The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 2033: Chapter 9: Perfect Matchup (Part 3)

After Kukoc checked in, the Bucks’ offense finally showed some life. With his size, long-range shooting and passing, Kukoc could organize and lead the Bucks’ second unit pretty well.

But once Jordan came back on, Glory also switched to a different offensive approach. Yao Ming tried to post up really deep under the basket, but it didn’t work.

Jordan handled the ball, one step and he was at the rim, then kicked it out to the wing. Jon Barry caught it and knocked down the mid-range jumper.

Jordan controlled the game in his own style, and he was grinding on defense too—aggressively stepping out, trapping, and disrupting the Bucks’ passing lanes.

A successful steal! Fast break—Jordan slashed to the rim and whipped a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Yao Ming trailing the play. Yao caught it and hammered it home with a two-handed dunk!

Yao Ming’s second bucket in the League was also a dunk.

As a center, he didn’t slack off on the fast break at all. Instead he sprinted hard in transition and seized that chance.

End of the first quarter, Glory Team 34:20, up by as many as 14 points on the Bucks. Dropping 34 in a quarter really showed how explosive this team’s firepower was.

During the break, back on the bench, Yao Ming was drenched in sweat. In just over six minutes on the floor, he’d been running and running and running.

The highly intense, highly physical game environment was exciting, but it also made you tire out fast. Yao Ming was breathing hard the whole time.

Jordan said to Yao Ming, "Control your speed and find your rhythm, otherwise you’ll burn out quick."

Jordan could tell Yao Ming was trying too hard in his debut. Running without any restraint would drain his energy in a hurry.

By contrast, Jordan and Gan Guoyang, the two old heads, looked totally fine. Just broke a light sweat, drank some water, sat a bit, and they were good.

The second quarter started, and the two of them shared the floor again. For the Bucks, this was pure torture. George Karl was suffering too.

To start the second, both of them cooled off a bit. They missed shots on two straight possessions, giving the Bucks a little breathing room.

But that didn’t last long. Once the pace picked up again, the two teamed up and started putting on a show in transition.

They stopped running pick-and-rolls and switched to a give-and-go "wall-bump" style. Jordan pushed in transition with a crossover, then dished to Gan Guoyang cutting hard down the middle.

Gan Guoyang didn’t even catch it—he just volleyball-tapped the ball right back to Jordan. Jordan took it, pulled up on a dime from close range, and hit the jumper.

Next play, Gan Guoyang brought the ball up himself, crossed half court, then suddenly fired a long behind-the-back pass to Jordan cutting to the rim. Jordan finished it easily with a reverse layup.

That pass was downright unbelievable. The Bucks players never imagined the ball could be thrown like that—threading through three Bucks defenders and landing right in Jordan’s hands in the paint.

Even Jordan was impressed after he scored, while Gan Guoyang complained, "You old man, why didn’t you dunk that? Wasting my brilliant pass."

"I don’t want to steal your spotlight, man. Your pass is the main event, not how I finish," Jordan replied. Turns out Jordan knew how to butter people up too—it just depended on who he was talking to.

With a big lead, Glory Team eased up on defense and gave the Bucks some scoring chances, but most of them were outside shots. They could barely get into the paint, and had basically no low-post game. For an NBA team at that time, that was a really tough ask.

Meanwhile, when Jordan fed Gan Guoyang the ball in the low post, nobody dared to double-team him.

Are you crazy? If you double, you’re leaving Jordan wide open.

But if you don’t double, Gan Guoyang catches it, bumps his way inside with a spin, leans in, pulls up, and scores it with ease.

Whether it was Tim Thomas or Kafei, their low-post defense might as well not have existed in Gan Guoyang’s eyes. Whether the shot went in or not depended entirely on his own touch. frёewebnoѵēl.com

George Karl’s once-proud trapping defense was completely useless here. These two were running strong-side actions with the ball. How exactly were you supposed to double? Who were you going to leave?

Next possession, Gan Guoyang returned the favor. Holding the ball at the high post, he dumped it inside to Jordan on the block. Jordan caught it, spun, threw in an up-and-under fake, shook off the defender, cut to the rim and laid it in.

Gan Guoyang flashed a traveling sign at him. Jordan just smiled and cursed, "Call me for traveling? Maybe in my next life."

The way the two of them were playing together—so easy, so smooth—it felt like an All-Star Game, or like the Bucks were tanking on purpose. freēwebnovel.com

In reality they weren’t taking it easy at all. They were trying their best to defend, but these two just had the timing and little details down perfectly.

The passes, for example, were always right on time. A tad early and the cutter hadn’t established position; a tad late and the defense was already set.

They’d hit that exact sweet spot—ball arrives, and the attack launches instantly.

Both of them belonged to that quick-strike type: catch and go, never hesitating, getting a shot off within three seconds. They gave the defense no time to react.

That’s why the defenders looked so dumb, like they weren’t doing anything and somehow still got scored on. In reality they just couldn’t react fast enough.

The two of them shared the floor for a little over three minutes in the second quarter and stretched the lead to 20, then checked out together to sit down and get some water.