“…Now, from-Gonzaga-University, six-ten, at-center, Sunny~~~Gump!”

On the evening of November 4, at the Portland Memorial Stadium, all the lights at the home court were turned off. In the high-pitched and deliberately elongated voice of DJ, Gan Guoyang climbed onto the stadium surrounded by his teammates.

In the past 150 nights, Gan Guoyang has become the king of Portland from the first rookie to stand on the court to applaud his teammates behind him.

At this year's NBA appearance ceremony, each team began to change. Portland's change was the most obvious, that is, when the home team played, the lights were turned off, and then the big stage lights hit the players directly. This suggestion was proposed by Gan Guoyang and received unanimous praise from the Trail Blazers.

Now, Gan Guoyang is enjoying the glory of standing in the spotlight. Tonight, he will lead the Portland Trail Blazers to the first game of the 1988-1989 season, with his opponent still being the Phoenix Suns.

However, this game is different from the first preseason game. It will be a real battle, a battle between the Trail Blazers and the Suns.

Many football critics also pointed out that this year's Western Conference will be a year of change. The Los Angeles Lakers have fallen in the Finals for two consecutive years. The day before yesterday, Gou Kareem announced that he will withdraw from the basketball world after playing the 20th season of his career.

Gan Guoyang knew that because of his arrival, Jabbar had lost two rings, but his career was also great enough, but it was time to step on their bodies and step onto the throne.

Other Western heroes are also ready to move. The Phoenix Sun, which has been strengthened in the summer, is naturally one of them. With Kevin Johnson, Jeff Hornersek and Tom Chambers, the Sun will be a strong competitor to the Trail Blazers in the West in the next few years.

However, the future is the future. Although the sun is strong on paper, it is undoubtedly a bit pale compared to the more powerful Trail Blazers.

When the lights on the scene were turned on again, the audience finally began to enjoy the new season's game, and they could not wait.

Adelman still used the relatively safe five-man group of Gan Guoyang, Williams, Cauchy, Deluxler and Porter in the starting lineup.

After joining Buck Williams, the team's athletic ability can be said to have reached the peak of the league. The backcourt trio is the best in the league in speed, strength and impact. In the 1988 playoff game against the Utah Jazz, the Trail Blazers did not have an absolute advantage in the inside. Gan Guoyang faced Carl Malone and Mark Eaton alone, and the Trail Blazers' three arrows in the backcourt made the Jazz's backcourt have loopholes.

Now that the "Bucks" Williams has arrived, he is already a small forward in height, so the Blazers' athletic ability has been further strengthened.

In comparison, the Suns' iron triangle, Kevin Johnson is too young, Hornersek is too thin, Tom Chambers is too slow, and Mark West in the inside can only pray that he will not be beaten by Gan Guoyang.

At the beginning, the Trail Blazers' offense rushed towards the sun like a tide. After two years of training, Terry Porter and Cauchy became more and more courageous on the offensive end, and they became more bold and ruthless in handling the ball.

At the beginning, Adelman asked Porter and Cauchy to let go of their hands to attack, creating strong pressure on the Suns' backcourt and leaving the opponent with no chance to breathe.

So, Porter came up and scored the first point of the Trail Blazers in the new season with a top three-pointer.

Porter relied on Gan Guoyang's cover and had a bad chance of breaking through the middle, so he passed it back to Gan Guoyang. Gan Guoyang held the ball in front of the basket and broke inside from the left hand, but he did not choose to force a layup, but passed the ball back.

At this time, Porter had returned to the front three-point line. Kevin Johnson was only concerned about defending Gan Guoyang, and missed Porter. Porter took the ball and shot it and made a three-pointer.

As soon as the game started, the atmosphere became hot.

The Suns are obviously not adapted to the new season's game. After all, there is not enough running-in between the iron triangles, and it is another away game. Kevin Johnson obviously lacks experience in controlling the team's offense. Gan Guoyang suddenly robs double teams and panics. As a result, he passed the ball across the board and the ball was cut off by Drexler.

How could Drexler miss such an opportunity? The glider is about to take off again!

And this time, Drexler not only glided, but also made a swinging move in the air and a big windmill dunk!

One minute into the game, the morale of the Trail Blazers reached its first peak, and the Memorial Stadium was noisy and hustle and bustle like the finals.

After the team further strengthened this year, Trail Blazers fans' enthusiasm for basketball and desire for championships have also reached their peak. This season's Trail Blazers' season tickets have been shorted early, and the advertising rental rentals for the Memorial Stadium have also been overturned.

The momentum of the Trail Blazers has not been interrupted. They always maintained vigorous vitality in the first quarter. The defense cooperated with tacit defense and tireless rotation, leaving the Suns at a loss on the offensive end.

