In the third game against the Mavericks, the Trail Blazers finally showed the style of a strong team. They showed overwhelming advantages in the offensive and defensive ends in the second half, which allowed them to complete a big and small reversal.

After the game, what the media are most interested in is the outstanding performance of the two young players, Gan Guoyang and Drexler, in the game.

Starting from the second half of the regular season, this Trail Blazers are becoming more and more like a team that plays around these two young men. Drexler's outstanding passing ability, coupled with Gan Guoyang, a strong basket finisher, the power of their combination has begun to show their strength.

More importantly, one of the two is a first-year rookie and the other is a second-year rookie. This makes people imagine what a powerful combination they will be when they both reach their peak.

However, now, these two young people are not yet able to truly carry the banner of the Trail Blazers. In many cases, the team still needs mature stars like Sampson and Van derwich to stand up and help the team get out of the predicament.

So, when Gan Guoyang and Drexler were both restricted in the first half in the fourth game, it made people understand that this pair of Gemini still has a long way to go.

"Increase your transfer balls, transfer balls! Gan, your transfer balls are too slow. Don't go too far in the line. Try to serve high-level support and focus on defense. Sampson, you come on the court to replace Carl and strengthen the offense in the inside."

April 25th, the end of the first round of the series will continue at the Mavericks' home court. For the Trail Blazers, this battle is not easy. The Mavericks, on the verge of being eliminated, will definitely fight to the death, grab this home court, and then go to Portland to fight a life-and-death battle.

In the first quarter, when Drexler and Gan Guoyang tried to rely on the duo to attack the Mavericks' basket again, they found that this move did not work.

Although the pick-and-rolls of the two are of high quality and good coordination, Gan Guoyang, who is the end point of the offensive, and Drexler, who is the starting point, both have a very fatal flaw, that is, both of them have problems with mid-range shooting.

Drexler is fine. When the rhythm is good, his jump shot is still accurate, but Gan Guoyang is not good. As a center who keeps increasing weight and strength, even if he practices shooting tirelessly in training, his jump shot has been abandoned in the official game.

Two players who did not have a mid-range distance cooperated with pick-and-roll. Once the opponent caught the weakness, the result was obvious. The Mavericks adopted a strategy of not changing defense against the pick-and-roll of the two in the fourth game. At the same time, if Gan Guoyang catches the ball, someone will come forward to close the ball.

In this way, when the player defending Gan Guoyang was free of a position for the player defending Drexler to pass through when the opponent picked and rolled. Drexler shot, but the defender could not keep up, but it was basically unlikely that he would break through.

Gan Guoyang is the same. If he cuts out after the pick-and-roll and makes a Pickpop, then she will have a lot of shooting space, but he wants to PickRoll, sorry, the Mavericks won't give him a chance.

With a lot of shooting opportunities and space, the two of them couldn't make any shots! One was because of the poor shooting percentage, and he gave up after shooting twice, and the other was because he couldn't make any shots at all. So the pick-and-roll cooperation between the two was completely ruined in the first quarter.

Ramsey also immediately called a timeout. It seemed that the young player was really "hairless in his mouth and was not doing things safely."

"Paxson, you replace Clyde and shoot firmly. You must be determined. I hope you can regain your feelings." Ramsey also made a substitution adjustment, replaced Drexler with the former starting shooting guard, Jim Paxson.

Since Paxson became a substitute due to injury, he performed very mediocrely in the second half of the regular season and in the playoffs. His leg injuries have always affected his performance. His scoring and shooting percentage have declined significantly since March.

However, Ramsey still trusts the former All-Star shooting guard quite well. He is the most stable outside shooting point in the team except Van der Vic. When necessary, his shooting can provide great help to the team.

In the first quarter, the Trail Blazers' outside shooting rate was not high, and the Mavericks' defense line also shrank more and more powerful, which led to the Trail Blazers' offense stagnation to a certain extent, and the team also trailed the Mavericks by 7 points 14:21.

