Nowitzki has always been known for his poor defense, and the task of defending Gan Guoyang has always been handed to Bradley.
However, during the pre-game tactical setup, Nielsen suddenly said to Nowitzki, "Dirk, tonight you will defend Ah Gan, handle him."
Nowitzki paused for a moment, looked at Nielsen with disbelief, and asked, "Coach, what are you saying?"
Nielsen repeated, "I’m telling you, handle Ah Gan!"
Fenli was dumbfounded and said, "Coach, are you joking? Let Dirk handle Ah Gan? He... he is still very young."
However, Nielsen seemed resolute and did not let Fenli interrupt, insisting to Nowitzki, "Tonight your task is to match Ah Gan on both offense and defense. I said, handle him, that’s what you have to do. No excuses.".
Nowitzki realized the coach wasn’t joking, tonight his task was indeed to handle Ah Gan—an undertaking that no one has accomplished since 1984.
Originally relaxed, Nowitzki suddenly became tense.
At seven-thirty in the evening, after the opening ceremony, the players officially took the stage.
On the Trail Blazers side, Little O’Neal replaced Sabonis as the team’s official starting center.
Gan Guoyang and Alan Henderson served as forwards, often swapping between small forward and power forward positions, with no fixed position on the court.
After Kobe’s return, he’s naturally a solid starter, and Brellock was resting tonight due to knee soreness, with Terry Porter stepping up to start.
On the Mavericks side, the center is the big stick, standing 7 feet 7 inches (2.29 meters) tall Shawn Bradley, the tallest player in the league.
Nowitzki has secured his position as the team’s starting power forward through his performance.
The Mavericks’ small forward is Eddie Jones, shooting guard Mike Finley, point guard Strickland.
The Mavericks’ lineup should be considered quite traditional, with each position perfectly arranged, as at this moment Old Nelson hasn’t gone completely crazy yet.
However, the Mavericks’ playing style is evidently untraditional, because they have Nowitzki, the team’s perimeter shooting ratio is very high, even higher than the Trail Blazers once known for three-pointers.
This results in the Mavericks’ offense being unstable, they pursue speed and accuracy, Bradley is merely a false starter, the true key player during critical moments is Cedric Sibaros sitting on the bench—the Sibaros transaction in 1998 summer left the Rockets, signing with the Mavericks. (There’s an error regarding Sibaros’ trade, previously written he was traded to the Suns for Steve Smith, later written he was traded from the Lakers to the Rockets for Holi, contradictory. This is the result of forgetting as the writing progressed. The first trade was wrong, Steve Smith remained on the Suns, Sibaros was swapped for Holi, then left the Rockets and signed freely with the Mavericks.)
The Mavericks would deploy a lineup of five perimeter shooters, causing the opposing defense to spread out, difficult to locate the defensive focus.
Of course, the problem with this playstyle is, firstly, the defense is too poor, Nowitzki serving as center at this point renders the interior defense entirely ineffective.
Secondly, Nowitzki’s firepower is insufficient, with an average attack power of 18 points, far from compensating the defensive lapses, leading to the Mavericks’ poor opening record.
Thus, even though Mike Finley is the boss of the Mavericks team, the key to the Mavericks’ system’s upper limit lies with Nowitzki.
It lies in whether the Mavericks can cover Nowitzki’s defensive issues, as well as whether Nowitzki can maximize his offensive firepower.
Before the jump ball, Nowitzki stood on the court, Gan Guoyang was standing beside him, he tried hard to conceal his nervousness, looking around to avoid eye contact.
Gan Guoyang actively approached, asking, "How many points are you planning to score over me tonight?"
Nowitzki looked around again, finding no one else, it was certainly directed at him.
With a German-accented English, Nowitzki stammered, "Uh... I will try my best."
Actually, Nowitzki wanted to say, striving to score against you.
After all, if Gan Guoyang was dead-set on guarding him, it’s very possible to score none—like Tim Duncan.
Yet in a certain instant, Nowitzki did not concede or succumb, he said, try his best.
Gan Guoyang said nothing more, chewing gum and blowing a bubble.
This often signifies he’s very excited about the game, and will play joyfully.