When the series score became 3-0, the West Finals had already lost its suspense.
The only suspense was whether the Jazz could win the fourth game to save some face.
1-4 always looks a bit better than 0-4, and it can break the Trail Blazers’ undefeated record in this season’s playoffs.
But the Trail Blazers obviously didn’t want to waste any games that would affect their speed towards the Finals; they’ve waited too long.
During the one-day rest at a hotel in Salt Lake City, the entire Trail Blazers team stayed in their rooms to watch TV, read books, or train in the hotel’s gym, play billiards in the billiard room, or play Pong in the ping pong room.
No one went out, and no one ate at outside restaurants.
The Trail Blazers’ food was prepared by a team-specialized chef in the hotel kitchen to prevent a repeat of the food poisoning incident that happened to Michael Jordan in last year’s Finals.
The Trail Blazers were extremely cautious, their focus and desire for the game and championship reached a peak, with nothing able to disturb them.
On May 24th, the fourth game between the two teams kicked off at the Triangle Center, with Salt Lake City’s fans still wholeheartedly supporting the Jazz, even though they knew the Finals hope was gone. Winning this game to add a loss to the Trail Blazers’ record was still worthwhile.
Karl Malone was heavily criticized in these three games, as his offense completely lost the level of the regular season and the previous two rounds.
Facing Gan Guoyang’s defense, he couldn’t cause any substantial damage to the Trail Blazers’ defense, only performing at sixty percent or even just half effectiveness.
The Jazz is a strong but fragile team, with a nearly perfect system honed over more than ten years.
But in the brutal playoffs, as long as the Trail Blazers target one weak point vigorously, the Jazz’s previously perfect system ceases to exist.
They don’t even have an effective damage control or backup system; this is the result of the hard injuries in lineup and talent.
So before the game, Jerry Sloan had no choice but to make mental mobilizations, with no way to make any effective adjustments.
He certainly couldn’t leave Malone out of the starting lineup, nor put Hornersek on the bench to play the sixth man unexpectedly.
On the bench, Shandon Anderson, Anthony Carl, and the like are functional players who do not have the ability to sustain the offensive system.
In comparison, this season’s Trail Blazers completely allow Gan Guoyang to be the sixth man without affecting the team’s combat strength.
Even with Little O’Neal starting alongside Sabonis in the interior, the Trail Blazers can still achieve a good offensive effect.
If Gan Guoyang then leads the second lineup to finish the game, the Jazz wouldn’t have any way to stop it.
Larry Bird doesn’t do it like that, just to avoid disrupting Gan Guoyang’s consecutive starting appearances.
After the game started, the Jazz still put up a very resilient resistance, with Stockton increasing his shots in the first quarter, hoping to tear apart the Trail Blazers’ perimeter defense with personal offense, causing trouble for Ah Gan as in past seasons.
But the Trail Blazers remained unmoved; no matter how the Jazz played, they wouldn’t change their strategy because the Jazz could not break through their ordinary punch.
In the first quarter, the Jazz and the Trail Blazers were evenly matched, with the Jazz trailing the Trail Blazers by one point at 24-25.
In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers gradually ramped up, accelerating, and increasing defensive intensity, leading to more mistakes from the Jazz.
Responding, always responding; like waves of counterattacks that exhausted the Jazz seemed endless.
Once the Jazz couldn’t perform high-efficiency, high-success offense, they immediately faced the Trail Blazers’ fierce fast break.
The Jazz tried to slow down the pace, reduce three-point shots, and enhance the fight for offensive rebounds, but the effect was not obvious.
The result of slowing down was still feeding Malone for solo plays, but Malone couldn’t get past Ah Gan, making the effort wasted.
Reducing threes is understandable, avoiding long rebounds giving the Trail Blazers counterattack opportunities, but offensive rebounds were just impossible to secure.
The Jazz’s offensive rebounds were already among the league’s lowest, and encountering Gan Guoyang, the rebounding fanatic, meant they could only get rebounds by luck.
Once Gan Guoyang grabbed the rebound, he’d launch counterattacks himself, forcing the Jazz’s backcourt and forwards to scramble.
In the first half, the Trail Blazers extended the lead to 10 points, and Jazz fans understood that the situation was as good as lost.
In the third quarter, the Trail Blazers went all out, with Sabonis, Riddle, Brellock, and Mu Lin hitting three-pointers successively.
The Trail Blazers boasted the league’s only starting lineup where all five players could shoot threes, and in Carl’s offensive design, he didn’t waste this unique ability.
Gan Guoyang and Sabonis often appeared outside the three-point line, and not only could they shoot, but they also had excellent screens and passing abilities, providing plenty of flexible offense for the perimeter players.
Carl would never rigidly turn the Trail Blazers into a twin-tower interior offensive team with two interiors always playing inside while the perimeter just waited for long shots.
Mu Lin, Riddle, Kobe, Brellock, and Terry Porter all had many opportunities to drive to the basket, create damage, or assist teammates.
The Trail Blazers’ offensive destruction of the opponent’s defensive system was comprehensive, overall, and strategically suppressive.
This was fully displayed in the series against the Jazz.
After a sharp wave of offense, the Trail Blazers once again expanded their lead to 20 points.