Paxson's appearance may alleviate some of this problem, while Ramsey's other substitution is a bit out of the ordinary routine. He replaced Norris to replace Kenny Carl.

Norris is the fourth substitute in the inside of the Trail Blazers. He is on the edge of the team's rotation lineup and is the typical ninth man on the team.

But this player is very distinctive. He is strong in body, strong in strength, has certain inside offensive ability, and dares to fight. Sometimes he can have unexpected good results on the court. When it is necessary to disrupt the situation on the court, Ramsey often sends Norris to the court.

"Attack Norris with all their might, attack! Gan, you must do a good job of defense, and at the same time attract the opponent's attention and create opportunities for Norris." Ramsey hopes that Norris can play the role of a surprise weapon.

Ramsey felt a bit forced, because Mitchell Sampson slightly wounded his thigh during yesterday's training. Although he was on the team's roster in this game, Ramsey couldn't guarantee whether sending Sampson on the court would cause his injury to worsen.

If the injury worsens, this will be a great loss to the Trail Blazers, so out of caution, he still let Norris enter the official rotation. If the effect is not good, then consider letting Sampson take the stage.

"Yes, I'm-ok! (Okay, I'm fine!" Norris said in his low and bold voice. This king of power, second only to Gan Guoyang among the pioneers, had a momentum of not being afraid of anything.

After the timeout, both sides returned to the court, and the Mavericks also adjusted their lineup. They replaced the team's sixth man, Joey Vincent.

As the player with the lowest pick among the three young talents in the Mavericks in 1981, Joey Vincent performed extremely amazingly in his rookie season, averaging 21.4 points per game.

However, as a second round pick, his comprehensiveness is limited after all, so he has become the ultimate substitute player for the team. He is a typical microwave oven and he is a point-grabbing player.

It seems that the Mavericks also want to use Vincent's scoring ability to maintain their advantages on the field.

"Beep!" The referee blew the serve whistle and the Blazers served in the frontcourt.

Paxson serves outside the boundary, Gan Guoyang stands in the horn position on the left, Van derwich stands at the bottom line on the left, Valentine stands at the top of the arc, and only Norris stands at the basket on the right.

Valentine and Van dervich took turns to take action to catch the ball, but Gan Guoyang was the one who actually came up to catch the ball.

Gan Guoyang stepped on the three-point line and received a pass from Paxson, and then Paxson immediately ran into the field. Valentine had already cut in from the middle and took Davis' defense away.

At this time, Paxson used Gan Guoyang to block the man and ran to the top of the arc. At this time, the Mavericks' center had two choices, one was to run to make up for defense of Parkson, and the other was to continue staring at Gan Guoyang.

Wallace Bryant chose to continue staring at Gan Guoyang, because although Gan Guoyang's shooting was not good, he was holding the ball in his hand. Once he broke through, no one could stop the inside!

He didn't know that this was exactly what Gan Guoyang wanted. When setting up the tactics during the timeout, Ramsey used this efficient quick catch and shoot tactic - the famous Chicago tactic.

Gan Guoyang immediately passed the ball to Paxson at the top of the arc. Paxson did not hesitate after receiving the ball. Even though he was still standing outside the three-point line, he still took a three-pointer!

Blackman stepped forward to make up for defense, so he could only pray that Paxson would not score the three-pointer.

With the frequency of the players shooting three-pointers at that time, the number of three-pointers in the game was really pitiful, but Paxson was surprised by the ball, and the position and rhythm of the shooting were also very good.

"Swish!" The ball was hollow into the net! One three-pointer!

"Yes!" Paxson also clenched his fists hard. This three-pointer is still very difficult for Paxson to be in poor condition recently, not to mention that the team is now in need of scoring.

Gan Guoyang also stepped forward and slapped Parkson. If the ball was replaced by Drexler and cooperated with him, Drexler would definitely not be able to take action. For Drexler, the three-point line is no different from the midfield line of the court.

