Chapter 301: Final Moments, Suspense Returns
For the San Antonio Spurs, knocking Amar'e Stoudemire out of the game was only the first step. If they wanted to steal Game 5 in Phoenix, they needed more than foul trouble, they needed to change the game itself.
Through the first half of the third quarter, the Suns still played at their own tempo. They ran, spaced the floor, and mostly dictated the rhythm. San Antonio's strategy barely shifted.
Then, midway through the second half of the quarter, everything flipped.
First, Tony Parker turned a Suns miss into a solo fast break, racing past everyone for an easy layup.
Next, Manu Ginobili took a quick baseline inbound, exploded past his man, and hammered home a one handed dunk.
Just like that, the Spurs turned up their own pace.
They were suddenly the ones pushing in transition, crashing the defensive glass, then sprinting out without hesitation. The same run and gun style the Suns were famous for had been turned against them.
Phoenix looked completely unprepared for the sudden gear shift. Possession after possession, they gave up clean looks or transition scores.
Popovich kept twisting knobs and pulling levers. D'Antoni, by contrast, did what he always did. He trusted the guys on the floor and let them figure it out. On this stretch, that gap in in game adjustment showed.
On one Suns possession, under that new wave of Spurs pressure, Chen Yan finally cracked.
He came off a screen, snaked into the paint, then lost the ball as it slipped out of his hand. Fabricio Oberto scooped it up.
Chen Yan was not a machine. Even on nights when he looked untouchable, mistakes still happened. The question was never whether he would make them, only how he would respond.
He did not stand there with his hands on his hips.
The moment Oberto turned to throw the outlet, Chen exploded into a counter steal.
He launched into the passing lane, rose in traffic, and snatched the long pass right out of the air.
When he landed, he was already in attack mode, pushing straight back at the Spurs. With their players spread for the fast break, there was no one set to stop the stolen ball counter.
Chen glided in and dropped in a smooth layup.
The Suns star was still burning, but San Antonio's full court attack had opened a cut in Phoenix's system. Chen could plug small leaks. He could not single handedly stop a tactical flood.
At the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard read:
Suns 74, Spurs 72.
A 2 point lead that felt anything but safe.
During the break, D'Antoni tried to patch the bleeding. He adjusted his matchups and coverages. He refused to let the Spurs keep running the Suns' own system in their building.
To start the fourth quarter, he stayed with his full starting lineup. He knew they had already logged a lot of minutes, but if Phoenix wanted to hold the lead, he felt he had no choice.
Popovich had other ideas.
After spending the third quarter running, the Spurs opened the fourth by slamming on the brakes.
They slowed every possession down, packed their defense, and built a wall in the half court.
The score stayed tight. Every trip mattered.
With 5 minutes left, disaster struck Phoenix again.
Amar'e Stoudemire picked up his sixth foul.
He was done.
As he walked to the bench, frustration and regret mixed on his face. He felt like he had let his teammates down, and if the Suns lost Game 5, he knew fingers would point his way.
In the back half of the quarter, San Antonio kept finding seams. They hit the Suns where they were weakest defensively, again and again.
The Spurs' advantage in how they had managed energy all night began to show.
Phoenix's defensive footwork slowed. Rotations came a half step late. Only Chen still looked close to full speed.
Part of that was who he was. Chen's body was a gift. The other part was what he had earned. Over the season, his system stat [Fans Chemistry] had climbed to 89.
Once [Fans Chemistry] passed 80, the system rewarded him. In the final 5 minutes of a game, he would recover 5 percent of his stamina bar.
It did not sound like much on paper. On the floor, in moments like this, that 5 percent meant everything.
Even so, one man at 95 percent could not fully make up for 4 teammates running on fumes.
The Suns wanted Game 5. They chased every loose ball, tried to squeeze everything out of every possession.
They still could not completely hold back San Antonio's surge.
In the final 3 minutes, Steve Nash did something he almost never did.
He turned the ball over twice in a row.
For a point guard who handled the ball on nearly every trip, his 3.4 turnovers per game in the regular season were remarkably low. That was how carefully he usually played.
These 2 mistakes were not about carelessness. They were about legs. They were about the accumulation of last game's overtime minutes and tonight's heavy load.
By the time the clock ticked down to 49 seconds, the scoreboard was brutal.
Spurs 93, Suns 84.
Down 9, not much time, and an arena that had gone completely quiet.
Fans felt the weight of it.
"This is too hard. The Suns are basically done."
"If they lose this one, going back to San Antonio is going to be a nightmare."
"It feels like the Spurs will always be the mountain they cannot climb."
Everybody knew the numbers.
Chen Yan already had 44 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists. He had emptied the tank. Even if he walked out of the arena with a loss, no one could say he had not done his part.
Comebacks from that kind of deficit at this point in a game almost never happened.
