TL: 100PS
Chapter 298: Best Start, Basketball Is Not a One Man Sport
Chen Yan's greatest headache for defenders was how easily he shifted between sane basketball and completely unreasonable basketball.
The moment you committed to helping on a drive, he would kick the ball out. The moment you braced for the pass, he would split 2 bodies and go straight through. You loaded up your double team, he slipped the pass right behind you. There was no pattern you could trust.
The Spurs came down for their next possession.
Tony Parker brought it over half court and swung the ball to Manu Ginobili at the top.
The demon blade scanned the floor, then dropped it inside to Tim Duncan, already rooted in his favorite spot on the low block.
Duncan went to work, backing down with that slow, steady rhythm.
On a lateral dribble, the unthinkable happened. The ball slipped.
The instant it popped away from Duncan's hand, Chen exploded in, reached, and stripped it clean.
Phoenix was off to the races.
Chen Yan pushed the ball by himself into the front court.
Ginobili, Parker, and Bruce Bowen all sprinted back, forming a three man wall.
One against three.
This time Chen did not try to force a track meet. His initial burst was not enough to blow past the line, so he throttled down and veered toward the right baseline.
Parker, the closest Spur, slid with him, squaring up. The play settled into a one on one.
Chen pounded with his left, then snapped the ball back to his right and surged.
Parker's feet were quick enough to stay in front, but the defense had already been walked down from the 3 point line to the edge of the restricted area.
Bang.
Bang.
Chen planted his back into Parker's chest and began to back him down.
Parker was light, hands straight up, but that did not stop Chen from methodically shoving him closer and closer to the rim.
Ginobili darted over from the weak side to help.
Right as he arrived, Chen spun. It was like he had eyes in the back of his head.
In that one sequence, Chen strung together 2 signatures from Kobe's playbook, the post up work and that dancing spin out of the double. He slipped between Parker and Ginobili, then floated a soft runner over the help.
Wrist snap, touch soft, everything pure.
Swish.
18 to 9.
The Suns had their best opening stretch of the entire series.
"Great read," Kenny Smith said on TNT. "Soon as he saw Parker on him, he went straight to the post, and that touch around the basket was beautiful."
"He just keeps making the right decision," Charles Barkley added. "Sometimes it is bully ball, sometimes it is finesse. That is not something you can really teach, man, that is feel."
The lead was growing, which was dangerous for San Antonio and, at least in theory, dangerous for the neutral drama too. A huge gap this early could kill the tension in what everyone expected to be a classic Game 5.
But anyone who knew the Spurs knew better than to relax.
On the next trip, Duncan popped out to the right 45 degree elbow, took the pass, and rose for a face up jumper.
Swish.
18 to 11.
Duncan was always a little strange that way. His free throws could look stiff and mechanical. His midrange, though, had real touch.
The difference was rhythm. On his jumpers, he moved into the shot, stepped, rose, and released, everything flowing together. At the free throw line, there was no jump, no natural beat, just a long pause, a stare at the rim, and a sudden fling. The lack of rhythm dragged down his percentage at the stripe.
Diaw quickly inbounded from the baseline.
Nash brought the ball up, and this time his defender was not Parker.
Bowen slid over onto Nash.
After Bowen's rough start on Chen, Popovich had adjusted the matchups, sending Ginobili to take a turn on the Suns rookie and shifting Bowen onto the point guard.
Bowen shaded to the bottom lane, leaving the top open.
Nash saw the gap immediately and snaked into the paint.
He leaned toward Bowen, ready to flip up one of his smooth layups off the glass, but Bowen peeled away at the last second, baiting him.
A moment later, Duncan stepped up behind Bowen.
The instant the ball left Nash's hand, Nash knew he had walked into a Spurs trap.
Duncan extended both arms and sent the layup right back with a clean block.
His shot blocking was not about vertical highlights. It was timing, awareness, and the structure of the Spurs defense all working together.
Duncan grabbed the rebound out of the air and secured it.
San Antonio flipped the floor.
Five against four.
Ginobili grabbed the outlet, sprinted, and attacked the rim in stride.
Diaw wrapped him up and yanked him down. Tactical foul.
Manu bounced up, dusted off his jersey, and went to the line.
Swish.
Swish.
2 more.
18 to 13.
Phoenix answered.
Nash advanced and swung the ball to Chen Yan on the left wing at about 60 degrees outside the arc.
Chen gave a subtle change of direction and a low dribble.
Amar'e came up to set a screen, forearm tucked in for protection. He tried to clip Ginobili and free Chen's line.
Manu twisted through the pick and reappeared right in front of Chen.
Chen waved Amar'e back toward him, calling for a second hit.
Stoudemire obliged, once again bracing, this time sealing off Ginobili's left side.
Chen burst off the screen, only to see a switch coming. Duncan stepped up near the free throw line.
Ginobili squeezed around Amar'e and closed back in from behind.
The Spurs sprung a soft double.
They knew exactly where Chen was. This area, right around the nail, had been his killing ground in Game 4. They were not about to let him find that rhythm again without a second body.
Before they could lock him in, Chen whipped the ball behind his back to a totally uncovered Amar'e.
The pass looked casual, but it hit Amar'e right in his shooting pocket.
Stoudemire rose and fired from midrange.
Swish.
20 to 13.
As the quarter went on, Amar'e's early adrenaline began to settle into focus. It was his second midrange jumper of the night.
All season he had expanded that part of his game, moving away from his old habit of launching himself at the rim every time there was a sliver of space.
It was growth. The jumper stretched the floor, opened lanes for Chen and Nash, and, just as important, took some of the violent collisions out of his diet. For a big man with his injury history, that mattered.
Watching Amar'e find that touch, Popovich's worry deepened.
He had seen a version of this story before.
Back when Tracy McGrady was carrying Orlando against Detroit, T Mac ripped off 40 plus games again and again. To slow him down, the Pistons went to a box and one, loading bodies at him on every catch and clawing back from a 3 to 1 hole.
Popovich could not copy that approach now. McGrady's teammates in that series were mostly role players with limited scoring. Chen Yan's situation was different. He had 2 All Star teammates beside him.
Chen's huge scoring nights came from his own brilliance and from the gravity of the talent around him. Stoudemire and Nash pulled defenders away from him. Without that support, even if he put up the same numbers, every game would be a war of attrition.
Basketball was never designed to be a one man sport.
With 5 minutes and 7 seconds left in the first quarter, Popovich made an early move and pulled Duncan.
It was a protective sub.
Compared to earlier games in the series, Duncan's movement was noticeably slower. The win in San Antonio had come at a cost.
The brutal heat, the heavy minutes, the grind inside had all drained him. He had pushed himself to the edge of dehydration in that sauna of a building, and at 32 years old, recovery did not come as quickly.
On the Suns' side, Chen Yan, who had cramped in that same game, stayed on the floor. D'Antoni kept riding him.
Two coaches, two philosophies.
One leaned into preserving his core guys for the long haul. The other let his stars run, trusting them to ride the waves and take over games with freedom.
D'Antoni's approach gave his players more room to express everything they had, even if it meant living with the risk on the back end.
Popovich's approach had given the Spurs' core longevity that most franchises envied.
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