Chapter 2224 - 35: Inevitable

Chapter 2224: Chapter 35: Inevitable

Halftime, locker room, Porter blew his top.

He was extremely unhappy with Glory’s chaotic first-half defense.

"All I need is for each of you to lock onto your own man. Is that such an excessive demand?"

"We gave them way too many open looks, our feet were slow, they sliced us open way too easily. I will not allow your defense to be beaten this simply!"

"What is a system built on? A system is built on individual defensive focus and effort! If each guy isn’t going all out, the system is fake! There are only five men on the floor, every one of them has to give everything!"

Porter rarely got anxious as a coach, especially when he’d just taken over; he practically wished for more losses so he could get fired.

As his coaching tenure grew longer, Porter realized he might be around to see Ah Gan leave.

Also, he didn’t want to be the coach with the worst record during Ah Gan’s time.

This season he’s been really invested in the team; still no genius schemes, but strict discipline has always been his strength.

Seeing the team get battered so badly in the first half, Porter was furious and tore into the players.

After the rant, Porter laid down defensive demands: they had to tighten up their individual man-to-man.

He also reminded Yao Ming that if the Warriors kept playing this high-speed offense, his minutes would be cut.

"When you’re on the floor, play to your strengths, create damage at the rim. Don’t save your energy, I’ll sit you in the middle of the half to rest."

Yao Ming had no objections to Porter’s plan; tonight he really was suffering, getting chased and hammered by the Warriors.

His touch around the rim was only so-so, and facing the Warriors’ revolving-door defense he hadn’t matched his impact from the first two games.

Yao Ming was a bit tired too; his form was up and down. Conditioning had always been his weakness.

In the first round against a traditional, disciplined team like the Jazz, Yao Ming actually found it easier to play his game.

In the semis against the Warriors, Yao Ming was clearly laboring. Fortunately they had Ah Gan inside, so cutting his minutes a bit was fine.

Gan Guoyang stayed silent through halftime; he showed no reaction at all to Porter’s fury.

Twenty years of battles had made him calm in any situation, already thinking about how to play the next phase.

In theory, this game was one they could afford to punt.

Everybody’s form was mediocre; basically they’d walked right into the Warriors’ ambush from the jump, not fully prepared.

Plus they were on the road; dropping one at Oracle Arena was perfectly normal.

Across those past eleven titles, the playoffs weren’t undefeated either; wins and losses are part of it.

Next game, after adjustments, as long as the Warriors’ threes weren’t as hot, Glory was still very likely to take it.

But Gan Guoyang was thinking about something else—his back.

As the season went deeper, maybe sensing his career time was running short, his physical condition just wasn’t very promising.

Yesterday at the hotel, he’d spent another entire night sleeping on the floor; the soft bed was torture for his back.

Before the game, the trainer spent an hour and a half loosening him up—stretching, massage, release—just to get him into playing shape.

In the locker room he sat ramrod straight in his seat; even bending over would aggravate his discomfort.

Sweeping the Jazz in four in the first round had given Gan Guoyang plenty of rest.

In this series, Gan Guoyang also didn’t want to waste too much time on the Warriors.

He was old; he had no interest in playing war-of-attrition games with opponents. Now it was their turn to try to wear him down.

A quick kill was the key; an 18-point deficit wasn’t a big deal, he could chew through it.

Having decided, Gan Guoyang said to Porter, "I’ll close the gap as fast as possible and go blow-for-blow with the Warriors. First five minutes of the second half, give me the ball."

After all these years together, Porter understood instantly—Ah Gan was about to run a flash attack again.

"You sure you’re up to it?"

"Even if I’m not, I have to be. I don’t want to drag this out."

"If it blows up on us..."

"If it blows up, that just means your coaching was crap."

"..."

The second half hadn’t even started and Porter was already mentally prepared to take the blame.

Third quarter, the game resumed, and Oracle Arena stayed hot.

That 18-point cushion gave Warriors fans all the confidence they needed.

They had to at least win one, right?

On the sidelines, a large number of Gan Guoyang fans were cheering him on.

San Francisco had always been Gan Guoyang’s second big home base.

If it weren’t the playoffs, there might even have been more fans in Glory jerseys than in Warriors jerseys in the building.

And mixed in would be a ton of fans in Trail Blazers jerseys.

The moment he stepped on the court, Gan Guoyang felt the discomfort in his back disappear.

The surge of adrenaline and sharpened nerves made him forget the pain.

Right as the half began, Gan Guoyang held the ball at the top of the arc, feigning a playmaking set.

Yao Ming was posting deep, calling for the ball, and the Warriors’ defensive attention was all on Yao Ming.

Gan Guoyang caught the split second when Stephen Jackson glanced away, and fired a three from the top.

That familiar high arc—once he released it, Gan Guoyang had already turned to run back on defense.

"Swish!" The three dropped, firing the first shot of Glory’s second-half rally.

Porter let out a breath—looked like he probably wouldn’t have to wear this one.

The Warriors hadn’t realized that Glory wouldn’t be going with a slow-tempo, defense-first strategy in the second half; they were going to trade punches with the Warriors.

That’s right, Glory was going to go shot-for-shot, defending with pure one-on-one matchups, trusting their players’ individual defense to control the Warriors’ threes.

On offense they spread the floor and joined The Warriors in a fast-paced shootout, instead of doing what everyone expected—slowing it down and wrestling for control of the tempo.

Because in terms of offense, Glory’s weapons were no worse than the Warriors’, especially with Allen Iverson and Gan Guoyang; they were fully capable of trading blows with the Warriors.