The Trail Blazers' Princeton System played a role, with Petrović and Reggie Lewis continuously cutting to the basket, catching the ball and attacking the rim.
Cliff-Robinson and Grant Long committed consecutive fouls, sending Trail Blazers players to the free-throw line. The Trail Blazers gradually caught up.
In this back-and-forth rhythm tug-of-war, the two teams ended the half at 42:43, with the Heat leading by one point as they entered halftime.
Gan Guoyang shot 4 of 10 in the half, scoring 9 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, with 4 assists and two turnovers.
This was already considered a poor performance for him.
Jack Ramsey said at halftime, "We must admit, Hakeem performed better than Ah Gan in the first half's confrontation. Ah Gan was rarely suppressed and caused two turnovers, which is incredible."
"Ah Gan rarely makes mistakes, right?"
