In the NBA, the highest level in the League, there’s never been any standard shooting posture.
Those highly skilled shooters each have their own unique release characteristics, even quirks, according to their physical condition.
Like Gan Guoyang’s straight-arm wrist shot, generally, people can’t use it at all. It’s stable, but it requires too much strength, unique to him.
Other so-called straight-arm shots mainly rely on arm strength. Like Gan Guoyang’s shot, which mainly uses wrist power, maybe only O’Neal can do it, but O’Neal is not accurate at all.
Then there’s the very standard and beautiful shooting posture of Bucks guard Ray Allen. Many people call him "textbook style" because of his shooting accuracy and beautiful posture, but that’s a huge misconception.
If Ray Allen’s shooting posture is a textbook, then this textbook is undoubtedly a failure, because Ray Allen’s shooting posture is also too difficult.
Ray Allen’s jump shot first lets him jump into the air, then without using any support from the lower body, purely relying on upper body strength to throw the ball.
This shooting method requires high levels of leg, waist, abdomen, and upper body strength, along with good balance, which is difficult for common people to learn.
Also, when Ray Allen takes a shot, the left hand has a very noticeable ball-pushing motion, which from a teaching perspective is completely unnecessary.
But it fits Ray Allen’s shooting habit; if he’s accurate, that’s all that matters. Others can’t learn it at all.
Nowitzki clearly understands this; he won’t try to learn Gan Guoyang’s shooting posture, but the rhythm and speed Gan Guoyang mentioned are what he needs to learn.
And in a focused state, Nowitzki is trying to push himself to his best condition, using keen sense and observation to actively confront Gan Guoyang’s defense.
Regarding Nowitzki’s three-pointer, Gan Guoyang praises him with words, but secretly curses, "Damn, still let him score, I need to get back at him."
Offending Ah Gan, this guy is guaranteed to retaliate.
Previously, it was clearly agreed to keep shooting middle-range, but at the last possession of the third quarter, Gan Guoyang called for the ball in the low post.
Using power to press into the interior, he squeezes Nowitzki, does a foot shift, and directly dunks with both hands!
This dunk was like thunder, knocking Nowitzki down like a broken kite, falling heavily to the floor.
Nowitzki rubs his chest and stands up; now he knows, Ah Gan is petty!
The third quarter ended quickly, with the Trail Blazers leading by 9 points entering the final quarter.
Gan Guoyang asked Little Spo how many mid-range shots he’d made tonight; Little Spo said: "11, scoring 37 points."
"Four more to go. Rick, let me rest a bit less in the fourth quarter, I’ll go crush them, and enter garbage time early."
Mavericks, such a team without defense and relying on mutual attacks, Gan Guoyang is confident he can crush them in a small portion of time.
Thus, resting for two minutes, Gan Guoyang enters early in the fourth quarter, and Nielsen sees this and sends Nowitzki back on to "suffer."
In the fourth quarter, Gan Guoyang is truly relentless, at 100%, catching the ball to aggressively attack Nowitzki, not showcasing tricks, but using his body along with his shooting to score continuously over Nowitzki.
After colliding, a slight smile, jump shot, and two points.
In these plays, Gan Guoyang scored in four out of five possessions, leading the Trail Blazers with a 10-2 run, expanding the lead to 17 points.
At this point, the Mavericks start double-teaming, but it doesn’t work. Gan Guoyang’s shooting speed is extremely fast, Nowitzki’s passive defense can’t slow Gan Guoyang down even a bit.
The Mavericks called a timeout, Nielsen noticed Nowitzki was struggling badly, his stamina seriously exhausted.
Aside from the three-pointer at the end of the third quarter, Nowitzki missed both attempts early in the fourth quarter badly.
It’s clear the contest with Ah Gan consumed too much energy, and without resting for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, he was sent back to play, and Nowitzki’s body is signaling warnings.
But there’s no choice, he has to tough it out; Nowitzki is fighting hard, anyway, he’s already finished 15 mid-range shots, and he’s unrestrained.
Getting dominated by Ah Gan is very normal, he must strive to score a bit more.
After the timeout, Nowitzki goes back on the court, grabs an offensive rebound on offense, trying for a putback.
But Gan Guoyang comes from the side to block the layup, sending it flying with a big swat, "How many blocks have I eaten today?"
Nowitzki finally begins to feel tormented, as Gan Guoyang tells him: "You know why you got that offensive rebound? Because I wanted to block you."
Did Ah Gan deliberately give up the offensive rebound just to block my putback?
If it were someone else, Nowitzki might not believe it, but Ah Gan, he truly might do this.
This play makes Nowitzki lose the fighting spirit completely; he can only console himself, at least he learned something.
But the game, he really can’t go on, without the will to fight, the gap in all aspects between both sides is indeed big.
Even scarier, Nowitzki realizes that this season’s Ah Gan is not at his peak, but at 36 going downhill.
What kind of days did those who fought against Ah Gan in the late ’80s and early ’90s have?
Tonight, Gan Guoyang’s defensive blocks all went to Nowitzki; against others, he set no defense.
Then on offense, he unleashed, 15 mid-range shots, along with breakthroughs and free throws, to score 48 points.
Eventually, Trail Blazers 121:105, with a 16-point advantage, won big at home against the Mavericks, achieving an anticipated victory.
When the game ended, Nowitzki left the court with his head down, not even saying goodbye, covering his face with his jersey as he headed to the locker room.
Gan Guoyang saw this and told Nielsen: "Nellie, your player was a bit impolite, I gave free lessons for the whole game."
Nielsen dryly laughed: "Thank you, Sonny. But... you were a bit harsh, 48 points, almost all scored on Dirk."
Gan Guoyang said: "I was already restraining myself; I kept smiling at him, you know? I rarely smile during games."
Saying this, Gan Guoyang gave Nielsen a bright smile, making Nielsen feel a chill down his neck.
You, it would be better if you didn’t smile.