In the first quarter, the two teams battled slowly and grindingly to end with a score of 21:23, with the Spurs coming from behind to lead the Glory Team by 2 points.
Pau Gasol played the entire first quarter, constantly confronting Ah Gan on the offensive end.
When he came off to rest, teammate Manu Ginobili asked Gasol, "Pau, how does it feel? Competing against Ah Gan?"
"It hurts like hell."
"The first time is always more painful."
"Damn it, it's my whole body that hurts from the collisions."
In the first quarter, Gasol scored 0 points and had 2 rebounds, 3 attempts, 2 blocks against him, and missed once.
He truly felt what the defensive level of the NBA's historical number one interior defender was, a level he couldn't handle at all.
However, in the second quarter, Gan Guoyang started to teach on the spot, instructing Gasol on how to play.
"You need to cooperate more with your teammates, stay active, leverage your athleticism and height-arm span advantage. You must always be the endpoint in tactical coordination to attack. How can you just try to forcefully play from a low position? Even hard play against O'Neal might not work, do you think you can handle me?"
"The coach instructed me to play this way."
"Popovich is a fool. Listening to him won't get you anywhere, you should listen to me."
Gan Guoyang was candid; any coach in the league could be feared by him, let alone Popovich, who hadn't achieved anything.
Following Gan Guoyang's guidance, Gasol stopped his stationary back-to-the-basket hard play and became more active, cooperated more with the outside, ran more, and raised his hands around the basket to catch passes.
Sure enough, Gasol soon broke his scoring drought. He received an assist from Ginobili inside the basket, and with a single-handed dunk, he scored effortlessly.
This near-range catch dunk, which Gan Guoyang could have blocked in his younger days, was now out of his reach due to slower reactions and poorer explosiveness, leaving him only with the ability to defend with eye contact.
If opponents continued their stationary hard play, Gan Guoyang could still rely on his static strength to block them one by one.
Finding his offensive rhythm, Gasol played better and better. He formed excellent screen coordination with Billups and Ginobili, a skill honed over many years within the European basketball training system, which is a strength of European players.
The second quarter was a closely contested match, with both teams' scores steadily rising, never exceeding a 3-point gap.
Just before the first half's end, Arenas received an inbound pass from Brad Miller, swiftly dashed past half-court, and at the three-point line, suddenly stopped for a long-range shot.
The ball traced a high arc and banked into the hoop with the buzzer's light ending the half!
This shot equalized both teams' scores at 44:44. Arenas was exceptionally excited post-point.
Teammates came over to high-five and hug him. Actually, his first-half performance wasn't great; he hadn't fulfilled his Point Guard duties well.
But his playing style was bold, and he was decisive in his shots, displaying a very aggressive style in games.
Gan Guoyang approached and patted his head, saying, "Be careful next time. These shots can lower your shooting percentage."
"I don't care."
"It's already quite low, you guy, consistently inefficient every game."
"But I made it."
"Well done, next time also make the simple open shots."
Gan Guoyang guided young players from both teams using his approach.
He didn't withhold advice simply because they were opponents, nor did different positions imply he didn't understand.
Using his rich experience, he nurtured the league's young players throughout their growth journey, leaving his mark on them all.
In the second half, the game's confrontation finally stopped being so dull, with Gan Guoyang starting to exert himself in the third quarter.
Shortly after the second half began, he found his rhythm in mid-range jump shots, starting to slaughter the Spurs from two 45-degree angles.
At this moment, neither David Robinson nor Pau Gasol could defend him.
Popovich sent Malik Rose and Stephen Jackson for defense, proving futile as well.
Gan Guoyang seemed like Larry Bird, setting up the mortar just inside the three-point line, ignoring any defense as he bombarded the Spurs' basket.
The 7 points and 5 rebounds from the first half seemed playful compared to the mid-range attack in the third quarter, when he really began the game.
The Spurs tried various ways to respond on both defense and offense, but their defense strategy was originally to guard against threes and the basket.
The Twin Towers' combination was the worst response for the mid-range position. They'd learned many lessons from this in the past.
But there's no way around it; it's a structural and tactical flaw that's difficult to change. They could only hope Ah Gan wouldn't find his rhythm too explosively tonight.
Unfortunately, Gan Guoyang got into the groove. After resting for a year after the new season began, his condition was good, both physically and mentally. Very full of vigor.
He easily reached peak state; the Spurs made no defensive adjustments in the regular-season games—no double-teaming or pressure—just watched as Gan Guoyang made 10 out of 13 mid-range shots in the third quarter and scored 22 points in a single quarter.
No breakthroughs, no threes, plus two free throws.
He scythed the Spurs cleanly, as if carving beef with deft precision.
95:89, the Glory Team capitalized on Gan Guoyang's advantage in the third quarter to secure a 6-point victory.
Gan Guoyang effortlessly scored 35 points throughout the game, dominating the game's flow.
Players like Gasol and Ginobili were still not influential enough in the game.
They need a few more years of growth to pose a significant threat.
After the match ended, Gan Guoyang embraced Pau Gasol and said, "I told you, your coach is a fool, right? He's still a drunkard who doesn't know how to defend me."
Gasol awkwardly smiled, unsure how to respond; why was the Popovich coach he thought was excellent seemingly nothing to Ah Gan?
On the way back to the locker room, Gasol couldn't help but say to Popovich, "Coach, Ah Gan…Ah Gan called you a fool."
Popovich sneered at Gasol, then self-deprecatingly said, "I am a fool indeed; against him, who isn't a fool, aren't you?"
"I'm really not."
"…He's still too kind to you all." Popovich sighed.