The Trail Blazers, who obtained the offensive right, did not waste this fast break opportunity. Mitchell Sampson passed the ball to Valentine. After Valentine made a brief observation of the dribbling, a diagonal pass was passed and the basketball flew straight to Drexler.

Drexler returned to the team in the last game of the preseason, and after a restorative training, he participated in the preseason and had a good performance.

So in this game, Ramsey also put Drexler on the starting lineup, and Drexler finally truly became the starting shooting guard of the Trail Blazers.

"Clyde Drexler received a pass from Valentine and dribbled for a layup! He was fouled by Sanders. I wonder if his leg injury will affect his performance."

Drexler failed to advance the ball in this ball, and Sanders knocked Drexler away in the back defense, affecting his movements.

It is obvious that Drexler was still affected by a leg injury. If it was under normal health, Drexler would dunk directly into the basket instead of choosing to layup.

With Drexler making both free throws, the Trail Blazers took a 4:0 lead at the start.

This time, Humphries did not advance from the middle, but began to wing, and he passed the ball to Alvan Adams at the lower position at 45 degrees on the right.

Adams's position is very shallow, and Gan Guoyang did not have the full defense, because he also had to allocate his attention to the area near the free throw line.

The purpose of Belmann's proposal for Gan Guoyang is still very clear, which is to use Gan Guoyang's powerful mobile ability to make up for the shortcomings of the Trail Blazers' outside players' lack of single defense capabilities.

You should know that the Trail Blazers are different from the Lakers. Several of the Lakers' backcourts, Cooper, Magic, Worthy, and Scott are all tall and long-armed, fast-moving and outstanding defensive skills.

When needed, the Lakers can use a very strong external defense, causing the opponent's offense to fall into a state of disconnection and paralysis.

Therefore, even though Jabbar is old and can't do anything except defending alone on the defensive end, and he doesn't even grab backcourt rebounds, the Lakers still have a very good defensive level.

The Trail Blazers are not good, except Drexler, Valentine, Van derwich, Cort, and Paxson. They are either slow or short, young or injured, and the defensive pressure is completely ineffective. They must rely on the strong support of inside players.

"Adams passed the ball back to Humphries, Adams continued to take the lead, Humphries passed the ball, Adams reached a deeper position... Turning on the layup! Gan covered the layup this time! The Trail Blazers once again rejected the Suns' shot, Gan accepted the ball."

Adams wanted to adjust the rhythm by passing in and out, and at the same time he could go to a deeper position.

Gan Guoyang did not stop Adams from receiving the ball closer to the basket because he had enough confidence to defend Adams down.

Sure enough, Gan Guoyang gave Adams a nail-board hat and once again successfully defended.

The Trail Blazers' strategy in position attack is very clear. First, find Gan Guoyang and let Gan Guoyang solve the Sun's weak inside line.

"Gan received the ball on the left, but the sun still didn't hit him. Gan dribbled the ball to the basket and turned around and hooked his left hand! The ball entered, and Adams Nagan had no choice, 6:0."

Facing Adams, who was inferior to his height, strength and weight, Gan Guoyang showed no mercy. He fully utilized his advantages to experiment with the new technology he learned during the offseason.

But the Suns players also quickly made adjustments. Humphries immediately handed the ball over to Adams who was lifted to the top of the arc and walked to the bottom line by himself.

At 45 degrees, Water Davis provided a cover for Humphries and pushed Valentine away.

Van dervich failed to switch defense quickly, allowing Humphries to slip from the baseline. Adams at the high position immediately passed the ball and passed the ball to Humphries who were deeply in the hinterland.

Since Gan Guoyang mentioned the high position, the Trail Blazers' basket was relatively empty. Humphreys faced Sampson's defense, and the expert made a throw-in, 6:2.

In the Trail Blazers' coaching seat, Bellman shook his head. In order to make up for the Trail Blazers' control over the arc top and horn position on the outside, Gan Guoyang made this strategy to sacrifice the bottom line and the basket.

Mitchell Sampson's defensive ability is actually underestimated. His blocks and backup defense are above the level in the entire league's interior, but compared with Gan Guoyang, his weight and defensive deterrence are still a little worse.

When the Trail Blazers coaching staff was discussing, the core focus was also on whether Mitchell Sampson could make up for the defensive vacuum brought to the basket by Gan Guoyang after the expansion of its defense area.

In the end, this strategy was passed. One of the reasons was naturally trust in Sampson's defensive ability, but more importantly, Sampson was not in the long-term plan for the Trail Blazers to build a team.

"Run-Run-Run!(Run, run, run!)" It was nothing to lose a goal. Ramsey immediately shouted loudly on the sidelines, while clapping his hands. For Ramsey, offense is the foundation for the Blazers to settle down.

Maybe Ramsey was shouting too quickly, Valentine dribbled quickly and passed the ball to Drexler after halftime. Drexler received the ball 45 degrees on the right side. Seeing that his opponent had not yet fallen, he pulled up and shot directly.

