The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 284 - 24 Offense

The Jazz have always been a team that Gan Guoyang highly regards, not just because his good friend Stockton is on the team.

They are not very strong, a small-market team without any superstars, but they play smart and tenaciously as a team.

Playing against a smart team is quite enjoyable as it requires constant thought, invoking the mind more than just relying on physical ability and skills.

Of course, facing off against the Houston Twin Towers is also very exciting, offering a different kind of game enjoyment.

When Gan Guoyang saw Stockton and Malone enter the game, he knew the Jazz’s tactical rhythm was bound to change.

The Jazz started off very well. The biggest weakness of zone defense is the threat posed by shooters, and Henson’s successive shots gave the Jazz an advantage.

Gan Guoyang quickly disrupted Henson’s shooting rhythm with harassing defense, and he also kept an eye on Bailey and the Tree, as both of their offenses were mediocre.

If all else failed, Thompson, Vandeweghe, and others would come over to commit fouls; this was their defensive understanding, to not easily allow the Jazz’s big men to score comfortably under the rim.

Of course, if it was Dantley, no matter what kind of opportunity he got, it was better not to foul him and let him find his rhythm at the free-throw line.

A side effect of Dantley’s continuous free throws was the slowing down of the game’s pace; the guy took too long before his free throws, dilly-dallying.

Karl Malone was also sluggish at free throws, just like Dantley. Apart from personal habits and establishing signature moves, there was another important reason: it was the coach’s intention.

Coaches who prefer to slow down the pace and play a defensive-oriented game always instruct their players to intentionally slow down during free throws, to let the pace of the game drop, and to dishearten those fast-break teams from getting into their running rhythm.

In previous games, as soon as the Trail Blazers started to speed up, Layden would instruct Dantley to draw fouls and make free throws, dawdling for about ten seconds at the free-throw line.

Thus, any sense of a fast offense that the Trail Blazers managed to find would be eroded during those ten seconds of waiting, and gradually the game would return to a half-court setting.

But tonight, Dantley’s attempts to draw fouls were ineffective.

After Stockton entered the game, his demeanor was calm as water, with not a word to Gan Guoyang, not even sparing him more than a glance.

This was Stockton in game mode, fully engaged with no room for personal feelings, not even thinking about the proposal.

He dribbled past half court, observing the Trail Blazers’ defense from a distance, aware that the Trail Blazers had traps in their defense.

The first pass was crucial; who you pass to, and to which position, would determine the initiation of the offense.

At this moment, Bill Walton had already come off the bench. Ramsay always used Walton early in the first quarter.

After playing out the latter part of the first quarter and the transition portion of the second quarter, he would rest.

In the third quarter, he would come in during the latter part to replace Gan Guoyang, because Gan Guoyang would usually have a burst of energy in the third quarter and needed rest at the end.

Then in the fourth quarter, it would be decided based on the court situation whether to pair Gan Guoyang with Walton or Gan Guoyang with Thompson.

Different combinations would lead to different chemical reactions on the court. Since the season had just begun, Ramsay was still fine-tuning.

This frontcourt combination of center + power forward was something Ramsay excelled at; he was a master of frontcourt offense.

After observing for a while, Stockton suddenly made a high lob to Mark-Eaton in the paint.

This pass was unexpected, and Eaton caught the ball smoothly, using his strong body to push Walton aside and hook shot with his left hand.

However, the shot was disturbed and missed, but he grabbed the offensive rebound and scored with a one-handed dunk!

These two centers, one who couldn’t jump and the other who had trouble getting off the ground, engaged in a matchbox war in the paint.

But Stockton delivered a great pass, sensing that the Trail Blazers’ defensive pressure was expanding outwards rather than collapsing inwards.

Gan Guoyang and Drexler were eager to attack, and they knew that if a pick-and-roll or hand-off play was to be made on the perimeter, they would be aggressively countered.

Stockton chose a surprising inside lob, finding the fragile spot in the Trail Blazers’ defense in an instant.

In forcing the opponent to make defensive choices, Stockton has always been top-notch, able to discern the direction of momentum.

Defense should follow the flow, whereas offense should counter it, catching the opponent off guard.

Gan Guoyang inbounds the ball from the baseline to Parkson, then made a simple gesture.

Parkson understood; Gan Guoyang wanted to go one-on-one.

At the left 45-degree angle, Gan Guoyang fiercely boxed out Malone.

Malone felt suffocated.

"Damn it, why is he so heavy!"

"Didn’t John say Ah Gan had lost weight?"

"Fuck..."

Before Malone could voice more complaints, Gan Guoyang had already turned around after the catch and cleanly bypassed Malone.

Malone put too much effort into holding his ground, which ended up making him the pivot as Gan Guoyang leaned against him to turn around. Facing the help defense from the Tree in the three-second zone, Gan Guoyang sprung up and slammed a left-handed dunk!

He tore through the Jazz’s interior defense duo with ease; the Tree was tall, but his speed was not fast enough to react.

"Clyde! Double team!"

Gan Guoyang shouted to Drexler.

The two of them double-teamed Stockton, with Parkson guarding Henson.