In addition to narrowing the gap between the Trail Blazers and Mavericks to 4 points, this three-pointer also changed the situation between the two sides on the field, because the Mavericks knew that they could no longer shrink their defense. Now the Trail Blazers have two accurate shooters on the outside, and continuing to shrink will only be hit by more long-range strikes.

The fire from the outside also made Gan Guoyang, who was inside, feel much more comfortable. The three-second zone was empty all of a sudden, and he could hold the ball and turn the situation in the inside again.

However, the Mavericks' three shots are not vegetarian. The three shots of Blackman, Aquili and Vincent are on the court at the same time, which greatly increases the pressure on the defensive Blazers. Originally, Paxson and Van dervich's outside defense ability was average. With the Mavericks' three shots at the same time, Gan Guoyang could not make up for each of them in the inside.

This is the Trail Blazers' lineup flaw. They cannot have both offense and defense from the outside. They send Paxson and Van derwich to attack well, but poor defense. Drexler and Cauchy to attack well, but not strong offense, and the effect of interweaving and matching is not very good.

Now I don't understand the hidden dangers of the match against the Mavericks, but Ramsey has begun to worry about it, because both sides were in a state of attack in the first half. Until the end of the first half, the Trail Blazers were still two points behind the Mavericks at 59:61.

With 27 seconds left before the end of the first half, the Mavericks made the last attack in the first half, and the ball was handed to Aquili without surprise.

Aquili undoubtedly fought for his life in this game. He made 10 of 16 shots in the half, made 7 of 8 free throws, and scored 27 points. In the position of the small forward, Van dervic really couldn't defend him, and Cauchy was useless to come up. The inexperienced Cauchy was deceived by the experienced Aquili several fouls.

In the last attack in the first half, Aquili received the ball from the outside, and the other Mavericks players all pulled it apart. It seemed that he would play Van der Vic.

Although Van dervich had an advantage in height, he suffered too much loss in his footsteps and body. Aquili made a little adjustment on the outside, and he spent almost the same amount of time. He suddenly stepped in from the right side.

Aquili's strong body suddenly pushed Van dervich away and rushed to the edge of the three-second zone like a small tank.

When Gan Guoyang saw this, he hurriedly moved horizontally from the left to repair the defense. Gan Guoyang was so fast that when Aquili was about to take action, his big hand was shrouded.

"Bang!" Aquili still took action. He had no other choice. He leaned back and shot, but he made a fuss under the interference of Gan Guoyang.

The ball was obviously weaker, so it hit the front of the basket and hit it out. Gan Guoyang turned around and took the rebound with a quick grab!

With less than 5 seconds left in the first half, Gan Guoyang did not call a short timeout because he saw a slightly plump body running in the opponent's frontcourt - it was Norris!

Norris made no achievements in the first quarter after a few minutes. Ramsey put him up again at the end of the second quarter. This time he was running like a forward!

Although he did not have the speed of Drexler, Norris had been away from the three-point line during the attack before, and as soon as he saw Aquili not making the ball, he knew that the rebound would most likely be taken away by Gan Guoyang.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang got the rebound, but after seeing Norris, he passed the ball directly to the frontcourt.

Gan Guoyang was so strong that he flew towards Norris quickly with just a slight swing of the ball. At this time, the fans watching the broadcast in front of the TV could not even see the trajectory of the ball clearly - partly because of the poor image quality. When the camera was aimed at Norris, the guy was already holding the ball and twisting his butt and rushing towards the basket.

"Bang!" A powerful dunk! Norris dunked the ball into the basket before the buzzer sounded in the first half! Both sides tied!

59:59, this is a very important goal for the Trail Blazers. Even if you fall behind with one goal, it is also a psychological pressure for the Trail Blazers, because they are most likely to lose when they are behind in the half.

Now, both sides are standing on the same starting line again.

