Chapter 317: Street Fight At Staples
Chen Yan finally got his three point stroke going.
The rest of the Suns did not.
In the first quarter Phoenix went 2 of 8 from deep. Both makes belonged to Chen. Every other jumper from the perimeter clanged out.
After 12 minutes the scoreboard was blunt about it.
28 18, Lakers.
Los Angeles spread the damage around. Kobe had 7, Garnett 6, Fisher 5, Radmanovic 4, James Posey 3, Luke Walton 3.
That kind of balanced scoring is a nightmare to defend. Double one guy and the next open man simply punishes you.
...
To start the second quarter Mike D Antoni left Chen on the floor.
The idea was simple, let Chen anchor the second unit and chip away at the lead.
It worked, at first. The Suns shaved the deficit all the way down to 3.
Then Chen finally sat.
Everything unraveled.
Azubuike got passive, turning down clean looks. Barea went the other way, overamped, forcing drives and throwing the ball away.
It was the classic look of a bench group short on playoff experience.
The Lakers pushed the lead back into double digits in a matter of possessions.
Late in the quarter both coaches brought their starters back.
Garnett walked in and immediately took control. Two straight tough jumpers, both buried.
That was the luxury of having two franchise guys. Kobe and KG could attack together, or they could take turns carrying the offense. It gave Phil Jackson more options than most coaches ever see.
Halftime came with the margin still in double figures.
...
Phoenix adjusted after the break.
Grant Hill joined the starting five to add another scoring threat.
The tradeoff was obvious. Without Raja Bell on the floor, Kobe felt the shackles loosen.
He smelled blood and went right at it.
Seven straight points later, D Antoni had to burn a timeout.
On both ends the Lakers were in control.
Kobe and Garnett were locked in. With two stars who impacted the game at both ends, every possession felt like a grind for Phoenix.
By the end of the third, the scoreboard read 83-70, Lakers up.
Thirteen points to climb, on the road, against that team.
...
In the fourth quarter the Lakers made their plan obvious.
Swarm Chen Yan.
They top locked him, bumped him off every cut, and on certain possessions sent a second defender at him the moment he touched the ball.
Phoenix's earlier shooting woes had invited that pressure. If nobody else could hit a shot, there was no reason to stay home on anyone.
Right before the quarter started, Kobe walked straight up to Chen at the free throw line.
"I am guarding you in the fourth," he said. "They are not calling those fouls on me. This is my building."
It was an arrogant challenge, and he was not wrong. The whistle tightened up in his favor.
Forearms, hips, little elbows to the ribs, all of it slid by without a call.
He added trash talk to the mix, probing for a reaction.
"These cheap tricks, that is all you got?" Chen finally snapped back.
Kobe just shrugged. "That is basketball."
Chen quit jawing.
On the next few trips, he hunted Kobe on the other end, picking him up himself and responding with the same physicality.
What he did not expect was the look in Kobe's eyes.
Every time their bodies collided, the man almost looked pleased.
There was a reason for that.
All year Kobe had kept to his brutal "6 6 6" routine, 6 hours a day, 6 blocks of work, 6 days a week. No holidays. No half days. The way he trained bordered on self punishment, and it was the hidden engine behind his career.
For someone like that, pain was not a deterrent. It was fuel.
Soon the game inside the game took over.
Chen and Kobe stopped just playing basketball and started fighting for space with every inch of their bodies, shoulders and arms, elbows and backs, thighs and calves.
They battled whether they had the ball or not.
The officials let it go.
To the fans, it started to look less like a Western Conference Finals and more like a sanctioned street fight.
Watching from his television, David Stern did not look away.
He liked it.
Regular season drama no longer satisfied the league. What sold now were superstar duels, grudges, and games that felt personal.
This was all of that in one.
...
As the wrestling match intensified, Chen's focus slipped.
The Lakers defense stayed locked on him, the whistles stayed mostly silent, and Phoenix's other shooters never found a rhythm.
That forced Nash into a role he never preferred.
He started hunting his own shot more aggressively.
History said that was a bad sign. On nights when Nash put up big scoring numbers, the Suns usually lost. His best games were always the ones where everyone else got easy looks.
The clock bled away.
Inside the final 50 seconds, Phoenix still trailed by more than 10.
Whenever the Suns fell behind now, fans thought of one thing, 13 points in 33 seconds.
They wanted one more miracle.
This time there was no script to follow. This was the NBA, not a movie, and Chen could not bend every fourth quarter to his will.
The horn sounded.
103 90.
Lakers 1, Suns 0.
...
Chen's line in the box score did not look bad at all.
27 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists.
11 of 23 from the field, 3 of 8 from three, 2 of 3 at the line.
The problem was the timing.
He had 22 of those 27 in the first three quarters. In the fourth, lost in the fistfight, he never found a rhythm and never got a whistle in this building.
Los Angeles, by contrast, had five players in double figures.
Kobe led everyone with 29 points.
Garnett put up 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Fisher chipped in 10.
Phoenix had two players over 20, Chen and Nash, who finished with 22.
Everyone else faded into the background.
Stoudemire struggled badly against the combined length and strength of Garnett and Kwame Brown, going 4 for 12 from the floor and finishing with 10 points including free throws.
Staples exploded at the buzzer.
There was not much the home crowd loved more than knocking off the team they hated most.
The Suns players headed for the tunnel quickly. There was no point standing in the middle of someone else's party.
Frustration, yes. Panic, no.
Dropping a road game in a series like this was not a disaster. What mattered was how fast they adjusted.
...
Afterward, D Antoni kept Chen away from the podium.
It was a small layer of protection for his young star.
At his own media session he stayed calm.
"I knew before the series this was going to be a battle," he said. "We ran into some problems tonight, but we are not going to quit. For the series, this is just the start. What these young guys on our team need right now is to go back, take a shower, get some sleep. You will see a different version of us next game."
On the other side Phil Jackson praised his own locker room.
"This was a team win," the Zen Master said. "Everybody did their job. I am proud of the group."
A reporter pressed him.
"Coach, since the league went to best of seven, teams that win Game 1 of a series advance about 78 percent of the time. And you have that famous streak, when your team wins Game 1, your series record is 46 wins and 0 losses. Do you believe that will continue?"
Phil smiled.
"Of course I want to keep that going," he said. "But basketball is not mysticism. You do not win a series with a number on a page. You win it step by step."
...
Kobe, even with the win, did not crack much of a smile.
"The Lakers still have a lot of work to do," he said. "You cannot celebrate over one game. In the end you just played at a fixed time, in a fixed arena, on a fixed date. We still have to go through adversity and play better in the next one."
Asked about the fourth quarter war with Chen, he did not dress it up.
"This is how I play," Kobe said. "That is how the game is supposed to be played."
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