On December 22, 1984, the Houston Peak Arena was 20 minutes away from the start of the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers game. The stadium was full.

Hawkers selling popcorn and soft drinks in the arena were rushing around, and Houston fans were waiting in their seats in various colorful clothes.

This is the first time Gan Guoyang has come to Houston, a space city where he once fantasized about playing basketball.

Of course, Gan Guoyang cannot forget that he "was" a Rockets fan, squatted in front of the TV at the school's convenience store for countless noons and watched the Rockets' games with his classmates.

He was excited for Yao Ming's outstanding performance and regretted every setback of Yao Ming, which constituted the main content of Gan Guoyang's nearly ten years of fan career in later generations.

So, when he first came to the Rockets' home court - although it was the Rockets more than 20 years ago, he had no reason to feel a sense of affection - although Houston fans were also at all kind to him.

The fans of Houston, Texas, who came to be as wild as cowboys. Unlike the fans of the Trail Blazers, the fans of the Rockets at home seem to be more scattered, not as high and excited as they are always casual.

Of course, this does not mean that they don’t care about the team’s victory, nor does it mean that they will let Gan Guoyang go, the “Houston enemy”.

Gan Guoyang's decisive victory in the 1984 NCAA Finals shattered the dream of an NCAA championship at the University of Houston, which also made local fans dislike this Chinese center.

If it was in Detroit or Philadelphia, Gan Guoyang would probably have been greeted by fans all over the place when he warmed up on the court.

It’s just that in Houston, or in most western cities, most of the people who come to watch the game live are middle-class, and parents bring their children to watch the game together, so this situation is quite rare.

But Gan Guoyang was also ready to welcome the booing of the fans, and he vowed to avenge his defeat in the last game.

Compared to Gan Guoyang's intention to take revenge, Drexler's thoughts are much more complicated.

Drexler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and his family moved to Houston, where he completed both high school and college studies.

After graduating from college, he participated in the 1983 NBA Draft. At that time, the Houston Rockets held two top picks and three top picks.

Drexler was promised by Rockets head coach Del Harris that the Rockets will sign Drexler at the third pick, so Drexler rejected many team requests.

However, before the draft began, Del Harris was fired by the Rockets, and Bill Fitch, who stepped down from the Celtics, served as the Rockets' new head coach.

This time, the Rockets' commitment to Drexler was naturally empty, and Drexler was also told that the Rockets may not pick him up in the draft.

Later, Drexler received a trial call from the Trail Blazers, and in the end he was defeated by the Trail Blazers in the 13th pick without any preparation.

This not only shattered Drexler's dream of continuing to play in Houston, but also made him unable to become teammates with his good friend Olajuwon, and the two of them also wanted to be opponents.

Now, Drexler's good teammates are enemies of the University of Houston, and they are sent to Gan Guoyang in the West.

When Drexler thought of this, the complex emotions in his heart were indescribable.

After the routine opening ceremony and player introduction, the game was about to begin soon. When DJ reported to Gan Guoyang's name, he heard a boo.

Gan Guoyang is no longer surprised by this, on the contrary, this kind of booing can inspire fighting spirit.

Drexler still did not get the chance to start, so he could only sit on the bench and watch his teammates fight against the Rockets.

"We must show off our momentum at the beginning. If we are ahead of the away game, it will be very difficult for us." Ramsey made the final instructions before the game. He hoped that the Trail Blazers could change their previous unstable state and return to the right track.

The starting lineups of both sides are the same as in the last game. The Trail Blazers are still Gan Guoyang, Sampson, Paxson, Van derwich and Valentine; while the Rockets continue the three-no. The lineup is center Akim Olajuwon, power forward Ralph Sampson, small forward Rodney McGray, shooting guard Lewis Roed and point guard John Lucas.

"Good morning, Akim." Gan Guoyang looked at Olajuwon opposite and asked hello.

"It's night now." Olajuwang glanced at Gan Guoyang and said coldly.

"The United States is at night, but China is at morning." Gan Guoyang said with a smile.

However, Olajuwon obviously didn't think this joke was funny. In his heart, he never let go of the NCAA finals game, so he naturally wouldn't regard Gan Guoyang as a friend.

