In a game against the Suns, his shooting accuracy reached 75%, and in a previous game against the Bulls, it was also up to 66%.
In the past month, games where his shooting percentage exceeded 60% have become more frequent and more concentrated, with defense before him seemingly nonexistent.
In terms of scoring, he has successfully surpassed Michael Jordan, with an average of 31.8 points per game, becoming the only player in the league averaging over 30 points.
In terms of rebounding, Gan Guoyang began increasing his efforts on offensive rebounds to address some offensive issues of the team.
In the game against the Suns, Gan Guoyang grabbed 20 rebounds, including 8 offensive rebounds.
If he is determined to secure his 10th career rebounding title, Dennis Rodman won’t even be on his radar.
For assists, he has successfully surpassed John Stockton and Mark Jackson, ranking first with an average of 11.5 assists per game.
As long as he maintains double digits in assists, Gan Guoyang is likely to achieve an impressive record of averaging a triple-double this season.
But besides the assist leader, the scoring title, rebounding title, and triple-double statistics are not what Gan Guoyang aims for.
He knows that when he starts to chase numbers, it means some of his teammates are failing to keep up.
The bad news for the Trail Blazers is that when facing top teams, they still play very hard and visibly struggle to keep pace.
The faster Gan Guoyang runs ahead, the more his teammates seem to lag behind, with some players beginning to show signs of slackness.
Under the pressure from Gan Guoyang and Bird, the teammates remain diligent on the court, but during practice and off the court, their focus is not as strong as at the start of the season.
Van Exel even complained, "The work is exhausting, I don’t have the energy to go out and have fun properly."
In the 90s, as players’ salaries increased, their fame and social status also rose significantly.
Apart from women, contraband, and gambling, increasingly varied distractions like parties, gatherings, shooting commercials, variety shows, TV interviews, and filming movies and TV shows are occupying players’ time and energy.
These things are beyond Gan Guoyang’s control, as everyone has their own work and life; he can only manage himself and influence those he can.
Young players like Kobe and Little O’Neal are deeply influenced by Gan Guoyang, but their influence on games is far from mature.
Bird would sometimes remind Gan Guoyang to wait for his teammates, but as the season progresses, with the pressure on their record mounting, Bird also cannot manage too much.
On February 14, the Trail Blazers arrived in Salt Lake City for an away game against the Utah Jazz.
This is the third matchup between the two teams this season, and the Trail Blazers lost the first two decisively without much suspense.
Before the game, Gan Guoyang clearly told his teammates he did not want to lose to the Jazz again.
"If you guys can’t handle it, remember to give me the ball, and I’ll solve the problem. I can’t do this for an entire season, but it’s fine to do it tonight."
Quietly beside him, Kobe committed these words to memory, though his poor memory meant he only remembered the first half and soon forgot the second half.
This year, the Jazz reached a pinnacle, filling their last gap with the Death Light Gun, Hornersek.
From a team perspective, they already hit a peak, and in Gan Guoyang’s view, the Jazz are more annoying than the Bulls.
Teams have mutual restraining relationships; A often wins against B, B often wins against C, but A might often lose to C.
The Bulls’ strength lies in their forwards and guards: Rodman, Jordan, Pippen, Harper, and Kukoc, a lineup of versatile, mid-sized players.
Ironically, Gan Guoyang is the ancestor of this type of player, unafraid of any opponent. On the contrary, when he switches defense on players, except for Jordan, anyone else is dead meat.
So in the two games against the Bulls, even with much inferior overall strength, the Trail Blazers managed a record of one win and one loss.
In the game they lost, they were missing two key players, and the Bulls’ win was quite narrow, definitely not a foregone conclusion.
Given the current Trail Blazers against the Bulls in a series, Gan Guoyang has a 35% chance of overturning the Bulls.
But facing the Jazz, who are dominated by guards and power forwards, with their offensive system maturing, Gan Guoyang found himself with an incomplete defensive lineup, feeling quite troubled.
The Trail Blazers easily won against the Jazz because of their overwhelming overall strength in the past.
Porter and Ah Gan could thoroughly crush Stockton and Malone, with advantages in every other position, without much need for further consideration.
Now the Trail Blazers have only Gan Guoyang as an absolute strong point, with no advantage in any other position.
It’s not unplayable, but the problem is that Stockton and Hornersek, controllers of the Jazz’s backcourt, are too familiar with Ah Gan.
One is Gan Guoyang’s closest friend from college basketball days, fully understanding Gan Guoyang’s characteristics.
The other, Hornersek, is a low-key, smart white guard, Gan Guoyang’s longtime teammate, equally familiar with his temperament.
Stockton is the only player in the league who can engage with Ah Gan in psychological battles without being affected, occasionally even gaining a slight upper hand.
Back in his rookie season, Stockton, through his calmness and on-court judgment, effectively blurred Gan Guoyang’s defensive impact by manipulating his defense.