After Jordan returned to the court, the Bulls began their most intense counter-attack. Their full-court press defense caused continuous problems for the Trail Blazers’ offense.
Although there were no turnovers, the execution was not smooth, and coupled with Gan Guoyang performing a solo act tonight, the offensive state of other players was average.
Gan Guoyang was affected by multiple double-teams, missed two shots, and the Bulls seized the opportunity to continuously close the gap.
Pippen hit a three-pointer, followed by Jordan with a pull-up jumper on the fast break, scoring and drawing a foul from Gan Guoyang.
A beautiful basket, the free throw was successful, and the Bulls chased down 6 points, shrinking the deficit to 4 points.
The Trail Blazers called a timeout, the game wasn’t over, and a 10-point lead was not safe at all.
Since the Trail Blazers chose to speed up the pace and increase possessions, the advantage could disappear in an instant.
Bird knew that it was too late to change strategies and play team offense now.
Ah Gan, that bastard, had already loaded the rhythm and pressure onto himself alone.
They could only rely on him, but luckily Gan Guoyang was someone they could rely on.
After the timeout, the Trail Blazers slowed down the pace and focused on half-court offense.
Bird finally brought in a big lineup, but he didn’t let Little O’Neal play the power forward position and instead used the experienced AC Green.
There was no room for mistakes now, and veteran Green was ready for such matches.
Gan Guoyang came onto the perimeter facing Pippen’s defense with a high-difficulty Kiki-step step-back jumper, nailed a long two-pointer!
Pippen had already defended this ball to perfection, but Gan Guoyang still managed to score, his nerves unbelievably strong.
After moving to the small forward position, Gan Guoyang’s offense became more agile, no longer constrained by teammates feeding him the ball.
At this moment, his style was just like Jordan’s, and the two engaged in the most fair fight to the death.
Jordan made a high-position drive, in the fourth quarter Kobe was the one defending Jordan.
Kobe was closely marking Jordan, but he couldn’t physically challenge Jordan.
Jordan pushed Kobe aside, created space for the shot, and hit a small fadeaway jumper for two points.
Gan Guoyang dribbled past the half court himself, attempted a three-pointer, the Bulls’ players were holding their breath.
But the shot missed, giving the Bulls a chance to counter-attack, with Pippen trying to attack the basket directly.
The layup was interfered with by Sabonis without scoring, AC Green secured the defensive rebound.
The score difference remained at 4 points, Kobe held the ball, executing a high pick-and-roll with Gan Guoyang, Gan Guoyang received the ball and passed it straight to the basket.
Sabonis received the ball, turned and hooked, Luke Longley went all out to block, the ball didn’t go in.
Veteran AC Green again tipped the ball out, preventing Rodman from getting the rebound.
At this moment, the Bulls had a tall lineup with no shooting guard on the court.
Jordan and Pippen paired in the back court, the small forward was Kukoc, and the inside players were Longley and Rodman.
But AC Green grabbed both a defensive and an offensive rebound, stabilizing the situation for the Trail Blazers.
The ball was given to Gan Guoyang, who held it at the top of the arc, facing Pippen, adjusted his breathing, and made a frontal forceful drive!
In the handcheck-allowed 90s, it was extremely difficult to make a forceful breakthrough from the perimeter.
It was almost impossible to purely rely on explosiveness and speed to shake off opponents, the defensive player would definitely stick close.
This is when the holder needed a strong physique to resist the opponent’s pulling and pushing.
And Gan Guoyang was exactly like a human tank, even an expert perimeter defender like Pippen couldn’t stop him.
Gan Guoyang cut along the edge of the three-second zone to the basket, Longley was drawn away by Sabonis, leaving the basket open.
Gan Guoyang pushed off Pippen and jumped for a single-handed dunk! Restoring the lead to a six-point safety zone.
Pippen did his best on this ball, any more effort would have been a foul sending Gan to the free throw line, he cursed silently inside at Gan for being such a freak, playing at small forward despite being a center.
And this was precisely the Trail Blazers’ killer move, using Gan Guoyang’s mismatch advantage at the small forward to attack the opponent.
The current NBA hadn’t yet seen this kind of tall versatile wing, Toni Kukoc was tall enough but his defensive footwork was too slow.
Pippen was already the best defender at this position, but his strength and height were still a bit lacking, getting severely beaten in 1992 and continuing to struggle now.
The Bulls had no other choice but to hold on, Jordan used a quick breakthrough to force his way to the basket, with air confrontation, missing the layup and drawing Sabonis’s foul.
Both free throws were made, the score difference remained four points, time was ticking away, about to hit the final two minutes showdown.
At this point, tactics weren’t as important, players’ mental states, luck, and flashes of brilliance could more determine victory.
The Trail Blazers had a crucial offense, Sabonis went to the high post for a screen for Gan Guoyang, the mutual screening between giants.
Gan Guoyang took a step in, but didn’t force a breakthrough. Instead, he took a step back, stepped on the arc line and made a strong shot!
Seizing the defensive gap, the ball flew accurately like a missile, after scoring, Gan Guoyang raised his right fist!
The entire Rose Garden erupted in cheers, with Gan Guoyang securing his 50th point of the match!
The score was revised to 100:94 with just 1 minute 25 seconds remaining in the game.
The Trail Blazers led by six, quite steadily, making it difficult for the Bulls to chase the score.
But it was at this moment that Jordan faced Kobe’s defense on the perimeter, made a simple crossover and directly shot a three-pointer!
Kobe jumped to block, hitting Jordan’s arm, the referee whistled, but Jordan still managed to shoot.
The ball drew a relatively straight arc, hit the backboard, and bounced into the basket! It actually went in!