Furthermore, Bernard King isn’t as useless as some commentators think, as if he’s completely washed up and ineffective.
The defensive pressure from the Suns isn’t too high for King, so after he catches the ball on the wing, he uses a fake move to shake off his defender.
He drives to the basket at a not-so-fast pace, abruptly stops and makes a floater, scoring 2 points!
In the playoffs, scoring a basket during the short time on the court is already mission accomplished for a substitute player.
Immediately after, Oliver Miller, facilitating from a high position, passes a beautiful straight-through pass to the basket.
But the receiving guard, Frank Johnson, was a beat slow. He didn’t immediately go for a layup, opting to dribble and adjust.
As a result, when he went for the layup again, he was blocked by Wayne Cooper, and the Trail Blazers regained possession.
Frank Johnson stands 6 feet 1, the same height as Kevin Johnson, and they even share a certain similarity in looks.
People often ask if they are related, but they are not.
Frank is a veteran through and through, the oldest player on the Suns, having entered the league in 1981.
He was once a teammate with Charles Barkley on the Washington Bullets and in 1988 followed the team to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Trail Blazers.
Later, he went to play in Italy for three years and was signed by the Suns this season to be Kevin Johnson’s backup.
It’s fair to say that on the bench, the Suns made backups for both Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson.
But backups are just backups; they ultimately aren’t as good as the real thing. Westphal’s idea of catching up with the second unit was shattered under the offensive and defensive pressure of the two veterans.
Because soon after, Bernard King hit another stop-and-pop jump shot on a fast break, extending the lead to 8 points and forcing the Suns into a timeout.
When Bernard King left the court, Gan Guoyang high-fived the veteran and jokingly said, "It would be great if you made two three-pointers instead."
King shook his head and said, "With the money you’re paying me, this is as far as I can go. Making three-pointers would cost more. Next, it’s up to you, Sonny."
Just two minutes into the second quarter, the main players from both teams returned to the game. The playoffs don’t allow starters much rest time.
Barkley replaced Oliver Miller, while Frank Johnson remained, and Barkley called for the ball in the low post on the left side.
A relatively shallow position, going head-to-head with Gan Guoyang on offense and defense.
Most of the time, Barkley finds it hard to score one-on-one against Gan Guoyang’s defense.
This time Barkley chose to back down and face the basket, using his shoulder against Ah Gan, then a small step back and a fake move.
Making use of the instant space, he drove the ball and charged, attacking straight from the left into the paint.
Cooper was too late to provide help defense, and Barkley successfully scored with his left hand!
A beautiful move, but Gan Guoyang wasn’t convinced.
He gestured to the referee for traveling, "That’s a walk! Both feet moved before he dribbled!"
According to the NBC live slow-motion replay, strictly speaking, he did indeed travel; both feet moved before he dribbled.
Only after creating some space did he dribble and power towards the basket, at which point it was too late for Gan Guoyang to catch up. You can’t make it in time if you’re carrying the ball and running!
But the referee did not blow the whistle. After all, this is Phoenix, and sometimes it’s just an instant judgment for a referee to call a travel.
If the pace is too fast, it’s easy to miss, and naturally, some referees are indeed shortsighted; perhaps they used to officiate football games.
"Forget it, Sonny, forget it, it was too fast, I couldn’t see clearly."
If it were someone else, the ref might have called a technical foul.
But this is Ah Gan, so they had to give him some face, and the referee spoke nicely for a couple of sentences.
Gan Guoyang didn’t dwell on it, he just applied some pressure on the referee.
Barkley just quietly returned to defense with a satisfied smirk without saying anything.
But Gan Guoyang immediately sought revenge in the low post, also on the left side.
Facing Barkley’s defense after catching the ball, he dribbled and released a simple left-handed hook, scoring!
Faced with Gan Guoyang’s dominating hook shot, Barkley, with his height disadvantage, had no answer.
The only way to respond was to score and score again on offense.
This might be the most silent game or series that Barkley has played against Ah Gan.
No trash talk, no pleasantries, just competition on the basketball court, colliding bodies.
Both teams’ main players returned to the game, and tonight the Suns’ bench didn’t gain any advantage, actually suffered a bit.
And now, the others on the Suns started to encounter trouble; their shooting percentage was dropping.
Even Danny Ainge shot an airball, which Gan Guoyang grabbed and directly initiated a fast break from the backcourt.
A coast-to-coast drive to the basket, finishing with a one-handed dunk!
The Trail Blazers gradually extended their lead to 10 points.
The offensive efficiency of the Trail Blazers is just too high.
So far in the first half, their shooting percentage is astonishingly high.
Ah Gan has taken the most shots and scored the most points — his shooting percentage is 80%.
Who can withstand that?
Charles Barkley stood out again, hitting a three-pointer from the top of the arc!
Then, in a play under the basket, Barkley seized the opportunity, sneaking from behind to block Gan Guoyang’s sure-shot floater!
The Suns realized that it would be better to let Mark West defend Ah Gan, as Barkley was simply mismatched.
These big hook shots, left and right, were just too much for Barkley.