The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 443 - 61st - : Dog-Walking Style of Fighting

Although Jordan lost a considerable amount of money to Gan Guoyang at the card table, he still gave Guoyang a gift before parting: a pair of expensive Rolex watches.

Jordan said it was a wedding gift for Guoyang, which made Guoyang feel extremely uneasy. Having won money from Jordan and now accepting his gift, as the saying goes, to accept a person’s gift is to accept his influence. Guoyang made a promise, "In tomorrow’s match, we’ll win by less, at most by five points."

Jordan could only express his feelings with his middle finger, but after Guoyang left, Juanita gently said, "Michael, I think you were very happy tonight."

"Happy? I lost everything, and even gave that damn guy a pair of couple’s watches. And about tomorrow’s game, to be honest, I’m not sure we can win."

In front of Juanita, Jordan didn’t mind showing his vulnerability; the Bulls truly had a significant gap in strength compared to the Trail Blazers.

The Bulls’ lineup depended entirely on Jordan. Every night, Jordan had to give it his all, and if he was just average in his performance, it was very hard for the Bulls to win.

No one could step up on nights when Jordan wasn’t at his best to take on the majority of the responsibility for winning. It would be good enough if the others could perform normally without dragging Jordan down.

Jordan would complain and criticize his teammates, something that wasn’t quite like Guoyang. He always openly expressed his negative opinions, rather than keeping them hidden.

His purpose in doing so was not to suppress anyone or to get rid of them. He simply wanted his teammates to keep pace with him.

Whoever couldn’t keep up would get an earful from him, which made the rest of the team somewhat afraid of him. The only one who wasn’t really afraid of Jordan was Charles Oakley, because he was performing well and always spoke up for Jordan, whether on or off the court.

Since entering the NBA, the past few seasons hadn’t been easy for Jordan. People around him were constantly changing.

The coach had been changed three times. Of the 11 teammates who fought alongside Jordan during his rookie season, only Dave Corzine remained after just two years; the others had all been traded away.

This included talented players like Wes Matthews, Ulrich, and Steve Johnson, but they were all traded, and now Jordan didn’t even have a teammate who averaged over 15 points per game.

In contrast, Guoyang was much luckier. The Trail Blazers had a stable core lineup and a stable coaching team. Over three years, his personal skills and the team’s strength had steadily improved.

Juanita understood Jordan’s unease. Leaning on Jordan’s broad shoulders, she said, "Sonny is an interesting guy, much more interesting than anyone else in the League. If one day you could defeat him in the finals..."

Jordan laughed, saying, "I can’t even imagine what that would be like; I’d feel like I was standing at the peak. In my lifetime, I will definitely defeat him."

Juanita looked at Jordan, the young man’s face radiating confidence, a glow so attractive that it made one feel like there were no difficulties in life that couldn’t be overcome.

Of course, Guoyang was the difficulty that Jordan had not yet been able to overcome. The road ahead of him was still very, very long.

The next day, the much-anticipated showdown between the Trail Blazers and the Bulls was set to erupt in the Chicago Stadium. Before the game began, Guoyang and Jordan looked full of vigor.

They were both incredibly energetic players, and last night’s party and card game had no effect on their physical fitness. Instead, it made their desire to fight even stronger.

Especially Jordan, thinking about how he had lost everything the night before, he couldn’t wait to score 50 points on Guoyang’s head to soothe his resentment.

Apart from the outcome of the game, the biggest highlight was the scoring battle between Jordan and Guoyang.

Guoyang’s average scoring still led Jordan by 0.3 points, and their battle for the scoring title was likely to extend to the last game of the regular season.

The attendance at the Chicago Stadium was worlds apart compared to the previous two seasons. In the 1984 season, the Bulls had about 250,000 attendees over 41 home games.

With Jordan’s arrival in the 1985 season, that nearly doubled to 480,000, and this season, the Bulls’ home game attendance was likely to exceed 600,000.

Tonight’s game was sold out, a setting most fitting for the two of them to perform.

As expected, right from the start of the game, Jordan and Guoyang both showed intense aggressiveness.

Jordan had no intention of starting the game by getting his teammates involved; to rely on them would undoubtedly mean a loss. He had to start with an all-out offense to get into the zone.

Guoyang wasn’t courteous either. He took the ball and attacked from the outset, not bothering to observe the Bulls’ defense. Upon receiving the ball, he immediately launched an attack, damaging the Bulls’ inside line.

