This kind of move was quite rare in the NBA at that time. Gan Guoyang had used it before, but it seemed to be the first time combining the two.
Stockton looked and shook his head, shouting, "Sonny, are you still progressing, damn it?"
Gan Guoyang said, "It’s not progress, just integrating past skills. Also, I’ve lost some weight recently."
While speaking, Gan Guoyang rushed up and pressured Stockton, who was controlling the ball, slowing down his advance.
After pressuring, Gan Guoyang immediately ran back to the frontcourt, guarding his area.
Gan Guoyang’s weight has indeed been dropping recently. After resuming high-intensity training, he decided to gradually lower his weight back to the previous 250 pounds.
Excessive weight can further decrease stamina and increase knee and joint pressure. If he wants to output fully, losing weight would be a good strategy.
Because the season was still ongoing, he couldn’t drop too much at once, so he had to do it gradually, aiming to have his weight back to 250 pounds by the start of the playoffs, which was his weight in 1986 and 1987.
This work should have been completed during the off-season, but off-court factors delayed these matters. So Gan Guoyang could only find ways to experiment and train during the regular season.
In the opening several rounds, it was clearly noticeable that Gan Guoyang’s offensive moves were very perimeter-focused, and his skills were quite exceptional.
However, the Jazz couldn’t relax their defense against Gan Guoyang’s attacks in the paint. He immediately dominated Malone in the low post, scoring two points with his unique turning-forward shot, almost drawing a foul from Malone.
Halfway through the first quarter, Gan Guoyang scored 13 points consecutively, making Malone’s head spin, talking about confidence, what nonsense.
The Trail Blazers quickly went 17:7, leading the Jazz by 10 points. Sloan knew things couldn’t continue like this, or they’d waste the night.
He could only call another timeout, saying to Malone, "How’s it going, Karl, still confident in defending Ah Gan?"
Malone was gasping angrily, throwing away the towel he used to wipe sweat and said, "Ah Gan isn’t playing by the rules! He’s not playing in the low post; he keeps floating on the perimeter shooting, how do I defend?"
Malone’s interior defense is top-notch, but making him defend the perimeter, slide, and lower his center of gravity for pursuit isn’t working.
Sloan knew that Ah Gan had come up with something new again tonight. They must deal with him like a small forward while not neglecting his power in the paint.
Thus, the Jazz adjusted their defensive strategy. When Gan Guoyang was on the perimeter, Brian Russell would lead the defense. If he attacked the paint, Malone would assist.
After the timeout ended, this tactic indeed had some effect. Gan Guoyang found it wasn’t as easy to pick up speed, with the Jazz’s disciplined multi-layered defense making it hard to break through easily.
At this point, Gan Guoyang didn’t rush he adjusted the rhythm first to create opportunities for his teammates, allowing Little O’Neal to play one-on-one in the paint, Henderson to cut inside, and Mu Lin and Brellock to prepare for spot-up shots.
In the first quarter, the sides finished 30:22, with the Trail Blazers leading by 8 points, gaining absolute advantage.
Actually, the Trail Blazers’ defense in the first quarter was quite relaxed, not at high intensity, but due to the high offensive success rate, the Jazz kept grinding, unable to increase their offensive efficiency.
During the break, Kobe was restless, volunteering to Carl, saying he could play.
Gan Guoyang, however, said, "Enter when the point difference is less than 5 points, to show how important you are to the team."
Gan Guoyang’s remark kept Kobe benched.
In the second quarter when both sides fielded their second lineup, Charles Barkley supported the Trail Blazers’ offense well.
Barkley’s recent performance was great. He fully exerted himself offensively within his limited 15 to 20 minutes of playtime.
Grabbing the ball in the low post, aggressively attacking, fiercely contesting offensive rebounds, not caring about anything else, he played to score.
Barkley didn’t want to bother with other matters, nor did he need to, just needed to guard the defensive rebounds.
Despite Barkley and Ben Wallace being short inside players, their defensive rebounding ability was really strong.
Even if there were some issues with rim protection and low-post defense, securely guarding the defensive rebounds was a significant help on defense.
The Trail Blazers maintained a roughly 10-point lead, and the Jazz, with their lacking offensive explosiveness, found it tough to catch up.
When Gan Guoyang returned to the court, the score was 41:32, with the Trail Blazers leading by 9 points, the gap widened by one point, Sloan was quite troubled.
More troubling was that as soon as Gan Guoyang played, he received the ball on the perimeter, making a strong three-pointer attempt and scoring—it was a deadly three-pointer.
Gan Guoyang was very good at rubbing salt into opponents’ wounds with three-pointers when leading.
While trailing, Gan Guoyang preferred reliable two-pointers and solid defense, along with the safest free throws.
The point gap suddenly reached 12 points, Sloan anxiously yelled on the sidelines, while Carl on the Trail Blazers’ side sat calmly and composed.
It felt really nice. What Beelman said in the book wasn’t wrong—giving the ball to Ah Gan could effectively extend the coach’s tenure and reduce consumption in the regular season.
On the Jazz’s side, in order to chase points, they sped up their offensive pace. When Stockton and Malone returned, they used a lot of pick-and-rolls to initiate attacks, but the effect was only considered average.
In this era, pick-and-rolls were constrained by spacing, shooting ability, and Handcheck defense, so frequently using it didn’t have much effect, making it easy to be targeted.