The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 409 - 28: Not One of Them

The decision by the league not to change the rules meant that the rivalry between Gan Guoyang and Jordan would continue throughout the season.

Fans were also very curious about who was the real King of Singles this season.

On the scoring list, the two had already pulled far ahead of the players in third and fourth place.

Ranked third and fourth were Dominique Wilkins, averaging 29 points, and Alex English, averaging 28 points.

Both of their averages were nearly 10 points fewer than Jordan and Gan Guoyang, with no one else averaging over 30 points per game.

Other teams could also use tactics that completely clear out the space, with a one-on-four spectator approach.

But no one could sustain the same level of ball usage and output like Ah Gan and Jordan.

Especially Gan Guoyang, who, unlike Jordan under Collins, was not involved in many off-ball tactics, would join in fast breaks, adding some easy-ball points to his account.

As a center, Gan Guoyang did not have as many tactic plays like last year pairing with Walton, scoring as the endpoint of tactics. This year, most of his scoring was hard-earned.

Fast breaks and tactical finishes were mostly passed on to teammates—he would at most snag a couple of offensive rebounds.

Offensive rebounds were not so easy to come by; one had to compete fiercely for them—this season, his offensive rebounds had further declined from his rookie season, now he only crashed the boards for offensive rebounds in critical moments.

This meant that the water in Gan Guoyang’s offense was being squeezed dryer and dryer, within Beelman’s offensive model, Guoyang’s efficiency was terrifyingly high.

"Ah Gan, your performance now is worth 5 million US dollars a year."

After going through an exciting series of consecutive wins, Beelman used the salary level to evaluate Gan Guoyang’s performance.

After all, for the 1986-1987 season, the league’s salary cap was just over 4.9 million US dollars.

In Beelman’s view, Gan Guoyang’s salary alone should exceed the salary cap.

"Only five million? You’re speaking too little, not including my overtime pay," joked Gan Guoyang.

In this period, his usage rate was off the charts, and moreover, he was playing over 40 minutes per game.

"It’s you who requested to stay on the floor, so it doesn’t count as overtime."

"I’m staying on the court to win games and to help the team better coordinate. I don’t want to be like Michael, scoring a lot but losing games. I want to win."

Currently, the Trail Blazers’ record is 18 wins and 7 losses, ranking second in the Western Conference, only behind the Lakers.

The Bulls’ record is 11 wins and 11 losses, exactly a fifty percent winning rate.

In the December 13th game against the Bucks, Jordan, facing Old Nelson’s defense, only scored 11 points for the entire game.

Old Nelson was one of the best coaches in the league at executing marginal defense, he made extensive use of zone defenses and early double-teams.

And the Bucks had a group of guards excellent in defense—Moncrief, Richie Pierce, Paul Pressey—coupled with Jordan’s off shooting night, ended his streak of scoring 40 points in nine consecutive games.

However, in the following games against the Nets and the Pacers, Jordan scored 41 points consecutively, leading the team to victory while continuing to showcase his exceptional scoring ability.

Meanwhile, on December 13th, the Trail Blazers lost to the Detroit Pistons at the Silverdome—a similar reason to the Bulls’ loss to the Bucks, with the Pistons having the league’s best marginal defense.

Against Gan Guoyang’s rampage in the low post, Chuck Daly used two methods to cope: on defense, Melvin Turpin was tasked with sticking to him all game, while the other four players sneakily played a zonal defense.

For example, when Mychal Thompson was positioned way outside passing the ball to Gan Guoyang, Bill Laimbeer and the other three essentially formed a circle at the edge of the three-second zone, wildly probing the illegal defense boundaries.

This was essentially a disguised one-on-four zone, and while the referees called illegal defense twice, the Pistons players just had to step outside for a moment. Once Gan Guoyang got the ball in the low post, they would quickly shrink back to double-team him in time.

The second method, on offense, was simpler and more brutal—having Dantley mismatch and attack Gan Guoyang, using the home court advantage to draw fouls and get the referees to call Gan off the court.

