted, the Suns attacked the lane again, Oliver Miller received the ball, turned, pushed away Wayne Cooper, and scored with a left-hand layup!
Seeing the Suns’ young players perform vividly in this game, NBC TV Station’s commentary criticized, arguing Beelman was too conservative in his player usage.
"Westphal can use rookies like Oliver Miller and Richard Dumass and uses them well. Beelman dares to use only Wayne Cooper and Bernard King; they’re leaving NBA after this season, truly new sending off the old."
This year indeed is the last season for Cooper and Bernard King, Beelman truly showed his conservative side.
But he is not really a completely conservative person; he is just very conflicted, trying to maintain the advantage steadily.
But once the situation reached a truly urgent, turn-around moment, Beelman would make a gamble, revealing his gambler’s mindset.
However, this happens rarely in Beelman’s coaching career because he has Ah Gan as a safety valve.