On December 25, on Christmas, the Trail Blazers' Christmas Battle started in the Memorial Stadium, and the opponent was the Los Angeles Clippers, a game without much attention.

The script of Ewing fighting against the Knicks in the Eastern Celtics, Ewing's competition with the Green Empire, the biggest highlight of the Trail Blazers, Gan Guoyang, missed the game due to an elbow injury and became a guest on the bench. This is his first game this season.

Before this game, the Trail Blazers were already unstoppable, beating the Eastern Conference boss Celtics away and then easily defeating the Nets in New Jersey. The Eastern Conference's away journey was a perfect four-game winning streak. Coupled with the previous winning streak, they won eight consecutive victories after a six-game losing streak.

On December 10, they returned to home to expand their winning streak to nine games. They defeated the Golden State Warriors by two points, and Gan Guoyang contributed a key hook shot, a block and a rebound.

Then there was a five consecutive away trip to the Western Conference, where they challenged the Jazz, Warriors, Spurs, Nuggets and Supersonics away respectively.

On December 19, the Trail Blazers' winning streak ended. They were blocked by their opponents of the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semi-Finals last season, and lost by 119:123 in a quarter-point difference, ending their previous 12 consecutive wins.

Of course, after three days, when returning to Portland, the Trail Blazers beat visiting Denver with a 125:107 and 18 points at home. Gan Guoyang scored 35 points and 31 rebounds and contributed 7 blocks. He reported that he was limited to only 14 points in a single game in Denver three days ago.

At the same time, this is also the first time Gan Guoyang has obtained a double thirty data in his career. Before him, the last double thirty data was traced back to 1982. Moses Malone, who was still in the Rockets, scored a super double double data of 38 points and 32 rebounds against the Supersonics.

In addition to the team's record, Gan Guoyang also won the Player of the Month in November this season, which is the best compliment for him to score 40 points in four consecutive games.

At the same time, 31 points in a single quarter in early December, coupled with excellent performances in other games, also gave him the title of the Best of the West Week. In the MVP rankings, he is already second only to Larry Bird, ahead of Magic Johnson.

The continuous victory not only calmed the Trail Blazers, which was originally undercurrent, but also made Gan Guoyang feel a little tired. It has been more than a year since he arrived in the NBA. Gan Guoyang has finally begun to experience the pain brought by the long NBA schedule. One game after another, whether it is continuous failure or continuous victory, it will make people feel that this is an endless journey.

The former makes people numb, while the latter makes people numb.

It was really a good adjustment to get a break on Christmas. Gan Guoyang became a spectator, sitting on the sidelines to appreciate his teammates' performance, and cheering with the audience for Drexler's dunk, Van derwich's long shot, and Cort's breakthrough.

A wonderful carnival, the Trail Blazers who lacked Gan Guoyang beat the Los Angeles Clippers at home. At the beginning of the season, they once won the top Clippers, which had been continuously defeated by the top Clippers. After more than 30 games, they still showed their strength prototypes. The old lineup pieced together could not withstand high-intensity games. Veterans such as Maxwell and Wilkes had no desire to fight. The team was already in scattered and became the bottom of the Western Conference again. The Clippers once again made wedding clothes for others.

After the game, Gan Guoyang and coach Bellman returned home together. On Christmas Eve, Wang Fuxi rushed from Gonzaga to Portland, and Mrs. Bellman also came with her. The two big men finally didn't have to be lonely.

Gan Guoyang still doesn’t have much feeling about Christmas. As a Chinese, he is still looking forward to the arrival of the Spring Festival. The number of Chinese people in Portland is also very large. The Chinese New Year in Chinatown is a famous festival landscape in Portland. Last year, Gan Guoyang had a delicious meal of dumplings in a fan club in Chinatown.

However, since Mr. Bellman's family is here, this Christmas is a bit like family reunion.

As Mr. Bellman's position in the team became more and more stable, the family finally decided to move to Portland, and the house was booked and could be moved in after Christmas.

So after spending this Christmas Eve at Gan Guoyang's home, Mr. Bermann had to move out of Gan Guoyang's home, and Wang Fuxi had to go back to Spokane to go to school, and Gan Guoyang had to return to his life alone again.

There seems to be nothing wrong with this. When Wang Fuxi was there, Gan Guoyang was always a little distracted. As he grew older, Wang Fuxi, who had white blood, became more and more mature and charming. His performance on the couch often made Gan Guoyang, who was strong, feel unbearable. Of course, his physical strength was fine, but a man was not good enough to have physical strength alone, so he had to be hard.

Let Wang Fuxi stay in Spokane and occasionally go back to Portland. Gan Guoyang felt that it was also good. The relationship between the two did not become alienated due to separation. On the contrary, their longing and encouragement made the young couple more loyal and harmonious.