"Don't leave the suspense for the next game, no one knows what will happen in the battle of life and death." This is the only sentence Ramsey said during the intermission. Even a rookie like Gan Guoyang knows the weight of this sentence.

Indeed, no one knows what will happen in the life-and-death battle. Any strength and tactical arrangements may be broken in the life-and-death battle. You don’t know when the player of the opponent will come out and give you a fatal blow, nor do you know what unexpected situations your players will perform poorly.

So for the Trail Blazers, here, in Dallas, sending the Mavericks home is the best choice because their home is here.

But the Mavericks must not want to be eliminated at their doorstep. Although the Mavericks are ranked sixth this season, this does not fully reflect their strength. In fact, if it weren't for the arrival of Gan Guoyang that disrupted the situation in the West and brought many changes, the Dallas Mavericks this year would still be the top four in the West.

The Cowboys in desperate situation made the final struggle in the second half.

Aquili burst out with huge energy in the first half. After 27 points, he continued to attack with all his strength in the third quarter. His singles skills were so skillful and terrifying. It was the first time that Gan Guoyang realized in the playoffs how terrifying such a scoring master was in the game.

But although Aquili's offense is terrible, Van derwich is not a vegetarian on the Trail Blazers. Van derwich, who performed in the first half, finally broke out in the third quarter. His shooting began to regain his sights, and a step inside the three-point line was still his most deadly shooting distance.

Van dervich could not defend Aquili, but Aquili could not defend Van dervich, and the two staged an exciting score battle in the third quarter.

This time, Gan Guoyang was a spectator for a while. This kind of intense competition atmosphere was difficult for him to experience in the NCAA finals, with high speed, intensity and high attention.

Both sides began to enter a state of selflessness, and Gan Guoyang was the same. He began to devote all his efforts to the defense and rebounding battle, no longer talking trash, no longer shouting, no longer communicating - no one communicated.

This is a complete hand-to-hand combat. Both sides have shown their unique skills, and the attack becomes extremely difficult. Every time they rush into the opponent's inside line, they almost have to pay a lot of money, either falling to the ground or committing a foul.

This atmosphere lasted until the fourth quarter, with 1 minute and 1 second left before the end of the game, and at this time the Trail Blazers tied with the Mavericks 111:111.

"Beep!" The referee's whistle cut through the almost gelatinous atmosphere on the field, and the Mavericks called a timeout.

"Sign people, stare at everyone you have, don't make up for defense easily, except Gan, remember, remember!" Ramsey shouted loudly. At this time, he was already full of shouting. Ramsey's defensive strategy at critical moments has always been like this. He stared at the opponent and left the defense only to Gan Guoyang alone, trying not to give the opponent a chance to pull space.

"Cocci, you go on the court, replace KiKi and stare at Aquili. His physical strength is not much." Ramsey replaced Caucci again and asked him to consume Aquili. Aquili finally lost too much physical strength in the fourth quarter. He scored 10 points in the third quarter, but he didn't score yet in the fourth quarter.

"The timeout is over, the Mavericks serve!" The 20-second short pause ended soon, and the referee handed the ball to the Mavericks' player.

Bryant serves outside the bounds, but Aquili still catches the ball. No matter how physically he is, he is the most reliable scoring point for the Mavericks.

Cauchy was tangled with Aquili like a candy, and Aquili was pushing against Cauchy on her back, trying to squeeze out the space.

Aquili suddenly turned around! Cauchy wrapped itself too tightly, but gave Aquili room to turn around, and he threw Cauchy behind him.

No one else came to assist in defense! Gan Guoyang saw Aquili rushing towards this side within three seconds, and there was no one in front of him! Gan Guoyang immediately let Bryant go to make up for defense.

But Gan Guoyang still finished one step, Aquili jumped from the mid-range distance of 19 feet and the ball made!

111:113! The Mavericks overtake! The Mavericks overtake!

"Bee! Trail Blazers paused!" The referee's whistle sounded again.
To be continued...