TL: 200PS
Chapter 321: Roll Call Tactics!
"Great shot!"
"Cold blooded."
"That crossover nearly took Kobe's ankle home as a souvenir."
"Even Kobe and Garnett could not stop him on that one."
"If you want pure spectacle, you watch Chen Yan."
"Only Chen Yan dares to play with that kind of flair in the Western Conference Finals."
"Kobe could do it too back in his Flying Knight days, but now he trims everything down and chases efficiency."
In living rooms across the world, the noise rose and fell with every possession.
Once the playoffs hit the Western Conference Finals, Chen Yan's popularity climbed again. Plenty of families were eating breakfast with the game on, 3 people, 4 people, the whole table glued to the screen.
Game 2's live audience was slightly lower than Game 1, mostly because it fell on a weekday. Students and office workers could not always catch the broadcast.
It did not matter. The enthusiasm did not drop an inch.
Office workers followed text play by play on their phones while pretending to be productive. Back then, you could not just pull up a clean NBA stream on your mobile, so text updates became the next best thing.
Students used their 10 minute breaks to slip into convenience stores, just to steal a glimpse of Chen Yan's box score and whatever highlight might be happening.
Some teachers with flexible morals and excellent taste simply turned on the sports channel during class. Chen Yan's 13 points in 33 seconds had become a legendary clip, and the message was easy to sell, never quit, even when the clock is trying to kill you.
On the floor, Chen Yan sprinted back on defense with purpose.
He had scored 10 of the Suns' first 12 points. He was a born scorer, and watching his own total climb so quickly felt incredible.
Part of it was his touch. Part of it was the way the Suns had drawn it up.
Before the game, D Antoni hammered one thing into him again and again. He did not want Chen Yan organizing. He did not want him crashing the glass. He wanted 1 job, shoot, and shoot without hesitation.
Chen Yan took that personally. The moment he stepped on the court, he turned off the passing instinct and treated the rim like it owed him money.
Very few rookies ever got this kind of green light, especially on a team that genuinely believed it could win a title.
That trust was a gift from the staff and his teammates, and Chen Yan's way of paying it back was simple, put the ball in the basket.
Los Angeles came down on offense.
Kobe kept going at Chen.
This time, he did not try to shake him with fancy footwork. He used something more reliable, experience, contact, timing, and a foul before the shot.
Chen Yan reacted instantly and chopped down on Kobe's hands before the release, almost yanking him off balance.
If you are going to foul, make it count. A soft foul that gives up an and 1 is the worst business in basketball.
Kobe stumbled 2 steps, steadied himself, and did not complain at all. Instead, he patted Chen Yan on the butt, like he was praising a teammate for a good contest.
Kobe liked this.
He liked the confrontation.
But the head to head guarding could not last forever. They were both primary weapons, and coaches do not let their stars burn out playing full court pride battles for 48 minutes.
The Lakers went back to their structure.
The triangle flowed, bodies cut, and the ball found daylight. Fisher and James Posey hit back to back 3s, the kind that always show up when superstars bend a defense out of shape.
That was one of the triangle's quiet advantages. It turned role players into threats by design. It also explained why so many guys looked like they had career years under Phil Jackson, then cooled off the second they left his system.
Phoenix did not play tight, even with a small lead.
They ran. They fired. They pushed the tempo whenever a window opened. Compared to Game 1, the Suns looked lighter, like the pressure had slipped off their shoulders.
That was D Antoni's work.
A great coach is not just a diagram guy. He is also a mind guy.
D Antoni understood the math. To beat a team like the Lakers, Phoenix had to attack first, attack hard, and force Los Angeles to commit numbers to defense. Once the Lakers started rotating heavier, the Suns could create cracks elsewhere and ease the pressure on their own weak spots.
In the back half of the first quarter, Stoudemire started to roar to life.
He threw off the disappointment from Game 1 by facing up, driving into the paint, and earning contact. Again and again.
He could feel it. The pressure on him was lighter than it had been in the opener.
Chen Yan's hot start was pulling gravity toward the perimeter, and gravity always pays out in the paint.
That was why Chen Yan mattered. When he got going, everybody else got air.
The game stayed possession to possession.
Phoenix held a lead, but it was thin enough to snap with 1 bad minute.
End of the first quarter.
29 to 27.
Suns by 2.
Chen Yan's line after 12 minutes was exactly what D Antoni had asked for, 15 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound, all finishing, all intent.
Kobe answered with 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Evenly matched, punch for punch.
To open the second quarter, both Kobe and Chen Yan sat.
Their rest patterns were almost mirrored.
The bench battle did not swing wildly either way. The Lakers' second unit stayed connected, and Phoenix did not collapse the way it had in Game 1.
With 7 minutes and 39 seconds left in the second, both sets of starters checked back in.
Los Angeles leaned into its ace pairing, Kobe and Garnett pick and roll, over and over, squeezing the Suns' lead down.
Phoenix's shooting cooled compared to the first quarter, and the Lakers quickly edged in front.
D Antoni called timeout immediately.
This was what playing the Lakers looked like, a tug of war, no comfort, no long stretches of peace. He had expected that.
Out of the timeout, D Antoni made the adjustment.
When the Suns' percentages dropped, he did not want them launching blind jumpers just to "find rhythm." That kind of panic shooting was how the Lakers could explode the gap to 10 in 2 minutes.
So his solution was simple.
Give it to Chen Yan. Let him isolate.
When in doubt, find Chen Yan.
It was a formula that had saved Phoenix all season.
Phoenix inbounded.
Nash caught at the top.
Chen Yan came in from the sideline after the pass, and instead of drifting away, he sprinted right into a screen for Nash.
Pick and roll.
After the contact, Chen Yan popped out, 1 step beyond the 3 point line.
Nash moved it quickly, forcing the switch.
Now Fisher was in front of Chen Yan, low stance, hands ready, trying to look younger than he felt.
But defense is not a pose. It is a race.
Chen Yan did not waste time with extra fakes. He hit his lightning first step and left Fisher behind in 1 move.
Fisher was still strong, still sturdy, a guy you could not just bully with your shoulder.
But speed was gone.
And that made him vulnerable to the exact kind of guard who treated a first step like a weapon.
This switch was not an accident.
Phoenix had targeted Old Fish on purpose.
It was a point of emphasis in practice for 2 straight days.
Chen Yan's drive cracked the Lakers' shell.
Near the free throw line, he took long, violent strides toward the rim.
Garnett stepped up.
Kwame Brown stepped in too.
For a split second, Chen Yan weighed the shot.
Then he saw it.
Stoudemire streaking in behind the play like a freight train.
No hesitation.
Chen Yan floated the lob.
D Antoni telling him to finish did not mean he was forbidden to pass. It meant he was forbidden to hesitate. If a teammate was wide open, the ball still had to move.
Kwame and Garnett reacted, but they were late.
Stoudemire was already airborne.
BOOM.
A thunderous, signature dunk.
And just like that, Phoenix snatched the lead back again.
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