In a sense, Olajuwon, like Gan Guoyang, is both perfectionists, and they all pursue basketball skills tirelessly.

After coming to the NBA, Olajuwon honed himself day and night. His turnover jump shot has become more and more proficient. What he lacks is the test of the playoffs.

His steps are more flexible and changeable. Although he has not reached the "dream" situation, his turn and move can already make his opponent miserable.

On the defensive end, his blocks are still extremely deterrent. Although he cannot "play volleyball" casually in the NBA like he was in college, he averaged 2.7 blocks per game, making him ranked second among rookies in 1984, second only to Gan Guoyang's 2.9 times.

But he still felt that he was looking at the back of No. 11 and was chasing hard.

In the first game against the Trail Blazers, although the Rockets won the victory, Gan Guoyang sent the two towers alone, and his amazing performance of scoring 33 points obviously surpassed Olajuwon.

In the last game, Gan Guoyang scored 43 points in Jinzhou in a single game, setting a new high for this rookie, which made Olajuwon even more depressed.

In the game against the Bulls four days ago, Olajuwon scored 24 points in the game and gave the Bulls a loss, and Jordan only scored 18 points.

Olajuwon was very happy like this, but when he saw the news report of Gan Guoyang's 43 points in a single game, he couldn't be happy again.

As the No. 1 pick in 1984, Olajuwon only ranked third in the ranking of the best rookies this year. One of the top two ranks the top scorer per game, while the other dominated the average rebounding list. This put Olajuwon under great pressure and also had great motivation.

"I will beat you so much that your father doesn't even know you." Olajuwon responded to Gan Guoyang.

"Then I will beat you so that my dad knows you!" Gan Guoyang retaliated without hesitation when he heard Olajuwon's provocation.

Before the competition began, the two of them were already full of gunpowder.

However, the player who jumped the ball sent by the Rockets was not Gan Guoyang, but Ralph Sampson, who was 7-foot-4.

Although Olajuwon performed well in the last Rockets game, Gan Guoyang knew that Sampson was the key player of the Rockets. His agility that was not commensurate with his height made the Trail Blazers suffer a lot.

The Trail Blazers' No. 1 pick, Mitchell Sampson, had the least chance of playing such a player. Ramsey had to use double-teaming, which also made the Trail Blazers' line-up loopholes and gave the Rockets many opportunities.

Ralph Sampson, who has had one year of NBA experience, is obviously more experienced than Olajuwon and is more difficult to deal with in the game.

So Ramsey had already asked before the game to let Gan Guoyang go to defend Ralph Sampson and hand over Olajuwon to Mitchell.

Ralph Sampson is tall and has long arms, and his jump is excellent. In this case, although Gan Guoyang is stronger, he cannot gain the lead in the game.

Sampson was the first to touch the ball and pushed the ball towards his players.

However, the Trail Blazers point guard Valentine took the lead in the scramble to take the lead in using his flexibility to take the ball away from the Rockets players.

The Trail Blazers players were moved at the news. Van derwich and Paxson rushed towards the opponent's half, one left and one right, Valentine passed the ball to Paxson, and Paxson dribbled directly into the basket.

The Rockets didn't want to let the Trail Blazers score the first point like this. Their old point guard John Lucas kept interfering with him. When Paxson made a layup, he pushed Paxson down.

As an old player who has been in the league for 9 years, John Lucas is naturally experienced. He put a few cushions under Paxson, and his position was just right, and he did not make fouls at the same time, which made Paxson very uncomfortable.

Parkson was not good at physical fitness, and was smeared by Lucas, and lost his balance in the air. He made a layup that was easy and simple, but was hit hard by him.

The Rockets player who followed behind won the rebound, and the Trail Blazers' quick offense failed. It was the Rockets' turn to advance quickly.

Experienced Lucas has a very good rhythm control, dribbling before Paxson and Van dervich, trying to fight back against the Trail Blazers for a fast break.

But seeing that the other Trail Blazers stand very well, Paxson and Van dervich returned to defense very quickly, so they slowed down and prepared to attack the position.

The Rockets are a typical double tower tactic, with one man on both sides, and pass to wherever they have the chance. If you encounter a team with a weak inside line, you can really beat the opponent to death with one of the two towers.

However, Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson were not in a deep position, so they gave the inside a lot of opportunities to reverse and cut. Therefore, Gan Guoyang and Mitchell Sampson did not dare to go around the front defense. If you go around the front, you would be empty in the back.

John Lucas paused 45 degrees on the left side with the ball, yearning for feeding the ball inside, but Olajuwon on the left side had no intention of attacking himself, so Lucas transferred the ball to McGrey on the side.

McGrey was the rookie won by the Rockets with the Titanski in 1983, an all-around small forward who graduated from the University of Louisville.

He performed well in all aspects and was a very competent small forward, but obviously there was a big gap between him and Tanhua's requirements for this ranking.

He held the ball from the outside, turned left to right and found that he could not pass the ball in. The Trail Blazers stared at the defense very hard at the beginning, so at the right horn position, he faced Van dervich's defense and jumped directly at 18 feet.

"Swish!" The ball actually entered.

I have to say that Van derwich is not a good single defender. He graduated from UCLA and is very conscious, but sometimes he is really powerless and can only let McGray make an investment in this mid-range shot.

A ball is nothing, the Trail Blazers serve to organize the offense.

The biggest feature of the Trail Blazers' offense is "fast". Their speed is not only reflected in fast attacks and fast counterattacks, but also in positional battles, and they are also very fast. They rarely delay until they do not take action even after 24 seconds.

In Ramsey's words, if you don't shoot in the first 10 seconds, why do you think you can throw the ball in for another 14 seconds?

Ramsey's offensive thinking is actually very advanced, because the longer the offensive side delays, the worse the offensive side's offensive feeling will be, and the more defense the defense will become, especially when it is delayed to the end, they often miss the shot.

Instead of doing this, it is better to quickly complete the attack in front or even rush to shoot. Sometimes such attacks seem unreasonable, but based on the whole game, such attacks are often more efficient.

The Trail Blazers' position offense is very fast. After one or two small cooperation, the players can shoot directly. At the beginning of this game, Ramsey took the lead in arranging Sampson to play singles at a low post.

The Trail Blazers' formation was quickly opened, giving Sampson a good singles position at the low post on the right, and Valentine directly passed the ball to Mitchell Sampson.

This is a duel between the two No. 1 picks Sampson. Old Sampson has a very deep position, so he was very close to the basket as soon as he got the ball. He turned around and pushed hard, and the basket was close to him.

If someone else was to defend, Mitchell Sampson would have easily put the ball in, but the defender was Ralph Sampson, who was 5 inches taller than him.

Ralph Sampson did not jump up and block, he knew that the result of jumping up and blocking in such a position would be the foul.

With his height and wingspan, he stood straight at the basket and regarded himself as a dam to resist the opponent's attack.

Mitchell Sampson was indeed affected. He used too much force when making a layup and directly shot across the bridge.

McGrey got the rebound, then turned around and threw the ball directly into the frontcourt, and Olajuwon had already rushed towards the Trail Blazers rim.

After receiving the ball, Olajuwon did not pass the ball to others, but dribbled the ball directly to the basket. Gan Guoyang had already blocked Olajuwon and wanted to stop his fast attack.

At this time, Olajuwon had not reached the point of dribbling like a defender. After dribbling for a few times, he did not dare to rush anymore. He stopped throwing at a place 13 feet away from the basket.

Instead of going forward to block the block, Gan Guoyang turned around and guarded the basket and prepared to catch the rebound.

Sure enough, Olajuwon shot too anxiously and hit the basket and failed to make it. Gan Guoyang resisted Ralph Sampson who followed from behind and Roed on the side, and steadily grabbed the rebound.

"Beautiful rebound! Score one steadily!" Ramsey applauded the rebound on the sidelines.

Gan Guoyang's fast break this time should be said to be quite calm. He did not choose to pounce on Olajuwon, but let him move forward and protect the basket by himself. You have to shoot outside and follow you.

When Olajuwon took action, he did not go forward to interfere with it impatiently, but instead protected the rebounds first to prevent the Rockets from following up with the second attack. This is actually the easiest opportunity to get points by the opponent in the fast break.
Chapter completed!