After Christmas, Gan Guoyang quickly resumed training and entered the Trail Blazers' next game roster. Before he was injured and rested, Gan Guoyang felt a little tired of consecutive games, but he was impatient to make a comeback without a single game.

For a star who is used to accepting the cheers of thousands of fans in the spotlight every night, it is really more painful to have no game to play than to be exhausted for the game.

But for the sake of security, Ramsey still did not send Gan Guoyang to the game. He just followed the team to Texas to experience the famous Texas Triangle.

Against the Mavericks, the Trail Blazers without Gan Guoyang played extremely hard. After two overtime battles, the Trail Blazers narrowly defeated the Mavericks with 143:142 away with one point. After losing to the Nuggets, they won four consecutive victories.

But then heading to Houston to play against the Rockets, the Trail Blazers were not so lucky.

Before the game, Gan Guoyang actively sought a fight. He felt that his elbow was fine and he could play. Gan Guoyang did not want to give up any chance to show up with Olajuwon.

Gan Guoyang's performance this season was naturally soaring, and he instantly became a strong contender for the regular season MVP. Olajuwon, who is in the same level as Gan Guoyang, also made great progress. In the November selection of the league's best player, Olajuwon, as a candidate, scored only second only to Gan Guoyang.

The Rockets Twin Towers formed by him and Ralph Sampson have become the most terrifying duo in the league. They are invincible in the West, and together with the Trail Blazers, they have become the new powerful in the West.

The Trail Blazers ended their losing streak and started their winning streak with the Rockets. In that game, Gan Guoyang killed the Rockets' double towers alone, stopping the Trail Blazers' decline.

Olajuwon and Gan Guoyang were both thinking about the next straight battle with each other.

However, the Trail Blazers coaching staff still asked Gan Guoyang to continue to recover from his injuries and not to destroy the Trail Blazers' plan for the whole season for a moment of impulse.

In the end, Gan Guoyang compromised, and he could only sit on the sidelines and watch his teammates play against the Rockets on the court.

In the first quarter, the Trail Blazers were completely at a disadvantage. Without Gan Guoyang as the inside barrier, the Trail Blazers' inside only had a combination of Sampson and Kenny Carl. The two veterans were experienced but lacked ability and could not withstand the impact of the double towers. They lost their backcourt rebounds many times and were hit by the Rockets for a second attack.

At the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers trailed the Rockets by 10 points 24:34, and the game was one-sided.

In the second quarter, Bellman's defensive strategy played a role. The Trail Blazers began to actively fill up the Rockets' double-team on the outside. Although they were blown up several illegal defenses, they still caused great trouble to the Rockets' offense. The ball was not fed to Olajuwon and Sampson.

In addition, both sides entered the lineup rotation stage, the young players of the Trail Blazers played great combat power in the middle of the season. Porter and Colt both were both mature and experienced, energetic and motivated. The two began a healthy competition in the team. No matter who was on the court, they could always play a role quickly, just like a microwave.

In this game, Valentine was like Gan Guoyang and the free card, so Cort, who performed well recently, started and Porter came on as a substitute. The two actively double-teamed and attacked in the backcourt, revitalizing the Trail Blazers' offense.

The Trail Blazers, who had improved offense and defense, turned the score over in the second quarter and beat the Rockets 33:24, so at the end of the half, they were only 1 point behind the Rockets.

During the halftime break, Drexler also joked to Gan Guoyang, "Without the center, we can still kill the double towers! Your salary should be divided by half to double-team players on the outside."

But what Drexler said was just a joke after all. In the third quarter that laid the situation, the Rockets' outside line began to explode.

The reason why the Trail Blazers were able to double-team the two towers unscrupulously in the first half was that the Rockets' outside line was not opened and their shooting percentage was low.

Before, every time the Trail Blazers faced the Rockets, Gan Guoyang could usually defeat the double towers, or even slightly better. In this case, the Trail Blazers lost because they were not good on the outside and were broken through by the Rockets. This is even more so this season. The Rockets' outside line is completely configured according to the standard against the Lakers. The Trail Blazers have enough attack but insufficient defense.

Soon, the Rockets played a 18:5 attack wave in the third quarter, which laid a leading advantage. Although the Trail Blazers struggled to catch up, narrowing the gap to 3 points at one point, they could not resist the Rockets' offense. In the end, they lost the game at a very disadvantage at a very low margin on the away game, ending a four-game winning streak.

After the game, Drexler had to admit to Gan Guoyang in the locker room, "It's really not possible without you."

At the same time, Cook, the chief physician of the medical team, also diagnosed that Gan Guoyang's injury was no longer serious and he could make a complete comeback in the next game.
Chapter completed!