The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 317 - 55 Incitement Crime

From an absolute strength perspective, this year’s Trail Blazers far exceeded the Detroit Pistons, especially with their frontcourt lineup.

The 1980s were the era of the frontcourt players, with tall centers and swift forwards filling the three-second area. They were also capable of launching fast breaks to directly attack the basket, and championship teams all boasted impressive frontcourts.

Backcourt players, on the other hand, served more as vital supplements to the frontcourt, executing defense, orchestrating plays, and taking some set shots. Aside from oddities like Magic Johnson, most teams centered around a smaller guard struggled to make a breakthrough.

The Bucks and Pistons are typical examples, and the guard groups of the Celtics in the 60s and 70s no longer had dominance, for even the Celtics themselves were stacking their frontcourt.

The NBA’s cycle of order and chaos basically alternated between "guard + center" vs "a lot of forwards + swingmen."

Now that Daley had Thomas, Dumars, and Vinnie Johnson off the bench, he didn’t have many demands for his backcourt.

He and the team manager McLoskey’s main expectation for the roster was focused on the frontcourt, power forward, small forward, center—each position needed to add sufficient combat power.

As soon as the game started, the Trail Blazers’ frontcourt showed their destructive power. Gan Guoyang won the ball, Vandeweghe missed from the outside, Guoyang passed the offensive rebound to Thompson, Thompson received the ball and dunked with both hands, scoring the game’s first points.

Dumars missed an outside shot, Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound and passed to Drexler. The Glider charged forward with his head down, drawing a defensive foul from Melvin Turpin under the basket.

At the free-throw line, he made both shots, Trail Blazers leading 4:0.

Although Drexler played as a shooting guard, he was essentially a forward.

At 6 feet 7 inches tall, with the explosiveness of a leopard and great speed, he also had outstanding finishing abilities.

In contrast, Tripucka, as a forward, was only 6 feet 6 inches tall, very strong, and full of passion on the court, but he took too many jump shots.

Especially in the past two years, Tripucka’s jump shots increased so much that people started calling it "Tripucka’s triple threat: shoot, shoot, and shoot."

Even during fast breaks and drives to the basket, he sometimes resorted to jump shots to finish plays, resulting in fewer and fewer free throws per game.

In his rookie season, he could average 8 free throws per game, but now, he only averaged 5, not few, but somewhat insufficient for the Pistons, who already lacked low-post scoring ability.

The Pistons’ free throws were among the fewest in the League.

The arrival of Melvin Turpin was good news, but Daley did not plan to design too many low-post offensive strategies for him since Turpin lacked that ability, and Isiah Thomas disliked that kind of game rhythm.

When Tripucka’s shot against Vandeweghe missed again from the perimeter, Daley felt a headache coming on as the rebound was once again taken by Guoyang.

The Trail Blazers did not launch a fast break; they controlled the pace, with Drexler bringing the ball past half-court awaiting Guoyang’s positioning.

Against the Bucks, Guoyang showcased his strong low-post attack capability, forcing the Pistons to remain highly cautious about his positioning.

Then, a whistle from the referee called an illegal defense against the Pistons. Dumars was too close to Guoyang and too far from Drexler.

Vandeweghe made the resulting free throw, and then Guoyang received the ball in the low post again, turned around the baseline past Lan Bi’er, and dunked with his right hand!

Lan Bi’er, facing any other center in the league, including Jabbar, was fearless and somewhat adept at dealing with them, but found Guoyang particularly troubling.

For example, against Jabbar, even though he couldn’t stop him, Lan Bi’er could position himself high during the offense, using screens and shots to trouble the Lakers’ defense.

In an important January game against the Lakers, just as the Pistons were recovering from a spate of losses and Daley was beginning to stabilize his coaching position, the two teams fought evenly at the Silverdome, tied at 115:115. With the Pistons’ last possession, Lan Bi’er came out to receive the ball for Tripucka, who evaded Worthy’s steal and hit a game-winning three-point shot.

Following that game, the Pistons went on a winning streak, Daley’s job as head coach was secured, Joe Dumars established his starting position, and Melvin Turpin began to blend into the team.

But such a play wouldn’t work against the Trail Blazers; if Lan Bi’er came out to assist, Guoyang wouldn’t just camp in the three-second area like Jabbar but would closely follow Lan Bi’er.

The Lakers assigned Lucas to watch Lan Bi’er. When Worthy risked a steal and was bypassed, Tripucka found himself unguarded, and as Lucas tried to make up ground, it was too late—Tripucka nailed the three-pointer right in his face.

But if it were Ah Gan, his speed, burst, and reach would likely block Tripucka’s three-point attempt; Lan Bi’er might as well have stayed in the paint because by standing outside, he was just luring a wolf out, causing trouble for his teammates.

The Trail Blazers started with a 7:0 lead, and Thomas couldn’t hold back anymore. Using his individual skills, he penetrated to the basket against Guoyang’s interference and arced a high shot off the backboard, scoring.

Immediately after, Vandeweghe made a mid-range shot against Tripucka. In terms of poor defense, Tripucka and Vandeweghe were on the same level; the difference was that Vandeweghe had someone to cover for him, whereas Tripucka did not.

The first quarter was entirely under the Trail Blazers’ control; they consistently maintained a 6 to 8-point lead, and the game was relatively peaceful, without much physical conflict.