"Bang!" The ball hit the basket's neck, the rebound was grabbed by the Suns players, and the Trail Blazers players were not placed.

Ramsey, who was just shouting "Road to Run", immediately shut up immediately, as if he was slapped by Drexler...

Of course, Ramsey now saw Drexler's shooting posture and wanted to slap him, without any improvement.

But Drexler quickly made up for his achievements. At the top of the arc, he and Gan Guoyang quickly attacked the ball-holder Wat Davis, and the two of them intercepted the ball.

"Drexler intercepted the ball, and the front was flat! Drexler made a gliding dunk! The glider once again flew in the sky of the Memorial Stadium!"

Without a defender, Drexler showed his superman bounce and gliding ability. His beautiful tap made the Trail Blazers fans crazy. Many people came to commemorate the gym to watch football and wait for Drexler.

"Is your legs okay?" Compared to dunks, Gan Guoyang was more concerned about Drexler's injury. He stepped forward and asked after scoring the goal.

"No problem, it feels great. I can get another dunk king this year..." Drexler said with a smile.

The morale-heavy Trail Blazers have been put into defense again. Suns head coach John McLeo has discovered that the Trail Blazers' defensive strategy is very different from last season, and their pinch attacks are extremely frequent.

Although this often causes large loopholes in the Trail Blazers' defense line, the Suns' transfer of the ball is not smooth. Some players have opportunities, and others cannot pass the ball to his hands in time.

However, the Trail Blazers' offense is as sharp as last season. Once the Suns cannot make a breakthrough, the Trail Blazers will launch a fast attack. The Suns, which lack height and speed, will find it difficult to stop the Trail Blazers' sharp knife.

In addition to Gan Guoyang's absolute advantage in the inside offense, the score between the two sides was 14:6 at the beginning of five minutes. The Trail Blazers led the Suns by eight points, and their shooting percentage was amazingly high.

Seeing that the score difference was gradually widening, John McLeo immediately called a timeout to make some adjustments.

"Young guys do a good job. Our defense has begun to show results, but we must be careful and be more tacit. Don't leave too much space for the opponent." Ramsey instructed during the timeout.

In the past, Ramsey's defensive philosophy was relatively simple, which was to rely on the players' personal defensive ability and tacit understanding between them to interfere with their opponent's offense and lower the opponent's hit rate.

Bellman's strategy is much more complicated. The reason why the Suns cannot pass a good ball when there are open spaces is not only because of the players' lack of personal abilities, but mainly because Gan Guoyang has controlled the "traffic route" which is well-connected.

The entire Trail Blazers' defensive formation is to close to the middle and release the bottom line, so Suns players will unknowingly go to the bottom line, and the bottom line has the worst vision, so it is normal that they cannot pass the ball.

Therefore, the Suns' six points are obtained by fighting alone or changing offense and defense, and they are at a loss for their position attack.

For this reason, the Suns made personnel adjustments, and they replaced substitute center James Edwards, a 7-foot inside veteran, a very versatile inside player. As soon as he came on the court, the Suns' inside height immediately increased to a higher level, and Adams also returned to a power forward position that was more suitable for him.

As soon as Edwards came on the court, Gan Guoyang's defensive pressure instantly increased a lot. He had to pay more attention to the basket, because he had played against Sampson before with the Suns' mini-inside Charles Jones, who was only 6-foot-8.

Edwards' most prominent feature is his beard, which looks like an old cowboy in the West, but his own style of playing basketball is quite delicate and technical.

Sure enough, after the Suns' timeout, the first ball was sent directly to Edwards' hand on the inside. Edwards pushed out Sampson, who was defending him, and shot with a light hook, 14:8.

Edwards' influence is not only on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end. He is the main defense of Gan Guoyang. It is obviously more difficult for Gan Guoyang to beat him than Adams.

"Gan held the ball at the low post again, he faced the basket and broke through with the ball in his left hand! He put on a layup with Edwards... The ball did not go in, Edwards grabbed the rebound, and his defense was quite good."

Gan Guoyang wanted to try a layup in the bottom frame, but failed. Of course, Edwards was not feeling well. His weight was only 225 pounds, and he could not withstand Gan Guoyang's impact at all. He just interfered with Gan Guoyang's layup with his height and arm length.

"Go back to defense quickly!" The Trail Blazers in regular time still adhere to the habit of not being able to attack the frontcourt board, but should retreat quickly.

Seeing that the Sun Eye could not seize the opportunity to counterattack quickly, he could only land on the position to attack.

"Let me guard him." Gan Guoyang said to Sampson, then quickly intersected his position with Sampson and came behind Edwards.

It seems that after Edwards comes up, the Trail Blazers will also change their defensive strategy and return to their regular defensive state. Sampson played Gan Guoyang's previous role, mentioning that he would delay the passing of the Suns near the free throw line.

However, at this time, the referee's whistle rang, and referee Earl Stam pointed at Sampson and made a foul gesture.

"Let's see, the referee called out the Trail Blazers' illegal defense! The Suns are going to execute a free throw."
Chapter completed!