Chapter 407: First Win of the Season
Whether Chen Yan could actually win the scoring title this season was still a question for later. What everyone knew tonight was simpler, he was completely unlocked.
On the next possession, with Cleveland still stuck in mud offensively, Phoenix pushed again.
Jason "White Chocolate" Williams fired a full court bounce pass to Chen Yan in stride. Pure aesthetics, it was as pretty as anything Nash could throw.
Kenny Smith pointed it out immediately. "That's what you get with Jason. The pass is always on time, and it always has style."
Reggie Miller added, "The difference is consistency. Nash is a metronome. Jason is a jazz solo."
Barkley chuckled. "And you want jazz as your backup, not as your rent money."
Chen Yan took 2 dribbles with his left, then decelerated outside the arc, bringing his right hand up like he was about to launch.
Mo Williams bit hard and lunged.
Chen Yan froze him with a brief pause, then hit a smooth change of direction and slipped right by. He accelerated toward the rim, and Pavlovic rotated over from the wing to contest.
Chen Yan saw him, and kept going anyway.
If that help defender was LeBron, maybe you think twice. If it was Pavlovic, you trusted your angle.
Both players jumped. Chen Yan glided, avoided the contact, and finished a one handed layup.
Fluid, powerful, simple. The kind of scoring that looked effortless but still carried weight.
That made it 5 straight points for Chen Yan, and Mike Brown had to burn another timeout.
…
Out of the timeout, Cleveland went back to its starters. O'Neal, Hughes, and Varejão checked in.
Phoenix matched with Nash returning, while rookie DeAndre Jordan stayed on the floor. D'Antoni liked what he was getting on the glass.
Cleveland started with Mo Williams inbounding on the sideline, LeBron sliding to the wing as the trigger.
Mo came off a screen and tried to get downhill, but Jordan and Stoudemire walled off the paint. Two elite athletes waiting at the rim meant forcing it was a bad idea, so Mo stopped short and kicked it out.
Varejão found himself matched on Jason Williams. The mismatch was there, but Varejão did not have the bag to punish it. He handed off to LeBron and set a screen.
LeBron turned the corner like a truck with a turbo button. He got into the lane, drew 3 defenders, then whipped an absurd pass out to the perimeter.
Barkley called it live. "That's great vision. He just created a wide open look for Larry Hughes."
The shot clanked.
Kenny sighed. "Phoenix overcommitted to LeBron, and Cleveland still couldn't cash in. That's the story early."
Hughes still had 0 points. Spending every ounce of energy chasing Chen Yan was draining him mentally as much as physically.
Chen Yan read the rebound clean, grabbed it, and immediately pushed.
Cleveland sprinted back. LeBron and Hughes shaded toward Chen Yan, while Mo Williams tracked Nash.
A 2 on 3 break. Chen Yan did not force anything. He dribbled to a step inside the arc, slammed the brakes, and pulled the ball back out toward the 3 point line.
Another drive fake?
LeBron and Hughes stayed attached. Chen Yan's jumper was too hot to give him air.
When he reached the arc, Chen Yan stopped completely.
Both defenders froze, waiting for the next move.
After a 1 second pause, Chen Yan snapped a pass diagonally.
Stoudemire trailed the play at full speed, took 1 dribble, then 3 long steps.
Boom.
The rim groaned as the Little Tyrant detonated the dunk.
LeBron and Hughes exchanged a look. They had been so locked in on Chen Yan that they lost track of the freight train cutting right behind them.
Chen Yan looked at them with a faint smile, like he was enjoying a private joke.
I'm waiting for my teammate. What are you waiting for?
…
Cleveland went right back to the block. O'Neal demanded the ball.
Mo lobbed it into the post. O'Neal backed Jordan down, dribbled once, then spun hard.
The strength was overwhelming. Jordan got moved so deep he could barely jump.
O'Neal rose through the contact and hammered a 2 handed dunk.
The whistle blew. Count it, and 1.
O'Neal had rested most of the 1st and another 4 minutes in the 2nd, so he had fresh legs by his standards. The moment he came in, he attacked.
Kenny broke it down. "Rookie mistake. You can't let Shaq catch it that deep. One dribble, one turn, and now you're praying."
Barkley nodded. "That's a bad place to defend anybody, and it's a terrible place to defend him."
Jordan looked frustrated. Chen Yan walked over and kept it simple.
"It's fine. Relax. It's just 2 plus 0."
O'Neal even gave him a little face, because a few seconds later the free throw missed.
Jordan grabbed the rebound and found Nash.
Nash licked his fingers, brought it up, and set the table.
