This guy has undoubtedly entered his own domain. Every shot he takes goes in, and his teammates support him, providing him with endless ammunition.
But Kobe doesn’t seem satisfied with such revenge.
In the fourth quarter, originally the Trail Blazers could continue playing methodically and suffocate the Pacers alive, achieving the great miracle of a 41-game winning streak.
However, in the third quarter, Kobe was the savior for the Trail Blazers. After coming off the bench in the fourth quarter, he made a mistake.
First, he blindly took a shot in an offensive choice without an opportunity, forcibly posting up against Jalen Rose, missed the jump shot, and the rebound was taken by the Pacers.
Then, during defense, he elbowed Jalen Rose and was caught by the referee, getting called for a technical foul.
Reggie Miller went to the free throw line and made the shot.
Miller hadn’t scored for a while, and this free throw gave him a chance to regain his shooting touch.
Right after, using screens and running, Miller received the ball at a 45-degree angle on the right, and the three-point shot went in!
Scoring 4 points in a row, reducing the gap from 14 points to 10 points, the Pacers saw hope for a turnaround.
Adelman made a bold decision at this moment—substituting Dale Davis out to play a big four small lineup.
A big four small lineup was a rare strategy in the 80s and 90s, but the Trail Blazers used it a lot back then, and they used it the best.
Adelman knew well that using a big four small lineup well could indeed create miracles, and tonight was a do-or-die situation. If not now, then when?
The Trail Blazers still had a full advantage inside, and Gan Guoyang immediately scored two points. But then, Kobe made a defensive foul on Miller during a chase, giving Miller a three-point shot, and the referee granted three free throws!
An impulsive foul, Miller made all three, bringing the gap back to 9 points, and the challenge for the Trail Blazers was on.
Gan Guoyang continued to post up in the paint, where the Trail Blazers held a great advantage. He received the ball, turned, and made a layup, scoring.
But the Pacers’ big four small lineup spread out, Princeton Offense kicked in, Schmitz drove and kicked, Ali received the ball at the baseline corner, hit a three-pointer again!
Both sides were scoring, but the Trail Blazers were scoring twos, and the Pacers were hitting threes, closing the gap by one point each possession, slowly shrinking the difference.
And this simple logic of "three points is more than two by one" was a major weapon for the Trail Blazers to dominate the league back then as they were one of the first teams to heavily develop the three-pointer.
Both Adelman and the Pacers’ coaching staff were clear on this, and the gap was reduced to 8 points, prompting Bird to call a timeout.
During the timeout, he harshly criticized Kobe, whose lack of composure on both ends led the Trail Blazers to lose their momentum, allowing the Pacers to catch up.
Kobe stayed silent, merely drinking water with his head down. At this moment, he was indeed a double-edged sword, hurting both others and himself.
Kobe was subbed out; Bird didn’t hold anything back, putting Little O’Neal in, preparing a big three lineup, letting Gan Guoyang move to the three position, aiming to crush the Pacers.
However, Gan Guoyang stopped Bird, saying, "Larry, I think I should stay at the five position."
Bird asked, "Why?"
"I just feel... this is a trap. Rick won’t be unaware that I’ll go to three guards. If we focus solely on three-pointers now, the inside will have problems."
Most of the time, Bird respected Gan Guoyang’s opinion.
But at this point in the rotation, as the head coach, he needed to maintain his authority.
He thought for a moment and said, "Your idea has some logic, but let’s do as I require."
Gan Guoyang looked up at the clock; there were four minutes left until the fourth quarter ended.
Trail Blazers 91, Pacers 83, leading by 8 points.
"How many timeouts do we have left?"
"Two more."
"If things aren’t right, call a timeout, okay, Larry?"
"I know, have some confidence, will you!"
"I have confidence in myself, but I don’t have much confidence in your arrangement."
With Gan Guoyang’s comment, Bird even started to doubt, was there really a problem with his rotation?
From tonight’s performance, Bird was indeed somewhat suppressed by Adelman, playing with calculations against none.
The timeout ended, and both sides resumed the game. Gan Guoyang’s intuition was correct.
Although the Pacers couldn’t stop the powerful inside attack of the three bigs, the Pacers utilized the spread space to keep penetrating for layups against the Trail Blazers’ defense, instead of shooting the expected three-pointers as Bird thought.
After all, three-pointers carry instability; inside attacks are the most secure.
The Trail Blazers’ most secure rim protector was pulled outside, and Little O’Neal, after all, was inexperienced.
He was bumped for a three-point play by Mark Jackson, then mismatched and outscored by Schmitz on a turnaround jump shot.
The Pacers executed with extremely high offensive efficiency in the final stage, leaving the Trail Blazers somewhat stretched thin.
In the final two minutes, the score reached 95 to 90, the Pacers trailing by only 5 points.
Bird used another timeout, hoping Gan Guoyang would return to the five position.
Gan Guoyang replied, "We’ve already fallen into their rhythm. If I go back to the five, they’ll just randomly shoot threes. Listen to me, stop making blind adjustments, I’ll handle the game."
Bird, usually proud and arrogant, had nothing to say; he had to listen to Ah Gan.
Gan Guoyang had Dick Hart arrange the defense, and then let Rick Carlisle design a set play off the inbound after the timeout.
Soon, the timeout ended, Gan Guoyang inbounded the sideline ball; the atmosphere in the venue was already tense. Every possession, every basket would decide life and death.