These two players’ double-teaming was the most forceful, and once they stole the ball, they could immediately launch a fast-break.

Stockton immediately protected the ball and passed it to the approaching Malone, who hesitated for a moment.

Gan Guoyang quickly pounced and slapped the ball out of his hands, Drexler sprinted forward, and Gan Guoyang passed the ball.

The Glider took off again, executing the second dunk of the first quarter!

From the sidelines, Layden shouted, "Karl, what are you daydreaming about! Can’t tell which side is your own basket?"

Actually, Malone only hesitated briefly about what to do next, but he hadn’t expected Gan Guoyang to make his move so quickly.

"Focus, Karl," Stockton reminded Malone.

Rookies are most prone to lapses in concentration when they first play in the NBA, as the intensity is a level higher than in the NCAA.

Especially when the opponent suddenly ramps up defensive pressure, such as this kind of double-teaming, it really tests a player’s focus.

With concentration and sync in passing, one can successfully break through, making the opponent’s punches land on cotton.

A lack of focus results in this, the score gap further widening.

The Trail Blazers used a burst of intensity to pull ahead, then returned to a more relaxed state.

But the Jazz still needed to find an offensive solution, and Malone started to move inside, seeking a position to attack with the ball.

Gan Guoyang marked him closely; now that Walton was in the paint, he could devote more energy to defending outside the three-second area.

Malone called for the ball with his back to the basket, but he wasn’t posting up firmly at all, just standing at the elbow of the three-second zone, back to Gan Guoyang.

Stockton passed the ball anyway, but Gan Guoyang slapped it away from behind, and Vandeweghe secured it.

"Are you only eating watermelon instead of a meal? Why so soft and sweet? Post up!"

As Gan Guoyang ran upcourt, he shouted at Malone.

Malone wasn’t a post player who liked to set up in position because when he posted up, it was just to get the ball and then turn to face the basket; he rarely played with his back to the basket.

In this regard, his playing habits weren’t as good as Dantley’s, who had strong low-post positioning skills and could sometimes go one-on-one with Gan Guoyang all by himself.

Moreover, Malone’s style of play on the court was lackadaisical; while running, he neither watched the people nor the ball, just gazed upwards, as if something was up there.

His body wasn’t compact when running; both his arms swung idly, loose and slack as if about to fall off.

The result was Walton holding the ball high, performing a classic top-of-the-arc playmaking move, giving the ball to Gan Guoyang who cut to the basket, Gan Guoyang caught the ball and easily scored a layup.

This play Vandeweghe and Gan Guoyang executed a tactical decoy; it seemed like Gan Guoyang was setting a screen for Vandeweghe, but in reality, it was a fake screen with a backdoor cut.

Malone had just looked down from the sky and hadn’t even seen what play the Trail Blazers ran before Gan Guoyang was already under the basket scoring.

"Damn... how so fast?"

Gan Guoyang looked at the bewildered Malone and said, "Did you really tell Coach Layden that you could handle me, so he let you guard me?"

Malone shook his head, "No, I didn’t say that."

Gan Guoyang ran to the sidelines and shouted at Layden, "Frank! Do you even know how to coach? Are you looking down on me? You’re letting Karl defend me alone? Have I offended you in any way?"

Layden laughed loudly, "Yes, you scored too many points in the first quarter!"

Gan Guoyang had already scored 12 points in the first quarter, and did so with ease.

Malone, upon hearing their conversation, felt so embarrassed he wanted to cry, but what could he do?

In terms of height, strength, speed, or skill, he was far behind Gan Guoyang.

Without double-teaming, Gan Guoyang could easily overpower Malone one-on-one.

Whether Malone posted up or moved to the front, Gan Guoyang stood firm like the Tree, almost entirely immovable.

In the final moment of the first quarter, Gan Guoyang received a pass from Walton and drove down the middle, dunking the ball over Malone!

Malone flew out of bounds like a kite with a broken string, rolling on the ground before tumbling into the seats.

When he got up, the referee told him, "You’ve committed a blocking foul."

Tears welled up in his eyes; he ran to the sidelines and pretended to wipe sweat with a towel, concealing his tears that he couldn’t hold back.

Gan Guoyang hit the additional free throw, scoring 21 points in the first quarter and helping the Trail Blazers to a 35:23 lead over the Jazz, a solid 12-point advantage.

[Every time Layden reminded Malone "You’re not trying hard enough," and Malone would say "I’m trying my best," Layden would use Ah Gan to push him, shaming him with the comparison of their game stats.

"If you can’t do it, I can find someone else who will!" Layden would say to Malone.

Layden told Malone that great players have a great work ethic; he told him that Jabbar, when he was in Milwaukee, would run before dawn every day.

And Stockton told Malone that back in high school in San Francisco, Ah Gan would get up early to run and train until dark without fail, a routine he never broke for many years.

So, in the off-season of 1986, Malone made the gym his second home, with $100,000 worth of fitness equipment, and a jacket that he had been wearing since high school - by the time summer ended, that jacket had become too small to wear anymore.]

————Published in 1999, an excerpt from Karl Malone’s biography "Special Delivery: the amazing basketball career of Karl Malone" written by Latimer Clay.