This was the most effective method out of all those used against Gan Guoyang—you can’t outplay him, so just let him sit on the sideline.

Thanks to the Detroit Pistons, Gan Guoyang had less than 40 minutes of playing time for the first time this season, playing only 35 minutes and scoring just 20 points.

The Trail Blazers lost the game on the road with a 108:115 deficit, a 7-point disadvantage, ending their 7-game winning streak.

Compared with last year, the Pistons felt utterly transformed.

During the draft, they chose John Salley with the 11th pick in the first round and Dennis Rodman with the 3rd pick in the second round, both long-limbed forwards.

Acquiring Dantley significantly strengthened the team’s low-post offense, and his ability to draw fouls and get to the free-throw line improved the Pistons’ control over the game’s tempo.

After the start of the new season, the Pistons had an impressive momentum; although their record was not dominant in the Eastern Conference and they lost some games, the ones they won were against strong teams.

On November 5th, they defeated the Washington Bullets; on the 7th, they handed the Bulls a loss; on the 28th, they won by a 30-point margin against the Bucks; and on December 11th, they beat the Los Angeles Lakers in a tough match.

Even though Magic Johnson scored 34 points with 9 assists at the Silverdome, and Worthy added 22 points, the other Lakers players were comprehensively suppressed, which could be seen from Johnson’s assists count; he couldn’t spur the whole team’s offense.

The Pistons’ defense was effective, and Chuck Daly, after three years of hard work in Detroit, began to feel like his efforts were starting to bear fruit during the 1986-1987 season. They were rapidly rising with great potential.

After the game against the Pistons, Gan Guoyang joked that he was thankful to the Detroit Pistons for giving him a chance to take a break.

In the following game in Cleveland, Gan Guoyang scored 52 points, dominating Brad Daugherty, whom he had trained with at the big man camp during the summer, giving him an NBA rookie’s welcome.

The Trail Blazers swept the Cavaliers with a 134:101 victory at the Rifield Submarine.

However, despite the Cavaliers’ crushing defeat, their overall situation had improved a lot compared to the previous two seasons.

At the very least, their home crowd wasn’t as sparse and pitiable as before; the arena was packed full, with no one smoking in the top-tier seats.

Lenny Wilkens led the Cavaliers on a path of gradual revival.

After leaving Cleveland, as time moved into mid-December, the Trail Blazers team took a flight to Los Angeles. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

They were set to encounter the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time this season on December 18th.

Compared to the past two seasons, this first battle came much later; both teams from the Pacific Division had played over twenty games before meeting.

Having had a disappointing defending season, the Lakers entered the playoffs with high hopes, believing they could defeat the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals.

Instead, they couldn’t even get past the semi-finals, being ousted by the Rockets, which left the entire Lakers organization deeply disappointed and led Jerry Buss to consider making a move on James Worthy.

He wanted to send Worthy to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre and the seventh overall draft pick, with Magic Johnson, a good friend of Aguirre, pushing for the deal.

When the trade was about to succeed, an infuriated Jerry West, having heard the news, immediately called Buss, threatening to resign unless Buss scrapped the deal.

This incident revealed West’s extraordinary intuition and insistence on basketball rosters, highlighting his strength compared to most follow-the-herd management.

It also showed Buss’s willingness to be adaptable, respecting West’s opinion, keeping Worthy, and preserving the team’s core lineup.

Jerry West explicitly stated that unless they could get Ah Gan and Jordan, this core lineup should not be touched under any circumstances.

West knew the main threat for the Lakers in the new season for a championship would be the Trail Blazers, who had acquired Duckworth and secured guard Wesley Matthews.

AC Green matured further, capable of replacing the mentally shattered Kurt Rambis.

Of course, most importantly, 27-year-old Magic Johnson had truly entered his prime this year.

He started fully replacing Jabbar as the Lakers’ undisputed number one core player and was one of the best performers in the league up to this point in the season.

If it weren’t for the scoring frenzy of Gan Guoyang and Jordan in singles play, there wouldn’t have been a "one of" in that statement.