From the left wing at the 45, Nash crossed between his legs toward the middle. Chen Yan stepped up like he was going to take a handoff, just enough to tug the defense's attention.
Nash kept it, flowed right, and DeAndre Jordan sprinted up from the backcourt to set the screen.
Jordan rolled hard.
Nash lofted a high lob from the right side of the free throw line.
Boom.
DeAndre Jordan climbed the ladder and slammed it down.
O'Neal was the backdrop. Even with his back turned, everyone in the building could picture what it looked like, the rookie finishing over the legend's space.
Jordan landed, pounded his chest, and stomped toward the camera.
For a rookie, that was adrenaline in its purest form.
O'Neal did not like it. He posted again the very next trip.
Jordan, still riding the moment, picked up another foul.
2 fouls on 2 straight possessions, and D'Antoni pulled him to cool him down.
O'Neal looked like he was reliving a flash of his prime in that stretch, putting up 9 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 block in the quarter.
But the scoring could not cover the real problem. On defense, age made everything louder. His weakness had always been guarding pick and roll actions. Now it was amplified. Every time he was on the floor, Nash and Chen Yan hunted mismatches and punished him with midrange shots, the classic formula.
At halftime, Phoenix led 64 to 44.
Chen Yan's line at the break was ridiculous: 30 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals.
Watching it Live, a wave of new fans had followed him from the Olympics straight into the NBA season, and plenty of them were watching for him specifically. The halftime numbers lit up group chats everywhere.
"30 in a half," people joked. "So he's dropping 60, right?"
Basketball does not do clean arithmetic.
By the end of the 3rd, Chen Yan had only added a little: 35 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists.
The Suns, though, had widened the game anyway.
D'Antoni went to a small ball shooter group late in the 3rd: Nash, Chen Yan, Raja Bell, Novak, and Barnes. The spacing stretched the floor into a runway, and Chen Yan leaned harder into his drives. Even when he was not scoring, he was bending the defense and creating clean perimeter looks.
Phoenix's team scoring jumped.
After 3, it was 88 to 63, a 25 point lead.
Novak, quiet earlier, hit 2 threes in that quarter. That was what a pure shooter needed, someone to draw attention, someone to deliver the pass, and enough space to breathe. D'Antoni could see it clearly now, Novak next to Nash and Chen Yan was the best version of Novak.
…
The 4th started with the Suns resting their starters, while LeBron stayed on the floor.
He kept attacking, and off a screen he finally got loose for a violent tomahawk dunk.
It looked great. It did not change the reality.
In a college cafeteria, one big headed guy with glasses pointed at the screen and laughed. "They're down 25 and he's still dunking?"
Cleveland's shooting stayed mediocre all night, including LeBron's. Even with Phoenix's starters sitting, the Cavaliers could not make a real dent.
At 8:01 in the 4th, Phoenix brought the starters back together.
Whatever small momentum Cleveland had found disappeared immediately.
At 6:19, Chen Yan cut sharply and popped out beyond the arc. Nash hit him right in the pocket.
LeBron rotated on the closeout, fast and aggressive. A little too aggressive.
His hand clipped Chen Yan's wrist.
Chen Yan lost his balance in the air.
His body was off, but the shot was not.
Swish.
The whistle had already blown.
A 3 and 1.
It was also Chen Yan's 9th made 3 of the night.
Barkley whistled. "That's the dagger with interest. You foul him and he still makes it."
Kenny added, "LeBron's closeout was timely, but when a guy is in rhythm like this, timely isn't enough."
Reggie laughed under his breath. "If you don't get there, it's 3. If you get there, it might be 4."
That play took the last breath out of Cleveland.
Two possessions later, Mike Brown waved it off and benched his starters. Surrender.
LeBron sat quietly, staring ahead, wearing the kind of frustration that did not need words. Every summer the Cavaliers made moves. Every year they told him the team was better. Every year it still did not look like the supporting cast he believed a championship required.
The front office was not just trying to win, they were trying to keep him. LeBron was the box office, the brand, the guarantee. As long as he stayed, the money stayed.
LeBron was not naïve. During the Olympics he had been around stars, Wade, Bosh, Howard, even Kobe. He knew what real help looked like.
But he also knew the reality of Cleveland. It was not a destination that attracted stars in their prime.
For him, the cleanest path was not demanding a trade that would gut the roster. It was playing this contract out, then deciding his future with full freedom.
The arena roared as the final minutes ticked away.
Phoenix finished the night the way a defending champion should.
Suns 114, Cavaliers 86.
Cleveland walked off with their heads down.
A few months ago, LeBron could not beat Phoenix in the Finals.
A few months later, he still could not beat them on opening night.
.....
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