Bibby and Wei Bo's pick-and-roll is different from the Malone-Stockton pick-and-roll. Utah's pick-and-roll is more about setting up Malone to score, because Malone has the strength and explosiveness, while Stockton's own scoring is just average.
Bibby, on the other hand, is a much stronger scorer. After he runs the pick-and-roll with Wei Bo, he gets a ton of catch-and-shoot mid-range looks—quick, precise, and with a high conversion rate.
Plus, the series of options that come from Wei Bo rolling inside or popping out really enrich their playbook and puts huge pressure on the opposing defense.
Bell's dogged, biting defense is really fierce, and it throws Bibby off a bit for the moment, so the King shift their offensive focus onto Divac.
Divac backs down Miller on the low block and scores, but then when he tries to drive down the middle, his layup gets blocked by Gan Guoyang.
In transition, Gan Guoyang fires a long pass to Padgett at the right 45-degree angle. Padgett catches and launches a quick three—hits again! His second three of the second quarter!
The Glory Team are rapidly cutting into the lead, but Adelman doesn't panic. The King still have the bench advantage, and a bit of grinding in the second quarter is no big deal.
If they can wear out Ah Gan's energy, the third and fourth quarters will be much easier for the King.
The crafty Bibby starts drawing fouls in succession on offense to take the edge off Raja Bell's defensive intensity, goes to the line and sinks both to maintain the lead.
After a brief burst of rapid scoring, Glory's offense stalls out again.
This is the biggest issue in Glory's offense right now, and also the dilemma of many mid-tier teams: a lack of continuity on offense.
For a stretch they can be on fire, feel like they can shred any defense—but once that surge passes, the momentum nosedives.
It's like a national economy with only one growth engine: the downturn comes fast. Only with a second and third engine can the growth keep rolling on and on.
Player ability is one part of it. Glory, after all, just don't have the personnel. Gan Guoyang has to save his stamina for the second half; he can't burn out too early.
Then there's the tactics. Tomjanovich is not exactly a master of system offenses, and Glory's playbook is pretty fragmented, with too little time for the team to gel.
The result of having no real system is that the variations aren't rich enough. It's easy for things to devolve into chaos mid-game—those few plays only work for a while, and when situations change, everyone just starts freelancing and leaving it up to fate.
In the end they just give the ball to the alpha. You can still win playing like that—plenty of NBA teams do—but it's exhausting.
Gan Guoyang wants the Glory Team to keep improving, to run more smoothly as a team, and to win more games.
The two teams actually go blow for blow in the second quarter. Offensively it's fast and fluid, with varied attacks and smooth teamwork.
This kind of game is probably what fans love most: offense-oriented but without slacking on defense, fast-paced but not chaotic. There are a lot of threes, but it's not just chucking nonstop; every kind of offensive option gets its share, giving the fans a constantly changing visual feast of basketball.
Everything's running so smoothly that even the refs seem reluctant to interrupt such a slick game flow—no whistles, no timeouts.
In the end, the scorer's table can't take it anymore and calls an official timeout—the TV station has to run commercials. Only then do the players head back to their benches.
Rick Adelman pulls out the whiteboard and has just said a couple of sentences to his players when he looks up and feels something's off… Since when did we have an Asian player on our team?
Ah Gan, why the hell did you come over to our bench!
"Sonny, did you come to the wrong bench?"
"I'm just here to learn something. Hurry up and keep talking, Rick!"
"Our next play: Vlade, on the low block, give Ah Gan an elbow and knock him out of here."
At this point, the ref realizes something's wrong, quickly comes over and escorts Gan Guoyang away. The little tactic-eavesdropping mission fails.