Gan Guoyang only sat on the bench for two minutes, and after the fourth quarter began, he returned to the court to continue playing.
This is Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, not just any regular season game, the Lakers will not give up easily, and Gan Guoyang must not relax.
The Lakers, who were trailing by a large margin, launched a desperate counterattack, but at this moment O'Neal's eyes were more bewildered than the fans on the sidelines.
In three quarters, he only scored 7 points, completely restricted by Ah Gan in both shooting and scoring.
Then he watched helplessly as Gan Guoyang achieved the miracle of 21 for 21, and with 12 minutes left in the game, he was completely clueless on how to play.
The fourth quarter had just started, the Trail Blazers missed their shot, Barkley's shot hit the rim, and Jide grabbed the rebound.
The Lakers need to score quickly; if they can cut the deficit to 10 points within the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, there's still a chance to fight.
O'Neal received the ball under the basket, paused, turned around, Gan Guoyang decisively reached out to steal the ball, committed a foul, sending O'Neal to the free-throw line.
Gan Guoyang did this not to give away points, but to put O'Neal on the free-throw line for judgment, to impose greater psychological pressure on him.
Meanwhile, he also needed a bit of rest; after high-intensity attacks, his physical energy was running low.
Standing on the free-throw line, for O'Neal, free throws at this moment became a form of torture.
Sure enough, the first free throw missed, and many fans were holding their heads, troubled by O'Neal's persistent free-throw issues.
The second free throw still missed, Barkley grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it to Gan Guoyang.
As soon as Gan Guoyang got the ball, the entire Lakers team was on high alert, Jide had to come over to help with defense.
Actually, Gan Guoyang wasn't planning to shoot at all; for one, his physical energy wasn't enough, and secondly, he wanted to maintain his perfect shooting streak of 21 for 21.
However, he still needed to remain on the court as a deterrent, drawing the Lakers' defensive focus entirely on him.
Gan Guoyang held the ball outside, and now the Lakers players were bewildered, unsure whether Ah Gan was a center, forward, or point guard.
He could appear at any position, attack from any place with any method, causing the Lakers' defense to be at a loss.
The 24-second clock slowly ticked away, Gan Guoyang didn't make a move, and the Lakers' defense dared not act rashly, all eyes were on Gan Guoyang.
In the final seconds, Barkley suddenly cut into the basket, Gan Guoyang threw a pass to the basket, Barkley jumped to catch the ball, made a layup, and scored!
O'Neal defending the inside was stunned, he didn't react in time to intercept the pass, he merely followed the ball with his eyes, unable to prevent Barkley from catching the ball and making the layup.
The situation was extremely dangerous for the Lakers; Phil Jackson was blowing whistles non-stop on the sidelines, he had already noticed that the players' fighting spirit was dwindling.
Without fighting spirit, without focus, they would gradually become walking corpses on the court, slower to react, ultimately leading to a total collapse.
But there was nothing that could be done; Gan Guoyang's 52 points had crushed the Lakers' morale, and this guy wouldn't leave the court, continuing to serve as a deterrent. How could they defend against that?
At this moment, the Lakers needed someone like Kobe, an outside ball handler, to take charge and fight without hesitation.
Don't worry about anything else, first get the scoring going, shrink the deficit, and then talk about the rest, there's still a game to play.
However, Kobe was with the Trail Blazers, not the Lakers. Jide and Tracy McGrady both tried to take on this role.
Tracy McGrady held the ball outside, pulled up for a jump shot. Tonight his condition was still quite good, but this shot was clearly too flat.
If it didn't go in, Gan Guoyang and Barkley wouldn't let the Lakers have the rebound, Barkley grabbed another rebound.
Barkley was short but his rear was truly large, his positioning and anticipation were top-notch, and his desire for rebounds was exceptionally strong.
One commendable thing about Barkley was that his playoff rebound performance was even better than in the regular season; in the fierce playoff battles under the basket, Barkley could always gain the upper hand.
With Gan Guoyang's godlike performance, Barkley was bursting with passion and high morale; up till now, he and Ah Gan combined for 58 points, being the decisive factor in the game.
With the confidence boost, Barkley played increasingly well on both offense and defense, Gan Guoyang from the perimeter again made a fake shot and true pass to Barkley cutting to the basket.
Barkley faced O'Neal's slow defence, forced his way for another successful layup, then while he was on the ground, he stretched out his hand to the referee, indicating that O'Neal committed a defensive foul on that play.
The referee didn't blow the whistle, already giving the Lakers enough face, otherwise, their situation would be even worse.
Watching Barkley play more and more smoothly under the basket, Phil Jackson was already out of ideas and could only call a timeout, attempting a last struggle.
In fact, the game didn't have much suspense anymore; the entire Lakers team was dead silent, unable to find any point of turnaround.
Especially with O'Neal, the team's top scorer, absolute core, completely defeated in a direct confrontation with Ah Gan, there was no way to win this game.
O'Neal felt desperate and numb, he didn't know how to face the result of this game anymore.
Once again falling before the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan, and losing game seven at home so badly.
The dignified regular season MVP, scoring less than double digits, defense broken and trashed, can be said to have been sleepwalking through the entire game.
During the timeout, he just sat there, staring blankly, at a loss, Phil Jackson tried to encourage him but to no avail.
Re-entering the game, Gan Guoyang certainly wouldn't leave the court for a rest, as long as the Lakers didn't surrender, he would continue to stay on the court as a deterrent.