The only person who performed normally in the Suns and was able to score points and stabilize the situation slightly under the defense of the Trail Blazers.

Hornersek entered the NBA in 1986. This guy who looks like a white old man and doesn't look like a basketball player no matter how he looks. He is slow and thin. Some people expect him to not last for two seasons in the NBA.

As a result, after spending his rookie season, he made great progress in the 87-88 season, especially in assists. As a shooting guard, he averaged 6.6 assists per game and shot an astonishing 50% of his shooting percentage.

In this game, the young Kevin Johnson, as the Suns point guard, was upset by the Trail Blazers' backcourt and Gan Guoyang's oppression.

The Suns coach decisively suspended the timeout and replaced Hornersek. Hornersek took the baton. Kevin Johnson handed over the ball in half and started to be an attacker. The attacking matter was handed over to Hornersek.

Although Hornersek is an inconspicuous white man, his basic skills are extremely solid. He dribbled, passed the ball, and directed his teammates to run in a straightforward manner. In the terrible away atmosphere, he successfully reorganized the Suns' offense, and his terrible shooting percentage also made Drexler a headache.

However, one Horacek has no way to compete with the entire Trail Blazers. The powerful new player Tom Chambers they introduced this year encountered a tough defense from Buck Williams in the interior.

It was just a matter of Buck Williams, but Gan Guoyang's defense was very timely. After taking two big hats, Tom Chambers basically gave up on his own attack.

At the end of the first quarter, the Trail Blazers scored a high score of 37 points, while the Suns only scored 19 points, and they were 18 points behind the Trail Blazers in the first quarter. It is estimated that the Suns players instantly felt like they didn't want to play anymore.

"Don't stand in one place and move when defending. Of course, the most important thing is to give the referee a feeling of 'I'm moving', such as turning around, stretching your hand, and not letting the referee's attention focus on you, then you will be blown up against the defensive violation. Also, our rhythm will be played very quickly in the regular season, we won't wait for anyone, you have to keep up with our rhythm." At the beginning of the second quarter, Gan Guoyang sat on the bench to guide Sabonis, telling him some issues to pay attention to in the regular season.

Sabonis's performance in the preseason should be said to be good, especially as a transfer station for the ball during the offense, the mission was completed very well.

His main problem is two points. It is easy to be criticized for being illegal in defense in defense in Europe because he is used to defending the joint defense in Europe and cannot correct it for a while; the second is that his speed is still slow in the offense. In the Trail Blazer with such a beastly athletic power, Sabonis still needs to practice his back-running run.

Sabonis was like an obedient elementary school student, lowering his head off the court and listening carefully to Gan Guoyang's guidance. Many of Gan Guoyang's opinions were valuable experience accumulated by his struggle in the NBA. You should know that although Gan Guoyang only entered the league for four years, one of which was reimbursed, in his three years, the Trail Blazers could at least reach the Western Conference Finals, and his experience in the playoffs was twice as high.

"Okay, Gan, prepare to play and deal with them." At this time, Adelman reminded Gan Guoyang and told him that he was going to play again.

Gan Guoyang immediately took off his coat and looked up at the scores of both sides. At 48:32, after Gan Guoyang left the court, the Suns relied on the inside to slightly regain some scores, and Tom Chambers's touch also slowly recovered.

Gan Guoyang only relied on open jump shots and bargaining at the basket to get four points in the first quarter. Now Adelman's meaning is very clear, allowing Gan Guoyang to cripple the Suns with one punch in the second quarter.

Obviously, Gan Guoyang now has this ability.

The Suns players immediately felt the pressure after Gan Guoyang re-appeared, especially the Suns' center, because Gan Guoyang began to attack.

Four years of training have made Gan Guoyang's offensive skills reach the pinnacle. Unlike the past when he had to use all his strength at the basket and then catch the guard's lob to attack, Gan Guoyang could receive anyone's pass from anywhere and then launch an attack.

The reason why this effect was that Gan Guoyang controlled his weight to 245 pounds in Xiatian. Last season, he increased his weight to 260 pounds. Although he was almost invincible at the low post, his tactical limitations were too great.

In this regard, the Suns did not do enough to deal with Gan Guoyang's move and restrict the ball. Gan Guoyang could always run to an open position, and then Drexler passed the ball to tear the Suns' defense. Gan Guoyang could use his eighteen martial arts to finally put the ball into the basket.

After Gan Guoyang easily scored four goals in a row, the Suns had to call a timeout. This kind of light-weight score made the Suns coach feel cold sweat behind him.

Gan Guoyang looked relaxed, his score looked ordinary, not fancy at all, and did not feel explosive, as if everything was right.

At this time, he had actually entered a kind of "Field" (field). In this "Field", all opponents' defenses began to appear full of loopholes. In his eyes, there was no obstacle between the basket and him.
Chapter completed!