The two teams fought neck and neck in the first quarter. Jordan’s offense felt very good. The Trail Blazers insisted on one-on-one defense on the outside, with no double-teaming or help defense, leaving Drexler to defend alone.

Drexler was in agony, unable to guard, and was continuously isolated by Jordan, who scored 18 points in the first quarter, while Gan Guoyang scored 14 points, tying the game.

In the second quarter, Jordan continued to stay on the court, while Gan Guoyang took a break, Walton came on, and Drexler began to lead the Trail Blazers’ offense.

The Trail Blazers’ advantage began to show, even without Gan Guoyang on the court, they were still able to maintain offensive efficiency and stable scoring.

On the defensive end, the Trail Blazers continued to stick with one-on-one defense, without any double-team rotations, letting Jordan score as he pleased, no big deal even if it meant wearing Drexler down to death.

When Jordan took a break in the middle of the second quarter, Gan Guoyang returned to the court and immediately helped the Trail Blazers pull away with a 10:0 run.

At this point, Jordan had to come back on the court and start frantically scoring points, while the Trail Blazers and Gan Guoyang were in no hurry anymore, slowly grinding out a positional battle with the Bulls.

Towards the end of the season, the Trail Blazers had increasingly better control over the game’s tempo, and with Bill Walton’s return, they had reached a state of perfection.

Jordan slowly realized that the Trail Blazers were not just playing basketball, but fishing, walking a dog, dangling a bait in front of you for you to chase, and once you were exhausted, they would suddenly reel you in effortlessly, leaving you powerless to resist.

At halftime, the Bulls were down by 3 points to the Trail Blazers, with Jordan already scoring 30 points, but Gan Guoyang also had 25 points.

Every time Jordan led the team to close the gap, Gan Guoyang always had a response; when the Bulls couldn’t score, the Trail Blazers wouldn’t counterattack, instead, Gan Guoyang passed the ball to his teammates, coordinating their offense.

"Damn Ah Gan and the Trail Blazers, they are toying with us!" In the locker room, Jordan complained to his teammates and coach Collins.

Collins understood what Jordan meant, but he could only say, "This is the strength of the Portland people, we must keep up with them tightly so as not to lose the game too early."

Jordan reluctantly agreed with Collins’ statement, as it was the Trail Blazers’ open strategy to leisurely play with you the whole game and then power through to send you home in the end.

If you can’t even keep up half the way, the Trail Blazers wouldn’t even need to wait until the end to power through; they could break you in the third quarter.

In the Trail Blazers’ locker room, Bobby Beelman was looking at the halftime statistics, assessing the team’s performance.

Gan Guoyang was as stable as ever, Drexler and Porter played well on offense, but the biggest surprise was Jerome Kossie, whose presence perfectly filled the gap left by Kenny-Carl.

One could even say that Kenny-Carl’s season-ending injury led to greater progress for the Trail Blazers because a veteran player like Karl had limited room for improvement.

On the contrary, the young Jerome Kossie, energetic on both ends of the court, had performed well since the All-Star game, and with Bill Walton’s return, the Trail Blazers were at their best.

Their walking-the-dog style not only helped the team win but also greatly boosted the players’ confidence, incidentally crushing the opponents and reducing energy consumption during regular season games.

Beelman and Ramsay, Adelman discussed tactics for the second half, deciding to slightly increase playing time for Hornacek and Dale Curry in the third quarter to give them a sense of Jordan’s intensity. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Jeff, you’ll get about three minutes against Jordan in the second half," Ramsay told Hornacek.

"Ah?" Hornacek was a bit stunned, with Jordan scoring 30 points in the first half, and now they wanted me to handle him?

Why not let Ah Gan do it? Hornacek anxiously kept touching his face.

For any guard in the league, guarding Jordan, was just like a center being asked to guard Gan Guoyang—both were suicidal tasks.

"We’re giving you an opportunity to train," Beelman added.

The Trail Blazers were that confident now, treating Jordan as a tool to train their young players.

In the third quarter, sure enough, Hornacek was assigned to guard Jordan one-on-one.

Seeing Hornacek’s 30-year-old veteran face, Jordan said, "Doesn’t the Trail Blazers’ coaching staff know you’re a rookie, letting you guard me?"

Hornacek replied, "They told me to get some practice, since you guys can’t win anyway, we have Ah Gan."