Never in a million years did we expect that Van Gundy, who looks like an honest bookworm, would jump out to be the spokesperson.
This made Gan Guoyang very annoyed; he couldn’t hit Van Gundy, as that would be bullying the weak.
And it was hard to retaliate with trash talk since Van Gundy was generally considered a minor character.
He could only respond with basketball, yet the Knicks’ overall strength was indeed very strong right now.
The loss to the Trail Blazers was hard to swallow, and Ah Gan was very angry; it was a serious matter.
Kobe noticed Gan Guoyang was upset and comforted him, "Boss, just think of it as meeting an ugly girl."
This kid could really learn and adapt well.
Gan Guoyang rolled his eyes at Kobe and said, "I want to change one, can I?"
"Sorry, we’ve all already paid."
Fortunately, this wasn’t the last battle between the Trail Blazers and the Knicks; they still had a chance to meet again.
And the time was short; a week later, on November 29th, the Trail Blazers would face the New York Knicks at home.
During the period back in Portland, the Trail Blazers made careful adjustments.
Bird first gave the players a holiday to rest, and he held a meeting with Hart and Carl to discuss and summarize the issues during this period.
Although Bird often acted hands-off, his intuition and adjustment ability were really strong.
He saw numerous issues the Trail Blazers faced in offense and defense and made changes one by one.
In the starting lineup, Bird fixed the starting five as Van Exel, Riddle, AC Green, PJ Brown, and Ah Gan.
Among them, the relatively older AC Green was a pseudo-starter, and the backup playtime was assigned to Alon Magee and Kobe.
Their core task was defense and doing an excellent job on offense, hitting those open shots, and finishing plays.
On the backcourt, the playtime among Van Exel, Riddle, and Porter would be equally shared, decided by Bird based on the situation on the court.
In the frontcourt, Ah Gan and PJ Brown were the indisputable main forces. Little O’Neal, Winfield, and Dudley would get different playing opportunities depending on the opponents.
A relatively stable rotation was meaningful for improving the team’s strength.
Just imagine if every player had to play with different combinations in every game, how would they develop chemistry?
After a period of integration, Bird had his own understanding of the players’ characteristics and had his own ideas on how to use them.
He didn’t like overly fixed minute rotations because different players in different games, facing different opponents, would have different effects on the court.
As a head coach, one must make the best judgment based on the characteristics of players and opponents, combined with the situation of the night, which requires intuition on the court.
In previous games, Bird made several judgments that were quite contrary to the ideas of Carl and Hart.
At that time, Bird decided to respect the ideas of the two assistant coaches, calling a timeout or making substitutions, but the effect was unsatisfactory.
After several times like this, Bird began making decisions according to his own will, achieving quite good results.
Carl and Hart gradually conceded, and in personnel deployment and tactical adjustments, they gradually followed Bird’s lead.
As a result, in the next four games, the Trail Blazers achieved a 4-game winning streak.
Including two wins over the Golden State Warriors, a one-point win against the Houston Rockets in overtime, and a home rout of the Denver Nuggets 110-65.
A series of victories raised the Trail Blazers to fourth place in the Western Conference as November drew to a close.
Gan Guoyang recorded four consecutive triple-doubles, including a hook shot to win in overtime against the Rockets and a block.
Chris Weber’s final shot was swatted away by him, and the Trail Blazers managed to pull off a hard-fought victory in Houston.
On November 29th, Gan Guoyang was waiting anxiously at the Rose Garden, where they had just shamed the Nuggets by 45 points in the last game.
The Nuggets had become a weak team after losing Mutombo and trading away Mark Jackson in the free market.
Their hope for rebuilding was placed on the shoulders of rookie forward Anthony McDyess.
In the 1995 draft, the Clippers selected him with the second pick and immediately traded him to the Nuggets.
This robust forward had tremendous talent and potential, but he wasn’t the kind of superstar like Ah Gan who could change the fate of a team.
In the matchup against Ah Gan, he seemed quite powerless, and the Nuggets were soundly defeated in Portland.
This painful defeat directly led to Nuggets coach Bickerstaff being dismissed, replaced by veteran coach Dick Motta.
However, even the best housewife cannot cook without rice. Nuggets GM Dan Issel lacked patience for rebuilding—a common issue for many teams in the ’90s.
At the time, many trades and contracts seemed too rushed and childish from a future perspective, related to the imperfect trading rules at the time.
GMs were like playing games, switching players around, giving young players big contracts, eager to see results within one or two seasons.
Back then, Gan Guoyang indeed set a bad example; after all, he won the championship so quickly.
Jeff Van Gundy entered the Rose Garden Arena with a sense of unprecedented tension along with his players.
Before the game, he thought he would be mocked by Portland fans because his provocation of Ah Gan had spread throughout the league.
There were various reactions, some praising his courage, some mocking his recklessness, yet all contained one reminder, "Good luck."
Van Gundy was mentally prepared, but what he didn’t expect was that fans at the Rose Garden Arena didn’t boo him, nor did they draw cartoons mocking his bald head.
But many fans, especially the honest young fans, gave him strange looks.
These eyes made Van Gundy very uncomfortable, like a thorn in the back.
A young fan held up a sign that read, "Good luck, Jeff."
Some older fans even greeted Van Gundy warmly and asked how he was doing.
The more this happened, the more Van Gundy broke out in a cold sweat before the game; the atmosphere seemed very eerie.
Until after the players’ warm-up and entrance ceremony was over, Gan Guoyang adjusted his jersey and walked toward the Knicks bench.
He said to Van Gundy, "Jeff, fifty points."
He left without looking back, heading for the center circle to jump.
Van Gundy felt sweat dribbling into his shirt, and he began to understand what the fans’ gaze meant.
They seemed to be saying, "You are already a dead man."