Chapter 300: Nash And Chen In Sync, A Monster First Half
"Wow, Chen Yan takes the hit, goes up strong, and still finishes under the rim. That is 2 points and a free throw," Kenny Smith called as the whistle blew.
"Man, Chen's backside was like a magnet," Charles Barkley laughed. "Oberto had no chance, he got sucked right into that one."
Kenny could not help but start laughing too, and the joke rolled straight through the broadcast and into living rooms everywhere.
On the floor, Chen Yan calmly stepped to the line and knocked down the free throw.
The crowd at America West Arena erupted again.
That 2 plus 1 did more than stop San Antonio's momentum. It punched a hole in their counterattack and reminded everyone whose building this was.
The Spurs came back the other way.
Duncan went into a straight post up against Amar'e Stoudemire.
This time Amar'e tried to adjust, sliding his feet across Duncan's path and bringing his body into the turn.
Duncan still forced the shot, missed it, but drew the whistle.
He walked to the stripe and split the pair.
38 to 34.
Stoudemire was a force on offense and a liability on defense. Asking him to handle Duncan one on one inside was always going to be a problem.
Chen Yan took the ball from the baseline and dropped it in to Nash.
Nash brought it across half court, then at the top of the arc flipped a pass back to Chen circling behind him.
Chen caught it a good 2 steps behind the three point line, well within his expanding range, but he did not pull up this time.
Even the best shooters do not launch from deep on every touch. The real danger comes when the defense has to respect both the drive and the shot.
Chen snapped into [Lightning First Step] and went straight at Bruce Bowen.
Simple. Brutal.
With that much runway, starting his move almost 2 meters outside the arc, he had plenty of space to build speed.
Bowen slid sideways to cut him off. Chen's second step left him a full body length behind.
All the experience in the world cannot erase a gap that big when the attacker is this explosive.
As Chen knifed into the lane he kept his eyes moving, reading rotations and help defenders even as he attacked. That was what separated great talents from complete players. If you rely only on force, you walk right into traps.
Duncan stepped up to meet him.
Chen took off like he was about to hammer another dunk, sending the crowd to its feet.
Instead, he hung in the air, twisted his shoulders, and whipped the ball behind his back with a smooth, blind flip.
For a split second it looked like one of Jason Williams' old highlights, except Chen's version was cleaner, less flash and more precision.
The ball hit Amar'e Stoudemire right in stride.
Amar'e took one step and exploded, rising with both hands and detonating a violent dunk over the rim.
He yanked the iron hard, hanging for a heartbeat before dropping down, every bit of frustration from Duncan's earlier dunk and the foul boiling out in that one play.
Phoenix went wild.
Fans in the arena and online were shouting over each other.
What a pass.
Chen is starting to see the floor like Nash.
The Spurs defense looks full of holes tonight.
It is not their holes, it is the Suns offense stretching them apart.
Chen opened the game, and now he is dragging everyone else into it.
On the sideline, Gregg Popovich's expression tightened.
Chen was already a nightmare when he went into pure scoring mode. Tonight, when he was also lifting his teammates, the question for any coach became simple. How do you guard a guy who can beat you both ways?
San Antonio tried to answer on the next trip.
Stoudemire shaded forward in front of Duncan, cutting off the easy post angle. Parker saw he could not slip the entry pass and decided to take it himself.
He turned on the jets and attacked the rim.
His drives were always bold. That was his game.
This time his intent telegraphed a little too clearly. Diaw read it early.
The French forward slid into position and raised one big hand to contest from the side.
He did not crush the ball, but he changed its flight just enough.
Stoudemire cleaned the miss on the glass and kicked it out to Nash.
Nash pushed hard in transition.
The Spurs sprinted back, 3 defenders already set in their own half.
Nash kept coming anyway, knifing into the lane between Parker and Duncan.
But the rim was not his real target.
With two long strides along the baseline, he leaned toward the cameras and snapped a looping pass out of the trap.
The ball sailed just over Duncan's fingertips and out to the corner.
Duncan turned his head in disbelief and saw exactly what the pass had found.
Chen Yan.
Waiting, feet set, hands ready.
The pure shooter in the corner caught and fired in one motion.
Swish.
The net snapped, and the roof nearly lifted.
Nash and Chen in perfect sync.
Nobody in the building could explain how Nash had picked Chen out while driving full speed into a double team, but he had. And Chen did exactly what he was supposed to do with that trust.
That entire possession could be summed up in four words: great pass, great shot.
As the ball dropped through, Chen felt the rhythm swinging fully to Phoenix and triggered the team skill he called [Blitz Storm]. If the offense was catching fire, he intended to throw gasoline on it.
…
Halftime.
Phoenix Suns 57 to 47 San Antonio Spurs.
The Suns had protected their lead and walked into the locker room up 10.
Chen Yan's halftime line was ridiculous in its balance: 26 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists.
A super complete first half.
In the quiet of the locker room, his phone buzzed.
A text from Taylor Swift.
Keep going Keep going I will give you a special reward in a few days after you win
She was watching the broadcast too.
A special reward.
For a second, Chen's mind drifted to images he would rather not unpack in the middle of a playoff war. It was not that he was trying to be dirty, it was just the reality of what usually lived between boyfriends and girlfriends.
He locked the screen and slipped the phone away. Whatever her surprise was, it could wait. The game could not.
D'Antoni addressed the team.
He praised the execution, the pace, the way they had stuck to the plan on both ends. He liked the score, he liked the rhythm.
But he also saw the cracks.
The main guys were logging heavy minutes. And Amar'e Stoudemire was already sitting on 3 fouls.
Across the hall, Popovich did not waste time tearing into his players.
For most of the half, they had done exactly what he had asked. The reason the scoreboard looked like this had a lot less to do with execution and a lot more to do with the Suns' number 13 in orange.
Chen's 26 points, 6 boards, and 8 dimes had blown open every coverage Pop had drawn up.
His ability to toggle between score first and pass first, sometimes in the same possession, gave every coach headaches.
So Popovich shifted his focus. If Chen could not be shut down directly, then the answer was to cut away his support, to attack the Suns' structure instead of just their star.
…
The second half opened with both starting fives on the floor.
Tony Parker attacked immediately.
He used a screen, turned the corner, and charged straight at Stoudemire in the paint.
This time he did not lean his shoulder in or fully commit to contact. He went up soft, almost inviting the block.
Amar'e met him in the air and slapped the shot away clean.
Parker crashed to the floor.
Stoudemire glanced down at him and could not resist a line.
"First time I have ever seen somebody deliver themselves like a package," he murmured.
As he jogged back, the bigger picture clicked. The Spurs were not testing the rim, they were testing him.
Next possession, the plan came into full view.
Parker came off another screen, then suddenly shifted gears and exploded into the lane again, this time driving with full force.
He went straight into Stoudemire's body.
The whistle blew almost instantly.
Foul number 4 on Amar'e.
Popovich clapped from the sideline, pleased with the execution.
This was exactly the emphasis from halftime. Take away the Suns' second leading scorer, and the floor would shrink around Chen Yan. Without Stoudemire threatening the rim on every roll, San Antonio could crowd Chen's space more aggressively.
D'Antoni had no choice.
He signaled to the bench and pulled Stoudemire out early in the third.
As Amar'e walked off, frustration was written all over his face.
4 fouls this early meant long stretches on the sideline, watching instead of helping.
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