Reggie Miller's flurry counted as 1.
Tracy McGrady's miracle counted as 1.
Two moments, 2 names, 2 nights that had become legend.
The T Mac Moment had already burned itself into history, and the Spurs had been the opponent on the wrong end of it.
Could the same franchise really be the backdrop for another miracle like that?
Most fans did not believe it.
If it actually happened, people would have every right to call San Antonio the unluckiest team in the world.
D'Antoni signaled for a timeout.
Inside, he felt the same despair everybody else did. A 9 point gap with under a minute left made Game 5 feel as though it was slipping further away with every heartbeat.
He did not let any of that show.
The head coach could not be the first one to break.
"Score," he told them firmly. "Get a quick one, then full court press. Go for the steal. If you cannot get it, foul immediately. Got it"
"Got it" the players answered, hands stacked in the middle.
The timeout ended.
The game resumed.
Nash took the inbound and attacked straight ahead.
He pulled up from the left elbow, around the 45 degree mark. With the Spurs' entire defense keyed in on Chen Yan, the look he got was clean.
His legs did not cooperate.
The ball came off his hand just a touch flat.
Clang.
The sound of the ball hitting the rim seemed to echo around the building. Suns fans felt their hearts drop with it.
If that shot did not go in, it felt like everything was over.
On the floor, there was one person who refused to accept that.
Chen Yan.
He crashed in from the perimeter, sprang between Tim Duncan and Oberto, and ripped down the offensive rebound.
The possession was still alive.
He gathered, spotted Boris Diaw knifing in from the weak side, and shoveled the ball over to him.
Diaw caught it, bent his knees, and exploded upward.
Boom.
He spiked home a powerful two handed dunk.
Safe points, fast points.
93 to 86.
The gap was down to 7.
The sudden swing rattled San Antonio. On the baseline inbound, Oberto rushed his pass and threw it right between Parker and Ginobili.
Raja Bell read it a beat faster than anyone. He darted forward, snatched the ball, and cruised in for a layup.
93 to 88.
Just like that, the lead was cut to 5.
The US Airways Center, dead quiet a moment ago, erupted.
Popovich did not hesitate. He called his own timeout to steady the ship.
After the break, the Spurs inbounded from the frontcourt. This time their spacing and timing were clean, and they got the ball in safely.
The Suns, with no time to waste, immediately wrapped up Ginobili to stop the clock.
In the TNT booth, Kenny Smith laid it out.
"The Suns do not have many options right now," he said. "They have to extend the game by putting the Spurs on the line. You trade the clock for possessions."
Barkley snorted. "Yeah, but you are basically betting your season on somebody missing free throws. The pressure is all on Phoenix, not San Antonio."
Kenny nodded. "You are living with the math at this point. It is not ideal, but there is no better plan left."
Inside the arena, the booing was relentless.
Boo.
Boo.
Ginobili blocked it all out, rose, and knocked down the first free throw.
Swish.
Then the second.
Swish.
95 to 88.
The noise in the building dropped again. Those 2 free throws felt like another punch to the Suns' chances.
Phoenix inbounded from the baseline.
Nash pushed the ball over half court as quickly as he could and got it to Chen. His own stamina bar was empty. Whatever hope they had left, he had to put it in Chen's hands.
Chen did not waste a single dribble.
The Suns needed points, they needed them fast, and any wasted second mattered almost as much as a missed shot.
He caught the ball on the left wing, just outside the 45 degree mark, behind the three point line.
Bruce Bowen was right there.
Bowen crowded Chen's right side, draped over his shooting arm, and angled his body to funnel him toward the baseline.
Drive if you want. You are not getting this three.
Chen took a hard step as if he were going to attack the lane, then snapped into a tight spin.
He had no intention of playing by the Spurs' script. A quick 2 would not change enough.
Coming out of the spin, he shifted the ball back to his right hand. At the same time, Diaw slid up into the high post, ready to set a screen.
Bowen, with all his years of defensive experience, saw Diaw's movement in the corner of his eye and tried to jump the action early, looping around the screen before it was even fully set.
That was textbook anticipatory defense.
Chen read the anticipation.
As Bowen moved to go over the top, Chen slammed on the brakes, stepped back behind the arc, and rose into his jumper.
He had spent an entire season fighting to get to this moment with this team. He refused to accept another series slipping away to the Spurs. Going back to San Antonio down 2 to 3 would leave Phoenix with almost no margin for error.
Games against the Spurs were always like this, always a grind, always a test of how stubborn your heart really was.
He let it fly.
The ball climbed high, tracing a clean arc, then dropped through the net with a pure, sharp swish.
95 to 91.
The difference was down to 4, with 33 seconds still on the clock.
And just like that, the suspense was back.
<><><><><>
[P@treon Christmas Discount: 20% OFF]
[Check Out My Patreon For +40 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]