Instead, his sneak attack block stopped Gan Guoyang’s score, prompting a Suns counterattack.
Barkley charged down the center, received the pass, and slammed it home with both hands! They’ve caught up by 5 points.
Barkley isn’t the best three-point shooter, nor an excellent shot blocker.
But when needed, he can contribute to the team in various ways.
This kind of Barkley makes Gan Guoyang even more focused.
He disregards the recent block and continues to drive into the basket.
Facing three Suns players trying to stop him, he jumps in the air and passes the ball.
Sabonis receives it and immediately scores with a single-handed fast dunk.
The game becomes gradually tense; Sabonis almost blocked Barkley’s shot while defending.
The ball fell short, hitting the front rim, and Suns players scrambled fiercely, but it ultimately went out of bounds.
The referee awarded the ball to the Suns, Gan Guoyang spread his hands to the referee and shook his head.
This might be the first time tonight the Suns have benefited in an offensive rebound battle, extremely tough.
Barkley received the ball, found no opportunity, passed it to the center to Kevin Johnson.
Johnson changed direction, dribbled through and attempted a floater, but was blocked by Ah Gan rushing over!
With the momentum, Gan Guoyang sprinted directly to the frontcourt, caught the pass and scored with a fast break dunk!
At this time, Gan Guoyang has scored 26 points, leading the team to extend the lead back to 9 points.
While Barkley was running back, he felt a bit discouraged, but only for a moment, as he quickly engaged in the offense again.
However, the Trail Blazers changed their defensive strategy against Barkley, no longer allowing Sabonis to guard him alone.
Instead, they let Gan Guoyang and Sabonis alternate defending Barkley, applying different pressures to disrupt his rhythm.
Barkley, who was originally quite smooth, started facing some troubles now as he missed another forced shot attempt.
Still, the Suns fought hard for the rebound. They needed to secure possession and prevent Trail Blazers’ fast breaks.
The Trail Blazers’ fast breaks are overwhelming tonight; the Suns are struggling to cope.
They managed to snatch another offensive rebound, taking the ball from Ah Gan was like snatching food from the tiger’s mouth.
On the outside, Richard Dumass received the ball, directly charging at the basket, jumping up like a spring!
His jump was really high, really fast, with first-class bounce speed, but lacks power.
As a result, his dunk was blocked again by Gan Guoyang.
They’re scrambling under the basket again, and the Trail Blazers regained control of the ball.
At this point, the Trail Blazers did not rush to counterattack; they slowed down the pace for efficiency.
Still using the strategy of passing the ball to Ah Gan, Gan Guoyang received it at the low right side.
Suns double-teamed, Gan Guoyang passed, another pass, caught the ball, quickly turned and leaned forward for a shot!
Scored again, Gan Guoyang’s shooting accuracy tonight is terrifying.
At this moment, Suns fans should feel fortunate, as Gan Guoyang’s shooting accuracy has left the Suns only trailing by 11 points.
Because Suns indeed played well, Barkley stood out again, same right low post, single-handed against Ah Gan.
This time, Barkley chose to back off, avoiding Ah Gan’s block, shooting a right-handed floater!
No choice, the shooting motion was slow, but the floater was relatively quick, all just to avoid Gan Guoyang.
An unconventional move, yet it went in! The gap shrinks back to single digits.
Barkley has already scored 17 points, undeniably impactful.
The crowd went wild cheering for Barkley and the Suns.
But Gan Guoyang quickly used his defensive draw to pass to Terry Porter.
Porter caught the ball and scored with a mid-range shot!
Tonight, Porter acts as a spot-up shooter.
Organizing and ball-handling tasks mostly go to Petrović and Ah Gan.
Then, Gan Guoyang blocked Kevin Johnson’s layup under the basket again.
Tonight, he’s not just scoring wildly, but also defending fiercely.
In a counterattack, Petrović and Gan Guoyang screened, penetrated the basket, and bank-shoot scored close, again!
It’s a 13-point lead now, Paul Westphal stood up, knowing there’s trouble.
The Suns are overwhelmed on both offense and defense by Ah Gan, unable to defend and getting big blocks on attacks.
Undoubtedly, Charles Barkley played well, but it wasn’t enough.
Additionally, his good performance further stimulated Gan Guoyang’s concentration.
In these few possessions, Suns players visibly hesitated when facing Ah Gan.
Kevin Johnson looked good while breaking through, but seemed soft at the basket.
Yet, Westphal did not call a timeout, he continued to trust his players.
Finally, Dan Majerle drew Lewis’ foul on a break, made two free throws to relieve the team.
Right after, the Suns stopped the Trail Blazers’ attack as An Ji hit a crucial three from the corner.
It came from Barkley’s support, the Suns fought resiliently; they don’t want to go into halftime trailing by double digits.
Meanwhile, the visiting Trail Blazers looked to widen the lead as much as possible, increasing tolerance for mistakes in the second half.
In the final 2 minutes, Suns began a half-court press, pushing the Trail Blazers’ ball-handler further out.
Gan Guoyang came out to assist, received the ball and sent a direct pass into the paint; Sabonis received it and attacked the basket swiftly, scoring.
Suns were gambling, they then opened up their formation again in offense, luring Gan Guoyang away from the basket.
Barkley in the left low post, leveraging his strength and footwork, spun and drove the baseline to shake off Sabonis, scoring with a layup!
After a brief quiet moment, Barkley stood up again, becoming the team’s pillar on offense.
Lewis drove strongly into the paint, but his pass to the outside led to a turnover, Kevin Johnson stole it!