Chapter 500: The Vision of Master and Disciple
In truth, Chen Yan could have passed on that previous possession.
Once Millsap stepped up, Diaw was completely open. But Chen Yan wanted the bucket himself. He wanted to prove, right in Utah's face, that their so called airtight defense still could not stop him. He wanted to keep breaking their confidence.
Sometimes scoring is not just about points.
Sometimes it is about breaking a team's spirit.
Sloan stood on the sideline without saying a word. Once he committed to a smaller lineup, sacrificing interior size was inevitable. Every adjustment came with a tradeoff, and he had already accepted that.
Utah came back on offense.
Deron and Boozer went straight into the classic Jazz pick and roll.
Deron used the screen and drove right. Diaw switched onto him but did not crowd him. Deron was elite at changing direction, the kind of guard who could take a defender's balance away in an instant. His jumper, however, was not truly scary, so giving him a step was acceptable.
Deron powered forward, then used a retreat dribble and a crossover step to pull the ball back out beyond the 3 point line. Diaw stayed with him well. He had already given him cushion, so Deron could not easily turn the corner.
After retreating beyond the arc, Deron suddenly rose up and fired.
The ball arced toward the rim and bounced away.
From the sideline, Sloan barked twice at the court. He hated the possession. In his eyes, it was an unreasonable shot, too little cooperation, too much ego.
Deron shot an annoyed look toward the bench and turned away. The thick built guard saw himself as a star, and in his mind stars had to be decisive. Besides, he believed the shot had been there.
Phoenix slowed the next trip down and settled into the half court.
Chen Yan came off staggered screens from Diaw and Stoudemire, curling out from the baseline.
It was a classic set, simple and old fashioned. Two bigs screened along the wings while the guard cut from above the arc, dipped under the basket, and circled back out. Nearly every team in basketball used some variation of it.
The Suns ran it beautifully.
Nash and Chen Yan were so synchronized that the timing barely looked human. The moment Chen Yan shook free and reached the perimeter, the pass was already there.
The speed was perfect. The placement was perfect.
Chen Yan caught and shot in one motion, without a single adjustment.
Millsap rotated over to help, but he was just half a beat late. That was all Chen Yan needed.
Swish.
The shot cut through the noise of the building and dropped cleanly through the net.
5 to 0.
Online, fans were getting more excited by the second. Chen Yan's intent was obvious tonight. He was hunting offense from the opening tip. He had scored more than 30 in the first 2 games, but by his standards, those performances had felt controlled. This time, he looked ready to erupt.
Utah came back up the floor.
Phoenix stayed in its mixed coverage, still loading attention toward Deron and Boozer.
Deron swung the ball with a foot on the 3 point line. Kirilenko caught it and immediately lobbed it inside to Boozer.
Boozer secured the pass a step in front of the elbow. Stoudemire was all over him. That was already inside Boozer's comfort zone as a scorer.
Boozer hesitated, then chose the safe pass, moving the ball back across the floor. Kirilenko caught it and immediately slashed toward the rim for a quick cut.
The idea was fine, but the cut was forced. He had not actually shaken Grant Hill at all.
Kirilenko tried to finish in traffic and missed.
Millsap came flying in from behind Diaw and ripped down the offensive rebound.
Then the whistle came.
The referee called a push on Millsap.
Millsap stood there holding the ball, arguing immediately as the crowd rained down boos from every direction. He hated the call, but he still had to hand the ball over.
Sloan shouted again from the sideline. Utah's offense had looked awful to start the game. Against a Phoenix team whose defense lived in the middle to lower range of the league, this level of offensive execution was unacceptable.
The Suns came back in the half court once more.
Ever since Chen Yan arrived, Phoenix no longer feared slow games. They had a weapon for difficult possessions now. In fact, it was often the other team that grew uneasy, because the Suns could punish you in transition or in a set offense. When a team can do both, the pressure becomes relentless.
Nash and Stoudemire went back to their pick and roll.
Meanwhile Chen Yan floated like a knife along the wing, always threatening.
That was exactly what Utah did not want to deal with. They could not ignore Nash and Stoudemire. No sane defense would. But whenever too much attention shifted toward that action, Chen Yan became a lurking danger, ready to strike from the side or the corner.
Phoenix understood that perfectly. Sometimes Chen Yan's movement was not even for his own shot. Sometimes he drifted just to stretch the defense and create room for everyone else.
After Nash and Stoudemire completed the action, Utah switched.
Now Nash was staring at Boozer.
He went right at him.
Nash used the width of the court beautifully, dribbling between his legs and then snapping into his signature front crossover. It was a simple move, but simple moves are often the deadliest when executed by a master.
Boozer retreated one step, and that single step was enough. Nash got by him cleanly.
Pick and roll defense had always been one of Boozer's weaknesses. Sloan had criticized him publicly for it before, arguing that Boozer defended too lazily and never got tight enough in those moments.
Chen Yan drifted from the wing to the corner. Brewer did not dare help off him, so all he could do was watch Nash get downhill.
Millsap rotated over quickly. Utah's interior mobility was still very good.
But just as Millsap focused fully on cutting off the drive, Nash flicked the ball upward with one hand.
Stoudemire exploded down the middle.
Deron had been left on him after the switch, and there was nothing he could do.
One step into the lane, Stoudemire launched off one foot and rose high above the rim.
The goggles did nothing to slow him down.
He looked like a beast finally uncaged.
With both hands, he crushed home the alley oop.
7 to 0.
After landing, Stoudemire pounded his chest and kept muttering to himself, fired up beyond words.
This was the moment he had been dreaming about for the past 2 months.
Sloan had seen enough and called timeout.
Chen Yan sprinted over from the corner and met Stoudemire with a hard chest bump. He was genuinely thrilled for him. Big plays like that mattered, and teammates needed that kind of shared energy.
During the timeout, Sloan reset Utah's offensive priorities. Everything was to run through the Deron and Boozer pick and roll. He specifically told Deron to become the primary attacker and force the game open.
Hearing that, Deron felt a quiet surge of satisfaction.
In his mind, he had just gained the upper hand in this strange battle of master and disciple.
The earlier criticism from Sloan had already put him into a sour mood. At one point, he had even considered going passive for several possessions on purpose, just to show how badly Utah needed him.
Now that Sloan had softened and handed him the keys again, his mood changed immediately.
But the difference in perspective remained.
Sloan was thinking about winning.
Deron was thinking about himself.
.....
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